Best Mardi Gras t-shirt

CBS poll oversamples Democrats...again

I had just mentioned in the prior post how no one takes CBS seriously anymore. Stunts like this further illustrate why. From Newsbusters:

In its classic "fair and balanced" tradition, CBS slanted in favor of Democrats its poll that found Bush has a 34 percent approval rating and a 59 percent disapproval rating, an all-time high for a CBS poll.

On the bottom of the PDF version of the poll (page 18) it says how many Democrats versus Republicans were contacted.

"Total Republicans" contacted: 272 unweighted and 289 weighted.

"Total Democrats" contacted: 409 unweighted and 381 weighted.

"Total Independents" contacted: 337 unweighted and 348 weighted.

Brent Baker also noted how CBS failed to highlight a key portion of its poll on the Feb. 27 "CBS Evening News." 66 percent of respondents thought the media devoted "too much time" to Cheney's hunting accident.

I did go to FSU, where we're more known for our football than our math, but if my Basketweaving 101 course served me properly, that represents a sample of 40% Democrats, 27% Republicans, and 33% independents. This represents an "objective" and "accurate" poll to CBS? It's about as accurate as Rather's and Mapes' memos, I suppose.

Nope...no liberal media bias!

BushCo laughs at Rather's & MSM's decline

Bill Sammon, author of the former NY Times Bestseller book "At Any Cost: How Al Gore Tried to Steal the Election" (one of the best books I've ever read), has a new book out entitled "Strategery." If any of you have ever heard Rush use the term "strategery" in lieu of "strategy", the term comes from a skit on Saturday Night Live during the election of 2000. Bush, played by comedian Will Ferrell, and Gore, played by comedian Darrell Hammond, were asked to sum up their campaigns in one word: Gore used "lockbox", and Bush used "strategery". It was damned funny...I guess you had to be there. Anywho...

Some insight found within the book:

President Bush, for the first time, is hailing the rise of the alternative media and the decline of the mainstream media, which he now says “conspired” to harm him with forged documents.

“I find it interesting that the old way of gathering the news is slowly but surely losing market share,” Bush said in an exclusive interview for the new book STRATEGERY. “It’s interesting to watch these media conglomerates try to deal with the realities of a new kind of world.”

For example, journalist Dan Rather left the anchor chair at CBS News after Internet reporters revealed he had used forged documents to criticize Bush’s military record in September 2004. The forgeries, which Bush now calls a conspiracy, ended up helping his reelection campaign, he acknowledged in the Oval Office interview.

“It looks like somebody conspired to float false documents,” the president tells author Bill Sammon. “And I was amazed about it. I just couldn’t believe that would be happening [and] then it would become the basis of a fairly substantial series of news stories.”
...
“It also, frankly, gave us an opportunity, frequently, when things came out in the media that we didn’t believe or didn’t like, to say, ‘It’s another CBS story,’” said Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman, who was the president’s campaign manager. “I mean, it gave us a serious response to bad news.”

Although Memogate was initially expected to harm the president, it ended up backfiring spectacularly on the press.

“The guy that it hurt most was Dan Rather and the executives at CBS,” White House strategist Karl Rove said in an interview for STRATEGERY. “It further disgraced a network which is third in ratings and, if you look at the demographics of their consumers, it’s like 70 percent Democrat.”

Rove said Rather’s eagerness to broadcast obviously forged documents proves he is “no serious reporter.” As for Rather’s insistence, to this day, that the documents are real, Rove said: “That’s really bias.”

Memogate has helped accelerate the decline of the mainstream media, generally defined as CBS, NBC, ABC, The New York Times and other establishment news outlets.

Rather and CBS insist that the Memogate scandal played absolutely no part in Rather's dismissal "retirement" from CBS News. Similarly, Ted Kennedy insists that water played no part in Mary Jo Kopechne's drowning in his car at the bottom of the Chappaquiddick River. Continuing:

Rove considers Memogate a watershed in the rise of the alternative media.

“The whole incident in the fall of 2004 showed really the power of the 'blogosphere',” he said in his West Wing office.

“Because in essence you had now, an army of self-appointed experts looking over the shoulder of the mainstream media and bringing to bear enormously sophisticated skills,” he added.
...
Rove said Rather and his producer, Mary Mapes, were gunning for the president and trying to help his challenger, Sen. John Kerry, by broadcasting the forged documents in the heat of the presidential campaign.

“From her body language and his body language, their enthusiasm for this story was in large measure fed by the belief that they were playing a constructive and perhaps determinative role in the presidential campaign,” Rove said of Mapes and Rather.

“They made a decision in this instance – I think quite prematurely and quite unfairly – to pursue a story that attacked the president,” he added. “And I thought it was, to me, one of the most incredible examples of how fundamentally unfair it was.”

Rove expressed astonishment that CBS ignored the warnings of document experts hired by the network to authenticate the National Guard memos.

“It goes back to the failure of the mainstream media, in this instance, to honor their own experts,” he said.

What about Election Night 2004?

Rove is not the only senior Bush adviser who considers the mainstream media biased against the conservative president. White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card was outraged that the TV networks refused to declare Bush the winner on Election Night, even after all the votes were counted in the pivotal state Ohio and it became obvious Kerry could not win.

“Some of the talking heads,” Card said, “were rooting for a crisis in Ohio. It wasn’t just that they were afraid to admit we had won.” (According to the moonbats, including a recently banned one here, there was a crisis in Ohio and Bush didn't really win it. Then again, these same people likely believe Elvis is still alive (apologies to those who may have found the latter piece of news surprising!), don't they? - Ed.)

Card became particularly incensed when Bush’s Ohio lead reached 120,000 votes, which was mathematically insurmountable.

“Nobody wanted to call it so that we had won,” he said. “It was like, c’mon, are they just afraid to say it?"

Yes, Andy, they were afraid to say it. After all, they had just spent four years bitching about Election 2000 and Bush's legitimacy (or in their minds, lack thereof), so they had too much emotional capital invested in Bush's 2004 defeat that they couldn't bring themselves to face the obvious: Bush had won. Again.

Anyway, it's cool to see the President giving props to those of us who do the work that the declining MSM fails to do every day. I may be a small fish in a big pond, but I'm delighted to be a part of the information age's new ecosystem.

Clinton seeking interns

Bubba wants them with "hands-on experience." Rumor has it that the kneepads are optional.

Seriously, this one is waaaaaaaaaaay too easy. There's not much else I can add that the blogosphere hasn't already said, is there? :-)

Priorities, priorities

From Drudge:

Skipping last fall’s vote on the Hurricane Katrina relief bill in order to get plastic surgery was worth it, says Rep. Shelley Berkley (D-Nev.), who loves her new look, ROLL CALL reports.

“For the last couple of years whenever I was on TV all I could do was look at my neck,” Berkley said in a recent online audio interview. “It was driving me crazy because my neck was starting to hang ... and it was making me very self conscious.”

Now, she joked in an interview with hosts of the Vegas-centric podcast show “The Strip,” “I have the neck of a 20-year-old and a 50-year-old body.” Until the Feb. 16 program, Berkley hadn’t said much about missing the September vote on the Katrina relief bill due to her nip-and-tuck job.

Berkley, 55, told the show’s co-hosts, Steve Friess and Miles Smith, “I decided that it was going to be very hard to hide and I’m a very public person.” And let’s face it, she said, that brilliant plastic surgeon “turned back the clock 10 years.”

Friess cracked Berkley up when he asked whether she thinks she’ll get more votes with her youthful, thinner neck. She laughed and said, “The 20-somethings! Maybe this will get them out to vote.”

Hey, maybe they will! As long as they blow off their employment obligations like you did in order to vote for you, it's all good, right?

UPDATE (2/27/06 @ 8:00 p.m. EST): A commenter on this post says that Drudge is wrong about the timing of Berkley's neck lift. Drudge has seemingly removed the story from his front page. If the commenter is correct, then I must in good conscience put in the disclaimer. After all, I'm no CBS! LOL!

Tom & Jerry cartoon was pro-Jewish?

I swear, I couldn't make this tripe up if I tried. You thought only American colleges had nutjob professors? Think again. From WND:

Tom and Jerry, the lovable cat and mouse locked in cartoon combat, is a Jewish conspiracy, according to an Iranian official.

Prof. Hasan Bolkhari, a cultural advisor to the Iranian Education Ministry, delivered the news last week on Iran's Channel 4 during a broadcast of film seminar where he was lecturing. An excerpt of the video was translated by the Middle East Media Research Institute.

"The Jewish Walt Disney Company gained international fame with this cartoon," said Bolkhari. "It is still shown throughout the world. This cartoon maintains its status because of the cute antics of the cat and mouse – especially the mouse.
...
"Watch 'Schindler's List.' Every Jew was forced to wear yellow star on his clothing. The Jews were degraded and termed 'dirty mice.' 'Tom and Jerry' was made in order to change the Europeans' perception of mice. One of terms used was 'dirty mice.'

"It should be noted that mice are very cunning ... and dirty."

American campuses may be overstocked with barking moonbat professors, but it's nice to know that we're not the only country that perverts young moldable minds with pseudo-intellctual claptrap.

And some people think it's a grand idea for these nutbars to get their hands on nukes?

Chickens can be tough!

