How sick is the NFL?

Here's the headlines stories for the Yahoo! NFL coverage:

What happened to Venus?

It's so hot, so dry, so barren.

What happened?

"Runaway global warming" happened, that's what.

What are you, ig'nant or somethin'?

Veteran's Day...

...has been cancelled in Berkeley.

Crunching numbers

John Cross does some figuring and adding with the national debt. You might be interested to see what he came up with.

Oh....some other numbers:

Average deficit 1993-1995: 3.0% of GDP (post-recession)
Average deficit 2001-2003: 1.16% of GDP (in recession, 9-11, Afghanistan, Iraq)

The deficit, as a percentage of GDP, is also decreasing as we speak.

As a percentage of GDP, outlays under this administration will peak at 20.3%, and have averaged 19.86% ...in the Clinton years, they averaged 20.16% of GDP.

To make it all the more sensical (because Congress spends the money), between 1950 and 1994, the average amount of spending as a percentage of GDP was 19.43%. That was a Democratic-dominated legislative branch. Since the Republicans took over, the same measurement yields a percentage of 19.25%...including Bush’s War on Terror.

Now granted, I STILL think the government is spending way too much of our money. However, the Donks are simply trying to use Republican spending as a political tool. Do you honestly think the Democrats would be any better? If you do, go to the end of the line, because you're a dumbass. Look a the planks of the Democrat Party. And then look at what they propose. Handing control of the government to Democrats would be like handing booze and car keys to a teenage boy (with apologies to P.J. O'Rourke).

Who woulda thunk it?

Criminals running amok causes law-abiding citizens to buy guns. No shit, Sherlock. When the people or items set up to protect society fail, it is up to the citizens to protect themselves.

And let's be clear: At some point, the people and mechanisms set up to protect society will fail. It's not that the police don't try hard enough, or that lawmakers don't pass enough laws (for g-d's sake, they pass too many damn laws), it's that the police cannot be everywhere all the time. They can't stop a mini-mart from getting robbed. They can't prevent a woman from getting raped. People cannot expect to have round-the-clock protection 100% of the time because it's just not possible. YOU are responsible for protecting yourself.

Did I mention that Ammo Day is coming up? It's actually ammo WEEK, November 12th to the 20th. Buy one hundred rounds of your favorite ammo. That's at LEAST one hundred rounds. More is better. Much more is great. Although, since I'm in the People's Republic of Puerto Rico, I may have to substitute a NRA or GOA membership for those 100 rounds. Grrrrrrrrrr.....

Anniversary

Sorry about the lack of posting lately, I've been a busy boy. But I just wanted to share that I have officially been married to the most wonderful woman in the world for one full year, as of yesterday.

Although, it only feels like six months, with all the activity that's been going on in our life.

So here's to many more years, eh?

Supporting the Troops - Leftist Style!

Excerpt:

Intrepid MediaCitizen reader "lebkuchen" Googled some of the soldiers who were used as stooges before Bush and the cameras on Thursday and found another GI who didn't pass the smell test.

Cool, but my favorite part is this:

There's much more at DemocraticUnderground.

Ain't that the truth.

Great work in the comments as well:

Killing babies for oil has long term pyschological affects.

There's no arguing with that, after all.

MediaCitizen: Soldier Propagandist

Found via Michelle Malkin: Another Soldier Talks Back

The World has a new Top Intellectual

It's Noam Chomsky. But you knew that already.

Off to a nice start in Iraq

Good election turnout and now this regarding Saddam Hussein's upcoming trial:

Last week, the New York-based Human Rights Watch warned that the tribunal "runs the risk of "violating international standards for fair trials."

"In Iraq's fragile political climate, the legitimacy of the court will be in question," it said in a statement. There have also been demands that Saddam be tried before the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Netherlands.

Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari rebutted these complaints, arguing that Saddam's crimes were mostly against the Iraqi people, so he should be tried by Iraqis.

"Why cannot a man who committed crimes against his own people be tried by the same people? Iraq's judiciary is just."

Advising the Internationalists to go piss up a rope -- a great sign for a fledging free nation.

FOXNews.com - First Saddam Trial to Begin Wednesday

Staying with this genre....

The Rott has an example of asshatted fuckwittery that just has to be seen. If you STILL have any doubts that the Left in this country is desparately hoping for Iraq to fail, you have GOT to see this.

Juan Cole, the Hollow-Headed Halfwit, has managed to find a way to disparage Iraq's election of a constitution before the results are even in! You've got to go read it. You can almost see Cole in pink bunnie jammies, red-faced and screaming "IRAQ CAN'T WORK! IT CAN'T! IT CAN'T! IT CAN'T! WHAAAAAAAAAAAAA! I WANT MY MICHEAL MOORE DOLL!"

Cheers for Mugabe

LGF

Do they do it purposefully?

So sometimes our courts are wacky

Look at this from Sweden.

Not just...

...staging news, but outright making it up: Michelle Malkin: THE BOSTON GLOBE'S BOGUS SEAL HUNT STORY. Lookit all those links at the bottom of the piece.

All I have to say is, "Yep!"

There's a reason why most military members look at the Lame-Stream Media as some sort of three-day old roadkill.

Ok, but what percentage of the American people favor an immediate pullout, you dolts? Isn't that the most relevant stat here? What percentage of the people oppose the troops? (In reality, the answer is more than anyone on the left wants to admit, though still a small minority of the population.) The AP, however, is Hell-bent on undercutting the president, here (and basically giving the troops a snide and subtle "fuck you" in the process), but what they are really giving is poll numbers that reflect support for the President. Not support for the troops.

Most editors I wrote for as a Time Inc. wretch would have caught that, and never let me get away with it. Not so at the AP I guess.

Personally, I wouldn't trust any member of the Lame-Stream Media any farther than I could throw them. And sometimes not even that far. The media has been anti-military, anti-war, anti-Bush, and anti-Conservative to the point that they can't be anything else if they tried. They have been banging the Democrat's drum for so long that changing their tune at this point and time would require an earthshaking event of such magnitude that half the planet wouldn't survive. I suppose that maybe fifty years in the future, I won't have to read a newspaper and wade through opinion posted as "news", but at this time and place I regard any "news" article about Iraq as an attack on myself and the military, and go from there. The press has an agenda, and they push it non stop. If you want to get the truth coming out of Iraq and Afghanistan, read what a soldier, sailor, airman or Marine is writing.

Oh, and here's the scuzziest bit of all:

Paul Rieckhoff, director of the New York-based Operation Truth, an advocacy group for U.S. veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan, denounced the event as a "carefully scripted publicity stunt." Five of the 10 U.S. troops involved were officers, he said.

If Operation Truth is simply "an advocacy group for U.S. veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan," then I'm the Queen of Sheba. Their website says they're "nonpartisan." But look who's doing the fundraising: Randi Rhodes, Jenine Garofolo, Al Franken, Air America, and Tim Robbins.

This reporter is remarkably uncurious about the sources she seeks for comment.

"If he wants the real opinions of the troops, he can't do it in a nationally televised teleconference," Rieckhoff said. "He needs to be talking to the boots on the ground and that's not a bunch of captains."

Yeah. I guess we're all idiots. None of us know what's going on about anything. Actually, there could not have been more than 4 captains, since only five of the ten were officers, and one was a lieutenant. The remainder were NCOs. Yeah, I guess NCOs never talk to troops either.

Some advocate.

So the AP pushes the line that the President's meeting with "the troops" was a staged event, yet at the same time swallows a line from "Operation Truth" without questioning that group's motives? Why am I not surprised. And since when is a bunch of captains not considered "boots on the ground"? Aren't they there? Aren't they commanding troops there? Don't you think they might actually fucking know what the hell is going on? And don't five Non-Comissioned Officers count for something?

No, not when you've got an anti-troops, anti-Bush agenda to push!

Gah! Worthless fucking pukes. Rope. "Journalist". Tree. Some assembly required.

Want some Rand?

Analog Kid is putting up a quote of the day from Ayn Rand every day, if you're interested.

And why wouldn't you be interested?

If some men are entitled by right to the products of the work of others, it means that those others are deprived of rights and condemned to slave labor.

Any alleged “right” of one man, which necessitates the violation if the rights of another, is not and cannot be a right.

Ayn Rand “Man’s Rights”

Now, I have a confession. I find Ayn Rand terribly dry to read. Almost boring. She was a writer of great technical skill, and she put more important messages into her books than almost anyone, but she's so damn DRY! The only reason I made it through "Atlas Shrugged" was because every time I turned the page, I kept finding little nuggets of wisdom that I hadn't found anywhere else.

