Saturday, January 03, 2004

Tell me again....

Why does the left support the "Palestinians"?

Especially when I see things like this.

JTA reports that many Palestinian homosexuals in Israel adopt the appearance of Jews, wearing Star of David medallions, learning Hebrew, and otherwise blending in with those who respect their human rights. (emphasis mine)

One more reason for me to believe that the Left suffers under a mental defect of some sort. I recall seeing a story much like this months ago. Now, anyone who knows me knows that I don't give a shit what your sexual orientation is. Flat out. Do what you want, and so long as it is A) legal, and B) doesn't effect me, then I could give two hoots and a hollar about it. Only the truly sick people do what the "Palestinians" do to homosexuals. This isn't some sort of disapproval, this is a Fred-Phelps-fucked-in-the-head level of disfunction. And when these people are hunted down and killed for their sexual orientation, where do they go?

Do they go to the UN? No, they've already realised that the UN is worthless.

Do they go to the EU? No, they realise that the EU only loves the PLO.

Do they go to America? No, they realise that Bush is too busy being nice to terrorists like Arafat to take them into consideration.

So where do they go? Where do they go to escape the persecution that they face under the "Palestinian" thugs? They go to Israel. Where they find safety in a country that they have been taught to hate.

There should be no question about who we should support, folks. One country respects the lives of those who would live and let live. The other side preaches hatred, prejudice, and death. In my opinion, Bush has done enough coddling and apeasement of Arafat, and should FINALLY tell Israel "Do what you need to do. We got yer back".

Found via Instapundit.


While over at Random Nuclear Strikes, I saw this little piece.

With the avalanche of horrific news stories about guns over the years, it's no wonder people find it hard to believe that, according to surveys (one I conducted for 2002 for my book, "The Bias Against Guns," and three earlier academic surveys by different researchers published in such journals as the Journal of Criminal Justice) there are about two million defensive gun uses each year; guns are used defensively four times more frequently than they are to commit crimes.

That's the teaser. You get to read the rest. But here are some of the stories that you won't find much of in the national media.

--In February, 2002, the South Bend, Indiana Tribune reported the story of an 11-year-old boy who shot and killed a man holding a box cutter to his grandmother's neck. Trained to use a firearm, the boy killed the assailant in one shot, even though the man was using his grandmother as a shield.

--In May, 2001 in Louisianna, a 12-year-old girl shot and killed her mother's abusive ex-boyfriend after he broke into their home and began choking her mother. The story appeared in the New Orleans Advocate.

--In January, 2001, in Angie, Louisianna, a 13 year-old boy stopped for burglars from entering his home by firing the family's shotgun, wounding one robber and scaring off the other three. The four men were planning on attacking the boy's mother--an 85-pound terminal cancer patient--in order to steal her pain medication.


More Guns, Less Crime. It's not just my motto, it's a book that every politician should be forced to read.


Friday, January 02, 2004



This is for Dumb Yeah, and any other liberals who talk about that great "Liberal Revolution" that the morlocks at Dumbocratic Underground like to yammer about.

Crusader War College would like a word with you.

While you're over there, take a goooooooooood long look at that election map. Stare at all that red. That's my country there, folks. That's the area that we know like the back of our hand. I guarantee that I can head to the hills near my parents house, take some food and water, and you won't see me for months. Is there any liberal stupid enough to believe that they're going to be able to fight me on my turf?

I honestly don't think that the liberals are stupid enough to start any kind of armed revolution. But you never know, I also thought that I would be dead by now, yet here I am.


U.S. factory activity expanded at the fastest pace for 20 years in December, a survey showed Friday, adding evidence that a manufacturing recovery is under way and benefiting from the lower dollar in the form of higher exports.

Every time I see fabulous economic news, it is "the best in 20 years". What was happening in 1983?


There's a lot to this story, and it all is worth a read, but this passage jumped out at me:

In Mexico, legislators expressed frustration about the Mexico City-Los Angeles cancellations on New Year's Eve and New Year's Day, saying that they wanted Mexico's transportation minister to answer questions about the security agreements with the United States and about who would compensate Mexican airlines for any financial losses.

