The conservative thinker’s favorite commentator, Andy Rooney, has done it again. Weighing in on the war in Iraq, Rooney revives the specter of the military-industrial complex as described by Eisenhower to criticize our nation’s current mission in the Middle East.

Mr. Rooney begins:

I’m not really clear how much a billion dollars is…

That would be one thousand million, Mr. Rooney. A large figure, for sure, but of course Mr. Rooney is just getting started.

…but the United States — our United States — is spending $5.6 billion a month fighting this war in Iraq that we never should have gotten into. Almost 2,000 Americans have died there. For what?

Mr. Rooney is certainly entitled to believe that we should not have gone into Iraq, but to question what those who have given their lives have died for seems rather ignorant. They died so that Saddam Hussein would no longer threaten, kill, torture, murder, maim, and rape. They died so that free Iraqis could have a say in their own future, posing no threat to their neighbors or the United States. They died to show the world that America would not tolerate terrorism. They have not died in vain.

Mr. Rooney has more to say though:

Another way the government is planning to pay for the war and the hurricane damage is by cutting spending for things like Medicare prescriptions, highway construction, farm payments, AMTRAK, National Public Radio and loans to graduate students. Do these sound like the things you’d like to cut back on to pay for Iraq?

Yes, Mr. Rooney they do. In fact, conservatives would like to see the federal government get smaller on many fronts. This may come as a shock, but there are people who disagree with your political beliefs. Not bothering with opposing views, however, Mr. Rooney goes on to cite some numbers:

No other Country spends the kind of money we spend on our military. Last year Japan spent $42 billion. Italy spent $28 billion, Russia spent only $19 billion. The United States spent $455 billion.

Are those other nations “superpowers” Mr. Rooney? Also, that $455 billion does not sound like too much when you look at the entire $2.6 trillion federal budget. Especially when you consider that most of those trillions are funding your above-mentioned prescriptions, farm payments, NPR, Amtrak, and plenty of other social spending. Not stopping to ponder the numbers, Rooney goes on to criticize the amount of weaponry we possess:

We have 8,000 tanks for example. One Abrams tank costs 150 times as much as a Ford station wagon.

Presumably Mr. Rooney would prefer that our soldiers in Iraq pursued terrorists with cheap and plentiful Ford station wagons rather than expensive armored vehicles. Of course, Mr. Rooney would then be free to chastise Donald Rumsfeld for failing to armor those station wagons against RPG or roadside bomb attack.

Finally, Mr. Rooney invokes the ghost of Eisenhower:

“We must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist. …"

Well, Ike was right. That’s just what’s happened.

This is simply ridiculous. Where is this military-industrial complex that siphons dollars from the poor? The federal government spends many times the defense budget on everything under the sun. But of course, for a Liberal dinosaur like Andy Rooney, any dollar spent on something military is about 99 cents too much.

I’ll be taking a break for Rosh Ha’shana; somebody please keep an eye on Matt Bramanti while I’m gone.

B’shalom,

David Benzion
Publisher/Managing Editor, LoneStarTimes.com

Via Fox News:

A Texas grand jury indicted Rep. Tom DeLay on a new charge of money laundering Monday, less than a week after another grand jury leveled a conspiracy charge that forced DeLay to temporarily step down as House majority leader.

I’ll get a PDF of the indictment up as soon as I can find one.

Fans of the Supreme Court’s Kelo decision involving eminent domain will enjoy this story; the rest of you should be disturbed. A poor coastal community in Florida, Riviera Beach, is experiencing the fruit of that ruling with a proposal to displace up to 6,000 residents to make way for a waterfront development.

The city’s mayor defends the plan in the Washington Times story:

"This is a community that’s in dire need of jobs, which has a median income of less than $19,000 a year," said Riviera Beach Mayor Michael Brown.

"Now eminent domain is affecting people who never had to deal with it before and who have political connections," Mr. Brown said. "But if we don’t use this power, cities will die."

Not everyone is buying that kind of rhetoric, however:

Dana Berliner, senior lawyer with the Institute for Justice, which represented homeowners in the Kelo case, said "pie in the sky" expectations like those expressed by Mr. Brown are routine in all these cases.
"They always think economic redevelopment will bring more joy than what is there now," she said. "Once someone can be replaced so something more expensive can go where they were, every home and business in the country is subject to taking by someone else."

