essaysfromtheedge

Show Them Who They REALLY Work For

2009-08-17T16:51:00.004-05:00

The current debate on Health care Reform has opened the eyes of many in America to the true nature of the elitist inhabitants of our current representational republic. I make a point here in strictly defining America's government in its true terminology - "representative republic" - because I believe that our government is now broken and does not function the way the founders had intended.

Take, for example, the recent comments by New York Democrat Representative Eric Massa (New York's 29th Congressional District). Mr. Massa was addressing an intimate gathering of Net Roots activists during a round table discussion at the annual Netroots Nation conference in Pittsburgh this weekend.

He is adamant that he is not going to have a town hall meeting in his district to discuss health reform, nor is he going to vote against any proposed health reform legislation, regardless of the wishes of his district, which he categorizes as "one of the most right wing Republican districts in the country".

For me the whole health reform debate has thrown open the door to the most pernicious practice in American congressional politics: allegiance to your political party and its leadership rather than representing the wishes of the people who sent you to Washington. The House of Representatives should be exactly that: a body consisting of individuals who have been sent by the voters in their district to be their voice in Washington, and to vote on legislation in the manner that the voters - the people for whom the Representative is actually working - instruct him to.

It's obvious to everyone that this is no longer the case; that party loyalty is more important than the wishes - and the voice - of the voters. Mr. Massa has made this abundantly clear when he states that he has no intention of voting with his constituents, but rather with the wishes of his party's leadership in Washington:

The national approval rating for congress before the 2008 election was at the lowest level since polling began. Yet Americans saw fit to return their representative and senator back to Washington. It's obviously some other government hack's fault, right?

Wrong.

What Mr. Massa and others like him need to understand in 2010 is this: if they don't truly represent their district, the voters in their district will throw them out in 2010. Tell him so on his website: http://massa.house.gov/index.html. Find your representative's website here and make sure they know how you feel.

My fear is that the political memory of the average American is only about a month long. My hope is that the anger of Americans will surpass their limited memory and that the 2010 election will truly be a watermark in American politics; a message sent loud and clear: you work for us, not for your party.

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Jokers Wild

2009-08-05T20:07:00.002-05:00

Have you seen this picture?

According to news reports it began showing up on streets and highways in Los Angeles over the past weekend. Since then it has made appearances in other cities in other states.

Well, in LA the poster is causing "quite a stir." Los Angeles Urban Policy Roundtable President Earl Ofari Hutchinson went to far as to say, "Depicting the president as demonic and a socialist goes beyond political spoofery. It is mean-spirited and dangerous."

At the time of his weekend statement Hutchinson was evidently unaware of this image, which appeared in the July 29, 2008 issue of Vanity Fair:

Yes, it's George W. Bush. And yes, it's the same Heath Ledger Joker character. Read the comments after the brief Vanity Fair article.

One of Earl's friends must have tapped him on the shoulder... "ah, Earl..." because now Hutchinson is trying to spin himself out of the hole he dug with commentary posted today in The Huffington Post. He claims that, contrary to his comments from the weekend, he supports free speech and decries censorship; he even makes mention of the Bush Joker picture (something of a mea culpa, but obviously insincere) in a vain attempt to paint himself as a anything but an Obama boot-licking hysteric.

Part of his strategy in the Huffington piece is to downplay his weekend screed by comparing it to his own over-wrought depiction of the Right's response.

...when this writer and a handful of other critics had the temerity to brand the Obama Joker poster as a demonic and mean spirited slur of President Obama, the Obama loathers went into a manic tail spin.

Of course nothing could be further from the truth. Once again the Left is caught making vitriolic statements about those who have the "temerity" to depict their leader with such a "vile" characterization, yet condoning through their silence the exact same image used against their political opponent, George Bush.

The American people aren't stupid, and they can certainly see through this charade, which in part explains why more and more people are fed up with the Left in America and are starting to stand up and be heard.

Hutchinson repeats in his Huffington op-ed the same demand he made this past weekend:

"We have issued a public challenge to the person or group that put up the poster to come forth and publicly tell why they have used this offensive depiction to ridicule President Obama."

The man obviously needs another tap on the shoulder. Not only is the Obama poster itself publicly available from zazzle.com, you can also get t-shirts, coffee mugs, hats, mouse pads, and bumper stickers with the same image!

Isn't America great?

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Be Afraid. Be Very Afraid.

2009-07-28T15:11:00.003-05:00

The future of America has spoken:

You laugh. This kid went to a government-run school. Every year there are more of these zombies walking the streets of America, voting.

I don't hear you laughing......

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Buyer's Remorse

2009-07-24T08:11:00.004-05:00

Voters Didn't Kick The Tires

Are you noticing what I'm noticing?

Driving down the street, are you noticing the dearth of Obama bumper stickers? They seem to be vanishing quicker than the man's credibility. During the election season you couldn't drive a single block without seeing at least one sticker. Now, they're as rare as a gaffless Joe Biden speech.

Drudge is reporting that RASMUSSEN will release a report later today claiming that Obama's approval rating has dipped below 50% for the first time.

Wa happen'?

Well, essentially the American people are coming to the realization that what they were told by Obama's opponents in the 2008 election really IS true: the guy is an empty-headed Chicago talking head who has never run anything in his life. All he knows how to do is talk, and his endless campaigning for the job of president, even six months after his inauguration, is beginning to wear thin in the heartland.

There are those who would suggest that middle America is beginning to catch on to Obama's socialist agenda, but I don't buy that. I don't think your average, Oprah-overdosed family unit gives a hoot about socialism. Wasn't that their grandfather's enemy? Hwah... old stuff. Socialism died with the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. Right? I mean Chavez is just a mean frat boy, right? Wasn't loved enough by his mother, right?

Something like that.

No, what I think is really causing this turnabout - especially in the minds of Republicans who voted for Obama in order to punish Bush (try not to think of the logic behind that decision TOO much - you'll get a headache) - is the fact that the guy really is an empty suit. Just talk. Talk, talk, talk. And they're tired of his condescending voice ("Let me be clear").

Most Americans were able to forgive Clinton for his endless self-obsession; his easy charm disarmed their questions about his policies. The true problem for Obama is that his charm is not easy, it's forced. Just like the lover who see the man she brought home from the bar the night before in the harsh reality of brutal morning sunlight, voters are wishing they'd kept their legs closed that cold November evening in 2008.

The good news in this is that Obama's policies can no longer hide behind his quickly-eroding charisma. Maybe, a few months after Obama's new-car sheen is just a faded memory, middle America will finally see those policies in the harsh reality of morning.

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Obama's Desperation

2009-07-18T19:10:00.004-05:00

An interesting article from The Los Angeles Times: What's really behind Obama's sudden plea for troubled health reforms today. The article basically states that Obama's nationalization of America's Health Care industry is beginning to look like anything but a done deal and desperation is setting in at the White House. Congressional support is slipping, including support from Democrats. This is all good for America, bad for the socialist left who sees Obama as their last, best hope for implementing their sweeping Marxist agenda.

There are comments after the article. One is by a "Jack Smith," obviously a pseudonym. I did a Google search for the title of his far-left screed (AMERICA’S NATIONAL HEALTHCARE EMERGENCY!) and came up with the fact that this person - probably an agent for the Obama Administration - has been posting this "commentary" on blogs all over the internet.

You can read it if you wish. I responded to his post with the following commentary:

First off, you should all know that the "Jack Smith" post has been appearing on blogs throughout the internet in the exact form you see it here. So, it's obviously NOT from a "Jack Smith", and it IS an attempt by someone either in the Obama Administration, or one its far-left social media outlets to promote Obamacare.

Let's dissect this nonsense:

"It’s official. America and the World are now in a GLOBAL PANDEMIC."

Pretty scary words. Yet, despite the propaganda of the WHO, this swine flu disease has still not exploded like they predicted. Scare talk, nothing more.

"STAND READY AMERICA TO SEIZE CONTROL OF YOUR NATIONAL HEALTHCARE SYSTEM."

Fascist tautology. You are being given your marching orders by the socialist left. Who's going to seize control of the healthcare system? The people? No, the government.

"All because of GREED! And the PRIVATE FOR PROFIT healthcare system in America."

Nothing could be further from the truth. Don't let the "greed" word scare you. This is a tried-and-failed buzzword of world socialism. To them capitalism means "greed". They know nothing except what their socialist educators tell them. And it's all lies.

"And while all this is going on, some members of congress seem mostly concern about how to protect the corporate PROFITS! of our GREED DRIVEN, PRIVATE FOR PROFIT NATIONAL DISGRACE. A PRIVATE FOR PROFIT DISGRACE that is in fact, totally valueless to the public health. And a detriment to national security, public safety, and the public health."

The biggest load of socialist claptrap I've read in a long time. You have go to back to speeches by Lenin and Stalin to find garbage as skewed as this. Or maybe Chavez... Note the words "greed" and "profit" together. The red flag should be waving over your heads, folks. This IS Marxist. Plain and simple.

"Progressive democrats the Tri-Caucus and others should stand firm in their demand for a robust government-run public option for all Americans, with all of the minimum requirements progressive democrats demanded."

