Swimming through the Spin

Yet another column and Cheney bias

2006-02-19T07:54:00.000-06:00

I've been buried with work and other things lately, but here's my take on this whole Cheney shooting thing.

Late in the week, media outlets were continuously stating that "questions persist" about the incident. Given the fact that they are the ones asking the persistent questions, this should be no surprise.

And a perfect example of this is Newsweek and Evan Thomas.

But the shooting incident once again drew attention to the unusual nature of Cheney's power. He remains by far the most powerful vice president in history, and one of the most secretive and mysterious public officials to ever hold such high office in America. He is caricatured as a Darth Vader, spooky, above the law; nefarious.

Yep. Caricatured by the media.

Has he been transformed, warped, perhaps corrupted—by stress, wealth, aging, illness, the real terrors of the world or possibly some inner goblins?

"Perhaps corrupted"??? - that sounds real fair and balanced, doesn't it? The story from Thomas is long, and full of more speculation and Beltway gossip than facts.

Guessing at the causes of his darkening persona is a favorite Washington pastime. A widely held theory is that Cheney, 65, was affected by heart surgery (he has had four heart attacks, angioplasty, a quadruple bypass and a pacemaker). It is true that heart patients sometimes undergo mood or even personality changes, but there is no solid evidence in Cheney's case.

No, but since Thomas writes for a major news organ, he tosses these charges around as if they were true. I'm still trying to figure out which organ he represents...probably the one that produces bile.

But please keep in mind the author's family history while looking for a motive to this bias...his grandpa was a very famous man...

"The American people will never knowingly adopt Socialism. But under the name of 'liberalism' they will adopt every fragment of the Socialist program, until one day America will be a Socialist nation, without knowing how it happened."
-- Norman Thomas, Socialist Party Presidential Candidate in 1940, 1944 and 1948, co-founder of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).

Place your bids now

2006-02-09T10:41:00.000-06:00

Someone could have a lot of fun with this if they have deep pockets. From eBay:

You are bidding on a speaking engagement with Cindy Sheehan. Cindy will come speak to a group of your choice (within the continental US)*, and any speaking fees and transportation costs will be waived (your group will only need to provide lodging for the night).

This is a wonderful opportunity to treat your group to an evening of motivation, inspiration, truth, and the indomitable power of a mother's love... and you get to help out the progressive cause, to boot! How great is that?

And in other moonbat news:

Anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan is set to hold an 11 a.m. press conference Thursday in San Francisco regarding her potential run for the Senate.
Sheehan has considered running against current California Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who is up for re-election in November.

Today's total waste of newscopy

2006-02-09T09:29:00.000-06:00

Just when you thought there the wire wasn't going to produce some politically correct bitching disguised as news, well....

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Male characters outnumbered females 3-to-1 overall in top-grossing G-rated films from 1990 to 2004, according to a study whose sponsors say the disparity diminishes the importance of women in children's eyes.
"We're showing kids a world that's very scantly populated with women and female characters," said actress Geena Davis, founder of See Jane, a program of the advocacy group Dads & Daughters that encourages balanced gender representation in entertainment for children.
In the 101 animated and live-action films examined, 28 percent of speaking characters were female, and just 17 percent of people in crowd scenes were female, researchers found in the study released Thursday by See Jane.

"It's important for what kids watch that as far as possible, they see the real world reflected, to see men and women, boys and girls, sharing the space," said Davis, co-star of the female-empowerment film "Thelma & Louise" and star of TV's "Commander in Chief" in which she plays the U.S. president. "They should see female characters taking up half the planet, which we do."

"Thelma & Louise"... that was the movie where you played a uplifting example of womanhood, right Geena? Packing a gun and running from the law is a real good example for our kids. A true, positive roll model for young girls.

Joe Kelly, co-founder of Dads & Daughters, said as much as he loves "Toy Story," the study made him think about the movie differently. The movie has a positive message about two characters - Tom Hanks' Woody and Tim Allen's Buzz Lightyear - overcoming their differences and working together, but it does have a flaw, Kelly said.
"It wasn't until the study that I went back and realized there's only one toy that's a female character, and it's Bo-Peep. She's standing at the window going, 'Oh, Woody, don't hurt yourself,'" Kelly said. "Not that I want 'Toy Story' to be changed. I don't think there should be any sort of gender formula. But there are other movies to be made with powerful messages featuring female characters."

Uhhh...maybe because the story takes place in a boy's bedroom?

Myself, I vote for more anime from Japan...they really know how to represent women.

Wacky fun with the Religion of Peace

2006-02-09T08:59:00.000-06:00

You know, I try to be understanding of other cultures...really I do. But stuff like this (WARNING-BLOODY AND GRAPHIC) is what leads me to think that a large portion of the earth's population needs to be dragged kicking and screaming out of the 7th century. According to the BBC:

Falling on the 10th of Muharram, the first month of the Islamic lunar calendar, Shia Muslims mark the death of the Prophet Muhammad's grandson at Karbala with mourning rituals and plays re-enacting the martyrdom.
Men and women dress in black and parade through the streets slapping their chests and chanting.
Some Shia orders flagellate themselves with chains and blades to emulate Hussein's suffering - though this is frowned upon by others.

Also, take a look at this thread from Free Republic to get an idea how sick and weird this is.

Matheny update

2006-02-09T08:42:00.000-06:00

Vorticity has an update about the current flap regarding State Rep. Judd Matheny.

Google's not stopping with China

2006-02-08T17:16:00.000-06:00

There's been plenty written about Google agreeing to censor content to Chinese Internet users...but what's disturbing is this:

Looks like one blogsite, The Study of Revenge, had Google pre-emptively (i.e. without warning) placed a warning label prior to entering this "hateful" website using big bold letters:

===========================================
CONTENT WARNING
Some readers of this blog have contacted Google because they believe this blog's content is hateful. In general, Google does not review nor do we endorse the content of this or any blog. For more information about this message, please consult our FAQ
===========================================

The site apparently gets the warning due to it's criticism of Islam and liberalism in general.

Like I said, disturbing.

Wellstone memorial - Part 2

2006-02-07T16:50:00.000-06:00

I saw some of this cross the wires at work a while ago and it's a total shame that people take the opportunity to use the funeral of Coretta Scott King to hurl abuse at the president. Bush just had to sit there and take it. Of course, had he not attended, they would have slammed him even harder. Damned if you do...

LOWERY: We know now there were no weapons of mass destruction over there. But Coretta knew and we knew that there were weapons of misdirection right down here. Millions without health insurance, poverty abound, for war billions more, but no more for the poor.

Jimmy Carter was at it too.

The Democratic Party: Every political rally a funeral. Every funeral a political rally.

Rock The Casbah

2006-02-07T16:33:00.000-06:00

Let's party like it's 622 AD!

By order of the prophet
We ban that boogie sound
Degenerate the faithful
With that crazy Casbah sound
But the Bedouin they brought out
The electric camel drum
The local guitar picker
Got his guitar picking thumb
As soon as the shareef
Had cleared the square
They began to wail

CHORUS:
The shareef don't like it
Rockin' the Casbah
Rock the Casbah
The shareef don't like it
Rockin' the Casbah
Rock the Casbah...

Latest column

2006-02-05T12:51:00.000-06:00

Almost forgot to post a link to my latest column, where I deal with the repercussions of just reporting what happened during my trip to cover the president

Fake cartoons?

2006-02-05T12:15:00.000-06:00

This puts a new twist into the riots over the Danish cartoons:

Last Friday the CT Blog revealed how a delegation of Danish Muslims, led by Copenhagen imam Abu Laban, toured the Middle East in December and showed fabricated cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed in a very offensive fashion, even though the pictures had never appeared on Jyllands Posten.

Plus, here's a little of the double standard that's being seen across the pond about this.

"What if" journalism

2006-02-05T10:41:00.000-06:00

"I'm smellin' a lotta 'ifs' comin' off this plan..." Jayne Cobb, public relations officer of the cargo ship Serenity

Feb. 13, 2006 issue - In the latest twist in the debate over presidential powers, a Justice Department official suggested that in certain circumstances, the president might have the power to order the killing of terrorist suspects inside the United States. Steven Bradbury, acting head of the department's Office of Legal Counsel, went to a closed-door Senate intelligence committee meeting last week to defend President George W. Bush's surveillance program. During the briefing, said administration and Capitol Hill officials (who declined to be identified because the session was private), California Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein asked Bradbury questions about the extent of presidential powers to fight Al Qaeda; could Bush, for instance, order the killing of a Qaeda suspect known to be on U.S. soil? Bradbury replied that he believed Bush could indeed do this, at least in certain circumstances.

Current and former government officials said they could think of several scenarios in which a president might consider ordering the killing of a terror suspect inside the United States. One former official noted that before Flight 93 crashed in Pennsylvania, top administration officials weighed shooting down the aircraft if it got too close to Washington, D.C. What if the president had strong evidence that a Qaeda suspect was holed up with a dirty bomb and was about to attack? University of Chicago law professor Cass Sunstein says the post-9/11 congressional resolution authorizing the use of military force against Al Qaeda empowered the president to kill 9/11 perpetrators, or people who assisted their plot, whether they were overseas or inside the United States. On the other hand, Sunstein says, the president would be on less solid legal ground were he to order the killing of a terror suspect in the United States who was not actively preparing an attack.

