FROM SYRIA WITH A GRAIN OF SALT

On this fine spring day when the cherry blossoms are in maximum bloom along the Potomac River and Tidal Basin in Washington, DC, the Beiruit Daily Star reports that Pelosi has landed. With a squeak and a thud, I might add.

On the eve of a meeting with Syrian President Bashar Assad, US Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Monday she believed greater communication between the United States and Syria could help establish stability in the region and called the bilateral talks a matter of US national security.

"The road to solving Lebanon's problems passes through Damascus," Pelosi told reporters after meeting with Lebanese parliamentary leader Saad Hariri at Qoreitem. Our trip to Syria is one that is important to us, it is also important to the Iraq Study Group which encourages such diplomacy and engagement," she said, referring to a bipartisan US panel that last year recommended engaging US foes Syria and Iran in order to calm war-torn Iraq. The purpose of this trip is a part of our responsibility for the national security of the United States," Pelosi said.

Oh really? For the Syrian government, the road back to Lebanon starts with its military convoys and ends in the complete occupation and political domination of formerly Christian Lebanon by Hezbollah-financing Syria. If Mrs. Pelosi is too dim-witted or belligerent to comprehend that this level of appeasement leads to ruin, we don't have a shot of surviving these rather dangerous times as an unified America.

The Bush administration accuses Syria of supporting "terrorism" and harboring insurgents, yet a growing number of US politicians are continuing to urge more dialogue. Perfunctory to her role as dame-in-charge Pelosi also paid her respects at the grave of Hariri's father, assassinated former Premier Rafik Hariri.

"It is very important to establish the international tribunal so we establish the truth so we can go forward," Pelosi said of the court whose formation has been caught up in Lebanon's current political impasse.

Pelosi said talks with Assad would center around "the overarching issue, the fight against terrorism and the role that Syria can play to help or to hinder that role" and that the delegation will also discuss "the role of Syria in supporting Hamas and Hezbullah." Pelosi admitted the two countries had a long way to go toward improving relations.

"We think it's a good idea to establish the facts to hopefully build some confidence between us. We have no illusions but we have great hope," she stressed.

Representative Tom Lantos, a California Democrat who was part of Pelosi's delegation, said it is in the Syrians' best interest "to return to a position where they can be part of the positive forces in this region and not be in tight alliance with [President Mahmoud] Ahmadinejad's Iran."

Representative Nick Rahall, a West Virginia Democrat with Lebanese roots, praised Prime Minister Fouad Siniora's government "for the work it did under very hard circumstances. It is very important that Parliament convene and for the Lebanese people to express their will."

Pelosi defended the delegation's looming Damascus visit, saying: "We think it's a good idea, that's why we're doing it."

Absolutely astonishing! This flies in the face of the American way, in terms of the separation of powers articles in the US Constitution outlining the tasks and responisbilties of the legislative and executive branches. This breech in constitutional protocol signals yet again to these rogue countries that the US President can be trumped by Congress in times of war. This is an extremely dangerous breech of congressional conduct fostered, yet again, by the Democratic forces hell-bent in appeasing the Islamic aggressors over and beyond the call of duty.

Meanwhile, the White House on Monday reiterated objections over the trip, saying Pelosi risked undermining US-led efforts to isolate Assad. "It sends the wrong message to have high-level US officials going there to have photo opportunities that Assad then exploits," White House spokesperson Dana Perino said.

Perino denied that the criticism was of a partisan nature after Pelosi pointed out that the White House did not censure a Damascus visit made by three Republicans on Sunday. "We discouraged it [the Republican visit]. When I was asked last week I was only asked about Speaker Pelosi," Perino responded.

Following talks with Hariri, Pelosi and the delegation met with Siniora and Speaker Nabih Berri. "The meeting was excellent and the outcome was highly positive," Amal MP Ali Bazzi told The Daily Star. He said the talks focused on regional politics and the role of democracy in the region.

