Three Questions

Eugene Volokh has posed three questions to anyone who either supports or did support the invasion of Iraq.

First, assuming that you were in favor of the invasion of Iraq at the time of the invasion, do you believe today that the invasion of Iraq was a good idea? Why/why not?

Second, what reaction do you have to the not-very-upbeat news coming of Iraq these days, such as the stories I link to above?

Third, what specific criteria do you recommend that we should use over the coming months and years to measure whether the Iraq invasion has been a success?

I'm always up for a challenge.

***First, assuming that you were in favor of the invasion of Iraq at the time of the invasion, do you believe today that the invasion of Iraq was a good idea? Why/why not?***

Yes, the invasion of Iraq was a good idea, for several reasons. One, we removed a brutal dictator that we should have removed over a decade ago. If the USA had done what we needed to do in 1991 this entire question would be moot. As it is, G.H.W. Bush gave in to "multilateralism" and left Saddam in power. The end result was thousands of people slaughtered, murdered, raped, terrorized, and held under his thumb for twelve years. His defiance of international law, his refusal to disclose his weapons programs, the ecological destruction committed by his government, and the hundreds of mass graves that we've uncovered are all examples of why we did the right thing.

Furthermore, the rift exposed between the USA and some EU countries has opened the eyes of many Americans about just who our friends are, and who our enemies are. The connection between France, Russia and the UN in regards to the UN "Oil-for-Food" scandal cannot be ignored, although many people on the Left wish it could be

And last, the strategic importance of where we are in the Middle East cannot be ignored. There are few who doubt that Iran is the major sponsor of international terrorism, and we're going to have to deal with them sooner or later. The hate and bloodmoney pouring out of Iran must be dealt with in order to curb terrorism. We now have American military troops stationed on both sides of Iran.

Let me restate that: WE NOW HAVE AMERICAN MILITARY TROOPS STATIONED ON BOTH SIDES OF IRAN. When (not if) we deal with Iran, we have several divisions of troops a stone's throw away from the Iranian border. This could not have been accomplished without the invasion of Iraq. It was not the primary goal or focus, but I'm sure it was a consideration of the administration when looking at how to deal with terrorist enabling dictators in the Middle East.

***Second, what reaction do you have to the not-very-upbeat news coming of Iraq these days, such as the stories I link to above?***

I think that the Mainstream Media is doing anything and everything they can in order to get John Kerry elected. Were this not an election year, I don't think we'd hear half as many horror stories, and we'd be seeing much more positive news coming out of Iraq. As it is, the US troops who have access to the news wonder if those journalists are even living in the same world as the rest of us. The stories that make it back to the USA do not tell the truth about what is happening in Iraq.

All one has to do is read the words of the Iraqis who now have their own blogs to see the discrepancy between the Mainstream Media and reality. Reading what our own military members have to say vs. what the Mainstream Media puts out just widens that gulf. As evidenced by CBS's memo scandal, mainstream journalism is no longer interested in facts or truth. They only care about ideology and John Kerry in the White House.

***Third, what specific criteria do you recommend that we should use over the coming months and years to measure whether the Iraq invasion has been a success?***

The coming months? The continued rebuilding of Iraqi infrastructure in the form of schools, water treatment plants, hospitals, roads, bridges, oil pipelines, and the like. The fact that there are more hospitals open, with more types of treatment than when Saddam was in power shows that we are already successful in part. Over the long term, a free, democratic Iraq would be the indicator of success. I don't think that Iraq as an American protectorate (much like the American Samoas or Guam) would be a success. Iraq must be free and democratic, perhaps in several partnerships with the USA, or with American military bases (like Germany, Japan and South Korea). One of the goals of this war was to make Iraq free. Anything less, and we've failed in that goal.

However, this may take years. It took over a decade for Germany and Japan, and it may take close to that long in Iraq. I myself predict that it will happen in five years, but that's a quick guess. I'm probably wrong.

If any other blogger wants to answer Mr. Volokh, answer the questions in a single post and email the link to orinkerr at yahoo.com. If anyone wants to leave their quick answers in the comments, I'll do my best to update this post and put your answers up.

UPDATE: A few people have given their answers, so here they are:

From a commenter calling themselves "That said" -

This is my answer. It is how I feel. (In two parts) 1) There is, or there should be, a nobility in helping the oppressed. Not nobility in a regal sense but nobility as it relates to honor. For me our intervention serves to validate the principles our country was founded on. With apologies to Burke, good men are doing something and evil should not prevail for it. It gives me pride that we intervened. That pride has been tempered somewhat by sadness I feel for the families who have lost loved ones in the conflict.

2) We hear the question, “Is it worth it?” being asked of late. I believe that the real question, hidden between the lines no-one really wanting to ask openly is not, “Is it worth it?” but rather, “Are they worth it?” Who are “they”? They in the question are the Iraqis in particular and Muslims in general.
Criteria for success, in my opinion, is whether or not “They” can prove that they are indeed worth it, with all of the implications, nuanced or not, that that implies.
That said; failure in the end will not detract from the nobility of the attempt. It will however, bode ill for all of our futures.

Jason Kallini answers #2 and #3 -

2)Despite the increase in frequency in terrorist attacks in Iraq, there has been no evidence of an increase in sophistication or deviousness.

The terrorists seem to be attacking anyone, anywhere.

Successful insurgencies throughout history involved the insurgents targeting military targets, and then forcing the occupying power into retaliating against the civilian population. Doing such a thing inspires more civilians to join the insurgency, or at least aid them, until you have a fullblown rebellion on your hands.

No insurgency can work without the support of the general populace, and that the terrorists do not have. They are busy alienating and scaring the civilian population, which will only drive the people closer to Coalition forces.

3)As the Iraqi National Guard grows and secures the border, the supplies of terrorists will dwindle. Simultaneously, 3 other things will happen.

1. The US will crush the major pockets of resistance--Fallujah--before the upcoming election, destroying the major safe havens and power bases of the terrorists.

2. Iraqi police will grow in number, securing the cities themselves from local, small time criminals, and their intelligence networks will build until they can bust safe houses and other undergound networks.

3. Elections will happen in January, solidifying Iraqi loyalty behind their own government, and every future attack will prove that there is no patriotism behind terrorist acts. This will be even more apparent if the elected President is not a big fan of the US.

If you throw in the potential Iranian rebellion that my brother blogged on today, the terrorists' support may be pulled even more quickly.

And Bullshark answers all three -

1) We do what is right because it is right. In 1991 we gave in to the "allies" and look what it caused. I was on the tip of the spear at that time. 3Bde, 82nd ABN.
2) When the dog bites man it is not news. So every story from Iraq is man biting dog.
3) We are currently talking about pulling out of Germany, after 59 years. So success will come but I may not live to see it. The measurement will be not if they love us but if they never again attack their neighbors or harbor those who attack us.

Draft Dodger Monument update

City Blocks Memorial to Draft Dodgers

VANCOUVER, British Columbia (Reuters) - A Canadian community has blocked plans for a controversial memorial to Americans who fled to Canada to avoid the Vietnam War and U.S. military draft, officials said on Wednesday.



Peace activists wanted to build the memorial as part of a reunion celebration scheduled for 2006 in Nelson, a small city in the mountains of southeastern British Columbia, where many of the Vietnam-era draft dodgers eventually settled.


The proposal was denounced by the U.S. Veterans of Foreign Wars, and came as the issue of service in the military during Vietnam has become an emotional flashpoint in the U.S. presidential campaign.


Nelson's council passed a special resolution on Wednesday that would requires any memorial using public funds or being built on public lands to have "widespread community support."


"The Our Way Home monument does not meet this standard," the council said in a press release.


The veterans group and other U.S. critics of the plan had asked the White House to intervene, and threatened to organize an economic boycott of the Nelson area in the Kootenay Region, which has a significant tourism industry.


The Our Way Home group had already told city officials it was willing to locate the bronze sculpture somewhere else, but still planned to hold the peace gathering in July 2006.


The group said it wanted to honor both the U.S. citizens who moved to Canada, rather than serve in a war they politically opposed, and the Canadians who helped them build lives in a new country.


It has been estimated that 125,000 Americans fled to Canada to avoid Vietnam and prosecution under U.S. law, although about half returned home after President Jimmy Carter granted amnesty in 1997.

Linknasium

The Kallini Brothers note a particularly ludicrous comment at Democratic Underpants.

"Particularly ludicrous comment at Democratic Underpants," I say. That's like a particularly watery lake.

Topical to Raging Dave's posts this week:



Oy! Cox & Forkum. Go see 'em.

How widespread is violence in Iraq? Not very.

Lastly, Jim at Smoke on the Water notes how far the profession of taxidermy has come. Oy deux.

Are you getting the story?

Probably not, eh? It's hard, in the wake of CBS and AP fabrications, to know who to trust. From Iraq:

Rose verified a message I received from another Marine officer in Iraq. He provided perspective missing in the media: ''Those achievements, more than anything else … account for the surge in violence in recent days — especially the violence directed at Iraqis by the insurgents. Both in Najaf and Samarra, ordinary people stepped out and took sides with the Iraqi government against the insurgents, and the bad guys are hopping mad. They are trying to instill fear once again.''

Rose asked: ''Why isn't the media covering Samarra?''