More of those crazy Muslims...and the people who enable them

2006-02-05T08:36:00.000-06:00

Flags and buildings burn as members of the Religion of Peace continue their objections to Danish cartoons that supposedly satirize Mohammed. But what's worse is that some are actually enabling these enraged primates.

For example:

In London, a crowd of 1,000 Muslims clutching orange placards demonstrated outside the Danish embassy. Two dressed as suicide bombers were allowed to stand next to a police van while officers - who had made no arrests the previous day - tried to prevent photographers from taking pictures of them.
The protesters chanted Allah Aqbar (God Is Great), and their placards bore slogans including: "Free Speech Equals Cheap Insults"; "Rudeness, Slander, Disrespect: Is This Freedom Of Speech?"; "Leave Muslims alone" and "Freedom is hypocrisy".

But was is really shocking is this:

The Vatican, while deploring violence, said that certain forms of criticism represented an "unacceptable" provocation. "The right to freedom of thought and expression cannot entail the right to offend the religious sentiment of believers," a statement said.

What? You mean like this?

Some over at Fox News are tucking their tail between their legs too.

Also Mark Steyn comments on this, which should be read in full:

NBC is celebrating Easter this year with a special edition of the gay sitcom "Will & Grace," in which a Christian conservative cooking-show host, played by the popular singing slattern Britney Spears, offers seasonal recipes -- "Cruci-fixin's." On the other hand, the same network, in its coverage of the global riots over the Danish cartoons, has declined to show any of the offending artwork out of "respect" for the Muslim faith.

Which means out of respect for their ability to locate the executive vice president's home in the suburbs and firebomb his garage.

Grandpa has returned to the basement

2006-02-04T15:11:00.000-06:00

Bad news this afternoon:

NEW YORK -- Al Lewis, the cigar-chomping patriarch of "The Munsters" whose work as a basketball scout, restaurateur and political candidate never eclipsed his role as Grandpa from the television sitcom, died after years of failing health. He was 95.
Lewis, with his wife at his bedside, passed away Friday night, said Bernard White, program director at WBAI-FM, where the actor hosted a weekly radio program. White made the announcement on the air during the Saturday slot where Lewis usually appeared.

About those ads...

2006-02-04T10:36:00.000-06:00

I'm just about to drop Google AdSense due to the overwhelming amount of "impeach Bush" links and other such crap that is 180 degrees the opposite of my views. I'm having to constantly edit the settings, only to find them other such ads replacing them. While I'm well aware of their political leanings, I feel they have no right to push them on other sites that sign up for their service. Watch for changes soon.

More border fun...

2006-02-04T09:58:00.000-06:00

While I missed the State of the Union address on Tuesday, I did get a chance to cover Bush's speech in Nashville in person on Wednesday, which was basically a recap of the night before. I have to say, I didn't care for his approach to the immigration problem:

I believe a very significant part of enforcing our border, make it easier for our Border Patrol to do the job, is to end this system that encourages smuggling and pressure on the border by people sneaking across, and saying if there is somebody that's willing to do a job an American won't do, let's give him a fool-proof pass so they can be here on a temporary basis.
Now, I'm against amnesty, and the reason I am is I believe if you grant amnesty to people that are here, it will cause another wave of people to want to come. (Applause.) But I am for recognizing reality and saying that if you're doing a job, if you're an employer and you're looking for somebody to do a job an American won't do, then here is a card for a temporary worker.

It's hard for me to take this seriously when I read things like this:

HOUSTON — A West Texas sheriff's deputy warned federal lawmakers Friday that drug traffickers are helping terrorists with possible al Qaeda ties cross the porous Texas-Mexico border into the United States.

Terry Simons, the chief deputy in Val Verde County, offered little evidence of his claims. An FBI special agent in Houston, Shauna Dunlap, said there is "no credible evidence" that supports the warning.

Or this:

Federal agents and local police assigned to a border security task force have seized two homemade bombs, material for 33 more, grenades, machine gun assembly kits and other weapons, drugs and cash in separate raids in Laredo, Texas.
The bombs and other paraphernalia are thought to belong to or be destined for rival drug cartels across the Rio Grande in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, where a brutal yearlong war over the control of drug and alien smuggling routes into the United States has raged.
More than 150 people -- including the police chief, a city councilman and 13 police officers -- have been killed in the Mexican border town over the last year.

Followed by this:

In the past few days, Hudspeth County Sheriff's Department deputies and their families have received threats to stay off the Rio Grande. Sheriff Arvin West told ABC-7 Thursday morning, before departing for Houston that the Mexican military is behind all of this.
Sheriff West said, "There is no doubt in my mind -- from the first time going back to a couple of years ago and every time in between --- it's the Mexican military. In a nutshell, everybody's been trying to tell everybody that they were here...they've been here ...[and] they come here quite often, regularly."

Now Sheriff West is having to deal with threats being made against his deputies and their families. One Sheriff's Deputy, who refused to appear on camera out of fear, described the situation today in Hudspeth County as "very dangerous." and now, he said, "it's getting personal."

Meanwhile in the 11th Century...

2006-02-04T09:01:00.000-06:00

...things are going pretty much like they've always have; the primates are calling for more heads, this time over some cartoons.

MUSLIM protesters threatened more terrorist attacks as they converged in their hundreds outside the Danish Embassy in London yesterday for what organisers said was the start of a new holy war in Britain.

As opposed to the old one from several weeks ago...

Parading banners that called for the killing of newspaper editors and broadcasters from the BBC who showed cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad, they marched across the capital from the mosque in Regent’s Park after Friday prayers.

Meanwhile...

‘We will not accept less than severing the heads of those responsible,’ one preacher told worshippers at the al-Omari Mosque in the Gaza Strip as tensions spread over the publication of the cartoons, first in Denmark and later in Norway, France, Germany and Spain. ...

‘We must tell Europeans, we can live without you. But you cannot live without us,’ prominent Muslim cleric Sheikh Youssef al-Qaradawi told worshippers in Qatar. ‘We can buy from China, Japan, Thailand, Malaysia... we will not be humiliated.’

In Lebanon, thousands of Palestinian refugees marched through the streets of their camps, burning Danish and Norwegian flags and calling on Osama bin Laden, the al Qaeda leader, to avenge the Prophet Mohammad.

‘We will not be satisfied with protests. The solution is the slaughter of those who harmed Islam and the Prophet,’ said Sheikh Abu Sharif, spokesman for the militant Osbet al-Ansar group, at a rally in Lebanon’s largest camp, the southern Ein al-Hilweh.

Let me get this straight, Muslims, who are upset at Islam being portrayed as a violent religion, are threatening death and beheadings to those who say Islam is religion of violence?

They are freaking out over a cartoon which reflects exactly what they are really saying.

OK...and now CNN is just reporting that mobs have set the Danish embassy in Damascus ablaze over this.

When is the world going to wake up and deal with these animals as they should be dealt with instead of worrying if they are going to "offend anyone" like the spineless wimps in our state department did yesterday?

Also, according to Instapundit, The Boston Globe is siding with the barbarians, comparing the Danish cartoonists to Nazis.

One thing about be being under the weather...

2006-02-04T08:36:00.000-06:00

...is that I miss things like this. Now, I have most of these on DVD, but there's something about seeing these classics on the big screen as they were meant to. Then there's this I'd like to check out too. Maybe if I feel better.

I've been exposed

2006-02-02T19:11:00.000-06:00

This is a first. I was covering the president's visit to Nashville yesterday and little did I know that Brittney from nashvilleistalking.com was there as well...

And took my picture standing in the press pool.

I'm standing second from the left.

More local fun

2006-01-31T08:27:00.000-06:00

Three reports this morning: First... in the Nashville City Paper.

Deputy Gov. Dave Cooley denied Monday that the Bredesen administration orchestrated a widespread push to discredit a Republican state representative.

Rep. Judd Matheny (R-Tullahoma) accused the Bredesen administration Friday of trying to discredit him after a former Bredesen official, Doyle “Butch” Lewis Jr., allegedly accused Matheny of having an arrest record. Matheny said that accusation is false.

and also in the Chattanooga Free-Press:

NASHVILLE — Rep. Judd Matheny, R-Tullahoma, is accusing the Bredesen administration and Deputy Gov. Dave Cooley of helping orchestrate a smear campaign against him that includes derogatory e-mail messages.
"I’ve been told personally by Mr. Cooley to tighten up my belt, that they were coming after me," Rep. Matheny told WLAC/Tennessee Radio Network on Friday. "The timing is too perfect. They’re trying everything they can to discredit me in every way."

Not to mention a story in the Knoxville News Sentinel. However, in the Tennessean, not a word...

Draw your own conclusions.

Break out the torches and pitchforks

2006-01-29T13:00:00.000-06:00

Classic story: Monster is created. Monster goes out of control. Creator can't stop monster.

