Dean on Guns

Glenn Reynolds over at Instapundit remarks that he sees Howard Dean's second amendment stance as a stroke of political genius, saying: "This kind of thing won't hurt Dean's chances of getting the nomination, and being attacked by a Kennedy on gun control will be a big plus in the general election if Dean gets the nomination."

I don't know whether I agree or disagree with Reynold's conclusion, as I cannot find Howard Dean's stance on the Second Amendment.

His boilerplate position statement can be found all over the web. It reads as follows:

"Vermont has the lowest homicide rate in the United States. During Dean's eleven years in office the most murders in a single year has been 25, the lowest number was 5. Over half of these have been domestic assaults, the majority are not committed with a firearm.

If you say 'gun control' in Vermont or Tennessee, or Colorado, people think you want to take away their hunting rifle. If you say 'gun control' New York or L.A., people are happy to see Uzi's or illegal handguns taken off the streets. I think Vermont ought to be able to have a different set of laws than California. Let's keep and enforce the federal gun laws we have, close the gun show loophole using Insta-check, and then let the states decide for themselves what if any gun control laws they want. We need to get guns off the national radar screen if Democrats are ever going to win again in the South and the West, and if we can't win in the South and the West, we can't win national elections. In 2000, guns cost us at least West Virginia, Tennessee, and Montana, and with them the Presidency of the United States. Just as we resist attempts by President Bush to dictate to the states how we run our school systems and what kind of welfare programs to have, we need to resist attempts to tell states how to deal with guns beyond existing Federal law."

e.ThePeople

I know the Gentle Reader will correct me if I am wrong, but in my opinion that's no statement of support for a right to bear arms. In effect, it's quite the reverse.

If a candidate said:

"Abortion means different things to different people. It doesn't evoke the same response in Texas versus, say, Michigan. Just as we resist attempts by President Bush to dictate to the states how we run our school systems and what kind of welfare programs to have, we need to resist attempts to tell states what kinds of abortion should be lawful or unlawful,"

would we call that candidate "Pro Choice"? The "Pro Choice" people certainly wouldn't.

If a candidate said:

"Protected speech means different things to different people. If you say censorship in Des Moines it means something than different than if said in Hollywood. Just as we resist attempts by President Bush to dictate to the states how we run our school systems and what kind of welfare programs to have, we need to resist attempts to tell states what kind of speech they can restrict,"

would we call that candidate a "free speech advocate"? I doubt it.

So how does one conclude that this:

Just as we resist attempts by President Bush to dictate to the states how we run our school systems and what kind of welfare programs to have, we need to resist attempts to tell states how to deal with guns beyond existing Federal law,"

is pro-Second Amendment? (Reynolds doesn't specifically say that Dean is pro-Second but the remark is made that Dean's stance places him outside the "gun-prohibitionist mindset of the Democratic Party", which I read as: "pro-Second Amendment").

Of course, there's that pesky: "...beyond existing Federal law" at the tail of Dean's statement. You may delude yourself into believing that "existing Federal law" includes the Second Amendment, but that's hogwash; the Gentle Reader knows darn well that "existing Federal law" means existing restrictions like Brady and the so-called Assault Weapons Ban. Dean makes it clear that he thinks San Francisco should be able to ban handguns but Montana cannot pass a concealed bazooka law.

I see no evidence that Howard Dean supports the Second Amendment.

I see quite the reverse.

UPDATE: Whilst surfing for more I found this, which makes it all crystal clear to me:

No, because in Vermont gun control laws would have no effect whatsoever. They certainly don't seem to have much effect in New York. Although my position is New Yorkers can have as much (gun control) as they want.

-- Howard Dean, 11 August 2003

USNews.com

"Although my position is New Yorkers can have as much (gun control) as they want."

Any questions?

More reasons why Seattle Sucks

Let me clarify. Seattle sucks like a ten-dollar whore on payday. If this town tilted any further to the Left, it would tip over. Want proof? Let's look at what passes for news and entertainment in the town rags, shall we?

First up is a "report" (and I use that term loosely) about American's "misperceptions" of the war in Iraq.

The results show 48 percent incorrectly believed that evidence of links between al-Qaida and Iraq has been found; 22 percent that weapons of mass destruction were found in Iraq; and 25 percent that world opinion favored the United States going to war with Iraq.

So despite Saddam supporting terrorists, a catagory which Al-Queda falls into, and despite the presence of toxins in the Tigris and Euphrates river, and despite having over 40 countries in our coalition of the willing, I guess we're all wrong. Except that if you actually read David Kay's report, you get to find out that we don't have any misperceptions at all! Let's see what Kay's team found, shall we? Words in bold are my emphasis.

We have discovered dozens of WMD-related program activities and significant amounts of equipment that Iraq concealed from the United Nations during the inspections that began in late 2002. The discovery of these deliberate concealment efforts have come about both through the admissions of Iraqi scientists and officials concerning information they deliberately withheld and through physical evidence of equipment and activities that ISG has discovered that should have been declared to the UN. Let me just give you a few examples of these concealment efforts, some of which I will elaborate on later:

A clandestine network of laboratories and safehouses within the Iraqi Intelligence Service that contained equipment subject to UN monitoring and suitable for continuing CBW research.

A prison laboratory complex, possibly used in human testing of BW agents, that Iraqi officials working to prepare for UN inspections were explicitly ordered not to declare to the UN.

Reference strains of biological organisms concealed in a scientist's home, one of which can be used to produce biological weapons.

New research on BW-applicable agents, Brucella and Congo Crimean Hemorrhagic Fever (CCHF), and continuing work on ricin and aflatoxin were not declared to the UN.

Documents and equipment, hidden in scientists' homes, that would have been useful in resuming uranium enrichment by centrifuge and electromagnetic isotope separation (EMIS).

(.....)

Continuing covert capability to manufacture fuel propellant useful only for prohibited SCUD variant missiles, a capability that was maintained at least until the end of 2001 and that cooperating Iraqi scientists have said they were told to conceal from the UN. (missiles that they weren't supposed to have, right? Why did they need fuel for them? RD)

Plans and advanced design work for new long-range missiles with ranges up to at least 1000 km - well beyond the 150 km range limit imposed by the UN. Missiles of a 1000 km range would have allowed Iraq to threaten targets through out the Middle East, including Ankara, Cairo, and Abu Dhabi.

Clandestine attempts between late-1999 and 2002 to obtain from North Korea technology related to 1,300 km range ballistic missiles --probably the No Dong -- 300 km range anti-ship cruise missiles, and other prohibited military equipment.

Who's got the misperceptions now, you fucking brain-dead morons? And for those dipshits screaming "WHERE ARE THEY? why don't you take a look at this:

there are approximately 130 known Iraqi Ammunition Storage Points (ASP), many of which exceed 50 square miles in size and hold an estimated 600,000 tons of artillery shells, rockets, aviation bombs and other ordinance. Of these 130 ASPs, approximately 120 still remain unexamined. As Iraqi practice was not to mark much of their chemical ordinance and to store it at the same ASPs that held conventional rounds, the size of the required search effort is enormous.

So not only do we have a way to go, there's nothing that's marked as WMD. We have to search 600,000 tons of weapons! CAN YOU UNDERSTAND WHAT THAT MEANS? Do you know how long that's going to take just to destroy? Let's see if Drumwaster can tell you what that's like.

600,000 tons of munitions? That means that if we were to destroy 100 tons per day (200,000 pounds per day, or about 8,300 pounds per hour), utterly disregarding weekends, holidays, and religious observances, we would be done some time during the Spring in the year 2020. That's more than 16 years down the road, and that just includes the stuff we know about, without any resupply from nations unfriendly to our own.

But as usual, when the screaming moonbat hoards are proven wrong, they won't admit it. They'll keep drooling and shitting themselves silly trying to sound smart and important. My disgust with the asswipes in this city grows with every day. The last line of that piece brings everything into focus: In any event, both the news media and the audience could use some self-improvement. Luckily, it's never too late; I hear there's a presidential election just 13 months away.

Nah, there's no bias there, right? Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight. The writer of this article is nothing but a bitter, dried-up, worthless, mind-numbingly idiotic snot-nosed partisan fuckwit, and this piece practically drips with her condesending tone. She fits right in with this town.

Oh yeah. That brings me to the second article.

One Palm Beach County stay-at-home mom asked her husband for a divorce this summer, soon after she turned 50. Her reason: She wanted passion, and she felt her time was running out.

"I was not happy in my marriage and hadn't been for years," said Jessica (not her real name). "Right now (at 50) I think I look good, but in 10 years, who knows? I wanted to stay until my children went off to college, but realized that would affect my marketability to the opposite sex."

Her marketability to the opposite sex. What the hell is wrong with people? "Oops, sorry honey, but I gotta get my groove on. Take a hike, and give me alimony, and fuck-you-very-much."