A local lawyer estimates that over 2,000 homes could be eligible for takeover by the developer if the plan is implemented. The resulting 400 acre development would be one of the largest eminent domain cases ever, but what would the poor community get from this wholesale eviction?

Other plans for the project include creation of a basin for megayachts with high-end housing, retail and office space, a multilevel garage for boats, a 96,000-square-foot aquarium and a manmade lagoon.

Well there you are. All of those low-income residents bought out by the developer can just move into the high-end housing and yacht basin. All of them together might be able to afford one place, though it may be somewhat crowded. Those who consider government taking private property and giving it to another private entity “public use” are going to have about 6,000 more people to try to convince if this development goes through. Who says Supreme Court nominees are not important?

LoneStarTimes.com has learned that Pastor Ron Key of the Valley View Christian Church in Dallas will be joining KSEV host Dan Patrick at 5 p.m. Central to discuss his congregation’s most famous member– Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers.

Pastor Key and his wife have known Ms. Miers since 1980, and in fact grew so close that Mrs. Key accompanied Miers to Washington D.C. at the start of the first Bush administration to assist in finding and setting up an apartment.

Few people know Harriet Miers better, or can speak more directly to concerns among conservatives nationally regarding her personal, professional, and conservative credentials.

Dan Patrick’s interview with Pastor key can be heard live via streaming audio by clicking on the "listen live" link in the top, right-hand side of LoneStarTimes.com.

UPDATE– You heard the interview; now tell us what you think.

As recommended by Dan Patrick, a Powerpoint slideshow set to music of powerful images from New Orleans post-Katrina:

"The Great USA"

Interestingly, there appears to be debate in some quarters about whether or not the piece is "pro-America", or was meant to be a cynical/ironic anti-American jab at the terrible suffering our oppressed underclass had to endure in this supposedly "great" country.

I actually kinda like the idea of the creator wanting to send out a bit of anti-American propaganda… because that would mean that despite those intentions, his "Art" has been co-opted by the Texas right-wing radio talk-show cultural hegemony and put to our own hateful ends.

How do’ya like the taste of that snail, huh Frenchie?

Michelle Malkin has documented the growing conservative discontent over the Miers pick. The right was generally willing to give Bush on John Roberts even though his conservative credentials were shakey at best, because his qualifications were impeccable. Miers, on the other hand, has even less of a record and underwhelming qualifications. The honeymoon is over.

There are some supporters, though. Marvin Olasky has been blogging furiously, insisting that those who know her best insist that Miers is an arch-conservative. Still, though — Bush had the political clout to nominate a known conservative with a solid record. It is incredibly disappointing that he failed to do so, and instead is nominating another stealth candidate, expecting the right to cross its collective fingers and pray that another Souter hasn’t been shoved down the pipeline.

Before you get too many crazy ideas:

59 missing, three dead as Typhoon Longwang hits China

(Click headline for full story)

Sales of “I outlasted Longwang” T-shirts should be brisk.

You really do not want to click this link. You’ve been warned.

Well, it looks like the French can be tough after all. Not on dictators or terrorists, of course.

On puppies.

As you know, well over a month ago, Chron reader representative James T. Campbell asked readers to submit questions for his boss, executive VP and editor Jeff Cohen, pledging:

I will pose your questions to Cohen and post his replies sometime during the week of September 5.

At long last, Campbell has identified the bottleneck in the Houston Chronicle Publishing Company’s question-answering system:

The questions have been selected and forwarded to Mr. Cohen. I am awaiting his answers.

You’d think Cohen would want to take the heat off his reader representative, rather than letting him twist in the wind for a month, fielding criticism from increasingly frustrated customers. I guess you’d be wrong.

To be updated throughout the day; meanwhile, begin to share your thoughts and reactions here.

• A good profile of Miers in the Washington Post, useful if for no other reason than it was written last June, before the media would look at here throught the "lens" of being a SCOTUS nominee.
• Slap!

It’s an inspiring testament to the diversity of the president’s cronies. Wearing heels is not an impediment to being a presidential crony in this administration! I can only assume that the president felt that his support was slipping in this important bloc, and he had to do something to shore it up. [Ramesh Ponnuru, National Review Online, 10/3/05]

Must be read to be believed.

[Hat-tip: Lost Budgie and Relapsed Catholic, courtesy Michelle Malkin]

Enjoy your "Open Comment" thread.