OK, it's a bird flu article, but the headline is amusing: "Indian officials struggle to kill domestic chickens"

I mean, I've never personally tried to kill a chicken, but it doesn't seem like it would be that tough. I'm a big guy...I think I can take him! Or are the domestic chickens somehow more formidable an opponent than the foreign chickens? Is this a xenophobic thing, a la the UAE ports deals? (That was rhetorical!)

No chicken's gonna kick my ass, I'm tellin' ya! I'll choke the chicken, if I have to!

C'mon, you knew my juvenile mind would come up with that last sentence, didn't you?!? ;-)

Leffingwell pulling a Kerry?

If anyone makes any comparison between Kerry and me other than this one, I shall sacrifice a small furry creature in the name of the Swahili god of the underworld in order to put a curse upon you: "May the fleas of 1,000 camels ridden by patchouli-smelling jihadist apologists infest your hairy nether regions!"

I am beginning to reconsider my position on whether this port deal is that bad after all. No, not because of anything Bush has said or done. He hasn't moved me one iota. However, the more I see people like Gen. Franks talk positively about it, and the more I hear details from seemingly disinterested parties, the more I soften my opposition. I'm still uncomfortable with it, especially given the UAE's refusal to recognize Israel and their vow to remove them from the region, and especially since a Bushie (David Sanborn, Maritime Administrator of our DOT) used to be an executive for the same firm to whom we're thinking about giving the port deal. But I'm willing to hear more perspectives.

So...I guess it's fair to say "I actually did oppose the port deal...before I didn't!" LOL! However, I'm not saying I'm sold on the idea...only that I am not as reflexively opposed as I once was. I would still like to hear my concerns addressed relating to the UAE anti-Semitic culture, past ties to Osama bin Laden, possible Bush cronyism with that Sanborn guy, etc.

I will, though, continue to stand by my assertion that the quote about how Americans "don't need to worry about security" was a stupid thing to say. I also retain my ire that of all of the things for Bush to make his first veto on, the ports deal would trump the runaway spending, campaign finance, subsidized drugs, etc. It seems that Bush just does an incredibly sh#tty job of getting his message out, and I am far from the only one who thinks so.

Moonbats: "Bush didn't win FL in 2004!"

A "nonpartisan, nonprofit" group called BlackBoxVoting.org is questioning the election results on 2004, but not like the other moonbats out there. See, they're not questioning Ohio's votes, but Florida's votes. It seems that a 381,000 vote margin is a bit too razor thin for their liking. From the AP:

An examination of Palm Beach County's electronic voting machine records from the 2004 election found possible tampering and tens of thousands of malfunctions and errors, a watchdog group said Thursday.

Bev Harris, founder of BlackBoxVoting.org, said the findings call into question the outcome of the presidential race. But county officials and the maker of the electronic voting machines strongly disputed that and took issue with the findings.

It's to be expected that the manufacturers would dispute the findings. However, it should be telling that the hyperpartisan liberals who run the Palm Beach County elections board disagree with the assessment. Continuing:

Voting problems would have had to have been widespread across the state to make a difference. President Bush won Florida — and its 27 electoral votes — by 381,000 votes in 2004. Overall, he defeated John Kerry by 286 to 252 electoral votes, with 270 needed for victory.

BlackBoxVoting.org, which describes itself as a nonpartisan, nonprofit citizens group, said it found 70,000 instances in Palm Beach County of cards getting stuck in the paperless ATM-like machines and that the computers logged about 100,000 errors, including memory failures.

Also, the hard drives crashed on some of the machines made by Oakland, Calif.-based Sequoia Voting Systems, some machines apparently had to be rebooted over and over, and 1,475 re-calibrations were performed on Election Day on more than 4,300 units, Harris said. Re-calibrations are done when a machine is malfunctioning, she said.

OK, my math is a little suspect, but I wuz edyookated reelie goode while I growed up: even in the unlikely event that Kerry won every damned one of those votes, that's only 100,000 (or, if you count the 70,000 "stuck cards" as separate from the 100k logged errors, a total of 170,000) votes. So 381,000 - 100,000 is 281,000 votes, Bush still ahead. Seeing this math, the "nonpartisan nonprofit" (and minority-owned, a factoid conspicuously (but I'm sure coincidentally) omitted from the AP article) group comes to the only logical conclusion that anyone else could possibly come to:

"I actually think there's enough votes in play in Florida that it's anybody's guess who actually won the presidential race," Harris added. "But with that said, there's no way to tell who the votes should have gone to."

Uh...right. No way of telling who the 51% of Americans and 3+ million more Bush voters really meant to vote for, huh? I've got a wacky and crazy conspiracy theory, too. Follow me for a second, people:

Maybe, just maybe, Bush got more people to actually vote for him than Kerry did! You know, in a state with a popular two-term Republican governor who is his brother, GOP controlled state House and Senate and entire cabinet, GOP controlled U.S. Congressional delegation, a Republican U.S. Senator (with the Democrat, Bill Nelson, very vulnerable this year), and a plethora (for those of you on the left, that means a whole bunch) of military bases chock full of predominantly Republican voters! I know, I know...that's just crazy talk!

So how do Palm Beach officials view the "nonpartisan, nonprofit" group's findings?

Palm Beach County election officials said the BlackBoxVoting.com findings are flawed, and they blamed most of the errors on voters not following proper procedures.

Gasp! How dare they blame these poor voters in Palm Beach County for getting it wrong! Sure, the blue-haired condo commandos can operate 57 bingo cards at the same time, but that kind of eye-hand coordination doesn't translate into intuitive operation of voting machines! What were they supposed to do if they had problems or questions, ask a poll worker or something?!? Oh...they were supposed to ask? Uh...yeah, well, I'm sure Halliburton had the machines rigged with oil money buying the election!

Damn...Florida was stolen! Two elections in a row! Why, it's an outrage that Babs Boxer burned her substantial Thann Franthithco political clout on Ohio instead of Florida! Recount, recount! Gore got more...oh, dammit, now I'm getting my stolen elections mixed up again!

For those of you on the left, the prior two paragraphs (and a decent chunk of the other aforementioned commentary) was sarcasm.

Quote of the day

Not to beat this UAE port deal thingee into the ground, but the following AP article's quote caught my eye:

President Bush on Thursday sought to calm an uproar over an Arab company taking over operations at six major American ports, saying "people don't need to worry about security."

Well, thank God we Americans don't need to worry about security! That's one huge load off of my conscience! I can sleep better knowing that I no longer need to worry about security! Maybe now this country can get back to more pressing issues, such as Dick Cheney's hunting accident!

For those of you on the left, the prior paragraph was sarcasm.

Stupidity

Hat tip to my bud Van Helsing at Moonbattery:

Not content with Wal-Mart, MD libs go after small businesses

Recall the recent post about how Maryland carried out the union thugocracy's dirty work by attacking Wal-Mart with anti-worker legislation? The MD libs told us that they were targeting big businesses and not small ones. It's not like liberals lie, right?

Yeah...right. From the premier Washington, D.C., newspaper, the Washington Times:

A Democratic lawmaker is aiming to force Maryland's small businesses to pay a minimum level of employee health benefits, expanding the so-called "Wal-Mart tax" to nearly every business in the state.

The bill by Delegate James W. Hubbard, Prince George's Democrat, would require businesses with fewer than 10,000 employees to spend 4.5 percent of payroll on employee health care or pay an equivalent amount to the state's Medicaid program. Nonprofit businesses with fewer than 10,000 employees would have to spend 3 percent or give the money to Medicaid.

The proposal closely resembles the bill Democrats passed this year over the veto of Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr., a Republican. It requires businesses with more than 10,000 employees to pay 8 percent of payroll on employee health benefits or pay it to Medicaid. Wal-Mart is the only business in the state that doesn't comply.

However, the governor warned that the Wal-Mart bill was the first step toward a government-run, taxpayer-funded health system.

An Ehrlich spokesman said the prediction was rapidly coming true.

"The Maryland General Assembly has put virtually every small business in the cross hairs for a new tax," spokesman Henry P. Fawell said. "Politicians are picking the winners and losers in the marketplace. ... It is government-run health care."

Notice that whenever a Democrat runs for president, we hear how he is a big-time proponent of small business and only wants to stick it to the big evil corporations? Those of us not consuming the left's Kool-Aid have always known this to be a lie. Their voting record has run contrary to their "pro-small business" rhetoric.

Maryland is living proof that when it comes to business of any size, liberals just can't help themselves: they're anti-capitalistic to the core! When businesses leave the state, who will Maryland's liberals blame? Probably George W. Bush!

Bush to veto any attempts blocking UAE port deal?

Bush has not issued the first damned veto since he took office over five years ago. Pork-laden spending bills? Budget-busting federal spending? Campaign finance reform bill? Prescription drug bill? Nope, no way, negative, and NOT!

However, it's reassuring to see that our leader can finally find something worth wielding his veto pen over, and that issue is...the UAE port deal. From the AP:

Brushing aside objections from Republicans and Democrats alike, President Bush endorsed the takeover of shipping operations at six major U.S. seaports by a state-owned business in the United Arab Emirates. He pledged to veto any bill Congress might approve to block the agreement.

I would be surprised if Congress doesn't have the votes to override his veto. Is Bush willing to issue his first veto just to watch it get overridden? Does the UAE have some kind of incriminating photos of the twins that they're holding over his head? Doesn't Congress have the constitutional right and obligation to regulate how much IF ANY money will be spent on port operations, and to whom this money can be paid?

And just what kind of a headache is this port deal causing?

