SENATE REPUBLICANS WANT PEACE AT THE EXPENSE OF THE NATION

This is an outrage and Senate Republicans should be aroused from sleep in the middle of the night to explain this. These pusillanimous brain-dead useless automatons did absolutely nothing to push this good man's nomination forward. All the Fedayeen Democrats did was wait him out. They knew that eventually he had to return to normal life. 28 friggin months he waited. Bush and all the the country club Republicans who are unwilling to break a sweat for the judiciary should be gravely ashamed. If it were not for the perfidy of the Left and the certain peril their leadership would cause, the lack of fight in these complacent pancake-faced jackasses is enought to cause me to not vote for them again.

WSJ.com - Estrada Bows Out: "'The time has come to return my full attention to the practice of law, and to regain the ability to make long-term plans for my family,' the Honduran immigrant will tell President Bush today, in a letter we obtained from a source other than the author."

Can someone name me a Senate Republican worth a dime? Please?
I like Lindsey Graham (for his stewardship during impeachment) and Mitch McConnell (for his fight against campaign finance reform). The rest of them are go-along to get-along wastes of political votes.

Fine, Republicans are winning because they are the only sane politicians in America at the moment. Otherwise, they are doing nothing to steer the country away from degenerate liberalism and toward a more reasonable republic. Nothing pisses me off more than their total unwillingness to take on the Left.

"In Mr. Estrada's case this is all the more outrageous because his only sin is being a smart Hispanic conservative. No fewer than four former Democrats who supervised his work in the Justice Department have vouched for his integrity and qualifications; if he were white he'd already be confirmed. But because he is a young Hispanic, liberals fear the appellate-court credential would make him that much harder to oppose if he were ever nominated to the Supreme Court."

Random Nuclear Queries

Mark at Random Nuclear Strikes solicited answers to some heady questions.

I volunteered.

Here goes:

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Mark: Who was the greatest man in history, the one who's life had the greatest impact on the course of human events?

Tim: I am tempted to name an inventor, but I cannot think of anything that would not have been invented or discovered by someone else given time. Were I to not believe that I'd hunt down the name of the guy who invented gunpowder and cite him. Or Benjamin Franklin. He was out there. And there's Plato. He left politics to travel and invent. If only Charles Schumer would follow suit. And then there's Sun Tzu.

But I guess for all time - all mankind - all influence, it's the Prophet Mohammed. Two billion people cannot be wrong.

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Mark: If you had it within your power to go back and rewrite history just once, what would you change? Would you still do it even if you could not know the outcome?

Tim: If you impose upon me the caveat that I'd not know the outcome of my actions, I'd choose the simple thing and go back in time to tell my maternal grandfather: "I love you." I never did that, and I'll never get over having missed the chance.

If I get to change something with the benefit of knowing an outcome, I'd change the way the imperialist West carved up the Middle East during the middle of the 20th Century. Churchill et al screwed up the whole thing, and it just might be the death of civilization as we know it.

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Mark: If you could toss a pie in the face of anyone on earth and get away with it, who would you pick? And what would you put in the pie?

Tim: I'd slap Alec Baldwin with a pie filled with foie gras.

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Mark: Do you believe or disbelieve the faces on Mars are real? Please explain your answer.

Tim: What faces? On Mars? I know of no faces on Mars. Whadda-fuggya-talkin-bout?

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Mark: Do you believe a person controls his own fate within the limits of events, or do you think we are all pawns in the hands of others?

Tim: Jeepers, I consumed my most recent cup of coffee fifteen hours ago and you come up with this. Firstly, we can't all be pawns.

Secondly, this is a self-fulfilling ideal, at least on the latter notion; if you think you are powerless flotsam floating on the river of time, you are.

Thirdly, control is an illusion.

It's like Mark Knoppfler said it all when he wrote: "Everything can change in the blink of an eye, so let the good times roll before we say goodbye."

Train dodge - dig it.

Are we in control or are we pawns? Both. And neither.

Thanks for asking.

---

WARNING: The media aren't reporting victories in Afghanistan. That's a shock I know. When you recover, you can read the commentary at uBlog.

As for The Other Quagmire, a guy who used to be a peace activist now writes:

I have been shocked at the difference between the Baghdad I found on my return and all the bad news from the city.

Despite the recent bombings, Baghdad looks dramatically different. The stores are full of supplies. The streets are crowded with people and cars. The buses are working and police are on the streets, directing traffic.

That's here.

Back in June, this fellow managed to find the kind of Iraqi whom no one seems to be able to track down these days. That is, the kind of Iraqi who is glad that America is in Iraq.

Seen on Instapundit

I reckon I should not pretend to be smarter than Generals - I'll leave that to Howard Dean. But this just seems to obvious to me.

June and July were very good months for US forces in Iraq. Over just six weeks of aggressive fighting the US detained thousands of suspected Iraqi militants in hundreds of military raids. The Sunni triangle was shrinking. At the height of the new offensive militant attacks against US forces had been cut in half. By early August several days in a row passed without the loss of single US soldier in combat -- a seemingly inconsequential but notable feat.

But in a repeat of early summer's bad conventional wisdom we're again mired in debates about troop strength and foreign control. How'd we get back there? Quite simply, somebody in the chain of command ignored the notable advice of Gen. George S. Patton -- "Always take the offensive. Never dig in."

It's a good read.

This is totally gnarly.

Gibbs Aquada

Props to Right-Thinking

Peep this.

Hot Damn!

The Grouchy Old Cripple is feeling a tad more grouchy today, I guess. But it puts a nice perspective on things.

One Hand Clapping features a nifty little piece that wonders aloud whether Wesley Clark has what it takes to lead a Great Nation:

In a Newsweek article about Clark's presidential potential, the general is quoted as saying of the Iraq campaign and aftermath: "You can't win without a vision, and that means working with allies."

Why? I would like to read Gen. Clark's explanation of why without allies, there is no vision.

History is replete with failed alliances as well as successful ones, and with successful unilateralists as well as failed ones. The Union in 1861-1865 had no allies. The United States entered World War I on 1917 with two principal allies, England and France, but from the first day it was America's unilateral vision that dominated the employment of American forces. The main task General John. J. Pershing faced in France was making sure that the Anglo-Francais 'vision' of four years of unmitigated trench warfare horror was never adopted by Americans. Both the English and French high command were adamant that American units be used as replacements for their own units that had been decimated by years of grinding combat. Some French generals even wanted American infantrymen to be assigned to French units as individual replacements, which would have been their death warrant. Pershing refused so steadfastly that he prevailed.

Peep the rest here, if you so desire.

The World Socialist Web Site sez:

The US Congress has given overwhelming bipartisan support to the Pentagon’s plans for a massive and sustained bombing attack on the civilian population of Iraq.
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This sentiment—for the dispatch of American ground troops to “take Saddam Hussein out” and occupy Baghdad—has definite support on both sides of the congressional aisle. House Democrat John Murtha of Pennsylvania complained that saturation bombing was not sufficient. “You have to put people on the ground if you really want to solve the problem.”
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The US media is bristling with predictions of “overwhelming force” and warnings that Americans must anticipate TV footage of dead and dying Iraqi men, women and children. Reporting from Baghdad, CNN’s Peter Arnett gave an indication of what the bombing of so-called presidential sites will mean. He explained that some of these sites cover huge areas, about the size of Washington DC.
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Iraq announced its willingness to allow special teams of UN inspectors to examine for an entire month the eight presidential sites previously named by the UN. But Washington does not want a diplomatic solution. It has opted for war, and its entire policy is calculated to provide a pretext for military action.

That is why the US counters every concession from Iraq with more sweeping demands for unlimited and indefinite access to Iraqi territory. It is not even clear what the US is demanding and what the bombing is supposed to accomplish. At one moment American spokesmen say the aim is to destroy existing biological and chemical weapons. At the next they declare Iraq must prove it has dismantled the capacity to build such weapons.

The US has failed to produce a shred of evidence that such weapons actually exist. Ending Iraq’s capacity to build them, on the other hand, means destroying the country’s economic and social infrastructure, since even a rudimentary level of industrial development provides the capacity to produce such weapons. In either case Washington is demanding that Iraq prove the nonexistence of something—a demand which by its very nature cannot be met.
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It is a fact that the world would not be standing on the brink of a major conflagration in the Middle East were it not for the machinations of the United States government. But America’s provocative posture in the gulf is by no means an aberration. It is indicative of a more general orientation. American capitalism has concluded that the chief lever for maintaining its economic dominance in the face of mounting challenges from international rivals is the supremacy of its military machine.