That's a rhetorical question.

Iraq missions that work out are missing from mainstream media

Seen on Instapundit

How's the Site Look?

Not much going on right now on the commentary side of things. Been as busy as all get out over the past two weeks and in reality i am just about posted out. So the best I can offer are two things:

That's a Cooper's Hawk on the right there. Caught it first on my deck and then in a tree next to my deck last week at about 1100 hours. Picture's not great; he was outside and I was in - so that was shot through a screen door. Neat, nonetheless.

Secondly, I have been looking at the site and would like to change it maybe a bit. As I said I have little commentary in me right now but i'd like to add something during my pundicratic hiatus.

Got any suggestions? How ya like the colors? The fonts? The layout? Does the title need changin'? Dave sent me a graphic back a couple weeks, now I recall. Need to look at that again. Is the site easy to read? Difficult?

Talk to me.

Time to pull out

What do you say about the US occupying a territory that is radically devided amongst itself?

What do you say about the US occupying a piece of land, when many residents of that land loath the USA and all it stands for?

What do you say about the USA occupying a piece of land where 2,496 citizens are killed EVERY YEAR?

Well, if you're a Democrat, you'd howl for the USA to leave that territory, wouldn't you? Yep, that would be the Democrat Party answer. "We're losing too many lives! They don't want us there! It's imperialistic!" And this time, I'd agree with them.

Let's get the hell out of California.

Hat tip to RNS.

Fox News now officially destroying the competition

Fox News beats all rivals

Television - Variety


Fox News beats all rivals

Tue Sep 28, 6:23 PM ET Television - Variety


Pamela McClintock, STAFF

NEW YORK -- For the first time in its history, Fox News Channel beat the combined competition in primetime during the third quarter of 2004, with major headlines of the summer including the national political conventions and a brutal string of hurricanes.



According to Nielsen Media Research, Fox News averaged 1.8 million viewers, while CNN, MSNBC, CNBC and Headline News averaged a combined total of 1.7 million. The quarter ended Sunday.


CNN came in a distant second, averaging 882,000 viewers, while MSNBC drew 421,000. Headline News averaged 226,000 in primetime, and CNBC attracted a paltry 133,000.


Most of the cable news nets were up significantly vs. Q3 2003 thanks to a busy news cycle. The one exception was CNBC, which was down 13%.


Buoyed by the Olympics and convention coverage, MSNBC saw the most growth in its primetime aud, up a hefty 55%. Fox News came in second in terms of growth, up 39%. CNN was up 19% and Headline News 17%.


In the key news demo, Fox News averaged 405,000 viewers in 25-54, a 44% improvement on the same period in 2003. CNN averaged 195,000 viewers in the demo, up 17%. At 115,000, MSNBC was up 34%.


Headline News averaged 75,000 viewers in the demo, up only 6% from the same frame last year. CNBC improved its performance in the demo, averaging 53,000 viewers, a 36% jump.


Fox News' third-quarter performance further solidified its dominance in the field of cable news, as well as its increasing strength against even the broadcast nets. During the Republican National Convention in late August, Fox News won out over ABC News, CBS News and NBC News, also a first for a cable news net.


Earlier this week, Bill O'Reilly's interview with President Bush (news - web sites) on Fox News' "The O'Reilly Factor" drew a whopping 4.6 million viewers.


Fox News had nine of the 10 top programs during the third quarter, with O'Reilly remaining at No. 1, averaging 2.4 million viewers. The one exception was CNN's "Larry King Live," which was No. 6, averaging 1.3 million viewers.

Can CBS really be that stupid?

Yes, yes they can. From Ratherbiased.com via LGF.

In a story that was a textbook example of slipshod reporting, CBS reporter Richard Schlesinger used debunked internet hoax emails and an unlabeled interest group member to scare elderly “Evening” viewers into believing that the U.S. government is poised to resume the draft.

At the center of Schlesinger’s piece was a woman named Beverly Cocco, a Philadelphia woman who is “sick to my stomach” that her two sons might be drafted. In his report, Schlesinger claimed that Cocco was a Republican and portrayed her as an apolitical (even Republican) mom worried about the future.

Schlesinger did not disclose that Cocco is a chapter president of an advocacy group called People Against the Draft (PAD) which, in addition to opposing any federal proscription, seeks to establish a “peaceful, rational foreign policy” by bringing all U.S. troops out of Iraq. Like Schlesinger’s Cocco, the group portrays itself as “nonpartisan” although its leadership seems to be entirely bereft of any Republicans.

The group’s domain is registered to a man named Jacob Levich, a left-wing activist who in a 2001 essay compared the Bush Administration to the totalitarian government portrayed in George Orwell’s 1984.

And as I pointed out yesterday, it's the cheating lying worthless DEMOCRATS who have been pushing legislation trying to bring back the draft, NOT PRESIDENT BUSH OR THE REPUBLICANS!

CBS - All the forged, biased, over-spun horseshit that they can cram on national TV. Dan Rather and all the CBS executives should be drawn and quartered for their lies, distortions and smear jobs.

UPDATE: Analog Kid has a link to the Alpaca Burger Forum, where the supposed law firm that the email originated from were contacted. The law firm itself says "It's a hoax."

Jeep, Transformed

No quarters

Time for the Tar and Feathers!

So lets see here - John Fonda Kerry gives a speech in which he claims that the draft will be brought back if Bush gets re-elected.

Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry, citing the war in Iraq and other trouble spots in the world, raised the possibility Wednesday that a military draft could be reinstated if voters re-elect President Bush.

Powerline recieves an email from "Rock the Vote" which raises the possiblility of a draft.

YOU HAVE BEEN DRAFTED!
http://action.rockthevote.org/ctt.asp?u=906763&l=4476

This is not a real draft, but a real one may happen soon if the current situation doesn't improve.

However, President Bush has stated several times that he does not want to re-instate the draft. So where are these Democrats getting this "the draft is coming back" idea from?

How about fellow Democrats Charles Rangel and Jim "Baghdad" McDermott.

Just to be clear - while accusing the Republicans of wanting/attempting to reinstate the draft, the Democrats have been putting forward legislation that attempts to reinstate the draft.

And people wonder why I call today's modern Democrats a bunch of whiny, lying, cheating, shit sucking, worthless, gutless, cowardly fucking parasites who's only inherant value is as moving targets?

Scroll down a bit....

Four paragraphs, to be exact. And then settle down and read.

Hue city. The NVA took it. So, we flattened them, and the whole damned city. The embassy? they breached the courtyard, and were gunned down there, never having actually gotten indoors. At every turn, we slaughtered them. They sent regiments out on mission, and they never returned. Our troops were performing every bit as admirably as their American ideals expected of them, and because of their intrepidness, we were winning.

but we didn't know it. Thanks to the media, and assholes like John Kerry, Jane Fonda, and their ilk, the American public was told that their children were turning into babykillers in an unwinnable war.

The Mainstream Media has been American's enemy for over three decades. Hell, the LEFT has been America's enemy for over three decades. Those same failed idols are the ones harping and shrieking now, using the same failing words, touting the same failed ideas.

They're failures.

Check out this...

...USGS drum (seismograph) recording at San Juan Grade, California, today.

Errrrrr.........Mommy!!??

Ohpleaseohpleaseohplease!

Geek with a .45 is reporting that the M-16 rifle may be seeing it's last days.

Oh Frabjus day! Oh radient light from heaven! Oh cleansing firepower!

Now, just to clear things up a bit, it's not that I don't like the M-16. No, I loath that rifle.

I've been polite around people who like it. I mean hey, it can be fun to shoot, it's a great varmint rifle, low arc, decent velocity, yada yada yada. But as a battle rifle? I'd rather have a slingshot. The 5.56 round is pathetic when it comes to any decent kind of damage on a man-sized target. Time and time again, reports would come back about enemy combatants who had been shot with an M-16 AND KEPT ON COMING! BAD JUJU! BAD! BAD! Why in g-d's name would you give your troops a round with the same diameter as a freakin' .22? I enjoy plinking as much as the next guy, but not when my life depends on it! If the round doesn't knock a guy flat on his ass when he's hit with it, then it damn well better do enough damage so that he doesn't want to keep fighting! In this regard, the 5.56 FAILS!

And then lets look at the chamber of the gun... have any of you ever seen the chamber of an M-16? It's a mess, with eight different lugs that have to be manuvered around just to clean the damn thing. And it's tempermental, man. One speck of dirt in the wrong place and the gun will jam, or the round won't seat, or the bolt will slow down and double-feed rounds. It flat out sucks. Tempermental battle rifles ARE NOT GOOD THINGS!

And to top it all off, the gun is designed in such a way that it gets dirty quick. It's gas-operated, meaning the gas from a fired round is forced back into the bolt to push the bolt back and cycle another round into the chamber. You can't clean the damn gas tube out with anything other than string and CLP, because if you try to clean it with a Q-Tip the swab breaks off and gets stuck, and pipe cleaners do the same thing if they don't just clog it up, so you pretty much have to soak the damn tube to get all the crap out of it. And all the carbon and CRAP that is contained in the gasses are shot RIGHT BACK INTO THE CHAMBER OF THE GUN! THIS GUN SHITS WHERE IT EATS, AND IT'S A TEMPERMENTAL BITCH TO BEGIN WITH! DOES ANYONE ELSE SEE THE PROBLEM HERE?