Bush's veto threat didn't stop local efforts to block the deal. New Jersey's governor, Jon S. Corzine, said Tuesday the state will file lawsuits in federal and state courts opposing the agreement. Corzine, a Democrat, cited a "deep, deep feeling that this is the wrong direction for our nation to take."

A company at the Port of Miami, a subsidiary of Eller & Company Inc., sued last week to block the deal in a Florida state court. It said that under the sale, it will become an "involuntary partner" with Dubai's government and it may seek more than $10 million in damages.

Also, I've heard some folks (like A.G. Alberto Gonzales) say that this isn't about port security, but about port operations. Admittedly, I don't know (or pretend to know) much about port operations, but it seems to me that port operations and port security are very much intertwined. If operations are poorly executed or supervised, then aren't port security threats a possibility?

S.F.: "Who needs a military?"

San Francisco is well known as a bastion of kooks, a microcosm of reality-detachment, and a debauchery-driven ville removed from the inconveniences of the real world in which the rest of us live. One needs to look no further than one of their own city council members, named Gerardo Sandoval. Transcript from Hannity and Colmes:

HANNITY: I rarely agree with Dianne Feinstein. And she even says this is not the San Francisco that I know. This is — and I guess this is the mentality. Do you think America should unilaterally disarm? Should we give up our weaponry and our war — our tools of war?

SANDOVAL: You know, that's a very complicated question. But I would say yes, we should. We should invest our money in our kids.

ALAN COLMES, CO-HOST: This is Alan in New York. Should we not have military?

SANDOVAL: I don't think we should have a military. Absolutely.

COLMES: We shouldn't have a military? Wait a minute. Hold on. The United States should not have a military?

SANDOVAL: What good has it done for us in the last five years? That's right. What good has it done us...

What good has the military done us? Well, considering that San Francisco hasn't been nuked, I'd say that the "useless" military hasn't performed too badly. Continuing:

SANDOVAL: We think about the billions that we're spending in Iraq right now, if we spend it on schools. We should not...

COLMES: The United States should not have a military?

SANDOVAL: That's correct.

COLMES: Are you kidding me?

SANDOVAL: The United States should not have a military. All in all, we would be in much, much, much better shape.
...
COLMES: But to say that we shouldn't have a military is absolutely absurd. It's incredible. That's a ridiculous fringe point of view.

HANNITY: That's exactly what I was thinking, Alan. Welcome to San Francisco.

SANDOVAL: If you're saying that we don't have a right to defend ourselves that's different from we shouldn't have a military.

COLMES: What do you want to defend ourselves — what do you want to defend ourselves with?

SANDOVAL: Well, you got cops. It's called the Coast Guard. There's lots of things different.

COLMES: You want to send cops to defend our shores if we're attacked? You want to send cops overseas if we're attacked? Cops?

Maybe we could send firefighters to fight the bad guys with fire hoses? Oh, wait! That would look too much like the Jim Crow days in the South, and it may hurt terrorists' (or the ACLU's, or UW's student government's) feelings! No, scratch that idea. Continuing:

COLMES: I don't. Actually, Gerardo, you don't know anything about what I stand for if you can say that. I've been one of the most outspoken people against this administration and the war in Iraq.

But that doesn't mean we as Democrats hate the military or don't want to defend this country. And I'm amaze you could get on national television and say we shouldn't have a military in America?

SANDOVAL: Well, that's the way I think a lot of people feel here in San Francisco.

Sandoval is right, and Alan Colmes is wrong. A lot of people (probably most of them) in San Francisco feel the same way as this Sandoval nitwit, and contrary to what Colmes says, it's proof that Democrats do indeed loathe the military and have little interest in defending this country. Colmes is probably dismayed that such a rare honest look into the left's mentality was on public display, for all the world to see.

Like Hannity said: "Welcome to San Francisco" indeed. And the left wants us to trust them with national security? I'd trust Ted Kennedy to be my chauffeur before I'd trust the left to manage defense and security issues!

"Mystery blob eating downtown L.A."

The crack investigative journalist team here at the Crush Liberalism Objective World News Service (CLOWNS) have unearthed the culprit in the shocking "blob eating L.A." story. It took some serious leg work, but our gumshoes did it. They obtained an impossible-to-get rare look at the cretin that is terrorizing the poor citizens of Los Angeles:

CLOWNS...doing the job that the MSM should be doing, but won't!

Why I really oppose the UAE port deal

The single biggest reason that anyone should oppose the UAE port management deal: Jimmy Carter thinks it's a great idea. More:

President Bush is taking a battering from fellow Republicans, even the governors of New York and Maryland, over the administration's support for a decision that gives an Arab company control of some commercial operations at six major seaports -- including Miami-Dade's.

But he got a boost Monday from an unlikely source, frequent critic and former president Jimmy Carter, who downplayed fears that the deal poses a risk.

"The overall threat to the United States and security, I don't think it exists," Carter said on CNN's The Situation Room. "I'm sure the president's done a good job with his subordinates to make sure this is not a threat."

If the biggest moral relativist and terrorist-sympathizer of our time thinks it's a good idea, then it's a safe assumption that it is most certainly not a good idea!

Props to some dead white guys

It probably angers those "brilliant" minds at the University of Washington's student government that today is a federal holiday: Presidents Day. Basically, it's the legal observation of George Washington's and Abe Lincoln's birthdays. A couple of white dudes, both instrumental in the founding and perpetuation of this great country of ours, get a collective observation today.

Enjoy your Presidents Day, whatever you happen to be doing today. Any day that is this politically incorrect is surely destined to be a good day! :-)

Osama...or Durbin the Turban?

Don't get mad at me, folks...I didn't start this war of words! From MSN:

Osama bin Laden promised never to be captured alive and declared the U.S. had resorted to the same “repressive” tactics used by Saddam Hussein, according to an audiotape purportedly by the al-Qaida leader that was posted Monday on a militant Web site.
...
In drawing the comparison to American military behavior in Iraq to that of Saddam, the speaker said:

"The jihad is continuing with strength, for Allah be all the credit, despite all the barbarity, the repressive steps taken by the American Army and its agents, to the extent that there is no longer any mentionable difference between this criminality and the criminality of Saddam."

Wasn't it Senator Dick Turban Durbin who said the same things about American soliders?

No, that's not true! Durbin compared our soldiers to Nazis, Pol Pat, Stalin...but never Saddam! It's wrong for me to put those extra words in Durbin's mouth, so in fairness, I guess the comparison between Osama's statement and Durbin the Turban's statement isn't fair!

al Qaeda's bennies?

An in-depth look at the rather generous benefits package offered by our adversaries in the Global War on Terror. For those of you on the left, the adversaries are al Qaeda and NOT the United States. Sorry for any confusion.

Hey, al Qaeda might be a group of bloodthirsty Third World Dark Age barbarians, but they care about their employees! That's more than we can say about Wal-Mart, right?!?!? From Austin Bay:

Al Qaeda’s by-laws are fascinating. From the By-Laws document summary:

Al-Qa’ida must be prepared to wage jihad anywhere in the world, and not to be distracted by relief and aid operations. Al-Qa’ida must have no relation to the world of idols and secular and nationalist movements. Relations with non-jihadi Islamic groups should be respectful, but dedicated to pointing out their shortcomings and try to gain their support for jihad.

Lengthy job description is posted for the position of emir, his deputy, and other positions on the council. Of special interest is the position of the Executive Council Chairman who serves as a chief financial officer. His duties include control over bank accounts, expenditures, and budgeting. Salaries are paid according to a fixed schedule.

Policies are described for additional salary based on family size (married man receives 6,500 rupees with 700 rupees for each additional wife.) Provision is made for cost of living adjustments.

The document outlines medical, loan, furniture , vacation, disability, and severance benefits.

Sweet! If Cindy Sheehan ever runs afoul of her peeps at Code Pink and MoveOn, she can always enjoy a lucrative career at al Qaeda, Inc., considering that she considers them "freedom fighters." Her words, not mine. But hey...she's just a grieving mother, albeit it's an odd form of grieving to show solidarity to the savages that killed your child. But I digress.

Hey, wait a minute! An al Qaeda man gets another 700 rupees per additional wife? That oughta piss off the Mormons! (That's a joke, for any Mormons reading this).

Also, what "severance benefits"? Severing limbs, heads, etc.? Do they get to bequeath those severed items in the event of their untimely death?

Continuing:

On page 16 we discover Al Qaeda is for socialized medicine:

3- Medical Benefits
A- All (Al-Qa’eda) members can visit the medical staff and obtain medicine free
of charge.

Hey, check it out! Al Qaeda is for socialized medicine, much of the left is for socialized medicine...yet another thing they have in common! Finally:

The letters are snapshots of fanatics hellbent on evil. Here’s the WMD threat:

If the American people are ready to die as we are ready to die, then our combat groups along with our military, nuclear, and biological equipment will kill hundreds of thousands of people we don’t wish to fight.

And Kofi Annan wants Gitmo turned over to "the international community."

What? You mean that al Qaeda really does want to use WMD's against America? Why, that can't be...because that's the same thing that Bush said al Qaeda wanted to do! (For those of you on the left, this paragraph is sarcasm).

Again...little wonder that normal America doesn't trust the left with national defense?

How dumb is letting the UAE take charge of our ports?

I mentioned before, apparently unbeknown to recent visitors, that the ignoramus decision to put a company based in the United Arab Emirates in charge of a number of our ports was one of the more boneheaded decisions I've seen in quite some time.