Not surprising, I know.

Except this is from 1998.

Poland is sending more forces to Iraq. Maybe it's the aid we give them. Maybe their leaders hold stock in Halliburton.

Maybe it's that they understand that the yoke of tyranny costs more than the struggle for freedom.

Seen on eBay

Don't ask me how I stumbled across this. Isn't it neat? Here's the description that accompanies it:

Left wing activist, progressive, liberal...depending on one's point of view Alec Baldwin could qualify for any of those political titles. If you admire this very outspoken film star, believe in the causes he supports...declare yourself and wear this watch. Or if you know someone who supports him get it for them. This watch is hard to find and chances are you and your friends have never seen one like it before. And, since it is a rare one, you may never see it again...so bid accordingly and GOOD LUCK.

Don't miss out!

Be the first kid on your block to own a watch that advocates installing a total ass in the White House.

Do not delay! Place your bid now!

Furious and Shaking

.... and seeing red. I have just been reminded in a big way why I hate the state of Washington so much. Let me give you a little back story first...

This spring, my father decided that it was time for a new vehicle. His old vehicle, a 1988 Nissan pickup, was getting up in miles, although it was still very servicable. Since my mom already had a truck, my dad decided that he would get a Jeep Wrangler, which he's wanted ever since they started making them. He then offered me his old truck. Which I bought, at the cost of $1. He would have just given it to me, since it didn't have any value to him. But, in order to make things simple (read: less paperwork) and still legal, we made a simple sales transaction. One truck sold for one dollar.

Fast forward to the present. The State of Washington has been refusing to send my Certificate of Ownership (a.k.a. title) for several months. I got a letter stating that I needed a Signed Statement of Gift from the vehicle's seller. I finally called up the licencing agency and said "Look, I bought this truck for a dollar! You have the bill of sale, what's the problem?" The nice gentleman on the other end of the phone (that's not sarcasm, he was actually very nice) told me that the Department of Revenue refused to accept the sale of vehicles for less than what they think the value is (going by Kelly Blue Book or other references). In short, I would have to fill out a buyer/seller agreement, and then the DoR would assess a value on that vehicle, then tax me on said value.

Do you see the problem here? Since when does the state have the right to assess value on private property? The government never owned this truck, it never held any right to it period! And yet, in this fucking nanny state that I live in, the state can step in and tell me what my vehicle is worth! This is private property changing hands between two private citizens, and yet the state can just step in and dictate terms to it's own liking! DOES ANYONE ELSE SEE THE PROBLEM HERE?!?!?!

Think about it, people! We have been surrendering so much of our autonomy, piece by piece, that the state now sees fit to intrude on private business! And many of the people I talk to see no problem with it! We're not just perched on a slippery slope, we're sliding down head first with very little chance of stopping! Look at what the state already does, for gods sake! Property taxes? What's the value on your property? Why should the government even bother with how much your property costs, people? The only people who should be concered with that are the buyer, seller, and anyone else involved with that purchace. Why is the government demanding money from you every year just because you own property? Think about that! How much more of our life are we going to lose control of before people realize what's going on?

I suppose I shouldn't be so suprised that Washington is damn near communist. I mean, one of our most influential congresscritters, Jim McDermott, happens to be an avowed, registered socialist, along with dozens more in the US government. Our governmental hellhole doesn't just need re-vamping, it needs to be blown up, torn down, destroyed, dismantled, beaten apart, and then rebuilt! And until people refuse to allow the government the power to interfere with our daily lives, it will only get worse.

But until that day comes, I have to grit my teeth, and pray that I can raise enough money to get the hell out of here before I lose it.

I have nothing to add to this. I just felt like posting it. That's all.

Courtesy: The Smoking Gun

Uh....

Wow.....

Every now and then I like to think that I can actually write. And then I read pieces like the one above. And my illusions are shattered.

Found via Doc Russia

If I were in a bar or some other such place and someone repeated the substance of this editorial in an effort to argue that we need to directly negotiate a settlement with North Korea, I would think the proponent of this argument quite naive.

What's stunning is that this argument is delivered by a former President, Nobel Peace Prize winner, and someone who the cognoscenti consider to be a foreign policy guru.

USATODAY.com - U.S.-North Korea war seems 'strong possibility': "There must be verifiable assurances that prevent North Korea from becoming a threatening nuclear power, with a firm commitment that the U.S. will not attack a peaceful North Korea."

Carter does not posit how we get to this pleasurable result. Notice he says North Korea needs to be prevented from becoming a "threatening nuclear power." I assume he is ok with North Korea existing as a garden variety peaceful nuclear power. That explains much of his mindset. Despite the evidence, that even he acknowledges, that North Korea violated the 1994 Agreed Framework by producing nuclear weapons, Jimmy Carter has a dream of a day when North Korea can be armed with nuclear weapons, yet peaceful in disposition. It is this brand of wishful thinking that got us into the mess in the first place.

Here, Carter shows that he can read Kim Jong Il's mind:

"The situation is rapidly deteriorating again. North Korea feels increasingly threatened by being branded an "axis of evil" member; deployment of anti-ballistic missiles in Alaska; Washington voices expressing military threats; interception of North Korean ships; ad hominem attacks on President Kim Jong Il; condemnation of previous efforts by President Clinton and South Korean leaders to resolve issues peacefully; and U.S. refusal to negotiate directly with North Korea. America's newly declared policies of pre-emptive war and first use of nuclear weapons also concern North Koreans."

While reading this paragraph I kept thinking to myself, "Didn't North Korea violate their agreements before all of this by furtively developing nuclear weapons?"

Then I got to the next sentence:

"Even before these more recent threats, the North Koreans began a secret and illicit nuclear program."

So, essentially, Jimmy Carter believes another agreement wherein the US agrees to back down and never criticize the North Korean gulag will convince Jong Il to either stop developing nuclear weapons or maintain a peaceful disposition while arming to the teeth. And unlike the last time, Jong Il will abide by this agreement.

Outside of LaLa Land, the term for this is called, GULLIBLE. Unfortunately, it is becoming increasingly clear that the only solution to this mess is through military means. I suppose it is possible that we can starve North Korea to such a point that famished soldiers decide to take the country for themselves and join the civilized world. Even if we have the will to starve the country, which I doubt we have, this outcome is not assured. Military victory is assured.

This is not new but it is worth a look anyway. Just the magnitude of the numbers is amazing.

Michael Moore has corrected one of the, errrrr, inaccuracies in his, errrrrrrr, award winning, errrrrrrrr, documentary.

John Ashcroft was in Norway yesterday to discuss how the United States and Norway can handle Mullah Krekar, former leader of the muslim extremist group Ansar al-Islam.

The American Prowler has a good article about nuclear capability being built by Iran and North Korea, and what the United States must do about them.

Facts are inconvenient things for presidents and prime ministers, as well as for Supreme Leaders. When you recognize a fact, it draws you to act on it or ignore it at your peril. The fact that two terrorist nations -- Iran and North Korea -- are building nuclear weapons is like two fuses. They were handed to us already lit, and we can either put them out or suffer the consequences when they burn to the end.

The American Prowler

This is kind of odd and intriguing:

Back in 1992, a violent storm tossed 20 containers of rubber duckies off the back of a cargo ship halfway between China and Seattle, and they were quickly presumed lost at sea. Instead, it appears the castaways embarked on an epic 11-year swim across three oceans and half the globe. Somehow, they stayed afloat through all magnitude of wind and wave, weathering several winters likely frozen in an arctic ice floe and enduring so many days of exposure their once bright yellow skin has been bleached white as bone.

And now their voyage may have brought them to the East Coast.

Remnants of the lost armada of bath toys, which also includes frogs, beavers and turtles — nearly 29,000 in all — are thought to be streaming down the New England seaboard right now. Although there are no confirmed sightings in the Atlantic yet, oceanographers who have documented the movement of flotsam and ice from the Pacific to the Atlantic via the Arctic Ocean are confident some of the ducks ended up over here. A breakaway flotilla of ducks is expected to make landfall in Britain soon as well.

Read all about it

Go Get 'Em Jesse!

The Rev. Jesse Jackson and 13 people were arrested Monday after they blocked traffic on the Yale University campus in support of striking university service and clerical workers.