First, note how many times he uses the word "robust". Have you EVER seen any program that has been run by the government that is "robust"? It's a joke. We know from history that EVERYTHING the government runs is turned to ruin. Just look at Social Security. You want THAT for healthcare? And "public option"? The House bill OUTLAWS all private health insurance. Page 16. Read it. And whenever you read "progressive", know it's liberal-speak for the far left.

And what is the "Tri-Caucus"? Anyone?

"President Obama declare a state of NATIONAL HEALTHCARE EMERGENCY! Seizing and replacing all PRIVATE FOR PROFIT health insurance plans with... (A Single-payer National Healthcare Plan For All)."

Hey, Chavez did it with the oil industry and the communication industry in Venezuela! THAT should make Obama's poll numbers skyrocket!!!

"Coverage can begin immediately through our current medicare system. With immediate expansion through recruitment of displaced workers from the canceled private sector insurance industry."

"Recruitment of "DISPLACED" workers." - All those health professionals who will lose their jobs under government health care. Of course, the government will set their wages - which means they won't have enough money to pay off their education debt. The number of people entering health care will drop drastically.

Basically everyone who now works in the healthcare field and the private health insurance field will now become government employees. Run the numbers... You think your current tax rate can sustain this many added government employees?

"Funding can also begin immediately by substitution of payroll deductions for private insurance plans with payroll deductions for the national healthcare plan."

This is also known as a tax. Do you think they'll only tax the "rich' on this because that's what they told you? Everyone will be taxed through this back-door method of "payroll deductions". See your "FICA Deductions" on your pay stub? That's your Social Security tax. Tax.

"This is what the vast majority of the American people want."

A flat-out lie: you can tell this is boilerplate crap because our mysterious poster NEVER read the article! "70% of Americans are satisfied with current healthcare, and 98% DON'T want taxes to go up to pay for" Obamacare.

"And this is what all objective experts unanimously agree would be the best, and most cost effective for the American people and our economy."

Not even the democrat-controlled Congressional Budget Office agrees with this statement! They KNOW it's going to be a budget buster. So, who is this person talking about, anyway? No sources cited means it's just propaganda.

"STICK WITH [OBAMA]! He’s doing a brilliant job."

Even the left is beginning to question Obama's brilliance at anything other than campaigning.

"THE BATTLE OF GOOD Vs EVIL!"

Capitalism=Evil. Socialism=Good. This is the bottom line for these people. Read Ayn Rand's "We The Living" if you want to know where we're headed with this type of thinking.

"Join the fight."

A Socialist rallying cry from the beginning of the 20th century.

Listen. America needs only TWO THINGS to fix 95% of what ails our country. 1. Tort reform, 2. Term limits for congress. Think about it. That's the fight we should be fighting: smaller government and stopping the abuse of our legal system as a weapon. It will be a tough fight, but we have to do it. And the first thing we must do, in 2010, is THROW OUT ALL INCUMBENT CONGRESS MEMBERS. Boom. Out. replace them with real people, not career politicians.

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How To Get Followed On Twitter

2009-05-15T19:58:00.004-05:00

I avoided Twitter like the plague for months. Then I took the plunge, just to check out something for work. For the last four weeks I have been immersed in this interesting online community, and while I may still be considered a neophyte by some, I have learned a few basic rules if you want people to follow you.

1. Upload An Avatar Picture - Most people won't follow someone without an Avatar, unless they know them personally.

2. Follow People Who Follow You - Keep your "Follows" to "Followers" ratio close. You may have some bumps when you hit Twitters limits, but you'll get over these.

3. ENGAGE! - This is huge. Don't just continually Tweet about your MLM (I delete MLMers, BTW), or your blog, or your business. Talk to people. Get to know them. Make it personal. This will be a big plus on Follow Fridays!

4. Follow Fridays - Since I mentioned this, I'll explain it. On Fridays Twitterers refer people they're following to others who are following THEM. And the general rule of courtesy is this: if you suggest people for YOUR followers to follow, those people will suggest YOU to their followers. Return the favor! You scratch my back, I'll scratch yours.

5. Re-Tweet - Another BIGGIE. If you find a Tweet that you like, Re-Tweet it! This is simple using TweetDeck or Seesmic. This way that cool Tweet will now be seen you all of YOUR followers. This works like Follow Fridays: you will notice people will start Re-Tweeting YOUR posts, and you will get new followers.

6. Find Cool Stuff to Share - If all you're going to do is talk about your dog, that meeting you were in, or what you're making for dinner, expect to fail on Twitter. Find cool stuff on the internet and SHARE IT with your followers. Use the URL shortening tools in TweetDeck and Seesmic. You will get Re-Tweeted. And followed.

7. Be Nice - Be courteous, respectful, and - yes, playful! Have fun. There are a LOT of cool people out there, and you just might make some good friends! That's why I'm in it!

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This Is The Air They Breathe

2009-04-19T16:26:00.014-05:00

An interesting editorial today by Dana Milbank of The Washington Post:

Next Choler, Please

Milbank - a self-avowed leftist - is pondering a phenomenon that goes against his orthodoxy. Namely, the left's current anger at Obama. In particular, the intensity of that anger has him scratching his head in wonderment.

It made sense for them to be angry when George W. Bush was in the White House. But now, even under Obama, the anger on the left is, if anything, more personal and vitriolic than on the right.
He queried his readers as to the source of this anger.

...many focused on a frustration on the left caused by Obama's centrism -- his opposition to prosecuting those involved with torture, for example. "I am angry because the whole Republican party has not been rounded up and thrown into a black site," one wrote. A reader in Evanston, Ill., took a similar view, that true believers on the left don't want "b.s. rhetoric about looking forward."
These answers obviously haven't relived him of the moral dilemma he faces: leftists' anger at a leftist.

Having observed the left now for the past 30 years - both as an witness of their leadership and policy and as a conversant with my liberal friends (hey, I get along with everybody!) - I have come to a conclusion.

If you tell a fish it's swimming in water, it will ask you, "What's water?" It cannot perceive of the medium in which it moves because it knows no other environment.

The same is true of the left. The medium through which it moves is anger. Individual leftists cannot see this quality in themselves because they know no other environment.

Those outside this "rarefied" liberal air are all too aware of it. We've seen it for decades: in violent protests, hectoring town hall rampages, physical attacks against any person or institution that stands in the way of liberal hegemony. And to those of us observers the left's anger has always been "personal and vitriolic"; it knows no other manifestation.

The Bush years were actually good for America if for no other reason than it forced the left out into the open. All their bile and hatred were now on public display. It sickened us; we couldn't comprehend how people who thought of themselves as open-minded and compassionate could display so much venomous rage.

But it didn't surprise us, because we had seen this anger before; just not on this scale.

Before Bush liberals were very successful at portraying the right as America's Haters. Their tactic was not unlike that of a grade school bully. They would continually poke the right with a sharp stick. We would quietly say, "Please stop." They would poke us again. "Please stop."

Poke. "Please stop." Poke.

Poke.

Poke...

...until we just couldn't take it anymore and would stand up and clock them in the face, at which point they would jump up, point to us, and yell as loudly as they could, "HE HIT ME! TEACHER, HE'S MEAN! DO SOMETHING!"

Milbank's quandary should be self-revelatory. Not likely. Just as the fish cannot survive without water, so the left cannot survive without anger.

It is the air they breathe.

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Why The Left Mocks The Tea Parties

2009-04-19T00:05:00.008-05:00

OK, so we know the left is not going to stop calling the Tea Parties "teabagging", nor are they going to stop calling anyone who attends or supports these events and what they stand for "teabaggers". Their contempt does little to hide their fear, but - like the man who repeats the same experiment expecting different results - they know no other course.

"A fanatic is one who can't change his mind and won't change the subject."
- Winston Churchill

As the left aims its sleepless insult machine at the average American, one need only look at the scope of Wednesday's gatherings to understand their hysteria:

View 2009 Tea Parties in a larger map

Will this movement continue? Conservatives are not as dedicated in their public dissent as liberals; they don't have the staying power. We're busy people. Our belief system results in behavior that is more respectful, more family-oriented, more willing to believe that our word has meaning, so we only need to say it once.

And this is why liberals are ramping up their derision. They hope the sneers will forestall further Tea Parties, that Americans will see in their contempt a mirror image of the contempt all Americans feel for their behavior.

We must remember that the contempt of the left is borne out of fear and does not reflect the consensus of Americans. Also, know that the "mirror image" they are showing you is a mirage - it is an invention intended to deceive you.

Brush aside the insults of the left. Better yet, use them as a springboard for further action, use them as a recruiting tool.

Say to your friends, neighbors, "See what your government thinks of you? How does this make you feel? Join us."

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Why There Are Tea Parties

2009-04-17T22:18:00.006-05:00

"This [tea party] initiative is funded by the high end — we call call it astroturf, it’s not really a grassroots movement."
-House Speaker Pelosi (D-CA)

In one sentence Pelosi has explained the Tea Party Movement; why it was started, why it will grow. She has given the clearest example yet of why Americans - both Republicans and Democrats - are fed up with the power-mad career politicians in Washington, their incompetence, and their contempt for middle America.

"...is funded by the high end..."    - Unlike the hard left, which gets its money from provocateurs like George Soros, The Tea Party Movement isn't funded by any person or PAC. Those who promote it use their own blogs; their own cell phones and email accounts. They pay for the gas to get to the events themselves. They made their own signs by hand - they're not mass-printed like ACORN signs.