Well, you get an idea just how dumb it truly is, when there is a growing public outcry and bipartisan opposition to said boneheaded decision. From Michelle:

The chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., is questioning administration approval of the sale authorized this week by shareholders in a London-based company.

Lawmakers are circulating letters on Capitol Hill voicing concerns about the sale's implications for maritime security, and one, Rep. Vito Fossella, R-N.Y., has called for hearings...Rep. Mark Foley, R-Fla., said, "If our ports are the most vulnerable targets for terrorism and if we are at war, as the president says, we should be overly critical of handing over management of our ports to any foreign countries, post 9/11."

A spokesman for DP World did not return telephone messages or e-mails from the AP on Wednesday.

Critics have complained that control over port operations by DP World could endanger U.S. security. They cite the UAE's history as an operational and financial base for the hijackers who carried out the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks against New York and Washington...

Like I mentioned before, as much as it pains me to do it, I have to agree with Chuck the Schmuck Schumer on this one. This just doesn't, on the surface, make a lick of sense.

In the interest of fairness, here is the White House's defensive response. I've read it, and I just don't feel any better or more relieved.

Shrillary featured at famous wax museum

From the AP:

Aaron Fuksa, right, and Scottie McLaughlin, both employees of Madame Tussauds' wax museum and Hillary Clinton supporters, chant during the unveiling of the Hillary Clinton wax figure, left, beside a figure of her husband, former President Clinton, at the museum, Thursday, Feb. 16, 2006 in New York. The Democratic senator, who has been mentioned as a possible presidential candidate in 2008, was the pantheon of luminaries immortalized in the museum. A life-sized figure of the former first lady-turned-politician was unveiled Thursday, complete with a campaign-style balloon drop, flags and a full-throated rendering of 'Hail to the Chief.'

Someone asked me if Her Highness were actually standing next to her wax figure likeness, would I be able to tell them apart? Of course I could! One is a stiff, cold, motionless, unemotional, and unthinking figure. The other is made out of wax!

Also, Bill Clinton's waxed likeness is featured beside Shrillary. OK, that's almost too easy to ridicule, so I'm moving on...

"Free speech", defined

I've seen quite a bit lately over the University of Washington student government's slandering of a former USMC. As I mentioned, the Seattle fishwrap paints a sympathetic picture for these poor misunderstood miscreants who run the UW student government, asserting that "UW students face barbs of free speech".

I don't think I've really discussed this before, but it's high time I did. So here goes:

Leftists don't seem to understand what "free speech" means. It's quite simple, really.

"Free speech" means you can't go to jail simply by uttering words. Sure, there are a small number of exceptions like screaming "Fire!" in a crowded movie theater. But by and large, you don't get arrested for saying stupid things.

The Founders of this country understood that citizens should be able to speak their minds about their government and its officials without fear of persecution, specifically jail or death. China, among several other places, do not seem to agree.

"Free speech" does NOT, however, mean that the person who utters said speech is exempt from the consequences that arise from uttering said speech. For example, if I walk into a room with NAACP members and scream the "N-word" out loud, does that act of supreme ignorance shield me from being yelled at, physically acosted, shown on the news, etc.? Uh...no.

The Dixie Twits...er, Chicks...said some things about Bush back in 2003 while they were in England. Did they go to jail for exercising their right to free speech? Nope. Did they get angry e-mails, letters, faxes, and phone calls? Yep. Did their record sales suffer? Yep. That, my friends, is free speech.

It's simple. Say what you want, since this country won't cut out your tongue like the Taliban would have. But don't bellyache about the fallout from your words. Actions and words have consequences, and if you fear the consequences (real or potential) too much, then you're equally free to keep your speech to yourself.

Free to speak, free to shut up...is this country awesome or what? :-)

Kyoto's biggest violators implore US to do what they refuse to do themselves

AP Headline: "A year on, Kyoto climate backers urge US action." However, read into the article itself:

Backers of the U.N.'s Kyoto Protocol renewed their pleas to the United States on Thursday to do more to fight global warming, even though their own records are patchy in the year since the pact went into force.

Good enough for thee, but not for me, eh? Continuing:

President George W. Bush pulled out of Kyoto in 2001, saying it would cost U.S. jobs and wrongly excluded developing nations from an overall goal of cutting industrialized nations' emissions by 5.2 percent below 1990 levels by 2008-12.

Bush pulled out of Kyoto? The U.S. never ratified the damned treaty to begin with, since the Senate rejected the economic suicide pact in 1997 by a vote of 95-0. For those of you on the left, (a) the Senate is needed to ratify treaties, and (b) 95-0 means that the Kyoto rejection was bipartisan AND unanimous.

So Bush got the Senate to nullify a treaty while he was governor of Texas? Wow...and you liberals thought he was an idiot! THAT is brilliance! Continuing:

U.S. emissions of greenhouse gases, released mainly by burning fossil fuels, were about 16 percent above 1990 levels in 2004. But Kyoto signatories Spain, Portugal, Greece, Ireland and Canada are all doing even worse.

If Kyoto is so damned great, let the loudest yappers lead by example. I know, poetic rhetoric should suffice in lieu of action for non-Western countries, but work with me here, people! Finally:

Some experts say Bush's plan lacks a spur to force industry to cut down and say that markets for trading carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas, are the best way to encourage cuts.

In the European Union, carbon dioxide in a market for industrial pollution allowances traded at 26.9 euros ($31.96) per tonne, reflecting growing belief in the scheme, and up from about 7 euros a year ago.

Markets? Instead of governments? Why, that's just crazy talk!

Teetering leftist "credibility" hinges on discrediting Saddam tapes

What shreds of credibility the left has remaining, and rest assured that such credibility is scant little, it is dependent in large part on discrediting the Saddam tapes. After all, you have an Intelligence Summit studying these tapes that reportedly have Saddam speculating on a WMD attack on America. Granted, the MSM is quieter than Monica Lewinsky with a mouthful, since they're too preoccupied with Cheney blasting a lawyer by mistake. Page one stuff, my friends. Nice to see where the MSM's sense of priorities are.

Translation from the tapes, as seen on Nightline:

TRANSLATOR: Terrorism is coming. That in the future there will be terrorism with weapons of mass destruction. I told them in the future what would prevent a booby-trapped car causing a nuclear explosion in Washington, or a germ or a chemical one. This is coming. This story is coming, but not from Iraq.

TARIQ AZIZ (translated): It's so simple that any biologist can make a bottle of germs and drop it into a water tower and kill 100,000. This is not done by a state. No need to accuse a state. An individual can do it, even an American in a house close to the White House.

HUSSEIN KAMEL (Saddam's son-in-law, translated): We did not reveal all that he have, not the type of weapons, not the volume of materials we imported, not the volume of the production we told them about, not the volume of use, none of this was correct. As for the nuclear threat, we say we have disclosed everything, but no. We have undeclared programs in nuclear as well.

Admitting that they sandbagged the UN inspectors, presumably the same ones Martin Sheen wanted to give another crack at in terms of doing their "job." How does Brian Ross and Dianne Sawyer of Good Morning America interpret this news?

ROSS: But you were saying that -- that you could see on them that Saddam surprisingly is the calm one in the room? Not the raving lunatic of public image, but very calm, and Tariq Aziz was always thought to be so calm, he's ranting and raving on these things. It's a very interesting insight into what was going on behind the scenes there.

SAWYER: Yeah, the foreign minister and all the questions about Saddam's coherence. He seems absolutely coherent.

ROSS: Absolutely in control and quite intelligent.

Wow. We must have been wrong about Saddam then. He seems like such a reasonable guy, not raving or anything! Bush must have lied about Hussein's character, too!

Amazing how two different mindsets can hear the same thing and come to completely different conclusions. It's not that surprising, though. The left has hitched its wagon to "Bush lied! No WMD's! Unjust war! No security threat!" To believe these words on these tapes (which I again emphasize may not be 100% authentic YET, but may be so determined after this post), one must reject all of the left's aforementioned claptrap, and they'd rather be dipped in camel dung and dragged by their thumbs through the Sahara than admit they were full of fecal matter on defense and security. Again. As usual.

However, until the Bush administration gives a damn about finding the WMD's (which would include infiltrating Syria, among other places) that intelligence pointed to, the truth just isn't going to matter much, is it?

Today's "Quote of the Day"

I should have put down my diet cream soda before I read this, because now I need to wipe my monitor down. This is freakin' hilarious! From Prof. Mike Adams:

In my thirteen years as a college professor, I’ve never seen joy and celebration that rivals the response to Dick Cheney’s hunting accident. Of course, that’s really saying something. Bringing American professors to laughter is nearly as tough as bringing American feminists to orgasm. It’s a theoretical possibility that is seldom achieved without a workshop.

The column is funny yet poignant, too.

UW student government slanders WWII hero and alum

A fine display of products of our nation's government indoctrination centers run the University of Washington's student government. Details:

In North Idaho, Col. Gregory "Pappy" Boyington is honored as a war hero.

But at the University of Washington in Seattle, the man who shot down enemy planes in World War II isn't the kind of person to represent the college, some students decided Tuesday.

Several of the UW's senate-students voted against a monument to honor the marine, who is credited with destroying 28 enemy aircraft.

Student Jill Edwards "questioned whether it was appropriate to honor a person who killed other people. She said she didn't believe a member of the Marine Corps was an example of the sort of person UW wanted to produce," according to minutes of the meeting.

