Maggie's Farm

"The Constitution is not a suicide pact."

A good post in Right Thinking:

No matter who coined the phrase, the meaning is pretty obvious: freedom should not extend to the point where people have the right to destroy freedom itself.  There was a brilliant story in The Onion a few years back that perfectly illustrated this principle, something to the effect of “ACLU Sues for Right of Neo-nazis to Blow Up ACLU Headquarters.”

Hillary's Campaign Website is up  and it looks like the strategy is triagulation, again

"The Framing Wars" - Matt Bai at the NYT has the Dems new language figured out

From Northeast Intell:

18 July 2005: In a U.S. Treasury Department memo dated July 14, 2005 that seems to have received little press coverage, authorities allege for the first time that Abdurahman Alamoudi raised money for Al Qaeda in the U.S. For those unaware, Alamoudi, 53, portrayed himself as a “moderate Muslim” who served as a liaison between the U.S. government and American Muslims for two decades. A founder of the American Muslim Council (AMC), Alamoudi played a key role in developing the Pentagon's Muslim chaplain program, represented the State Department and attended meetings at the White House spanning two administrations. Accordingly, the significance of the allegations by the U.S. Treasury Department that Alamoudi raised money for al Qaeda cannot be understated.

Read entire.

Diana West has had it with multiculturalism (who hasn't?) at Town Hall:

Notice I didn't say "Islamists." Or "Islamofascists." Or "fundamentalist extremists." I've tried out such terms in the past, but I've come to find them artificial and confusing, and maybe purposefully so, because in their imprecision I think they allow us all to give a wide berth to a great problem: the gross incompatibility of Islam -- the religious force that shrinks freedom even as it "moderately" enables or "extremistly" advances jihad -- with the West. Am I right? Who's to say? The very topic of Islamization -- for that is what is at hand, and very soon in Europe -- is verboten.

Africa is poor because they are poorly governed

I'd say that that is no longer debatable - it's a fact. More on this from Ammann at Reason.

Internet Regulation and our New England Politicians

The Meehan-Shays decision requires political speech regulation on blogs. They do it in China, but this is America, right? And can I get around this if Maggie's calls itself an "online magazine" " or an "online newspaper" and our contributors "reporters"? CaptainsQuarters does a good job with this:

So we have a lawsuit to regulate the internet brought by a Democratic representative who is as liberal as it's possible to be, and by a Republican representative who is the most liberal Republican in either body of the Congress, decided by a liberal Democratic judge, and now affirmed by two liberal Democratic appellate-court judges (with a conservative Republican dissenting). So now we know who is trying to screw us. But what about who is trying to save us?

The rest of the country can blame New England reps for this crime against free speech. Full report here.

Disarming Americans: The newest strategy

"Its for the children" - natch, what else? When a leftist agenda fails, the last strategy is always to exploit kids - from Alphecca

2006 Election

Patrick Hynes from Ankle-Biter has an impressive run-down on next year

Al Timimi

How many of these guys are in the US? And how do we get rid of them? Can only link the site, not the article. Here. Tell me - how widely was all this reported?

A Lebanese looks at US Islamic Propaganda

Brigitte Gabriel: Click here: Environments of Hate: Indoctrination in the Arab WEnvironments of Hate: Indoctrination in the Arab World and Propaganda Advocacy in America’s University Classroomsorld and Propaganda Advocacy in America’s University Classrooms

A Splendid Rant

From Ranting Right Wing Howler, with graphics too/ A funny smart guy.

Thank You, Charles

Krauthammer:

The fact that native-born Muslim Europeans are committing terrorist acts in their own countries shows that this Islamist malignancy long predates Iraq, long predates Afghanistan and long predates Sept. 11, 2001. What Europe had incubated is an enemy within, a threat that for decades Europe simply refused to face.

Reand entire.

Martini-Henry Rifles: you can buy one here. Either long- or short-lever. When facing the Mahdi army in the Sudan, you would have wanted the long lever. We know a little bit about firearms, on Maggie's. Not much - just enough to hunt, and to handle any little problems that might come up. It is Bird Dog's rule: Firearms in the house, or you cannot write for Maggie's. Sorta basic, I guess. Ahhh, the scent of cordite in the mornin'.

Online Hymnals, with midi-file music: there are two I use, here and here. I hate the sound of that computer music, but they are good for tracking down hymns.