Jackson led over 1,000 people on a Labor Day march and rally in support of the striking workers before he was arrested.

"This is the site of national Labor Day outrage," Jackson said. "This is going to be for economic justice what Selma was for the right to vote."

CNN.com - Jesse Jackson arrested during Yale protest - Sep. 1, 2003

Dave has crafted a fine essay regarding how self-proclaimed environmentalists have done untold damage to our forests. I am more than a little bit of a jackass for delaying the posting of this until Dave returned from watching the sucko Mariners get their asses handed to them by the Red Sox, and ergo this ain't real timely.

Still it is topical, as such material will be until the Federal Government musters up the cojones required to stand up to eco-tyrants.

So check it out, will you?

Why read the Council?

Because you might miss some kick ass articles, that's why! Here, let me demonstrate!

The Smarter Cop post a piece about a Kentucky Congressman who rips the "Bush caused the recession" argument to shreds. It's a damn good read.

AlphaPatriot has several great quick posts, the first of which is about a study done in California. It involves old oil rigs. Veeeeeeeeeeery interesting. The second post is a brief overview on what happens when Hillary gets mad. The truth comes out. My only response is "Bwaaa haa HAAAAAAAAAA!"

Don't worry, I'll get to the others in due time.

Monday Morning Laughts

Found over at Vodka Pundit:

50 Things al Qaeda Hates about America

1 - Freedom of speech
2- -Unhindered scientific inquiry
3 - Recent advances in airline security
4 - Your lewd women
5 - Illegal detentions of Muslims by John Ashcroft's Justice Department
6 - Worshipping false idols not punishable by death
7 - Most citizens uninformed about Allah's mercy and justice
8 - The 82nd Airborne Division
9 - McRibs actually contain small amount of real pork
10 - Cities full of clean-shaven pretty boys
11 - The seduction of youth by Demi Moore
12 - Louis Farrakhan's geeky little bowties make us look bad
13 - Trampy "Sex in the City" girls won't stick around for a seventh season
14 - On pilot school admission essay question, spelling counts
15 - Can no one make Al Franken shut up?
16 - Snooty Holiday Inn clerks can always tell when you ordered porn
17 - The Arabic dub of "Jakob the Liar" just didn't do it justice
18 - No international shipping for "Coed Naked Volleyball" t-shirts
19 - That "camel jockey" thing turns out to be an insult
20 - A lap dance is still 20 bucks, even when the song is short
21 - Unable to find decent falafel anywhere in Oklahoma
22 - "The Matrix Reloaded" just leaves you hanging
23 - Lambskin condoms not actually for lambs
24 - All those Wilfred Brimley ads on Fox News Channel
25 - Infidels who say "irregardless" when it's just "regardless," damnit
26 - There will be no forgiveness for the "Bobby dreamed it all" season of Dallas
27 - Reliable and affordable breast reduction surgery
28 - Still can't get the original Star Wars on DVD
29 - Miami chicks don't dig unibrows
30 - American convenience stores don't carry anything for burqa rash
31 - Your Brad Pitt makes us feel all funny inside
32 - You ever seen how many dials and doodads there are in a 737 cockpit?
33 - So-called "Sea Monkeys" really just brine shrimp
34 - Widely-held belief that Siegfried & Roy are gay
35 - Having to constantly explain to people that "Sha Na Na" isn't an Arab band
36 - Sneers for not always following the U-after-Q rule
37 - Loud rock'n'roll music intrudes on peaceful ululating
38 - Racism towards Arabs becomes obvious when caught giggling at the Holocaust Museum
39 - We thought a "B-52 strike" meant no more awful singing from Fred Schneider
40 - Not one Arab on "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy"
41 - Suspicious looks when loading a van full of manure and diesel oil
42 - American harlots never buy that "big beard" myth
43 - You people been real touchy the last couple years
44 - Have you seen the price of gas in New York?
45 - Brother Achmed found Florida ballot most confusing
46 - Couldn't get "The Producers" tickets in time to see Broderick & Lane
47 - That Ten Commandments judge in Alabama is some kind of religious nut
48 - Smartass web pundits with their useless lists
49 - Denise Richards hasn't returned any of our calls
50 - You bastards fight back

A Fine Example of Liberal Tolerance for Diversity

I'M BACK

Like Raging Dave, I have been on hiatus for a short while and now I am back to pick apart the leftist trash that litters America with its foolish ideology. Let the cleanup begin:

Since I am a California resident, for now at least, I have followed the California recall since its inception on local talk radio in San Francisco. Initially, I did not support the recall for several reasons.

1. Recalling Gray Davis does not fully address the real problem - the radical California legislature. Don't get me wrong; I have no affinity for Gray Davis. To any reasonable person, it is clear that Davis is a Clintonite twit who does nothing in the face of serious fiscal problems only to spend his energy blaming Enron, Bush, Republicans, the War in Iraq, just about anything for our problems here. The real problem in California and one that will not be addressed via the recall is that the citizens have elected a European style leftist state assembly and senate. Instead of putting the brakes on spending and figuring out ways to solve the state's problems, they are busy passing laws that give driver's licenses to illegal aliens and mandate that every employer must not discriminate against cross-dressers. It's nice to know that Harry can wear a dress to work in Utopia.

2. We voted for this lout and we should have to pay the consequences of our decision. If Californians are politically moronic enough to hand the state over to the radical left, then we should be accountable for our decisions.

3. I am not sure any governor can right the ship so long as the legislature is controlled by the radical left, therefore, as a partisan I would rather see a Democrat get the blame for their policies than a Republican who will invariably be blamed by the left and the press, as will fiscal conservatism, when he is unable to fix things. This is obviously a purely partisan reason and I can easily subordinate that to my desire that California have a strong economy.

So I did not sign the recall petition based on these objections. Now that the recall is a reality, I will certainly vote to oust Gray Davis. The recall will be viewed by the national media as a referendum on California liberalism, especially if Davis escapes recall, and I don't want to be silent when California decides whether to partially rebuke the radical political machine that has put us in such a fiscal cesspit.

What is emerging as more interesting to me, and certainly something that has been covered all over the blogosphere, is Democrat Cruz Bustamante's membership in Mecha - a radical left wing Mexican separatist group whose charter documents support a racial cleansing of the land they perceive to be rightly Mexican, Azteca.

While the behavior of the KKK clearly goes beyond what Mecha has accomplished, there are some striking similarities between the odious ideologies of both groups. One significant difference is that in today's left wing media a political candidate found within 50 feet of a confederate flag has some explaining to do to the race hustlers, while a Democrat candidate for governor of California can be a member of a racially hostile group, fail to renounce its extremist racially pure positions, and get a pass.

In an interview on Saturday with Tony Snow of Fox News, Bustamante had four opportunities to renounce the popular Mecha slogan "Por la Raza todo. Fuera de la Raza nada." Translated, this means: "For the race, everything. For those outside the race, nothing." (Charming. Another shining example of leftist tolerance. There is much debate as to whether this phrase is actually the Mecha motto or not. I do not have the answer to that, but I can tell you that it is a slogan found in their foundational documents.) I watched this interview and rarely can I remember a politician so shamelessly ducking a point-blank question. At one point, Snow said something to the effect, "Look Mr. Lieutenant Governor, I think this is pretty much a softball question, I am asking you whether you renounce the motto of this organization to which you belonged that says 'For the race, everything; For those outside the race, nothing' and you are not addressing the question." He completely evaded the opportunity to renounce this racist statement. I would think that even Mexican-Americans would find this individual troubling.

Read the El Plan Espiritual de Aztlan. Two examples are here and here. If you peruse various university Mecha organizations' websites you might notice that many of them are giving 404 errors. It seems due to the attention, most of it negative, this is giving Bustamante, the incriminating sites are being pulled down. How's that for the courage of one's convictions?

Do yourself a favor and read the plan. I think you will be stunned that California could actually have a governor who can be attached to this agenda and not renounce it in the strongest terms. Any fair observer will also realize how biased the media is. Any Republican who at any point in their life belonged to a white separatist organization and does not renounce white separatism would be subject to a 24/7 media jihad, and rightly so, until they were beaten into politically conventional submission. This is a clear example of how the media frames the issues that are politically relevant and uses their leftwing bias to pick their crusades.