Remember that rights are moral principles which define and protect a man’s freedom of action, but impose no obligations on other men. Private citizens are not a threat to one another’s rights or freedom. A private citizen who resorts to physical force and violates the rights of others is a criminal – and men have legal protection against him.

Criminals are a small minority in any age or country. And the harm they have done to mankind is infinitesimal when compared to the horrors – the bloodshed, the wars, the persecutions, the confiscations, the famines, the enslavements, the wholesale destructions – perpetrated by mankind’s governments. Potentially, a government is the most dangerous threat to man’s rights: it holds a legal monopoly on the use of physical force against legally disarmed victims. When unlimited and unrestricted by individual rights, a government is man’s deadliest enemy. It is not as protection against private actions, but against government actions that the Bill of Rights was written.

Ayn Rand, Man’s Rights

I guess I find her to be much like Bernard Lewis. Wonderful intellect. Great ideas, and the ability to put those ideas on paper. Horribly boring to read. That might get me excommunicated from the conservative blogger's club, but it's the truth.

If one wishes to advocate a free society – that is, capitalism – one must realize that its indispensable foundation is the principle of individual rights. If one wishes to uphold individual rights, one must realize that capitalism is the only system that can uphold and protect them. And if one wishes to gauge the relationship of freedom to the goals of today’s intellectuals, one may gauge it by the fact that the concept of individual rights is evaded, distorted, perverted and seldom discussed, most conspicuously seldom by the so-called “conservatives”.

“Rights” are a moral concept – the concept that provides a logical transition from the principles guiding an individual’s actions to the principals guiding his relationship with others – the concept that preserves and protects individual morality in a social concept – the link between the moral code of a man and the legal code of a society, between ethics and politics.

Individual rights are the means of subordinating society to moral law.

Ayn Rand: Man’s Rights - 1967

So make sure you visit Random Nuclear Strikes on a daily basis. I know I will be, because I can have my Rand without banging my head against a wall trying to get through yet another 1000 page beheamoth that when boiled down, simply says "Any 'right' that infringes on another person is not a right."

Syrian Interior Minister suffers assisted suicide

LGF

We're Number Two

This is amazing to me: Google Search: right wing

If you "Read the whole thing" anywhere today...

...let it be here:

Today the Office of the Director of National Intelligence released a letter between two senior al Qa'ida leaders, Ayman al-Zawahiri and Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, that was obtained during counterterrorism operations in Iraq. This lengthy document provides a comprehensive view of al Qa'ida's strategy in Iraq and globally.

Power Line notes:

Reading Zawahiri's letter is almost enough to make you feel sorry for him. He is like an old Bolshevik, wringing his hands over the murderous policies of his Stalinist progeny. Zawahiri was once a doctor, and is a relatively cultured and learned man. Zarqawi was a Jordanian street thug and is now a sadistic mass murderer. One can easily imagine how little effect Zawahiri's remorse will have on the bloodthirsty leader of the Iraqi 'insurgency.'

Also, this:

Zawahiri: "However, despite all of this, I say to you: that we are in a battle, and that more than half of this battle is taking place in the battlefield of the media.... "

There you go.

Sunni, Shia, Kurds Reach Deal

Great news.

Great, great news.

The Iraqis have come up with a good constitution that, despite some disagreements, can certainly be fixed up once all groups are fully represented in parliament along. It would appear from a glance that the country’s political society is split completely along ethnic and religious lines, but that’s simply not the case, and the results from the December elections will prove that. There are a myriad of interests working for influence. The Iraqi voter hasn’t been one for long, but they are proving smarter and more politically than ethnically savvy, as they are moving away from these superficial biases toward whichever parties can govern the country best.

All politics aside, if the Iraqis can form themselves a solid and sustainable republic, what an achievement it will be.

Now that the constitution looks ever more likely to be approved, it will be important for us here in the west to focus on the December elections as well. We need to make sure that party-backed militias don’t wield undue influence over individuals and how they vote, we must make sure that their cronies don’t tamper with those votes behind the scenes, and we must make sure that, no matter what the real outcome of the vote is, that power transfers peacefully.

Publius Pundit - Blogging the democratic revolution

Saturday is the vote. Perhaps while the Iraqis are casting their ballots, we Americans, as well as focusing "on the December elections", can recall why those elections are possible:

---

Army Sgt. Michael T. Crockett of Soperton, Georgia, died 14 July 14 2003 on patrol in Baghdad, Iraq when he came under RPG attack. Sergeant Crockett was 3rd Platoon Bravo Company, 3rd Battalion, 7th Infantry Regiment, Fort Stewart, Georgia. Sergeant Crockett was 27.

---

Marine Sgt. Kirk Allen Straseskie of Beaver Dam, Wisconsin, drowned 19 May 2003 in a canal near Al Hillah, Iraq, when he attempted to rescue the crewmembers of a Marine CH-46 helicopter that went down in the canal. Sergeant Straseskie, 23, was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 4th Marine Regiment, Camp Pendleton, California.

---

Navy Chief Joel Egan Baldwin of Arlington, Virginia died 21 December 2004, in Mosul, Iraq, when a suicide bomber entered his dining facility and detonated an improvised explosive device. Chief Baldwin was assigned to Navy Mobile Construction Battalion 77, Gulfport, Mississippi. Chief Baldwin left behind a wife and daughter.

Goddamnit.

---

Air Force Airman 1st Class Elizabeth N. Jacobson of Riviera Beach, Florida died 28 September 2005 near Camp Bucca, Iraq, when an improvised explosive device detonated near her convoy vehicle. Airman Jacobson was assigned to the 17th Security Forces Squadron, Goodfellow Air Force Base, Texas.

Airman Jacobson was 21.

Droplets on Leaf

The clover at lower right is cool.

Average age of newspaper readers?

55

"It's Gore Time"

You say you have high blood pressure, Dave?

Is Al Gore coming back? If allies we talked to have their way, the former veep will be the next president. "It's Gore Time," says a political strategist and fundraiser who is opening a bid to get Gore into the race.

Well, this one's for you.

After all, laughter is the best medicine.

USNews.com: Washington Whispers

I'm sorry, what was that?

Oh, a movie about Ronnie Earle indicting Tom DeLay? And it's been filming for two years?

Let me get this straight in my head. A partisan Democrat who happens to be a District Attourny persues Tom DeLay on whatever charges he can throw at DeLay and make stick, and has a fucking FILM CREW TAPING HIS EVERY MOVE, and people still want to say that Earle isn't a partisan piece of shit with no political motives in his attempts to smear and destroy the House Majority Leader?

Holy Hell people..... Gah. Just as my blood pressure was starting to go back down.

Found at ALMTTR.

John Hawkins asks a question

From Right Wing News

-- Sometimes, the dog that doesn't bark tells a tale. In this case, why is it that the blogosphere doesn't seem to be stepping up to help the victims of a cataclysmic earthquake that has killed so many people in Pakistan? Is it that they're not big fans of Pakistan? Are people too distracted by the Miers nomination? Is it donor fatigue after the Tsunami and Katrina that's responsible?

Personally, I think the US government should pay particular attention to this quake, even if the public doesn't. Pakistan, which has taken a big hit in this earthquake, has been a real help in the war on terror and Pervez Musharraf has caught a lot of hell for it from his own people. Now might be a great time to show everyone in Pakistan that there's no better friend to have in a crisis than the United States. Also keep in mind that Bin Laden is likely still hiding out in the Pakistani back country. Helping Pakistan in their time of need might be just the thing to set a few tongues wagging about his whereabouts.

Honestly, I think one of the big reasons that you don't see conservatives hopping up and down demanding aid for Pakistan is because we're already giving aid. One of the first groups of people to arrive in Pakistan was Chinook and Blackhawk helicopters from our troops in Afghanistan. We're already there, unloading food, water and supplies, as well as helping with rescue efforts where we are needed.

The entire world is pitching in, and there's no way for the USA to do everything that needs to be done. But we are there, as are countries from around the world. We have a chance to make some big inroads with the general population in Pakistan. And we're taking it.

Let's Get Linkdumped !!!

Leading off: Susan Sarandon sez we need to keep our eyes on Katrina. You know, so we can keep an eye on "who's getting the contracts to rebuild".

Nextly, great stuff at Instapundit regarding those faux anti-war people Dave was talking about the other day.

Lastly, Power Line notes that al Qaeda may be making themselves at home in Gaza. Doy.

Just a big joke

Rexibolus sent me a link to this little tidbit of news.

Mohamed ElBaradei and the International Atomic Energy Agency that he heads won the 2005 Nobel Peace Prize Friday for their efforts to stop the spread of nuclear weapons.