Doyle Brunson brings his skills from Vegas to Wall Street, and there's a problem: The 700 million dollar bluff. Darn. Wall Street isn't what it used to be in the good old days.

Can't stand the New York Times anymore? Try the New York Sun, online, and also daily delivery in NYC and suburbs.

Healthy mitochondria, and aging. Take good care of your little mitochondria. They depend on you - they are your responsibility, and your tiny friends, like pets, living inside of you.

The Rove silliness: Rove got Plame's name from Novak. And she was not an undercover agent, just a regular CIA employee. This non-story will slowly go away, and such as Daniel Schorr's trademark PMS hysterical rants will speed that process along. My Way News. Poor Dan needs estrogen replacement therapy - or maybe testosterone replacement therapy...not sure which. (Sorry, Editor - I did promise never to get personal, but come on! This pompous bozo weenie schmuck deserves it. Woops - I did it again. Please forgive me.)

The Plastic Reindeer Rule for religious displays on govt property, in The Economist

Summary of European editorials on terror, in The Week

Alice Miles in the (London) Times Online:

And all this risks glamorising the work of four pathetic young men, and recruiting others to their “cause”. The shock of the blasts tore lives apart, yes, but they were not, for most of us, our lives. We are not grieving, as the friends and families of the bereaved grieve. Nothing will ever fill for them the void left by July 7, 2005. Public mourning will not bring them back; public grieving belittles their grief. It is now clear that there is something constructive that the politicians can do. Forget the mourning, and tear into those Muslim ghettos instead. Force them to open up. Make the imams answer. Tell them to let their women speak, as they have been prevented from doing until now. We have done softly, softly. We have pandered to fears about religious hatred. We have listened with utmost sympathy to their concerns. No one should stigmatise any community, the police said yesterday. But those bombers have stigmatised the communities that made them, and we should spare a thought for the devastation wrought on those communities; but then we should insist that they cannot continue in a state of alienation from the rest of society. That is a challenge for them, and for all of us. They, too, must become ordinary.

The Anglosphere is the future of freedom, and India is part of it (thanks to the Brisitsh Empire):Blackwill in The National Interest: Click here: The National Interest | | Publications::Article

No bilateral relationship in George W. Bush's first term improved as much as that between the United States and India. The president has noted, "After years of estrangement, India and the United States together surrendered to reality. They recognized an unavoidable fact--they are destined to have a qualitatively different and better relationship than in the past." Some attribute the expansion in relations to the impact of 9/11.

The NEA Convention, from Michelle:

The National Education Association recently had its annual convention, where it called for President Bush to withdraw our troops from Iraq, vowed to defeat the Central American Free Trade Agreement, and resolved to educate about the need for debt cancellation in underdeveloped countries.

And you wonder why Johnny can't read.

We said last week the London terrorists were home grown, and were right, as always. London is Jihad Central, but the Brits are "too nice" to admit it. LGF reviews Brit origins of terror:

British-based terrorists have carried out operations in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Kenya, Tanzania, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Israel, Morocco, Russia, Spain, and America. Many governments - Jordanian, Egyptian, Moroccan, Spanish, French, and American - have protested London’s refusal to shut down its Islamist terrorist infrastructure or extradite wanted operatives. In frustration, Egypt’s president Hosni Mubarak publicly denounced Britain for “protecting killers.” One American security group has called for Britain to be listed as a terrorism-sponsoring state.Counterterrorism specialists disdain the British. Roger Cressey calls London “easily the most important jihadist hub in Western Europe.” Steven Simon dismisses the British capital as “the Star Wars bar scene” of Islamic radicals. More brutally, an intelligence official said of last week’s attacks: “The terrorists have come home. It is payback time for ... an irresponsible policy.”

A Problem  with this Religion

I am not a scholar of Islam, and I have too many things to keep up with to become one. I can't even understand Christianity quite yet. However, there is a problem with Islam:

From Pejmanesque:

A year earlier a whole lot of German and French tourists were blown up outside the synagogue in Djerba, Tunisia. A few months later a Spanish restaurant and a Jewish community centre were blown up in Morocco. The chap who did it had been trained by bin Laden in Afghanistan. The radicals have blown up Shia mosques in Pakistan, before, after and during Iraq. They have blown up Iraqi Shias for being apostates. Closer to home, in spring 2003, two boys, one from Derby and one from Hounslow, travelled all the way to Gaza and then to Israel so they could blow the arms off a French waitress in an English bar in Tel Aviv.

