The bill passed by Congress provides more than $90 billion for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

However, it also calls for a cut and run, surrender, or call of defeat (whichever you want to call it) demanding a beginning of the troop withdrawal by this coming October 1st. There is a stipulation in the bill that if Bush doesn’t tippy-toe over the Libs and if the Dems don’t feel Iraq is pulling their weight, troop withdrawal would begin by July 1. The bill also restricts aid to Iraq if benchmarks aren’t met, allows limited security forces to remain in Iraq for the sole reason of training Iraqi troops, further restricts deployment of new troops, adds more that $20 billion in pork not requested by Bush and not having anything to do with the War on Terror, and raises the minimum wage to $7.25.

Talk about sneaking things in through the back door.

I admire Bush’s resolve to refuse signing any bill calling for a pullout date. Think about it. If you were the enemy and a pull-out date was announced, what would you do?

However, I wish Bush would get a little bolder, telling the Dems to get their act straight and quit sending him B.S. bills. And I wish he’d take away the rules of engagement that are handcuffing our troops and let them fight this war the way it should be fought: to win.

Oh, and Mrs. Pistachio thanks you all for the congratulatory comments on Political Pistachio, via e-mail, and on the other sites: Right Angle and Heading Right.

The idiot libs, this bill, and Mrs. Pistachio’s experience at the ceremony to become a citizen of the United States will all be addressed at the next episode of Political Pistachio Radio Saturday at 4pm Pacific/7pm Eastern. Call in at (646) 652-2940 to chime in, or to tell Mrs. Pistachio congrats on the air. Looking forward to hearing from you.

And like last week, My Point Radio is once again following PPR on BlogTalk Radio. Dave and Jenn’s show is definitely worth listening to, and one of the fastest growing shows on internet radio. I respect them greatly (even if Dave doesn’t like my shirts!)

Political Pistachio has the sharpest readers and listeners on the web. Let’s make the show sizzle!

To Charles Jacobs pointed questions it seems we lack the courage of our convictions.

BETRAYING MODERATE MUSLIMS Charles Jacobs

There is a lot of talk in Boston, as elsewhere, about how to help moderate Muslims defeat the extremists in their communities. The Muslims I know who fight against Islamist Fascism are among the bravest people on the planet. Ahmed Mansour, Irshad Manji, Wafa Sultan, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Mohammed Yayha to name a few, fight for air time and platforms to press their case.

And so it was with great hope when in February 2004 the U.S. government launched the Al Hurra satellite TV channel.

Al-Hurra was designed to be an alternative voice in the Middle East broadcast landscape dominated by Arab nationalist heavyweights like al-Jazeera, al-Arabiya and state-run propaganda outfits. And for a while it was.

In its first few years, al-Hurra succeeded in carrying real information about human rights and corruption in the Middle East, raising the ire of Arab regimes and bringing praise from liberals.

But as journalist Joel Mowbray has shown since late last year, under the leadership of former CNN producer Larry Register, the network has joined the ratings game and now features traditional Middle Eastern crowd pleasers like interviews with al-Qaeda operatives praising bin Laden, live coverage of Hamas’ anniversary celebrations, and live broadcasts of Hassan Nasrallah’s call to kill Israelis and humiliate America.

The Broadcasting Board of Governors, the independent Federal agency responsible for international broadcasting is unhappy with the network’s direction, as are members of Congress. Remedies include greater oversight and putting al-Hurra online and archiving all its broadcasts. The head of the Broadcasting Board is already in a battle over NPR’s cancellation of the documentary “Islam vs. Islamist: Voices from the Muslim Center” for actually showing moderate – and radical – Muslims. The rest of the board appears to hear no evil and see no evil. To sort it all out Congress should be asking overdue questions about the management of public broadcasting and its supervision.