Pelosi, quite simply, is parroting left-wing talking points. They are lies and are nothing more than an attempt at making this movement look like something it's not: robots taking marching orders from grafters.

"...we call it astroturf...."    - Pelosi is merely echoing the contempt felt by all on the left for anyone who doesn't believe in their Utopian dreamworld. Just as MSNBC and CNN reporters called Tea Party protesters "Teabaggers" - a reference to a homosexual sex act (think about it and you'll figure it out), and a word the protesters never used for themselves - Pelosi can't help but belittle middle America.

Remember, when the anointed are backed into a corner their only response is to lash out. Trust me, the left doesn't want to see this movement grow - they truly fear it. They can smell the brewing voter backlash in 2010. However, those who make such insulting statements are too stupid to realize that their words only anger Americans more, and thus swell the number of Tea Party participants.

"...it’s not really a grassroots movement."    - As much a bald-faced lie as wishful thinking. The left doesn't really understand grassroots movements, because most of their cause-oriented groups are derivatives of the left's power structure. People with big bucks at the top pulling the strings of sincere but misinformed people at the bottom.

Since this is how they work, they automatically assume that the Tea Party movement has the same structure. It doesn't. It's a true groundswell of anger by Americans who are fed up with the Washington Status Quo.

And this is what career politicians in Washington fear most: that they will lose their lifetime tenure, their spendthrift power base, and their grip on the mainstream media. The above sign offers the only real solution: term limits for Congress, both the Senate and the House.

However, reality tells us that will never happen, because term limits can only be imposed by a Constitutional Amendment, and Amendments are written by the Senate then passed onto the states for ratification. This government will never cut themselves off from their power.

Americans are finally seeing the light... are finally getting fed up.

This has only just begun.

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Red Skelton's America No Longer Exists

2009-04-13T22:24:00.005-05:00

"An Individual. A committee of 1."

The individual in America is no longer important. Our owns dreams and aspirations are subject to the approval of PC masses and the State.

"Dedicate all of my worldly good to give without self-pity."

Now it's not "what can I give," but "what can I get." Somehow we have bred the notion that we are all owed something... that we owe no one.

"Love and devotion."

The booty call has run this one into the ground. The sexualization of society has usurped even the concept of love for love's sake.

"Old Glory. A symbol of freedom. Wherever she waves there's respect. Because your loyalty has given her a dignity that shouts, 'Freedom is everybody's job'."

William Ayers proudly trampling out flag. Obama's "blame America first" agenda. Flag burnings by college students. Spit. Tearing. Our flag is no longer respected around the world because we no longer respect it here at home. Our loyalty has faded; her dignity is gone. She is no longer a symbol of freedom, but of "imperialism." Besides, freedom is overrated; socialism is much cooler.

"United. That mans we have all come together."

Martin Luther King Jr. wanted us all to hold hands. Now we point fingers at each other, race-bait, foment class warfare, drive wedges between genders, between ages, between customs, religions and values.

"...united for a common purpose, and that's love for country."

States have become entities of self-gratification, thumbing their noses at unity and common law.

"And government is the people, and it's from the people to the leaders, not from the leaders to the people."

Try telling that to a Pelosi, Reid, or Obama. Our leaders want to tell us which doctor we can see, how much money we can make in our job, where we can work, how long we can live, where we can go, what we can bring with us, what we can say, who we can associate with, whether or not we can own a firearm, a pet, property... shall I go on?

"Incapable of being divided."

Too late to lay the wreath at the grave of Indivisibility.

"The right and power to live one's own life without threats, fear, or some sort of retaliation."

How many locks do you have on your door? How many gunshots do you hear at night? Do you know anyone who has not been the victim of a crime? Anyone?

"The principles or quality of dealing fairly with others."

Justice is a hollow shell. Trial lawyers extort money from good people; victims fight for simple rights; who has your social security number?

"It's as much your country as it is mine."

Unless you're George Soros and can buy elections.....

"Under God. Wouldn't it be a pity if someone said that were a prayer and that would be eliminated from schools, too?"

Rest in peace, Red. You lived in better times. You didn't have to see the day your America became a mockery of all you hold dear.

Liberals have a lot to answer for.

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FAIL

2009-04-08T12:16:00.003-05:00

"Transparency" Meets Government... and Loses

2009-04-02T19:33:00.006-05:00

A brilliant must-see piece of interviewing by Fox Business Journalist Neil Cavuto. He basically takes apart bonehead Florida Democrat Congressman Alan Grayson, who is proposing legislation that allows the Obama Administration (through The Secretary of The Treasury) to mandate ALL pay levels of ALL employees who take government bailout money, not just the executives.

Is this just the beginning? Grayson's snobby attitude throughout the interview seems to suggest there's more in the works.

Grayson's naivete and ignorance of the Constitution is frightening enough in and of itself. When do we get to take our country back from these fools?

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Bowling With Obama

2009-03-21T14:00:00.003-05:00

Well, you've all heard of this by now, or seen it:

An apology was issued by the White House before the clip even hit the air. So now everything's supposed to be copacetic, right?

Wrong.

There is one fundamental thing you need to understand. People like Obama - egotistical, self-important snobs - routinely look down their noses at anyone who doesn't fit into their country club universe.

You can bet that Obama's "Special Olympics" "gaffe" has come out of his mouth many, many times in the company of like-minded individuals who agree with him (most likely on the lanes).

If you think this is the first time he's said this, you're very much mistaken - not to mention ignorant and immature. People, in times of stream-of-consciousness cognizance, will say what has been burned into their synapses by repetition.

Obama has done this many times before and been laughed with. Now he said it in front of the wrong group of people.

Don't think this is going to change the way he thinks, just the way he communicates. Look for the teleprompter on every subsequent visit to The Tonight Show.

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The Capital Deficit

2009-03-17T10:03:00.008-05:00

This today from The Washing Post:

Anger Over Firm Depletes Obama's Political Capital

...the bonus issue, in particular, is hounding Obama as he pursues his larger goals, in part because of the president's own repeated declarations of outrage -- offered again yesterday -- aimed especially at the firms that are feeding at the public trough.

In a nutshell, here's what's happening: AIG received about $165B in public bailout money. They were contractually obligated to pay bonuses to executives in divisions of the company that had turned a profit (not the failed divisions, as is being implied). This money amounts to around $150M. This contractual obligation originated before the bailout and could not be abrogated.

Do the math on this one, folks. What percent of $165B is $150M? How about less then 0.1%.

Two things:

1. It is being widely suppressed that the real culprit in this financial mess is the government itself, which forced banks to lend money for homes to people who could not repay those loans. Thus the defaults that started the economic avalanche. Frank, Dodd, Obama, et al want desperately for Americans to pin the blame on corporate greed. Thus this phony-baloney, trumped-up public display of righteous indignation over contracted bonuses. A wealth-envious public is only too willing to parrot these talking points.

2. By continuing to hector the private sector as the villains, this government is wasting what political leverage it has for future policy efforts on chasing rabbits; it's no different than Obama setting up Limbaugh as the straw man of the "evil right". It's sophomoric and it depletes the political bank.

Obama is treading on very dangerous ground, and the telling thing is: his arrogance blinds him from seeing it.

That is this: all Obama has is "political capital." He has no experience capital, no foreign policy capital, no economic capital. No capital in intelligence (eg, CIA, Homeland, etc.), military, administration, negotiation, policy development and implementation, legislation, commodities, energy,...

The list is endless.

Those who voted for him with the sole intent of "sending a message" to the GOP are now regretting their decision... his fringe supporters are starting to see inside the empty suit and are asking questions....

It's only a matter of time before his ardent base starts to question his "leadership." By then he will have no political capital left.

Nothing with which to stem the critical tide... then the meltdown will begin in earnest.

Dangerous days are ahead. A cornered dog is a vicious dog.

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Unsupervision

2009-03-07T23:00:00.003-06:00

Well, it took him more than a couple of weeks, but The Obama has finally stepped up to some sort of microphone - no doubt with the aide of a teleprompter - and has commented on the statement made by his Attorney General that when it comes to matters of race, American is a "nation of cowards."

At first The Obama's willingness to let Eric Holder's comment slide seemed appropriate. After all, he was perfectly willing to use the race card during the campaign - albeit through others - in deflecting criticism of his "policy" proposals. You know the drill: change the subject in order not to answer the question, and use race as a defense. It's the Liberals' favorite debate tactic.

"Well, you don't like Obama's ideas on economic policy because he's black."

So the only conclusion one can draw from The Obama's silence over Holder's blatantly racist and wrong statement is that he agreed with it. We are - in his opinion - truly a nation of cowards when it comes to race. Forget the fact that Americans elected a black to the highest office in the world. That's irrelevant.

We need to keep Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton in business, guys. Let's not lay down the mantra...

However, criticism of Holder's comment just keeps hanging on, and The Obama is forced to look it in the face.

“I think it’s fair to say that if I had been advising my attorney general, we would have used different language,” Mr. Obama said in a mild rebuke from America’s first black president to its first black attorney general.

Two things to take away from this comment.

1. The timing. How busy can Obama be that it would take him weeks to put out the brush fire that's been undercutting Holder's credibility? He waited too long. If he was truly on top of things - truly a manager - he would have put this thing to rest immediately. He didn't, so he either agreed with Holder, or he is a terrible manager. Either answer is very unsettling.