Victor Hugo Islas, a federal legislator from the central Mexican state of Puebla, told the newspaper Cronica: "We do not know for sure the reach of these agreements, but surely someone should compensate the Mexican airlines as well as the passengers who have lost reservations, hotels, business or even jobs over these decisions."
Almost half a million Mexican immigrate illegally into the United States each year, and these Mexican politicians want their airlines to be compensated for two cancelled flights?

British Cancel Another Flight as Allies Query U.S.


Hey Dumb Yeah, does this make you shit your hoplophobic pants?



I went shopping with the girlfriend and Analog Kid today. I saw the mil-spec M1911, and it was a beautiful gun. Just simply beautiful. But something about it didn't seem right. I don't know if it was the way it fit my hand, or the way it sighted in, but instinct told me to not buy it yet. I listen to my instincts, they've served me well. So, I put it down (barely, it was SUCH a nice gun), and told the guys at the shop that I'd be looking around.

Had breakfast with Analog Kid, did some talking, and then the g/f and I headed to a pawn shop that AK had recommended. Got there, did some looking at .22 pistols, and then for some reason I headed down to the very last counter.

There it was. A Rock Island Armory 1911 clone, sitting on the bottom shelf. I asked to see it. I picked it up, and bam, I knew. This was the gun. The g/f, knowing my preference for revolvers, played the Devil's Advocate, asking just about every question there was. But there was no putting it off. This was the gun. I gave it a good lookover. It was a used gun, but not very. A bull barrel, clean, no corrosion. In fact, there was only one scratch on the entire gun. Almost mint.

That's a picture of a Rock Island 1911 up above. I took it to the range tonight and put 100 round through it. I need to do some work on the grip safety, (grip it wrong and you'll get pinched) but it shoots better than I do. I think I have my new carry piece, and the g/f can finally have the .38 all to herself.

And AK, the shop also had 20 round boxes of 30-06 ammo for $7.00. I picked up three boxes, so if you can find a way for Wade's to let us shoot it inside, I can bring the 1903A3 to your birthday shoot. Nothing like lighting off a hand-held cannon to celebrate!

Now all I need to do is get some hollowpoint ammo, and I'm set.


"US Coast Guard shuts down Alaskan oil terminal as security measure"

Yahoo! News

Which makes me wonder what would happen if Radical Islamic caused some pollution. Would the sight of oil-coated seals finally get the Left on board with combatting Al Qaeda & Company?


How the capture of Saddam bought the U.S. some time, but forever.

In its often-simplistic belief in core democratic values in the Middle East, the Bush administration may be closer to the truth than its critics give it credit for. Many Arabs will have seen in Saddam's downfall something personally liberating, even if the subtleties of Middle East academia prepare one for more than the unrefined deduction that Arabs, like most other people, don't appreciate regime goons staring over their shoulders, raping their wives, shooting their husbands, brainwashing their children or razing their villages.

Yet it is precisely by reaffirming such core liberal values, by restating its belief in the dictum "live and let live," that the US will emerge successfully from its stumbling Iraqi entanglement. Saddam's capture bought the US valuable time, and his trial will surely cast light on what a service the Bush administration did when it ended the long Baathist nightmare. However, this time must be put to good use as the US lays the groundwork for a truly independent, open and representative Iraq.
Reason Online


This is outdated.



Yet still topical.

PittsburghLIVE.com


What the eff is going on here?

"British Airways canceled a London-to-Washington flight on Friday, the third time in three days that the flight was disrupted on security advice from the British government. Also, an Air France plane from New York to Paris made an emergency stop in Canada because of security concerns. "
Yahoo! News - British Airways Cancels Flight to D.C.

I cannot find any coverage regarding what it is that may be happening here. Has anyone else?


The Kallinis have found a survey of military opinions that is enlightening.