"I told David (not her husband's real name) that he was hazardous to my health, that our sex life was over," Jessica said. "I told him if he wanted a divorce I'd understand. He said nothing. We shared the same bed and didn't touch. Sex with him was like ... what is that movie? 'Gone in 60 Seconds.' "

Right, because it's sooooooo much easier to just dump the man you promised to be with through thick or thin, better or worse, sick or in health, rich or poor, than it is to ACTUALLY WORK THROUGH YOUR DAMNED PROBLEMS! To hell with that woman's kids, she needed to go out and get laid! Yeah, way to go! Fuck the family, she needs a good fucking, so fuck it! Let's forget the fact that the husband was working his ass off to provide for their family! Let's forget the fact that the children deserve a stable home! Let's forget the fact that this woman could have brought home a few books and said "Honey, I want you to try THIS!" and flip open the glossy pages to a picture of a woman in a french maid's outfit spread-eagle on the bed. LET'S JUST TOSS EVERYTHING ASIDE SO THAT THIS WHORE CAN SATISFY HER DAMN LIBIDO!

Far be it for me to deride someone's search for good sex, because I've done it quite a bit myself. BUT I DON'T HAVE ANY KIDS DEPENDING UP TO ME! I didn't have to provide a stable house for anyone but myself! When did it become OK to toss aside your family while you searched for the "Big O"? People wonder why I don't want to get married? Because I've seen to much of this shit. I've been involved in too much of this shit. That woman's kids are going through hell right now. Her husband is probably paying alimony through the nose, maybe child support, all so that fucking bitch can bang some new guy. Forget working through your problems, forget trying to save the marraige, just dump him and get jiggy wid it! Because, like, ya know, if you wait, you might lose your precious MARKETABILITY!

And yet the paper promotes this story as if it's a good thing. "Oh, how wonderfull, women are exploring their sexuality". Gee. Great. Too bad it's at the cost of PEOPLES LIVES! Tossing aside your family and your vows goes over well in Seattle. Just read the damn papers.

All I want is a shotgun and 20 minutes downtown. Is that too much to ask? Is it? Can we just nuke this shithole and rebuild?

Just because....

It fits. And deep down, don't you just want to know?



Which Princess Bride Character are You?
this quiz was made by mysti

Yep.

Clyde sez: America:

- entered war with Germany despite no evidence that Germany was connected to Pearl Harbor,

- has spent over one hundred billion dollars in rebuilding Europe, including billions spent bribing foreign leaders to see life our way, and

- has had troops stationed in the region for almost sixty years after major combat operations ceased.

Clyde concludes that it's a quagmire (though he doesn't use that word, exactly).

He'd have concluded worse, but the uncaring and unfeeling rat didn't have the stones to mention all of the dead civilians.

These Things Happen: Mission NOT Accomplished -- In WWII

"Bring the troops home," eh? Check out what Somalia looks like ten years after President Clinton ran from Mohammed Aidid.

Are you sick of Rush-McNabb yet?

Too bad. Because there's more proof that Rush was right, yet again. From Slate.com:

McNabb has started for the Eagles since the 2000 season. In that time, the Eagles offense has never ranked higher than 10th in the league in yards gained. In fact, their 10th-place rank in 2002 was easily their best; in their two previous seasons, they were 17th in a 32-team league. They rank 31st so far in 2003.

In contrast, the Eagles defense in those four seasons has never ranked lower than 10th in yards allowed. In 2001, they were seventh; in 2002 they were fourth; this year they're fifth. It shouldn't take a football Einstein to see that the Eagles' strength over the past few seasons has been on defense, and Limbaugh is no football Einstein, which is probably why he spotted it.
(......)
Let's look at a quarterback with similar numbers who also plays for a team with a great defense. I don't know anyone who would call Brad Johnson one of the best quarterbacks in pro football—which is how McNabb is often referred to. In fact, I don't know anyone who would call Brad Johnson, on the evidence of his 10-year NFL career, much more than mediocre. Yet, Johnson's NFL career passer rating, as of last Sunday, is 7.3 points higher than McNabb's (84.8 to 77.5), he has completed his passes at a higher rate (61.8 percent to 56.4 percent), and has averaged significantly more yards per pass (6.84 to 5.91). McNabb excels in just one area, running, where he has gained 2,040 yards and scored 14 touchdowns to Johnson's 467 and seven. But McNabb has also been sacked more frequently than Johnson—more than once, on average, per game, which negates much of the rushing advantage.

And the best line is this:

Rush Limbaugh didn't say Donovan McNabb was a bad quarterback because he is black. He said that the media have overrated McNabb because he is black, and Limbaugh is right. He didn't say anything that he shouldn't have said, and in fact he said things that other commentators should have been saying for some time now. I should have said them myself. I mean, if they didn't hire Rush Limbaugh to say things like this, what did they hire him for? To talk about the prevent defense?

Thanks to AlphaPatriot for bringing this to my attention.

The New York Times: Factually Inaccurate???

The New York Times issued a de facto retraction on Saturday after misreporting two days earlier that Arnold Schwarzenegger once said he admired Adolf Hitler for what he did with his power.

NewsMax.com: Inside Cover Story

It's really quite shocking.

What Iraqi children were learning. Found on Right-Thinking

There's good progess in Iraq, says a foreign service officer from Austin, Texas.

Instanpundit has more here, and I sare say YOU MUST READ IT. It is very instructive.

Check out these assholes.

I eat bandwidth for BREAKFAST!

Since I took a few days off, I feel the urge to make up for it. Nah, not really, I've just found lots of stuff I want to share with everyone.

One of those things is Steve, at Little Tiny Lies. Steve is fun to read, if you like snorting coffee out of your nasal passeges while trying to stifle laughter at the office so that your boss doesn't catch you goofing off at work. Need a teaser?

"I have to admit, I love that lower lip thing Bill does. Men are immune, but women eat it up.

Hillary: WILLIAM JEFFERSON CLINTON! WHAT IN THE NAME OF HELL DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING?

Bill: [spreading hot molasses on nude intern handcuffed spreadeagled on Oval Office desk] Baby, I thought you were out of town at the Conference of Dateless Vegan Women Against Leg Shaving!

Intern: Bill, the cuffs...

Hillary: [tongues of fire gushing from her eye sockets as six-inch talons emerge from her fingertips] I HAVE HAD IT WITH YOU! BY THE POWER VESTED IN ME BY SATAN, I CONSIGN YOU TO THE FLAMES OF HELL! [prepares to zap him with a magic ray from her right index claw]

Intern: The CUFFS, Bill.

Bill: Aw, Hillsy...baby...it's not what you think. I came in here lookin' for a box of Mallomars and I found this sweet thing cuffed to the desk, surrounded by slobberin' Republicans. I chased 'em off with my nine iron, and now I'm scrapin' the molasses off her body with this soft pastry brush.

Hillary: How STUPID do you think I AM? [serrated horns spiraling out of her forehead]

Intern: Excellent question, Mrs. C!

Bill: Aw, baby, you know you cain't stay mad at ol' Bill. [bites lower lip]

Hillary: I....I....what are you doing to me....I can actually feel my ovaries throbbing...

Intern: WHOA! I'M OVULATING!

Bill: [biting a little more] I feel your pain, baby.

Hillary: Bill...sweetheart...what's going on? How did I get here? What's that poor girl doing on your desk?

Intern: [mesmerized by Bill's lip] Yeah, what am I doing on your desk?

Bill: I'll tell you all about it in a second, Hillsy, but for now...you are...a CHICKEN!

Hillary: CLUCK CLUCK CLUCK CLUCK CLUCK P-CACKKK!

Intern: CLUCK CLUCK CLUCK CLUCK!

Bill: Not you, stupid."

He did a chili making post that had me laughing my ass off. Trust me. It's good. Too long to cut-and-paste.

And to follow up on my earlier post about information leaks, I give you ..... (drumroll) The American Jingo!

The Democrats making the biggest stink about confidential information being leaked made no comments at all about:
1. 1100 Republican adversary's FBI files showing up in a bodyguard's office during the Clinton Presidency.
2. Linda Tripp's Pentagon employee file being leaked to the press (Lars Erik Nelson to be specific) which was later used to paint her as a shoplifter and thief.
3. Paula Jones' income tax return being leaked so that her "questionable charitable donations" could be used to discredit her in her testimony against Bill Clinton.

Ya smell that? MmHmmmm, it's called HYPOCRISY! And it's a Left-wing staple.

Nobody wants ta play wif me

Since I seem to be the only one here today, I've got some more goodies in my bag here, compliments of the Amazing Kallini Brothers.

First of all, the EU seems to be having problems writing their constitution. Now, far be it for me to snidely remark about the EU demanding that the US start up Iraq's government while they can't even start up their own, so I'll let Christopher do it.

They're having trouble meeting their own 20 month deadline on their chaotic mess of a constitution, and some of them, France particularly, are demanding we hand over Iraqi sovereignty immediately, and Powell's pushing for a 6 month constitutional deadline.

How about Europe cleans up its own backyard before offering us nation-building advice, eh?

I'm still waiting for Bush to tell Chiraq "Shut the hell up, you back-stabbing yellowbellied waste of oxygen", but hey, that's just me.

Want some more? Good, because the political donation graphics are out. And it's not pretty for the Donks. There are three different articles here.

Number one:

The study also found that Democrats were far more reliant than Republicans on deep-pocketed givers in the 2002 election cycle, and were much less successful than the GOP at raising money from donors giving small amounts. The findings were released today at an event launching the Center's comprehensive study of the effects of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act, commonly called the McCain-Feingold law.

Number two is a chart of donation demographics. Check out the "under $200" vs. the "over $1,000,000". Yep.