BERKELEY, CA--Last summer, the controversial “peace activist” Cindy Sheehan was the toast of the Democratic party when she camped outside of the President’s ranch and all but accused him of murdering her son.
Since then, however, Sheehan has become a growing thorn in the Democrats’ side, as her extremist views and bizarre behavior are increasingly targeted at democrats who, in Sheehan’s opinion, are not sufficiently “anti-war” for the “peace mom.”

More is here and here...

Rrrrrrr...

AP's take on the Monster and her friends...or should we say "comrades."

Random links

2006-01-29T11:23:00.000-06:00

I may be Swimming through the Spin...but these days I'm also Suffering through the pain.

Vorticity touches on a smear of our local representitive and an old friend. More details are here too. The Rep. states in the comments on his blog that: "Lets just say sevral "R" are not too pleased with the shinanigans going on and have mentioned takeing bigger more agressive steps."

Newsweek has a story about former Justice Department officials who have turned on Bush and his policies. The magazine uses a lot of shining adjectives and adverbs to describe them, comparing the ringleader to Jimmy Stewart and another as "stocky, rumpled, genial, though possessing an enormous intellect." Nah, no bias here...

There's also this little piece about using Wikipedia to rewrite your own history. I'm betting we're going to see a lot more of this as time goes on.

Two recent posts on this blog: here and here have resulted in an e-mail to me from a Tullahoma Alderman who has the same opinion about the Tullahoma News that I do: mainly that they are biased and can not be trusted. While I shall not identify him, he says:I have witnessed their writers twist the truth, their editor will not publish our Letters to The Editor because it does not agree with the fodder agenda he represents. Other than Board meetings, we do not have a fair and balanced reporting media in Tullahoma -- quite the opposite in fact.

Very unusual for a Board majority not to be heard. One of their reporters actually called me for an interview and I gave it concerning a News article. My views were never published, but the other side got published!! I could go on and on.

Oh no, there goes Tokyo...

2006-01-23T20:17:00.000-06:00

While this would be a cool class to attend, you'd think that students could be studying more important subjects...but this is the University of California at Berkeley we're talking about.

Course Details

Kaiju Cinema: An Introduction to Japanese Giant Monster Movies

Astronomy 98/198 - (Units: 2)
Shortcuts: decal.org/122 decal.org/kaijucinema
Course Description: This course will be lecture/discussion based, but with most of the time in class devoted to watching the actual films. The course will also have short required readings from a reader.

Since the release of Tôhô Studios's seminal Gojira in theaters across Japan in 1954, kaijû eiga—roughly translated "giant monster movies"—have made their mark on the landscape of Japanese film and television. Gojira (largely known in America as Godzilla, King of the Monsters!) paved the way for a host of movies in a similar vein; many of these were also produced by Tôhô, but several other studios tried their hand at the genre as well, most notably Daiei with its moderately successful Gamera series. Although television shows such as Ultraman and Kamen Rider had by the late 1960's eclipsed their cinematic forebears in popularity, leading to a decline in theater attendance and worsening quality in the films themselves, the genre has weathered the storm and continues to be an important part of the country's cinema.

A more detailed look at this "class" is here. Only at Berkeley. How much you want to bet this is going to turn into an bash America fest due to the anti-atomic testing theme that runs through most of these films. The orginial Japanese version of Godzilla ("Gojira"-20 minutes longer and without Raymond Burr) really hammered that point down everyone's throats.

More local color

2006-01-21T09:41:00.000-06:00

Remember last week's post on the two local papers here? It has gotten better.

In a ruling made Friday, Chancellor Jeffery Stewart of Franklin County Chancery Court granted summary judgment in favor of The Saturday Independent against Lakeway Publishers, Inc., who sought to prevent Ramsey from starting a competing newspaper after being fired from The Manchester Times in 2004. Ramsey was removed as editor in chief when The Manchester Times, under his editorial direction, published a story critical of a county industrial board on which Jeff Fishman, publisher and regional vice president of The Tullahoma News, served.
“We feel vindicated in our efforts to bring to Coffee County a competative and high-quality newspaper that truly serves and informs its readers,” said TSI publisher and co-owner Chip Ramsey. Ramsey and his wife, Beth, own The Saturday Independent. “Obviously the judge in this case felt the same way. We’re glad we can focus on our product without distraction.”

Read the whole thing.

Some local color

2006-01-11T16:27:00.000-06:00

It's rare when I comment on local happenings in middle Tennessee and even rarer when it involves papers I've had dealings with. But in this case, I'm making an exception.

A former editor for a local paper started up his own weekly more than a year ago and since that time, The Saturday Independent has been ruffling feathers by actually reporting the truth around here. In fact, he was sacked from his former employer for, well, actually reporting the truth. After he started the Independent, there were lawsuits from the publisher he formerly worked for.

Long story which I have no time to get into here.

Anyhow, the latest story on their site makes some pretty serious slams at the local chain of papers which has held sway in this area for years.

Coffee County Mayor Ray Johnson became belligerent and threatening to some members of the local news media following a Coffee County Commission meeting Tuesday night.
"You know what, piss on you," Johnson told TSI publisher Chip Ramsey when Ramsey confronted him about statements he made during the board meeting regarding a story in last Saturday's edition of The Saturday Independent. The story, and an accompanying editorial blasted the mayor's office and the office of budget and finance for several flags on a preliminary audit from the State of Tennessee.
Though Johnson would not give a reason, his hand-picked budget director, Sybol Latremore, resigned her position Monday -– five days after a meeting with state auditors.

The story goes on to refer to past coverage involving a $259,000 error in the Debt Service Fund estimate. Yet...

Johnson called the state findings "good" and told commissioners that the criticism the audit and budget director received from The Saturday Independent stories and from WMSR 1320 radio a "character assassination."

But the real slam was at the end of the article:

Stories appeared in The Tullahoma Sunday News and the Manchester Times this week quoting Johnson as saying there were no "major" findings in the audit.
Neither paper had representatives at last week's Budget and Finance Committee meeting that focused on the preliminary audit.

Now, neither of these two papers have anything on their websites about this and I haven't seen the print editions, but given my knowledge of the situation around here, I would say that things are about to get quite interesting around here.

The Tullahoma News and the Manchester Times have held a news monopoly here for ages. Things that would upset the local powers-that-be simply did not get reported or were buried on page 16A. Police blotters were edited while other cases involving people who fell into disfavor with the big wigs or the publisher tend to get prominent ink.

Trust me, I know what I'm talking about. Been there. Done that. Got the t-shirt.

So with a second news outlet in the county, the big cheese in these parts can no longer keep things quiet by phoning up the politically compromised publisher.

Like I said...things are about to get quite interesting around here.

UPDATE: Here's the Tullahoma News version, which is quite a bit different...

Dumbest story of the year

2005-12-31T08:29:00.000-06:00

This one of the slowest weeks in the news business. Writers and editors usually have to scramble to find copy since few trials or government bodies meet during this time.

But this has got to be both the stupidest and most agenda driven "story" I have laid eyes on this year:

NEW YORK - The White House said Friday its Web tracking technology is consistent with federal rules because it only counts the number of visitors anonymously and doesn't record personal information.
The White House's site uses what's known as a Web bug Â a tiny graphic image that's virtually invisible Â to anonymously keep track of the number and time of visits. The bug is sent by a server maintained by an outside contractor, WebTrends Inc., and lets the traffic-analysis company know that another person has visited a specific page on the site.

Web bugs themselves are not prohibited. However, under a directive from the White House's Office of Management and Budget, they are largely banned at government sites when linked to cookies, which are data files that let a site track Web visitors.

Absolutely pathetic. Is the MSM so desperate for a scandal involving Bush that they discover the use of cookies?

Yeah, well most sites has a web counter and uses cookies....that goes for many ISP's, the NY Times, LA Times, Chicago Tribune.

Oh...and AP.org. They use them too.

"Unless we act quickly..."

2005-12-26T08:47:00.000-06:00

Words from Sen. Bill Frist this morning:

IRAN'S RULING mullahs have waged a 26-year campaign to suppress dissent, support terror and pursue a nuclear weapons program. In recent weeks, it has become clear that international efforts to stop Iran's atomic program have failed to bear fruit. Unless we act quickly, the United States will have a nuclear crisis on its hands.

[ snip ]

If we let Tehran develop nuclear weapons covertly while IAEA negotiations slog forward, Iran's theocrats will have little reason to negotiate with anyone. The U.S. needs to act before a regime that has denied the real Holocaust unleashes another.

What the Senate, House and State Department actually does on this matter will be another thing.

One year later...

2005-12-26T08:28:00.000-06:00

...and the UN reverts to form:

NEW YORK, Dec. 23 (UPI) -- Up to about a third of the $590 million U.N. fund spent for the Indian Ocean tsunami relief may have gone to pay for overhead.

The Financial Times says its two-month investigation showed the money appears to have been spent on administration, staff and related costs. The $590 million was part of the United Nation's $1.1 billion disaster flash appeal.

This shouldn't be too shocking. After all, luxury cars, 5-star hotels and catered lunches don't come cheap these days...and the Oil-for-Food money dried up long ago.

Also, Ben Cunningham points out over at BillHobbs.com that according to a Johns Hopkins Study, the US is the most giving country when it comes to cash donations as percent of GDP.

At least we know that some of the money is getting to where it's needed.