Thursday, January 01, 2004

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

I hope you all had a Happy New Year, even our trolls. I myself had a great night at a friends house, eating damn good food and watching movies. I was the driver for the night, so I stayed sober. The food made up for that. I know that some people mock fondu as a 70's affliction that's outlived it's usefull life, but when you have a fondu made of blue cheese, brie, and white wine.... Add in marinated and sauted beef, chicken, pork, and mushrooms..... man alive, that was some good eating! And the chocolate. Oh yes, the chocolate, my friends, chocolate is god's own way of telling us that he loves us. Dark, bittersweet chocolate, mixed with just a tad of supersweet milk chocolate, and melted down so that you could dip fruits and other desert treats into it. I think I gained five pounds just from last night.

Anyways, today is for relaxation, cleaning the house a bit, and taking the dog to the local dog park so I can run her ragged with a tennis ball. Tomorrow I go down to Federal Way with Analog Kid and check out an M1911 that I may buy. I've already seen a sweet, damn-near brand new .38 revolver (a Lady Smith) that's a possibility. Posting might be a little light this weekend, but I'll try to at least get on once a day.

I hope the new year brings joy for all of my readers.

Wednesday, December 31, 2003



Telegraph | Opinion | Only stupid white men would believe Michael Moore


Donald Sensing shares Raging Dave's affection for the M9.

While I am at it, Happy New Year everybody!


Top 20 Nude Scenes, Year 2003
And now for something completely different

PUPPY!



Yep, that's my Christmas puppy. Half Australian Shepherd and half Pit Bull. She's a handfull, but she's a sweet dog.

You know, when it comes to humans I'm a cynical bastard. But get me around animals and I'm putty. All of our animals have been rescues or adoptions; One bird, two ferrets, two cats, and now a dog. Maybe I need to open up my own zoo.


John Hawkins does his usual diligent work.

Seen on Instapundit

Also: Whiners of the year


I got an email from the people at FUH2 because someone emailed them asking if they could use my haiku on their web site. I am impressed with myself. Yesterday we heard that a lot of States are cutting Arts funding. It should therefore be noted today that some of us require no funding to set aside the rigours of our daily lives and create something that enlightens The Great Unwashed.

Fuggin' ay.


Jobless claims drop.

Tuesday, December 30, 2003



CNN.com - Al Qaeda videos found in Iraq weapons raid - Dec. 30, 2003




Speaking of Katie Couric, I caught this gem over the weekend, on VH-1, I think:

"She brought glamour and sex appeal to TV new, thank God." -- Florence Henderson regarding Katie Couric



I thought me fellow wackos would be interested in this, after our discussions last month about the bony arse of Paris Hilton, and the merits of a full booo-tocks.

Here's one man's review of -- the Paris Hilton sex video...

Paris Hilton, Please Get Dressed!

..To make matters worse, Paris Hilton is not attractive. She's a little better now, but when she was nineteen and she made this video, she was nothing special to look at, much in the way that beef wellington is nothing special to look at. She's just a scrawny, ugly little girl with a bad ass. And I mean that last part. She's got a bad ass. That's actually tough to come by. A lot of girls have nice asses, especially at nineteen. And the ones that don't usually have okay asses. But the two extremes of the ass scale, by which I mean great asses and bad asses, are probably equally rare. So Paris Hilton's bad ass is actually quite an anomaly. However, if she had a tumor the size and shape of a lava lamp sticking out of her spine, that would also be an anomaly, but it wouldn't make me want to watch this tape...


This photoshop brought to you by the Angry Left at Indymedia.org

Miserable Failure

You know, I don't know any reason why people would call Hillary Clinton a Miserable Failure. I mean, would a miserable failure be First Lady? Would a miserable failure get elected Senator from New York? What would a miserable failure do?

Oh, right. A miserable failure would lose "secret" files until a trial was over. I'm sure that the miserable failure somehow forgot where they were until it was safe. And a miserable failure would try to implement a disasterous health system in the USA, even though at the time the miserable failure wasn't even an elected official.

You know, there were some people on the left who thought it would be fun to do something called "Googlebombing", linking GW Bush's White House resume to the words "Miserable Failure". But the one thing they didn't expect was that we on the right would find out about it and retaliate.