And Number three:

More than one million new people have donated to the Republican Party since George W. Bush was sworn in as president in January of 2001, shattering the previous record set by former President Ronald Reagan. Their average contribution is less than $30.

Have fun!

And just for fun

Ladies and Gentleman, Mark Steyn.

After all, this is a paper that has never lowered itself to print many of the credibly sourced remarks attributed to President Clinton by those on the receiving end of his attentions (''You might want to put some ice on that''). But the lofty ethics bores of American journalism apparently have no problem with opening up their front page for anonymous uncorroborated accusations of ancient improper advances. In that case, did I mention the time Gray Davis grabbed me by the crotch and whispered in my ear, ''Have you ever had a man tax you up the wazoo?''

Oh yeah, baby.

By the way...

In all the hype over the CIA analyst supposedly being "outed", I wonder how many of the hypocritical Donks were upset about one of their own?

In 1995, then-Rep. Robert G. Torricelli, Democrat of New Jersey, was told by a State Department employee that a paid CIA informant, Guatemalan Col. Julio Roberto Alpirez, was involved in the killing of the husband of an American citizen.

Of course, the Torch, being a true Democrat, is now in jail for assorted crimes, including fraud and accepting bribes, if my memory serves me. And let's not forget how the Torch hamstrung the CIA in order to make his girlfriend happy.

In 1995, then-Rep. Robert Torricelli, D-N.J., made secrets public at the behest of left-wing activist Bianca Jagger, his girlfriend at the time, according to Newark Star-Ledger columnist Paul Mulshine in the January/February issue of Heterodoxy.

It seems like the Donks are the party of allowing a sex drive to determine national policy. "Oh yeah baby, don't worry, the CIA won't be bothering anyone anymore, now take your pants off!"

Still, Torricelli efforts paid off with the Clinton administration, which moved to ban the use of spies or the recruitment of spies that had any involvement with criminals or terrorists.

Torricelli effectively blinded the CIA.

It was about the time of this well-publicized incident that the CIA’s slide into a deteriorated human intelligence capability accelerated.

And it's not just Torricelli, it's seemingly everyone on the Donk's side of the ball.

Recalling the messy Torricelli-Nuccio-Alpirez affair, security-minded Americans can at least take solace that then-CIA director John Deutch was on the ball when it comes to protecting classified information, right?

Wrong again! George Tenet, Deutch's successor as CIA director, announced in August 1999 that he had stripped Deutch of his CIA security clearance as a penalty for keeping classified documents on ordinary home computers that were not protected by locks, encryption or other security devices.

So a former head of the CIA had confidential material on his UNPROTECTED, UNENCRYPTED HOME COMPUTER???? This is the Democrats, folks. They play at foreign policy, they play at security, they PLAY at caring about America. But they only care about themselves. Put a Donk in charge, and they'll just hand the keys over to the dictators at the UN. American soverienty? You can forget about it, should Dean or Clark get in the White House. And should either of them get elected, it won't be long before there's another terrorist attack on our soil.

Believe it.

Leftist violence

Couple of things this morning that caught my eye. The first was a news article about an EU summit in Rome, where protesters (once again) have started riots.

Italian riot police fired tear gas and wielded batons Saturday to break up a protest by anti-globalisation demonstrators outside a summit in Rome where European leaders were mulling a new EU constitution.

Hundreds of officers fought a running battle with activists along a broad avenue within 300 metres (yards) of the summit venue on the outskirts of Rome, an AFP correspondent on the scene said.

"Hey Pablo, we need to tell the politicians that we don't agree with what they're saying!"
"I agree, Luigi! Let's go break that window and trash a bank!"
"Wonderfull, Pablo! That'll show em!"

All you brain-dead lefties, take a note: Breaking public property, vandalizing private property, causing riots and millions of dollars worth of damage while attacking cops DOES NOT MAKE YOUR POINT AT ALL! All it does is make me want to patrol the riot zone with a baseball bat and pepperspray! It would be sooooooooo easy! All I would have to do is walk around and every now and then shout out "Bush is a Nazi!" then wait for the first drooling lemming-like simpleton to scream "YESYESYES" in a mentally deficient orgasm of delight. WHACK! Next! You feces flinging morons are so far out of your depth you would drown in a sidewalk puddle! And when all else fails, you destroy shit. You have no logic on your side, no facts, no NOTHING, so you break shit and start riots. Wonderfull. Way to go, you stupid sheeple. Keep going, you're proving EVERY SINGLE ONE OF MY POINTS every time you do this.

I can see Bush in his debate next year. "Well, Ah wunder if y'all really wanna be represented by folks with THESE kinda people backin' them." (flash to videos of rioting moonbats)

The next is a blog brought to my attention by Kim du Toit, one of the few people I make time to read every day. Bush's speeches and words have been twisted around by the Left so horribly that I have to go back and read transcripts of his actuall speeches before I read the Donk's interpretations. One example is the "imminent threat" bullshit. Bush never stated that there was an imminent threat. In fact, he stated that we should deal with Saddam BEFORE the threat was imminent. And from Shot In The Dark, we have more of the liberal lying bullshit.

And I just love the first line:

Yesterday on CNN I saw Nancy Pelosi's harsh visage scowling at me through the TV screen like an avenging comparative women's lit professor.

And then it just gets better. It's too long to post much, so I urge you to go read it. It's well worth it.

Be back later, folks.

Some folks not named Limbaugh consider McNabb to be overrated as well.

More About McNabb

When McNabb was negotiating a contract in 1999, his agent, Fletcher Smith, accused the Eagles of discriminating against McNabb because he is black.

Negotiations ceased for two days this week after Smith's comments about race playing a role in the talks aired on a cable television show. Smith cited white quarterbacks who got voidable contracts and a black quarterback, Steve McNair, who didn't.

McNabb agrees to terms with Eagles - Saturday, 7/31/99

More:

And this is why, when agent Fletcher Smith levied charges of racism against the Philadelphia Eagles this week, I could not dismiss it. As a white person, I am in no position to reject Smith's perception. If he feels his client, Donovan McNabb, is being discriminated against because he is black, then there is little I can do to convince him otherwise.

Smith is negotiating with whites, and he has noticed that white quarterbacks in similar positions to McNabb's have received different treatment. The only quarterback who had been treated like this was Steve McNair, who is also black. Smith put two and two together and, in his mind, got four.

The only problem is that everyone else, including McNabb himself, thinks Smith has done the math wrong. The Eagles are not a racist organization; in fact, they have one of the best track records for hiring minorities in all of football.
.
.
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McNabb, meanwhile, is in damage control mode, calling Comcast SportsNet on his own to set the record straight. He knows he's already gotten off to a bad start with Eagles fans because he's not Ricky Williams, and he doesn't want to get into a protracted standoff with the Eagles by throwing around charges of racism. He knows the Eagles aren't racist. If they were racist, they wouldn't have picked him No. 2 overall.

Perceiving Racism Where We Hope It's Not There (Eagles: 7/28/99)

Hurricane Isabel dropped frog eggs on Connecticut.

Size 21 boots???

7' 4" ex-Indiana Pacer has taken up motocross.

Smits didn’t choose the Maico 490cc he races because the two share similar roots in the Netherlands. He chose it because it filled a tall order.

“It’s one of the tallest bikes built and it probably fits me the best of all the bikes out there,” said the 7-4 Smits, who averaged 14.8 points and 6.1 rebounds over the course of his career with the Pacers.

He raced his first motocross event in Casey, IL, in May of 2001, despite the fact that he couldn’t find motocross boots in a size 21. Since then, he has become better equipped, has notched “a few wins,” and is a serious competitor for national and regional points championships in his divisions.

Teenager photographs meteor over Wales.

Michael Moore says the recall sucks.

Forget trying to win over the angry white guys who make up less than a quarter of the vote; they already have their candidate. He has to inspire young people with a promise that he will take from the rich and give to those in need of a college education.

Nice, eh? Imagine if Limbaugh said, ah nevermind.

A Recall Election? Been There, Won That at Age 18

The Council Has Spoken!

The winning entries in the Watcher's Council vote for this week are Money is NOT the Answer! by Alpha Patriot, and Michael Moore's Call to Arms by Brain Terminal.

Find full results here.

It's time to vote in Dilbert.com's 2003 Weasel Awards. This is your chance to shine the spotlight of public ridicule on the weasels that deserve it most.

Proof that Fox News isn't Conservative!


One of the arguments that Liberals have always used in the "what Liberal media" argument is that since the mainstream media covered Bill Clinton's scandals, they must not be Liberal!!! There is no media bias -- except for Fox News. Yup, ABC and CNN are fair and impartial, but Fox News: by golly, that's a biased network...

Here you have it. Front page coverage on Arnold Schwarzenegger's dirt on -- Fox News! Story on Arnold from Fox News This morning and all yesterday evening, Fox News's front page story was Arnold's alleged sexual misconduct. Before that, in the afternoon, it was Rush Limbaugh's alleged abuse of oxycontin. Both of them are potentially damaging stories -- especially Rush's drug abuse. And Fox isn't just giving them a passing mention. They are the lead stories of the day.

Look! I just proved that Fox News isn't Conservative! (using Liberal logic, of course)

Oh m'dear Jesus - Bill Maher is right. Or, errrr, correct.