For some other links about this issue:

Mickey Kaus
SJSU Mecha
Tacitus sums up the past 10 days or so on this issue. Read through the comments at the end. It's a great example of how the ideologically corrupt liberals, even those who are ostensibly non-Mexican, will defend this group and Bustamante.

It's clearly too late for Bustamante to CYA and renounce Mecha. He had every opportunity to do so within easy forums and, stunningly, refused. One must wonder if this recall is not more about the degenerate left in California rather than the Democrat Governor who sends the state down the river.

Who Dem Dopey Dems?

Two-thirds of voters — including two-thirds of Democrats — were unable to name any of the Democratic candidates for president, said the CBS News poll out Sunday.

Yahoo! News

They say there's no Liberal Media.

Well, at least that haughty dog Eric Alterman does.

As for the facts, ummmmmmmm, have you noticed that the media seem to be spinning EVERY event in Iraq as a Bush Administration failure?

The leftwing media has hit upon the possible winning strategy of describing every event in the world as a setback for the Bush Administration. Both the attack by Hamas on a Jerusalem bus and the Israeli retaliatory execution of the perpetrator are portrayed as setbacks. The American acceptance of a United Nations refusal to guard its headquarters is a setback. The American attempt to improve cooperation with the UN to prevent further attacks is a humiliating admission of its indispensable legitimacy. The Afghan arrest of dozens of Taliban only proves that the threat has grown larger. Ten thousand wholly avoidable deaths due to a French heat wave illustrate the American culpability for Global Warming. Given this, it is hardly surprising that the Jews are about to be sued by the Egyptians (hat tip Across the Atlantic) for escaping during the Exodus. Yet despite the apparent inventiveness of the 'setbacks', the concept is wholly derivative. The Big Lie is a tactic as old as the Left itself. One in which they repose much confidence. In 1968 the press portrayed the disastrous North Vietnamese Tet offensive as a Communist victory and bluffed the real victors into retreating from the battlefield. Surely they can do it again?

You may read the entire piece at Belmont Club.

This article in The Guardian describes how the BBC sexed up a story in order to continue to assert that Tony Blair, errr, sexed up a story.

BBC governors decided to turn the tussle with the government over the Iraq dossier story into a make-or-break trial of strength despite harbouring doubts over the original Today report.

Emails released by the Hutton inquiry show that a number of governors, including chairman Gavyn Davies, were determined not to buckle in the face of government pressure even though they thought the story might not stand up to scrutiny.

Happy Sunday everyone!

It's time for me to get back on my high horse and start checking the news. Went to Fox News (Yeah yeah yeah, save the "eeeeeeeeevil media empire" bullshit) and the first thing that caught my eye was this, regarding Emperor Clinton's last minute executive orders about public lands. Now, I don't know about you, but the last group of people I want in charge of land usage is a group who has shown their incompetance and complete lack of understanding about land usage. The US government and all their lackeys, in short. There are reams of papers that I could write about how horrible the Klintoon's Klown Brigade executive orders are, but the bottom line is this: The moment you stop the legal use of private land by said land's owner, you are no better than a communist police state. Bush is pissing off quite a few of the people who voted for him in 2000, and he's counting on the fact that the Donks aren't going to put up a viable alternative to keep him in office. And the sad fact is he's probably right. But Bush needs to re-learn who elected him in the first place.

Speaking of the Dimmy Donk Nine, from Fox we find a report on John Kerry's plan to help states with deficits. The short short version is that he just wants to give the states money.

"His new ideas include sending $25 billion to states struggling with budget deficits under Bush administration policies that put the interests of the president's "buddies and big shot campaign contributors ahead of the people he passes by in his motorcade," the Massachusetts senator said."

I have a better idea, you miserable, worthless, non-working, over-inflated twit: MAKE THE STATES BALANCE THEIR DAMN BUDGETS! I know it might be a novel idea for someone like you who's never done an honest day's work in your entire ill-begotten life, but it's what the rest of us normal people do! We don't spent more than we make, otherwise we go bankrupt, kind of like your political ideology! And since you decided to bring class warfare into your little speech, it's time I reminded you of the fact that you frigging Donks get your money from unions and other rich leftists, while the Republicans get their money in tiny little doses from individual voters. Only with the new campain finance laws put into place by the Donks, they can't get the big money they used to get from the uber-rich. The result, you ask? The Donks are screwed. Isn't it amazing that when the big-time soft money donations were outlawed, the so-called "party of the people" lost 70 GOD-DAMNED PERCENT of their disposable income? Do you still want to play your little class warfare games, Mr. I'm-rich-and-never-worked-a-real-jop-and-then-I-married-into-even-more-money-and-only-talk-to-the-little-people-when-I-need-to-bullshit-them-for-their-votes? I'll tell you one thing, if I had to vote for someone based on their non-political activites, I'm not going to vote for some over-primped bloviating sack of excretment who sits around sipping chardonnay and trying to schmooze his way into Martha's Vineyard. I'm going to vote for the man who spends the day in the hot sun trying to remove an invasive stand of non-native trees from his ranch.

Y'know, now that I think of it, ol' Dubya's plan seems rather feasable. Just do nothing and wait for your opponents to cover themselves in shit. By the way, Donks, when are you going to release the figures on your average donation size? The 'Pubs have already done so. It's an average of $57 per donation.

Remember that post about the congressional bill requiring congressional approval of SF operations? It seems that the report was a little selective in how it was leaked to the press. But I'm still not convinced. Bear with me for a bit, if you will.

"It's a terrible example … of politics being played with your safety and mine," said Fox News military analyst Col. David Hunt. "This is a way people try to stop the momentum we need."

But others said presidential oversight of special operations will insure that the military and commander-in-chief are in sync on clandestine activities.

"That's basically a paper trail so the commander doesn’t get hung out to dry if he gets caught," said GlobalSecurity.org founder John Pike. "If the thing fouls up, the president can't say 'What idiot authorized this?'"

Look folks, it's simple Any mission that SF gets sent on came from somewhere up high. And that SF mission is part of a larger mission, which comes from up higher. Demanding that the president review and OK every single SF mission would result in nothing but stalled and failed missions. If you honestly think that the president is clueless about what is going on with his military, you're a bloody idiot. The government states that they don't want to restrict the SF. Fine. Great. But I still want to see whoever put that wording into the original bill, preferably strung up by their hoo-hoo dillies.

"All it takes is one person without the best of intentions somewhere in the political hierarchy to send them on a rogue mission and nobody knows about it," Haney said, pointing to the Iran-Contra scandal of the 1980s as a prime example of too many CIA rogue operations gone bad. Congress changed the oversight process for overseas covert operations after Iran-Contra blew up

We're not talking about the CIA, you overgrown wart on the military's anus. We're talking about the Special-by-god-Forces of the United States Army. They aren't meeting shady characters in some back ally of Bagdad, they're blowing shit up, rescuing people, and killing our enemies, all of which require that they be sent on a moment's notice, not when some professional politician decides to give it to the President for his "by-your-leave" authorization. Got it? Give the military a mission and then step the hell back while they complete it.

Where do they get these morons? Why the hell are they in power? I don't trust them for a second. And I'm not going to just sit back and think "Whew, we're OK, it's been denied." Because we're not OK, not by a long shot.

And last but not least, there's someone who visited the Holocaust Museum in D.C., and thinks that we need another museum for the lives lost to communism. It's an idea that I can agree with.

That's all for now. See ya later when I get ticked off yet again.

Well I'll be doggone - - the Left are lying about Clean Air.

David Warren drips with sarcasm but nonetheless states his case, doesn't he?

Should the Americans withdraw from Detroit?

While they have been able to hold Detroit since General Harrison recaptured it after the Battle of Lake Erie (in 1813), hardly a day now goes by in which there is not an ambush or a killing. The rate has been rising through Detroit's notoriously long hot summer.

If the standard is one killing per day -- the current average in Iraq is a little less than that -- then the U.S. should also withdraw from Chicago, New York, and Los Angeles. An analysis of the statistics, in proportional terms, suggests further quick withdrawals from Memphis, Dallas, Baltimore, Philadelphia, and of course, Washington, DC.

This is simply fabulous.