Googlebomb this, assholes.

Miserable Failure
Miserable Failure
Miserable Failure
Miserable Failure
Miserable Failure
Miserable Failure
Miserable Failure

And in conclusion, let me add that Hillary Clinton is a Miserable Failure. Thank you. This post was supported by the Hillary Clinton is a Miserable Failure campain, not to be confused with the "Hillary Clinton might be a Miserable Failure" campain, or the "Stop calling Hillary Clinton a Miserable Failure" campain, or even the "Gee it hurts when you call Hillary Clinton a Miserable Failure" campain. Just the one and only "Hillary Clinton is a Miserable Failure" campain.

Thanks for stopping by, and Hillary Clinton is a Miserable Failure.


Some guy named Scott, at his blog called "What's in Scott's Head", has linked to us:

What's in Scott's head

Unfortunately, there are two circumstances that prohibit this from being really important news:

a) it looks like no one reads Scott's blog, and

b) what is in Scott's Head can be summarized by the following diagram:

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 


Thanks anyway, Scott, but an endorsement from you does about as much for this blog as a loveletter from Molly Ivins would do for my libido.

No offense.


Awesome: Victor Davis Hanson on National Review Online
Poverty my aching ass

G.O.C. has a good post up today about the issue of "poverty". I won't post the whole thing, but I will post a few tidbits.

The general tone of the op-ed is what a crime it is that the Forbes 400 richest Americans had so much money and the poor didn't. According to her the Census Bureau's poverty count of 35 million people is actually a lowball count.

Forbes 400 combined wealth rose 10 percent over the past year

I guess I must be doing sumpin' right because my wealth rose 12 percent over the past year. Which brings me to a Doonesbury cartoon in Monday's AJC. Joanie is bemoaning the fact that her portfolio declined 20 percent (Mine rose 11%) over the past year. She better fire her financial advisor, since one would have really had to work hard to lose money in the stock market in the past 11 months. But Joanie is a liberal so that could explain part of it.


The reason poverty exists in this country, for the most part, is that people are too damn lazy to get off their ass and work. While there are people who, for some reason or another, have been shit on by life and are in need of help, the majority of poverty stricken people could raise their life up of they wanted to.

I remember a few years back, one of my co-workers was complaining how another co-worker seemed to have more money that he did. I took him through the following exercise.

1. How much do you spend on cigarettes? The other co-worker didn't smoke.
2. How much do you spend buying coffee in the cafeteria? The other co-worker brought a thermos of coffee.
3. How much do you spend on lunch in the cafeteria every day? The other co-worker brought his lunch.

The difference was over $200 per month.


I roll my own smokes, and save about $60.00 a month just from that. I bring my own coffee to work. I bring my own lunch and snacks to work. Since I started bringing my own food, I've saved $80.00 a month. That's $960.00 a year, just by bringing my own food to work. I save $720 a year by manufacturing my own cigarettes. $1680.00 a year saved just by altering my lifestyle a bit. That's a lot of cash.

I realize that some people can fall on hard times such as a catastrophic accident or a prolonged illness. That is what welfare was designed for. But we have third and fourth generation welfare recipients. It has become a lifestyle. The Great fucking Society has bred a permanent underclass dependent upon gummint handouts.

The poverty rate hit its best mark way back in 1973. The 2002 poverty rate of 12.1 percent was 9 percent higher than 1973's. The 2002 child poverty rate was 19 percent higher than its lowest point in 1969.

Those are telling numbers. They show that the War on Poverty, after throwing trillions of dollars at poverty only made it worse. It also shows that the breakup of the family, which began at that time, also has contributed to the child poverty rate. There used to be a stigma attached to out of wedlock birth. But now that we have decided to be non-judgemental, illegitimacy has gone way up (over 60% for blacks) and with it the rise in child poverty. What more proof do we need that liberal social welfare policies have been catatrophic to the people they tried to help


Give people money to do nothing, and they will do nothing. Give people money for having more babies, and they will have more babies. Sometimes human nature is so easy to understand, but the liberals refuse to see it.