When my unit at Ft. Riley handed me a S.A.W. instead of the M-16, I was tapdancing for a week. I handed the 16 back to the armorer and said "Here, you can keep this for the rest of my life!" with a frigging SMILE! Whoever decided that the M-16 should be adopted needs a good swift kick in the nads. Why not just send your troops out with big pointy sticks? They're just about as effective and look scarier!

So while there is no confirmation yet, if word comes down that the Geek has the right news, it's going to be happy days at the Raging Dave household. I'll burn an M-16 effigy. I'll bar-be-que up some burgers, pound a few beers, and celebrate!

Good-bye, M-16. I knew you too well.

Greyhawk

Live from Iraq.

BREAKING NEWS!!!

Bruce Springsteen, currently touring the country playing Tunes for Kerry, has found enormous sustenance from Paul Krugman and Maureen Dowd in the New York Times. This interview is pure DNC Playbook stuff, but worth a read if you have forgotten how vapid, vacuous, and, well, whiney the American Left have become.

Current Electoral Vote Predictor 2004

The latest map.

Hmmmmmm....

Snack foods don't fatten kids.

That's interesting, but not quite news to people who don't subscribe to the latest hue and cry about heath in this country. While the government and nanny-statists shriek about how horrible it is to have fat people, and how we should just DO something, people like my parents have been shaking their heads and sighing.

Here's an equasion for you folks out there. If calorie intake is greater than calorie usage, you will gain weight. If your calorie intake is LESS than your calorie usage, you will lose weight.

Now granted, that's pretty simplified, and there are always exceptions to the rule. But the exceptions PROVE the rule. Want to lose weight? Either eat fewer calories or raise the level of calorie use (i.e. get off your ass and excersise).

Please notice that I never said "EAT LESS", I said "EAT FEWER CALORIES". Five ounces of carrot sticks carry fewer calories than five ounces of potato chips or french fries. Me, I eat like a damn whale. Seriously, I'm always eating. But it's WHAT I eat that I care about, not how much. Lots of fruit. Apples, pears, bananas, bring 'em on. Salads. Lean meat. I pull the skin off my chicken before I cook it, that takes away 80% of the fat content right there. You want fried chicken without the fat? Try this:

Skinless chicken.
Two eggs.
breadcrumbs (seasoned or not, whatever you prefer)

Beat the eggs in a bowl. Coat the chicken with egg, and then roll it in breadcrumbs. Bake in the oven at 350 until done (about 30-45 minutes). You can tell it's done when you stick it with a fork and no blood comes out. Clear liquid is fine.

There ya go. It has a crunchy "skin" just like fried chicken, but without the fat from the skin or the grease from the cooking. Less fat means less calories, since fat is rather calorie heavy.

Look at your starch intake. Starches are transformed into sugar in your body. People who run a lot will be familiar with carbo-loading, eating lots of carbohydrates the night before a big event. If you don't use that sugar, your body turns it into fat for storage. When I was running five miles a day, I was eating tons of pasta and rice. When I got out of active duty, I cut down on my starches. I'm eating more fruits and veggies in place of those carbs.

I still eat the same amount, but I don't eat the same things.

If you really want to be healthy, don't listen to all the hysteria that crops up on a weekly basis. Eat healthy (more veggies!), and excersise (even if it's just walking around the block a few times). That's it. It really is that simple.

The Work Gap.

There's an interesting article on Fox News about the Wage Gap in America.

Or as I'm calling it, the Work Gap.

An Aug. 26 report from the U.S. Census Bureau stated that the median female full-time wage for women was 75.5 cents for every dollar similarly earned by men; that's down .6 percent from 2002.

Gender feminists quickly cried "discrimination is increasing!"

Is that charge true, and how is it being used?

Gender feminists will ALWAYS scream that discrimination is increasing. It's what they do. But let's look at a few causes for this so called wage gap.

"Specifically, women have fewer years of work experience, work fewer hours per year, are less likely to work a full-time schedule, and leave the labor force for longer periods of time than men."

"some experts said that some women trade off career advancement or higher earnings for a job that offers flexibility to manage work and family responsibilities."

"Surveys do not usually account for factors such as "shift premiums." That is, shifts that are dangerous or otherwise undesirable are more highly paid and more likely to be filled by men."

Lets look at a few other things, shall we? Maternaty leave, for one. How many men take four months off to go have a baby? Not that many, obviously. Look at the jobs that men take vs. women. How many women do you see working on skyscrapers? Unless they're the architect, not too damn many. But a job that involves walking on steel I-beams thirty stories up is going to pay more than a job involving officework and paper-filing. It's harder work, involving more danger, and the pay reflects that.

How many women do you see draining septic tanks? Not too damn many.
How man women do you see tossing trash? Not too damn many.
How many women work the graveyard shifts? Not too damn many.
How many women do you see taking the dirty, nasty, hard work that comes with a larger paycheck?

Not too damn many!

For the same reasons women would seek flexible hours, they also are likely to work fewer hours in a full-time job. Raises, bonuses, and promotions more naturally flow toward employees who work longer hours.

Indeed, when you factor out variables like having children, the wage gap virtually disappears.

In their book "Women's Figures" (1999), economist Diana Furchtgott-Roth and Christine Stolba meticulously compared data on the earnings of childless men and women aged 27 to 33. They found that the wage gap shrank to 98 cents.

When a man and a woman work the same hours at the same job, the wage gap dissappears. But the modern feminists don't want you to know that. The so-called wage gap is a fiction, made up by people who want equality of outcome, not equality of opportunity.

The wage gap doesn't exist.

Lovely Linkies

Lee over at Right Thinking from the Left Coast wonders aloud why we have to understand them while they make little effort to understand us. It's a good question.

Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Times reports the suggestion that waiting in line at airport security checkpoints makes one a compelling target. I catch the drift, for sure.

Speaking of "getting to know them":

James M. Ault Jr. is a self-described '60s radical who embraced the anti-war movement, feminism and other left-leaning enthusiasms of the day. He has also taught sociology at Harvard University and Smith College and produced an award-winning documentary called Born Again: Life in a Fundamentalist Baptist Church, broadcast on PBS and abroad.

He goes in prepared to be critical of the believers, but comes out with a different feeling. Interesting.

See? Sometimes people can reach out to each other if they would only try. Why, i'd wager that if Raging Dave and Analog Kid were to just dab a little patchouli from time to time, they'd be volunteering to aide for Senator Cantwell post haste.

LASTLY ==>, it has been one month since Steven den Beste announced his sabbatical from the USS Clueless. Suggestion: read his farewell (if you have not already), and consider clicking the Contact link and sending him a quick note. I suspect most of what was directed his way after his announcement he wound up trashing, as the incessant influx of emails into his inbox were one of the things that drove him mad, or nearly mad. I'm going to drop him a quick one that will read something simple and sincere, like: "SDB: I hope this note finds you well. One of your readers, Tim."

Anyway, if you read and appreciated den Beste the way I did, it is hereby suggested that you just say hello. Ignore it as you see fit.

Evening.

Smackdown

This is as thorough a depiction of your garden variety self-absorbed and uber-haughty urban leftist intellectual wannabe as this writer has ever seen. Witnesseth:

The Sunday Times is the weekly sermon: let us reinforce your world view, your sense of belonging to the Thinking Class, the Special Ones. Let the Red Staters spend Sunday morning in itchy church clothes at Perkins, dumping syrup all over their pancakes and yelling at little Lurleen not to pour salt down her baby brother’s jumper; you’re in your elegant spare little apartment with a cup of coffee (frothed on top; sprinkle of nutmeg) and a pastry from that wonderful place around the corner (okay, it’s an Au Bon Pain – hell, they’re all Bon Pain now) and there’s some light jazz on the radio. Morning jazz, if you had to give the genre a name. Anyway, it’s a sunny fall morning – well, noonish. Now comes the capstone moment when you lay the slab of the Times in your lap and begin the autoposy of the week. Scan the A section headlines - yes, yes, yes, appalling.

Oof!

Gotta read it, ladies and gents.

I work with a couple guys who are retired servicemen...

...and I overheard them having a conversation last week. One fellow, Marine Corps 1981-1985, had sent a link to this CNN article regarding the death of photographer Eddie Adams to the other (retired Army, veteran of the Vietnam War). Adams' most famous photograph accompanies this post.

These two guys were mentioning that this was the first time they had seen the photograph accompanied in mainstream press by an explanation of why the prisoner was shot. Most of the press the picture got, they said, seemed designed to simply potray our allies in Vietnam as being vicious and evil, and sought to portray America's policies as being similarly evil, since we had created an environment in Vietnam where street executions like this one occured.

The fellow who had served in Vietnam was genuinely grateful for the link. He said he was treated poorly upon his return, and "that photograph was a big part of it". He said his return flight plan was from Asia to San Francisco to New York, but it almost wound up being Asia to San Francisco to jail, because some guy sitting next to him on the flight from California to New York spent an hour explaining to him how soldiers had been abused and brainwashed and corrupted and used to spread the evil of America into Vietnam. The photo here was cited in the conversation.