What. A. Fucking. Joke.

The Kallini Bros. have a list of what happened under ElBaradei's watch.

India announced it officially possessed nuclear weapons.

Pakistan announced it had nuclear weapons.

Libya announced that it had a highly-developed nuclear weapons program, and turned it over—lock, stock, and barrel—to the United States.

North Korea has continued violations of the treaty and is unabashedly seeking nuclear weapons.

Iran has repeatedly violated the treaty and is unabashedly seeking nuclear weapons.

Pakistan has helped spread what it has learned about nuclear weapons throughout the Muslim world.

And you think I joke when I say that the UN is nothing but a corrupt bunch of worthless goat-fucking tyrants who need to be burned alive while we destroy the UN building, preferably with all the UN staff inside it?

But I LIKE P.E.T.A!

I mean, who doesn't want to be a part of People Eating Tasty Animals, anyways?

Oh, he's talking about the OTHER P.E.T.A. I get it now.

If you ever want to see the world's biggest smackdown of PETA and it's cadre of moronic supporters, head on over to the DANE's place.

Bad day to be in Pakistan

From the USGS.

At what point can we declare war on the EU?

They want control of the internet? They can go play hide and go fuck yourself. Why in the name of all that is holy should this country allow a group of unelected beurocrats take control of the internet?

Old allies in world politics, representatives from the UK and US sat just feet away from each other, but all looked straight ahead as Hendon explained the EU had decided to end the US government's unilateral control of the internet and put in place a new body that would now run this revolutionary communications medium.

If the USA allows a bunch of assholes to grab control of the internet, every politician in Washington DC should be hung from a lamp post. In fact, every citizen of this country, left or right, conservative or liberal, should be screaming mad and yelling at their political leaders right now. Just in case anyone has forgotten, the rest of the world doesn't have the same rules that we do.

There's no freedom of speech in the EU. Or in Asia. How would you like China or Iran to be in control of what you can or cannot say online?

Can you say good-bye, gun blogs?
Can you say good-bye, Gay and Lesbian websites?
Can you say good-bye, religious websites?
Can you say good-bye, freedom?

This grab isn't about the number of excuses that the rest of the world has given, it is about controlling information. The free flow of information is something that the EU, Iran, China, Cuba, and the rest of the petty tyrants and dictatorships want to control. Should the world try to wrest control of the internet from the USA, where free speech is guarnateed in the Constitution, then the USA should put the world on notice that any attempt to take control of the internet will be considered an act of war. In short, the USA should fight for the internet as it would fight for Florida or California. With brute force.

The rest of the world can't be trusted with the internet's gate keys. That might sound arrogant as hell, but when I see what happens in the rest of the world, it's just the plain truth. Perhaps when China stops restricting what can or cannot be put on Chinese websites, I won't worry so much.

Why can't we have a hunting season for trolls?

And spammers as well. Most of the goat-fucking pissants use proxy servers to spew their crap, which means that they go through servers in South America, Europe, Pacific Rim and the Caribbean. And as a result, most people simply block entries from those servers.

Guess which server I'm on? Seeing as how I'm in Puerto Rico.....

I say that spammers and trolls should be hung up by their toes and left to hang until dead. Or perhaps they should be skinned alive and tossed into the ocean for sharks to eat.

My two cents

On Harriet Miers.

I guess since everybody else has covered whether or not she's qualified, I don't need to bore anyone else with my opinion on that subject. However, on the whole issue I can say that I'm disappointed. I can think of several people who are more qualified to sit on the Supreme Court, and I'm hardly an expert on legal matters. So if I can think of a few better examples, I know that actual lawyers and legal experts must be jumping up and down.

On the other hand, my wife holds the opinion that perhaps having someone on the Supreme Court who hasn't been detached from everyday life for years and years is a good thing. In her opinion, too many of the hoi palloi have been so detached from real life for so long that they no longer have much in common with the people they're supposed to legislate or sit on a bench for.

I guess the whole reason I haven't gotten too upset about the whole thing is because for me, the Supreme Court really doesn't have much legitimacy left. Kelo vs. New London, half the court using international law as a basis for ruling on US laws, and the acceptance of McCain-Feingold as constitutional has made me realize that the Supreme Court is by and large nothing more than another political entity, and deserves no more respect than your average junior grade politicians. Perhaps in time that will change, but I don't see it happening in my lifetime. In fact, in my lifetime, I see the general population of the USA ignoring the Supreme Court and it's decisions as much as they possibly can. With all due respect to Scalia, Thomas and Kennedy, I don't hold any of the other justices with much respect at all, and see no reason why I should live by the arbitrary rulings that I see coming out of the court at this time. Short of doing what I must to avoid being locked up, I plan on treating the SCOTUS rulings like I would the rulings of a local town councilman. So the addition of Harriet Miers does nothing more than raise my interest level a notch or two. Sort of like "Let's shake this bottle up and see what floats to the top" interest.

Anyways, that's my two cents.

TV Tower Wires Kill 400 Birds in One Night

Horror.

The deaths may spur the creation of a group to study the dangers communication towers pose to migrating birds, said specialists with the Department of Natural Resources.

Those will be some enthralling discussions.

Yahoo! News

They're NOT anti-war

Before I left for Egypt, I picked up a book to read on the plane flight over. I'd like to quote from it quickly, if I may.

At this point I must drag out my soapbox.
In the twentieth century Gregorian, in the United States of America, something called "revisionist history" became popular among "intellectuals". Revisionism appears to have been based on the notion that the living actors present on the spot never understood what they were doing or why, or how they were being manipulated, being mere puppets in the hands of unseen evil forces.
This may be true. I don't know.
But why are the people of the United States and their government always the villains in the eyes of the revisionists? Why can't our enemies-such as the king of Spain, and the kaiser, and Hitler, and Geronimo, and Villa, and Sandino, and Mao Tse-tung, and Jefferson Davis-why can't these each take a turn in the pillory? Why is it always our turn?
I am well aware that the revisionists maintain that William Randolph Hearst created the Spanish-American War to increase the circulation of his newspapers. I know, too, that various scholars and experts later asserted that the USS Maine, at dock in Havana harbor, was blown up (with loss of 226 American lives) by faceless villains whose purpose was to make Spain look bad and thereby to prepare the American people to accept a declaration of war against Spain.
Now look carefully at what I said. I said that I know that these things are asserted. I did not say that they are true.
It is unquestionably true that the United States, acting officially, was rude to the Spanish government concerning Spain's oppression of the Cuban people. It is also true that William Randolph Hearst used his newspapers to say any number of unpleasant things about the Spanish government. But Hearst was not the United States and he had no guns and no ships and no authority. What he did have was a loud voice and no respect for tyrants. Tyrants hate people like that.
Somehow those masochistic revisionists have turned the War of 1898 into a case of imperialistic aggression by the United States. How an imperialist war could result in the freeing of Cuba and the Philippines is never made clear. But revisionism always starts with the assumption that the United States is the villain. Once the revisionist historian proves this assumption (usually by circular logic) he is granted his Ph.D and is well on his way to a Nobel peace prize.

The book? "To Sail Beyond the Sunset" by Robert A. Heinlein.

Why do I bring this up now? Because of a Cristopher Hitchens piece in Slate that everyone needs to read.

To be against war and militarism, in the tradition of Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht, is one thing. But to have a record of consistent support for war and militarism, from the Red Army in Eastern Europe to the Serbian ethnic cleansers and the Taliban, is quite another. It is really a disgrace that the liberal press refers to such enemies of liberalism as "antiwar" when in reality they are straight-out pro-war, but on the other side. Was there a single placard saying, "No to Jihad"? Of course not. Or a single placard saying, "Yes to Kurdish self-determination" or "We support Afghan women's struggle"? Don't make me laugh. And this in a week when Afghans went back to the polls, and when Iraqis were preparing to do so, under a hail of fire from those who blow up mosques and U.N. buildings, behead aid workers and journalists, proclaim fatwahs against the wrong kind of Muslim, and utter hysterical diatribes against Jews and Hindus.

Some of the leading figures in this "movement," such as George Galloway and Michael Moore, are obnoxious enough to come right out and say that they support the Baathist-jihadist alliance. Others prefer to declare their sympathy in more surreptitious fashion. The easy way to tell what's going on is this: Just listen until they start to criticize such gangsters even a little, and then wait a few seconds before the speaker says that, bad as these people are, they were invented or created by the United States. That bad, huh? (You might think that such an accusationÂ?these thugs were cloned by the American empire for God's sakeÂ?would lead to instant condemnation. But if you thought that, gentle reader, you would be wrong.)