The Left seems to think that more government regulations will end poverty. They've had a 30 year crack at it, and they have failed. Miserably, horribly, awefully failed.. It's time they get shoved into the dustbin of history where they belong and let the grownups do the work now.


Remember my post about the Gun Grabbing Communists Americans for Gun Safety memo? It was something I saw at Kim du Toit's blog and had to share, along with a few questions.

Geek with a .45 goes into further detail. Well worth reading, as he pretty much takes many of my feelings on the subject and puts them to word.


Check this out:

New Orleans public school officials are congratulating themselves for losing only $1.7 million in federal funds. Only.

It is a shame that this kind of disastrous mismanagement is recurrent in the Orleans Parish system, which is failing students at many schools every day. And with many poor families to serve, any loss of federal Title I money -- intended for the education of children from poor families -- is a serious matter.
So, how do you think they "lost" the money? Poor accounting? Embezzlement? Fraud?

No, they just failed to allocate it, so the feds took it back.

Later in the piece it says: "....it could have been much worse. The new superintendent, Tony Amato, learned that the district had about $15 million available in federal and state grants, with deadlines fast approaching for allocating the money. He and his staff rescued most of the grants."

"rescued"

Oy.

Orleans system needs


Funding for the Arts (whatever they are) is being cut in States nationwide.




"The first time I saw my wife, it shrunk."






"Then I saw her bank statement, and WHOA!"



Doctor Dean sez the Dems can't win if he is not the nominee:

"If I don't win the nomination, where do you think those million and a half people, half a million on the Internet, where do you think they're going to go?" he said during a meeting with reporters. "I don't know where they're going to go. They're certainly not going to vote for a conventional Washington politician."
Yahoo! News

The Eight Other Jokers then returned fire:

Lieberman pounced on a comment Dean made Sunday in which he criticized McAuliffe for allowing the other Democratic candidates to attack him. "If we had strong leadership in the Democratic Party, they would be calling those other candidates and saying, 'Hey look, somebody's going to have to win here,' " Dean said. He added that "if Ron Brown were chairman, this wouldn't be happening," referring to the late former DNC chairman.
WaPo

Mama Lucien!

Dean asked McAuliffe to run cover for him?


Spotted!!!! -> one iceberg tip.

A Syrian trading company with close ties to the ruling regime smuggled weapons and military hardware to Saddam Hussein between 2000 and 2003, helping Syria become the main channel for illicit arms transfers to Iraq despite a stringent U.N. embargo, documents recovered in Iraq show.
Banned Arms Flowed Into Iraq Through Syrian Firm

Seen on Instapundit


The Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad sends his Holiday Greetings to White jungle savages the world over.

You cannot prove that the 25th day of December is the birthday of Jesus and you are preaching out of a Bible which does not carry any such history. It gives you an idea that he could not have been born on December 25 by these words "While the shepherd watched their flocks by night."

If it had been in December, could they have been sitting out at night watching the flock eat good green grass? December is wintertime! Winter starts on the 21st day of December — you are four days into winter there.

Of course, there are some parts of the earth where winter does not come and there is pasture for the sheep all year round. But it is not like that in Palestine — in the winter, especially at night.
Whose Christmas?

Monday, December 29, 2003





den Beste sez:

Ultimately I don't think it will matter. Regardless of which candidate ultimately prevails at the [Democrat] convention, this would mean that the intraparty sniping would continue until early August. The winner would then have 3 months to try to heal the divisions inside the party and unify it behind him (or her), while also trying to moderate the party's message enough to have a chance of appealing to the unaligned middle of the American voters who would be repelled by the extreme messages which had dominated party rhetoric before the convention.

Meanwhile, Bush is not facing any significant opposition for renomination within the Republican party. He'll do some campaigning during the primary process, but since he is already certain to be the Republican candidate he will campaign for the November election. Instead of tuning his message for the Republican faithful, it will be aimed right at the unaligned middle. It may not even be necessary for him to engage in negative campaigning about the Democrats, because they'll do him the favor of taking care of it themselves as the Democratic candidates continue sniping at each other
.USS Clueless - White male voters


From AlphaPatriot. Two good pieces that I think should be read.

