Congress ousts Ilhan Omar from foreign affairs committee

It's good to see the GOP's done something right here, banishing antisemitic Omar from a committee she doesn't belong on, any more than the rest of the modern Democrats:

The House voted Thursday along party lines to remove Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) from her seat on the Foreign Affairs Committee through a resolution that cites her past derogatory remarks about Jewish people and anti-Israel posture.

The vote passed 218 to 211, with all Democrats voting against the resolution and one Republican, Rep. David Joyce (R-OH), voting “present.”

If Joyce didn't support the resolution, it demonstrates how the GOP still has problems of its own with bad apples.

The vote is a win for House Republicans, who hold a slim majority in the chamber, after a few from their conference initially objected to the resolution. The three who had vocally opposed it, Reps. Victoria Spartz (R-IN), Nancy Mace (R-SC), and Ken Buck (R-CO), had flipped their vote by Thursday morning.

Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-MN), a key player in the successful whip operation, told Breitbart News in an exclusive statement that Omar, a fellow Minnesotan, had “no place representing American interests” on the Foreign Affairs Committee.

“There is no debate that Ilhan Omar, the face of antisemitism in the Democrat Party, has no place representing American interests on the Foreign Affairs Committee. Ms. Omar is an embarrassment to Minnesota and our country,” Emmer said.

[...] Republicans’ opposition to Omar serving on the committee comes after the two-term Minnesota Democrat gained a reputation for promoting antisemitic tropes, such as claiming Israel had “hypnotized the world” and that support for Israel was “all about the Benjamins.”

Omar later apologized for the remarks but continued to take anti-Israel positions.

In 2019, Omar introduced a resolution that supported the anti-Israel “boycott, divestment, sanctions” (BDS) movement. In 2021, she lumped “atrocities” supposedly committed by the U.S. and Israel in with those committed by the Taliban and Hamas. Equating the U.S. and its Middle East ally to the two terrorist groups led to condemnation from her own party’s leadership and again resulted in Omar apologizing. Later in 2021, Omar was one of just nine members of the House to vote against a $1 billion investment in Israel’s defense system.

The harm she caused on her part is considerable. And her "apologies" were entirely false, seeing how she continued with the same behavior long after. Sadly, she could still be reelected to Congress in the next election, and that's why efforts are still needed to make sure people like her aren't allowed to continue working in Congress.

Democrats’ Not-So-Secret Weapon Photographed

I suspect nearly every elected Democrat — and a good number of Republicans — in Washington, D.C., owns a device — a secret weapon of sorts. Revealed to readers of this blog in a photo for the first time, the device is used by misguided politicians as they attempt to baffle their constituents with bull%&!*. To see the photo and read more about it, click here.

House Democrats Introduce Health Care Maze

Yesterday, House Democrats introduced a costly, burdensome and bureaucracy-laden plan for health care reform. It stands in stark contrast to the health care reform alternative introduced by House Republicans last month.

To check it out, click here or on the graphic at right.

HEWITT: HOW AND WHY RUDY WILL PROBABLY WIN THE NOMINATION

HUGH HEWITT POSTS THE BEST ANALYSIS TO DATE.

I LIKE A LOT ABOUT MITT. AND DISLIKE SOME THINGS ABOUT RUDY.

BUT RUDY IS THE MOST TRUSTWORTHY WHEN IT COMES TO WW4.

AND THAT COULD PUT HIM OVER THE TOP.

THE YOUTUBE ELECTION IS HERE (PLUS: AS USUAL, THE PRETTY GIRLS ARE ON OUR SIDE) [VIDEOS]

Original: We haven't done the legwork on this one way or another, but these quotes don't seem technically "true" or "like the way Palestinians usually talk." This video is only here (a) as a Kaus-esque "this is the kind of thing people can do in their basement to swing votes" example and (b) because the second video didn't justify a whole post. We're not joking about this. This isn't like a dishonest nudge-nudge wink-wink thing where we disavow responsibility but post the video "just to air some questions." These quotes are almost certainly not true. If they were true, this would be a fantastic attack ad. But since they're probably not, it's just something that shows how a great attack ad might come together:

Also: have we mentioned that we've got the pretty girls on our side? Bonus points awarded to this young lady both for being a Fredhead and correctly identifying that Ron Paul is - from a strict clinical perspective - kind of crazy:

Not batshit crazy mind you. Just kind of unseemly vulgar populist crazy.