Meanwhile, in the 11th Century...

2005-12-26T08:20:00.000-06:00

Here's a cheerful item to start your day:

MULTAN, Pakistan - A father, angry that his eldest daughter had married against his wishes, slit her throat as she slept and then killed three of his other daughters in a remote village in eastern Pakistan, police said Saturday.

Nazir Ahmad, a laborer in his 40s, feared the younger girls, aged 4, 8, and 12, would follow in their sister's footsteps, police officer Shahzad Gul said.

Wonderful, diverse culture they have there.

This isn't journalism

2005-12-25T14:22:00.000-06:00

This is an advertisement. Currently in the AP Entertaiment section of Yahoo.

Clinton's Lighter Side Available on DVD

Photos

AP Photo

Sun Dec 25, 2:21 PM ET

One of the most popular attractions at the Clinton Presidential Library is available to anyone who wants to see the former president poke fun at himself.
Excerpts from President Clinton's appearances at the White House Correspondents Association dinners and other lighter speeches are part of the 22-minute video "A Time to Laugh" that has played at the library since it opened last year. The video is now available on DVD.
"It causes what we call a traffic jam upstairs," library foundation chairman Skip Rutherford said. "We've had thousands of requests for copies."

Since when did AP stand for Advertise and Promote?

Thought crimes will be punished!

2005-12-24T08:34:00.000-06:00

Ho Ho Ho...

POLICE questioned a retired couple for 80 minutes about their “homophobic” views after they asked their local council if they could display their Christian literature next to gay rights leaflets, it was reported last night.
Joe and Helen Roberts said that police officers warned them that their actions “were close to a hate crime” after they complained to Wyre Borough Council about its gay rights policies.
The couple claimed that the police told them they were “walking on eggshells”.
<>
A council spokesman said the couple had “displayed potentially homophobic attitudes”.
He added: “The council referred this matter to the police for further investigation with the intention of challenging attitudes and educating and raising awareness of the implications of homophobic behaviour.”

Just like the old Soviet Union. Britian's not getting there.

They're already there.

UPDATE: However, one alleged thought crime in the U.S. has turned out to be a hoax.

Track the big guy here

2005-12-24T08:25:00.000-06:00

Track Santa Live.

Group sex is OK, but not....

2005-12-23T15:35:00.000-06:00

Interesting little item from our neighbors to the north:

OTTAWA (Reuters) - Group sex between consenting adults is neither prostitution nor a threat to society, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled on Wednesday, dismissing arguments that the sometimes raucous activities of so-called "swingers" clubs were dangerous.

That may be, but they probably still can't have a smoke afterwards. Also, this story points out that the age of sexual consent in Canada is 14.

14? Who do they think they are? Mississippi?

About those "illegal" searches...

2005-12-23T15:07:00.000-06:00

Just a reminder...

WASHINGTON, Nov. 8--Justice Department lawyers say that the President still has the "inherent authority" to order searches without warrants to collect foreign intelligence within the United States, despite the criminal conviction this week of two former officials of the Federal Bureau of Investigation who said they had approved such searches in 1972 and 1973.
An executive order issued by President Carter in January 1978 established the standard that governs the use of searches for intelligence purposes today. Such searches, it said, ‘’shall not be undertaken against a United States person without a judicial warrant, unless the President has authorized the type of activity involved and the Attorney General has both approved the particular activity and determined that there is probable cause to believe that the United States person is an agent of a foreign power.'’

That's from Nov 9, 1980. pg. 35 of the New York Times.

Next "scandal" please....and here's much more from Power Line.

Now this is just cruel...

2005-12-23T12:14:00.000-06:00

This ..."person" needs coal in their stocking this year... and lots of it.

Theresa Farrisi stood in for Schaeffer's regular music teacher one day last week. One of her assignments was to read Clement C. Moore's famous poem, "Visit from Saint Nicholas" to a first-grade class at Lickdale Elementary School.
"The poem has great literary value, but it goes against my conscience to teach something which I know to be false to children, who are impressionable," said Farrisi, 43, of Myerstown. "It's a story. I taught it as a story. There's no real person called Santa Claus living at the North Pole."
Farrisi doesn't believe in Santa Claus, and she doesn't think anyone else should, either. She made her feelings clear to the classroom full of 6- and 7-year-olds, some of whom went home crying.
Schaeffer got off the school bus later that day, dragging her backpack in the mud, tears in her angry little eyes.
"She yelled at me, 'Why did you lie?'" recalled Jamey's mother, Elizabeth. "'Why didn't you tell me Santa Claus died?'"

Sounds like a variation of this.

How can this be???

2005-12-23T10:22:00.000-06:00

But...but, the MSM said that Saddam didn't have these things.... How can this be?

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) -- A court convicted a Dutch chemicals merchant of war crimes Friday, sentencing him to 15 years in prison for selling Saddam Hussein's regime the materials used in lethal gas attacks on Kurdish villages in the 1980s.

And while we're on the topic, take a look at this.

The White House should pump up the volume and showcase these papers. Even now, proof that Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction and sponsored terrorist butchers, including Osama bin Laden, will demonstrate the necessity of Operation Iraqi Freedom.

And while we're on the subject of bias...

2005-12-23T10:10:00.000-06:00

Brittney over at Nashville is Talking makes it no secret that she is a lefty. However, Bill Hobbs jumps in and asks a good question: "Does a salaried blogger working for a news organization have an obligation to at least try to appear fair?"

Interesting debate.

Another brick in the wall

2005-12-23T09:53:00.000-06:00

This one has been running on AP this week and it shows the arrogance of our southern neighbor and its people:

MEXICO CITY - The Mexican government, angered by a U.S. proposal to extend a wall along the border to keep out migrants, pledged Tuesday to block the plan and organize an international campaign against it.

Really? And how are you going to do that?

Fernando Robledo, 42, of the western state of Zacatecas, says the proposals could stem migration and disrupt families by breaking cross-border ties.

Gee, Fernando....that's the whole point.

"It isn't just a feeling of rejection. It's against what we see as part of our life, our culture, our territory."

Your what?

By the way, this is how Mexico deals with illegal "migrants" on its southern border.

Stop the spam

2005-12-23T09:46:00.000-06:00

While taking a long break from blogging, I've noticed that spam is now finding its way into the comments of many sites, including this one. In fact, one of my posts from last year that brought this blog some attention is filled with it. Does anyone have a recommendation of how to deal with this crap?

UPDATE: Never mind, I figured it out. That's what I get for being away from blogging so long...

Would you like some cheese with your whine?

2005-12-23T09:16:00.000-06:00

Some journalists in the MSM let their pet peeves and biases appear in their copy, but this one from ABC really getting into the territory of pathetic belly-aching:

After a four-day overseas trip that took him to four countries in the Middle East, Vice President Dick Cheney really wanted to get his iPod charged for that long return flight to Washington. Since it is his plane, the vice president's iPod took priority and was plugged into one of the only working power outlets on Air Force Two, frustrating reporters who were trying to file stories.

Having been on the road on several occasions covering various things, I can tell you, the very first thing you do before you leave is make sure you have charged batteries for emergencies!

Oh, and make sure you do your charging overnight in the hotel room, instead of waiting until you are in a place with limited power availability.

So, instead of filing whatever story they were going to submit in the first place, they file this whining screed instead...Cheney returns from the Middle East and all we hear from the MSM is about the tunes on the VP's iPod.

Oh, and their whining... We get that too.

New Year's Resolution

2005-12-23T09:15:00.000-06:00

Fire up the blog after a year.....

Hi guys!

Lining up to die for a stupid cause

2004-11-28T13:23:00.000-06:00

Let's see...you can choose between a stupid, meanless death, a stupid, meanless death or a stupid, meanless death. Sign here.

Glad I don't live in England

2004-11-28T10:23:00.000-06:00

Here's one reason that I'm going to avoid the U.K.

And here's another .

Uh, oh...

2004-11-28T09:52:00.000-06:00

This is not good news:

Aviation Week & Space Technology reports in its November 29 issue that U. S. intelligence analysts are concerned about the planned launch from Iran, by early 2005, of an Iranian built satellite on an upgraded version of Tehran's largest ballistic missile, the Shahab-3.
The preparations for and launch of one or more Iranian satellite "is something that needs to be watched closely," a U. S. government missile analyst familiar with Iranian capabilities told AW&ST.

Such an "Iranian Sputnik" would elevate the stature of the Iran in the Middle East.

Tehran's satellite launch plans could also be a "Trojan Horse" to further advance ballistic missile or nuclear warhead related technologies, sources told the magazine. Some of the materials and micro-electronic technologies necessary for Iranian satellite design could also be important for the development of tiny high quality components needed to produce small nuclear weapons, AW&ST reports.

This isn't either:

Iranian sources said the Islamic leadership in Teheran assessed that the Saudi kingdom has acquired access to nuclear weapons and technology. The sources said Saudi Arabia signed an agreement in 2003 with Pakistan for the latter to help the Arab kingdom in both the deployment of nuclear weapons and missile delivery systems.
A leading Iranian scientist and member of the nation's nuclear community has reported that Saudi Arabia joined the world's nuclear club. Teheran University Professor Abu Mohammad Asgarkhani said in an address on Nov. 9 that Iran required a nuclear weapon in wake of the acquisition of atomic bombs by neighboring Pakistan and Saudi Arabia.