One is a comparison of the Democratic Socialists of America, and the Democrat Party. Not much difference, folks. The second piece is the seven biggest mistakes that tax-payers make.

Enjoy!


The Dems like to say that Bush "squandered" the goodwill of the world after 9/11. Charles Krauthammer says that's bullshit.

It is pure fiction that this pro-American sentiment was either squandered after Sept. 11 or lost under the Bush Administration. It never existed. Envy for America, resentment of our power, hatred of our success has been a staple for decades, but most particularly since victory in the cold war left us the only superpower.

Bill Clinton was the most accommodating, sensitive, multilateralist President one can imagine, and yet we know that al-Qaeda began the planning for Sept. 11 precisely during his presidency. Clinton made humility his vocation, apologizing variously for African slavery, for internment of Japanese Americans, for not saving Rwanda. He even decided that Britain should return the Elgin Marbles to Greece. A lot of good that did us. Bin Laden issued his Declaration of War on America in 1996--at the height of the Clinton Administration's hyperapologetic, good-citizen internationalism.
TIME - Charles Krauthammer - To Hell With Sympathy


Blackmail comes to email: Yahoo! News
I hope you all had a great Christmas

I know I did. Spending time with my family is probably as good as it gets. We went to Silver Valley in Idaho, went showshoeing up the Lookout Pass Ski Resort, (your humble writer was an idiot and went straight up the mountain. The saner members of the family took a nice trail around), and of course, got to spend Christmas morning with the Raging Parents, Raging Brother, and the Raging Significant Others. We finally got a wedding date out of my brother and his fiance, so next August you might not see much of me. Which of course devolved into a conversation regarding my girlfriend, and a certain suggested wedding, but we managed to make it through without giving out any solid information.

Did I mention that my girlfriend rocks? Oh yes, she does. Trust me on that.

By the way, do you know when exactly you can tell when you're in Northern Idaho? Well, besides the scenic mountains, majestic forests, and clean air? It's when your mom pops her head out the front door and hollars at you and your father "Dave, is this YOUR .38, or is it ours?" Yes, when your parental unit can identify the caliber of handgun, but is forced to ask just who it belongs to, you are in N. Idaho. God, I love that state. Well, I don't really LOVE the southern parts, but the Northern Panhandle is my idea of heaven. That's probably why I bought the land there.

In any case, I now have sufficient funds to purchace another handgun. This is really a requirement, since the girlfriend keeps asking just when the hell I'm going to buy my own gun and stop using hers. Now, before you get all upset about that, let me remind you that I argued for weeks before finally convincing her that we should purchace a handgun. In the end, she realised that I wasn't going to back down on that subject, and capitulated. So, we search for the perfect gun. We find one that we can both use, and go to the range. We both shoot about 50 rounds each, and then call it good. That's our gun. As we're leaving the range, the girlfriend turns to me and says "So, when are you getting yours?"

Did I mention that my girlfriend rocks? Oh yes, she does. Trust me on that.

So, I'm going out and about, and I think I may have found a good gun at a good price. Analog Kid also found some good firearms that I'm going to check out. I'm interested in the 1911, but my preferance for simplicity makes me lean to bolt-action rifles and revolver pistols. So we'll see.

Anyways, have a Happy New Year. I'm back, and as you can see below, I'm ready to start raging once again.

Oh, one last thing. When I can get the pictures developed, I'll show you my truly great Christmas present. I got a puppy! She was a rescue from a woman who had to move, and needed someone to adopt the dog. Half Australian Shepherd, and half Pit Bull Terrier. 13 months old, so she's house trained but still young enough to imprint on the g/f and I.

Did I mention that my girlfriend rocks? Oh yes, she does. Trust me on that.
Hey Howard...

You sure you want to shriek and cry about Cheney's Energy Meetings? Because you're not looking so good yourself.