Slate on Limbaugh and McNabb

So far, no black quarterback has been able to dominate a league in which the majority of the players are black. To pretend that many of us didn’t want McNabb to be the best quarterback in the NFL because he’s black is absurd. To say that we shouldn’t root for a quarterback to win because he’s black is every bit as nonsensical as to say that we shouldn’t have rooted for Jackie Robinson to succeed because he was black.

Defending Limbaugh

Limbaugh & McNabb

First of all: a pox on Limbaugh for resigning after telling the rest of us to stand up to the Leftist Speech Bullies for the past ten years.

Now, the nitty gritty:

What I find to be most irritating about this is this: in the lexicon of the Left, Limbaugh complimented the media; he said something nice about them. He said they support blacks. He said they want black quarterbacks to succeed, because they are black. For this Rush is labeled "racist".

But is what he said indicative of racism? Was he furthering racism? Or was he, in effect, furthering Affirmative Action?

Since the author believes there is a corollary between it and what Limbaugh said, let us briefly examine Affirmative Action. If I understand it in summary, Affirmative Action is about taking heartfelt action to help blacks succeed. Its chief tenet is that one is less likely to be prejudices once one meets people unlike one's self. A lot of people now accept this as factual or find themselves forced to accept it.

To wit:

Toyota kowtowed to Rainbow PUSH and agreed to find more blacks for senior management. Would it be correct to say that Toyota hires blacks for social reasons? I think it is safe to conclude so, BECAUSE TOYOTA TRUMPETS THE FACT THAT THEY DO IT.

The University of Michigan gives points to minorities when evaluating student application. Would it be correct to say that the University of Michigan admits blacks for social reasons? I think it is safe to conclude so, BECAUSE UM TRUMPETS THE FACT THAT THEY DO IT.

The NFL readily admits that they are committed to do the same. The NFL admist that they have an Affirmative Action program, a process by which blacks are given support so that they can succeed.

So why are Liberals frothing over the Limbaugh-voiced notion that the sports media want a black quarterback to succeed? Isn't it good for everyone if more black quarterbacks succeed? Forget not: we're talking about an NFL that this year fined the Detroit Lions for not interviewing a black candidate for their head coach opening.

Read that again: The NFL fined the Detroit Lions for not interviewing a black candidate for their head coach opening.

But whether Rush was factually correct doesn't really matter, of course, and therein lies the rub. Earlier this year, Dusty Baker said blacks play better than whites in hot weather. Isaiah Thomas once said that Larry Bird was idolized because he's white (read Reggie White omnioffensive comments there, too).

Here's Richard William, Venus' and Serena's father:

"The white people at Indian Wells, said what they've been wanting to say to us all along: 'Nigger, stay away from here, we don't want you here,"' said Williams." It's the worst act of prejudice I've seen since they killed Martin Luther King."

Click here for that story.

Harry Belafonte called the Secretary of State a house slave, for Chrissakes. Clarence Thomas is routinely called a "Tom".

Seemingly, it's okay to make sweeping and general remarks about folks based simply upon skin color.

Seemingly.

But not now.

And certainly not Rush.

I find it to be instructive that whether the statement was accurate or not seems immaterial to those who have excoriated Limbaugh. As for us, let's examine:

Was Rush right? Are there elements in media who openly or privately wish black quarterbacks to be successful?

Click and find out: Google Search for "black NFL quarterbacks barrier ".

Yeah.

Rush was right.

People are rooting for black quarterbacks.

But it was Rush who said it, and lots of people hate him, so it doesn't matter whether he is right or not, because he's white and Conservative. He stepped willingly into the breech, and the same people who called the Dixie Chicks boycott and Garofalo cancellation "unpatriotic" have slammed the breech closed on Limbaugh's head.

I guess the next question is: Why aren't we used to this?

North Korea says it is using plutonium to make bombs



Boy it's a good thing that Jimmy Carter solved this problem, isn't it?

Joseph Wilson's wife

Was her name ever a secret? If so why did JOE have her maiden name listed on his website?

Let me venture a guess.

Joey and Valerie HATE G.W. Not too much of a stretch considering this quote

"Neo-conservatives and religious conservatives have hijacked this administration, and I consider myself on a personal mission to destroy both."

Fightin' words if there ever were. According to Bob Novak, "During the run-up to the invasion of Iraq, Joey had taken a measured public position -- viewing weapons of mass destruction as a danger but considering military action as a last resort." Valerie sends Joey to Niger in February of 2002 to follow up on some "intel". He sips some tea and bull-shits with friends and then comes home with a report the CIA finds less than definative. Almost a year later Joey will use this report to take on 16 words in the Presidents SOTU address. Ends up the Brits stand by their info and the statement remains supported despite the efforts of Joey and Valerie.

About 5 months later Robert Novak writes an article examinging the reasoning for Wilson's trip. Quoting "two senior administration officials" that suggested Wilson's wife suggested sending him. He also mentions Valerie's position as "(Central Intelligence) Agency operative on weapons of mass destruction" in his article. Later Novak admits that she is only an analyst. It is relevant only because of the current stink kicked up the donks and their buddies Joey and Valerie in the media. They don't think Valerie should have been "named". They said it was a "smear" tactic by the Karl Rove. Proof? Oh they don't have any proof that Karl had anything to do with this "leak", but that won't stop them from SMEARING HIS NAME! Joey later retracted the accusation.
As mentioned previously Idiot_Joey has his wife's name listed on his web page. And beyond that Novak said the CIA confirmed Valeries name. Time quoted "government officials". OH, But it's such a secret!!! Not that Valerie the analyst was in danger, or that she was outed knowingly. How dare anyone speak her name!!!! Assholes. Anyway back to the story. Joe, his buddies in the DNC and their ass-muppets in the media all decide to make a stink of it.

In response Novak said:

"I had thought I never again would write about retired diplomat Joseph Wilson's CIA-employee wife, but feel constrained to do so now that repercussions of my July 14 column have reached the front pages of major newspapers and led off network news broadcasts. My role and the role of the Bush White House have been distorted and need explanation.

The leak now under Justice Department investigation is described by former Ambassador Wilson and critics of President Bush's Iraq policy as a reprehensible effort to silence them. To protect my own integrity and credibility, I would like to stress three points. First, I did not receive a planned leak. Second, the CIA never warned me that the disclosure of Wilson's wife working at the agency would endanger her or anybody else. Third, it was not much of a secret.

The current Justice investigation stems from a routine, mandated probe of all CIA leaks, but follows weeks of agitation. Wilson, after telling me in July that he would say nothing about his wife, has made investigation of the leak his life's work -- aided by the relentless Sen. Charles Schumer of New York. These efforts cannot be separated from the massive political assault on President Bush.

This story began July 6 when Wilson went public and identified himself as the retired diplomat who had reported negatively to the CIA in 2002 on alleged Iraq efforts to buy uranium yellowcake from Niger. I was curious why a high-ranking official in President Bill Clinton's National Security Council (NSC) was given this assignment. Wilson had become a vocal opponent of President Bush's policies in Iraq after contributing to Al Gore in the last election cycle and John Kerry in this one.

During a long conversation with a senior administration official, I asked why Wilson was assigned the mission to Niger. He said Wilson had been sent by the CIA's counterproliferation section at the suggestion of one of its employees, his wife. It was an offhand revelation from this official, who is no partisan gunslinger. When I called another official for confirmation, he said: "Oh, you know about it." The published report that somebody in the White House failed to plant this story with six reporters and finally found me as a willing pawn is simply untrue.

At the CIA, the official designated to talk to me denied that Wilson's wife had inspired his selection but said she was delegated to request his help. He asked me not to use her name, saying she probably never again will be given a foreign assignment but that exposure of her name might cause "difficulties" if she travels abroad. He never suggested to me that Wilson's wife or anybody else would be endangered. If he had, I would not have used her name. I used it in the sixth paragraph of my column because it looked like the missing explanation of an otherwise incredible choice by the CIA for its mission.

How big a secret was it? It was well known around Washington that Wilson's wife worked for the CIA. Republican activist Clifford May wrote Monday, in National Review Online, that he had been told of her identity by a non-government source before my column appeared and that it was common knowledge. Her name, Valerie Plame, was no secret either, appearing in Wilson's "Who's Who in America" entry.

A big question is her duties at Langley. I regret that I referred to her in my column as an "operative," a word I have lavished on hack politicians for more than 40 years. While the CIA refuses to publicly define her status, the official contact says she is "covered" -- working under the guise of another agency. However, an unofficial source at the Agency says she has been an analyst, not in covert operations.

The Justice Department investigation was not requested by CIA Director George Tenet. Any leak of classified information is routinely passed by the Agency to Justice, averaging one a week. This investigative request was made in July shortly after the column was published. Reported only last weekend, the request ignited anti-Bush furor."

And now an "unidentified Senior Administration Official" is quoted in the WaPo as saying that 2 "unidentified White House officials", talked to 6 unidentified members of the press. WHO!?!?

We have the words of a critic of President Bush making outrageous claims and then withdrawing them, and we have unnamed reporters and sources being quoted. Who's really being "smeared" by the media?! That's right! President Bush and his administration. This is a political hit with all the usual suspects piling on the usual target. Now that we get a few bits of the good news happening in Iraq, their focus shifts to the NEXT negative publicity debacle they've created! I hope it backfires on them!