The deeper question: If the West is truly interested in engaging moderate Muslims and political liberals in the Arab world, why are we continually pandering to their enemies? Why do some members of Congress have meetings with sworn enemies of moderates and liberals like the Muslim Brotherhood and the thug-in chief-of Syria, Bashar al-Assad, instead of meeting with the embattled reformers? Why do otherwise intelligent people engage groups like the Council on American-Islamic Relations when their words and deeds show them to be opposed to American values and goals? There are Arab/Islamic groups opposed to CAIR.

What is it about the Middle East that pushes Americans to abandon their best traditions in the name of “realism” or a cultural relativism that proclaims that our political belief in “liberty and justice for all” doesn’t apply Middle Easterners?

These are some questions to ponder as we recover from April’s sting of paying income tax, part of which Joel Mowbray has said now goes to fund a mouthpiece for our enemies and the enemies of the good, brave Muslims we so need to assist. Clip this and send it to your Rep.

Tonight I’ll be talking to Marine CPL Rob Smith, with Regimental Combat Team 2 in Al-Asad, Iraq.  He is on his third combat tour, and at the age of 21 is in charge of a fire team, entrusted with the lives of other Marines under fire.  He served under 2LT Ilario Pantano, and has distinguished himself several times in combat.

It will truly be an honor to talk with CPL Smith, and I especially look forward to hearing his opinion on Harry Reid and the Democratic Congress.  Tune in tonight at 10 pm Eastern to The Front Line, and feel free to call in, offer support, or ask him a question.  He’ll be live, at 646-915-9926!

Quite a catch:

“The United States has taken into custody a top al-Qaeda operative who plotted to assassinate Pakistan’s President Pervez Musharraf and other officials, a Pentagon spokesman said Friday.

Abd al Hadi al-Iraqi, who was taken to the US navy prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba about a week ago, was intercepted while trying to reach Iraq to take over Al-Qaeda operations and to plot attacks from there against western targets outside Iraq, Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said.”

Al-Iraqi was number 29 on Iraq’s most wanted list and a definite asset catch, for as much as he was a key player in AQ ops in Iraq and Pakistan, his other AO was Europe.

At least Chris Muir thinks so.

Mr. Muir had some interesting thoughts on my criticism of his putting Hillary in black face on his cartoon during his appearance on Ed’s CQ Radio show yesterday.

I have a somewhat short (for me) response here. Mr. Muir accused me of being politically correct as well, by inference, of not being a “thinking person” and of being “ludicrous” for taking his symbolic use of black face as anything hateful.

Mmmkay…I agree Chris was not trying to be hateful. And my point is that some things are hateful regardless of context - something that Muir and most of the commenters here and on my site reject out of hand.

To buttress my case, let’s hear from 1 (one) African American blogger on this subject:

Look, white people: I would like to speak for all black people just this once and inform you that we will be happy to let you know when we think a politician or public figure is being patronizing and pandering to us racially speaking. As a group, generally we’ve got a pretty good handle on the whole racism thing. We don’t need your help in recognizing and calling our attention to it. Your help in pushing back on that person and confirming the racism is extremely helpful once we’ve called it out, e.g. Don Imus. Certainly, calling out racism using blackface as a metaphor is neither welcome nor helpful. Ever. The misuse historically of that image by white entertainers and advertisers to demean and degrade us for humor and profit is still too fresh in our minds for us to feel comfortable with you using it, even if you mean well.

Do you hear any African-Americans criticizing Clinton, Obama or Edwards for pandering to the black community? It’s just not a common complaint at the moment. We are eager to hear more from candidates about issues impacting us. For most of us, it feels like it’s about time someone paid attention and engaged on more than a superficial level with black voters. Until we start complaining, Chris Muir and the rest of you wingnuts especially — back it on up and check yourselves.

What is interesting is that the blogger makes some of the same points Muir made in his criticism of my piece yesterday - that blacks can figure things out for themselves and don’t need white people telling them when to feel bad about the use or abuse of some symbol or language.

I know…I know…I’m still a politically correct dork. So have at me again people.

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