Democratic presidential contender Howard Dean has demanded the release of secret deliberations of Vice President Dick Cheney's energy task force. But as Vermont governor, Dean had an energy task force that met in secret and angered state lawmakers.

Dean's group held one public hearing and, after the fact, volunteered the names of industry executives and liberal advocates it consulted in private, but the Vermont governor refused to open the task force's closed-door deliberations.

In 1999, Dean offered the same argument the Bush administration uses today for keeping deliberations of a policy task force secret


So let's see.... Good old Howie hurt his back and couldn't get drafted, right before he goes on a several month long ski vacation, he claims his brother, who went over to Laos to comiserate with the commies, was MIA/KIA (designations normally reserved for military), he would turn over our national soveriegnty to the UN, and now he shows that he's a huge hypocrite.

Oh please oh please on PLEASE won't the Donks nominate Dean? Pretty please? Yeah, make him your guy in 2004. PLEASE! Hell, I'm going to go donate $20 to the Dean campain right now. Because if this guy is who you choose, we've got four more years of Bush. So please, please, PLEASE nominate Dean.

Sunday, December 28, 2003

YOU IDIOTIC ASSHOLES!

When a country goes out of it's way to help you, YOU DO NOT TREAT THEM LIKE THIS!

And Poland? Like the Czech Republic, which sent a few medics to the Persian Gulf then withdrew them in panic, Poland will get a standard package of $12 million for NATO-related programs. Other than some logistical support in Iraq, that's it. Strategic peanuts for our most enthusiastic ally on the European continent.

Poland did have one request - a humble one, in the great scheme of things. Warsaw asked for $47 million to modernize six used, American-built C-130 transport aircraft and to purchase American-built HMMWV all-terrain vehicles so elite Polish units could better integrate operations with American forces. Much of the money would go right back to U.S. factories and workers.

Our response? We stiffed them.

For once, the Pentagon and the State Department agree: No can do. Impossible. Our pocket are empty. Got to FedEx every penny to our favorite dictators.

It's a mistake to over-idealize any nation. But if there's a land of heroes anywhere between the English Channel and the coast of California, it's Poland. Our Polish allies have taken a brave, costly, principled stand for freedom and democracy in Iraq. They desperately want to be seen by Washington as reliable friends in this treacherous world.

The least we could do is to treat them with respect.


Let's see if we can get this through to the brains of the IDIOTIC FUCKWITS who have their fingers on the purse-strings. YOU DO NOT TREAT YOUR ALLIES LIKE THIS! While the State Department is kow-towing to dictators the globe over and the Pentagon is demanding more money for crap like the Stryker vehicle, one of our staunches allies in Europe gets kicked to the curb?

Heads had better fucking roll, Dubya.

Hat tip to Instapundit, although I don't know if I should thank him for raising my blood pressure like that.

Also from Instapundit is this report on procurement troubles in Iraq. Mark my words, this is the end result of the drawdown and politicization of the military that started with Bush 41 and continued with Clinton. REMF's are trying to stay in control, even as troops with real combat experience are adapting and progressing. Perhaps we have a few too many cooks in the kitchen, all trying to retain control of their little part of the military. We need to dump the dead weight.
While I was Out

It seems that someone finally wised up and shut down some Air France flights.

About damn time, I say. France hasn't done a damn thing to deal with the militant Islamism that has occupied their country. The Shoebomber boarded a plane in France, if I recall correctly. I say we just declare France a hostile country and shut down all flights, but that's because I hate that country. Your milage may vary.

UPDATE: OK, let me just pass on this little tidbit, courtesy of den Beste.

OK, let me get this straight. Seven men on an American terrorist watch list were all found to have purchased tickets on the same Air France flight from Paris to Los Angeles. Our people alerted the French, who cancelled the flight, took them all into custody, and after briefly questioning them released them all.

Yep, that's France. I'm surpised that they didn't surrender outright to the seven splodydopes.
The Council has Spoken!

This weeks winning entries are Insane Moonbat Barking by AlphaPatriot, and Gandalf the Unilateral by The Politburo Diktat. You can find those articles and all the rest of the winners here.