I'm sure there will be more as the investigation continues.

Got unwanted popups? System kinda slow booting on Monday morning? Ever hear your hard drive spinning when you ain't doin' jack? Maybe you have spyware, scumware, or malware. If that's the case, Ad-aware Plus is one of the coolest pieces of software I have ever seen. Just the very thing to but the kibosh on those humps out there who make a living invading your computer. I ain't getting paid to say that, either.

I got mine! This thing is a spitting image of the CIC. It has been given great attention to detail, and the presentation (packaging) is first class. I think this is a fantastic way to commemorate a great speech by a great man in a momement of victory and honor for our nation. I'm gettin' another!

Bill Sammon's "At Any Cost: How Al Gore Tried to Steal the Election"



Sorry for the absence. I must admit I got a little bored with tearing apart liberal arguments and ideology. I needed a breather. *SIGH* That's better. The book!

I watched this play out on TV, but Bill does such a good job elaborating on even the smallest news stories and putting the facts together, that I consider this a must read. Remember the "stolen" ballots in Volusia County? Who knew that that it started with some stupid fuckin' donks accusation against an innocent woman because of her overnight bag and ended with the police traumatizing her mentally challenged brother? Better yet! Remember all those people in the Florida pan handle that went home because they called the state for Gore before the polls closed in that region!?!? The donk's media ass-muppets served them well! How about Boise. Remember that asshole? Remember how all his venomous lies and exaggerations still netted him only 2 of 9 Supreme Court Justices that saw no equal protection problems with the constantly changing standards of the hand recounts? Come one. Come all. Take a trip down memory lane. It never hurts to remind one's self how a desperate pathetic asshole drug the country through insanity and beyond, discounted the ballots of our military men and women, dimpled chads, and put the nation dead last in his concentric circles of Goreness in his scorched earth attempt to steal the Presidency of the United States from George W. Bush! Fuck you Al! :D

Need more regarding Iraq - Al-Qaeda connections? Wizblog has some lengthy and link-filled words for you. It makes the head spin, it really does, and when I get to the end and see the stuff about Iraq & Oklahoma City...

Nice amongst all the high falutin' and high energy political boosheet to see some downhome Americana: Redneck kids at the range

NEWS BULLETIN: ROOSEVELT LIED US INTO WAR!!

A reminder from: Horsefeathers

Why so much bad press from Iraq?

I'll let someone who was actually there explain it. As usual, eyes on the ground are better than the talking heads back home.

"If we hadn't been to Iraq, we'd be really depressed right now. I came back, saw the news and thought, `Are they talking about the same Iraq?'" Is this, I wonder, because the media can only deal with Arabs as victims or terrorists? The IPO members don't think so. Rather, Yasser says, there are several reasons why the reporting from Iraq is stressing the negative over the positive. "First, buildings being bombed is a much better story than the formation of the Baghdad city council to clear up the rubbish and sort out the sewers. Angry Iraqis make a better story than hopeful Iraqis."

"Second, a lot of the media was openly anti-war, so now that there are hundreds of thousands of mass graves being opened up and all the evidence shows that the Iraqis supported [the war], the media are latching on to the few things, like the looting and, of course, the weapons issue - that was always a red herring - that seem to vindicate their position. And third - I know this sounds like a petty point, but it's very important - a lot of journalists are using the same guides and translators that they used before the war, because they know them. They don't seem to realise that those people were carefully selected by the regime because of their loyalty to Saddam's line. So most journalists are getting a totally distorted picture."

Yet another article that needs to be read, found through USS Clueless. Also found through USS Clueless is this site, featuring a question I have wanted to scream for a while now, but couldn't find the words.

While these people talk out of one side of their mouths about how important the UN is, they ignore the fact that this particular tyrant, unlike the others they seem to be so much more concerned about, had accrued seventeen UN Security Council resolutions against himself in the last twelve years, with UNSC Resolution 1441 giving Iraq "a final opportunity to comply with its disarmament obligations under relevant resolutions of the Council". If the UN is so important to these people, its words and judgements so sacred and lofty, why don't they think those judgements should be enforced? Why does the fact that Iraq failed to "cooperate immediately, unconditionally, and actively" with UNSC Resolution 1441, as said resolution demanded, not matter to these people?

Indeed! Which is it, Lefties? Is the UN important enough to enforce it's own resolutions, or does the UN carry so little weight that it's resolutions can and should be discarded and/or ignored?

Power

It's Bill Whittle's new essay. Someday, when Bill puts out his book, I'm going to buy several copies of it. And then I will force-feed those copies to the drones here in Seattle. I only wish I could write half as well as Bill does.

Only a total rank tool would poopoo the notion that a White House official leaked the name of an undercover CIA agent for political payback. The notion is really kind of disgusting.

But have you noted that the same people getting most upset are the same ones who think that "the people have a right to know" what is going on in Iraq and Afghanistan? The same press who used to pressure Schwartzkopf for troop deployment information are now aghast that one name got named.

Ah, well. Maybe i am mistaken.

Tried French's GourMayo Wasabi Horseradish Mayonnaise yet? It's excellent.

Leftist Agenda!

Get yer leftist agenda right here!

Courtesy of A Little More To The Right, we find out just what the Leftist agenda is. It was written down in a book. The title of the book is "The Naked Communist" by Cleon Skousen. It's a damn checklist, with several of the points already taken care of. Seriously. This book was entered into the Congressional record in 1963. Let's check out what's happened since then.

CURRENT COMMUNIST GOALS (all emphasis mine)

1. U.S. acceptance of coexistence as the only alternative to atomic war.
2. U.S. willingness to capitulate in preference to engaging in atomic war.
3. Develop the illusion that total disarmament [by] the United States would be a demonstration of moral strength.
4. Permit free trade between all nations regardless of Communist affiliation and regardless of whether or not items could be used for war.
5. Extension of long-term loans to Russia and Soviet satellites.
6. Provide American aid to all nations regardless of Communist domination.
7. Grant recognition of Red China. Admission of Red China to the U.N.
8. Set up East and West Germany as separate states in spite of Khrushchev's promise in 1955 to settle the German question by free elections under supervision of the U.N. (although we took care of that later. RD)
9. Prolong the conferences to ban atomic tests because the United States has agreed to suspend tests as long as negotiations are in progress.
10. Allow all Soviet satellites individual representation in the U.N.
11. Promote the U.N. as the only hope for mankind. If its charter is rewritten, demand that it be set up as a one-world government with its own independent armed forces. (Some Communist leaders believe the world can be taken over as easily by the U.N. as by Moscow. Sometimes these two centers compete with each other as they are now doing in the Congo.)
12. Resist any attempt to outlaw the Communist Party.
13. Do away with all loyalty oaths. (The Left is working on this one. Pledge of Allegience, anyone? RD)
14. Continue giving Russia access to the U.S. Patent Office.
15. Capture one or both of the political parties in the United States.
16. Use technical decisions of the courts to weaken basic American institutions by claiming their activities violate civil rights.
17. Get control of the schools. Use them as transmission belts for socialism and current Communist propaganda. Soften the curriculum. Get control of teachers' associations. Put the party line in textbooks.
18. Gain control of all student newspapers. (It's not ALL yet, but close. RD)
19. Use student riots to foment public protests against programs or organizations which are under Communist attack.
20. Infiltrate the press. Get control of book-review assignments, editorial writing, policymaking positions.
21. Gain control of key positions in radio, TV, and motion pictures.
22. Continue discrediting American culture by degrading all forms of artistic expression. An American Communist cell was told to "eliminate all good sculpture from parks and buildings, substitute shapeless, awkward and meaningless forms." (A crucifix in a bottle of piss is considered "art". Need I say more? RD)
23. Control art critics and directors of art museums. "Our plan is to promote ugliness, repulsive, meaningless art."
24. Eliminate all laws governing obscenity by calling them "censorship" and a violation of free speech and free press. ("virtual" kiddy porn, anyone? RD)
25. Break down cultural standards of morality by promoting pornography and obscenity in books, magazines, motion pictures, radio, and TV.
26. Present homosexuality, degeneracy and promiscuity as "normal, natural, healthy."
27. Infiltrate the churches and replace revealed religion with "social" religion. Discredit the Bible and emphasize the need for intellectual maturity which does not need a "religious crutch." (Not so much in the USA, but in other countries. RD)
28. Eliminate prayer or any phase of religious expression in the schools on the ground that it violates the principle of "separation of church and state."
29. Discredit the American Constitution by calling it inadequate, old-fashioned, out of step with modern needs, a hindrance to cooperation between nations on a worldwide basis.
30. Discredit the American Founding Fathers. Present them as selfish aristocrats who had no concern for the "common man."
31. Belittle all forms of American culture and discourage the teaching of American history on the ground that it was only a minor part of the "big picture." Give more emphasis to Russian history since the Communists took over.
32. Support any socialist movement to give centralized control over any part of the culture--education, social agencies, welfare programs, mental health clinics, etc.
33. Eliminate all laws or procedures which interfere with the operation of the Communist apparatus.
34. Eliminate the House Committee on Un-American Activities.
35. Discredit and eventually dismantle the FBI.
36. Infiltrate and gain control of more unions. (Note the word "more". They already controled several by then. RD)
37. Infiltrate and gain control of big business.
38. Transfer some of the powers of arrest from the police to social agencies. Treat all behavioral problems as psychiatric disorders which no one but psychiatrists can understand [or treat].
39. Dominate the psychiatric profession and use mental health laws as a means of gaining coercive control over those who oppose Communist goals. (He's not evil! We just have to understand him better! Riiiiiiiiiight. RD)
40. Discredit the family as an institution. Encourage promiscuity and easy divorce.
41. Emphasize the need to raise children away from the negative influence of parents. Attribute prejudices, mental blocks and retarding of children to suppressive influence of parents.
42. Create the impression that violence and insurrection are legitimate aspects of the American tradition; that students and special-interest groups should rise up and use ["]united force["] to solve economic, political or social problems. (Michael Moore, anyone? RD)
43. Overthrow all colonial governments before native populations are ready for self-government.
44. Internationalize the Panama Canal. (Thank you, Jimmy "Fucking Idiot" Carter! RD)
45. Repeal the Connally reservation so the United States cannot prevent the World Court from seizing jurisdiction [over domestic problems. Give the World Court jurisdiction] over nations and individuals alike.