Oil for Fraud update

2004-11-26T17:12:00.000-06:00

This has not been getting that much attention lately, but it may soon change:

Oil-for-food has become the biggest financial scandal in the UN's history. Senior officials are under intense scrutiny. The UN has been known for decades to play host to pockets of patronage and cronyism, but never before has it been linked to fraud on this scale.

Benon Sevan, the director of the oil-for-food program, continues to deny he profited from oil vouchers allocated in his name. He, like others, will be awaiting anxiously an interim report, expected by January, from a UN-appointed inquiry.

It's bad enough for UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan that somebody he appointed to a position of trust may be implicated. But what has most besmirched the UN's reputation is the accusation it was linked organically to a multibillion-dollar scam set up to sustain the Iraqi dictator in power.

The question is where this sordid money trail might lead - not just at the UN, but in the government and business elites of leading powers on the Security Council.

Where indeed:

One of the next big chapters in the United Nations oil-for-food scandal will involve the family of the secretary-general, Kofi Annan, whose son turns out to have been receiving payments as recently as early this year from a key contractor in the oil-for-food program.

The secretary-general's son, Kojo Annan, was previously reported to have worked for a Swiss-based company called Cotecna Inspection Services SA, which from 1998-2003 held a lucrative contract with the U.N. to monitor goods arriving in Saddam Hussein's Iraq under the oil-for-food program. But investigators are now looking into new information suggesting that the younger Annan received far more money over a much longer period, even after his compensation from Cotecna had reportedly ended.

The importance of this story involves not only undisclosed conflicts of interest, but the question of the role of the secretary-general himself, at a time when talk is starting to be heard around the U.N. that it is time for him to resign, and the staff labor union is in open rebellion against "senior management."

"What other bombshells are out there being hidden from the public and U.N. member governments?" asked an investigator on Rep. Henry Hyde's International Relations Committee, which has held hearings on oil-for-food.

Well lookie here...

2004-11-25T09:00:00.000-06:00

Look what they found in a terrorist hideout:

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A laboratory for the manufacture of chemical weapons has been found in Falluja after a U.S. offensive to drive out guerrillas who had controlled the Iraqi city, Minister of State Kassim Daoud says.

"Soldiers from the Iraqi National Guard found a chemical laboratory that was used to prepare deadly explosives and poisons," Daoud told a news conference on Thursday. "They also found in the lab booklets and instructions on how to make bombs and poisons. They even talked about the production of anthrax."

Stay tuned.

About those forgeries, Dan...

2004-11-24T15:57:00.000-06:00

It seem that a problem over forged documents for Mr. Rather wasn't just in 2004.

Why are we not surprised that this happened in California

2004-11-24T15:51:00.000-06:00

I guess something like this was only a matter of time:

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A California teacher has been barred by his school from giving students documents from American history that refer to God -- including the Declaration of Independence.

Steven Williams, a fifth-grade teacher at Stevens Creek School in the San Francisco Bay area suburb of Cupertino, sued for discrimination on Monday, claiming he had been singled out for censorship by principal Patricia Vidmar because he is a Christian.

"It's a fact of American history that our founders were religious men, and to hide this fact from young fifth-graders in the name of political correctness is outrageous and shameful," said Williams' attorney, Terry Thompson.

"Williams wants to teach his students the true history of our country," he said. "There is nothing in the Establishment Clause (of the U.S. Constitution) that prohibits a teacher from showing students the Declaration of Independence."

What the...

2004-11-21T14:53:00.000-06:00

There are some congressional staffers who need to be removed. Pronto. This is why:

“WASHINGTON (AP) -- Congress passed legislation Saturday giving two committee chairman and their assistants access to income tax returns without regard to privacy protections, but not before red-faced Republicans said the measure was a mistake and would be swiftly repealed.”

Why we shoot "injured" terrorists

2004-11-21T14:46:00.000-06:00

This will not get wide reporting in the MSM:

In Fallujah, where U.S. Marines and soldiers are still battling pockets of resistance, insurgents waved a white flag of surrender before opening fire on U.S. troops and causing casualties, Marine spokesman 1st Lt. Lyle Gilbert said Saturday without elaborating.

Why France is not our friend

2004-11-21T14:33:00.000-06:00

Just some clips from GeoPoliticalReview:

...the following two situations are incredibly concerning regarding France's role as an ally in the worldwide War on Terror. The first example comes from the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) which reveals that France has become an outpost for the Iraqi resistance:...

The second development is that France has approved a Hezbollah-linked TV channel to broadcast within the European Union which is all but guaranteed to increase the already large amount of anti-Semitic propaganda in France and Europe:...
The fact that a terrorist-linked media network is permitted to broadcast in France might explain the revelation that three Frenchmen were recently killed fighting with insurgents against US-led troops in Iraq. We should also note that the Fox News channel is not allowed to broadcast in France. ...

Sensing the growing French hostility towards the United States, and especially their Iraq venture, Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage stated yesterday that Chriac is "fearful that we'll be successful…since he's made the decision not to be involved in Iraq." ...
Oh, and we did not even have time to discuss Chirac's assertion that only the United Nations should decide wars or his reiteration that the Iraq war was illegal. It really has been a busy week.

Read the whole thing. Meanwhile. take a look at this video of the French gunning down unarmed civilians in the Ivory Coast (Link via Instapundit.)

A Must Read

2004-11-17T21:08:00.000-06:00

A Marine Writes Home

This is going to be good

2004-11-17T20:56:00.000-06:00

I don't even know where to start:

In a cross-cultural clash of family values, Muslim parents at a downtown school want the Toronto District School Board to exclude their children from discussions of same-sex families.

But at a meeting last night, board officials refused to exclude Muslim students at Market Lane Public School from what the board calls "anti-homophobia education."

To allow some students to be removed from those discussions would violate the rights of children of same-sex parents, board officials said.

While the board has a policy to consider accommodation based on religious rights, "religious beliefs do not trump human rights," said Patricia Hayes, a rights expert with the school board.

About 150 parents packed a gym at the St. Lawrence Community Centre last night, but some Muslim parents leaving the meeting said they felt their religious beliefs were receiving less respect than homosexual families.

What if Al-Qaida declared war on the ACLU? Pass the popcorn.

This looks familiar...

2004-11-16T18:05:00.000-06:00

Newsmax is running a story about how Hillary Rodham Clinton is selling outrageously high priced t-shirts with the following design:

But, as I've already said...that type of design remind me of....

Yep...that's the one.

Justified

2004-11-16T16:28:00.000-06:00

It's amazing how the MSM is getting their panties in a knot over this video of a Marine sending a terrorist to Allah, especially since that the Arab media seems to have no problem with airing beheadings of helpless hostages on a regular basis. Of course, an important part gets buried at the bottom of the article:

Sites reported that a Marine in the same unit had been killed a day earlier when he tended to the booby-trapped dead body of an insurgent.

Which would give the soldier all the justification he needed to suspect that the terrorist would pull the same thing. More on this line of thinking is here:

There's nothing to suggest that the enemy combatant had previously surrendered, and "hors de combat" is basically a judgment call. If there's reason to suspect he was faking, then the safest thing to do is shoot him some more--especially given the fact that the enemy in Falluja has demonstrated that they are perfectly happy faking a surrender in order to kill Americans.

Besides, they shouldn't prosecute the Marine, they should give him a medal...just like they did for John Kerry for doing the same thing.

Clean up time at the Agency

2004-11-14T10:29:00.000-06:00

It would appear that Porter Goss is wasting no time in cleaning house over at the C.I.A. How do we know this? Because the Washington Post crying like a little girl with a skinned knee:

Within the past month, four former deputy directors of operations have tried to offer CIA Director Porter J. Goss advice about changing the clandestine service without setting off a rebellion, but Goss has declined to speak to any of them, said former CIA officials aware of the communications.
The four senior officials represent nearly two decades of experience leading the Directorate of Operations under both Republican and Democratic presidents. The officials were dismayed by the reaction and were concerned that Goss has isolated himself from the agency's senior staff, said former clandestine service officers aware of the offers.

Also, Sen. John McCain said the following this morning on ABC's This Week:

"This is a dysfunctional agency and in some ways a rogue agency. This is the agency that gave the president of the United States - when he asked for information about weapons of mass destruction - said, 'It's a slam dunk.'"
The Arizona Republican accused disloyal elements within the CIA of working to undermine President Bush, complaining that they had engaged in "leaking information that could be damaging to the president prior to the election - using a compliant media, if I may say so."

Goss must be doing what is badly needed at CIA because the MSM is screaming mad about it. There goes all those unidentified sources and books by nameless former agents slamming the president.

Next step: clean out the dead wood at Foggy Bottom.