2. "..if I had been advising." Shouldn't he be advising Holder on a regular basis? Isn't that his job as leader of his administration; or is his administration careening willy-nilly down the hill with no one at the wheel?

In the less than two months The Obama has been in power we have not had a single scrap of evidence that his staff consists of anyone of quality who is capable of the job they are assigned, particularly POTUS himself. Until some semblance of professionalism creeps into this circus, the American people are left without any shred of hope on which to hang our future.

Just look at the stock market.....

-

And You Thought "I Won" Was Bad

2009-02-28T12:38:00.006-06:00

In the first two weeks of this running disaster known as The Obama Administration (excuse me while I rinse the bad taste from my mouth...), The One kept repeating to Republican leaders, "I won." It was his subtle, humble way of letting anyone who dared stand in the way of his socialist agenda know that he was President. He was going to get his way.

Pretty much the same thing you'd hear from second graders in the playground, but that point is beyond much of Obama's supporters, since they're still in the first grade.

I thought Obama had hit the pinnacle of arrogant self-aggrandizement when he said this, but I was wrong.

This past week Obama met with TV anchors at a White House lunch, and he actually had the temerity to say this:

...he likes being president. "And it turns out I'm very good at it," he added.

Been in office one month and already he's the expert. This despite the fact that he punted the entire Porkulous Bill to Pelosi and Reid - didn't write one sentence of the thing - has spent more than half the month away from the White House, which he called "confining", and has given more speeches than any other president in the same time period (30 days).

What he meant to say was, "I like campaigning, and it turns out I'm very good at it." Because that's precisely what he's been doing since he won the election: campaigning. He just can't stop, because it's all he knows how to do.

Leadership?

Never done it. Never even heard of it.

At least one of Obama's retinue has seen the light:

The Tea Party is just beginning, folks. Get on board!

-

Biden [bide'-n]: -noun: to make a gross or stupid mistake, esp. through carelessness or mental confusion.

2009-02-27T11:10:00.005-06:00

This video pretty much slam-dunks VP Biden's incredible factual error in his attempt to discredit Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal's Republican repsonse to Obama's Wednesday night speech. In doing so, Biden makes a fool of himself, and his attitude is supremely smug and condescending.

Watch the video.

This is your government, America. From a congress the smiles as it plunges our children into a national debt they will never be able to repay, to a president who is so over his head in the job as President that he spends most of his time making speeches rather than rolling up his sleeves, getting down to work, and LEADING.

Hey it worked in the campaign, didn't it? Obfuscate and misdirect... So, I guess as far as this administration is concerned, the campaign is not over. The speeches, the endless lies and distortions, the arrogance, the opacity of their policies and personal lives (as opposed to their continued promise of "transparency") will continue unchallenged by the MSM.

If Dan Quayle had said what Biden said, every news outfit in America would be screaming for his resignation. Biden? phuph.... everyone knows he is a buffoon, but he is a LIBERAL buffoon, so we can tolerate him.

How long will America tolerate this extraordinarily incompetent bunch of clowns?

-

PETA Parroted

2009-02-26T15:05:00.003-06:00

Who Is John Galt?

2009-02-23T13:40:00.000-06:00

Unlike any other period in its past, our nation stands in the middle of a profound crossroads. On the one hand we have a road that leads to the individual, whose freedom and determination are allowed to continue America's economic and social prosperity.

Thanks to decades of Public School and University indoctrination from the hard left, the other road - unthinkable only 50 years ago - is now open to us: the path to the collectivist state, where everyone works for the government, a government that decides which freedoms we keep and which we lose.

Judging from Obama's first 30 days in office, it's clear that He and his Democrat cohorts in Washington want to take us down the collectivist path. Yet, if we look closely at history in an undoctored and truthful way, we see that this road - the Socialist road - only leads to ruin. The litter of Eastern Europe, the mass graves of the USSR and China... these are warnings we should heed.

However, thanks to a carefully crafted re-write of the 20th century by eduction professional apologists of Socialist policy, our citizens are increasingly unaware of the perils of the Socialist Road. They see the free handout, not the chains that come with it.

The road of individual freedom is truly becoming the Road Less Traveled, and it is up to those who value it to come to its defense, however fraught with danger that defense may be. Cowardice is no longer an option.

It's time for someone to truly "stop the motor of the world," and shake the foundations of our current government. Who will that be?

Who is John Galt?

We need him now.

-

The Circus Is In Town

2009-02-04T12:34:00.012-06:00

This is the government we elected, people.

Reporterette: "...economic recovery package is going too fast, and maybe it won't be ready by the President's Day recess?"

Pelosi: "Every month that we do not have an economic recovery package 500 million Americans lose their jobs. I don't think we can go fast enough to stop that." [emphasis added]

HINT: What's the current population of the United States? For those of you educated in government schools, here's the answer.

This is the government we elected.

President Obama to Water Down 'Buy American' Plan After EU Trade War Threat

The European Union warned the US yesterday against plunging the world into depression by adopting a planned “Buy American” policy, intensifying fears of a trade war.

India warns Obama over Kashmir

India has warned US President Barack Obama that he risks “barking up the wrong tree” if he seeks to broker a settlement between Pakistan and India over the disputed territory of Kashmir.

The Impending Obama Meltdown

We are quite literally after two weeks teetering on an Obama implosion—and with no Dick Morris to bail him out—brought on by messianic delusions of grandeur, hubris, and a strange naivete that soaring rhetoric and a multiracial profile can add requisite cover to good old-fashioned Chicago politicking.

Daschle debacle humbles Obama

The new president, seen by some as arrogant, was anything but on Tuesday.

This is the government we elected.

One would like to say that this is entertaining. However, we elected these people to run our government, not make fools out of our Country. The inexperience and deceitfulness of Obama, the ill-conceived corruption of those he has chosen to work with (and his acceptance of that corruption), the stupidity of Pelosi, the hubris of the Congressional pork project disguised as an "economic stimulus package".... We have had ample evidence over the past two years that these people know nothing of leadership. Yet, we have elected them to be our leaders.

This is the government we elected... we have only ourselves to blame.

-

Obama's Little Blue Book

2009-01-26T09:53:00.002-06:00

How long before this will be required reading by all citizens of the new regime?

Obama's Little Blue Book.

Chairman Mao would be proud.....

-

McCain Just Won The General Election

2008-08-29T13:22:00.024-05:00

The Convention That Wasn't

Today is Friday, August 29, 2008. Yesterday, Thursday, August 28, 2008, Barack Obama gave his acceptance speech to the party faithful at the DNC Convention in Denver in front of over 85,000 cheering sycophants.

One day later, who remembers what he said?

Who cares?

In a brilliant move, Senator John McCain - presumptive Republican nominee for President - just erased four days from the Democrat Party calendar; four days that never happened. Not that there was anything exciting in those four days to begin with - just the usual Democrat hyperbole, weighed down by the massive egos of the Clintons ("the WHO?" I hear you say...). But, for all practical purposes, the party is over for the Dems, and the shouting is just beginning.

Consider:

The party of "change" (all lower case, mind you), picked as its VP choice one of Washington's most onerous insiders, Joe Biden. A charming man, but one who completely counters any claim to "change" that the Obama camp wants to assert. With Biden on the ticket, it's the same-old Washington Old Boy Network in full play.

McCain, on the other hand, picks a woman; not only a woman, but a smart, energetic, conservative woman from Alaska! In chosing Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, he shows just how hollow the Dems "change" mantra truly is, and just how willing he and the Republicans are to really making bold steps in a new direction.

Thus, the relegation of Obamamania - just ONE DAY after his big convention speech, mind you - to the back pages. In Washington and New York, McCain's timing could not have been more brilliant, because the weekend news shows are going to toss any coverage of Obama's speech for this truly exciting bit of political news.

Words that will echo in newsrooms through the weekend: "Obama who?"

Now in case you're thinking that Obama hit it out of the park last night and that McCain just stepped all over the Messiah's glory, think again. The general media consensus of last night's speech was a solid yawn.

From "Mile High Letdown" in Slate:

[Obama] [g]ave voters little sense that he understands and can master the pressures--bureaucratic imperatives, unions, civil service rules-- that have often caused previous idealistic liberal presidents to fall short while sucking up taxpayer dollars.

From "Obama Gets Serious" in the Wall Street Journal:

But I have a feeling this speech will be like the Europe trip. It will take time for people to let it sink in, and decide what they think. And I'll tell you, Mr. Obama left a lot of space for Mr. McCain to play the happy warrior next week. He left the Republicans a big opportunity to wield against him, in contrast, humor, and wit, and even something approximating joy.

From "Where was substance in Obama's acceptance?" in the Daily News:

Yet it is less clear that Obama overcame the doubts about him the Clintons defined and Republicans are exploiting. Questions about his youth and inexperience linger, as do concerns about Democrats holding the White House and both houses of Congress.

Those doubts will remain as long as Obama refuses to clarify himself and his position on not only the issues, but on the squeamishness most people have that he just doesn't understand governance.

Witness: from "A Shooting Liberal Star" in the Wall Street Journal:

We have our doubts [about Obama's honesty in his political pronouncements], and Mr. Obama may have doubts himself -- which probably explains the audacity of his rhetorical, postpartisan disguise. We've been disappointed by shooting stars before.