Updated:
Update: Regrading the precise dose of truthiness in the first video, this got dropped into our inbox:

The quotes and statements, with the exception of the question at the end of the video, come from the book by Aaron Klein "Schmoozing with Terrorists: From Hollywood to the Holy Land, Jihadists Reveal their Global Plans - to a Jew!" Mr. Klein is World Net Daily's Jerusalem bureau chief] and are noted in the ending credits.

And now you know.

[Cross-posted to Mere Rhetoric]

EVANGELICALS TO DOBSON, MEDIA: ACTUALLY, WE REALLY LIKE THIS FRED THOMPSON GUY

Evangelicals have now begun to explicitly challenge Dobson's attacks on Thompson. We really don't know what Dobson could've been thinking. First of all, he's just being unfair. Fred's position isn't in support of gay marriage any more than his opposition to a federal ban on abortion is in support of abortion - it's a principled federalist position coming from the guy who was on the bottom of a 99-1 in the Senate because he was against giving states anti-terrorism funds with strings attached.

Even if that wasn't true, Dobson's standards are unreasonably higher than his congregation. This is going problem for him, because evangelicals are not the slavish caricatures that the MSM makes them out to be. Dobson speaks for evangelicals to the larger world, but he doesn't determine how they'll vote. If they disagree with him on Fred - and they do - they'll tell him to go pound sand. Who're evangelicals going to vote for? Mitt? Not if the recent polls are right. And they'll stay home in a general against Hillary? Not so much.

The Richard Land quote behind the link includes the phrase "furious at Doctor Dobson." Good stuff.

[Cross-posted to Mere Rhetoric]

Tell Fred What You Think

Fred Thompson is in the race for President.

He has a real life blog up at his site where you can Ask Fred Questions.

If there is something you want to ask the Next President Of The United States, now is a very good time.

Cross Posted at Power and Control and at Classical Values

An Interesting Question

Commenter Cormac-ballz asks:

What I don't get is: Congress is less popular than Bush because they didn't stop the war/stand up to Bush etc.

But Bush should be less popular because he's the one persecuting the war in first place!

Is there something about U.S. citizens that I fail to grasp? Is it because they don't sympathise with people they view as wimpy (e.g., Congress).

The Democrats won Congress by replacing the Republicans in the South with Blue Dog Democrats.

Those Democrats who won in the South promised not to damage the war effort. This has disgusted 1/2 the Democrats. The Republicans are disgusted to begin with. The other 1/2 of the Democrats are disgusted with the disgusted Democrats and no one is interested in solving the overspending problem.

So you have the Republicans who still support Bush - 24% and no one who supports Congress.

There is also the wimp factor which underlies the attitude of the Southern Democrats. They come from a martial culture. It transcends Republican/Democrat.

In many ways the Republicans won the last election. Southern Democrats are closer to the Republicans than they are to San Francisco liberal Democrats.

Cross Posted at Power and Control and at Classical Values

OPPONENTS TREATING THOMPSON CAMPAIGN AS THREAT

As Little Miss Chatterbox more or less said said this morning, TAB is pretty much Fred country. One way to gauge Thompsons's potential run is to look at what his opponents are doing. According to Melanie Morgan, they're taking him quite seriously:

In the June 13 edition of The Politico, Kenneth P. Vogel writes about the efforts of potential GOP rivals to "deflate" the Thompson campaign before it is even launched. Vogel's column in The Politico should be the canary in the coalmine for Republicans...[It] demonstrates the current crop of Republican presidential candidates haven't figured out that their problem is not Fred Thompson's potential candidacy. The problem they should be addressing is the failure of the current candidates to connect with the American electorate. Columbia University journalism professor and Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen has demonstrated the media establishment's discomfort with the Thompson boomlet as well.