The people who protest against our involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan are not anti-war, they simply support the other side. Never forget that one simple fact.

For my Texas Readers

The West Houston Smoke and Powder Crawl, version IX is planned.

Cap'n Jim has the details.

As for me, I'm still working on getting a firearm down here in the People's Democratic Republic of Puerto Rico. Once I finally obtain one, I'll do my own celebration.

Crap, the things I miss

while I'm out soldiering. Iran is launching a satellite.

Go read Rivrdog's analysis of it. I can't add anything.

Media Blackout fbo Charles Schumer

Democrat wrongdoing hushed.

Sen. Charles Schumer, Democrat of New York, is chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC), and it's his job to get Democrats elected in hopes of wresting Senate control from the GOP. Michael Steele is lieutenant governor of Maryland, and the DSCC, and along with most everyone else, expects Steele to run for the open seat of retiring Sen. Paul Sarbanes.

Steele, an African American, is a rising star in a Republican party regularly accused of racial insensitivity if not outright racism, a party that thought so highly of him and his political future that it chose him to be the deputy permanent chairman of the 2004 Republican Convention.
.
.
.
Apparently nothing frightens the DSCC more than an articulate and charismatic black American who also happens to be a Reagan conservative. How else to explain the behavior of two of Schumer's campaign committee members — research director Katie Barge and junior staffer Lauren Weiner — who dug for dirt using Steele's Social Security number, reportedly culled from court records, to fraudulently and illegally obtain his credit report?
.
.
.
These were no naive, overzealous interns. Barge is a longtime Democratic operative who led the research unit for a liberal media watchdog group run by journalist David Brock. She led the opposition research team for failed Democratic vice presidential candidate John Edwards. She knew the ropes and the rules.

Steele vs. Obama, VP Debate Night 2008.

Get your VCRs ready.

Investor's Business Daily

Jihad?

In Oklahoma???

Plamegate

Power Line popints out that Judith Miller had sources other than Scooty Libby and speculates that Joe Wilson's old lady's profession was well-known in DC.

One or two pictures

Just because I said I would. I'd love to have pictures that display some of the magnificant images that I saw, but you're SOL. I didn't bring my good camera because the dust and sand would have destroyed it. So I took my little POS camera, and it shows.

Ah well, that's life. Maybe in a few years I'll join the digital age. Until then, you have to deal with my little 35mm quirks.

Anyways.....



Welcome to camp. It's obviously much larger than this, but as I said I couldn't take many pictures there. If you look close, you can see a mosque in the back. For a better idea of where I was working......



Imagine a flat stretch of dust, with a few quanset huts and lots of conexes. That was home for three weeks. By the way, the yellowish tint in the pictures is not a mistake. That was the actual color of everything during the day. And the Chinook in the picture is participating in slingload excersises. I had to shrink the picture a bit to make it fit on the blog (and not kill the bandwidth), otherwise you'd be able to see it better.



This was the view of the camp from a Blackhawk helicopter. Believe it or not, that was my first time on a helicopter, and the pilot was putting the bird through all of it's paces. Intense is the only word I can think of to describe it.

Anyways, that's a small sample of what I saw. Half of my pictures didn't come out very well, which is a disappointment. But that's life in the analog age, I guess. The next time I go anywhere I'll get a digital camera.

Quick Andrew Sullivan Excerpt

The dude's a stone kook.

I have to say that, even after the last few years of amazement at the Bush administration's hostility to gay people, I never thought it would come to this. And this, I think is one key to unlocking the reason for Miers' nomination: it's Karl Rove's way of re-igniting the culture war, of once again using the gay issue to polarize the country, and rally his base. When these people are in a hole, they look to demonize a minority. The Southern strategy is back. But now, it's not blacks who are being used; it's gays.

Read on for the punchline.

The Corner on National Review Online

964

Bloated body watch:

The search for Hurricane Katrina victims has ended in Louisiana with a death toll at 964.

Falls short of 10,000, eh? Our American media couldn't get New Orleans right. Am I supposed to believe what they say about Iraq?

BREITBART.COM

The Democrat War Against Tom Delay

From the braying of the first Democrat, I asked them a very simple question: What, specifically, is Tom Delay accused of doing? As expected, they don't know. They can quote the Washington Post though. "190,000 Dollars!", "Laundered Corporate money!" and presumptions of donkey victory and GOP defeat abound. Let's start with that 190,000. The lie begins that Delay used a Texas Political Action Committee (TRMPAC) to distribute Eeeeeevil Corporate Cash to GOP candidates in Texas by "laundering it" (no mention of how he did this) through the Republican Naitonal State Elections Committee who then sent the same amount in SEVEN checks to Texas House candidates in the same amount. Eeeeevil right? Wrong. First, they had to make it seem like 190,000 just bounced along it's merry way through the money laundering scheme. To do this, they ignore the fact that the RNSEC sent a total of NINE checks to eight Texas House candidates for a total of $234,500. Bah-Bye "190,000". That does not include one of the checks (for 20,000) included in the 190,000 distributed to Texas House candidates cited by the Donks because it came from a seperate account. Which is key to the second part of the Democrat's shell game. NONE of the checks written to Texas House candidates came from the account from which the 190,000 that Democrats have cried "laundered!" about were written from the account that TRMPAC contributed to! So they had to first skew the number of checks that the RNSEC wrote to Texas House candidates in order to skew the amount donated and then completely gloss over the fact that the money sent to the RNSEC went into a different account and was NOT sent to Texas House candidates! OOOPS! Now for some pespective that the leftist press and their jackass handlers have denied you: On Oct. 31, 2002, the Texas Democratic party did essentially the same thing when it sent $75,000 to the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and received $75,000 back from the DNC the very same day. The study also reveals that Democrats transferred a total of approximately $11 million dollars in soft money from its national parties to fund Texas campaigns in 2002, compared to $5.2 million transferred by Republicans. Now for Ronnie Earle. Oh he's JUST a registered Democrat, right? Like that has no bearing on his purely partisan attack on Delay:

Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle, who denies partisan motives for his investigation of a political group founded by Republican leader Tom DeLay, was the featured speaker last week at a Democratic fund-raiser where he spoke directly about the congressman. A newly formed Democratic political action committee, Texas Values in Action Coalition, hosted the May 12 event in Dallas to raise campaign money to take control of the state Legislature from the GOP, organizers said. ...
In his remarks, Earle likened DeLay to a bully and spoke about political corruption and the investigation involving DeLay, the House majority leader from Sugar Land, according to a transcript supplied by Earle. ...

So he's JUST a registered Democrat that JUST goes to Democrat fundraising events designed to "take control of the statre Legislature from the GOP" and now he's spun a pile of crap into what he thinks it's golden thread. And what would a Donkey prosecutor doing Donkey work be without the Donkey Press falling in line.
BUT WAIT! THERE'S MORE!

The orginal charge of Conspiracy was based on 2003 laws that Desperate Jackass Earle tried to apply to 2002 events

Moments ago, from CNN's Anderson Cooper 360:

ANDERSON: Joe, the fact that this is a separate grand jury relating to the same event that caused the first charges to be brought, is this an acknowledgement that the first charges, that maybe DeLay's team was right, the conspiracy charge didn't apply in that time?

JOE JOHNS: That's precisely the question. If you look the pleadings they did put out, it gives you a strong indication the law was changed in Texas in 2003, and that's when they put in conspiracy as applied to this count. So the suggestion is, just looking at it on its face, is that the attorneys for Tom DeLay are right, which certainly would be, if true, a big embarrassment for Ronnie Earle, Anderson.

OOOPS! What's a good little jackass to do!? The heat is on! The movie chronicling his mission from god needs a triumphant ending! You just trump up some new bogus charges! Make no mistake folks. The Democrats have NO AGENDA and as a result they have fallen back on trying to politically destroy their opponents in court. Their behavior is reckless and it makes them a danger to our country. Make sure to click the "destroy their opponents" link. Read about what they are accusing Frist of and how pathetic in light of Frist's actions that charge is.

Also posted at Curiouser and Curiouser

Operation Bright Star

Now that everything is said and done, I can tell you that I was in Egypt for three weeks participating in Operation Bright Star. OPSEC before I left was an issue, so I was instructed not to even mention it until everything was wrapped up. But anyways, that's where I was. In the desert.

By the way, anyone who says that Egypt is "sandy" can bite me. It wasn't sandy, it was dusty. The dust was everywhere. It got everywhere. You couldn't get rid of it. Before I hit the rack at night I would shake clouds of dust off of my uniform. You had to soak a handkerchief with water and tie it around your face before you rode in any vehicles just to avoid sucking dust into your lungs. I'm still coughing up brown crap. Although I did see sand at the airport before I left. Other than that, it was all dust.