More news from the border

2004-11-14T09:52:00.000-06:00

This gives me the willies:

Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge met publicly with top Mexican officials last week to discuss border security and smuggling rings that could be used to slip al-Qaeda terrorists into the country. Weeks prior to Ridge's lightning visit, U.S. and Mexican intelligence conferred about reports from several al-Qaeda detainees indicating the potential use of Mexico as a staging area "to acquire end-stage chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear material." U.S. officials have begun to keep a closer eye on heavy-truck traffic across the border. The Mexicans will also focus on flight schools and aviation facilities on their side of the frontier. And another episode has some senior U.S. officials worried: the theft of a crop-duster aircraft south of San Diego, apparently by three men from southern Mexico who assaulted a watchman and then flew off in a southerly direction. Though the theft's connection to terrorism remains unclear, a senior U.S. law-enforcement official notes that crop dusters can be used to disperse toxic substances. The plane, stolen at night two weeks ago, has not been recovered.

Cream rises to the top...again

2004-11-14T08:22:00.000-06:00

This is too cool:

Eric Clapton has astounded the music world by finally agreeing to reform Cream, rock's first supergroup, 36 years after they split up at the height of their worldwide fame.

Can't wait...but it makes me feel so old...

Some good news

2004-11-14T08:18:00.000-06:00

This puts a smile on my face:

From Joe Trippi: Expect a big wave of Democratic retirements from Congress in the next couple of years, as veterans who've been holding on in hopes of regaining majority power give up. Many of these Democrats have been using their personal popularity (and powers of incumbency) to win in Republican areas. When they leave, their seats will flip. The GOPs could attain 60 votes in the Senate and maybe 30 more seats in the House. Thank you, Rep. Matsui!

A big smile.

The True Left

2004-11-14T07:59:00.000-06:00

This guy nails it...and finds a new use for the Dead Kennedys.

Ho, ho, ho...

2004-11-13T15:23:00.000-06:00

I'm staying out of England until this sort of thing stops:

BOSSES at the Eden Project tourist attraction have banned the word Christmas.
They do not want any mention of what they call the C-Word because they are worried it will offend followers of other faiths.
Management have renamed Christmas “Time of Gifts” — claiming this will appeal to everyone at the domed eco project in Cornwall which gets millions of pounds in funding each year from taxpayers.
A gift shop at the site has been re-named the Great Gift Grotto.
Staff have been told to stop visitors saying Christmas.

A Blue State story

2004-11-13T15:11:00.000-06:00

This is probably why Chicago has such stringent gun-control laws:

Adrienne Leonard was traveling overseas last year on a missionary trip when she got a frantic phone call from her mother: The city had taken Leonard's car.

Booted and towed from in front of her South Side bungalow, her green 2001 Kia Sephia was gone.

Gone for good, it turned out.

The city demanded more than $1,000 for three parking tickets, and towing and storage fees.

Leonard was $300 short.

The city gave her 15 days to get the money, but she ran out of time.

The car became the city's -- an "involuntary surrender," the city calls it.

In January, the city sold the Kia to a politically connected towing firm that has an exclusive contract on city business.

How much money did the city get for the car?

Just $125.54.

That's right. The city sold a 3-year-old car for $125.54.

Leonard, 47, didn't get a dime from the sale and lost all the equity in her car.

She didn't even get a dime's credit toward those tickets, towing and storage fees. She's still on the hook for those.

And she still owes $13,800 for the Kia -- a car she no longer owns.

"The city stole my car," Leonard said, tears building in her eyes, as she learned from reporters what happened to her Kia. "I was robbed.''

A Blue state story.

Whine, whine, whine

2004-11-13T08:31:00.000-06:00

This great picture of one of our brave men taking down scum in Iraq (Pulitzer materal, by the way) is producing the all too typical bitching and moaning from those who are always bitching and moaning:

How many kids trying to emulate heroic U.S. soldiers in Iraq will choose to slowly commit suicide as a direct result of your ill-conceived Marlboro pandering?

Be a responsible part of the community instead of simply leeching off it 25 cents at a time.
How much did Phillip Morris pay for the front cover advertisement?
Thank you for continuing to encourage the development of cancer. Mark Leininger
Manhattan
Your cover is a disgrace.
War is not a video game.
Actual people are losing their lives.
At least 10 U.S. soldiers died early in this battle, not to mention many innocent Iraqi civilians who hadn't left the area.
This man is not a cartoon character. He is a real man who has just been through some of the most trying moments of his life — moments that will most likely haunt him forever.
Yet, there you are exploiting him and promoting cigarettes.
It's disgusting. John Keenan
Manhattan

Scary map

2004-11-13T08:21:00.000-06:00

Things like this do not let me sleep very well at night.

Who said this?

2004-11-13T08:09:00.000-06:00

Ugly quotes...and then the source. I'm not surprised. Hat tip to Instapundit.

Rorschach Movie Review

2004-11-12T17:52:00.000-06:00

You know, for some people, those old ink blot tests that the shrink gives you can reveal a lot. Seems to me that a certain writer at the New York Times could use some time on the couch after reading this movie review of The Polar Express:

Tots surely won't recognize that Santa's big entrance in front of the throngs of frenzied elves and awe-struck children directly evokes, however unconsciously, one of Hitler's Nuremberg rally entrances in Leni Riefenstahl's "Triumph of the Will." But their parents may marvel that when Santa's big red sack of toys is hoisted from factory floor to sleigh it resembles nothing so much as an airborne scrotum.

We don't see these things...but it would appear that this reviewer does. For God's sake, it's just a kids movie!

Dr. Harlin screws the pooch...again

2004-11-12T14:11:00.000-06:00

Getting to a bit of local news here...the notorious Dr. Charles Harlin, whose controversial tenure as Tennessee Medical Examiner has plagued this state for years, has caused a mother to go through a living hell. This was posted on the AP State Wire a short time ago. It is long past time that Tennessee got themselves a new medical examiner. I doubt we're going to see any episodes of CSI: Nashville aired on CBS anytime soon.

Overdose murder charge dropped against mom of disabled teen

WINCHESTER (AP) — Saying the autopsy report was wrong, a prosecutor Friday dismissed a murder charge against a mother accused of killing her severely disabled with an overdose of medication.

District Attorney Mike Taylor told a judge that new tests showed 15-year-old Ashley Mignano, who had cerebral palsy, did not die July 4 from a fatal dose of phenobarbital. The teenager’s mother, Margaret Mignano, had been arrested in August and spent a week in jail before she was freed on $200,000 bond.

The autopsy report was signed by Dr. Charles Harlan of Nashville, a forensic pathologist who is defending his medical license against state charges of misdiagnosing causes of death in other cases and destroying evidence in criminal investigations.

Mignano’s attorney, Bob Peters, said he and Taylor were in court for an unrelated case when the prosecutor surprised him by telling a judge that “follow-up testing did not indicate a lethal dose” of the drug, used to control the girl’s seizures.

Neither the prosecutor nor the lead investigator in the case immediately returned a call seeking comment, but a court clerk confirmed that Taylor said the murder charge was dropped.

Harlan’s report included outside lab tests showing the teen had lethal levels of the barbiturate in her system. The defense argued that Mignano, who moved her family from Scotch Plains, N.J., about a week before the death, followed doctors’ orders in using the drug.

Harlan, who continues to practice while fighting the state charges, declined to comment Friday about the Mignano case. A woman who answered the phone at his office referred questions to the prosecutor.

“We have passed on all the retesting and re-retesting to the district attorney general,” the woman said she was instructed to tell reporters.

Be afraid

2004-11-12T06:14:00.000-06:00

Not much to say about this, except that I hope that this is just a few lone nuts that don't have the stones to carry this kind of thing to it's conclusion. It makes me nervous. Very nervous.

Michael Medved did an entire show on these swine yesterday. Archived here.

And in other related news...

Ratings war?

2004-11-11T06:26:00.000-06:00

Arrogance Means Having to Say You're Sorry

UPDATE: Follow up here.

You have got to be kidding me...

2004-11-11T06:18:00.000-06:00

Uh...it was just an election, dude...and your guy lost:

VINCENT D'Onofrio, the star of "Law & Order: Criminal Intent," passed out while shooting the hit TV series yesterday morning — prompting insiders to gossip that the actor is "losing it."
"Ever since John Kerry lost the election, [D'Onofrio] has lost his [bleep,]" said our on-set insider.
"He has been getting into fistfights with people, and when he passed out today, we all thought he was faking it. But then he insisted they call 911."

NOW, he's dead, Jim...

2004-11-10T23:16:00.000-06:00

It's official. The head Palestinian terrorist is dead.

About that unity thing...

2004-11-10T11:24:00.000-06:00

Hardly a week has past since the election and guess what?

Kerry denounces Ashcroft, says administration will be better without him

At least one lawmaker seems happy to see John Ashcroft resign -- John Kerry.
The former presidential candidate has issued a statement calling the attorney general "one of the most divisive faces in this administration."

This must be part of the healing he talked about. The "working together" idea, right?

Are they nuts?

2004-11-10T09:15:00.000-06:00

Coming from the south as I am, and being a decendent of Confederate veterans that fell at Shiloh, I find this kind of talk crazy and dangerous:

STUNG BY DEFEAT, puzzled and adrift, Democrats spent much of the past week turning to history, looking back at the great many-colored tapestry of the American past, in order to find where we--the people--find ourselves, now that George W. Bush has been reelected. And after consulting textbooks, and opening biographical dictionaries, and talking to some of the most renowned figures in the American academy, they have settled on an answer: America is on the brink of civil war.