From LGF: 

The Islamic murderer of Dutch filmmaker Theo Van Gogh boasted of the killing today in court, praised Allah and Mohammed, told Van Gogh’s mother he had no sympathy for her, and said if he ever gets free he’ll do it again. (Hat tip: LawHawk.)

From American Thinker: 

A decisive answer has now come from an authoritative source, a certain Dr. Hani Al-Siba' i, who runs an Islamic studies center right in London.  This gentleman explained the bombers' religious basis in no uncertain terms:
"The term 'civilians' does not exist in Islamic religious law. ... There is no such term as 'civilians' in the modern Western sense. People are either of Dar Al-Harb or not ..." [Dar Al-Harb is the House of War, where Islam is not dominant and infidels may be slaughtered - ed.].

The Two Americas -Definitely: the taxpayers, and those who do not. This is a dangerous and insidious thing. Every American should pay some dues to be a member of the club.  Balloon Juice. Live 8 Failed to eliminate African Poverty- Disappointing. Intell. Cons. FEC may spare blogs. - We are grateful, if it is true. Instap. Buchwald- Jesus is my Wingman. Dems try to figger out what they stand for, via Ankle-Biter The latest on protecting the 9-11 Memorial: Click here: Berstein's Plan B 9 11 Families for a Safe & Strong America . Fire's latest college speech code -Rhodes College. Medicaid and the Middle Class in the NYT

Sorry for frightening everyone with that Jihad Watch post yesterday. What are the odds that it is accurate? It worries me, too, very much. Shades of the Apocalypse piece today.

Bainbridge has his SCOTUS predictions. Sounds right to me.

Hawkins lists the myths about Iraq. Too bad the MSM doesn't read Hawkins, or won't admit to these truths. And his Conservative Grapevine is going to put me out of business, unless I diversify a bit more.

Evangelicals go green. Makes sense to me, as long as they don't buy the junk science the other greenies do. Never trust a scientific piece written by someone who hasn't at the very least taken statistics, calculus, chemistry, organic chemistry, biochemistry, and physics in a decent college.

Terror Nukes Already in the US?

Jihad Watch reports planning has been going on for ten years.

Those Seals in Afghanistan

What were they doing? Times Online has a theory that they were after someone big. Thanks, Belmont. Did not know you could hit a chopper with an RPG.

The prolific Brewton has a slightly new format - intro entries with "read more," the way Auster does. Looks good. View from 1776.

From fox-murdering Free Market Fairy Tales:

"We were taught all men are brothers -
Who forgot to tell the others?"

From Paul Kelly in Weekend Australian:

The London bombing is a reminder of the consensus reached by our intelligence agencies as outlined by former ASIO chief Dennis Richardson. These points are, first, that Australia has been "part of al-Qa'ida's strategic vision for some years" predating the September 2001 attack on the US and our role in Afghanistan and Iraq; witness the earlier attempted attack on our High Commission in Singapore. Second, we "have become a target in our own right" - witness our numerous mentions by al-Qa'ida leaders and on their websites. Third, that since 2000 "there has been at least one aborted, disrupted or actual terrorist attack against us each year". Witness Bali in 2002 and the Jakarta embassy attack last year.

Roger Scruton hypothesizes envy, in Times Online:

The tendency to resent lies in all of us, and can be overcome only by a discipline that tells us to blame faults in ourselves and to forgive faults in others. This discipline lies at the heart of Christianity and many argue that it lies at the heart of Islam too. If that is so, it is time for Muslims to organise against those who preach resentment in the name of their religion, and who regard the crimes of last Thursday as virtuous deeds, performed with God’s blessing, in a holy cause.

The Global Domination Theory - Handlery in Intell. Conserv. (with whom I agree):

Islamofascist actions might be tactically motivated by a real or alleged injury of the objects of their emotional identification. Strategically, however, these battles are only a detail of a war. It is aimed in its first stage at reestablishing control over whatever Islam might have controlled or had claimed historically. (Iberia, Central Europe, the Balkans. Add the area between Turkey and “Iughuria” -- which happens to be in China. In the second stage of the struggle comes the fulfillment of God’s mandate to unite the world under the aegis of the Prophet. Does it remind you of Hitler? Or Lenin & Sons? Sounds insane?