All this hysteria and unrest should come as no surprise given the ambition of our endeavor, which is no less than a war of civilization to end both terrorism and the culture and politics that foster it. Still, let us ignore the self-interest of contemporary parties and reflect on the very scope of American audacity. In little more than three weeks, and coming on the heels of an amazing victory in Afghanistan, the American military defeated the worst fascist in the Middle East. Surrounded by enemies, and forced simultaneously to conduct the war against terrorism in dozens of countries and restore calm on the West Bank, the United States nevertheless sought to create consensual government and order under legal auspices in weeks — rather than the decades that were necessary in Japan and Germany, where elections took years and soldiers remain posted still. The real story is not that the news from Iraq is sometimes discouraging and depressing, but that it so often not — and that after two major-theater wars we have lost fewer people than on that disastrous day in Beirut 20 years ago, and less than 10 percent of the number that perished on September 11.

It is no wonder that we have almost no explicit voices of support. Most nations and institutions will see themselves as losers should we succeed. And the array of politicians, opportunists, and hedging pundits find pessimism and demoralization the safer gambit than disinterested reporting or even optimism — given the sheer scope of the challenge of transforming Afghanistan and Iraq from terrorist enclaves and rogue regimes into liberal and humane states.

I'm back!

Of course, the phrase "out of touch" doesn't come close to applying to me right now. I've avoided the news for a week, and after watching my beloved M's get swept by the %@(&@#$ RED @#(*&&^$ SOX I even stopped watching ESPN. I spent the better part of the week walking around Boston, eating real Italian food, and poisoning myself with top-shelf booze. So, once I get back into the swing of things, you can expect more outraged posts.

See ya tamorrah!

Dem Dirty Dems

You'd think the California Left would be just FROTHING to remove this Gray Davis fella, after hearing this:

A new study released today ranked metropolitan areas nationwide by the highest number of days of unhealthy air pollution levels from 2000 to 2002.

The area with the most, a total of 445 unhealthy days, goes to Riverside-San Bernadino. Fresno comes in second place, and Bakesfield comes in third. Los Angeles-Long Beach ranks number four, and Sacramento is fifth.

California: home of the FIve Most Polluted Cities in America.

The scientifically-challenged wacko environmental lobby are really kind of odd, aren't they? First they march to try and save Saddam Hussein's ass, even though he may have committed the most harmful environmental crime EVER in 1991. Now they are doing all they can to keep California in Democrat hands, despite the environmental destruction heaped upon their great State during the Gray Davis regime.


(seen on AlphaPatriot)

Is there much to be said about this that hasn't been said already? Animal Rights Group Claims Chiron Bombing

The American Enterprise Institute web site has an intriguing article about how the media are "sexing up" American casualties in Iraq.

And there is this toward the end:

Since March thousands of terrorists from around the world have flocked to Iraq to wreak death on Americans. They are still pouring in, drawn like moths to flame. They hope to kill Americans. Instead, they themselves are being killed in droves. In early August, for instance, in an American sweep north of Baghdad, while eight Americans were being killed, more than 300 Fedayeen who engaged them died in combat.

THAT is the honey pot effect.

Did CNN or anyone else report those 300 dead?????? Oh I don't recall.

We also find this in the article:

More and more middle-level Iraqi are losing their fear of Saddam and the Baathist party, and are bringing intelligence to the Americans. Even restless, hostile youths on the street are refusing to take up arms against the Americans; the reward they are being offered for killing one American has had to be raised from $300 to $5,000.

Meanwhile, 95 percent of Iraq, while still bristling with privately held arms and dangerous, has brought very few deaths to Americans and others. Virtually all the killings of Americans these days take place within a triangle whose three sides are approximately 100 miles in length. This small triangle, a mere five percent of Iraq's land surface, runs from just south of Baghdad about 100 miles north to Tikrit, about 80 miles from Tikrit to Al-Ramadi, and another 80 miles from Al-Ramadi back to Baghdad.

This is the famous "Sunni triangle," Saddam's homeland, and his most-committed base, the main source of his leadership cadres, and his most trusted and fiercest loyalists. What future do these Baathist Sunnis face, in an Iraq democratically led by a Shiite and Kurdish majority? Even though their rights will be protected, and their interests represented in the new government, some of them will still have to face an unblinking justice. For how long will their scarlet crimes be remembered by those they tortured, murdered, and tormented for 30 long years? Some of them desperately fear a just society.

I suggest that you should read the whole thing, and then feel good about your country's commitment to hunting down the kind of despicable barbarians who have murdered non-combatants in Bali, Kenya, Tanzania, New York City, Jerusalem, Moscow, Amman, and, now, Najaf.

This is a tough call, if you will pardon the pun.

Consumers have until Sunday to add their phone numbers to the 41.7 million already on a list to block telemarketing calls starting Oct. 1. K. Dane Snowden, chief of the Federal Communications Commission (news - web sites)'s consumer and government affairs bureau, said those who sign up for the do-not-call list after this weekend likely will have to wait until early next year before calls are blocked.

Telemarketers have asked the federal courts to block the new rules, saying they violate their free speech rights. The case is pending.

I have heard both sides of the argument, and i think the calls are a pain in the butt sometimes, just like everyone else, but what of the First Amendment implications?

I just bought a power sander

I found myself with three choices:


Craftsman


Dewalt


Porter Cable

I bought the Porter Cable model, because it is made in America.

I've never been much for look-for-the-union-label and buy-made-in-America mantras spouted throughout the Eighties by organized labor, but in this economic and political climate, I find myself wanting to keep my money here, where it works best for my neighbors and their friends and their neighbors and their friends...

I suggest maybe you do the same.

Of course, sometimes it is hard to find products made in America. Sometimes one is compelled to wonder if the label is true.

Nonetheless, I submit the notion for your consideration.

Lastly, I purchased this product at Sears Hardware, because: "Sears, Roebuck & Co. maintains full job benefits and partial pay for military reservists called up to fight in the Iraq war"

For a list of other companies who are going beyond what is required by law for their employees serving the our Armed Forces, see here. If you can, buy from them.

Animal rights wackos release minks into the wild. Most die of dehydration or collisions with automobiles. Survivors run wild killing chickens and cats.

The Watcher's Council voting for this week has been completed.

The winners are:

Endgame / Reality Check by Exultate Justi

The Long Road Home by L.T. SMASH.

Find the entire compendium of results here.

Dem Dopey Dems

California Democrats are unhappy with Taco Bell. They think the restaurant is rigging the recall election. To wit:

Taco Bell announced the first installment of its Taco Poll results yesterday, in which 54 percent of the votes went to Schwarzenegger and his crunchy beef taco, and just three percent of the votes went to Davis and his chicken soft taco. All other candidates received 43 percent of votes through purchases of the chain’s Grilled Stuft Burrito.

Unhappy with the mock poll results, the chairman of the California Democratic Party, former state Sen. Art Torres said yesterday that “Taco Bell should stick to making tacos, not rigging elections.”

In a press statement released yesterday, Torres said beef tacos always outsell chicken tacos, which cost twice as much at the restaurant chain. In Sacramento, Torres said, Taco Bell sells beef tacos for 74 cents and chicken tacos for $1.50.

Yes. They're serious.

San Mateo Daily Journal

My guess is that Pepsico, who own Taco Bell, are vying for the lucrative contract to sell refreshments to Halliburton workers in Iraq.

It's just a guess.

(via The Angry Clam)

The New York Times online has a good Flash presentation of 9-11 transcripts here.

Strategy Page reports that American and local forces are dropping the hammer onTaliban and other RadIslamic forces in Afghanistan.

Restriction on political commercials struck down!

In Norway.

So you waltz into the bathroom at work to take a crunch and a coworker engages you in coversation.

What do you do? It's a quandary, to be sure.

NCBuy has the answer.

George Will opines:

Part of the good news out of Iraq -- good news obscured by recent bad news, and sometimes mistaken for unalloyed bad news -- is that the deaths, including at least 62 Americans, caused by hostile action in Iraq since major combat operations ended include the deaths of almost 50 Iraqis. They died, Wolfowitz says, as exemplary pioneers of Iraq's progress up from tyranny, while working with coalition forces to secure public order and create civil society.

Wolfowitz says such casualties are plain, and stirring, evidence of -- and an unavoidable consequence of -- a desirable development; the slowly growing willingness and capacity of Iraqis to take responsibility for their nation's recovery.

Read more here.

Anna Quindlen sez:

'What you saw time and time again was hubris brought low, people accustomed to instant communication without phone service, people accustomed to flying anywhere and at any time grounded at the airport."

There was also some finger-wagging at Americans for not reacting with proper humility and introspection. "No talk of changing behavior, of finding a balance," rues Quindlen. "Once the biggest power outage in history had begun, the only concern was for getting the juice back as quickly as possible. There was a faint undercurrent of revoked privilege."