"The speaker explained the situation in Lebanon because they were concerned about Parliament not being in session. The speaker explained the reasons for this. They understood his point of view and they wished Lebanon would overcome the political crisis," Bazzi said. Also on Monday, Syria's embassy in Washington hailed Pelosi's trip as "momentous" and expressed hope that it might ameliorate strained relations with the United States.

Momentous indeed. Anything to undermine the hardline against the aggressors. Again the terrorists are empowered when US leadership is shown to be weak and at odds within itself as is the case here. No firm resolve helps terrorism and terrorist states. There are those who suggest that George Bush has nobody but himself to blame for this. When he gave his wretched and obsequious “tiny minority” it’s a “religion of peace” speech, and then went down to the local mosque to prostrate before Allah, well, that provided sufficient cover for the petrodollar scoundrels, political pimps, globo-socialists, EU bureaucrats, Leftist opinion celebrities and other creeps to ride the pony another decade or two.

"Pelosi is welcome in Damascus. There are great hopes of a rebalancing of US policy in the region," Syria's official Tishrin daily said. "[The US] knows Syria is open to dialogue."

Let's start the dialogue here. How is this for insight? Lebanon will only have prosperity when Islam is gone.

Other representatives traveling with Pelosi include Democrats Keith Ellison of Minnesota, the first Muslim member of Congress, Henry Waxman of California, Louise Slaughter of New York, and Ohio Republican David Hobson. Senator Bill Nelson, a Florida Democrat, became the first senator in nearly two years to meet with Assad when he traveled to Syria in December. Three other senators, including 2004 presidential nominee John Kerry, also met with Assad in December.

Article II, Section 2, of the Constitution assigns diplomacy and foreign policy to the President. No matter how often Pelosi & Co. say their trip is for "fact-finding," they're engaging in diplomacy and thus violating the Constitution as well as the Logan Act, which defines the violation as a felony. Could you imagine the outrage if Newt Gingrich went to visit Milosovic without Clinton's consent?

But more and more of our elected and unelected officials are ignoring the Constitution. In fact, many places have been forced to remove copies of the Declaration of Independence or the Constitution. The U.S. flag has been banned from displays. The pledge of allegiance has been banned, prayer has been banned, and civil liberties are eroding. The US government is gearing up for total desecration of all heritages of the United States paid for with the blood of our freedom-giving forefathers. This despicable flight from our heritage continues in free fall.

Here's the scenario as observed by a blogger named Tookson:

The Liberal strategy for resolving conflict is always premised on one thing—dialogue. They consider dialogue the cure-all for any international problems.

The ASSUMPTION which is entirely naive, is that the two nations just don't understand each other. Dialogue allows me to understand you, and allows you to understand me. If we all just understood each other, the liberal must think, we would all just see that we are all basically good people and all want the same things, and that would bring peace and lots of free sex.

Liberals do not know how to confront evil specifically because they do not believe in the concept of evil. Liberals only think that the 'king of the hill' is evil and all the little monkeys trying to get to the top of the hill just need more love and free sex that the king of the hill is not providing for them. They hate themselves for being prosperous and blessed, and think that white Anglo-Saxon Christians are the instigators for all things from teenage suicide bombers to the environmental demise of planet earth.

Liberals cannot confront evil because they don't know evil when they see it—even if you blows a bomb up right in their face killing all their children.

Just ask Israel if years of unfettered DIALOGUE has resulted in anything but peace for their enemies and increased struggle and weakened leverage for themselves.

If you do not recognize the built-in HATRED devout Muslims have for all infidels, especially Jews and Christians who are SINGLED OUT BY MOHAMMED in the actual Koran as a target of Muslim war, then your dialogue with them is merely another opportunity for THEM to enter into unfettered dialogue with you to increase their peace while they increase your struggle and weaken your leverage.

Now it's time you decide which side you're on. The time is coming when fence-sitting will not be an option, and the time required for changing your mind may be the same time it takes to get you killed. Or worse.