It's also obvious that more and more people are talking about Thompson's wife - not all of them positively. . You'll remember her from when we predicted she'd become a target of sexism from ostensible anti-sexists. Then when she did become a target of sexism from ostensible anti-sexists, NPR went into rock-back-and-forth-in-the-corner denial. Some of the interest in her is just plain old curiosity. Some more of it is coming from conservatives looking for whatever they can find about a Republican candidate that they can get excited about. But not a little is oppo research - from other GOP people, from a very few Dem campaigns, and from whatever passes as "flexing their muscles" for the netroots. Really - that's how they talk.

[Read an extended version of this post at Mere Rhetoric]

Republicans Support Hillary For President

The Captain's Quarters has a story up on the fall off in small donations at Republican National Headquarters.

The Center for Responsive Politics, which tracks political donations to all parties and affiliated committees, confirms that the Republicans have a fundraising problem. The smaller donors with whom the RNC's call center interfaced have decreased their contributions considerably, and overall income has dropped significantly. The RNC has done better than the Congressional committees, but only because the RNC also focuses on big donors through other means, such as fundraising events.

Republican donors have certainly lost some enthusiasm since the midterm losses last year, and the immigration bill has added to their woes. People are angry about the compromise; they have flooded talk radio shows and the blogs to express their discontent, and in return they have been attacked by President Bush as "not wanting what is best for their country." Under those circumstances, the average small donor has one option, which is to cease being a donor at all -- and to communicate that to the people who call for their assistance.

From what I gather Hillary and her clones have taken over the Republican call center duties.

Hillary Calling.

I see '06 in your future.

I'm looking forward to national health care, totally open immigration, and surrender in the war.

How about you? Can I count on your support? You promise not to support Republicans? That is good enough for me.

However, if it sends the Republicans a message it will be worth it.

The Republican Party is dead. Circular firing squad.

I'm sorry I signed up with such a bunch of incompetents.

Unfortunately, I only have the Libertarians to fall back on.

Cross Posted at Power and Control and at Classical Values

RELIAPUNDIT ADDS: I agree; I would NEVER vote for Bush or another GOP candidate again - EXCEPT IF THEY RAN AGAINST A DEMOCRAT!

THE DEATH OF THE AMERICAN WAY

This picture has been all over the blogosphere the past few days. I think we're going to be seeing it a lot for the next year and a half. It speaks volumes. Ted Kennedy, this country's shadow president for the past 40 years, along with Republican Senators Mel Martinez and Lindsey Graham share a laugh at our expense. Despite all the conservative opposition to the amnesty bill, Martinez says the bill could be instrumental in "the saving of the Republican Party." Lindsey Graham says it's a chance to "tell the bigots to shut up."

This is big folks, and despite what many will tell you, it's not about a fear of Hispanics moving into our neighborhoods. They're already here, which would be fine, but many came here illegally and they are being rewarded while those that came here legally are, in effect, being punished. It's being done to get votes for the the Democrat Party and their hopes of a permanent majority. It's being done so big business can get cheap labor. It's being done because so many people, politicians and many faceless corporations, don't care about anything that's bigger than themselves.

We're not just angry that they want to reward people for breaking the law, we're also worried about security. The point of this legislation that Lindsey Graham is so proud of is to reward illegal immigrants. It pays lip-service to border enforcement, but there is no intention whatsoever to deal with border enforcement and security. None of the power-brokers in Washington, D.C. seem concerned about border security, not even...I'm sorry to say, our President.

You know what the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have done for this country? It's terrible indeed that we've lost so many great men and women in these battles, but they've kept Americans safe from harm. Democrats love to point out that Osama bin Laden keeps saying how happy he is to fight America in the Middle East, on Islam's home-field. Of course he says that. You never hear a discouraging word from bin Laden...that's how propaganda works. If we weren't in Iraq and Afghanistan, we would be fighting terrorists on American streets.

