Barney Frank, House Financial Services Chairman, has recently shown his utter lack of concern for the American military person in Iraq. That is the only conclusion you could possibly come to with his announcement that he will defund the Iraq war under a Democratic president.

“I will move to cut funding immediately,” said Frank. “I have already done that. I voted against the war and voted to cut the funding. I would hope a Democratic president would put in place a plan that would begin a total withdrawal.”

Irrespective of the complete geopolitical disaster this would cause in the Middle East in general, and the chaos that would ensue in Iraq with Frank’s “immediate withdrawal”, the impact on the American military would be catastrophic. Any cuts in funding, prior to the intended consequence of forcing the generals to withdraw forces, would impact the ability of our military folks in Iraq to protect themselves as units become forced to do more with less. Money currently used to make life bearable - movies, phone calls, the occasional fast food  run, computer services, etc.  - those things would disappear first. The ability to spread goodwill in the neighborhoods through the use of toys, soccer balls, candy, books, shoes, and other community project items will remove the potential for our soldiers to be anything other than armed occupiers. Today, they can also help build community.

Barney Frank sits in Washington and looks down from Mt Olympus at Iraq and makes decisions without any thought to how those decisions impact anything except his sense of how things should be. This elitist moron needs to find something else to occupy his mind. I suggest he take up crochet and leave the serious business of war and peace to the professionals.

So, A Mexican government official steals property belonging to American officials and then claims diplomatic immunity.

Whether he was up to no good or simply desperate to play BrickBreaker, a Mexican press attaché was caught on camera by Secret Service pocketing several White House Blackberries during a recent meeting in New Orleans, FOX News has learned.

Sources with knowledge of the incident said the official, Rafael Quintero Curiel, served as the lead press advance person for the Mexican Delegation and was responsible for handling logistics and guiding the Mexican media around at the conference. He took six or seven of the hand held devices from a table outside a special room in the hotel where the Mexican delegation was meeting wit President Bush earlier this week.

Everyone entering the room was required to leave his or her cell phone, Blackberry and other such devices on the table, a common practice when high-level meetings are held. American officials discovered their missing belongings when they were leaving the session.

It didn’t take long before Secret Service officials reviewed videotape taken by a surveillance camera and found footage showing Quintero Curiel absconding with the Blackberries.

Nice.

I know President Bush has done some great things for America during his presidential tenure. I am certain history is going to be a lot nicer to him than the present is being. We have seen President Bush capitulate on a number of things important to republicans, even while acting courageously (in the political sense) on things like Judicial appointments, Bolton appointment, and the war on terror.

I never thought President Bush would capitulate to his 2000 election rival.

President Bush is poised to change course and announce as early as this week that he wants Congress to pass a bill to combat global warming, and will lay out principles for what that should include.

I understand the reasoning which dictates passage of some sort of Global Warming legislationto stave off more stringent legislation after the elections. Democrats are likely to strengthen their control in both houses this cycle and the resultant muddle on all of the controversial topics is going to be fierce.  However, I don’t believe the ploy will work. The fierce debate which is going to take place to define the contents of such legislation puts the White House in a bad situation. For the first time, President Bush is going to recognize the need for some sort of initiative and then have his staff and supporters in congress work to limit the scope and impact of the initiative. It is oxymoronic. You cannot play into the global warming game by sticking your toe into the water.

It is one thing to propose legislation to strengthen the clean air act or one of the myriad existing environmental initiaitives. But what the White House just did is lend credence to the wild global warming is doom hand-wringing party engaged in by the left.

President Bush seems to be working hard to enhance the potential of having a positive legacy. He is working hard to not be seen as a lame duck president. Usually, this means working hard for the policies of your own party - not pandering to the drivel of the leftist nutters.

I actually “LOLed” when I read this earlier today. The Department of Energy is testing the potential of blasting a special glass into space to curb the effects of global warming.

The particles, consisting of a very fine and special form of glass - “porous-walled glass microspheres” - would be able to absorb a certain amount of carbon dioxide, and would reflect sunlight away from the Earth.