How much more are we going to give up? Let's not forget that this is an ideology that has killed over 100,000,000 FRIGGING PEOPLE!

But gee, they think that it just hasn't been "done right" yet.

The only good communist is a dead communist.

The New Scientist explains why spaghetti breaks into three pieces when you bend it. Don't even try to tell me you haven't been wondering.

Bill Hobbs has this to say about the CIA name "leak":

After writing that the outing of a covert agent by a federal official is a serious crime punishable by 10 years in prison, The Tennessean says journalistic ethics allow journalists to, in effect, harbor the felon. Sorry, but journalists are not above the law. If a crime was committed, the journalists have a responsibility to provide law enforcement with the evidence they have.

HobbsOnline A.M.

He's got a point, doesn't he? Why go through a $20,000,000 investigation when all that is needed is for one of the six journalists to step up and name the leaker?

Here the Left are caught in a real quandary - find the criminal leak or protect journalist.

I agree with Hobbs; they will do the latter since it will keep the story alive. They don't like the CIA anyway.

Even in Lebanon, they see the media untruths

But there is something disturbing, too, about the way opponents of the war have portrayed events in Iraq. Visceral distrust of Bush and his sidekick, British Prime Minister Tony Blair, has brought with it a disregard both for facts and for the victims of the Iraqi tyrant, Saddam Hussein. Arab commentators have had no shame in urging their Iraqi brothers, exhausted by three major wars and more than a decade of sanctions, to start a new war “of liberation” against their liberators. Western commentators critical of the war have luxuriated in the failures of the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) ­ failures that condemn Iraqis to protracted hardship.

Disaster has been prophesied, self-servingly, at every turn: The war would be protracted (it wasn’t, and most Iraqis had no direct experience of it); tens of thousands would die in the battle for Baghdad (they didn’t); and now, in the words of a British Arabist, “even the most optimistic and moderate Iraqis fear the very real prospect of civil war.

Ready for the truth? Iraq is getting better

Amazing. In Lebanon, they see the good. In America, they report the bad.

The scourge that is Microsoft Word.

A Belgian court convicted 18 men today in the biggest trial of Al Qaeda suspects arrested in Europe after the Sept. 11 attacks two years ago, handing down a 10-year sentence to a former pro soccer player who confessed to plotting a bomb attack against a U.S. military base in Belgium.

National Ammo Day

OK, it's actually National Ammo WEEK, but let's not get picky. What is it? Simple.

You go out and buy 100 round of ammo. Any kind. Doesn't matter. If you don't own a gun but know someone who does, buy some ammo for them. Buy more than 100 rounds if you can. Why should you do this?

Take it away, Kim.

When The Mrs. and I came up with the concept of National Ammo Day last year, my intent was to make it a big slap in the face of the gun-fearing wussy politicians who would attempt to strangle gun ownership through exhorbitant taxation of ammo -- no point in taxing ammo sales when everyone in the country has enough spare ammo to last a couple of generations, right?

The key words in the last paragraph are big slap in the face, with "big" as the most significant.

I say, let's get this thing rolling! Hit the website, check it out, talk it up. I'm going to take it to the local stores and see what I can do.

Let's do it!

From the Files of "Why?"

As in "Why can't the press in this country actually report what's going on in Iraq when a paper in freaking LEBANON can?"

Disaster has been prophesied, self-servingly, at every turn: The war would be protracted (it wasn’t, and most Iraqis had no direct experience of it); tens of thousands would die in the battle for Baghdad (they didn’t); and now, in the words of a British Arabist, “even the most optimistic and moderate Iraqis fear the very real prospect of civil war.”
Not those I know. Not yet.

You think you'll ever see that in the New York Times? Nope. Not as long as they can try to discredit Bush.

The voice of Iraqis who supported war over continued tyranny has been hushed from the very beginning. Organizers of the great anti-war demonstrations in Britain confiscated banners saying “Freedom for Iraq” and seized photographs of the victims of Halabja, the Kurdish town where Saddam’s army gassed 5,000 civilians. No space was given to people like Freshta Raper, who lost 21 relatives in Halabja and wanted to ask: “How many protestors have asked an Iraqi mother how she felt when she was forced to watch her son being executed? How many know that these mothers had to applaud as their sons died ­ or be executed themselves? What is more moral? Freeing an oppressed, brutalized people from a vicious tyrant or allowing millions to continue suffering indefinitely?”

Why didn't we hear about these people during the coverage of those anti-war protests? Nah, no left wing bias in the press here! Eric Alterman, your proctologist called. He found your head.

In mid-summer, I spent over a month in Iraq. What I found there did not correspond to what was being reported ­ most crucially, that the liberators were widely perceived as occupiers. That simply wasn’t true. In Baghdad, where US forces had permitted widespread looting (although not as much as reported) and where security and services were virtually nonexistent, attitudes toward the Americans were mixed. But even in Baghdad, even with Saddam and his sons still lurking in the shadows, the sense of relief at the toppling of the regime was palpable.

Quagmire! Another Viet Nam! Bullshit!

It is worth stating the obvious, so momentous is it: For the first time in almost half a century, Iraq has no executions, no political prisoners, no torture and no limits on freedom of expression. Having a satellite dish no longer means going to jail or being executed. There are over 167 newspapers and magazines that need no police permit and suffer no censorship, over 70 political parties and dozens of NGOs. Old professional associations have held elections and new associations have sprung up. People can demonstrate freely ­ and do.

Which is something that France, Germany and the UN didn't want. Independant thinkers don't make good subjects.

Silent Running had the scoop, as well as a quote from some asshat named Jacques Derrida. Read what Derrida has to say, if you can. It was summed up very nicely in the comments by Rabidfox. "In this case, all those words to say: "Sep 11 gets into the way of what I want to believe so it isn't important and you shouldn't think it's importan either."

Hell, that sums up quite a bit of the Donks in this country.

As a followup to Dave's essay on On Sensible Forest Management, there's this regarding ecoextorters and their rancid methods.

Another activity of the Alliance has been its attack on Staples. In a fund-raising letter, it called this company "the largest forest destroyer in the South" and said the office supply chain was responsible for filling up the nation’s landfills with forest products. The letter demanded that Staples stop "financing the destruction of forests" through its buying, marketing and selling of paper products. Mike Hardiman, Public Interest Watch’s president, accurately notes that "This is not education. It’s extortion." Indeed, PIW doesn’t challenge the Alliance’s right to advocate its agenda, but rather its violation of the rules they agreed to when they received their tax-exempt status.

The Dogwood Alliance has partnered with groups like the Ruckus Society, perhaps best known for the mayhem they organized on the streets of Seattle during the last World Trade Organization. Using the Ruckus Society, the Alliance has funded protests, intimidation and "direct action" against Staples stores and customers. Staples caved in, agreeing to the Alliance’s demands. In December 2000, the Alliance turned its attention to Staples’ competitor, OfficeMax, threatening to unleash its storm troopers on them.

Capitalism Magazine: The Tax-Exempt Destruction of our Forests by Alan Caruba

A Victory for the Civilized

If I had the time, I could write as much as Austin Bay. Maybe not as well, but surely as much.

Like so many other Al Qaeda big-shots, Hambali put up minimal resistance when the CIA and Thai police nabbed him in Bangkok, Thailand. He wore a t-shirt and shorts. Life on the lam required other sacrifices. He'd also shaved his jihadi beard. Now he's chatting up interrogators about JI's plans for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Bangkok October 20-21, which President George W. Bush will attend. JI targeted two hotels for bomb attacks.

Could Hambali be lying? Sure, but bet what he says dovetails with other intelligence.

There's another reason he's talking -- in his gut he's a peculiar kind of coward. I'm constantly struck by the discrepancy between top-dog terrorists' fight-to-the-death bombast and their growing record of surrender. The round-faced Hambali went with a sigh, not suicidal grenades. Osama bin Laden-inspired terrorists claim to fight their war to redeem cosmic iniquity. The meek Hambali-in-shorts was almost comic, except the little thug is so heinously soaked in blood there is no humor, only bitter justice.