Welcome to Israel.

Car bombs, suicide bombers in shopping malls...these would slowly become a way of life in the United States. As the situation deteriorates in Washington, D.C., one has to wonder how much longer until that day arrives in America.

THE FIRST REPUBLICAN DEBATE

My thoughts on the Republican Debate:

1) MSNBC is the most biased network I have ever seen in my life. I can't believe the Dems whining and refusing to be on Fox. Fox never would've phrased the questions the way Chris Matthews did. It was ridiculous. Hugh Hewitt had this to say:

"...the partisan and sometimes ludicrously absurd questions from Chris Matthews."

Although he went on to say that this is good because this is what the Republican candidates should expect from the Drive By Media.

Sister Toldjah says he was the worst moderator ever!!

2) Almost everyone on that stage came across as a wimp!! My two favorites, Rudy and Duncan Hunter did better but everyone else hedged and hawed. I know thats part of playing the political game but give me a break, this is to cater to Republicans. Stand strong on something and give a straight answer.

3) Ron Paul confirmed for me that I really don't like him! He is as traitorous as Chuck Hagel. I knew he hadn't been good on the war but some of his comments were just unbelievable.

4) I literally yelled at John McCain after his answer about what Bush has done wrong. He said, "He wouldn't have mismanaged the war." I said several times, "YOU DIDN'T JUST SAY THAT!!" I couldn't believe it. Would Harry Truman have said that about FDR because of the numerous mistakes that were made in World War II? How about leaving 11,000+ U.S. soldiers in the Philippines to die? No, Truman would never have said things could've been handled better because he was aware that miscalculations and mistakes are always made in war. There is no perfect war.

It was the HEIGHT OF ARROGANCE for McCain to say that he wouldn't have mismanaged the war. He has no way of knowing that.

Republicans, this man can't be our nominee for President!!

5) Chris Matthews kept saying Tancredo's name wrong. This annoyed the heck out of me.

6) Duncan Hunter was the only one who gave a good answer to the Terri Schiavo question. He quoted Ronald Reagan in saying that "we should always err on the side of life". I was so irritated with how everyone else danced around the question. Dean Barnett also liked him the best after Romney.

7) Rudy was the only one who gave a good answer to the Bush question. He reminded everyone that if it weren't for Bush and his response to 9/11 we would've had another terrorist attack on U.S. soil by now.

8) Sam Brownback just doesn't do anything for me. People like me should be his biggest supporter but there are so many things about him that just don't work for me. Brownback was on Hannity's show the other day and I don't even like the sound of his voice, very un-inspirational.

9) Mike Huckabee doesn't do anything for me either. His support for tax hikes concerns me and then his answer about Rumsfeld during the debate really didn't set well with me at all. Dean Barnett had this to say about him:

"Mike Huckabee – I look at this guy and wonder where he ever got the notion that he should be president. Even more than the Cranks (see below), his presence on the stage bothered me. Does this guy have anything interesting or original to say? Has he ever?"

10) Romney annoyed me with his comparisons to Reagan. I'm sorry, but no one on that stage last night even comes close to Ronald Reagan. I also didn't like the way he used the phrase "separation of church and state".

11) Its a shame that Fred Thompson and Newt Gingrich weren't on that stage last night.

Message to Fred and Newt: Get in now!!

MCCAIN A DEMOCRAT?

McCain is having memory problems on whether he was ever offered the Vice Presidency by John Kerry in 2004. First, he said this:

McCain has said he would not run with Kerry, but last month he renewed speculation when he was asked on ABC's "Good Morning America" whether he would consider running with Kerry. He replied, "Obviously, I would entertain it."

Then he said that it was never offered to him.

Now he says it was offered but he didn't accept.

The bottom line is because McCain is so willing to stab his own party in the back time after time it is easy to believe he has seriously considered jumping ship. The rumors being spread by Democrats that McCain seriously considered switching to the Democrat party are just a little too easy to believe. This is reason #101 on why McCain will never be the Republican nominee for President.