Anyway, my colleague said it was the thought of arriving at home ASAP that saved this fellow sitting next to him two or three bouts of oral surgery.

You've seen this picture. Do you know why the "victim" was shot?

Back from the Road

Been a slow coupla weeks for me and blogging. Maybe that's just as well as I'd have spent most of my time waxing pajamic about CBS & their colleagues at the Kerry campaign, and that's getting boring. For some, it's been boring from the get-go, I reckon, as for some, the "news" of corruption in Big Media ain't really news.

Will blog all day. Will blog all week. I start today with the picture at right. It is a picture of accumulated sap on the trunk of a Montmorency Cherry tree, backlit by late day sun. It's about the size of a golf ball.

Is there a horticulturalist's technical term for "body of accumulated sap on the trunk of a mature tree"?

While we're here, there's a guy in Japan who claims that he has composed a ring tone for your cellie that will spur enlargement of the breasts for anyone who uses it. Word is that Michael Moore is having it reversed engineered.

Good day, all.

Happy Happy Joy Joy!

Ah-HEM!

SEAHAWKS ROUT THE 49ERS! 34 TO FRIGGING 0! GO HAWKS! WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Now back to your regular commenting.

Ooooo, pretty!

Mollbot's been accessorizing and stuff!

Although I think I'll keep the original stock on my SKS.... the girlfriend gets all hot and bothered over the fact that it has a massive bayonett on it.

Heh. Baby likes them sharp pokey things. We've got enough steel hanging in our living room to scare the hell out of most libs.

Random Thoughts

In the liberal mind today, "unilateral" equals bad, evil, right-wing, conservative, ect. You've heard all the smears and lies. "Multilateral" equals the Left's wet dream, the embodiment of all that is good and holy. For the left, "unilateral" bad, "multilateral" good.

Now, keep in mind that the above is a liberal's viewpoint. Got it? Good. Knowing what and how the liberals think, how can you explain the fact that the invasion of Iraq, decried as "unilateral" by the Left (despite the actual truth of over 40 other countries by our side) managed to remove Saddam and the Taliban, yet our total and completely multilateral approach to Sudan has resulted in a total lack of action and several hundreds of thousands of murdered civilians?

They sneer at our efforts in the Middle East as unilateral and call it bad. Yet when we do what the liberals want in regards to Sudan, nothing happens. Thousands of people get murdered while the rest of the world sits on it's hands.

What do liberals really want? Obviously, they prefer mass murder to positive action by the US military.

Any comments?

Ahem

Beldar has a challenge for the Left.

Can you identify even one specific and material SwiftVets allegation that you believe to have been fully "debunked" or fully proven to be "unsubstantiated"?

Some ground rules for this challenge that I think are not unreasonable:

By "specific," I mean to exclude sweeping conclusions like "John Kerry wasn't as big a hero as he's made out." By material, I mean to exclude trivia like "the VC soldier John Kerry shot was in a uniform instead of in a loincloth." And I ask that if you're to make an honest effort to meet my challenge, you provide quotes and links, both to the SwiftVets' allegations and to the evidence that you offer to show debunking or lack of substantiation.

(.....)

I of course reserve the right to offer a rebuttal, as will, I'm sure, my like-minded readers. But I'm genuinely curious about this, and will try to summarize the results of this challenge fairly in a new post sometime early next week.

For all the talk being slung around by the Left about the Swift Vet's charges being "debunked", I haven't seen one shred of evidence to support the Left's claim. In fact, the Swift Vets didn't have to change their charges one bit, it's been John Kerry who's had to change his story, or retract a statement, or "clarify" things over and over.

So how about it, Lefties? Whatcha got?

Slam-Dunk

Once again, Powerline is on the forfront of nailing the Mainstream Media to the wall.

It's not just CBS, folks. Never have we seen a media full-court press in support of a candidate comparable to what is now occurring on behalf of John Kerry. One of the worst offenders is the Associated Press; we've written about their outrageously biased reports before.

RTWT. And thanks to Cold Fury, who is also on a roll. From a post titled "Dan Rather Must Resign"

Not just for the memo fraud, but for the attempted cover-up as well. For stone-walling. For claiming an “unimpeachable source”, which turns out to be a crackpot, hyper-partisan Democrat. With no respect at all, Dan – answer the fucking questions : Who’s your real source ? Who’s the forger ? And this time you need to prove it, you lying sack of CBS. Your “word”, your “ethics”, your “good name” pretty much equate to the steaming pile the bull left in the field last week (the stench of your hypocrisy is still pretty fresh, though), so we’ll need that stuff called evidence. You know, like what we used to prove your lies.

Oh yeah!

Busy as hell

I've been busier than a one legged man at an ass kicking contest. But as always, there are plenty of people out there to pick up the slack. The boys at Random Nuclear Strikes have been kicking ass and taking names for the past few days, including this observation on John Kerry's brand of diplomacy. John Fonda Kerry is so desperate to prove that he's not Bush that he'll insult, belittle, demean, and denigrate our allies in an attempt to separate himself from the current administration's policy. However, when those who Kerry insults and demeans remember who helped them and who hurt them, they will not forget the Flipper's actions. As Puggs puts it: "He insults nations that do join us, and sucks up to those that do not,…. This is serious diplomacy? This is how coalitions are built?"

So hit the link and start scrolling.

Oh, and on the Kerry "diplomacy"..... The Kallini Bros. and Instapundit also chime in. Bottom line: Kerry screwed himself. And several people in his campaign need to get fired. But we already knew that.

The Council Has Spoken!

This weeks winners in the Watcher of Weasels Council are The Barrier to Defeating Terrorism by Terrorism Unveiled and The Fall of the Media Empire by Cavalier's Guardian WatchBlog. You can find all the results here.

On a related note (and I can't believe that I forgot this!) Bill of INDC Journal had to leave the council for personal reasons. His seat was taken by Grace of Conservative and Right. Welcome aboard, Grace!

Democrats say the funniest things

You've heard Howard Dean's rants. You've heard Al Gore's bitter ravings. But I say to you, ladies and gentlemen of the internet, you have heard nothing until you hear West Virginia Democrat Supreme Court Justice Warren McGraw.

Imagine if Dean's "I have a scream" speech and Gore's "HE BETRAAAAAYEEEED THIS COUNTRY" rant had a bastard love child. Now imagine that bastard love child guzzling a fifth of whiskey, and you have this priceless rant for ages by Supreme Court Justice Mcgraw. This 4 MB download is well worth every bit.

Ain't free speech wonderful?

(The radio ad that the Republicans are running here is pretty good too. You can download it here.)

What is it with Democrats and these crazy rants anyways? Something that they put in the water at the Democratic National Convention?

More proof that we did the right thing

Here is more proof that George W. is taking the right path in Iraq: Jimmy Carter doesn't like it.

"A lot of political analysts have said that one of the main reasons the Bush-Cheney administration went into Iraq was to establish a permanent military base there," Carter said in an interview with The Associated Press. "I think this arouses a great deal of unnecessary opposition..."

"...The overwhelming issue in this country is the Iraqi war and the war against terrorism and who can address those problems more wisely and more honestly," Carter said. "I think that's the issue that Kerry has to pursue, because, in my opinion, President Bush has not been honest with the American people and has certainly failed in almost everything he professes to be doing in Iraq and in Afghanistan, unfortunately."

It is my opinion that to formulate a successful foreign policy strategy, President Bush could simply follow this three-step plan:

1. Fire his entire staff.
2. Call up Jimmy Carter and ask him what we should do.
3. Do the exact opposite.

Criticism from Jimmy Carter should be taken as a compliment. With each passing year, it becomes more of a mystery to me how the country could have elected this Soccer Mom as President. Jimmy Carter's "Drop-your-pants-and-bend-over" approach to foreign policy has never been anything but a disaster to everyone who isn't a totalitarian dictator.

My Stalker, Cached

Heh. Here it is: Part of My Life.

Sometime life just makes one beam with pride, ey?

Funny stuff.

And then there is this: BlgoShares.

Dave, TVE - email me. We've never really gone over the Terms of Ownership here...

Chronology Of Character Assassination

The GOP has a few quotes from some donkeys regarding the memos they forged and attempted to use in a coordinated attack against the character of the President of the United States. It is nothing short of a MASSIVE collusion between the DNC/Kerry campaign (Joe Lockhart, Max Cleland, Ben Barnes), the Sauronic eye of CBS (especially anchor Dan Rather and producer Mary Mapes), and Bill (source of the forged documents) Burkett, again...among others. In CHRONOLOGY OF CHARACTER ASSASSINATION we find lovely nuggets of donkey crap like this:

9 HOURS BEFORE THE CBS REPORT: "Democratic Party chairman Terry McAuliffe said, 'George W. Bush's cover story on his National Guard service is rapidly unraveling. ... George W. Bush needs to answer why he regularly misled the American people about his time in the Guard and who applied political pressure on his behalf to have his performance reviews 'sugarcoated.'" (Terence Hunt, "Questions Raised About Bush Guard Service," The Associated Press, 9/9/04)

Hmmmmmmm.. "sugarcoated", Terry? Didn't the forger use that exact wording? "Operation Fortunate Son"?