I went over there with the expectation of doing the job that I had been trained for. Silly me. I was a logistician with no supply room, no computer or network, and no way to order parts or supplies. So I became an honorary mechanic, as well as being the all around gofer. Still learned quite a bit and got experience I wouldn't have dreamed of just sitting at my unit.

And no, I didn't see the pyramids or anything like that. There were a few people who had time to go on tours and see the tourist sites, but I wasn't one of them. I did manage to pick up a few gifts here and there, but for the most part I was confined to the site we were set up in.

I did manage to snap a few pictures, but due to OPSEC we weren't allowed to photograph any of the base we were at. So most of my pictures are rather non-descript. I did take my camera with me when I was on a Blackhawk helicopter, so once those are developed I'll be posting them. I should be taking them to a lab today or tonight, and scanning them in later.

In any case, I'm back! Once I recuperate a bit and do some laundry, I'll be back to blogging on a semi-regular basis. I see that the Left is up to their usual stupidity, so I'll have plenty to get pissed about.

Time to keep on keepin' on.

Good to be back

Just got back from the FTX today. After giving the (ahem) appropriate attention to the Raging Mrs. and enjoying a gin and tonic (in that order), I settled down to find out what has been happening while I've been incommunicado.

I'll fill you all in with the details once I've had a chance to settle down, do laundry, and have a bite to eat. So, most likely it'll be tomorrow.

See you then.

Goodbye Cruel World

BDS is now a pandemic.

My mental state is collapsing and deteriorating almost daily. It's so consistent you could practically graph it. My life is falling apart at an equally alarming rate, and yet I feel like doing nothing to salvage it. I feel like I'm standing at the bottom of one of the WTC towers, watching it come down on me, floor by floor, knowing I'll be blown to atoms, yet unable to move.

Leftist Angst in high relief at DailyKos.

As always, wash (with hot water and soap) when done.

California National Guard meet ghosts in New Orleans

CBS 5: Video Library

Patrick Ruffini :: September Straw Poll: Tag the Vote

Patrick Ruffini :: September Straw Poll: Tag the Vote

Porkbusters

I don't understand the whole attraction around Porkbusters.

If I lived in Lahaska, Pennsylvania and my Congressman had gotten the town five million bucks to build a parking garage that will help alleviate congested streets, bring more businesses to the town, and bring more shoppers to the town, I'd be damned if I'd volunteer to decline the money so the governments of New Orleans and Louisiana can have it.

Cuts across the discretionary board, or convene the Senate and House and start redlining. That makes sense. But asking individual representatives to volunteer to slash their district's budgets to benefit New Orleans, it seems to me, is just delusional.

When the Dems need Votes, the Buses don't stay Parked

On 45 minutes notice, Landrieu's election campaign had no trouble finding drivers for New Orleans' buses when the cause was getting liberal voters to the polls, but with the election won and her poor voters left stranded in a soon-to-be flooded city with no food or drinkable water, the buses stayed parked. At least we know where her priorities are.

...when the management team got word at 3:15 p.m. Tuesday that a GOP tracking poll showed Jenkins ahead, it was time for an instant parade. "Within 45 minutes, we arranged a motorcade," Tucker said. "We found Mary and Marc, got school buses for workers and sound trucks with music and put on a parade to flush out our voters."
...[NOLA Democrat] teams tracked the turnout all day in target precincts. If the vote was slow compared to past elections, some of the 1,000 street workers were sent there to knock on doors and ask people to vote.

Emphasis mine. (Abridged version of original article here.)

If you read about Tom DeLay...

...start here.

Is anyone else...

...getting 404 or Not Authorized errors when visiting Four Right Wing Wackos?

Neat photos

Rescuing Torahs after Katrina.

Cindy Sheehan on John McCain

"He is a warmonger, and I'm not."

WaPo

What a complete, utter creep she is.

Two from LGF

Moonbat marchers mania. Don't miss "Anatomy of a Photograph".

Also, Honor Killing in Denmark. Say no more.

Race Card Poker

Sacred Cow Burgers

Move America Forward

Jake Jacobson attended the conference in Chicago.

"I was a lifelong Republican until Bush..."

We've all heard it before. Well, here is some choice debunkery.

More here.

Commander in Chief

Starts tonight on ABC. I wonder how many episodes go by before a funny talking Southern religious righter or two are craftily dismissed by our new Galantess in the White House? How long before the Patriot Act is vaguely referred to and criticized? How long before protestors in the streets are lauded for their involvement in the process?

Well only time will tell.

ABC set up the show's web site to look like a blog: Mackenzie Watch

Drudge goes just a little bit overboard

Ah well. Here's the story: BREITBART.COM

UPDATE: Dane is on it.

Carnival of Moonbattery

Coverage of this weekend's anti-America protests can be found here:

Global Cop (signs and confrontations)

Pro-America at Stupid Random Thoughts

Totally wacked at Mudville Gazette

How come the rallies keep getting smaller? Gay Patriot

Photos Galore at California Conservative

Open with care. Eek.

LGF

Sights and Sounds at Baldilocks

In San Diego, it's Citizen Smash.

The Grieving Father

Unable to attend today's protests, alas.

(thanks to reader Quinn R. for the donated graphic)

Okay this is weird

What happened to Kim DuToit?

Damned if he do...

After President Bush briefed reporters on his intention to visit the area affected by Hurricane Rita as soon as possible, one reporter yelled, "Sir, what good can you do going down to the hurricane zone? Might you get in the way?"

Click and keep reading.

National Review Online

It's Protest Weekend !

Lots of good clickables in this post at Instapundit.

Ditto the Gazette, whose Patrice Cuddy links are fantastic.

What's Taking So Long?

CNN is the choice of stooges.

Yet more Stuck on Stupid

California "moderate" senator joins the looney left. Shocking stuff.

"I cannot in good conscious cast a 'yea' vote. I will cast a 'no' vote," [Senator Feinstein] said.

Mebbe she could do it while unconscious?

This will just make it that much easier to nominate Janice Rogers Brown for O'Connor's spot.

UPDATE: The Senate Judiciary Committee just voted 13-5 to confirm John Roberts to be the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. The Senate will vote on Monday.

Storm Donations Found at Official's Home

C'est le bon!

Police found cases of food, clothing and tools intended for hurricane victims at the home of the chief administrative officer for a New Orleans suburb, authorities said Wednesday.

Officers searched Cedric Floyd's home because of complaints that city workers were helping themselves to donations for hurricane victims. Floyd, who runs the day-to-day operations in the suburb of Kenner, was in charge of distributing the goods.

Storm Donations Found at Official's Home

In case you were wondering

My favorite website (besides 4rwws of course... and Danegerus, Captain's Quarters, and Michael Yon... er... and Ace): WuzzaDem. I particularly like this post.

The Battle of New Orleans

This article tells you all you need to know about what went wrong after Katrina and why the 2nd Amendment is so important:

NEW ORLEANS, Sept 21 (Reuters) - After the storm came the carjackers and burglars. Then came the gun battles and the chemical explosions..."The hurricane was a breeze compared with the crime and terror that followed," said Gregg Harris, a psychotherapist who lives in the battered area...Citizens organized armed patrols and checked on the elderly. They slept on their porches with loaded shotguns and bolted awake when intruders stumbled on the aluminum cans they had scattered on the sidewalk.

Gunshots rang out for days, sometimes terrifyingly close.

Telling Un-PC Jokes Earns Soldier Reprimand

At his blog Pass the Brass, Pfc. Heath J. Coleman a.k.a "Sure Fire", a military policeman based at Camp Humphreys, South Korea, often writes humorously, invariably laughing at his own mistakes. His posts, which he says are all true, often end with a message or lesson.

Appearantly, he discovered the hard way that there can be consequences for posting things his commanders don’t approve of. "He was given a list of rules to follow concerning his posting, and SF did fine by sticking to them. So this website has been known to his superiors for quite some time."

This entry from Sure Fire's blog by his brother, Chad, details the worst part of the politically correct war against his brother:

He has been labeled a rascist, a sexist, and an extremist by his fellow soldiers and officers at Bragg. They have gone as far as to call him a disgrace to the United States. Now, I know my little brother is quite a few things, but he is Far from being a disgrace. They have searched his quarters for extremist materials, stripped him of any privilege’s he had, plan to publicly demean him in front of the company. And this is the beginning stage. They have already sought out how to give him a general discharge.