"Not since the Civil War," Columbia University professor and noted art critic Simon Schama wrote in the Manchester Guardian on Sunday, "has the fault line between [America's] two halves been so glaringly clear, nor the chasm between its two cultures so starkly unbridgeable."
Princeton University history professor Sean Wilentz agrees. He told Dean Murphy in Sunday's New York Times that there are only "two instances in history" when the American electorate has been so divided. "They are kind of scary examples," Wilentz said. "One is 1860, and we know what happened after that one . . ."

Yeah...the Union came through and burned everything to the ground. Looted, murdered and pilaged. Neighbors turned against neighbor. Right here in my backyard.

Tolerance and Diversity

2004-11-10T08:59:00.000-06:00

Looks like trouble is brewing on campus in the city known worldwide for its tolerance and diversity:

Over 300 Arab student protesters surrounded the table of the local College Republican Club at San Francisco State University, prompting 13 campus police officers to protect the political organization's property and volunteers.
According to columnist Lee Kaplan writing in FrontPage Magazine, the protesters "Palestinian, Arab, Muslim and radical leftist students" surrounded the outdoor table the morning after President Bush's re-election victory, when the Republican activists had hoped to recruit more members.
----
Two days earlier, Arab students confronted members of the Republican club who were distributing Bush-Cheney flyers on campus, with one woman reportedly slapping one of the conservative students. The columnist says the Republicans were accused of the "murder of Palestinian babies" due to their support for Bush.

Wrote Kaplan:

"Lee Wolf, another College Republicans member, described one of the women on Monday as shouting, 'The only way we can defeat you is to kill as many as possible! I'd rather die a suicide bomber's death than to call myself an American!' He continued, 'In my opinion, these were terrorist threats.'"

According to the report, the Arab protesters have called for the Republican club to be banned from campus. Flyers were even distributed at the university that said: "Don't Let the College Republicans Commit Racism and Bigotry Against Arab Women."

Meanwhile, down at the border

2004-11-10T07:24:00.000-06:00

While our government foolishly sucks up to Mexico by tempting the crooked government south of the border with new plans to overhaul immigration rules, other visitors are seeping through:

As our cameras had captured this day, hundreds of illegal entrants sneak into Arizona from Mexico.

Items left behind, like a Muslim prayer rug and a diary written in Arabic have led some to believe not all crossers are from Central and South America.

In our original story.sources. including a former Border Patrol supervisor, say people from terrorist-related countries are crossing the border at will.

This agent says it's certainly happened, describing one incident with a detainee near Naco, Arizona.

"So they took him back to the Naco station for further investigating there, and when they entered his fingerprints into the AFIS database, which is maintained by the FBI, several minutes later they received a phone call from someone on the other end -- I'm not sure who it was."

"and they stated, whoever is working on this particular terminal, they need to separate that gentleman right away. He was later determined to be from Pakistan. And he had affiliations with a terrorist group. It wasn't al-Qaida, but it was another terrorist group and this gentleman was wanted out of France for trafficking in heroin."

Babs' Jefferson quote: Anti-semintic?

2004-11-09T09:25:00.000-06:00

Babs has finally spoken out about last week's election results on website, however a Freeper took it upon his or herself to actually look up the context of the Thomas Jefferson quote she and others on the left are using:

Jefferson is writing about calls for secession over political disputes with the New England Federalists (he’s against it). But, what is so interesting, and what the liberal bloggers ignored, are the sentences preceding the one quoted. Here they are unexpunged:

“Seeing, therefore, that an association of men who will not quarrel with one another is a thing which never yet existed, from the greatest confederacy of nations down to a town meeting or a vestry, seeing that we must have somebody to quarrel with, I had rather keep our New England associates for that purpose than to see our bickerings transferred to others. They are circumscribed within such narrow limits, and their population so full, that their numbers will ever be the minority, and they are marked, like the Jews, with such a peculiarity of character as to constitute from that circumstance the natural division of our parties. A little patience, and we shall see the reign of witches pass over, their spells dissolve, and the people, recovering their true sight, restore their government to it's true principles. It is true that in the mean time we are suffering deeply in spirit, and incurring the horrors of a war & long oppressions of enormous public debt.”

So, paraphrasing, the Federalists are “witches,” but they’re also “Jews” and therefore inherently suspect. This is hardly one of Jefferson’s most insightful moments.

Ooops.

Hitting the couch

2004-11-09T08:52:00.000-06:00

I suppose that this was inevitable:

More than a dozen traumatized John Kerry supporters have sought and received therapy from a licensed Florida psychologist since their candidate lost to President Bush, the Boca Raton News learned Monday.
Boca Raton trauma specialist Douglas Schooler said he has treated 15 clients and friends with intense hypnotherapy since the Democratic nominee conceded last Wednesday.
I had one friend tell me hes never been so depressed and angry in his life, Schooler said. I observed patients threatening to leave the country or staring listlessly into space. They were emotionally paralyzed, shocked and devastated.
Schoolers disclosure comes after the weekend discovery of a Kerry volunteers corpse at Ground Zero in New York City. Georgia resident Andrew Veal, 25, reportedly killed himself with a shotgun blast to the head due to Kerrys loss and a girlfriend problem.

I'm only worried about those who want to take out their problems on other people aside from themselves. And you just know its coming sometime down the pike. They should take this advice.

Finally...or maybe not

2004-11-09T08:36:00.000-06:00

He's dead, Jim.

Maybe this time they mean it. Must have found the money...

...or maybe not.

Verbal Bitch Slap of the Left

2004-11-08T15:58:00.000-06:00

And we are supposed to "reach out" to these people?

Feel the hate

2004-11-08T15:39:00.000-06:00

After reading this, it looks like things are going to get worse between the liberals and conservatives before they get better.

We should let you rot. We should secede and leave you to fend for yourselves. Then you will see firsthand just how dependent you are. We are sick of fighting for you by fighting against you. Perhaps, when you see how dreary your lives have become without us, you will finally develop the spine to fight for your basic, human rights. And then we will gladly confront the plutocracy alongside you. We need your help to defeat the Blue Republicans, who, I assure you, are just as decadent as we are, though often richer.

Beyond belief...even for the New York Times

2004-11-08T15:01:00.000-06:00

I don't read the Times, unless I have to...so I missed this one. LGF has the details:

What the hell is going on at the New York Times?

I expect the bias. I expect Paul Krugman’s distorted op-eds, and Maureen Dowd’s incoherent babbling. I expect the pro-Palestinian, anti-American articles that flow from the Old Grey Lady in a constant stream.

What I don’t expect to find is a thinly veiled cry for an “act of God” to remove President Bush from office—in an article that describes previous assassinations of US presidents as “acts of God.”

Waiting for the USSS to do their job....meanwhile here's more at Powerline with Democrats Ponder Alternatives: Vote Suppression, Secession and Assassination.

Mainstream Media Bias? Naw!

2004-11-07T10:45:00.000-06:00

This large piece in the latest Newsweek points out a lot of what we already knew: That the MSM hid a lot of negative stuff on John Kerry.

Not an honorable death

2004-11-07T10:35:00.000-06:00

Political insprired suppuku. Not recommended.

Best county by county map of election

2004-11-07T10:31:00.000-06:00

Here's an eye opener. Much better than the USA Today map. Look at all the dead people voting in Chicago.

Unbelievable

2004-11-07T10:24:00.000-06:00

"Thou Shalt Not Kill" = racist

In the Netherlands, artist Chris Ripke reacted to the murder on Theo Van Gogh by an islamic fundamentalist by painting a mural with the text "Gij zult niet doden" ("Thou Shalt Not Kill"), one of the ten commandments of the Christian religion.

But because the head of the nearby mosque complained to the police that this was 'offensive' and 'racist', the cops came and sent in city workers to sandblast the mural. A local journalist, Wim Nottroth, who wanted to protest against this by standing in front of the mural was arrested.

Eating their own

2004-11-07T10:19:00.000-06:00

Attacked by Catwoman. There are so many reasons that this is funny. Now that the election is over, it appears they're turning on each other.

Meeoooow.

Condescension and Hostility...get a clue

2004-11-07T10:16:00.000-06:00

From the Washington Post:

Republicans find themselves on the majority's side of the cultural divide because they don't display the Democrats' condescension and hostility to the moral sentiments and concerns of most Americans.

The Culture of Smug Assumption

2004-11-06T09:35:00.000-06:00

Why do we have to go to a Canadian paper to read this kind of wisdom. He hits the nail on the head with this one:

The clever people at the mainstream television networks, the stylish types in New York and Los Angeles, the icons of glamour and glitz all said that John Kerry was the only choice for a person with any intelligence. As for those ignorant evangelicals, those stupid church-going Catholics, those family-values fools, those dumb redneck hicks, they weren't real Americans.
Then, in the smiling twilight of the new political morning, the unwashed told their betters to shove it.

Pictures from the Other Side

2004-11-04T21:45:00.000-06:00

Wonderful people. They could be your neighbors. Content warning for those with a problem with bad language.