Reason has it here.

Boeing is building the Air Force a new munition, the Small Diameter Bomb, a "a 250-pound class precision-guided weapon launched from a fighter, bomber or unmanned aircraft that will destroy targets from a range of greater than 40 miles and penetrate more than 4 feet of steel-reinforced concrete."

Did not the Bush Administration and Pentagon both say that the engagement in Iraq would be long, arduous, and costly?

Well, yeah, they did.

So why is "since the Bush Administration declared an end to major combat" the most oft-used phrase in today's media?

Returning from four weeks of holiday, in which I did my best to avoid all news, I find myself again somewhat shocked by the sheer malice of the mainstream media. The journalists themselves are overwhelmingly 'liberal'. In the U.S., for instance, they have been shown to vote as a class for Democrats over Republicans by margins of more than ten-to-one; and further, that they tend to identify with the left wing of that Democrat Party. They want to bring down President Bush, at all costs; and if Iraq is turned back into a Saddamite killing field, or Al Qaeda is given a new lease on life, they don't particularly care. For they smell Republican blood.

David Warren expounds.

Blackout in London!

Oh the irony is delicious.

First the American Left tells us we need EuroSocialized health care, and we listen and listen and listen right up until 10,000 people in France die from hot weather.

And what of power? The power goes out in the Northeast United States and "it's all about deregulation!" shriek the Left.

Who owns The National Grid in England?

BBC NEWS | England | London | Power cut causes chaos

UPDATE: The Grid in England was privatised in 1990.

This is interesting: Halliburton did more than $2 Billion in business with the United States Defense Department during the Clinton Administration.

Associated Press 08/29/00

The company run until this month by former Defense Secretary Dick Cheney has reaped more than $2 billion in federal contracts to support U.S. troops on some of the peacekeeping missions that George W. Bush says have helped run down the military.
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What started out as a $4 million contract in 1992 to help the government plan how to provide meals, tents, toilets and laundry for troops sent on missions to far-flung lands has grown substantially for Halliburton, an oil-services conglomerate.

Halliburton's Brown & Root Services subsidiary has received the lion's share of the Pentagon's troop support business in the years since the Persian Gulf War, which Cheney helped direct as secretary of defense under Bush's father.

A big chunk of the business came in 1995 when troops were sent to Bosnia. The Army paid Brown & Root $546 million to provide logistical support for over 20,000 American soldiers in Bosnia, Croatia and Hungary. The company had already earned $269 million on the contract.

Two years later Brown & Root received a sole-source contract worth $405 million to continue support services in Bosnia. Last year the company beat out one other bidder to win a five-year Army contract to support U.S. peacekeeping troops in the Balkans region. Originally awarded for $900 million, work under that contract has now reached $730 million and could go to more than double that figure because more troops were sent to Kosovo last year.

Another contract for support services awarded this year by the Navy will bring in at least $300 million.

The government has hired Halliburton for dozens of other jobs, from a $100 million contract to improve security at U.S. embassies and consulates to a $40 million contract to maintain labs at the National Institutes of Health.

Oh dear.

UPDATE: See this from Right Thinking.

The Spectator Online has this...

Any realistic assessment of the Palestinian matter has to start from the fact that Palestinian terrorism is not sui generis. The Palestinians have nothing. With essentially no economy they live off the kindness of strangers. But the "kindness" comes with sanguinary strings attached. From Syria, Saudi Arabia, Iran and Iraq (while Saddam was in power, and perhaps still from his coffers) quite a lot of money comes in to the West Bank and Gaza to fund terrorism. If those same funds were put to constructive use, the Palestinian territories would look like Beverly Hills rather than the blood-spattered slums we see on the news everyday.

As I have said more than once, the Arab nations don't give a damn about the Palestinians. They are using them as proxies, as cannon fodder in their never-ending war against Israel. There is no possibility of peace in the area, far less the Middle East as a whole, until we face the facts of Yassir Arafat and his bankers.

...and more to say about the war between Israel and Arabs.

A British Labour (read: Leftist) PM says Cuba ain't perfect but it ain't too bad, either.

But for me, that visit was the start of a life-long love affair. There is no need to confuse that statement with uncritical acclaim for everything about the place. But criticism should never ignore the fact that Cuba's primary service to the world has been to provide living proof that it is possible to conquer poverty, disease and illiteracy in a country that was grossly over-familiar with all three. That is a pretty big service. The fact that it has been delivered in the face of sustained hostility from an obsessive neighbour makes it all the more stunning.

Yes. Remarkable.

While we're excerpting, here is some information about Cuba from Human Rights Watch:

Human Rights Watch has monitored human rights conditions in Cuba for more than fifteen years. Although severe restrictions on basic civil and political rights have been a constant in Cuba during this period, the current crackdown, both in its scale and in its intensity, far surpasses the violations we have documented in the past.

The current crackdown began on March 18, as the world's attention was focused on the impending war in Iraq. Within the space of a few days, state security agents arrested dozens of people, searching their homes, and, in many case, confiscating fax machines, computers, books, typewriters and personal papers. State-run television accused the detainees of "provocations" and "subversive activities."

Prosecutions began in early April. In four days of trials, from April 3-7, 75 defendants were tried and convicted; none were acquitted.

Charming.

You can find more here, if you are so inclined.

Yes yes yes yes yes! Anyone who reads these pages (and admittedly there are only a handful of you at present) knows that I subscribe to the notion that Iraq is a honey pot - designed specifically to attract Radical Islamists into one arena where American and British forces can kill them.

Austin Bay at www.strategypage.com suggests the same. Here is an excerpt:

The second battlefield is a large 'strategic' ambush, and the enemy entering the kill zone still hasn't quite figured it out. From an American perspective that presents an opportunity, an opportunity with risks, but one with huge potential payoffs. In Iraq, America is ambushing Al Qaeda and tag-along jihadis powered by the fantasy ideology of Islamo-fascism.

The ambush was never completely secret. In a column from Jan. 29 of this year, I wrote: "The massive American build-up around Iraq serves as a baited trap that Al Qaeda cannot ignore. Failure to react to the pending American attack would demonstrate Al Qaeda's impotence. For the sake of their own reputation (as well as any notion of divine sanction), Al Qaeda's cadres must show CNN and Al Jazeera they are still capable of dramatic endeavor. This ain't theory. Al Qaeda's leaders and fighters know it, and the rats are coming out of their alleys."

Astute observers have dubbed America's ambush the "flypaper strategy."

Ah, well. I prefer "honey pot".

You can read the rest here.

UPDATE: There is more here, at Instapundit.

Lee at Right Thinking has a brickbat for the so-called peace marchers.

Now we can add Canada to the list of countries under siege by Radical Islam.

Nineteen foreign students arrested by a federal anti-terrorism task force two weeks ago have possible connections to al-Qaeda and may have been scouting the CN Tower, law courts and other buildings, officials say.

Canadian authorities claimed, in documents disclosed yesterday, that police raids had turned up material suggesting the men, 18 Pakistanis and an Indian, sought information about the size and operation of Canadian landmarks.

I honestly am completely incapable of understanding how anyone can believe we should just bring the troops home and go about our business.

So Oklahoma has filed charges against one time Worldcom CEO Bernard Ebbers. Here's the part I made a note of:

The complaint accuses Ebbers, the other executives and the company of violating state securities laws by giving false information to investors in 2000. WorldCom collapsed into the nation's largest bankruptcy last year amid an accounting scandal that has grown to $11 billion.

The year 2000. Somehow, even though fraud at Worldcom and Adelphia and Enron and Global Crossing ALL started before George W. Bush took office, the Left always seems to try to tar the Bush Administration with the wrongdoing.

See the Corporate Fraud section our Resources for more examples.

Another corner turned, I reckon - - the Ten Commandments monument has been moved.

There's just one thing i don't get, and it is mentioned herein:

The federal court had said the monument could be in a private place in the building but not the highly visible spot in the rotunda directly across from the building's entrance.

"A private place in the building", it reads.

Okay.

I give up. How can there be a "private place" in a "public building"? I mean, there are no private smoking rooms in New York City restaurants, are there? So a privately-owned restaurant in Greenwich Village is totally public, but a courthouse in Alabama has private places.

My Grandmother, what twisted courts you have!