Local veterans disagree and consider Boyington to be an icon in the fighter-pilot industry.

Don Glovick, commandant of the Marine Corps League Pappy Boyington Detachment 966 in Coeur d'Alene, said he isn't surprised that a "student organization of an institution of higher learning would resort to something like this considering the quality of professorship in the faculties."
...
In further discussion, Andrew Everett told senate members he had drawn up funding proposals for the construction of the memorial, but was then asked why he was interested in honoring Boyington, a 1934 University of Washington graduate.

Everett said Boyington's achievements warranted recognition and that he had many of the qualities the university "hoped to produce in its students."

Student Karl Smith said the resolution calling for the monument "should commend Colonel's Boyington's service, not his killing of others," according to minutes of the meeting.

Student Ashley Miller commented that "many monuments at UW already commemorate rich white men."

Never mind that Boyington was from a working-class low-to-middle income family. Details, details. Continuing:

In 1958, Boyington wrote Baa Baa Black Sheep, which later became a television hit starring Robert Conrad.

Boyington died of cancer in 1988.

Back at the student-senate meeting, Edwards gained a little support from fellow student Mikhail Smirnoff, who said he was in favor of the resolution because it didn't support the monument, just the concept of it.

He added that he thought those who fought in World War II were heroes and that it was a much different war than the controversial war in Iraq.

The debate on the resolution was then closed and a tie was announced.

Senate chair Alex Kim broke the tie and voted no.

Since the resolution for a monument died, students who spoke out against it have received hate mail and threatening voicemails, according to the university's newspaper.

"We now have a preponderance of the 1960s and '70s anti-war crowd wearing pigtails and beards instructing student bodies in their beliefs, rather than the facts of past and present wars and its heroes, and what they mean to our present and future freedoms," Glovick said.

The liberal latté-drinking city's fishwrap, the Seattle Post-Unintelligent, spun the story in a way to try and evoke sympathy for the "snot nose, hemp-wearing, pot smoking, drum beating, dreadlock wearing, 'gee when is the financial aid check going to arrive,' brat kids". From the P-U:

UW students got a lesson in democracy, free speech and the burdens of both in the last week.

The student government of the University of Washington has come under attack from talk radio and the Internet after recently deciding not to support the creation of a campus memorial to alumnus and World War II veteran Col. Gregory "Pappy" Boyington.

Some students say they have received scores of angry e-mails and phone calls -- some from as far away as Texas, Georgia and New York. What drew the wrath were such comments from students questioning why the university should honor a person who killed others or honor a Marine. One student leader questioned why another rich white man should be honored on campus

I guess talk radio and the blogosphere are responsible for her idiocy? Or only the sun shining on said idiocy? Damn those right-wingers, using the poor child's own words against her! Since when did we become accountable for our own words? Continuing:

UW sophomore Jill Edwards, who in the minutes questioned if a member of the Marine Corps was an example of the type of person the UW would want to produce, said she did not mean to offend anyone with her comments, but instead was trying to start a discussion among students who might be afraid to question a World War II vet.
...
UW senior Ashley Miller has also been derided for her comment, according to the minutes, that the university already has monuments that commemorate rich white men. She said her comments were made as part of a general discussion about memorials on campus, not about Boyington specifically.

If she didn't mean Boyington specifically, then why did she bring up "rich white men" when the topic was on him? And just what kind of "genius" in this Jill Edwards wench? According to Boortz, "It seems that Jill Edwards is catching a little heat from the great unwashed. Now that's a shame, isn't it! Don't you think that a young adult should be allowed to deliver an insult like this to everyone who ever wore the dress blues of a United States Marine without any negative feedback at all? Jill, it seems, holds a place on the University of Washington student senate due to her membership in something called the "Honors Croquet League." Now isn't that special. Jill Edwards is an honors croquet player. We're all impressed." What, is there a non-honors Croquet League, not to be confused with the esteemed Honors Croquet League?

Fortunately, there are a large number of UW students who are incensed and demanding action. Boortz reports that the following resolution is being introduced by a fellow student senator:

Associated Students of the University of Washington
Student Senate
Session 12

Edwards Apology

WHEREAS Student Senator Jill Edwards offended all members of the United States Marine Corps, past or present, dead or alive; especially those who were, are, or will be students at the University of Washington with her comment that she "didn't believe a member of the Marine Corps was an example of the sort of person UW wanted to produce." This commented brought shame and dishonor to not only the UW Student Senate, but also the University as a whole, all its members who have served in the Marine Corps and all Marines past and present.

BE IT RESOLVED BY THE ASSOCIATED STUDENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON:

THAT

Student Senator Jill Edwards will submit, in writing, a signed apology letter seeking forgiveness to all students, staff, and alumni who are now or ever have served in the United States Marine Corps. In said letter it will contain a formal apology and a recognition that her very rights and freedoms are guaranteed by such members of the armed services, to include the Marine Corps, Army, Navy, Air Force, and Coast Guard, past or present, living or dead. Additionally, said letter will be printed in all its form and substance in that day's edition of the UW Daily newspaper as well as being recited on the UW Radio station. To realize her mistake, she must acquaint herself with the history of the person she is so keen to dismiss, by reading Col. Boyington's book, Baa, Baa, Black Sheep. All of these requirements are mandatory, under pain of losing her seat on the Student Senate.

History of Legislation

02/15/2006: Submitted for consideration

Here's hoping that the fallout will shake the foundation of the pervasive political correctness claptrap that infects this and other universities nationwide.

Welcome to the information age, children! If you want to fancy yourselves as "thoughtful" and "grown-up", you will need to learn lesson #1 in life: Actions have consequences. It's a lesson that the left is trying to shield you from, kiddies, but I'll be damned if the rest of normal America will let them get away with it!

Investigate Reid!

It's a coverup, I'm telling ya! Flashback: August 19, 2005. Recall this?

The Senate Democratic leader, Harry Reid (search) of Nevada, suffered a brief mini-stroke Tuesday, but doctors found no complications and he feels fine, aides said Friday.

One of the nation's most powerful elected Democrats, the 65-year-old senator canceled several appearances in Nevada late this week. But his press secretary Tessa Hafen said, "There are no complications or any restrictions on his activities."

A gold miner's son, Reid has become a visible leader of his party since assuming leadership of the Senate minority last January.

"He has undergone evaluations this week, and his doctors have recommended that he take advantage of the summer congressional recess for some downtime," Hafen added.

Her statement said Reid sought medical attention at the urging of his wife, Landra. He was told he had experienced a transient ischemic attack (search).

"It's being described as a mini-stroke ... but he is feeling just fine," Hafen said.
...
Asked why announcement of the event was delayed for three days, Hafen said, "The reason was the tests and the evaluations that they were doing. We wanted to make sure we knew what we were announcing. You need conclusive information."

In summary: it is perfectly acceptable to run tests for three days to conclusively determine whether or not you had a stroke, but it is unacceptable and damned near reaches the Constitution's "high crimes" threshold if you get medical attention for a shooting victim and then notify a non-beltway MSM source first of the incident.

Somehow, I don't recall David Gregory becoming confrontational with Reid's people after they sat on Reid's stroke for three days. That's three times longer than the reporting of Cheney's hunting accident, and nearly twice as long as Billary waited before releasing the Vince Foster "suicide" note (after much obstruction from Web Hubbell and Billary), and nearly three times longer than Ted Kennedy waited until going back to the bridge over the river where he let Mary Jo Kopechne drown.

Nope...no liberal media bias.

Saddam WMD tapes?

Drudge is reporting that ABC will air an Intelligence Summit's alleged 'Saddam's WMD Tapes' this evening. From CNS News:

Reportedly armed with 12 hours of Saddam Hussein's audio recordings, the organizers of an upcoming "Intelligence Summit" are describing the tapes as the "smoking gun evidence" that the Iraqi dictator possessed weapons of mass destruction in the period leading up to the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.

The U.S. House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, which according to the New York Sun has already authenticated the Saddam tapes, has reopened its investigation into the possible existence and location of the Iraqi weapons of mass destruction (WMD). But some long-time liberal skeptics are showing no inclination to change their minds.

And why should they change their minds? They've never let facts get in the way of their warped worldview and demented thinking, so why would they let proof get in the way, too? Continuing:

On Oct. 6, 2004, Charles Duelfer, advisor to the director of Central Intelligence on Iraqi weapons, told the Senate Armed Services Committee that Saddam did not have WMD at the time of the invasion and that the weapons were likely destroyed following the first Persian Gulf War in 1991. On Jan. 12, 2005, the U.S. announced that is was stopping its search for the weapons in Iraq.

But a four-day Intelligence Summit, to be held Feb. 17-20 in Arlington, Va., is re-igniting the debate over the Iraqi WMD. The featured discussion, on Saturday, Feb. 18, is titled: "Saddam's WMD Tapes: 'The Smoking Gun' Evidence." The agenda for the event indicates that the person who will speak about the tapes is at this point "anonymous."

The New York Sun on Feb. 7 reported that Rep. Peter Hoekstra's (R-Mich.) committee had obtained the audio tapes from former federal prosecutor John Loftus. According to the report, Loftus received the tapes "from a former American military intelligence analyst." Loftus is president of the Intelligence Summit, which is a yearly gathering of experts in the fields of counter-terrorism and intelligence gathering.

The Code Pinkos are unswayed. Drats. My day has been ruined.