Latest news on this gutsy attempt to smear Presdent Bush? Mary Mapes is still working on the story of Bush's service record. Dan Rather thinks the documents are real....still. Have you seen these pathetic forgeries? What's wrong, Dan? A little slow upstairs? Or are you just a trash pushing, lying democrat who abused his position as a "non partisan" reporter? Protecting a source, or trying to make silk purse out of a sow's ear? No need to answer this one, Dan. Consider your ass owned. Burkett is just another lunatic leftist. The only thing that set him apart from the rest was his powerful news media friends. Ben Barnes said he got Bush into the Texas ANG. He's said the exact opposite previously. His daughter calls him a liar in response to his recent statements. He is a big fund raiser for the Kerry campaign. Kitty Kelley makes accustaions that Bush used cocaine based on statements of W's brother's ex-wife, but she says Kelley lied. She didn't say it. They've all been busted......resoundingly.

Yesterday the John's (waiting to be flushed) charged the Bush administration with harboring super secret plans to reinstitute the draft. Don't look over there! If you did, you might notice that lefist donkeys like Fritz Hollings and Charles Rangel have sponsored twin bills in congress in order to bring about a draft.

Scum, the lot of them. Send these lying asses packin' this November!

CORRECTION - The Terry McAwful statement happened closer to the CBS report than was originally reported.

Late Night Talk Radio Scares Me

I don't listen to much talk radio at night. I'm normally in bed by the time most of the odd shows get on the air, so I don't get a chance to listen much to them. But I've been working odd hours as of late, and I got a chance to listen to some of the shows I hadn't really heard before.

Holy Hell.

Can you say "moonbats"? I knew you could.

Let's start with the local conservative talk radio channel, KVI 570. Coast to Coast AM. It's a nationwide show put on by Art Bell. I knew that there were some real loons out there, but this show seems to gather them all into one place. Over the past few months I've heard alien stories, conspiracy theories (Didja know that jet exhaust contains poison put in there by the government for population control? Neither did I, until I listened to Coast to Coast! Yeah, and Area 51 really has a flying saucer, and aliens are in control of the Pentagon, and if you spin around five times and hold your breath while counting backwards from 100, George Washington appears and bitchslaps the shit out of you for being a dumbass!) and some whacked out nutcases who think they recorded a ghost. I'm talking OUT THERE. Half the time I'm laughing at the people on the air, and half the time I'm shaking my head wondering what drugs they're on.

And then there's 710 KIRO. The only way I can describe it would be like this: Take one socialist hotbed such as Seattle. Find the people farthest to the left who manage to string together a coherent sentence 50% of the time. Put them on the air. That's 710 KIRO.

These idiots actually think that Karl Rove planted the fake memos where CBS could find them. They think it's all a Rove job.

I heard a caller who started out by saying "I want to talk about the Karl Rove planted memos" and SHE WAS SERIOUS! This woman doesn't need talk radio, she needs massive doses of lithium! And the host was just as bad! They have a show from 7PM to 10PM, and another show EVEN WORSE from 10PM to 1AM. It's unreal. I have never heard such blather in my life, and I LIVE IN SEATTLE, FOR GOD'S SAKE!

You want to know why the Left is having problems? Because huge portions of the left ARE INSANE! Not a little insane, but straightjacket wearing, drug popping, giggle giggle while you chew your fingers off INSANE! And the shows I heard prove it!

I suppose there's a silver lining in all of this - every time I start to feel bad about the Right's headcases, I can just flip on to 710 and hear people who went off the deep end years ago and just kept swimming. Loons. Maniacs. Deeply disturbed people who belong in a mental hospital, not behind a radio mic.

Hey Tim, you got a stalker!

The great thing about Google is you can punch in anything and just see what comes up. What came up tonight was a link to this page.

Check it out. And then go re-read Tim's post, "Regarding September 11th".

It's word for word.

Now, Mr. Dave Sarawak changed Tim's Honda Accord to a Perdana V6, but other than that he just copied it from our site to his. He even left the text "But I’d like to not get started on that topic, and I think most readers at 4RWWs know the answer, anyway." on his webpage, which is what caught Google's eye.

Now, having sent snail mail to Tim, I can assure you that Mr. Dave Sarawak IS NOT TIM. So either this guy just cuts and pastes crap from various blogs, or he's ripping Tim off. And since Mr. Dave Sarawak has an Anti-Bush page, I have to assume that Mr. Sarawak isn't a big fan of ours.

I'm sorry, I'm just giggling like a madman here. Tim has a stalker! I'm wondering if this is one of our little lefty trolls, or just some careless kid. Hop on over to his site and then come hazard a guess in the comments.

UPDATE: He changed the webpage. Sorry, you missed it.

Another Reason to Bulldoze the UN

All emphasis is mine.

In the same November 2002 statement, Mr. Sevan reported that "acute malnutrition" was still rampant among young children in Iraq. Mr. Sevan explained that although malnutrition had been halved since Oil-for-Food began (all this was based on Saddam's statistics), it was still double the rate of 1991--a situation Mr. Sevan himself described as "far from satisfactory." But the solution prescribed by Mr. Annan was not to spot and stop the kickbacks. Rather, while lamenting what he described in Nov. 2002 as the "dire funding shortfall" of Oil-for-Food, Mr. Annan's solution again and again was to urge more oil sales by Saddam. Which meant, most likely, more resources earmarked to feed babies but diverted to the Baghdad regime (and, by extension, more commissions for the U.N.).

It would be interesting for someone with full access to the contract details -- meaning, I suppose, the UN's own investigation into itself -- to total the scores of Oil-for-Food contracts for baby formula, weaning cereal, milk and so on (much of it bought from Security Council member nations Russia and France), and employ some pricing experts to fill in the rest of the numbers.

But what we know already is that Mr. Annan, whose Secretariat turned a blind eye to Saddam's food pricing scams, has never apologized for presiding over the biggest fraud in the history of relief. He has not used the word "illegal." The closest he's come has been to admit this past March, after much stonewalling, that there may have been quite a lot of "wrong-doing"--before turning over the whole mess over to a U.N. investigation that has since smothered all details with its own blanket of secrecy.

Kofi Anus and his gang of thieves were in the thick of kickbacks, shady deals and corruption with Saddam Hussien, and are now trying to block any investigation into it. They were one of the prime reasons why Iraqi children were starving to death while Saddam build himself more palaces and the UN lined it's pockets with Saddam's blood soaked cash. And they're getting away with it.

Bulldoze the UN building, preferably with all the UN staff and diplomats inside. And then bomb it. Bomb it flat, bomb it until there's nothing left but rubble, and then bomb it to make the rubble bounce. Kill every single UN "diplomat", starting with Kofi Annan and hang them from lampposts in NYC. And then, once every last rat and parasite from that building is dead, erect a monument on the ashes, dedicated to all those who died due to UN corruptions and arrogance.

Let that monument stand as a reminder of the thugs, dictators, criminals and thieves that were allowed to prosper in the heart of the worlds greatest country.

Get your storm gear on.

Prepare yourself for a wave of screaming, crying, blubbering, moaning, griping, and all out asshattery from Michael Moore.

If that company goes under, it could get really ugly, really quick.

Found via this gimpy bastard.

What Liberal Media?

Big thanks to opinionjournal.com today for catching this one.

Read this story right here, which shows a picture of a Minnesota girl with her hair braided in the shape of a "W". The picture was taken during a Bush bus tour through Minnesota.

Now, right click on the picture of the girl. Select "properties". Then look at the URL for the picture.

http://images.chron.com/content/news/photos/04/09/17/brainwashedchild.jpg

Nope, no sign of bias there.

The Party of "Tolerance" Strikes Again.

Not content with making three year old girls cry, Leftists now feel the need to suckerpunch wounded soldiers in the back of the head and beat them when they're on the ground.

Foster Barton, 19, of Grove City, received a Purple Heart for his military service in Iraq. He almost lost his leg last month after a Humvee he was riding in ran over a landmine.

Barton said he was injured again Friday night in a crowded parking lot as he was leaving the Toby Keith concert at Germain Amphitheatre. The soldier was injured so badly that he can't go back to Iraq as scheduled.

"I don't remember getting hit at all, really," said Barton, a member of the 1st Calvary Division. "He hit me in the back of the head. I fell and hit the ground. I was knocked unconscious and he continued to punch and kick me on the ground."

Barton and his family said he was beat up because he was wearing an Iraqi freedom T-shirt.

Yep, that's the left. Make small girls cry while you rip up the signs they hold, suckerpunch wounded combat vets from behind and then stomp on them while they're on the ground, all in the name of tolerance.

In fact, I'm SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO glad that these fucking worthless communist bastards are the party of "peace" and "tolerance", because otherwise we'd see things like dirty filthy hippies heckling the family of a dead soldier, or a memorial to September 11th vandalized by commies, or a Kerry supporter attacking a Bush supporter on a plane, or union thugs attacking Bush supporters. Yeah, gosh, the party of worthless fucking communist scumbuckets "Peace" and "Tolerance" are real peaceful and tolerant, aren't they! The party of cowardly fucks traitorous skanks worthless communist shits backstabbing thieves "Peace" and "Tolerance" use those words as ways to attempt to bullshit the rest of the world, but their actions cannot be hidden by the MSM anymore. They're exposed as the worthless, cowardly, parasitic, backstabbing, communist wastes of air that they really are.