From "And Where Are The Witnesses To His Ability?" in Investor's Business Daily:

The air of unease at the Democratic Convention this week was not just a result of the Clinton psychodrama. The deeper anxiety was that the party was nominating a man of many gifts but precious few accomplishments — bearing even fewer witnesses.

Back in April I stated that Obama just lost the general elcetion because of his blatant disdain for middle-class American values and - it turns out now - his intimate ties to ultra-left (read: Maoist), anarchistic Chicago politics and all those who embrace those ideals (Rev. Wright, William Ayers). As most are beginning to become painfully aware, he can do nothing at this point to render himself in the least mainstream, and the most an agent of true, positive change.

With today's bold move, McCain shows he is not only up to the challenge of redefining his leadership in a positive direction, he is ready to lead this country though an uncertain present into a dynamic and exciting future.

To say the race just got interesting is a statement in hindsight.

The race is now over.

-

Something Obama and The Media Don't Want You To Know

2008-08-28T12:56:00.009-05:00

The Obama camp is spending a lot of time and money defending itself against its candidates own past. It seems that Obama was in deep with Weather Underground founder and self-avowed terrorist William Ayers. It was Ayers who helped launch Obama's public service life, and The Big O worked hand-in-glove with Ayers on a number of projects that promoted extreme-left, communist (Maoist) progaganda throughout the Chicago public system, including the schools.

Writer Stanley Kurtz got wind of this, and discovered through channels that the University of Illinois - Ayers present employer - houses 70 linear feet of documents clearly tying Obama to Ayers, Kurtz requested to see these documents. It took Kurtz some work to get his hands on these files, but when he did the connection between Obama and Ayers - and thus their shared political beliefs - was clear.

Kurtz went on Chicago's WGN to discuss what he found. The Obama camp closed ranks and gave marching orders to their stooges to disrupt the program. A copy of the Obama email to the supporters can be found here, details of their attempts can be found here, the National Review's response can be found here.

All of these articles are worth reading; please spend a little time and familiarize yourself with this issue; it shows a Barack Obama that the Democrats, his campaign, and the mainstream media desperately don't want you to see.

The American Issues Project produced a television spot outlining both Ayers' terrorist career and Obama's ties to Ayers. The Obama camp has insisted that the stations that are airing this spot take it down immediately, and that the Justice Department investigate the spot and the stations that run it!

Here's the spot:

Obama wants us to believe he is the candidate of "Change." Yet, following the oppressive tactics of failed leftist revolutionary governments to silence those with the truth is not change. It's regression.

-

Is America's Long Nightmare Finally Over?

2008-05-07T23:37:00.003-05:00

One would think that the Clintons would finally see the light and stop throwing their money on a failed campaign. (I was tempted to say "their money AND their credibility," but, as we all know, the Clintons are allergic to credibility.)

But, Hillary obviously has something up her sleeve; something to spring at the convention. She's holding out... but for what? Some pundits have wondered whether this is a Veep grab. I don't think so - Hillary may have been willing to play second fiddle to her boob of a husband, but she's not going to go through that again to a boob of an Obama.

Some have said we are finally seeing the end of the Clinton dynasty - that our repudiation of Hillary is actually a long-overdue repudiation of The Bill. Maybe so, but that's not likely to drive the Clintons from the American Political Stage anytime soon. Worse than a Poltergeist, the Clintons keep coming back to haunt us.

As long as they draw breath, and until 1. the voters of New York give Hillary the boot from her Senate Seat and 2. the Democratic Party finally wakes up and cuts them loose, the Clintons will continue to haunt the backwaters of our political system.

Pantsuit or no pantsuit, it's all about Them.

-

Foot-Shooting 101

2008-04-11T18:10:00.008-05:00

Obama Just Lost The General Election

This from today's Ben Smith POLITICO Column, quoting Obama at an April 6, 2008 San Fransisco fundraiser:

You go into these small towns in Pennsylvania and, like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing's replaced them. And they fell through the Clinton administration, and the Bush administration, and each successive administration has said that somehow these communities are gonna regenerate and they have not.

And it's not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy toward people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.

Two things to keep in mind here:

Obama isn't saying how he will fix the problem of job-loss in mid-America. That's because he can't; only the states can (look at Indiana under Mitch Daniels to see how it's really done).

He has just alienated all of small-town America, and those are exactly the people a candidate needs in order to win an election. You can't slam the heart of the country with small-minded rhetoric and expect to get away with it. These thoughts might play well in the Hamptons, but out in West Chazy they will kill you.

John McCain is going to eat this guy alive.

The Lies Keep Coming

And they're THIS BIG!

In attempting to spin his wife's "Bosnian Sniper Fire" debacle into something palatable, Bill Clinton, speaking in Indiana yesterday, has firmly stepped in it.

Again.

How's this for a whopper:

"A lot of the way this whole campaign has been covered has amused me," Bill Clinton said in Boonville, Ind. "But there was a lot of fulminating because Hillary, one time late at night when she was exhausted, misstated and immediately apologized for it, what happened to her in Bosnia in 1995.

"Did y'all see all that? Oh, they blew it up," the former president continued. "Let me just tell you. The president of Bosnia and Gen. Wesley Clark - who was there making peace where we'd lost three peacekeepers who had to ride on a dangerous mountain road because it was too dangerous to go the regular, safe way - both defended her because they pointed out that when her plane landed in Bosnia, she had to go up to the bulletproof part of the plane, in the front. Everybody else had to put their flak jackets underneath the seat in case they got shot at. And everywhere they went they were covered by Apache helicopters. So they just abbreviated the arrival ceremony.

"Now I say that because what really has mattered is that even then she was interested in our troops," he said. "And I think she was the first first lady since Eleanor Roosevelt to go into a combat zone. And you would of thought, you know, that she'd robbed a bank the way they all carried on about this. And some of them when they're 60 they'll forget something when they're tired at 11 o'clock at night, too."

The MyWay piece firmly rebuts a whole slew of lies contained therein:

His wife didn't make the sniper fire claim "one time late at night when she was exhausted." She actually told the story several times, including during prepared remarks on foreign policy delivered the morning of March 17.

It's also not true that she "immediately apologized for it." Clinton has never apologized for the comments and only acknowledged that she "misspoke" a week after the March 17 speech when video of her peaceful tarmac reception emerged.

It's also not true that she was the "first first lady since Eleanor Roosevelt to go into a combat zone" - a claim that Hillary Clinton has also made when talking about the trip. Pat Nixon traveled to Saigon during the Vietnam war and Barbara Bush went to Saudi Arabia two months before the launching of Desert Storm.

The trip also was not in 1995, but 1996.

Hillary has told Bill to shut up.

Again.

Have you had enough, America? Do you really want these two lying, corrupt, impeached, perjuring, indicted scoundrels back in power?

-

The Biggest Lie Of All

2008-04-01T13:43:00.005-05:00

I was going to write an essay about how the Deomcratic party is being destroyed by the Clinton's maniacal thirst for power, and how they will attempt to wrest the presidential nomination away from Obama at the convention, regardless of the will of the national voters.

But, something much juicier has come to my attention and I want to make sure it gets the widest distribution.

Watergate-Era Judiciary Chief of Staff: Hillary Clinton Fired For Lies, Unethical Behavior

That's the title of a March 31, 2008 Dan Calabrese piece at the North Star Writer's Group.

The essential facts from the article are these:

Hillary Rodham was a staffer on the Watergate Committee to impeach President Nixon. Certain questions came up in the committee regarding whether witnesses brought before the committee had right to counsel. High-ranking committee members and party leaders said, "Yes."

There was precedent, which in law is everything.

Hillary asked where she could find the documents establishing precedent. She found them and stole them, then proceeded to write a brief to the committee stating that witnesses did not have right to counsel, as there was no precedent.

Nixon resigned before this could bow up in Hillary's face, but she was fired anyway.

Read the article. It gives all the details.

The question is this: Will the mainstream media pick this story up?

You can bet your life that John McCain has, and if Hillary succeeds in stealing Obama's nomination at the convention, he's going to fly this one from the highest flag pole.

-

The Real Hillary

2008-03-25T13:03:00.009-05:00

As most of us who have kept a close eye on the Clintons throughout the years expected, Hillary has spent a great deal of time, energy, and money over the past three years trying to re-cast herself as a middle-of-the-road, working politician; someone who embraces the truth, who is ready for the job, who - overall - can be Trusted.

We've known for years that she is a pathological liar. Dick Morris list some of her many fabrications here. Yet, some still cling to the notion that these facts are nothing more than the inventions of her - created-from-whole-cloth - "vast right-wing conspiracy."

Yet, to the Clintons' dismay, our new political era has something that the early 90s did not: the internet. A device that caught Dan Rather in a career-ending lie; a device that continues to put any spin Hillary and her sycophants attempt to foist into the iron brakes of reality.

Consider the following. Hillary recently spoke of her trip to Bosnia in the late 1990s, and how that trip is yet "another" proof of her readiness to lead. CBS News, apparently tired of carrying Clinton water, blew the lid off her lies about this trip in this video:

Watch it again. Do you see the bullets that Hillary says she was dodging? Do you catch her running from the plane to the safety of the vehicles? And how about that laughable "explanation" from one of her staffers?