These are absolutely, positively hilarious. They may, it should be noted, not be politically-correct enough for work. View with discretion.

You can no longer smile while having your Canadian passport picture taken.

Perhaps the passport offices could pipe in some Janeane Garofalo material to sober up even the most stubborn of grins.

Alan Keyes argues that the Constitution of the United State does not prohibit States from establishing religions and that furthermore the Constitution certainly does not empower Federal judges from prohibiting same.

A campaign is under way to smear two scientists who question whether the God opf Global Warming really exists.

Looks like a group of Conservatives in Nevada want their own recall.

A statewide group of activists and conservatives angered by Nevada's record tax increases will notify the Secretary of State's office Wednesday of their intent to recall Gov. Kenny Guinn.

Members of the Committee to Recall Governor Guinn said Monday they have more than 600 volunteers ready to circulate petitions and collect the more than 128,000 signatures needed to recall the governor.

"Guinn wrote the tax plan. He was the catalyst behind it, and we need to get rid of the catalyst," said political consultant Tony Dane, one of five members of the group's steering committee.

Oh dear.

A fella on the ground in Iraq speaks a bit about rules of engagement.

10,000 dead in France...

...and Lee at Right Thinking has a word or two in commentary.

Boston's gotta hire Whitey

Judging people based upon merit and not skin color. What a fine ruling just after the anniversary of Doctor King's speech.

Four white men passed over for firefighting jobs in favor of minority candidates who scored lower on civil service tests must be hired as soon as possible, a federal judge has ruled.

The men had sued the Boston Fire Department for discrimination. They must also be awarded back pay and seniority they would have earned since October 2000, the date they were denied employment, U.S. District Court Judge Richard Stearns ordered Monday.

A fifth plaintiff who was hired last October also will get a pay raise under the ruling.

"I think hopefully we're just going back to normal, the way it was meant to be, so that now they are just hiring the best person, regardless of race or color," said Harold Lichten, the attorney for all five men.

Yahoo! News - Boston Ordered to Hire White Firefighters

California schools to curtail homework

I guess they're not content to be just near the bottom....

"It's recognizing these kids are people. They're not just these little academic machines,'' Assistant Principal Chuck Merritt said of Palo Alto High's efforts to alleviate student stress.

In a world where students load their transcripts with advanced classes, sports, clubs and volunteer activities to impress colleges, education experts say concerns about stress are valid. Too much tension is linked to everything from cheating on tests to binge drinking and suicide.

"It's very scary,'' said Denise Clark Pope, a lecturer at Stanford University's School of Education. "We're hurting our kids.''

Lynbrook High administrators said they have been working on reducing academic anxiety for a while. Students attend only half of their classes Tuesdays and Wednesdays, and they jump on trampolines and blow soap bubbles during the school's annual stress-free week.

"Some kids are just stressed all the time,'' said Barbara Minneti, Lynbrook's assistant principal for school climate. "They don't have time to do anything. They're trying to pad their résumés with jobs and 2,000 clubs. And then they're doing homework until 2 o'clock in the morning.''

Welcome to the Mercury News on Bayarea.com

France has its own quagmire

Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | Ivory Coast rebels kill two French soldiers

Broader Conflict in Iraq

In the days and hours following the explosion which obliterated UN offices in Baghdad the bombing was blamed on Sunnis, Shiites, Ba'athists, Ansar al-Islam, al Qaeda, visiting foreigners, surviving Husseins, Syrians, insiders, outsiders, fat kids, skinny kids, and kids who climb on rocks. Suffice it to say, no one really knows who did the deed.

The latest official stab in the dark is that a remnant of the secular Iraqi secret service farmed out its resources to the fundamentalists in Ansar who actually carried out the attack. If true, this would demonstrate that nothing unites a country quite like invading it.

"Of course, ideologically they are not at all compatible. On the other hand you sometimes cooperate against what you consider a common enemy," General John Abizaid, head of the U.S. Central Command, observed.

And then there's this:

Second, offensive search-and-destroy missions are the only proven counter to insurgencies. If you are sitting around guarding pipelines or international aid offices you are not on the offensive. Which brings us to the third big problem with trying to prevent attacks on soft targets: You wind up making your troops vulnerable to attack.

Reason

Iraqi WMDs Found.....in Lebanon?

U.S. intelligence suspects Iraq's weapons of mass destruction have finally been located.

Unfortunately, getting to them will be nearly impossible for the United States and its allies, because the containers with the strategic materials are not in Iraq.

Instead they are located in Lebanon's heavily-fortified Bekaa Valley, swarming with Iranian and Syrian forces, and Hizbullah and ex-Iraqi agents, Geostrategy-Direct.com will report in Wednesday's new weekly edition.

World Tribune.com--Front Page

See it to believe it

Diplomatic advisor to President Chirac, Maurice Gourdault-Montagne, is quoted to have said to the Israeli ambassador in France, Nissim Zvilli, that there is no proof that Hamas and Islamic Jihad are terror organizations. "If we find that Hamas and Islamic Jihad are indeed terror groups opposed to peace, we may have to change the EU's stand," said Gourdault-Montagne. "However, we mustn't limit ourselves to one, clear cut, position."

Israel News : Jerusalem Post Internet Edition

Found on DANEgerus

BBC Follies

Instapundit.com has some neat news for that unbiased maverick anti-establishment beacon-of-truth BBC we hear som much about...

Remember when the States sued Big Tobacco...

...and the joke often heard was that soon people would be suing fast food restaurants for getting them fat?

Well, it's beyond that now. There are actually elected officials in Washington and lobbyists elsewhere who are calling for the Federal Government to step in and curtail the marketing and consumption of fatty and fast foods.

Oh, and guess who these wacky Leftists are starting with, guess who is most at risk, guess who is being exploited, guess who is being targeted, guess who The Left are slogging off to their McJihad for every day. Guess.

Know the answer?

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Of course. It's the children, stupid.

Kelly Brownell, professor of psychology at Yale University, calls all this the "toxic food environment" and shows examples - baby bottles with soft drink logos and bibs labeled "Future Whopper Eater."

Children especially are getting bombarded. In a typical year, some 10,000 ads are seen by children; 95 percent of those are for candy, soft drinks, fast food and sugared cereals, Brownell said.

"If healthy foods were advertised as much as unhealthy, maybe we'd have a chance," he said.

Brownell says restrictions should be placed on characters used in advertising aimed at young people - much like they were for R.J. Reynolds' Joe Camel. He'd like to see Ronald McDonald eat his last fries and disappear.

"There is no evidence that the federal government is doing anything to address the problem," Brownell says.

RedNova News: Political Debate Looms Over Obesity

Update: Cox and Forkum have moreon this, and a good cartoon.

Feel better about Iraq

I was saying to my golf buddy just this weekend that it's so draining - hearing the daily story about American or British soldiers getting killed in Iraq without hearing any good news on a daily basis.

I just want to hear (and believe) that we're getting more of them than they are getting of ours. In other words, I'd like to hear that we are winning.

Yahoo! News - U.S. Raids Capture 7 Suspects in Iraq

Why Europeans (and others) often view America as, well, whatever

So it is back to rehearsing. They are to be the opening act tonight for an all-woman rock band called Concrete Blondes, who are headliners at a feminist music festival in town called "Estrojam". It's an important gig for the five, the biggest they have ever done. They are nervous and have to get the moves right. "George Bush and my bush, We're sitting by a tree. Said my bush to Georgie, Stay away from Me!" Suddenly, Eric and Margaret link hands and hoist Abigail, the smallest of the group, into the air. "George don't know jack about my Bush!" Someone leans out of a nearby apartment window and hoots approval.

It has been about a year since Lickity Split started subverting the all-American tradition of team cheerleading for political ends. They have kept the pompoms and the ear-to-ear saccharin smiles. And they gleefully display lots of flesh. (A little too much, you might say.) But this definitely is not the version of cheerleading you will see on the average college football field or as portrayed in films like American Beauty. Their energies are not going into perpetuating the macho image of the American jock, but rather into voicing anger at the system. Anger at Bush. Anger at homophobia. Anger at war. Anger at whatever.

And while they are the only group in Chicago, Lickity Split are hardly alone in the land. First dreamed up by two sisters in Florida six years ago as a new means of expressing political outrage, Radical Cheerleading is fast becoming a movement all of its own, with an estimated 100 squads trading clenched fists for pompoms in cities all across the United States and Canada. Watch out for them at a street demonstration near you soon.