Auster bashes immigration:

The one constant is that immigration itself must never be criticized, must never been seen as the cause of any serious problem. Indeed, according to this way of thinking, since the belief in open immigration, particularly the open immigration of non-Europeans, is the very essence of America, to turn against open immigration is to attack America, and thus to allow our enemies to win. "To refuse to surrender" therefore means to refuse to surrender the principle of non-discrimination toward non-Europeans. So, when Bush says, "We will not yield to terrorists," he means that we will continue to welcome the mass immigration of jihad-supporting Moslems into the West.

Bergen in the NYT - the UK's hospitality to terrorists is a threat to the US:

Last year a British government report estimated that between 10,000 and 15,000 British Muslims are supporters of Al Qaeda or related groups. The estimate was based on intelligence, opinion polls and a report that 10,000 Muslims attended a 2003 conference held by Hizb ut-Tahrir, described by the Home Office as a "structured extremist organization." British authorities believe that between 300 and 600 British citizens were trained in Qaeda and Taliban camps in Afghanistan. For this reason, and because of Britain's relatively permissive asylum laws, Arab militants living in London sometimes jokingly refer to their hometown as Londonistan.

Here's the problem for the United States: Under our Visa Waiver Program, residents of Londonistan who hold a valid British passport can board a plane for the United States without an interview by an American consular official.

Jihad Watch: Click here: Jihad Watch

...you are dealing with an enemy that does not want anything specific, and cannot be talked back into reason through anger management or round-table discussions. Or, rather, this enemy does want something specific: to take full control of your lives, dictate every single move you make round the clock and, if you dare resist, he will feel it his divine duty to kill you.

From Belmont Club: London is proof that we are winning:

The inevitable question then is 'why could Bin Laden not find the means to attack 30 trains?' The answer it seems to me, must be Afghanistan, Iraq, the Horn of Africa and hundred other places where he is engaged without quarter by US forces. Resources, whether Jihadi or no are not infinite. They do not have some magical machine that allows them to be everywhere at once, to sustain losses yet grow. There's no free lunch, not even, and especially not for Bin Laden. If it were true that Islamism would shrivel faster were it pursued more passively, then pre-911 policy should have finished it by now. But what we empirically observe is that ignoring them allowed them to mount 911-scale attack. Hit them continuously and in four years they could scrape together enough to blow up a London bus and some subway trains.

And last but not least, our own Chairman from Maggie's Farm

Britain's psychotically PC immigration policies: you cannot open your door to snakes who are hostile to your gentle culture, and then bitch when they bite you. Rome already tried that, and socio-politically, Italy has been a mess ever since. Remember, the barbarians did not so much attack as simply migrate into the empire. If you want a gentle, civil culture, you need tough borders and boundaries, a shell, just as we do in our personal lives. Freedom, gentility, and civility are not birthrights: some things in life must be fought for and defended. What is happening in Europe is properly called "invasion," not immigration. We have the battles of Tours and Lopanto, redux. Hey, cousins - save yourselves before it's too late. We are already calling it "Londistan" and "Euristan."

Compassion and understanding for the Nazis?

It makes as much sense to me to have worried about the "root causes" of the Third Reich's desire to conquer Europe as it does to bring a social worker and a psychotherapist to meet with Al Quaida. It's enough of a "root cause" to see the joy and triumph on their faces when they murder innocent infidels - Christians and Jews. The root cause is the desire to kill and conquer for Allah and the cure is the same as the cure for cancer - you kill the cells. The below excerpted from Rick Moran at RWN:

... the left’s compulsion to ally itself with the radical Islamists – either knowingly or through stupidity, unknowingly – is the greatest challenge facing Western Civilization in its War on Terror. The very people who should be leading this fight; the intellectuals, the educators, the editorialists, the journalists, and the literati are absent without leave in this life and death struggle. Instead, we find a an overwhelming majority of the left trying to “explain the root causes” of terrorism instead of getting up on their hind legs and fighting it. And instead of drawing clear, unmistakable intellectual and moral battle lines – a function their ancestors fulfilled more than admirably during World War II and much of the Cold War – we’re treated to an exercise in moral equivalency so profoundly disturbing in its sophistry and intellectual cowardice that our enemies don’t know whether to laugh before they slaughter us or simply shake their heads in bemused silence.