I thought it was interesting to see people using flip phones, which look interestingly like Gene Roddenberry’s “Star Treck”. These days, we also have something we can “set to stun” and shoot at a bad guy to incapacitate him. But to spend millions of dollars trying to recreate weather conditions in 1980 Port Charles is a little much for me.

Laura attempted to find Scotty, who had run off to Mexico, in order so that she could get a divorce and marry Luke. However Luke remained hostile towards Laura, even as Laura made several maneuvers to remain in Luke’s life. Laura decided that she had to show Luke that she had matured and thus moved out of her parents’ home and into an apartment, which just happened to be conveniently located in the same building as Luke’s apartment. Since Luke lived on a floor above Laura, he was forced to walk past her apartment everyday. This ensured that the two kept bumping into each other.

Luke eventually went to work for Edward Quartermaine and his niece Alexandria Quartermaine, who were in search of the Ice Princess, the world’s largest uncut diamond that had been spray-painted black and mounted on a base to be displayed as a statue. Luke promised the Quartermaines that he would get the statue before their rivals, the Cassadines could.

Eventually, Luke and Laura reconciled and decided to get married. Around the same time, World Security Bureau (WSB) agent Robert Scorpio had arrived in town and warned Luke that the Ice Princess mystery was far more serious than previously thought. Hidden inside the base of the statue was a formula that could create a substance called carbonic snow. The Cassadines planned on using carbonic snow in their sinister plot to take over the entire world. It was revealed that Alexandria was in league with the Cassadines and after the Ice Princess had made its way into the hands of several Port Charles citizens, Alexandria and the Cassadine brothers (Victor and Tony) finally got their hands on it and prepared to take it to Mikkos Cassadine, the eldest Cassadine brother (portrayed by sci-fi actor John Colicos).

Alexandria, Victor and Tony invited several guests on an ocean cruise aboard the Titan (Later the Haunted Star). As the Titan left Port Charles, Luke and Robert sneaked on board and were surprised when they found that Laura had also stowed away. Eventually, they arrived at Mikkos’ island in the Atlantic. Luke and Laura found the island a rather passionate setting and made several attempts to make love, only to be interrupted by Robert. Laura soon fell sick with a fever, and when Robert attempted to make Luke leave her behind, he refused and let Robert know that Laura was more important to him than their mission. Eventually Laura recovered and the three set about finding a way to stop the Cassadines.

Meanwhile, Mikkos unleashed his ultimate plan: he planned to hold the world to ransom. If world leaders did not accept his demands for total world domination, he would use his carbonic snow in his weather machine in order to send the Earth into a new ice age. In order to show that he was capable of doing this, he selected Port Charles as a test subject and soon the city was plunged into a blizzard — even though it was still summer. As temperatures in Port Charles continued to plummet, Mikkos managed to capture Luke, Laura and Robert. When his brother Tony and Alexandria Quartermaine expressed doubts about the plan, Mikkos had them killed.

Eventually Luke, Laura, Robert and B-movie actress Tiffany Hill managed to defeat Mikkos, and Luke was able to figure out the password in order to turn off Mikkos’ machine. In the course of the struggle, Mikkos was killed. Luke, Laura and Robert were thus hailed as heroes by the citizens of Port Charles.

Someone should tell the DOE that carbonic snow is the answer.

If she thinks her landing into Bosnia was corkscrew, wait until she sees her landing between now and November.

I can understand where she is coming from though. I mean, all of us old battle axes tell war stories - commonly known as fairy tales.

Since Hillary has not only not served in the Military, but holds it in deep disdain, she does not realize that war stories - commonly known as fairy tales - are stories you tell over a couple of beers. They are not stories you use to hold an auditorium full of gullible voters spell-bound to your awesomeness, as she did last December. You also do not relate your vast international crisis management experience at 3 AM on the afore-mentioned war story - also known as a fairy tale.

She said she saved Kosovar refugees by persuading Macedonia to reopen its border. And in a direct jab back at Obama, she recalled visiting Bosnia on a plane that made a tight corkscrew landing to avoid potential attacks. “Somebody said there might be sniper fire,” she said, adding tartly, “I don’t remember anyone offering me tea on the tarmac.”