For the record, I'm withholding judgment until I see more. I'll say what I said earlier, though, about Iraq's possible "Baghdad Bob" moment: if you're a leftist, you had better pray to whatever tree druid or nymph that you worship that this WMD stuff isn't legit. After all, you think you have a hard time now of convincing the American people that you're serious about defense?

Bush's global "warming" reaches beyond Earth's borders

Damn that evil Bushrove McHitlerburton! His refusal to sign the economic suicide pact known as the Kyoto Treaty to stop global "warming" has now reached beyond the mere borders of the Earth! That's right...the bastard is now imperiling Saturn! From the AP:

Researchers are tracking a gigantic storm on Saturn that is unleashing lightning bolts more than 1,000 times stronger than those found on Earth.

Using instruments aboard the international Cassini spacecraft, scientists from the University of Iowa first spotted the storm on Jan. 23.

But since the spacecraft was not in the right position to photograph the storm, scientists enlisted the help of amateur astronomers who confirmed a storm was raging in the ringed planet's southern hemisphere.

"It is clear that this is the strongest lightning activity that we've seen yet with Cassini since it has arrived at Saturn," Donald Gurnett of the University of Iowa said Tuesday.

Researchers recorded 35 consecutive episodes since the storm was first detected. Each episode lasted about 10 hours.

It's unclear how such lightning storms originate, but scientists think it might be related to the planet's warm interior.

Does his malevolence know no end? Not intent with destroying our own planet with his reckless environmental kamikaze tactics, the imperialist drone is now bent on a galaxy-wide meltdown! His madness must be stopped! If only Alito had been filibustered...

For those of you on the left, the above is sarcasm.

Shrillary: Cheney secrecy "troubling"

Only a buffoon or a liberal (pardon the redundancy) would miss the irony here. From the AP:

Asked at a press conference for her reaction about how the White House has handled the incident, US Senator Hillary Clinton called the Bush administration's failure to be more forthcoming "troubling."

"A tendency of this administration -- from the top all the way to the bottom -- is to withhold information ... to refuse to be forthcoming about information that is of significance and relevance to the jobs that all of you do, and the interests of the American people," Clinton said.

"Putting it all together, going back years now, there's a pattern and it's a pattern that should be troubling," she said at a press conference calling for a more robust federal response to the Hurricane Katrina disaster.

Almost as troubling as the sudden disappearance and re-appearance (in presently searched areas) of Rose Law Firm billing records, and almost as troubling as a 30-hour delay in the release of Vince Foster's "suicide" note. Almost, that is!

Her Highness complaining about cover-ups and less-than-forthcoming info from a White House administration is like Ted Kennedy complaining about binge drinking on college campuses. You know, pots and kettles and whatnot.

"Saddam general: WMDs in Syria"

Sure, this could be a "Baghdad Bob" moment. If you're a "Bush lied" moonbat, you had sure as hell better hope this is wrong! From WND:

A former general and friend of Saddam Hussein who defected but maintains close contact with Iraq claims the regime supported al-Qaida with intelligence, finances and munitions and believes weapons of mass destruction are hidden in Syria.

Ali Ibrahim al-Tikriti, southern regional commander for Saddam Hussein's Fedayeen militia in the late 1980s, spoke with Ryan Mauro of WorldThreats.com.

Known as the "Butcher of Basra," al-Tikriti commanded units that dealt with chemical and biological weapons. He defected shortly before the Gulf War in 1991.

Last month, Saddam Hussein's No. 2 Air Force officer, Georges Sada, told the New York Sun Iraq's weapons of mass destruction were moved to Syria six weeks before the war started. Sada claimed two Iraqi Airways Boeing jets converted to cargo planes moved the weapons in a total of 56 flights. They attracted little attention, he said, because they were thought to be civilian flights providing relief from Iraq to Syria, which had suffered a flood after a dam collapse in 2002.

Yes, he could be wrong...or lying. Then again, the left seems to think that "wrong" and "lying" are the same thing.

MSM cared about birdshot accident, not Vince Foster suicide

From Michelle:

Peacock Network News correspondent David Gregory, whose self-absorption rivals the leading brand of paper towels, threw a snit fit over the 18-hour delay in public disclosure of the incident. His exchange on Monday with White House press secretary Scott McClellan was a walking advertisement for beta blockers.

McClellan: "David, hold on, the cameras aren't on right now. You can do this later."

Gregory: "Don't accuse me of trying to pose to the cameras. Don't be a jerk to me personally when I'm asking you a serious question."

McClellan: "You don't have to yell."

Gregory: "I will yell! If you want to use that podium to try to take shots at me personally, which I don't appreciate, then I will raise my voice, because that's wrong!"

McClellan: "Calm down, Dave, calm down."

Gregory: "I'll calm down when I feel like calming down!"

Funny thing is, I can't recall the mainstream media melting down over the 30-hour delay -- presided over by Hillary Clinton, according to internal records -- in releasing the late White House counsel Vincent Foster's suicide note to authorities and her own husband. Can you?

I guess had Harry Whittington died from the birdshot wound, the press would have backed off. After all, Vince Foster was dead and the MSM showed little interest in the longer delay of the release of the "suicide" note.

Nope...no liberal media bias.

OH Dem Senate candidate betrayed by party leaders

Paul Hackett, the Iraqi war veteran who unsuccessfully ran against Republican Jean Schmidt in a special election last year for a House seat, decided he was going to run for a bigger prize: the U.S. Senate. The Senate seat is held by GOP incumbent Mike DeWine, and Dems are hopeful that DeWine is vulnerable.

Hackett is a political outsider who was seen as a potential threat to DeWine, though folks like me wonder how much of a threat he could possibly be. I mean, he compared the GOP to Osama bin Laden and said that Ohioans who voted against gay marriage (about 62% of them did so) were "un-American." Despite one's personal feelings on the issue of gay marriage, is there anyone who thinks that the best way to court disaffected moderates, independents, or Republicans is to (a) compare them to OBL and (b) call them un-American? I was looking forward to Hackett getting spanked like a Clinton intern during role-playing.

Well, it's a moot point now. The party brass has decided to back anti-war kook Sherrod Brown, a current House member from Cleveland who has had some dandy quotes and Bidenisms over the years. From MSN:

The Democratic blogosphere was abuzz Tuesday with the news that one of its heroes, Iraq war veteran Paul Hackett, had dropped out of the Ohio Senate race.

Hackett, a civilian lawyer and a major in the Marine Corps reserves, caused a sensation last year when he nearly defeated Republican Jean Schmidt in a special election in a heavily Republican congressional district in southern Ohio. (Note that the left gets hot and bothered over close losses? They are still losses, correct? - Ed.)
...
Hackett said Monday party leaders pressured him to leave the race and made phone calls to his donors urging them to not contribute to his campaign.
...
"I made this decision reluctantly, only after repeated requests by party leaders, as well as behind the scenes machinations, that were intended to hurt my campaign," Hackett said in a statement issued by his campaign Tuesday.

Don't be surprised, folks. This is the same party that promoted Howard Dean to DNC chief and picked New England hippy John F'ing Kerry to be its candidate in 2004. If there's a way for the Dems to screw up, they'll find it.

Spying on GOP? Cool! Defending the US? Uncool!

Spying on terrorists? Bad. If not for double standards, the left would have no standards at all! From Sowell:

The same people who are going ballistic over what they spin as "domestic spying" never went ballistic over one of the most gross examples of genuine domestic spying during the Clinton years.

Hundreds of raw FBI files on Republicans were sent to the Clinton White House, in violation of laws and for no higher purpose than having enough dirt on enough people to intimidate political opponents. But domestic spying against Republicans did not shock nearly as many people as intercepting phone calls from terrorists.

Screw al Zawahiri...we need to know what Trent Lott is up to! The MSM was quieter than Hillary during intercourse when it came to that "domestic spying incident", right? Continuing:

They knew from the outset that these were just futile temper tantrums that would not affect the outcome in the slightest.

One of the ugliest examples of the same mindset was painfully visible at the recent funeral of Coretta Scott King, where a solemn occasion was turned into a series of political cheap shots against a President who had come to honor the memory of Mrs. King.

The truly dangerous aspect of this temper tantrum politics is its undermining the government of the United States in its dealings with foreign powers and international terrorist networks.
...
But when our domestic obstructionists began undermining the President and dividing the country, they were undermining the credibility of American power. North Korea's government-controlled media gave big play to Senator John Kerry's speeches against the U.S. hard line on the development of North Korean nuclear weapons.

Obviously this all-out attempt to damage the President at all costs makes any threat of the use of military force less credible with the country divided.

The NorKoms love Jean-Francois Kerry, the Saudis love Albert bin Gore...how soon before Kennedrunk, Reid, Nasty Pelosi, etc., make their way onto the Al Jazeera Terrorvision Network?

Albert bin Gore

From NewsMax:

The Saudi Arabia seminar that was addressed by former Vice President Al Gore over the weekend in a speech that criticized the U.S. for being too tough on Arabs was sponsored, in part, by Osama bin Laden's family.

On Saturday, the state-run Saudi news outlet Arab News reported that the Jeddah Economic Forum, where Gore spoke, was funded by "Saudi Arabian Airlines, the Saudi Binladin Group, Gulf One Investment Bank, Saudi Basic Industries Corp." and an array of other big companies with ties to the Middle East.

The Saudi BinLadin Group - which is Saudi Arabia's largest construction company - is run by Osama bin Laden's brothers and cousins. Jeddah, the site of the forum attended by Gore, is Osama bin Laden's hometown.