Fuck the Donks. Fuck 'em all. I just want ONE DIRTY FUCKING COMMIE to try attacking a veteran around me. JUST. ONE. Believe you me, I could dump a lot of stress if I had five minutes of pounding the shit out of one worthless commie fuck. Just give me a damn reason. And I want to know why the people standing around this poor vet didn't grab that filthy hippy and BEAT HIS ASS INTO A PUDDLE! I guess Columbus, Ohio is so infected with liberalism that spines disappear and wrists go limp when real action is required.

Grrrrrrr..... Time for my run.

Thanks to Kim for pointing this out.

CBS = Democrat Whores?

I've been staying away from the TV as of late. Part of it is my job, and part of it is the fact that I just don't like TV all that much. If a game isn't on, I'm not too interested. So I just found out that John Kerry was on the David Letterman Show Monday night.

John Kerry. Was on Letterman. Monday night.

Who airs the Letterman Show? CBS.

The very same network which whored out it's credibility with a forged memo smear job against President Bush just gave John Kerry yet another opportunity to attack President Bush on national television.

I'm rather speechless right now. The flat out gall of these partisan hacks is astounding. At this point the eye logo of CBS should just be replaced with "DNC" in big red letters across every microphone and letterhead, every graphic and visual. They've tossed aside any pretense of objectivity. CBS is nothing but a group of cheap whores for the DNC, and they're doing all this out in the open.

I'll be glad when this election is over.

More Public School Horror Stories

From Steve

The more you read, the more you understand that the public school system is damn near worthless.

Canada Honors Draft Dodgers with Monument

Most countries build national monuments to honor their own extraordinary citizens and accomplishments. Apparently, Canada has found other uses for them.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Canada Plans Draft-Dodger Monument
Tuesday, September 21, 2004

NELSON, British Columbia — After burning their draft cards during the Vietnam War, tens of thousands of Americans avoided jail by fleeing to Canada.

Many settled in the small town of Nelson, British Columbia (search), just across the Washington state border. Now, 30 years later, the mayor of Nelson and some other Canadians are planning to honor the draft dodgers with a two-day festival and a larger-than-life monument depicting a Canadian helping two scared American men.

Though the festival and statue unveiling are still two years away, the war of words is just beginning.

Veterans of Foreign Wars (search) leaders are outraged by the monument, as are others in the United States who see the plan as a slap in the face. Some have written to Nelson officials to say they’ll never visit the town again.

The Canadian government did nothing to discourage Americans from heading north of the border so many years ago. In fact, then Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau (search) rolled out the red carpet, saying the draft dodgers had his complete sympathy.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Think about it. America has a gigantic wall honoring Americans who fought and died in Vietnam. Canada will soon have a monument honoring Americans who fled the country. How big of an inferiority complex do you have to have to build a national monument that doesn't honor your own citizens, but jeers at a neighboring country instead? How fucking sick is this?

Have you paid your global tax today?

Jacques Chirac has proposed $50 Biliion in global taxes to pay for an International "War on Poverty". No, seriously. This is not a joke. I'm sure that Jimmy Carter would have no problem with this.

One more reason to close up and bulldoze the UN. As if you needed any more reason. This, ladies and gentlemen, is why it's so important for Convservative media and the blogosphere to expose the corruption and ineptitude of the UN "Oil for Food" program.

Too busy to post

Which is a drag, since there's so much going on. Like the debate about whether CBS was a) incompetent, or b) dishonest in using those memos. As I listen to the ongoing debate, I have to remember:

Freepers and Bloggers exposed the forgeries in 48 hours. Heck, within a day
and a half, there were people on the Yahoo! Typewriters group explaining the
procedure for changing the font ball on an IBM Selectric. I asked the question about superscripted "th", and they responded. We're not talking carbon dating here.

Sheesh.

Blogs unveiled the memos in two days.

To me that says that CBS obviously either didn't examine the documents at all or did and knew they were inauthentic, but went with them anyway, thinking that no one was paying attention. I think that's a big part of this story. The face of media is changing. Can't just slide this kind of sludge by The People anymore, because now media is Of The People.

I was watching CNN and they showed a timeline of this documents thing. No bloggers were mentioned. In their timeline, the documents just magically got debunked. Ah, well.

Maybe next lie.

Then there was John Madden last night, wondering aloud why every time the Minnesota Vikings got down into the "red zone", they suddenly started committing illegal procedure penalties, jumping before the snap. Hey, John! Hey, ya big blabbering oaf! Errrrr, crowd noise, fool.

The Eagles will be difficult to defeat this year, but they are woefully thin at running back and the guy they have is small. He'll take a lumping and then it will be All Air, All the Time.

Did you'all watch Monday Night Football? Did you see Randy Moss mailing in his routes in the fourth quarter? What a mutt.

That's all I've got.

A Picture Is Worth....

Fair and Balanced my ass



"the only bush I trust is my own"

My favorite catchy phrase this election cycle:

"Lose one with the Flipper"

I bet we don't see that one in the window of many See BS news trucks.

Ratherman

RAWK!

On The Run Again

No, not because I'm in trouble. I need to get back into shape, and today I started running for the first time in over four years.

When I got out of the Army in 2000, I told myself that I was only going to run if someone was screaming for me or shooting at me. I had to go to a doctor in 2002 due to knee problems (anterior ligament) and the doctor told me that I had compressed the cartiledge in my knees. Years of running in formation will do that to them. By the time I ETS'ed, I was hobbling after every run. I would literally limp home after PT sessions. The doctor said that time and TLC would eventually get my knees back to health, and I've been taking it easy on them for the past couple of years, not wanting to aggrivate anything. I was somewhat hesitant to start running again, but since I re-enlisted, it was necissary. So this morning after my push-ups and sit-ups, I put on my running shoes and headed out.

No pain.

Hallelujia, I could run and it didn't hurt! I didn't time myself, since I'm so out of shape that I would cry if I saw my time, but I ran for over two miles with no pain. By the time I hit Texas, I'm going to be smoking the run route.

The times, they are a changing. And I have one less thing to worry about. I can still run.

Burn down the schools!

Check this story out.

Dave Maier has retired as Skyview High's head wrestling coach.

He was recently suspended for four days without pay. Because it is a personnel matter, school officials would not comment on the suspension Friday.

In his 22nd year as a teacher in the district, Maier also retired as assistant softball coach, but will continue in his role as math teacher.

Also at Skyview, physical education teacher Paulette Gershmel has resigned as assistant girl's basketball and assistant track coach.

She will continue as a teacher, district officials said.

Suspended without pay, and it's a "personnel matter", so no talking to the press about WHY they were suspened. However, Og has the lowdown on these two coaches.

These two fuckheads are being allowed to stay in the school and continue to teach after a 14 year old freshman student caught them having sex in the lounge area in the gym. They were given minor suspensions and then allowed to come back to fucking work. Why they're not hanging from lamp posts at this very moment is beyond me. Read the story, come back, leave a comment, write someone, raise hell.

The male coach has an invalid wife, which he uses to justify his trysts with the female coach, and they have continued this activity for years, according to other students and parents in the know.

Folks, the public school system is, by and large, WORTHLESS. I wouldn't send my worst enemy's kid to public school. In fact, today's schools are worse than worthless, they've been completely taken over by the Left. Mr. Poretto (who led me to Og's story) expounds upon that thought much better than I can. But ask yourself this question - if you were caught boinking a co-worker in the broom closet at work by a fourteen year old girl who just happened to be one of your customers, would you still have a job? I wouldn't. I'd be fired on the spot. Hell, I've seen people fired on the spot for less than that!

But if you're a school teacher, you can obviously do whatever you want and get away with it. Those two teachers are still employed, and were only suspended for FOUR DAYS!

Oh yeah - that fourteen year old student who caught the two teachers playing "Hide-the-Salami"? That would be Og's niece.

The Council Has Spoken!

This weeks winners in the Watcher of Weasle's council vote are NPR and Media Matters Can't Tell Time by Patterico's Pontifications and Are the CBS National Guard Documents Fake? by INDC Journal. You can find all the results here.

More proof that CBS isn't worth a bucket of warm spit

You've seen the forged memos. Now look at the forgery vs. the real thing, side by side.

At this point, the only conclusion is that CBS and Dan Rather knew that the memos they had were fakes, and still pushed the story. Because it's either that, or CBS is so incompetant and worthless that they couldn't do five minutes worth of investigation to find out of the memos were real or not.

As far as I'm concerned, CBS committed a criminal act. They pushed known forgeries on the public and presented them as real. Dan Rather needs to be fired. Hell, entire sections of CBS need to be fired. That entire worthless, gutless, corrupt section of "news" reporting needs to be fired. The fact that NOBODY has been fired yet proves that CBS is nothing more than a group of partisan hacks who care more about Democratic power than objective journalism.

In fact, instead of pink slips for Dan Rather and the Democratic whores with him, it's people who critisize Rather who get fired.

SEATTLE - A radio talk-show host said Saturday he has been fired for criticizing CBS newsman Dan Rather's handling of challenges to the authenticity of memos about President Bush (news - web sites)'s National Guard service.

"On the talk show that I host, or hosted, I said I felt Rather should either retire or be forced out over this," said Brian Maloney, whose weekly "The Brian Maloney Show" aired for three years on KIRO-AM Radio, a CBS affiliate here.