Pejmanesque has a great collection of political cartoons re London. Quotes too.

He also happens to have reviewed Chronicles of Narnia. Saved me the trouble - nice job.

The Ethanol Scam: It requires more fossil fuel to produce ethanol from corn, than there is energy in the ethanol. Fact is, the ethanol program is a farm subsidy and nothing more, under false pretenses.

Wind Farms indeed are hugely destructive to migratory birds. Shut 'em down - what a dumb experiment.

Digital Cameras - the latest update, in CSM

Africa - Roger Simon sums it up, here.

Iran - Hitchens does Iran in Vanity Fair

Steyn's Requiem for Sunny Jim (the UK's Carter), and the 1970's in England

Kennewick Man will be studied. 9000 years old - a very early American - will be studied before being re-buried. Sounds OK to me.

What is hotdish?

"On your visit to Minnesota, you will sooner or later come face to face with Minnesota's most popular native food, HOTDISH ... A traditional main course, hotdish is cooked and served hot in a single baking dish and commonly appears at family reunions and church suppers. Hotdish is constructed on a base of canned cream of mushroom soup and canned vegetables. The other ingredients are as varied as the Minnesota landscape. If you sit down to something that doesn't look like anything you've ever seen before, it's probably hotdish."

- Howard Mohr
How to Talk Minnesotan: A Visitor's Guide
Penguin, 1

Here are some examples: Click here: Cooks.com - Recipes - Hotdish

Sympathy for the Devil: The Left and Terrorists, on Brainster

The Angry Left finds religion, um, well...Opinion Journal:  Click here: OpinionJournal - Taste

Global Warming Junk Science: Gun Culture - Click here: Gun Culture

Cosby under attack - guess his thinking needs a political adjustment. Town Hall: Click here: Brent Bozell: Cosby under fire

Berkeley's Contract for America: This will go far. Right Thinking

Bush's Biggest Failure: Managing the press and public opinion - I agree with the Prof.

Thomas Sowell turned 75 and reviews the travails of those years.

The US-India Defence Pact: Under-reported important event, in Winds of Change: Click here: Winds of Change.NET: The Alliance: U.S. & India Sign Major 10-Year Defense Pact

The top 2% in income pay over 50% of the total US taxes. But some folks, like the Kerry's pay far less than their share. Why? Probably tax-free munis, right? Click here: Brainster's Blog

The Red Tide recedes. Good.

Why did New London need this Eminent Domain? (and why does Fox News keep calling it Imminent Domain?) Brewton in View from 1776:

“Cities like Utica and New London, Connecticut, the subject of the Supreme Court decision, are in trouble, not because of lack of urban planning, but because of high taxes, excessive regulation, and a generally anti-business, socialistic public policy.  What they need is fewer labor unions and fewer liberal-socialist citizens who have become addicted to massive, and ferociously expensive, public welfare programs that run the gamut from money thrown unaccountably down the rat hole of public education (read teachers’ union perks), to mandatory, all-inclusive insurance benefits to workers.  In short, ongoing operating costs are just as important in determining business locations as their land costs.

Indeed. Just like Africa. The politicians create the mess, and then call for help.

The Kennedy Quagmire: Man, does he hope it's a quagmire. In my opinion, it's what you call "difficult." Lots of things in life are difficult, but being a politician isn't one of them. Sinecures for the brain-dead. Gelertner explains why Kennedy talk is so destructive to the country.

"Hail Seizers." The NYT hails the government land-grabbers, with one astonishing quote: " a setback to the 'property rights' movement." Huh? Sullum at Town Hall.

Replacing Sandra Dee:  The blogs and news are full of speculation and tea-leaf-reading, so we will not add to the fog. It's all filler until we know what POTUS wants to do.

Concept Albums: Vodkapundit reviews the concept and lists the 5 best...but unaccountably omits Blonde on Blonde and Sargent Pepper.

The lovely, witty, but doubtless scary-to-date Ann Coulter explains how porn and religion have switched places in our culture, or at least in our legal culture.