A Victory For the Civilized - On Point Commentary by Austin Bay  StrategyPage.com

Want Links? Porphy summarizes the Global War and gives you links galore!

A dollar here, a dollar there....

You want to know where our money goes? Check this out.

Some people have waaaaaaaaaaay too much time on their hands. But those people rock, because when overworked schmucks like me need information, those people have it, catagorized, figured out, and in plain view. Thanks, Andy! Scroll down and check out the figures for spending between Social Programs, Defence, and Intrest on the National Debt. VEEEEEEEEEEEEERY interesting!

Interesting social engineering oped

Ah geez...

By now, you should know about the big leak from "anonamous White House Officials", regarding the CIA agent's cover being blown. For those who don't know, Former U.S. ambassador to Iraq Joseph Wilson's wife is a CIA weapons analyst who's cover was blown by an un-named source, according to Wilson. However, Wilson has flat out accused Karl Rove of the leak.

Wilson has accused top Bush political strategist Karl Rove of leaking the name to columnist Robert Novak, telling a Seattle audience last month that he wanted "to see whether or not we can get Karl Rove frog-marched out of the White House in handcuffs."

It's not suprising that he gave that speech in Seattle. Since I moved here in 2000, I've seen more political idiots than I can shake a stick at. His remarks probably went over very well with the Moonbat crowd. But let's look at what he said later, on Good Morning America.

But he told ABC's "Good Morning America" on Monday that he got "carried away" and made up the Rove allegation out of thin air.

"In one speech I gave out in Seattle not too long ago, I mentioned the name Karl Rove," Wilson told GMA. "I think I was probably carried away by the spirit of the moment."

Wilson then confessed, "I don't have any knowledge that Karl Rove himself was either the leaker or the authorizer of the leak."

Carried away in the moment? No sir, you are a liar. You are nothing more than a partisan mouthpiece, spouting off just like the rest if your ideological brethren, disregarding facts, truth, and any kind of objectivity. I truly hope, when everything is out in the open, that you are exposed as the shamless huckster, shyster, and fraud that you truly are.

But then, you'd just go work for the DNC, wouldn't you?

Thanks to the Colorado Conservative for the link.

UPDATE: Pejmanesque has the scoop. This whole "leak" isn't a leak at all. It's a non-issue, started by a partisan hack in yet another attempt to discredit Bush. A little long, so I won't post it all, but I strongly urge you to read it.

As a follow up to Raging Dave below, here are the lyrics to Put Your Hands Where My Eyes Can See by Busta Rhymes.


Hit you with no delayin so what you sayin yo? (uh)
Silly with my nine milli, what the deally yo? (what?)
When I be on the mic yes I do my duty yo
Wild up in the club like we wild in the stud - io (uh)
You don't wanna VIOLATE nigga really and truly yo (uh)
My main thug nigga named Julio he moody yo (what?)
Type of nigga that'll slap you with the tool - io (blaow!)
Bitch nigga scared to death, act fruity yo (uh)
Fuck that! Look at shorty, she a little cutie yo (yeah)
The way she shake it make me wanna get all in the booty yo (whoo!)
Top miss, just hit the bangin bitches in videos (huh?)
Whylin with my freak like we up in the freak shows (damn)
Hit you with the shit make you feel it all in your toes (yeah)
Hot shit got all you niggaz in wet clothes (take it off)
Stylin my metaphors when I formulate my flows (uh)
If you don't know you fuckin with lyrical player pros, like that

Do you really wanna party with me?
Let me see just what you got for me
Put all your hands where my eyes can see
Straight buckwhylin in the place to be
If you really wanna party with me
Let me see just what you got for me
Put all your hands where my eyes can see
Straight buckwhylin in the place to be

If you really wanna party with me... In God We Trust (what?)
Yo it's a must that you heard of us yo we murderous (uh!)
A lot of niggaz is wonderin and they furious (what?)
How me and my niggaz do it, it's so mysterious (that's true)
Furious, all of my niggaz is serious (huh!)
Shook niggaz be walkin around fearin us (what?)
Front nigga, like you don't wanna be hearin us (no!)
Gotta listen to hot radio yo be playin us (ahh)
Thirty time a day shit'll make you delirious (what?)
Damaging everything all up in your areas
Yo it's funny how all the chickens be always servin us
All up in between they ass where they wanna carry us (what!)
Hitcha good then I hit em off with the alias (what?)
Various, chickens they wanna marry us (hah)
Yo it's Flipmode my nigga you know we bout to bust! (uh!)
Seven figure money the label preparin us
Bite the dust, instead of you, makin a fuss (what?)
Niggaz know better cause there ain't no comparin us (nope)
Mad at us, niggaz is never, we fabulous (yup!)
Hit my people off with the flow that be marvelous (hah!)
Ho - shit, my whole click victorious (yup!)
Takin no prisoners niggaz is straight up warriors (what?)
While you feelin that I know you be feelin so glorious (uh)
Then I blitz and reminisce on my nigga Notorious

Like that, like that - tha - that - that
That that that, tha - that - that - that
Like that...


Wonder what Phair would say if the school outlawed Busta Rhymes CDs on campus. Probably get the ACLU in on it.

Busta Rhymes Put Your Hands Where My Eyes Could See lyrics

I really don't like Dale Junior anymore. Me and the kids are sitting there on Saturday catching the end of the race and we're rooting for the M&M's number 38 car and Dale Junior screws all. He's about to get passed by a faster car so he feigns a block with twenty-five cars behind him all going 188 miles per hour. Take a look at that picture - they're five wide at almost 190 mph and that #8 simple shit pulls a dirt track stunt.

I liked his dad and understand the whole Intimidator thing, but Dale Junior just seems like a bit of a puss to me. Eff Dale Junior.

Here's the crash story: NASCAR.com - Sadler sent on scary tumble near race's end - September 29, 2003

Not a bad dream...

I had blocked this out as a bad dream, but I was reminded again today just what frigging asshats people around the Puget Sound are.

Renton schools have temporarily pulled ``The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn'' from their high school reading list due to complaints from a family and have decided to give teachers extra training before bringing the book back to the classroom

Remember my little post about being "offensive"? Can't offend the Leftists, now can we? No, dere widdle sef-esteem can't handle all the dirty words! Heaven forbid you make those drones actually THINK FOR THEMSELVES! DEAR GOD, WHAT WOULD HAPPEN IF THESE IDIOTS ACTUALLY THOUGHT FOR THEMSELVES?!

Well, they wouldn't vote Democrat, for one.....

The book has more than 200 references to a specific racial epithet, which made reading the book and class discussion of it uncomfortable for Renton High School senior Calista Phair.

``I can't read a book that degrades me and my culture,'' said Phair, an African-American.

Let's not offend this idiotic twit and make her read one of the GREATEST ANTI-SLAVERY BOOKS EVER WRITTEN! Oh no, we can't have that, can we? It's offensive to her FRIGGING CULTURE! Tell me what culture that is, Miss Phair! ARE YOU OR ARE YOU NOT AMERICAN?!

``I'm looking at the vulgarity of the word `nigger,' and that in itself is unacceptable, no matter what the context is ... I don't think it's practical for a school to say they're going to provide sensitivity training to teach something so utterly insensitive to students,'' Clark said. ``There's no way to dignify the word `nigger.' Period.''

Except when it's used by hip-hop stars, basketball stars, people looking to get "street cred", and various other people with more melanin than me, right?

It is amazing to me that a highschool senior would be so utterly ignorant of American history. I am amazed at this girls stupidity, and at the fact that she is presumably graduating. "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" was written during a time of great upheaval and unrest in this country. Racism was rampant. The Civil War was only 20 years past, and racial tensions were at a point that most people in this country wouldn't believe. And here comes Samual Clemons, aka Mark Twain, writing a novel about a run-away slave and a young boy just trying to be free. Trying to be free.

This was unheard of. Unthinkable. A black man as the protagonist? And the antagonists, the characters in the books that spout off n***** "over 200 times" according to Miss Phair, are made out to be the most distastefull, dispicable, foul and unlikeable characters ever written. Jim and Huck are just trying to find a place where they can live and be free, where life is fair and Jim is equal to everyone else. The book drives that point home, again and again, that Jim is EQUAL, while those who would take away Jim's freedom are nothing more than loathsome vermin. And yet this stupid little girl refuses to read this book because she's offended at a fricking WORD! In fact, I'll stop putting the "Miss" in front of her name, because that presumes some sort of maturity, while little girl Phair has shown none of the sort.

Huckleberry Finn is a damn good book, with a great message. Other people can come out and say "Slavery was wrong", but Mark Twain makes you FEEL it. After you read that book, you know in your bones that slavery was horrible, wrong, and evil.

Too bad the little girls of today can't learn that fact any more, thanks to little girl Phair.

Ahhhhhhh. There's nothing quite like Top Billing.

Thanks, errrr, Tim.

Girl, 5, makes bong in class

"The little girl showing how to make a bong was the most in-your-face example of drug culture among primary school students I've heard of," one teacher said.

That's the good news, I guess.