Maloney says he made that statement on his Sept. 12 program. He was fired Friday, he said.

"What they have expressed is essentially that my show went in a direction they're not comfortable with," Maloney said.

The Democrats are only concerned with grabbing power through any means possible. Lying is fine with them. Using national news shows as attack platforms against President Bush is OK with them. Kitty Kelly for three days straight on NBC? That's fine with them, as long as those Swift Vets don't get any airtime, right? The same people crowing about Kerry's war record are the same people dismissing those vets as bitter drunks, psycotic wacked out vets. They've been saying the same thing for THIRTY DAMN YEARS! You want to know why the Left considers Viet Nam Vets to be crazy drug addled, PTSD zonked savages, but they love John Kerry? BECAUSE KERRY SIDED WITH THE COMMUNISTS THIRTY YEARS AGO, AND NEVER SWITCHED SIDES AFTER THAT! Attacking a three year old girl is perfectly acceptable, as long as you're a Democrat! BUT DON'T YOU DARE QUESTION DAN RATHER!

The more I see of the Democratic Party, the sicker I get.

Avast, ye mangy cur!

Ye best be talkin' like a pirate today!

Now pass that rum before I have ya dance from the yardarm and keelhauled!

Yeowch!

OK, you folks remember the child who was assaulted by Leftist losers for daring to have a "Bush/Cheney" sign in her hands, right? Nothing says Democrat like assaulting a three year old girl, lemme tell ya!

It gets better.

Steve H. of Hog On Ice is laying down some of the most savage beatings I've seen on the web. First of all, one of his more idiotic commenters actually blames the father for what happened.

That so-called "father" should be locked up for using his child in an act of provacation. Bringing her into that environment was nothing less than reckless endangerment of a child. There are better ways to express his first amendment right than to abuse his child in that manner. He could have started a riot and the child could have gotten seriously injured. What a loser he is.

Steve for you to mischaracterize the Edwards supporters as the villains while ignoring the culpability of the so-called "father" is grade A BS!

Steve, of course, responds in a way that leaves nothing to the imagination.

It's absolutely true that the father was foolish to trust liberals to behave like human beings. These are the same people who beat up a young boy for waving a "Sore Loserman" sign back in 2000. The same people who dragged a New York cop off his motorcycle during the RNC and put him in the hospital with severe facial trauma.

(....)

If, as Totsie's comment necessarily implies, liberals are so stupid and violent we can count on them to behave this way, then it IS the father's fault, just as it would be his fault if he went to the zoo and lowered her into the monkey pit. But here in America, our Constitution is supposed to protect our right to do exactly what Sophia was doing, and liberals always lie that that right is more precious to them than to us. So what are liberals, Totsie? Animals or hypocrites? I say "both."

No wonder they put them in cages at the Democrat National Convention.

Think about it - A liberal just admitted that Democrats and Kerry Supporters cannot be trusted to behave as civilized human beings. A liberal just admitted that assaulting a three year old girl is perfectly acceptable behavior, if you're a Democrat. Here, let me restate that for you.

A liberal just admitted that assaulting and screaming at three year old girls is acceptable behavior, if you're a Democrat. In fact, it should be expected.

Steve also rips apart the hysterical liberal claim that Parlock (the father of that three year old girl) is a fake, because he's been assaulted before.

In 1996 and 2000, Phil Parlock made the West Virginia papers by being attacked by Clinton and Gore supporters. Ergo, the conspiracy nuts say, the attack on his daughter was staged. And the liberal blogger who brought out the 1996 and 2000 stories even suggests that the goon in the photo of Parlock and his daughter is actually Parlock's son.

Okay, let's accept the conspiracy-nut premise. That's Parlock's son. He got himself a Kerry T-shirt and tore the sign out of his sister's hands. That means the sister is in on it. Phil Parlock somehow managed to train a three-year-old to cry convincingly on cue, and to behave as if her own brother terrified her. Or Parlock's son is such an evil son of a bitch, he deliberately scared the hell out of his own baby sister, on camera.

Now, what about the liberals in the background, who appear to be cheering the sign-ripper on? I guess that black lady is also Phil's daughter.

And since he happened to be on the scene with his camera ready, AP photographer Randy Snyder must be a Parlock, too. Maybe Randy is a woman, and Snyder is her married name.

If Parlock is really that prolific, he could get Bush elected just by telling all his children to vote for him.

So Parlock has been assaulted before for his political beliefs? That only proves that Democrats are against free speech. That only proves that Democrats are against the right to assemble. That only proves that Democrats are easily the greatest danger to America that we've seen in a long time.

Fine, Parlock goes to events packed with Democrats, and he waves Republican signs, and then he complains to the press when the Democrats attack. What exactly is he doing that is wrong or deceptive? Is he hypnotizing liberals and forcing them to attack? Do liberals have a right to beat him up and attack his children, just because he's a repeat protester? Does the fact that he has been attacked before mean he's not allowed to talk to the press about it any more?

Explain the logic.

Sorry Steve, there's no logic where the Left is concerned.

UPDATE: Michelle Malkin has a list of links detailing just how low the Left will sink.

Let's Punch a Few More Holes into the Left's Rapidly Deflating Worldview

Punch Punch Punch!

Air National Guard Colonel Denies Bush Got Preferential Treatment

"He presented himself well. I'd say he was in the upper 10 percent or 5 percent or whatever we ever talked to about going to pilot training. We were pretty particular because when he came back [from training], we had to fly with him."

(.....)

Records show Bush stopped flying F-102As in April 1972. He has said he moved to Alabama to work on the Senate campaign of a family friend. Staudt retired from the Guard in March of that year and said he was never contacted about Bush's performance.

"There was no contact between me and George Bush … he certainly never asked for help," Staudt said. "He didn't need any help as far as I knew."

He added that after retiring he was not involved in Air National Guard affairs. "I didn't check in with anybody — I had no reason to," he said. "I was busy with my civilian endeavors, and they were busy with their military options. I had no reason to talk to them, and I didn't."

If CBS had done even a preliminary investigation into those Bush memos, they would have known they were bullshit. But, knowing as we do that CBS and Dan Rather were looking for any angle possible to hurt President Bush, it should come as no surprise that basic background checks were ignored and quick checks were not completed.

Just another nail in the coffin. At this point, there's more nails than wood left in that thing.

Hat tip to Powerline.

All the proof you need

You want proof that California should be allowed to break off and float away? Think about this.

Smoking in a privately owned business was banned in California LONG BEFORE outlawing the practice of having sex with a corpse was even considered.

'Nuff said.

And the illness continues

I must apologise to my dear readers, but I'm still coughing up stuff best not described at all.

This virus is kicking my ass. And that's AFTER I brought on the spice.

Thank god that Tim and TVE are kicking ass and taking names, because I can't do squat. I think that's the best part about a group blog - you don't have to fire on all cylinders all the time. When Tim or TVE is on vacation or just too busy, I can blog, and when I'm too sick to do more than lift my head off my pillow, they take over.

Just another reason to visit Four Right Wing Wackos every day! (/salespitch)

Anyways, I'm just sticking my head up so you know I'm still alive. Hopefully I'll bet better with a bit more rest. And more spice. And more gin.

I know, gin might not be the best medicine, but it makes me not care that I'm sick for a while, so gimme my small pleasures!

Follow Up

Power Line, unlike most Pajamahadeen, haven't totally dropped the lies of the Associated Press.

Before there was Dan Rather, there was the Associated Press. We reported here and in several follow-up posts on one of the biggest media scandals of this campaign. On Sept. 3, there was a Bush rally in West Allis, Wisconsin. President Bush announced to the crowd that he had just learned that former President Clinton had been hospitalized. There was a moment of near-silence in which a slight murmur of concern was audible. Then Bush said that his thoughts and prayers were with the Clinton family, and the crowd cheered and applauded loudly.

But that's not what the AP reported. Under the by-line of reporter Tom Hays, the AP said: "Bush's audience of thousands in West Allis, Wisconsin booed. Bush did nothing to stop them." That was a lie, plain and simple. Audio and television tapes show that no one booed. No one.
.
.
.
The AP issued a corrected version of the story on the rally that omitted the false claim about the booing, and Bush "doing nothing to stop it," but hundreds of newspapers and television stations had already picked up the story. The AP has never made any explanation of what happened, nor, to our knowledge, has Lindlaw been disciplined in any way for deliberately filing a false news story.

Power Line: Associated Press Continues to Stonewall

TVE said it quite nicely: The Ivory Tower is Bugged, though I think its traditional inhabitants would prefer the term "infested".

If you click the link below, you can ask the AP just an itty bitty question about why Scott Lindlaw still works for them.

Info@AP.org

And yes, he is still at work:

As Bush peered into each car's passenger window, a Secret Service agent leaned into the driver's side, keeping a close eye. White House aides hovered nearby, ensuring that a mob of journalists captured the scene of the president as empathizer in chief.

Yeah. He really must have gotten his hand slapped.

Bradenton.com

Ummmm "Frog March"? Yeah!

Ok. I've been doing a whole bunch of reading! This is the article that spurred me back to blogging ---> Link

Bill Burkett has previously been all-too-willing to speak to the press. He's done so on numerous occasions, and he's written political columns for the internet under his own name.