As all of SF’s friends, family, and readers know, SF has a posted some tacky jokes, and off-color humor. Just like most privates or even civilians. He likes to make up weird crazy stories that are obviously phony, all for the sake of being imaginative and funny. We all knew what was true and what wasn’t.

I think everyone who follows SF’s postings knows that SF is NOT a racist, sexist, or even an extremist. Yea, I’ll agree that some things were definetly in bad taste, but I’m guilty of crackin a joke in the same manner.

An entry on the 14th by Chad states that, "things are looking up for him. He can keep the site. He was given an article 15 for some of his Un-PC comments or jokes, and he has to go through and delete those out." And one on the 20th says he has not yet received the artile 15 they threatened to give him so he is getting out "realitively unscathed".

I can completely understand why it is important to monitor the statements made by mil-bloggers to prevent sensitive information from falling into enemy hands. That is a legitimate concern. Preventing them from offering aid and comfort to the enemy would be another. Ensuring that their statements are politically correct is not.

I'f you share these sentiments, you may want to let the officers at Fort Bragg know. Remember to be civil and respectful. Despite the internal conflict transpiring before us, you are still addressing America's finest.

Hat tip to blogger, Pebblepie, who left word of this in our comments.

Also posted at Curiouser and Curiouser.

Cindy Sheehan's Other Son Drowns In New Orleans

It's a parody, and a good one.

Dirty Tricks continue

Two members of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee have resigned after admitting they obtained Maryland Lt. Gov. Michael S. Steele's credit report.

Phil Singer, a spokesman for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC), said the two staffers told committee officials in July what they had done. He said the committee began an internal investigation and determined it was an isolated incident.

"The DSCC immediately ensured that Mr. Steele's credit report was not used or disseminated to anyone," Mr. Singer said, "It also reported this incident to the U.S. attorney in Washington, D.C."

Steele is black, Republican, and considering running for the United States Senate.



Prepare for jihad.

Democrats got Steele's credit report - The Washington Times

Stuck on Stupid: Quick Download...

...Classic Moment.

Newspapers Slashing Jobs

The New York Times, Boston Globe, Philadelphia Inquirer, Philadelphia Daily News, and San Francisco Chronicle have all recently announced staff reductions.

Pigs, Fascists, Stalinists

The Grieving Mother has some kinda friends.

Is this guy a dope or what???

He'd lose an election to Heinrich Himmler at this point. A race against Robert Byrd might ge tighter.

Bars, restaurants and shops had just begun showing signs of life when the mayor suspended the reopening of the city and ordered nearly everyone to leave town again as a new hurricane headed toward the Gulf of Mexico.

The call for another evacuation came after repeated warnings from top federal officials, including President Bush himself, that New Orleans was not safe enough to reopen. Federal officials warned that Tropical Storm Rita _ upgraded to a hurricane Tuesday morning _ could breach the city's weakened levees and swamp New Orleans all over again.

Jeez.

BREITBART.COM

Broussard Hoax Confirmed

Sometimes I wish I had a bigger megaphone, though, admittedly, a lot ot times I just don't have anything to say.

An emotional moment and a misunderstanding - Hurricane Katrina - MSNBC.com

Money Earmarked for Evacuation Redirected

Who'da thunk it?

As far back as eight years ago, Congress ordered the Federal Emergency Management Agency to develop a plan for evacuating New Orleans during a massive hurricane, but the money instead went to studying the causeway bridge that spans the city's Lake Pontchartrain, officials say.

BREITBART.COM

"occupied New Orleans"

That's Cindy Sheehan, uberKook, at MichaelMoore.com. Be sure to wash up when you're finished.

Debunking Broussard

"The guy who runs this building I'm in, Emergency Management, he's responsible for everything. His mother was trapped in St. Bernard nursing home, and every day she called him and said, 'Are you coming, son? Is somebody coming?' And he said, 'Yeah, Momma, somebody's coming to get you. Somebody's coming to get you on Tuesday. Somebody's coming to get you on Wednesday. Somebody's coming to get you on Thursday. Somebody's coming to get you on Friday' — and she drowned on Friday night. She drowned on Friday night. Nobody's coming to get us, nobody's coming to get us."

-- Aaron Broussard
September 4, 2005

I heart-wrenching story that had people from coast to coast weeping in anguish.

Except it was bullshit.

Tom Rodrigue in Jefferson Parish's emergency services director. Rodrigue's 92-year-old mother, Eva, was at St. Rita's nursing home. She died on Monday.

Tom Rodrigue, whose mother died in the nursing home, was angry Tuesday and near tears. "She deserved the chance, you know, to be rescued instead of having to drown like a rat," he told CNN.

WaPo

How ever did she make all of those calls after she was dead???

St. Rita's, like the President, are blaming the locals.

Salvador A. Mangano and his wife, Mable, surrendered and were jailed on 34 counts of negligent homicide. They posted bond of $50,000 each later Tuesday. Each count carries up to five years in prison.

The Manganos' attorney, Jim Cobb, said his Tuesday night that his clients are innocent, and he blamed St. Bernard Parish officials for not ensuring an evacuation plan was proceeding.

WaPo

As for the Mangano's politics:

OpenSecrets.org

Photoshopping scarves onto the heads of infidels

This is really, really weird.

The Insurgency

About those "insurgents":

Iraqi forces arrested two insurgents in connection with the Kazimiyah bombing, one of them a Palestinian and the other a Libyan, Iraqi television quoted Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari as saying. Al-Jaafari also said the suicide bomber was a Syrian, without offering any details how the identification was made so quickly.

Maybe they're not insurgents (whom I thought are combatants from the area).

Maybe they are the "freedom fighters" that Cindy Sheehan lauds.

the bomber set off the explosive after calling the construction and other workers to his small van and enticing them with promises of employment

Yep. Freedom Fighters Gone Wild.

Yourish.com

The Pledge of Allegiance Unconstitutional?

Yup. That's what federal Judge Lawrence Karlton ruled today. Next up, the fabled 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, then the Supreme Court, minus a Chief Justice. Should be smooth sailing from here on out for Dread Pirate Roberts, and anyone else the President cares to nominate. That Karl Rove guy is a genius.

Three weeks

That's how long I'll be on the Field Training Excersise. I'm leaving this afternoon, and I'll be out of contact for three weeks.

The Raging Mrs. might pop in and say "Hey, Dave called, he's hot and tired but doing OK" every now and then.

In the meantime, have fun playing Whack-a-liberal while I'm gone!

Portraits of a Storm

Wow.

This I excerpt verbatim...

...for I've nothing to add.

So, you're unexcited about both Bush and Clinton. And, I suppose I can assume, the widely-acknowledged weaker recent one-termers, Bush Sr., Carter and Ford. Presumably you're not so unusual as to be a great big Nixon or LBJ fan...

So that leaves maybe Reagan or Kennedy as the only candidates for a good President in the last 45 years? That's some high standards you've got, man.

I only make the comment 'cause what you said is, I think, symptomatic of a modern American disease: we don't know when we have it good. Unemployment has been at 5% for 23 years, and inflation 5% or less -- and we bitch about the terrible economy. We freak at a war that claims 3 lives a day and maybe 6-8% of the Federal budget -- our grandfathers who fought in Okinawa would be ashamed of us. A huge hurricane roars ashore in the Gulf Coast and -- mirabile dictu -- not more than probably a few hundred people are killed, and generally speaking most everyone is being helped and is OK within a week or so, despite the enormous destructive force. But, oh dear, that's some monstrous failure at which fingers must be pointed.

Eh, I tell you, any of our ancestors would be ashamed of our squeaky weeniedom. They hacked out a country from wilderness, natural and human, and wrestled with awful terrible questions, from freeing ourselves from slavery and struggling to erase its lingering consequences, to beating back the poison of fascism of the left and the right across half the civilized world. *And* they went to the Moon, discovered penicillin and heart transplants, invented transistors and sliced bread. Well, I lied about that last one...

What are we leaving our children? What are we daring? Why would anyone a hundred years hence consider calling us a Great Generation? As opposed to one of the most spoiled and whiny generations of Americans ever? I'm hard pressed to say.

Instapundit.com

Senator Landrieu...

...torn apart on FOX News Sunday.

The joys of Puerto Rico Telephone

On Friday, PRT hooked up our neighbor's telephone, and in the process shredded the line going to our house.

Don't ask me how. I don't know.

So, after going the weekend without a phone line (and hence no internet), I'm sad to say that I didn't have any nifty September 11th post. In all honesty, I don't think I really could have written one that was very eleoquent.

The bottom line is that I'm still pissed. I'm still raging about what those terrorist pig-fuckers did that day. Pictures and words can't stoke those fires any hotter, because they haven't cooled down.