What is most laughable about Hillary’s entire claim of the danger she was exposed to - repeatedly, according to her - is it probably all evolved out of a practical joke by an enterprising military person.

“Welcome Mrs. Clinton, I am Chief Master Sergeant Thompson. We’re on approach now. Please fasten your seatbelt tightly because we are going to have to maneuver evasively as we land to reduce our risk of being shot down. Also, Mrs. Clinton, there is a possibility we could come under sniper fire, so if you hear anyone yell ‘Bravo! Bravo!’ immediately take cover. Do you have any questions for me?”

Sinbad remembers the trip being a lot different.

Now, Senator Clinton says she “misspoke” and it was a “minor blip” - hog wash. She has been telling this story to voters for months. And last week she said,

During a speech last Monday on Iraq, she said of the Bosnia trip: “I remember landing under sniper fire. There was supposed to be some kind of a greeting ceremony at the airport, but instead we just ran with our heads down to get into the vehicles to get to our base.”

But her book tells a different story.

“Due to reports of snipers in the hills around the airstrip, we were forced to cut short an event on the tarmac with local children, though we did have time to meet them and their teachers and to learn how hard they had worked during the war to continue classes in any safe spot they could find,” Clinton wrote.

Her campaign has reduced this to a single event - something that happened last week, but let me remind you of that December Iowa talk to her voters. I guess it depends on what your definition of “one time” is.

Old Goat wonders why we are so bent on re-electing Bill Clinton.

I keep hearing Hilliary say she has experience and Barrack Obama does not. I think she slept in the White House, she was married to the President, she meddled in the Travel Office staffing, she removed all the GWB keys from the computer keyboard before her husband left office, but I don’t recall her having ANY official status when it came to running the country. Especially at 3:00 am.

The (probably horribly insensitive) question that keeps coming to my mind is, if Hillary knew so much about what was going on in the White House while Bill was president, how come she didn’t know he was getting honked by an aide in the oval office? Or was that at 4AM?

I consider myself an “average” American.  I live in an average town, doing an average job.  My background is unique, but it in no way makes me unique.  Having said all that (written actually) I find that I don’t really give a darn that Baseball players have been using any type of enhancing drugs.

Is it dangerous for them personally?  I suppose so, but what kind of life are they expecting after retirement anyway?

Does it set a bad example for our children?  Absolutely!  But as a parent myself, it is my RESPONSIBILITY to teach my children appropriate behavior, not the baseball player.

Is it illegal?  Most certainly.  The gub-ment believes it is in the common wealth’s best interest to outlaw any drug they deem dangerous (subjectively of course).

But to be blunt and honest…I DONT CARE if they took those drugs.  It doesn’t matter to me, during a time of war and terrorist attacks worldwide, that a small group of players decided they could market themselves better, if they put on 20 lbs of pure muscle, if they could throw faster and hit further or run faster.

I care that our gub-ment hasn’t secured our borders, I care that we are still paying enormous amounts of money to Saudi Arabia and other Middle East countries that hate us.  Especially when we could be drilling for our own oil here in the states.

The fact that someone in the United States government signed off to have people investigate grown men who play a child’s game, instead of spending that time and money on security for our children, that is important to me.

On the scale, it doesn’t even register. 

So, the moral of this story is simple:

If you are ever in Cyprus, do not advise a customer to put an egg in his pants and charge $12,000 for the advice.

A woman in Cyprus is on trial for sorcery after pledging to shake off a curse apparently plaguing a man’s relationship with his wife and mother-in-law.

Reuters Photo: Eggs are seen in storage
racks in this July 19, 2007 photo.

I have no desire to understand what kind of relationship problems one might have with a mother-in-law that would prompt anything being put down your pants.

This Special WTF Bulletin is brought to you by Fox News! They report, we decide - sometimes.

(Fabrice Coffrini, AFP/Getty Images)

Paris Hilton receives praise by conservationists for coming out on the issue of Elephant Binge Drinking.

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, over?