Ah, well. I guess this is innovative...

Meet the ra-ra radicals

They say America belongs to the rich

I say that's bullshit. If people organize and push back hard enough at what they see as wrong, there will be movement.

For instance:

Nor were the "cracker" rank and file silent. "Imagine if the Sons of the Confederacy described the NBA as a punk-a** colored man's sport," Nascar fan and online commentator Grandstand Bob wrote. "It's roughly the equivalent of [Charles] Farrell's comments. Neither statement is fair, and both deserve equal disdain, but don't look for apologies from the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition."

In Nascar-friendly Nashville, Tenn., fans threw a collective rod. "We're all wondering what would happen if David Duke tried to extort money from the NBA and NFL because of the relatively low level of white participation," says local radio talk-show host Phil Valentine, who recalled an earlier interview with Mr. Jackson. "I told him that the appearance of graffiti is an early sign of neighborhood decay. Jesse responded by saying that graffiti is the 'hieroglyphics of poverty.' For him, everything is about oppression."

Mike Helton, the president of Nascar, tried to convince fans that they had it all wrong. "NASCAR does not endorse political views," he said in a statement posted at nascar.com. "NASCAR endorses DIVERSITY." Despite his heroic prose, USA Today and the Associated Press would soon report that the relationship with Mr. Jackson was on the skids.

NASCAR fans tell Jesse Jackson to step off

Feel better about American society

Violent and property crimes dipped in 2002 to their lowest levels since records started being compiled 30 years ago, and have dropped more than 50 percent in the last decade, the Justice Department reported Sunday.

The annual survey by the Bureau of Justice Statistics identified about 23 million crime victims last year, down slightly from the year before and far below the 44 million recorded when studies began in 1973.

Could this be Bush's doing? Are people too busy looking for jobs to burglarize? Has increased levels of arsenic in drinking water tamed the would-be robber? Were prospective murderers converted en masse to a more peaceful life by the death of Rachel Corrie?

It all gets so confusing sometimes...

CNN.com - Report: Crime rate lowest since 1973 - Aug. 24, 2003

If you click just ONE link here...

...let is be this one: Saddam's al Qaeda Connection.

Here's an excerpt:

In interviews conducted over the past six weeks with uniformed officers on the ground in Iraq, intelligence officials, and senior security strategists, several things became clear. Contrary to the claims of its critics, the Bush administration has consistently underplayed the connections between Saddam Hussein and al Qaeda. Evidence of these links existed before the war. In making its public case against the Iraq regime, the Bush administration used only a fraction of the intelligence it had accumulated documenting such collaboration. The intelligence has, in most cases, gotten stronger since the end of the war. And through interrogations of high-ranking Iraqi officials, documents from the regime, and further interrogation of al Qaeda detainees, a clearer picture of the links between Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein is emerging.

To better understand the administration's case on these links, it's important to examine three elements of this debate: what the administration alleged, the evidence the administration had but didn't use, and what the government has learned since the war.

It, in my opinion, is worth a read.

On Arianna

DANEgerus gives Arianna Huffington a taste of a BIG uppercut.

Building a Stronger Norway

The Rena base, still under construction, is an integral part of Devold's plan to overhaul the military. From the air, the giant yellow Volvo earth-movers plowing its roads and runways look like Tonka toys. Scaffolding shrouds some of the low-slung computer complexes, and building materials lie scattered in small neat piles around ''little Baghdad,'' a mock village being erected for urban-warfare instruction.

Norway is now second only to the United States in NATO in per capita spending on defense. But even with the military, there is resistance. Officers have lost commands, and others have resigned, complaining that they didn't sign up for the new proactive role Devold has envisioned for Norway. ''Many of my colleagues say they joined the military to defend Norway,'' explains Gen. Sverre Diesen, commander of Norwegian land forces, ''and not to embark on foreign adventures. We're trying to explain to people that security problems are becoming globalized. Osama bin Laden doesn't just hate America. He wants to destroy the entire Western way of life. So we, too, have interests in places like Afghanistan. I don't need to wait for someone to blow up the train station in Oslo to see that.''

Who's Afraid of Norway?

Another excellent piece of information found on Right-Thinking.

Leaving Korea

But why is the U.S. worried about the so-called Democratic People’s Republic of Korea? It’s a distant and poor country surrounded by far more powerful states; it is an economic irrelevancy and a diplomatic nonentity. Most important, it has no effective means to attack America. North Korea should be a problem for other nations -- for China and Russia, the most important regional powers, and for Japan and South Korea, America’s closest regional friends. All have more at stake in the North than we do. Indeed, the only reason Washington is entangled in the Korean peninsula is inertia: The U.S. has defended South Korea for 50 years.

Odd, isn't?

Regarding Wesley Clark

This is the man who, as NATO shifted from war-fighting mode into peacekeeping mode, ordered his ground commander to deploy a helicopter assault team to block a surprise Russian advance into Kosovo's major airfield — an order his British subordinate answered with a terse and chilling rejoinder: "I'm not going to start World War III for you." After both men appealed to their national commanders — a practice permitted under NATO's vague and unwieldy war-fighting conventions — cooler heads in Washington and London agreed with Clark's subordinate, concluding that NATO's unity was more important than Kosovo's airport. A humiliated Clark was forced to rescind his order. Two months later, he was unceremoniously replaced as Supreme Allied Commander-Europe (SACEUR). The turn of events stunned Clark: "I never saw myself as a 55-year-old retired general," he later said.

Alan W. Dowd on Wesley Clark on National Review Online

Eating one's own dog food

Like voucher opponent Al Gore sending his children to private school and uber-environmentalist Dick Gephardt buying his staff SUVs, well, read on...

Seven days after getting trapped in a traffic jam at the Hampton Toll Plaza, New Hampshire's governor pushed through one of the fastest transportation changes in New England history: doubling tolls for northbound drivers at the often clogged booths on Interstate 95, while sending southbound traffic through for free.

The change will affect tens of thousands of north- and southbound drivers daily and the more than 100,000 who pass through the toll plaza each weekend, many of them Massachusetts residents going to and from Maine and New Hampshire. There were no public hearings, no studies, and no local notification. All it took was Governor Craig Benson becoming stuck for an hour in southbound traffic near the toll plaza on Aug. 14, which forced him to miss a wake he planned to attend.

Governor acts after being stuck in traffic

For The Children

Worrying about the health of California children, the state Assembly voted to ban soda sales to elementary school students and restrict sales of the drinks at junior high schools.

CNN.com

One in a Billion

The Independent is a disgusting publican, but this story is good.

American RealPolitik always has great cartoons.

BREAKING NEWS FROM CALIFORNIA!

It's been alleged that California gubernatorial candidate Mary Carey is big on silicone but light on, errrrr, delivering.

26-year-old Kim Jensen was one of the first men to secure a date with the porn model, but the young Dane was disappointed with the experience, thinking he did not get value for his money.

"Did not get value for his money"

Sounds like a California taxpayer.

Nettavisen: News in English

Cornnell University proudly welcomes Jihad Cindy to the faculty


From the Atlanta Journal-Constitution...

Cynthia McKinney, the feisty former 4th District congresswoman, is headed for the Ivy League.

Officials at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y., confirmed that McKinney has been named a visiting professor at the institution. Under her contract, she will serve as a guest lecturer for three years, beginning this fall....

As I have said on this blog before, I am envious of the Left for the stranglehold that it has on academia. This is just one of the thousands of examples why. I guess that you could say it is equal in magnitude to to the stranglehold that the Right has on the talk radio format. But there is one big difference in the implications -- Marxists, and other assorted loonies like Noam Chomsky and Jihad Cindy, get to write academic textbooks, which means that their opinions become the "official" version. Young children and adults have no choice over who to learn Economics and History from. Talk radio, on the other hand, actually has to compete for listeners and continuously defend its ideas. (It does so very well, which is a testament to the strength of those ideas.)

"Violence begets violence"

Dianne Feinstein, California Democrat, suddenly opposes violence in movies. New York Post Online Edition

Watcher's Council Weekly Results

The winning entries in the Watcher's Council vote for this week are Today's CP-USA: Nepotism, Hypocrisy, and Spin by Commiewatch, and The New Left Wing Drivel by Balloon Juice.  All members, please be sure to link to both winning entries (and to the full results of the vote) in a post.

Also, Aaron's Rantblog is one year old.