This is the real Hillary Clinton; the one we have known about for years; the one trying to hide behind a transparent veneer of new-found respectability.

The more she attempts to cover herself in this veneer, the more of the real Hillary we see.

-

Who's Going To Tell Al?

2008-02-27T09:45:00.006-06:00

Temperature Monitors Report Widescale Global Cooling

That's the headline today at DailyTech.com.

This past year we've seen an explosion in what the author call's "anecdotal evidence" of mass global cooling. This list includes, but is not limited to, China seeing it coldest winter in 100 years, Baghdad having its first snow in all recorded history, North America having the most snowcover in 50 years (along with Serbia), places like Wisconsin the highest snow since record-keeping began, record levels of Antarctic sea ice, record cold in Minnesota, Texas, Florida, Mexico, Australia, Iran, Greece, South Africa, Greenland, Argentina, Chile....

Now the hard evidence is in. Four temperature gathering agencies all track the cooling. The hard science is irrefutable.

However, the most interesting nugget from the DailyTech.com article is this:

Cold is more damaging than heat. The mean temperature of the planet is about 54 degrees. Humans -- and most of the crops and animals we depend on -- prefer a temperature closer to 70.

Historically, the warm periods such as the Medieval Climate Optimum were beneficial for civilization. Corresponding cooling events such as the Little Ice Age, though, were uniformly bad news.

Now, isn't that interesting? And the global warming fascists have been telling us for years that heat is the real killer. Now it turns out it isn't. Cold is!

Does this mean Al Gore is going to have to hand back his Nobel Prize and his Oscar?

-

Crocodile Tears

2008-01-28T14:59:00.000-06:00

After she lost the Iowa Caucuses, Hillary Clinton slouched into New Hampshire and cried - right there in front of America and everyone, she let a few choice tears slip when explaining how she does everything for her "love for America."

While the rest of the country was moaning, "Puleeeze....", New Hampshirites took the bait and gave her a victory.

Well, it seems Hillary is taking her New Hampshire strategy to heart. This photo was posted on the internet one day after she got her butt kicked in South Carolina.

Hillary is wasting no time playing the Tear Card. She's hoping that this act can carry her through Super Tuesday with enough delegates to put Obama back on his heels.

It's an act that has worn thin, though, mostly because we don't believe she is in the least sincere. If she thinks her veil of false tears can sway the rest of America, she's mistaken.

"Live Free Or Cry" indeed.

-

Compact Fluorescent Warning

2008-01-07T12:22:00.000-06:00

Back on March 22, 2007 I posted an essay about those "safe" compact fluorescent bulbs that everyone - including the US Federal Government - is shoving down our throats as a way of offsetting man's "disastrous impact on the environment." In that essay I showed that these new bulbs really aren't any more energy efficient, nor are they safer, than incandescent bulbs. Quite the opposite is true.

Now, confirmation from the British Government in the form of a warning regarding the breakage of compact fluorescent bulbs:

This is not an internet hoax. It's from an article entitled An energy saving bulb has gone - evacuate the room now!, in the 6th January 2008 issue of the UK's Daily Mail.

The Department for Environment warned shards of glass from broken bulbs should not be vacuumed up but instead swept away by someone wearing rubber gloves to protect them from the bulb's mercury content.

In addition, it said care should be taken not to inhale any dust and the broken pieces should be put in a sealed plastic bag for disposal at a council dump – not a normal household bin.

Who's at risk? Everyone, it seems.

Energy-saving light bulbs are so dangerous that everyone must leave the room for at least 15 minutes if one falls to the floor and breaks, a Government department warned yesterday.

The startling alert came as health experts also warned that toxic mercury inside the bulbs can aggravate a range of problems including migraines and dizziness.

And a leading dermatologist said tens of thousands of people with skin complaints will find it hard to tolerate being near the bulbs as they cause conditions such as eczema to flare up.

And if the government warning wasn't frightening enough, the fact that, "None of this advice, however, is printed on the packaging the new-style bulbs are sold in," should be even greater cause for alarm!

Compact Fluorescents. Use at your own risk.

Or, if the US government has it's way, use despite your own risk.

-

Jon Elliot Update

2007-10-19T08:42:00.001-05:00

A First For The Left

Jon Elliot, radio host for Air America, got caught with his pants firmly around his ankles on Tuesday when he accused right-wingers of the non-existent attack on his fellow AAR host, Randi Rhodes (see yesterday's blog). He said, "Is this an attempt by the right wing hate machine to silence one of our own? Are we threatening them? Are they afraid that we're winning? Are they trying to silence intimidate us [sic]?"

Well, as we now know, Randi fell on her face while walking her dog. No attack.

So, Jon released the following apology:

"I shouldn't have speculated based on hearsay that Randi Rhodes had been mugged and that it may have been an attack from a right wing hate machine. I apologize for jumping to conclusions based on an emotional reaction"

Well said, and we must applaud Jon for his willingness to admit his mistake and apologize. That takes guts, not just only on the left, but on the right, too.

Talk show host apologizes for faulty report of NYC mugging

But, unlike the call from race pimps for the firing of Imus after his "nappy-headed hos" remark, don't expect calls for Elliot's ouster from AA to be heeded, or even publicly acknowledged.

Let's see what those on Randi's blog have to say about this. First, the die-hards:

"It is SOOO tempting, out of sheer frustration but also relief at Randi's relative well-being at this point, in the face of so much conflicting information, to draw conclusions and fall into the trap the right-wing satanics always have laid for us."
        -scottymac54

"However, I believe he [Elliot] did say that she was attacked. I have no problem with those that believed that report and then posed theories about the possible motivation/perpetrator(s). He is a host of a show that seemed to have knowledge about something that happened. Why should we think he was lying about it? When new information came out, we adjusted. That all seems appropriate to me. You take the evidence you have and use your best judgment as to it's credibility.

Also bear in mind that we still don't know for sure that she wasn't attacked or by whom. The way this whole thing was handled and the various statements just don't pass the smell test. Something is just off."
        -bisonlawyer@yahoo.com

"THIS IS JUST SO DAMNED TYPICAL OF THE NEOCON RIGHT AND THE NEW YORK POST! OF COURSE THEY BLAME RANDI'S ACCIDENT ON ALCOHOL!! THAT'S BECAUSE THEIR PRESIDENT IS A DRUNK, DRUG ADDICT PRICK WHO DOES NOTHING BUT START WARS AND MURDER INNOCENT PEOPLE! IT DIDN'T TAKE LONG FOR THEM TO ATTACK HER, DID IT!!?" [this in response to the "report" that Randi had 14 bloody marys before falling.]
        -laura

OK, enough of the hate-mongers. There are actually some on Randi's blog who get the bigger picture:

"THIS NEVER SHOULD HAVE HAPPENED. If AAR had a frickin clue, this whole incident would have died a natural quick death.
Shame on you AAR!"
-RAD4155

"and, again, i'm not trying to offend or attack anyone. i just think it is important, to take a deep breath, take a few steps back and examine our own actions in this, and to admit that there were some reckless errors made in jumping to conclusions, and (more importantly) understand how/why those mistakes were made --- without trying to make justifications for our mistakes. and really, everywhere you went and posted things that are untrue, you should go back there with sincere apologies."
-brooklynHero

Thanks RAD4155 and brooklynHero.

If the left had more people like you, there just might be hope of reaching some sort of middle-ground. Over a good stout, of course (I'll buy)!

-

The Meltdown of Air America

2007-10-17T11:02:00.000-05:00

The Left-Wing Hate Machine on Espresso

It all started innocently enough. An item in a blog about talk radio: Randi Rhodes is the Victim of a Violent Attack. The story? "Randi Rhodes was mugged on Sunday night on 39th Street and Park Ave, nearby her Manhattan apartment, while she was walking her dog Simon."

A sad story, but, hey - it's New York. Hundreds of people get mugged there every day.

But, if you follow the left in America, you knew that this was going to be the start of something very special. Fellow Air America pol Jon Elliot, on his Tuesday show, lit the match:

"Is this an attempt by the right wing hate machine to silence one of our own? Are we threatening them? Are they afraid that we're winning? Are they trying to silence intimidate us [sic]?"

And the left-wing blogosphere threw on the gasoline.

First, these posts from Randi's program blog:

"What in god's name is this world coming to? If anyone thinks this was anything other than trying to SHUT HER UP then they are stupid. If it wasn't a basball [sic] bat then someone please tell me what it was that knocked out so many of her teeth."
        -fancypantselitist13

"Who would do this to her? Coulter?"
        -gabriel8888

"I don't think this was coulter [sic]. This was some crazed right winger though..."
        -fancypantselitist13

"It could be any one. Let's see, just this past week, Randi has unblinkingly applied pressure to Limbaugh, Coulter, Ghouliani, Blackwater - all thugs, mobsters, or whatever - hell, they're not kosher with the justice system."
        -egghead

"This is more than horrible. And I agree with the original poster, the message is clearly one of intimidation. Why else the concentration on her "mouth" area? These guys are thugs. No doubt. They use intimidation and even resort to beating up a woman. Guess they know they can't win on ethics, ideas or solid rational arguments so they stoop to this sort of thing."
        -gramsci

You can read all the nonsensical stuff on Randi's Blog.