News=Propaganda, In Minneapolis - Capt's Quarters

The New Pop Art

A good review of the current state of pop art by David Pagel in the LA Times: Pop art has evolved, creating an ever more fertile fusion of high spirits and purposefully lowbrow aesthetic...Popularity was never a problem for Pop. Success is still Pop's stock in trade, its modus operandi and raison d'être. Having changed the way the world looks, its influence extends across all levels of culture. Read the whole thing:Click here: calendarlive.com: A critique of stinginess

Vermont Blogs

We've been looking for interesting Vermont blogs - and found one - Alphecca. He labels himself as a gay Libertarian gun nut in Vermont. Unique? A sample piece of his on the rise in gun crimes in the UK.  

If anyone knows of a blog that addresses specifically or mainly Vermont politics and issues from a rational standpoint, please let us know. Same goes for Maine - we can't find a single one.

Hey, Middletown, NY

You folks ought to be all over your local newspaper - read about the Big Lie in Confed. Yankee's handsome new website.

Derbyshire imagines the International Freedom Center

Funny, but what he imagines is pretty close to what I imagined - lefty, America-hating cliches, I guess. In NRO.

How's the Economy Doing?

Could not be much better, with low inflation too, and about the best employment rates in modern history. Is anyone complaining? Hmmm, the angry-type Dems are strangely silent on jobs and the economy. Plus we have a little housing correction, which is good for young buyers. The incomes of married blacks equal those of married whites - and that is a big deal. We have come through a stock market blow up, and 9-11, stronger than ever, and subject to the ugly envy of the world for our freedom, our faith, our confidence, our prosperity and work-ethic, and for the opportunities we offer everyone. We have so much work that we're being unwillingly invaded on all sides by people seeking opportunity. Growth rates on Ex-Donk. Oh, I guess if someone is determined to bitch about something, you can bitch about gas prices, but in 5 years these will look cheap: the Chinese gave up their bikes, and took up oil-based capitalism. I am waiting for the NYT headline: "Things Are Good in the USA."

Dem approval polls looking worse

Duh. Wonder why? Thanks, Michelle. In UPI. It's a tough time to be a leftist Dem - they keep pushing on everything they can think up, but no door ever opens; there is never any traction - except in the NYT. The few "centrist" Dems - not many left around - are doing fine. Good times in the USA - except for the moonbat Supreme Court.

Why Kyoto is a Scam

It's about $, and about simulated virtue. Samuelson

Take Back the Memorial

Consider signing the petition, if you haven't yet.

The 17th Amendment

A savvy reader is all over the role of the 17th Amendment (Click here: The Constitution of the United States of America - popular election of Senators) in undermining Federalism, with references here:Click here: Federalism & Seventeenth Amendment.  Repeal it! and here: Click here: NeoPolitique -- Far-Reaching and Forgotten: The 17th Amendment. It's a heck of a good point but I think that battle has been lost. How could you run a campaign to take the vote away from people and return it to the morons in state legislatures?

Read the whole thing - link above.

Can you believe Delay said this?

re the House voting to raise their salaries - try this one on your boss today:

"It's not a pay raise," said House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas. "It's an adjustment so that they're not losing their purchasing power."

Souter's Farm, and Kelo, etc.

Those New Hampshire folk don't take it lying down. Live Free or Die. The law suit to build a hotel at David Souter's home, from Ex-Donk. 

And Scrapple-Dude: "In a pair of rulings on the constitutionality of the 10 Commandments on government property, the Supreme Court today said the commandments may be displayed on public land if that property has been seized from private owners for 'public purposes' under eminent domain. The 5-4 decision comes on the heels of last week's court declaration that so-called "private" property is actually government land temporarily under private management until its eventual seizure."

Who Wrote that Lame Speech?

That speech was pure high-school, as was the delivery. Fire the writer right now. Bush did himself little good, but no harm. He should have called Bird Dog. Re the flaws, Auster agrees.

Combat Diary

Michael Yon, on patrol in Iraq, with photos. Wish I could be there with him.

The Unraveling of the EU

Blair wants to roll back EU regulations, but can he? In the (Uk's) Gun Culture

Interview with Ed Klein

by Hawkins: Ed Klein: She has been in the midst of one of the most brilliant campaigns of deception in terms of political make-overs that I have ever seen in my life time and I’ve been around a long time. She has suddenly turned into a “hawk” on foreign policy, she has voted for every military appropriation bill that has come down since she has been in the Senate, she has been talking out about, “Let’s be reasonable on the subject of abortion and get together on this,” she’s been reaching across the aisle to conservative Republicans like Tom DeLay, Trent Lott, Rick Santorum.