Hell, I reenlisted. I think my actions show my feelings perfectly.

But in case anyone is still wondering why the hell American soldiers are in Iraq and Afghanistan, in case anyone is still wondering why the hell so many Americans are enlisting and reenlisting, I'll give you this:



Look at it. Burn that image into your brain.

We're hunting down terrorists so that no American ever again has to decide between falling 100 stories to your death or burning to death.

REMEMBER.

Oh My Gosh

I cannot believe people are still blaming New Orleans on the President.

'We offered the city the opportunity to take evacuees out of harm's way,' said Amtrak spokesman Cliff Black. 'The city declined.'

So the ghost train left New Orleans at 8:30 p.m., with no passengers on board.

Mayor Nagin should be arrested for everyone else's protection.

Washington Post

Finally.

Finally, someone is saying it.

Me, I just want SOMEBODY to point out FEMA’s actual failures instead of using a disputed resume blemishes and a lot of showy handwringing to suggest [FEMA Director Michael] Brown’s failures.

Well, yeah.

Protein Wisdom: My third brief conversation with the Ghost of Louisiana "Kingfish" Huey Long

By the way, do you know who directed FEMA's response to the four hurricanes that hit Florida last year? Michael Brown did.

Know what the Left says about that?

In 2004, swing-state Florida voters slammed by hurricanes received lots of help and close personal attention from President Bush. But there's no election this year.

That's post-Katrina Salon.com, whose link to the full article requires you to subscribe.

I'd love to pay them fair value for the 3 year subscription, but I don't have a dime handy.

And it's not just that they are saying this now, they were saying back then:

Now that Hurricane Charley has swept through Florida, it's a safe bet President Bush will sweep in. Natural calamities present political opportunity, and many crucial electoral votes are in the path of Charley's howling winds.

Charming folks, ain't they?

[ON SECOND THOUGHT:] Maybe it's not a fair comparison, this Louisiana and Florida thing; Florida actually has a Governor who is willing and able to do his job.

These people need a clue

I am about to voice my displeasure to the National Park Service and the Secretary of the Interior once I find the appropriate email addresses, but at least I've sent an insensitive email to the designer of the entry that won this competition for the design of the Flight 93 National Memorial. (See The Valiant Elephant's post below.) The "Crescent" is a grove of red maple trees, and the "star" is a cluster of red and sugar maple trees. Looks pretty conspicuous, even blatant, no? I was pissed when I saw the picture. Here's what I sent:

Date: Fri, 9 Sep 2005 16:35:06 (PDT)
From: "DW"
Subject: Crescent of Embrace
To: info@paulmurdocharchitects.com
I am deeply saddened by your design for the Flight 93 memorial in Shanksville, PA. You could not possibly be unaware that the crescent moon with a star is the internationally-recognized symbol of the faith of Islam. Is it your intention to honor the terrorist hijackers? Your design appears to be the equivalent of putting a swastika over a holocaust memorial site. I am thoroughly disgusted, and would expect others to be equally disgusted when they discover your plan. If your "Crescent of Embrace" memorial goes forward, it will further victimize Americans. I can only imagine your motivation - perhaps it is to turn Americans into hate-filled terrorists, as you must expect the trees in this memorial to be torched.

UPDATE: Contact information for the National Park Service is here. When I tried to submit an email message from this page, it said "URL Not Found," so I sent a fax instead.

You can call the Superintendent of the Flight 93 National Memorial at (814) 443-4557 or send a fax to (814) 443-2180.

UPDATE 2: (Via Bluemerle) In case you had lingering doubts, this should lay those to rest. Shoot an arrow on the bow of the crescent and it flies along the path of the qibla, which is the imaginary line to Mecca that Muslims align themselves with when they pray. That's right - the "Crescent of Embrace" would point to Mecca.

Who's Idea Was This?!

"Let's Roll!"

When you read those words did you get an image of ordinary folks on board a hijacked airplane moving to overpower the muslim thugs that slaughtered their way into control of the ship and were intent on slamming it into an important American structure? Me too. So who in the fuck decided that a memorial to the heros of flight 93 in a field in Pennsylvania would be best embodied by a giant red crescent?! And WHY!?

Dear God

I can't believe this.

HH: You just broke a pretty big story. I was watching up on the corner television in my studio, and it's headlined that the Red Cross was blocked from delivering supplies to the Superdome, Major Garrett. Tell us what you found out.
MG: Well, the Red Cross, Hugh, had pre-positioned a literal vanguard of trucks with water, food, blankets and hygiene items. They're not really big into medical response items, but those are the three biggies that we saw people at the New Orleans Superdom, and the convention center, needing most accutely. And all of us in America, I think, reasonably asked ourselves, geez. You know, I watch hurricanes all the time. And I see correspondents standing among rubble and refugees and evacuaees. But I always either see that Red Cross or Salvation Army truck nearby. Why don't I see that?

HH: And the answer is?

MG: The answer is the Louisiana Department of Homeland Security, that is the state agency responsible for that state's homeland security, told the Red Cross explicitly, you cannot come.

So part of the reason that the refugees in New Orleans didn't have food or water was because THE FUCKING STATE OF LOUISIANA TOLD THE RED CROSS TO PISS UP A ROPE!

I think I'm going to vomit.

Watched the Red Sox and Angels last night

And during the game the newscasters spoke of certain players who are helping out hurricane victims.

Curt Schilling put up a family of NINE in a hotel. FOR A YEAR.

There was an Angel player who's allowing another family to live in his Atlanta house.

Where the hell are the "compassionate" Lefties who also happen to be outright rich? Micheal Moore? Hello? How many millions did you make on your latest crockumentary? Ol' Babs could put up three fucking families in her house on the beach. Hell, most of the fuckwitted actors and celebrities who howl about how mean Bush is and how nice they are could afford to buy or rent houses all over the South and Southeast for hurricane victims to live in. For that matter, they could rent out entire hotels for a year with all the money they have. That would help these people a hell of a lot more than the carping and bitching we've seen from the Left. Why not put action behind their words? But what do we get instead?

Sean fucking Penn trying to get more photo ops on a sinking boat.

Yeah, that's just what the people of New Oleans need.

Put up or shut up, Lefties. And those on the Left who happen to sleep on beds made of hundred dollar bills? Put your money where your mouth is.

UPDATE: Helo at Drumwaster's Rants has an actual link to the Schilling story, along with a few more details.

The Schillings have pledged to provide housing for the family for a year, and are trying to arrange for the children to attend school. The Fieldses plan to attend their first-ever Major League baseball game, tonight at Fenway Park.

The Schillings have visited the family frequently since they arrived, bringing clothing, medicine and toys, and have called several times to check in, Fields said.

‘’They are beautiful people, God-loving people,” Fields said. ‘’I am very grateful for what he’s done for me.”

Though the Schillings are outspoken advocates for many causes, notably ALS, or Lou Gehrig’s disease, the Schillings made arrangements for the Fields family quietly, and discussed it only after they were contacted by The Boston Globe.

The Schillings are known for charitable work. In 2001, Curt Schilling won the Roberto Clemente Award, given annually to the Major League player who combines outstanding skills on the field with work in the community.

The pitcher said the wives of other Major League ballplayers are also trying to arrange to help families in need.

(Emphasis mine)

That's the difference between those who have class and those who don't. Sean Penn just wants photo-ops. Schilling didn't discuss what he was doing until the Globe called him. Penn is nothing but a publicity seeking asshat. Schilling is a decent human being.

Six foot waves on the street?

The Corner on National Review Online

Where are the helicopters?

Well, Darth Hick, they're right here. Click the numbers at the bottom to see all 29 pictures. Not all of them show "the choppers" effecting rescues. Quite a few do.

"Embarrassing"? - More like "DAMNING"

The fourth report released by the Independent Inquiry Commission, headed by former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker.

"The findings of today's report must be deeply embarrassing to all of us," Annan told the Security Council Wednesday. "None of us — member states, secretariat … can be proud of what it has found. Who among us can now claim that U.N. management is not a problem or is not in need of reform?"

And the gloves come off

Something that the Left hasn't quite figured out yet is that their domination over what makes the news is crumbling. More and more news that the Left doesn't want you to hear or see is making it out into the world, due mainly to new technology, and people who are willing to use it.

Thus, when the Left turns en mass and blames everything regarding Hurricane Katrina on President Bush, their cries ring hollow when held up against reports and news coming out of that area. In short, the Bush Bashing doesn't work like it used to. And ordinary people are starting to get pissed off.

Really pissed off.