Other bloggers picked up on the "news" right away. These, from "Think Progress," a site that calls itself "progressive" (code word for liberal):

"How much you wanna bet it was an O’Reilly listener(or a deranged idiot-there’s really not much difference..)"
        -whiteyfresh

"I really fear what is going to happen to our country when the Republicans are finally put in their place. I fear we are going to see a lot of violent incidents because these people are going to be looking for a way to vent their frustrations and with encouragement by the likes of Billo, Hannity and Malkin, it could get ugly."
        -bilbobaggins

"Rhodes was probably beaten up by some nutball in the Mallkin [sic] Mongoloid Mafia… thats the type of viscous [sic] rabid people they are.. Malkin herself has probably violated some RICO statutes with her campaign of stalking and intimidation…"
        -Chocolate Jesus

Read more of these precious rantings here.

Once more, from the Democrat Underground blog:

"it could, literally, end in an ideology war between conservatives and liberals, that will rip this country apart."
-ldf

More here.

Now, the problem with all this Randi Rhodes mugging thing is IT NEVER HAPPENED!

Air America host Randi Rhodes wasn't mugged.

"A police source said Rhodes never filed a report and never claimed to be the victim of a mugging.

"Rhodes' lawyer Robert Gaulin told the Daily News she was injured in a fall while walking her dog, but she wasn't sure exactly what happened."

So, what's really going on here?

Evidently, nothing. Except the fact that Jon Elliot and thousands of hate-spewing left-wing kooks got their panties all in a wad and started making yet another "Right-Wing Conspiracy" theory out of whole cloth. Sound familiar? It should.

Now, the interesting this is, if you go back and read these threads through, you will see that they either 1. do NOT acknowledge their error and apologize to those they have falsely accused, or 2. they continue with their conspiracy theories, regardless of reality.

A good assessment of the whole situation can be read here: Mugged by Unreality.

This should be a salient reminder of who the REAL haters in this country are: the left. I've mentioned this fact before on this blog, and these people continue to prove me correct every time they open their mouths.

This is an importent lesson - think the Main Stream Press will pick up this story?

Nah.

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How To Deal With Idiots

2007-10-14T22:08:00.001-05:00

Well, by now you've heard about the controversy surrounding Rush Limbaugh over the alleged phrase "phony soldier." Liberals and their cohorts in the mainstream media want you to believe Rush said this in reference to ANY soldier who criticizes the war in Iraq.

That is a lie.

Rush was referring to a few people who NEVER went to Iraq, but who claim they DID, and who were "witness" to atrocities committed by U.S. troops against the Iraqi people; atrocities that NEVER HAPPENED.

Despite the fact that these phony soldiers have been outed by the press, and that Harry Reid and his Democrat Senator colleagues KNEW FULL WELL Rush was referring to the real phonies, NOT to legitimate soldiers who express their opinion about the war, Reid tried to push through a resolution in the SENATE condemning Limbaugh.

That failed. Reid's second-best effort resulted in a letter to Clear Channel, Rush's syndicator, demanding an apology by Rush. Clear Channel refused, and the CEO turned the letter over to Limbaugh.

In an absolutely BRILLIANT move, here's what Limbaugh is going to do with the letter:

You can bid on it here:

http://members.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewUserPage&userid=rush-letter-for-charity

Proceeds are going to the Marine Corps Law Enforcement Foundation.

Dittos, indeed!

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If It Walks Like A Duck,....

2007-09-21T13:25:00.000-05:00

This story bothers me. For a whole bunch of reasons, but mostly because it's All About Race.

It bothers me because some white kids at a public school has the stupidity to hang nooses from a tree because black students were sitting under the tree. That was All About Race.

It bothers me because six black kids beat the crap out of a white kid over these nooses. That was All About Race.

Those six kids were rightly arrested and prosecuted for assault. And, because they are black kids, the Race Pimps Jackson and Sharpton stepped up, fomented a rally, and declared that the Jena 6, as the assaulters are being called, are improperly being prosecuted because they are black. That was All About Race.

Some are saying that the kids who hung the nooses should have been arrested, too. And since they weren't arrested, the Jena 6 should not have been arrested.

So, let me get this straight. Because the six black guys were provoked into assaulting a lone white guy by some other white guys hanging nooses from a tree, we should excuse the assault as a non-crime? In other words, some jerk puts a sign in front of his house saying "Death To NASCAR Fans," six irate NASCAR fans beat the crap out of some innocent bystander, those six should not be charged with assault because the sign provoked them into committing the crime, therefore it is not a crime?

The logic here is non-existent; it's grade-school, feel-good liberalism at its worst.

But that's not the point.

Assaulting someone is a crime. Period. And it's inexcusable to attempt to justify that crime by some previous offense, regardless of how blatant and racist that offense.

Offending people is not a crime. To insist that it is - especially in this day and age - is All About Race.

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Beam Me Up.... PLEASE!

2007-08-22T11:33:00.000-05:00

The newest craze in fashionable high-tech is not the iPhone. It's that stupid-looking little bluetooth gadget you stick in your ear so you can do "hand's-free" cell phoning.

The gadget itself is a pretty clever idea. The problem I have, being an old fart who remembers when stuff like this was the fodder of campy sci-fi, is the people who use them never take them out of their head; even when they're not on the phone. It's become akin to jewelry - an earring for the un-pierced.

I've been calling these folks - both behind their backs and to their faces - Bionic Men (and Women). You're in a coffee shop and some guy is chatting away with an apparent apparition (until you see the little gee-gaw sticking out of the side of his face). He "hangs up" (definitely an outdated colloquialism if there ever was one), and he leaves the thing in; like it's stuck there with some epoxy made up of one part chutzpah, one part laziness.

No matter how cool you think you look, this thing instantly dashes any inkling of hipness straight out the window.

Remember the story of the woman who spent 6 years on her couch, and eventually her skin grafted to the couch? She died when the medical folks tried to separate her and her furniture. This is certainly the fate of our android friends.

I've stopped calling these folks Bionic Men (Women). Just like our cell phones bear a remarkable resemblance to Star Trek's Communicator, these little ear buds look too similar to Uhura's communication ear piece for me to pass up.

So, in future, everyone sporting a bluetooth headset will be called "Uhura."

Join me in the fun.

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The Apple Doesn't Fall Far From The Tree

2007-08-03T10:58:00.000-05:00

I was reading the 40th Anniversary edition of Rolling Stone magazine today, and this image caught my eye:

It's from a December, 1967 protest in New York City of the Vietnam war.

Flash forward to the Iraq war protests, sometime between 2004 and present day:

Two things jump out at you.

1. The Left in America has nothing new to say, and

2. This protest movement is obviously being run by the same people who ran the Vietnam protest. Right down to equating the two wars (which is absurd on its face and really doesn't justify a response), the hard Left wraps itself in the humanistic mantle of pseudo-patriotism: pretending to care about the people in uniform, rather than caring for the mission of those people in uniform.

What they fail to understand is that their denigration of the mission ALSO denigrates the people, since this military is all-volunteer, and they see their worth as tied intimately to their work. It's a far cry from the drafted men who died in a war they did not support in Vietnam - our current troops believe in what they are doing.

And this is why the Left will ultimately lose: they are caught in a time bubble of their own devising, seeing this conflict - a just war against Islamic Fascism - in the same light as a war in southeast Asia they deemed unjust.

If it weren't for the 1967 photo, I would say it's the Oprah-ization of anti-war.

Clearly the anti-war movement is more about our values and culture than it is about our conflict with Islamic Fascism.

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Job One

2007-06-01T15:57:00.001-05:00

I would say the first job Hillary needs to work on is spelling. If she can't get that right, how can we trust her with anything else?

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Good Riddance, Indeed

2007-05-31T10:10:00.000-05:00

Good Riddance Attention Whore

This is the title of Mama Sheehan's "resignation Letter," posted on the DailyKos on May 28, 2007. You can read the whole, pathetic thing here, if you have the stomach for it.

I want to touch on a couple salient points.

The first conclusion is that I was the darling of the so-called left as long as I limited my protests to George Bush and the Republican Party. Of course, I was slandered and libeled by the right as a "tool" of the Democratic Party. This label was to marginalize me and my message. How could a woman have an original thought, or be working outside of our "two-party" system?

Cindy accidentally hits the nail on the head here. The Left in America saw here as a propaganda piece they could use against Bush. Cindy, who was certainly dealing with genuine grief over the loss of her son, was not smart enough to pick up on this. She was being used, but as long as she could continue on her "crusade," she ignored the manipulation and plummeted boldly forward.

Once she turned her venom on the Left, particularly after they didn't fall into lockstep with the anti-war movement upon their ascendancy to power in Congress, she was no doubt told in no uncertain terms that she had crossed the line; she was biting the hand that had fed her. Her naivety didn't allow her to see that hand until she felt the slap that invariably followed.

People of the world look on us Americans as jokes because we allow our political leaders so much murderous latitude and if we don’t find alternatives to this corrupt "two" party system our Representative Republic will die and be replaced with what we are rapidly descending into with nary a check or balance: a fascist corporate wasteland.

Now, isn't this an interesting statement, particularly in light of Cindy's support of true fascists like Hugo Chavez?

The key phrase here is "corporate fascist." Make no mistake, Cindy does not like America (more on that in a minute), and she sees our capitalist system as immoral. Thus the coupling of "corporate" and "fascist."