Why is he suddenly so camera-shy that CBS News must protect his identity and treat him as an anonymous source?

Is this Bill Burkett's idea?

Or has this been Dan Rather's decision all along? Should Burkett's prior history and extreme political partisanship be revealed to the press, the story would be immediately condemned as irresponsible and baseless; but, as stealth techonology teaches, you can't hit what you can't see. Perhaps better to hide away this source, lest he whither in the light.

There is one final point to be made. I don't know who provided Dan Rather with his shoddy forgeries. It could have been anyone.

But if, hypothetically, Bill Burkett did provide those documents to Rather -- something, again, that Burkett's lawyer repeatedly refused to deny, but for which there is no genuine evidence -- then this would be a grave indictment of Dan Rather's integrity.

For here we would have a man who, for four years, has been making these very same allegations against George Bush, only to be dismissed by the press as lacking credibility. And yet we would have to believe two things:

1) That all along -- all the time since Burkett first "ruffled through" Bush's files in 1997 -- he actually had copies of those files all along, but has never once mentioned them before now; and

2) That Dan Rather actually believed Burkett's ludicrous claim, and was untroubled by Burkett's surprise announcement that he'd been secretly hanging on to the files for seven years.

If Bill Burkett is the source of the documents, it should have been plain to any reporter that they were forgeries; a man trying to prove an allegation doesn't wait five years to reveal he's had the proof all along.

You wouldn't need technical typographical analysis to determine that they're forgeries; you would just need a dollop of common sense.

But if Burkett was the source, and yet Dan Rather went along with this transparent hoax anyway, then he is guilty of something much worse than negligence.

Either way, it seems that Rather had good reason to want to hide his Unimpeachable Source away from the world, and away from prying eyes, and away from nosey questions.

And away farthest of all from all those conservative critics who just can't be trusted because they -- they! -- have a political agenda at work that makes them inherently untrustworthy.

Read the whole thing!

I will add that Jerry Killian's Bush-hating Secretary has stated that:

She did not type them.
Jerry did not type.
Neither typewriter she used could have produced them.
And that she considers them forgeries.

The forgeries came from Kinko's in Abilene, Texas....twenty miles from Burkett's house. He has an account there. He was there last Tuesday.

Have I mentioned that 2 of the 4 CBS document experts they cited to substantiate these documents did not authenticate them despite CBS claims to the contrary or that they raised issues with the documents only to be broomed by CBS as "peripheral"?

How about Ben Barnes? He said he got Bush into the Gaurd. His daughter called him a liar. He's raised massive amounts of money for Kerry. All the people who could coaborate his statements are dead. He has given previous contradictory testimony on the subject under oath.

Kitty Kelley? The source for her "Bush used cocaine" allegation denied she told Kelley that at all. Kelley's response? She says the notes she took show she did.

John Kerry's campaign started a new attack theme against President Bush this week called "Operation Fortunate Son" (or something the like).

That's an excellent case for coordination between the Kerry Edwards campaign/DNC, CBS, Kitty Kelley, and Ben Barnes. This has to stop. They are willing to go to any lengths to regain power. They would justify ANY means to achieve their end goals. They are filling a portion of the citizens in our country and those of others with a fairy tale world designed to lift themselves to the top of our society and keep their political opponents marginalized.

We've got News for them. Their Ivory tower is bugged.....or should I say "Blogged"! It's time to turn up the heat!

Power Line

One of the best features on the web

FARK: Photoshop a celebrity endorsed food item for your local grocer

Thieves Rob Bus Full of Policemen

Forty-six Brazilian policemen traveling to a sports competition were caught with their guard down this week when four Brazilian thieves robbed the bus carrying them to the event.

Yahoo! News

In Economic News...

...inflation is minimal, oil is volatile, and unemployment ticks up.

Poetry from the Pajamahadeen

All your memos are belong to us.

h/t Instapundit

Krooked Kofi Sez:

"I hope we do not see another Iraq-type operation for a long time — without U.N. approval and much broader support from the international community."

and

"From our point of view and the UN Charter point of view it was illegal."

More

More, More, More - - - How Do You Like It, How Do You Like It?

Into the Time Machine We Go

Bill Burkett, now rumored to be the author of cBS' faux memos, authored this piece in March of 2003.

Witnesseth:

What do you do? Watching the sunrise on a beautiful morning, I used to feel hope. Before my illness, I felt exhilaration at the prospects of the day. After my illness, I felt hope that I might work hard to live. Now I feel sickness that today another massive group of people, held worthless by this anointed king, will be trampled upon like grapes. But their blood will not be rendered into wine. It will be spilled into the sands of this desert or another, or on the streets of Washington, or in the halls of the US Congress, or in the courts.

But there is a difference from any phenomenon previously faced by a spoiled American populace. With Teddy Roosevelt, we badgered and dented him into listening; with Franklin Roosevelt, we tenaciously talked until he listened; with William Jefferson Clinton, we crippled him through deceit and his own frailties. But none were anointed as king.

We must now revert to the history of Europe to discern what to do. We must study the nemesis of France and how Napoleon was felled before understanding the damage a tyrant does to a nation and society. We must examine the ruthless and dictatorial rise of yet another of the three small men—one whose name is not spoken out of fear of reprisal, but his name was Adolf. We must examine history, in order to not repeat it, and to understand the mesmerism of a public to a murderous scheme. Three small men who wanted to conquer . . . and vanquish. Each created a need for a balancing throng; history then recorded the damage from a far better perspective.

The three small men: Napolean, Hitler, and You-Know-Whom.

One last tidbit:

We must be credible.

Oy!

What do you say?

UPDATE: Burkett's attorney has one heckuva resume. And check out what his Daddy said.

There's a new insurgency in town

The Pajamahadeen

Bwah!

What appears below was submitted by a Dear Reader. I treasure our Dear Readers.







Classic. Just Plain Classic.

Oy!

Flashbunny

Top Of The List

Unfit for Command

That's a link to The New York Times. Don't forget to wash your hands after clicking.

Still Sick

Hacking and coughing, the whole bit. I'm a germ factory right now. So guess where I am?

If you guessed "At home in bed", you lose. If you guessed "At work, because there's nobody to cover your shift", give yourself a silver star.

I'm hunkered in my office, hoping that my contact with staff and visitors can be kept to a minimum. My immidiate supervisor went home sick, I'm actually covering for someone on vacation in Europe, other staff is busy with family emergencies, and I'm the only one here. Gah. I do NOT need to be spreading my virus around the workplace. I wonder if I can find some mask to cover my mouth with......

Oh my

Beldar is pissed. And he has reason to be.

But Dan Rather and CBS News had become co-conspirators by the time of their broadcast. ABC News has revealed that two of the experts whom CBS News consulted before running the broadcast — Emily Will from North Carolina and Linda James of Plano, Texas — could not and would not authenticate the fraudulent Killian memos, and expressly told CBS that.

So CBS had been told that the memos were fake... and ran with the story anyways.

America needs to see a cloud of pink slips coming from CBS headquarters.

The other side of the du Toit family

Mrs. du Toit has written a damn fine essay regarding fear and gun ownership.

I never knew another way. I never knew there was any other option. I remember having scary moments like that with my mother—hearing a noise outside and cowering in fear, or holding the telephone, ready to dial 9-1-1. I remember putting a chair under the door handle of my apartment. I remember buying a baby’s toy, that rattled when it moved, and putting that by the door, too. It becomes normal, common, the way you deal with life. You don’t think about these things after they’ve happened. You just continue on, as if nothing happened. It just didn’t occur to me that all women didn’t go around dealing with all of this, but never actually thinking about it.

Until I became armed.

It happened, literally, the day I left the range for the first time. I knew how to fire my own gun. I knew how to defend myself—and was “equal” to the strength of any man with that gun. It didn’t matter that it was a small caliber. It didn’t matter that I wasn’t an expert marksman. I knew I had a better than fighting chance and it was a feeling I’d never had before.

Exactly. My girlfriend is one of the strongest women I know. We met in the SCA, and she has literally stood side by side with me, swinging a stick and fighting just as hard as I was. Female heavy fighters are few and far between. Fear to her is not a common occurance. I've seen her get tossed ass over teakettle, and then get right back up and into the fray. But as tough as she is, she knows that when it comes to physical strength, she's overmatched by many males. No amount of toughness or guts can save you when you're outweighed by 100 pounds or more and the person wants to do you harm.

The one thing that sets her apart from the majority of women in the Puget Sound area is the fact that she has the tools, and the knowledge to use them, in order to protect herself. She doesn't have to worry about where she goes, or at what time. She can protect herself from anyone who tries to hurt her. And the tool she uses to protect herself is a .38 Special revolver.

Having a Pit Bull mix dog who would chomp on anyone who attacks her doesn't hurt either.

So tell me again....

What political party uses dead soldiers as political tools?

Oy!

Did John Kerry Coerce Vietnam Vets Into Lying About Atrocities?

You Decide

The Council Has Spoken!

The winners in last week's Watcher of Weasels council vote are It's Not the Thought, It's the Dream That Counts by Ubique Patriam Reminisci, and The Bush Doctrine by Citizen Smash - The Indepundit. You can find all the results here.