I said the other day that I found the finger-pointing and blame-gaming before the dead bodies were even cold sickening, and I did and do. But the America-hating Left has decided that the best way to win a debate is to shout down opposing viewpoints; they decided that a long time ago, in fact. And now they know they can count on help from those who, from the best of intentions, perhaps, will willingly spread blame to places it doesn’t really belong just to seem more thoughtful and “serious.” I began noticing the predictability of this phenomenon a while back, and while reticence and thoughtfulness are certainly not bad things, you all know by now that I’m not someone who minds much calling a spade a spade, either. So, as I said, screw moderation this go-round. The disaster in NOLA was all the Democrats’ fault. Full stop; end of story.

And no, I don’t just mean for the obvious, practical reasons. We’ve all seen the Mayor Nagin Memorial Motor Pool; we’ve all heard how Bush nearly made the incompetent Democratic governor cry by demanding she relinquish what feeble control she ever had of her state to the Feds when, after the usual fashion of Democratic “leadership,” she quivered and stalled and refused to order NOLA’s evacuation; we’ve all heard and read story after story of Democrat ineptness, Democrat negligence, Democrat malfeasance, Democrat hubris, and Democrat failure, all occurring in a state and municipality run almost exclusively by Democrats for over a hundred years. We know these hapless and incompetent Democrats ignored their own disaster plans, and that they were the ones legally and ethically responsible for implementing them; it’s a pretty safe assumption that the NOLA and Louisiana authorities, being crooks as well as Democrats (yeah, I know, redundant), probably looted their own federally-matched disaster funds over the years too.

I included all the links in the blockquote to show you that Mike isn't just spouting off trash. Louisiana is a Democrat controlled state, and has been for years. The levels of graft, corruption, incompetance and greed that were exposed by this natural disaster is flat-out disgusting. The level of CYA that the Democrats are trying to accomplish is even more disgusting.

But when you're done reading Mike's wrath, hop on over to Eject Eject Eject for one of the best written pieces on the web.

If I had known, if I had only known, I could have run over that evil, sick son of a bitch Mohammed Atta in the parking lot. I could have been on one of those airplanes. They only had box cutters, for the love of God! Those seat cushions have straps on the back for floatation; they’d make excellent shields against a goddam two inch blade. Ladies, listen carefully…when I say go, you throw your shoes and cell phones and these little liquor bottles and cushions and whatever you can, just throw them right in the face of these cocksuckers and guys, when we get up there we need to kill them, fast, just break their fucking necks, just stomp on their heads until they are dead, because I know how to land a goddam airplane and…and…

Now of course, right at this moment there are people without honor or courage who read that and think this is one big jerk-off chickenhawk fantasy and on some level I guess it is. All I can tell you is that watching that show, I wished to God I had been on one of those planes, asking only that we knew what only Flight 93 knew, and that was the fate that was waiting for us if we did nothing.

Because everybody dies. Even liberals. And all I can say is that I believe in my heart that I would rather die for something bigger than myself than lead a life where nothing is more important than me. I admit freely that were I actually there I might freeze up, and wet my pants, and hide behind a stewardess, because you can never really know until you are there. But my times on the highways late at night, and with the only engine silent at 9000 feet over the South Georgia pine forests and at 400 feet climbing out of Prescott Arizona on Christmas day reassure me, a little, that perhaps I might do okay. Just as well as a common person, a common American person in a crisis – that’s all I pray for.

Much has been said regarding how much more massive an event Katrina is relative to lower Manhattan. But the fact remains that firemen went up the stairs when people were coming down, and one ordinary group of people on an ordinary flight on an ordinary day defeated the very best that the global terror network could put together. Our ladies junior varsity squad whipped the living shit out of their Super Bowl A-team over Pennsylvania that day, and they did it because for one brief shining moment enough passengers on that airplane went Grey.

I'd like to put forth my formal application for entry into the Grey Tribe right now please. And if you don't know what I mean, then you haven't read the essay yet, have you?

Now, much has been made of the fact that Ray Nagin is an incompetent, race-baiting black man, and Rudy Giuliani, who was neither, is white. Also, feminists are upset that people dare attack Governor Blanco because she is incompetent, weak, indecisive, and also a woman. And no doubt there are salivating long-haired, short-cortexed idiots just waiting for this to be over so they can sail into the comments section and tell me what a racist and misogynist I am.

Well, here’s the news flash: Nagin isn’t incompetent because he’s black. He’s incompetent because he’s incompetent. Condoleeza Rice is black. Colin Powell is black. Ted Kennedy, a man well-acquainted with rising water crises is as white as they come. Kennedy is incompetent; Rice and Powell are two of the most competent people on the planet.

This is about tribes, all right: not black and white tribes, but rather a battle between the capable and the culpable.

Print that out and nail it to the forehead of any braindead Leftist who talks about how this is all Bush's fault. And while you're at it, nail a copy of these unpleasant truths about life that the Left refuses to acknowledge:

1) Shit happens. Sometimes you can control how much shit happens, but sometimes you can't. There is no magic hand-waving voodoo spell that stops a hurricane from hitting you. Tornados don't stop because you want them to. Earthquakes don't give a shit if it's your birthday. You can't control it, you can't do anything to prevent it, all you can do is prepare for the aftermath.

2) The responsibility for immidiate action after a natural disaster belongs to state and local governments. There hasn't been any major disaster where the federal government was there and working in under two days. In case you forgot it, the actual labor to help after September 11th came from New Yorkers, not federal workers. The government wasn't there until two days afterwards.

3) There are people in this world who are flat out evil. You can't change them. You can't make them act differently. The only thing you can do is shoot them. Ted Bundy was not going to be talked out of murdering women, and while he is a rather far out example of evil, there are lots of mini-Bundys all over the world. They might not kill lots of women. They may kill only one. They might rape instead of kill, or assault instead of rape. But they exist, and the only way they can be stopped is if somebody steps up to the plate and stops them through force.

4) If a disaster occurs, you need to be able to take care of yourself for three days.

That's THREE days. Tres. 3. 1+1+1. Not one, not two, but THREE days.

That's the message that the federal government itself gives people. If you can't be expected to take care of yourself for three days, then dammit, what fucking good are you? I understand that some people are incapable of taking care of themselves for that long due to injury or illness, but I'm talking about the average joe, the schmuck who lives on the corner who isn't a blind/deaf/mute quadrapalegic with diabetes. In short, I'm talking to 90% of the people of New Orleans. Where was your water? Where was your non-perishable food? Hell, I have a flaming assload of water in my pantry, because I know that not only will I be taking care of my wife and myself, but I'll most likely be taking care of one or two neighbors as well. And I can support those extra people for a frigging WEEK. You don't have to go that far. You just need one gallon of water per person per day. How frigging hard is that?

It's not. But obviously people couldn't even do that much to help themselves out. And THAT IS NOT PRESIDENT BUSH'S FAULT!

Here's a few other questions that I'd like answered:

Why is it that the snipers who shot at emergency rescuers trying to save people in hospitals and shelters are never mentioned except in passing, and Mr. Bush, who is turning over heaven and earth to rescue the victims of the storm, is endlessly vilified?

What church does Rev. Al Sharpton belong to that believes in passing blame and singling out people by race for opprobrium and hate?

(ed. add-on: What qualifies Al Sharpton as a "Revered", anyway? His race-baiting? His poverty pimping? His inciting of murder and slander? Come to think of it, Jesse Jackon is a "Reverend" as well, yet he fathered an illigitimate child while having an adulterous relationship with a mistress while his wife sat back at home. How the hell can he still call himself a reverend anything?)

What special abilities does the media have for deciding how much blame goes to the federal government as opposed to the city government of New Orleans for the aftereffects of Katrina?

If able-bodied people refuse to obey a mandatory evacuation order for a city, have they not assumed the risk that ill effects will happen to them?

When the city government simply ignores its own sick and hospitalized and elderly people in its evacuation order, is Mr. Bush to blame for that?

Is there any problem in the world that is not Mr. Bush's fault, or have we reverted to a belief in a sort of witchcraft where we credit a mortal man with the ability to create terrifying storms and every other kind of ill wind?

Where did the idea come from that salvation comes from hatred and criticism and mockery instead of love and co-operation?

Argh. I'm done for the day. See you all later.

No Good Deed

The New York Times:

HOUSTON (TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 6, 2005) -- No one would accuse this city of being timid in the scramble to profit from the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina
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With brio that might make an ambulance-chaser proud, one company, National Realty Investments is offering special financing deals "for hurricane survivors only," with no down payments and discounted closing costs.

Color me learned -- the American Left are not just ideological rivals, they are assholes of stunning proportion.

Austin Bay Blog -- NY Times Libels Houston