Although family members claim they've disowned bin Laden, his mother told reporters after the 9/11 attacks that she received advanced warning from him that something big was about to happen.

A wealthy bin Laden niece also reportedly abandoned her lower Manhattan apartment three weeks before the 9/11 attacks.
The BinLadin Group's longtime involvement in the Jeddah forum has been widely reported in the Mideast and European press.

In January 2002, ex-President Clinton addressed the JEF, which paid him $267,000 for his speech. According to London's Financial Times:

"The conference was dominated by the Saudis' desire to overcome the pressures of September 11 and strengthen U.S.-Saudi ties . . . The BinLadin Group, one of the forum's backers, has been battered by its association with Osama."

Other JEF speakers that year included President Bush's younger brother, Neil.

It's not known whether - or how much - Mr. Gore was paid for his speech.

Maybe bin Gore was paid 30 pieces of silver? This wasn't found on the AP, or anywhere else in the MSM...not yet, anyway. Once again, scooped by the alternative media. Does anyone wonder what the MSM reaction would have been had a Republican gone to Jeddah? They would have been on the story faster than Barney Frank heading to a Brokeback Mountain II sneak preview! But nope...no liberal media bias.

If you have not yet done so, please feel free to being questioning his patriotism.

"Cheney shooting" flap

I have a couple of comments on the Cheney hunting accident, and then I'm letting this go. After all, the MSM will keep the issue alive for as long as they can, so I have no desire to do it, too.

1. While the victim should have definitely announced his return to the group, Cheney is ultimately responsible for the firing of his weapon. Period.

2. The victim was hit with birdshot. Barring a point blank shot between the eyes or to the temple, it's damned tough to kill someone with birdshot. Sure, one can get hurt and hurt badly, even blinded. However, the victim is recovering well, as far as we know. This never had much of a chance of becoming a real tragedy, thank God.

3. The MSM has (a) suggested that Cheney resign...over a hunting accident where the victim will likely recover fully in a short period of time. There is no indication that the MSM has ever suggested that Ted Kennedrunk resign over drowning Mary Jo Kopechne. Nope...no liberal media bias.

4. Poor James Brady. Has his crusade against the Second Amendment clouded his perception of reality this much?

5. Washington comPost reporter (not columnist, but reporter) Dana Milbank showed up on Keith Blabbermouth's little-watched MSNBC show to talk about the hunting flap...dressed in hunting garb. Nice little jab, eh? However, as David Pierre points out: "Think back to 1998. Imagine a female newspaper reporter (not an opinion columnist, but a reporter, mind you) showing up for a television interview dressed in a beret and looking like Monica Lewinsky. Or a male columnist wearing a Clinton wig and holding a cigar. It never would have happened, because these people would have lost their jobs. Their employer's credibility would have been shot." Milbank's objectivity has been sullied over the years, but we're supposed to believe that he and his cohorts at the comPost are objective? Nope...no liberal media bias!

6. The MSM is bent that an eyewitness told the local Corpus Christi newspaper of the incident before the DC press corps. From the rabid and detached David Gregory: "The vice president of the United States accidentally shoots a man, and he feels that it's appropriate for a ranch owner who witnessed this to tell the local Corpus Christi newspaper and not the White House press corps at large or notify the public in a national way?"

I'm glad to see that the MSM's concern was more with their lost scoop than with the victim. How touching. Fortunately, McClellan fired back with this: "And you know what the immediate response was? To make sure he was getting the medical care. You may know that, but people who are listening need to hear that too."

A little perspective

More Katrina disgust

I have chronicled how a large segment of the Katrina evacuees (primarily from New Orleans) have been resisting efforts to get jobs and free themselves from the chains of government dependency. The feds have finally decided to take the evacuees off of the federal nipple, and these babies are crying louder than Florida Democrats in 2000. How's this for you?

Lawyers asked for a temporary restraining order Sunday to stop the evictions of 12,000 families left homeless by hurricanes Katrina and Rita from hotels across the nation on Monday.

"We have provided the court with statements from people showing they have not been treated fairly by FEMA," said Bill Quigley, an assistant dean of the Loyola University Law School, who with civil rights attorney Tracie Washington filed the motion.

How about that? They're actually suing to force the taxpayers to continue subsidizing their sloth and greed! Apparently, there is a newly discovered right in the U.S. Constitution (it must be next to the abortion clause) mandating that the taxpayers provide free room, board, and cable TV to anyone with such a stunning lack of accountability and responsibility in their lives. Decent and able-bodied folks would have spent the last 5+ months looking for gainful (and more productive) employment, instead of nursing from the bosom of the public treasury.

I guess it should come as no surprise, too, that billions of taxpayers' confiscated wages have been figuratively flushed down the toilet. From the AP:

In its rush to provide Katrina disaster aid, the Federal Emergency Management Agency wasted millions of dollars and overpaid for hotel rooms, including $438-a-day lodging in New York City, government investigators said Monday.

Two reports released by the Government Accountability Office and the Homeland Security Department's office of inspector general detail a series of accounting flaws, fraud or mismanagement in their initial review of how $85 billion in federal aid is being spent.

The two audits found that up to 900,000 of the 2.5 million applicants who received aid under FEMA's emergency cash assistance program — which included the $2,000 debit cards given to evacuees — were based on duplicate or invalid Social Security numbers, or false addresses and names.

Separately, the Justice Department said Monday that federal prosecutors have filed fraud, theft and other charges against 212 people accused of scams related to Gulf Coast hurricanes. Forty people have pleaded guilty so far, the latest report by the Hurricane Katrina Fraud Task Force said. Many defendants were accused of trying to obtain emergency aid, typically a $2,000 debit card, issued to hurricane victims by FEMA and the American Red Cross.

Thousands of additional dollars appear to have been squandered on hotel rooms for evacuees that were paid at retail rather than the contractor's lower estimated cost. They included $438 rooms in New York City and beachfront condominiums in Panama City, Fla., at $375 a night, according to the audits.

Damn...what do I have to do to get a paid vacation to NYC or Panama City? Maybe if I lived in a fishbowl during a hurricane, I could get one of those five-star hotel rooms on the public dole, too!

This is what happens when politicians strive to look "busy" like they're "doing something", instead of striving to solve practical problems with practical (and accountable) solutions. This sickening mindset in D.C. that all problems can be solved by simply throwing money at it must be changed! Unfortunately, (a) the Republicans have proven since they assumed legislative power in 1995 that they have little desire to alter said mindset, and (b) Democrats would be no better (and probably, if you can imagine it, even worse)!

Bush cool with Islamic country protecting our ports

Hat tip to my friend Kanaka Girl for passing this on to me. From Fox News:

A company in the United Arab Emirates is poised to take over significant operations at six American ports as part of a corporate sale, leaving a country with ties to the Sept. 11 hijackers with influence over a maritime industry considered vulnerable to terrorism.

The Bush administration considers the UAE an important ally in the fight against terrorism since the suicide hijackings and is not objecting to Dubai Ports World's purchase of London-based Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Co.

The $6.8 billion sale is expected to be approved Monday. The British company is the fourth largest ports company in the world and its sale would affect commercial U.S. port operations in New York, New Jersey, Baltimore, New Orleans, Miami and Philadelphia.

DP World said it won approval from a secretive U.S. government panel that considers security risks of foreign companies buying or investing in American industry.
...
The State Department describes the UAE as a vital partner in the fight against terrorism. But the UAE, a loose federation of seven emirates on the Saudi peninsula, was an important operational and financial base for the hijackers who carried out the attacks against New York and Washington, the FBI concluded.

Sen. Charles Schumer, a Democrat whose district includes the New York port, urged the administration to consider the sale carefully.

"America's busiest ports are vital to our economy and to the international economy, and that is why they remain top terrorist targets," Schumer said. "Just as we would not outsource military operations or law enforcement duties, we should be very careful before we outsource such sensitive homeland security duties."

God Allah help me, but I (gulp!) agree with Chuck the Schmuck on this one! Granted, his motives are likely more related to BDS than actual security concerns, but nonetheless, he is right to be disturbed by this development.

Color me with the "politically incorrect" crayon, but I am aghast that the security of our own country is being outsourced to a country that has a citizenry largely unsupportive of our efforts to destroy Islamofascism and keep it out of our back yard! Am I the only insensitive bastard here who finds this move incredulously idiotic? What's next, letting a Syrian company guard our nuclear reactors?

Do you need further reasons to oppose this deal? OK, how about this one?

Flynn and others said even under foreign control, U.S. ports will continue to be run by unionized American employees. "You're not going have a bunch of UAE citizens working the docks," Flynn said. "They're longshoremen, vested in high-paying jobs. Most of them are Archie Bunker-kind of Americans."

Great. Just freakin' wonderful. Turn our nation's security over to a country who served as a prominent base to 9/11 hijackers and to a group of functional economic illiterates!

CNN whacked by employees, guests for lack of backbone

CNN, among other MSM sources, has declined to show the Mohammed cartoons "out of respect for Islam", confounding those who believe that the press functions did not include "religious sensitivity." I have outlined CNN's eagerness to show grotesquely offensive anti-Jew or anti-Christian works of "art", since Judaism and Christianity are both politically incorrect religions.

Kudos, then, to CNN guest and blogger extraordinaire Glenn Reynolds of Instapundit.com for leading off his interview on CNN with "You guys have blown it!" You abso-freakin'-lutely must see the video here! A couple of excerpts:

"The press is there to tell us things, and not to hide things from us."