Good advice for Democrats..if they'll listen

2004-11-04T17:24:00.000-06:00

Glenn Reynolds has some wisdom for the Democrats following their defeat this week...if they'll accept it:

If you think that much of America is like a foreign country, you're not likely to win many elections -- because it's hard to get foreigners to vote for you. Calling the voters dumb probably doesn't do much to win people over, either. It always strikes me that so many people who are quick to note the importance of understanding the differences in perception between nations, or races, or sexual preferences, and to try to bridge those gaps, are so unwilling to do the same thing where people from elsewhere in their own country are concerned. But Democrats must do better, or become a regional party. Because contempt doesn't win a lot of votes.

I'll have to agree with Glenn on this point. Today, I had lunch with a group of legal aid attorneys who are trying to get more of those in their profession to donate more time to giving the poor pro bono legal help. The head of the local Legal Aid office also did a ton of MoveOn work as well. (I bit my tongue and kept my leanings to myself, as a good journalist should.) Of course, the topic of the election came up and I pointed out the map that's further down on the page that shows where the red and blue votes were concentrated. When I said that the Kerry votes were centered around the areas of the west and east coast, plus other regions, one black lawyer practically spat out her hatred and contempt for those who voted for Bush, calling them uneducated, religious crazies...among other things. "You see, the intellectuals, the educated in the cities and the universities all voted for Kerry, while out here in the boonies..."

In fact, her comments and others I have heard along these lines since Tuesday sounded a lot like this fellow:

"Take the issue of elections, for instance. What do you think of a voting system like the American one that gives a physician, an intellectual, an astronaut, an intelligent person and the head of the family, a vote that has the same weight as the vote of an ignorant, a fool, an idiot, an imbecile, a hippy, a bum, an unemployed man, who has no diploma, culture, or brains. What is this?!"

Ladies and gentlemen, the wisdom of Saudi cleric Saleh Al-Munajid.

And now, waiting in the wings...

2004-11-04T17:09:00.000-06:00

As soon as the election was decided the other night, and I mean within minutes of it, guess what pops up on the wires...yep:

NEW YORK -- The outcome of Tuesday's presidential election could well determine whether Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton will have a chance to personally return her family to the White House. A victory by President Bush could establish New York's junior senator as the front-runner for the 2008 Democratic nomination for president. A win by Democrat John Kerry could put off any run for the White House by the former first lady for at least eight years, and maybe forever.

You know that certain people in the media are waiting in orgasmic expectation, like rock and roll groupies backstage, to get a piece of this action. Some are printing it as a foregone conclusion:

Hillary Clinton to become the next US president

11/04/2004 12:06

Kerry's loss has opened up the way to the White House for Hillary Clinton

American presidential elections are officially over. In the meantime, British bookmakers are already starting to accept bets for the next US leader. According to them, Hillary Rodham Clinton appears to be the most prominent candidate for the post.

The world's biggest bookmaker company Ladbrokes has already begun accepting bets for the US" former first lady in a five to one ratio. The William Hill Company considers Hillary's chances for victory as six to one, reports RIA "Novosti."

Neither Ladbrokes nor William Hill proved to be wrong. Both of them placed their bets of George Bush in yesterday's presidential elections in the US.

You will also note that this article is from Pravda...so take that as you will.

Lt. Bart Simpson, report to debriefing

2004-11-04T16:59:00.000-06:00

There are no doubt, thousands of kids across the country who have dreamed of doing this:

LITTLE EGG HARBOR, N.J. -- A National Guard F-16 fighter jet on a nighttime training mission Wednesday fired 25 rounds of ammunition that tore through an intermediate school. No one was injured.

Best comment of the day is from FR:

Pilot shaking fist: "NEVER AMOUNT TO ANYTHING, HUH?"

Pilot should lose his wings for this, though.

Not very nice

2004-11-04T16:56:00.000-06:00

CNN Names Image Files For President Bush: Asshole.jpg; Moron.jpg

No media bias, huh? Instapundit has more.

County by county

2004-11-03T15:00:00.000-06:00

Thanks, John.

2004-11-03T14:49:00.000-06:00

Glad to see that Kerry saw the writing on the wall and chose not to drag the election out like Gore did four years ago. Of course, the numbers this time probably had a lot to do with it. Good to see that one democrat puts the nation ahead of his political career...

Edwards however, sounded like he's already running for 2008. He'll have to get past Hillary first.

Give it up, John

2004-11-03T05:35:00.000-06:00

Candidate	Electoral	States Won	Vote %	Votes
Bush	254	28	51%	58,073,612
Kerry	252	20	48%	54,523,310

98% Precincts Reporting - Wed Nov 3, 6:58 AM ET

IA: Bush, 741,325 Kerry, 725,700 with 99% counted

NM: Bush, 335,311 Kerry, 323,691 with 99% counted

OH: Bush, 2,794,346 Kerry, 2,658,125 with 100% counted

AP/ABC

With Bush leading by 145,000 votes and roughly 190,000 yet to be counted, one top Kerry adviser said the Democrat's chances of winning Ohio, and with it the White House, were difficult at best.

Reuters

BOSTON (Reuters) - Democratic vice presidential nominee John Edwards, signaling that the party still hoped to win the close-fought U.S. election, said early on Wednesday that it would "fight for every vote."

Washington Post

Four years later, it is still a divided country -- perhaps more sullenly than ever -- but as a long election night bled into morning the evidence was clear that it is becoming a more Republican one.
President Bush, his fate for winning a second term still officially uncertain, commanded the popular-vote majority that eluded him in 2000. And in an impressive run of battleground states, he seemed to win validation for a campaign that unabashedly stressed conservative themes and reveled in partisan combat against Democratic nominee John F. Kerry.

On the same night, Republicans expanded their majority in the Senate and had the Democratic leader on the ropes. It seemed likely they would also make gains in the House, as voters in an age of terrorism seemed to let go of their 1990s preference for divided government and gave a narrow but unmistakable mandate for the GOP.

These gains came in the face of what Democrats for months had been touting as important advantages: a party unified early around its nominee, an energized base filled with grievance against the incumbent, unprecedented fundraising and voter mobilization efforts. They came despite some stiff headwinds for Bush, including a steady stream of bad news out of Iraq and a weak record on jobs.

The results are "an indication that we still are clearly a divided nation," said John J. Pitney Jr., a political scientist at California's Claremont McKenna College. But he added that Bush's strong performance in Florida and a clear tilt his way in Ohio, combined with the GOP strength in Congress, means that this rough parity has gained a more "Republican edge."

According to this post at FR:

Based on graphic on front page of USA Today:

Media (USA Today, NYT, CBS, ABC) and others are not only refusing to call Ohio with 100% in and 145,000 margin -- The same thing is happening in New Mexico:

New Mexico With 1% of vote out:

Bush 335,226 = + 11,636 Kerry 323,590 Nader 3,568 ------- Total 662,584 1% of total = 6,624

Bush is ahead 11,600 and only appx 6,600 more votes possible?? If Kerry got them all Bush would still win by 5,000 votes.

Similar deal in Iowa.

As someone else said, they don't want to call ANY remaining state REGARDLESS of the vote because it would remove the possiblity that Kerry could win without Ohio, which is his "reason" for not conceding.

Kerry refusing to concede...sending in the lawyers

2004-11-03T01:34:00.000-06:00

I'm not surprised. He's trying to drag out Ohio. But Bush has got a 3 million vote lead nationwide at this point. I'm crashing. No need to give myself another near stroke.

The map

2004-11-02T18:39:00.000-06:00

Via Yahoo:

Fraud

2004-11-02T17:00:00.000-06:00

Volunteers to seniors: Mark ballot for Kerry

PHILADELPHIA – Volunteers with a grass-roots organization in Philadelphia that purports to "help the elderly and immigrant voters get to the polls and understand the issues" are urging Russian-speaking voters in need of translation, or in a few cases are senile and have little grasp of the issues, to vote for Democrat Sen. John Kerry, and are going into the booths with some of them, WorldNetDaily has learned.

Reports of Democrat Illegalities in Michigan

GOP sources on the scene in Michigan tell HUMAN EVENTS of "unbelievable Democratic illegalities."
According to one source, operatives from the United Auto-Workers union and MoveOn.org are already denying GOP election volunteers access to voter rolls.
Our sources also report that MoveOn.org members are campaigning inside the 100 foot perimeter.

Latest poll numbers

2004-11-02T15:49:00.000-06:00

Via RealClearPolitics:
The Harris Poll (Telephone Poll): Bush 49, Kerry 48, Nader 2
Harris (Online Internet Survey): Kerry 50, Bush 47, Nader 1
CBS: Bush 49, Kerry 47, Nader 1 | Battleground: Bush 50, Kerry 46, Nader <1
Rasmussen: Bush 50.2, Kerry 48.5 | Marist: Kerry 50, Bush 49, Nader 1
TIPP: Bush 50.1, Kerry 48.0, Nader 1.1 | Bush 46.9, Kerry 44.3
Tarrance Group (R) : Bush 51.2, Kerry 47.8, Nader 0.5
Lake Snell Perry & Assoc. (D) : Kerry +0.5 or Kerry +2.1

In Chicago...

2004-11-02T15:40:00.000-06:00

Disenfranchised

All Republicans.