NEWS.com.au | Girl, 5, makes bong in class (September 29, 2003)

Back in the Saddle again

The Oyster Run was, in a word, awesome. You know the proper definition of a bike rally, don't you? It's an excuse to get 5000 women together with 2000 pieces of clothing. AnalogKid at Random Nuclear Strikes has a post up with pictures of the weather that we had all weekend. Both my girlfriend and I have sunburns on our faces from riding all day. We started up state route 9, heading north. Once we got out of suburbia, we hit the real deal, a winding, twisting, hilly highway that set hearts racing. I was with a pack of Harleys (safety in numbers, especially when those numbers can be heard for half a mile) as we wound past Big Lake and Murry Lake. After Big Lake the road turned into a roller-coaster of a ride, with a few hair-pin curves tossed in for fun. The pack lengthened out as we were forced to use the whole lane in the curves, swinging wide and then kissing the edge of the road as the bike leaned in, then goosing the throttle as the bike straitened up, getting ready for the next curve. At one point I saw a yellow warning sign indicating a big "S" curve coming up. I think it read "30mph", and then it was past, and the curve was there. Look at the speedometer, 45mph. Shit. Push, lean, give it gas as you hit the curve, come up, I can hear the girlfriend saying something but the motor is drowning her out and I think I saw sparks from my footpeg as it scraped the pavement, next curve push, lean, gas it, and I can hear the big Harleys up front bellowing, there's either a hill or a straitaway coming up. Come out of the turn, bike is up, gas it, and I watch the bikes in front of me disappear. It's a hill, and we're at the top. Get to the crest of the hill and just drop, negative G with your stomach floating somewhere around your Adam's apple and no time to think because as you crest the hill you see a mile of road laying ahead of you so HIT IT NOW! The feeling of speed as you go from 45 to 65 in about two seconds, racing down a hill onto a flat stretch of road, pasture on both sides and sunshine, glorious sunshine hitting your face, the smell of grass and pinetrees and horses filling the air. The girlfriend is laughing because I let out a rebel yell as we soared down that hill. Check mirrors. We seemed to have picked up about seven bikes in our pack, we're no longer the tail end. Watch as three crotch-rockets pick up and move, screaming by us like we're standing still. Check speedometer; 65. They must be doing 90. They're crouched over like jockeys, and I know that their backs will be cursing at them later. Check front; another curve coming up and I can feel the girlfriend shift, leaning into the backrest and relaxing. She scratches the back of my neck and then it's push, lean, gas it and away we go.

My friends, if you want to just arrive at your destination, we can hop into my truck and putter on down the road. But if you want to travel, the way traveling was meant to be, then let's climb onto a motorcycle and experience the journey.

But now, to the ever-unpleasant news. Elia Kazan is dead at the age of 94. For those who don't know, Kazan was the Hollywood director who named communist movie stars. It ruined the career of more than a few. But what strikes me is the fact that people are outraged about Kazan talking, not about their affiliation with the Communist Party. I'm reminded of the fact that even as Joe McCarthy is derided, and accusations of "McCarthyism" are flung around by the left on a daily basis, McCarthy was proven right. After the fall of the USSR, the files of the KGB and other Soviet operations came to light. There were indeed American Communists working against America. Lenin called these people "Usefull Idiots". And McCarthy pointed them out. So Kazan, who was himself once a Communist, pointed out the people he knew and was vilified for it. Even in 1999, when we won an honorary Oscar, many people in the audience refused to clap for him. It's it amazing that Hollywood will support someone when they say the worst things possible about America, or Conservatives, or anyone on the right, and yet refuse to support someone who stood up for himself in a way that was negative to the Left?

Gee, no ideological bias there, right? Right?

From the files of "WTF are you doing here, then?" comes a story from Duke University. It seems that a frat held a.. ahem... "southern" themed party.

The party thrown by the Sigma Chi fraternity was promoted with fliers that look like green cards and featured a mock border patrol checkpoint at the front door. The fraternity said it was in no way intended to make a political or social statement about Mexico.

So far, it's un-PC, but that's normal for a frat, right? Here comes the part that ticked me off.

But student Sandra Sánchez said the party "disgusted and outraged" her. "Everything that I am -- my family, customs, culture and language -- was violated," she said.

I'm sorry, your what? And your what? Just what country are you a citizen of, Miss Sanchez? Are you going to demand that I address you as "Senorita Sanchez" next, in respect to your "family, customs, culture, and language"? Are you American, or are you Mexican, Miss Sanchez? I don't stand up and scream that St. Paddy's day is an insult to "Everything that I am". Oh hey look, green beer and funny hats, Erin go Braugh and all that bullshit doesn't effect me because Americans are, by and large, irreverent! We make fun of anything, including ourselves! Maybe if you're so damn offended by that damn party, you should haul your PC sensetive ass down to the other side of the border, where they "respect" you more!

I love how the very same ideology that claims to support "diversity" (ALL HAIL DIVERSITY) will shut down something as simple as a party because it offends someone. When some crack-addled artist uses federal dollars to put a crusifix in a bottle of piss and put it on display in Manhattan, the christians are told that this artist is part of a "diverse" (ALL HAIL DIVERSITY) culture that they should just learn to accept it, but god forbid anyone should be offended by a party! Crack down on those heathens! I swear, the way the Left flip-flops on issues, it's no suprise that they act like meth-snorting baboons sometimes. They're just too damn dizzy from making shit up as they go along! "Christians are offended? Screw them! They just wanna take us back to the Spanish Inquisition!" Oops, I mentioned the Spanish Inquisition! I might offend someone! Too bad I'm not a Democrat, because then I could take a giant steaming crap on the Mexican flag, call it "diverse art" and get paid by the NEA to do it! And as long as I'm a Leftist tool, it's "diversity!" (ALL HAIL DIVERSITY).

So Miss Sanchez, I'll make you a deal. I will respect Mexican culture, and Mexican customs, and Mexican family, and Mexican language, as long as YOU'RE MEXICAN! But if you're American, then your by-god-damned language is ENGLISH! Your frigging culture is AMERICAN! WELCOME TO AMERICA, where I have the right to say whatever I damn well please, and if you didn't like that party YOU DIDN'T HAVE TO GO THERE! I swear, the next time I hear one of the chosen minorities cry about how their culture is being violated, I am going to find a shamrock or leprechaun or silly green hat and jam it up their ass until they have green coming out their ears! How many Americans do you hear crying about Oktoberfest? Are leiderhosen a mockery of German culture? How about "The Sopranos"? Short of a few people in NYC, nobody gives a damn! If you're so damn offended, GET THE HELL OUT, YOU STUPID BINT!

And people wonder why I'm so upset. Except for when I'm on my bike, and it's a sunny day. Those are good times, my friends. Now if I could just get rid of the idiots.

Of Quagmires and Liberation: Iraq and Grands Recits

For about a week now, left-wing criticism of the "War in Iraq" (granted, not a declared war, except in media coverage) has taken a peculiar, almost schizophrenic tone: "This immoral war should not be pursued any longer, and we should have taken Baghdad by now." Meanwhile, the New York Times, a useful barometer for the contemporary Left, has criticized Secretary Rumsfeld both both for sending troops to conquer Iraq, and for not sending enough troops to conquer Iraq.

Don't send any -- send more -- don't do it -- do it better -- let's take our time -- faster, kids, faster! And that's just from the Left, folks. No wonder we're turning off our televisions and throwing away our daily papers en masse. If you're not careful, this sort of cognitive dissonance could make your head explode.

My Stupid Dog

Has the invasion of Iraq made the United States less secure?

Read here: Belmont Club

From the Wacky PETA files

When bridal shop owner Nancy Owen found ants in her store, she had two choices: relocate the critters or relocate her shop. Extermination was not an option.

That's because the landlord of the Austin shopping center where her store was located is a supporter of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. The landlord imposed strict rules on tenants requiring that no meat or animal product be sold in their stores, and that no animals – including ants – be harmed.

FOXNews.com

The 100 Most Important Documents in American History

"On the Right Side of History"

The Iraqi people are sensing one party is blowing up its pipelines and roads, and one is protecting and rebuilding them. That is why even in the middle of postbellum chaos, in a recent Gallup poll almost 70 percent of Iraqis thought things were far better now than under Saddam. For all the media hysteria, the American people will accept that in history's terrible arithmetic of conflict, the United States achieved an historic victory at an historic minimum of lives lost — and improved both its own security and gave hope for 50 million in the Middle East.
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Finally, the president's critics have got it entirely backwards. The
easy, the safe — the amoral — path after September 11 was one of cruise missiles, grimacing with the nodding Europeans, and empty rhetoric, braggadocio that for the moment would have pacified angry Americans without disturbing their calm or hitting their pocketbooks. In contrast, the really hard choices were to ensure not that such horrific regimes ceased their killing for a moment, but that they ceased to be altogether. Critics talk of promoting "perpetual war," but our past conduct, not the recreation of the present deterrence, alone would have guaranteed that scary scenario.

To ask brave soldiers to go into the inferno of Afghanistan and Iraq and by virtue of their skill and courage, under the televised scrutiny of a global audience, end the rule of murderers was not easy. Nor was staying on to help the helpless. Yes, the truly frightening alternative was the blustering inaction that we have seen for the past 20 years that led to September 11 and the real quagmire in the Middle East.

Scope it out, Weez: Victor Davis Hanson on War on National Review Online