"Everybody's offended by something...If fundamentalist Christians were rioting because they were offended by Will & Grace, would you take it off the air?"

When asked about why conservative bloggers are more offended that the MSM, i.e. CNN, hasn't shown the images, Reynolds nails them with:

"I think that conservative bloggers hear a lot of talk about free speech in other contexts, but it seems that people are willing to go to the mat to protect free speech...when it's free speech that irritates people on the right. But when it's free speech that irritates Muslims, they (the MSM) are more concerned about not offending!"

"My beliefs are offended when gangs of ignorant thugs burn embassies, so where is the respect for my beliefs? Do I need to burn embassies to get respect for my beliefs? That's the message that CNN sends!"

Bill Bennett also took the opportunity to embarrass his employer. From NRO:

On CNN today, Bill Bennett hit back at the American media, especially CNN, for refusing to show the Danish cartoons that sparked the current controversy. During the lead-in, CNN showed a number of anti-Semitic cartoons from Middle Eastern newspapers as part of a feature story on double standards in the Arab world. But when the segment turned to a debate between Bennett and Arab American Institute president James Zogby, Bennett criticized CNN for its own double standard — showing the anti-Semitic cartoons as part of a news story, but refusing to show the Danish cartoons. (A link to the video is contained at the site - Ed.)

BLITZER: You can understand, Bill, that feeling among many Muslims that this is beyond the pale when you insult the Prophet Mohammad.

BENNETT: Well, sure. And if I was a Jew watching what CNN just led in with, I might be a little upset too. But CNN doesn't have the solicitude for Jews it has for Muslims. Your policy is not to show these cartoons that were shown in Denmark, but to show one after another of the most anti-Semitic cartoons they could come forward with. CNN — I don't mean to pick on CNN just because I work for you. But NBC, New York Times, other media — the Virgin Mary in cow dung, that was fine, we can show that everywhere. Now, the Islamists have won, in that they have intimidated the major news media from showing these cartoons. They have lost, however, in the wider world, because people see that this is just totally nutty behavior — that these cartoons are shown and that people as a result want to kill people, behead people, burn buildings down.

Blitzer answered, "On the showing of these anti-Semitic cartoons, I think you'll find that most Israelis, certainly most Jews, want the world to see some of these caricatures, in order to shed some light on the images that have been portrayed in a lot of these publications."

Blitzer didn't seem to realize that he had just illustrated why showing the Danish cartoons in the American media is so important. Jewish groups want the world to see cartoons like these because they know that such propaganda says more about the Arab governments that create it. Muslim groups don't want the world to see cartoons like these because these cartoons are about the use of radical Islam to justify violence. That's why CNN's decision not to show the Danish cartoons is disgraceful. They are giving into the demands of a faction that wants to censor the political content of those cartoons, and there's no excuse for that.

I wonder if CNN felt a tad bit awkward with such a public dressing-down on their own network! Knowing them, I think Ted Kennedy will find sobriety before CNN finds journalistic introspection and integrity.

Today's "Damn that global warming!" update

Blizzard watch for NYC. Gusts of 50 mph, snow between 6" - 12".

DC to get 16 - 25 mph winds, and 3" or more of snow, lows in the 20's. Bundle up, Kira!

In light of these two forecasts, I've concluded that Al Gore must be coming to warn of the dangers on global "warming", like he did two years ago...on the coldest day in N.E. in half a century! It's usually around times like that when the left abandons the name "global warming" for fear of being seen as the dolts that they are, and instead adopts the ominous-yet-more-acceptable title of "climate change."

Whether it's freezing cold with blizzards, are warm and toasty, both are somehow the result of global warming "climate change", huh?

Damn that Bush! He's pelting the blue states with blizzards and freeze now! For those of you on the left, that was sarcasm.

Dems holding themselves hostage

It isn't often that I quote an entire column, opting instead for pertinent excerpts. However, I feel compelled to quote the whole column by Jonah Goldberg due to the eloquence of his observations. Enjoy:

And for another week, the Democrats managed to hold themselves hostage to, well, themselves.

Item 1 Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, the wunderkind of the Democratic Party who, we've been told, not only transcends race, partisanship and personal ambition but actually sails above such concerns like the Winged Victory of Samothrace, received his first shellacking this week by Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.).

McCain says Obama promised to join in a bipartisan lobbying reform effort but reneged in favor of backing the Democrats' more partisan effort. So McCain - the dashboard saint of bipartisan reform efforts - turned Obama into epistolary roadkill.

In an archly sarcastic letter, McCain apologized for not realizing that Obama was more interested in "self-interested partisan posturing," adding that "I'm embarrassed to admit that after all these years in politics, I failed to interpret your previous assurances as typical rhetorical gloss."

Item 2 Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) returned a campaign contribution from Wal-Mart while gladly pocketing cash from Paul Newman, Reese Witherspoon and other Hollywood liberals. She even took a wad of dough from Jerry Springer, who made his fortune proving that nothing is too vile to broadcast. Clinton served on Wal-Mart's board from 1986 until 1992, and in that time the company was hardly any more "worker-friendly" - to borrow a liberal term - than it is today. It's just a bigger company now, with the same policies she oversaw. When asked if she ever fought for "progressive" policies when she was a director of the company, she replied, "Well, you know, I, that was a long time ago, I have to remember. ..."

Item 3 The New York Times ran a state-of-the-art Democratic self-recrimination story, highlighting the party's inability to make political hay from such supposedly obvious Republican vulnerabilities as Hurricane Katrina and the National Security Agency wiretapping. The article was festooned like a Christmas tree with baubles of self-doubt and ornaments of denial hanging from every branch: The Democrats are frustrated by the party's "tangled" problems and their inability to exploit this "pivotal moment," etc.

Some Democrats are furious that their party doesn't have its own ideas. Others say they do have ideas; they're just keeping them secret for now. That sounds a lot like the high school geek who insists that his girlfriend is really hot but lives in an undisclosed location in Canada.

Others say agendas aren't that useful anyway. "People said, 'You can't beat something with nothing,'" House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) told the Times, even though Democrats did exactly that on Social Security. "I feel very confident about where we are," she assured the paper.

And all this happened by Wednesday - and leaves out Jimmy Carter's shabby and even mildly ghoulish exploitation of Coretta Scott King's funeral.

"A man may take to drink because he feels himself to be a failure, but then fail all the more completely because he drinks," George Orwell once observed. This seems to capture nicely the dynamic of the Democrats' shame spiral. Success in politics is measured by winning elections. On this score, Democrats have been failures for a while now. In response, they're getting drunk on a brew of partisanship and Bush-hating.

It is amazing how obvious - OK, even trite - is the Democratic plight. Democrats need the money and energy of their "progressive," blog-addicted base, but in order to get it, they turn off mainstream voters. In other words, they can't get escape velocity.

Clinton's Wal-Mart refund is a perfect illustration not merely of her hypocrisy but of the quicksand she is now in. She thinks it's a winning message to say she's too good for Wal-Mart's money but not Hollywood's. That's not exactly red-state savvy.

Obama allowed himself to be seduced by the elixir of Democratic self-righteousness at the expense of making real headway on lobbying reform and hitching his wagon to the most popular politician in America.

And Pelosi has become enamored with the idea that one needn't be for anything, as long as one is opposed to Bush. No doubt that's the feedback she's getting in her echo chamber.

In the Senate, Minority Leader Harry Reid has infuriated Republican moderates such as Arlen Specter more than GOP conservatives by obstructing legislation and hurling partisan insults. This is exactly the opposite strategy required for clawing out of the hole the Democrats are in. But anti-Republicanism trumps everything. And that's a road map for the Democrats to go ever deeper into the wilderness.

Hillary...she actually was for Wal-Mart, before she was against it! Nancy..."let's run on the platform of 'vote for us because we're not them'!" NYT..."sales, circulation, and revenues are down, so let's keep doing the same thing: peddling our left-wing agenda!"

How's that for a recipe for success? LOL!

NYT: Bush knew levees would break!

America's most tarnished fishwrap, the New York Slimes has this headline today: "White House Knew of Levee's Failure on Night of Storm". Details:

In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, Bush administration officials said they had been caught by surprise when they were told on Tuesday, Aug. 30, that a levee had broken, allowing floodwaters to engulf New Orleans.

But Congressional investigators have now learned that an eyewitness account of the flooding from a federal emergency official reached the Homeland Security Department's headquarters starting at 9:27 p.m. the day before, and the White House itself at midnight.

What? You mean that Bushrove McHitlerburton was tipped off on the night of the storm that a levee had broken, and neither he nor any of his minions went down there into Storm Central personally to stop it from breaking? They couldn't find the compassion to put their fingers in the holes or back a gas-guzzling enviro-polluter global warming SUV into the cracks? The nerve! The sheer unadulterated evil that must course through his veins! This is an outrage!

We were told for decades that New Orleans levees wouldn't withstand anything greater than a Category 3 hurricane, and funding for it over the years had been diverted to other pet projects in the Chocolate City area. Yet when Katrina, a Category 5-turned-4 storm actually hit the Hershey Zone, a levee (surprise!) eventually broke. Now I did go to Florida State, but I seem to recall from a class or two that both 4 and 5 are bigger than 3, and therefore (we learned big words like "therefore", too!) a Category 4 storm is more powerful than a Category 3 storm.

Damn...it must be Bush's fault!