It also belies her ignorance of true fascism. Cindy is merely vilified by those Americans who disagree with her. In a truly fascist country, she would be dead. One look at her buddy Chavez's takeover of the Venezuelan broadcasting industry is evidence enough of the behavior of a true fascist regime.

The most devastating conclusion that I reached this morning, however, was that Casey did indeed die for nothing. His precious lifeblood drained out in a country far away from his family who loves him, killed by his own country which is beholden to and run by a war machine that even controls what we think.

Casey did not die for nothing - he, more than anyone, understood his sacrifice, and the freedoms the Iraqi people are now experiencing are worth the price he paid. A few blogs back I compared Cindy's "grief" to the appreciation of an Iraqi woman, her finger purple from her first experience voting in free elections. That's what the sacrifice was for, and recent comments from Casey's troop mates make it clear he understood this.

I have also tried to work within a peace movement that often puts personal egos above peace and human life.

I wonder if her experience with Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton taught her this? Two more self-aggrandizing people cannot be found on the face of the planet.

This is my resignation letter as the "face" of the American anti-war movement.

[snip]

Good-bye America ...you are not the country that I love and I finally realized no matter how much I sacrifice, I can’t make you be that country unless you want it.

It’s up to you now.

Now we reach the core issue - Cindy does not love America. Of course, her admission trails our own realization of this truth.

Cindy wants us to believe that she is not an "attention whore." One would be hard pressed to buy this in light of the facts.

A good treatment of Cindy's departure can be found here and here. Keep in mind when you read these that they are both written by people who agree with Cindy's anti-war position. They just don't like her whiny "me-at-all-costs" tactics.

My personal feeling is that Cindy was forced out by her handlers - by those very same people whose hand she bit after November, 2006. Cindy will never admit this (she may not realize it), and her letter is more a propaganda piece to keep alive her image as the grieving mom, but it's clear that she is no longer useful as an encumbrance to Bush to anyone on the left.

And this should be the lesson to anyone who wishes to align themselves with Liberals on purely ideological grounds: in the end, it's not really about ideology, it's about power. When your ideology gets in the way of the Left's unquenchable thirst for power, you are worse than expendable.

You're an "Attention Whore."

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The Ethanol Myth

2007-05-23T08:41:00.000-05:00

In an excellent article in Real Clear Politics by ABC Correspondent John Stossel, the myth that ethanol is the answer to all of our problems associated with fossil fuels - pollution, dependence on foreign oil, cost - are all false.

Rather than quote out the article, you should read the whole thing. It's short and sweet:

The Many Myths of Ethanol

Two things strike me:

1. Why are politicians so eager to IGNORE the facts Stossel proclaims? Are these facts hard to find? Obviously not. So, the motive must not be ignorance. What, then, is it?

2. How did the myths gain a foothold in our modern political debate? Could it be that the fraudulence of the Gore Warming Mythology is too obvious for most public-school-educated people to grasp? Or is this a concerted effort by the Global Warming Fascists to obfuscate their real intentions: the decline of western dominance in world leadership?

The answers are not as complicated as one would think. One only has to look past the transparent rhetoric to see the truth.

Stossel's article is a good start in that direction.

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The "Religion of Peace" Strikes Again

2007-05-04T12:39:00.000-05:00

This, from today's Daily Mail:

A 17-year-old girl has been stoned to death in Iraq because she loved a teenage boy of the wrong religion.

[snip]

Reports from Iraq said a local security force witnessed the incident, but did nothing to try to stop it. Now her boyfriend is in hiding in fear for his life.

Miss Aswad, a member of a minority Kurdish religious group called Yezidi, was condemned to death as an "honour killing" by other men in her family and hardline religious leaders because of her relationship with the Sunni Muslim boy.

The moment a teenage girl was stoned to death for loving the wrong boy

Apparently, the girl did not return home after a date. That's enough to warrant death under Islamic Sharia Law. So, she was stoned - it took a half hour for her to die as she was bludgeoned by members of her "family." The longest and most horrific thirty minutes of her short life.

Is this really a "Religion of Peace"?

Islam?

Now, CAIR, the American propaganda arm of Hesballah, wants you to think that all negative stories about Islam are part of a concerted effort to demonize their faith. Yet, stories like this one keep coming out, shattering the lie that Islam is anything BUT an intolerant, violent cult that would rather see ANYONE who disagrees with it, or violates its strict (and, quite frankly, draconian) laws, punished in the most hideous and painful ways possible.

Imagine this girls last 30 minutes of life - imagine being her screaming out for mercy while everyone, including the local security forces, watched and did nothing.

Islam wants nothing less than to put the entire world under Sharia Law. As the Muslim population in Europe grows, they are beginning to assert themselves with more vigor. Riots in Muslim neighborhoods are becoming commonplace. Honor killings are on the rise, and European officials are reluctant to step in and stop them because of the fear of being seen as "intolerant" to religion.

We have to decide NOW how we will deal with Islam. Is it intolerant to stand up against this mindless violence? If so, then we must be highly intolerant, and not be afraid of empty reprisals from propaganda groups like CAIR.

Islam is the biggest threat the free world will ever face.

Bigger than Communism, bigger than Liberalism, bigger than Fascism. If we don't come to grips with this fact NOW, then next 100 years will be the bloodiest in the history of the planet, and the very freedoms we cherish will be lost to a seventh-century religion that would rather throw stones than sow peace.

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It's The Constitution, Stupid

2007-04-05T20:32:00.001-05:00

Well, the Speakerette of the U.S. House of Representatives - or Queen Nancy, as she likes to be called - really stepped in it this time. Prior to her current trip to the Middle East she had only fallen on her face (demanding a large jet for her shuttles home), stuck her finger in an outlet (exempting her district from the minimum wage hike to please a large district donor, Starkist Tuna), and fell flat on her fat tushy (imposing a date for withdrawal of troops from Iraq in a bill laden with pork spending). These can easily be brushed off as gaffes of freshman incompetence.

But, when you've stepped in it, the stink rises in great wafts and surrounds you for eons of time and space.

Her stink was so overpowering, even liberal rags like the Washington Post noticed. In an editorial dated April 5, 2007, they bemoaned her foolish shuttle diplomacy (Pratfall in Damascus).

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) offered an excellent demonstration yesterday of why members of Congress should not attempt to supplant the secretary of state when traveling abroad. After a meeting with Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad in Damascus, Ms. Pelosi announced that she had delivered a message from Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert that "Israel was ready to engage in peace talks" with Syria.

[snip]

Only one problem: The Israeli prime minister entrusted Ms. Pelosi with no such message.

Now, tell me. How stupid do you have to be to believe that Mr. Assad, "a corrupt thug," was engaging in nothing more than "mere propaganda" in stating that he was "'ready to resume the peace process'?" (All quotes are the Post's, a notoriously liberal paper.)

Well, evidently you have to be as stupid as Queen Nancy!

She clearly misunderstood what Olmert said to her (PMO denies peace message to Assad). In his statement, the Israeli Prime Minister firmly denounced Pelosi's gaffe:

Olmert, the statement clarified, told Pelosi that Syria's sincerity about a genuine peace with Israel would be judged by its willingness to "cease its support of terror, cease its sponsoring of the Hamas and Islamic Jihad organizations, refrain from providing weapons to Hizbullah and bringing about the destabilizing of Lebanon, cease its support of terror in Iraq, and relinquish the strategic ties it is building with the extremist regime in Iran."

Oops! Awash in the nebulous pother of her Liberal Guilt, Pelosi failed to correctly interpret the PM's clear statement. Too many voices of false confession drowning out her conscious thought processes.

This is all bad enough, but there's a bigger problem here that's not being mentioned. True, the fact that the third-in-line to the Presidency is a blithering idiot. That should cause even public school graduates in America no small concern.

What's missing in the mainstream analyses is Pelosi's obvious attempt to subvert the United States Constitution. Article II Section 2 clearly gives the Executive Branch the power to engage in Affairs of State, which include relations with foreign governments, and establishing and enforcing foreign policy. This power has resides in the Department of State (a Cabinet position), under the President.

He shall have power, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, to make treaties, provided two thirds of the Senators present concur; and he shall nominate, and by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, shall appoint ambassadors, other public ministers and consuls,...

No where in Article I of the Constitution (The Legislative Branch) does it state that Congress has the authority to mitigate Foreign Policy.

Just as Pelosi stepped on the Constitution in her attempt to take away the President's Consitutional powers as Commander-in-chief of the armed forces (Article II, Section 2: "The President shall be commander in chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the militia of the several states, when called into the actual service of the United States;") by forcing a timeline on military action in Iraq (Pelosi's rocky road to the Middle East), she is now actively suborning the role of the State Department.

Two things need to happen here:

1. Queen Nancy needs a serious lesson in Constitutional Law; and this lesson must come publicly, must come harshly, and must come from members of both political parties, both houses of Congress, AND the mainstream media. There must be absolutely NO waffling on this issue - she needs to be corrected in the bluntest manner possible, and if she is to have ANY credibility she needs to publicly acknowledge her mistakes and start to pull the tatters of her Speakership back together.

2. She needs to explain why, in the above picture, her left eye is brown and her right eye is blue. If the woman can't be trusted to get her contacts in correctly, how can we trust her with the government of our country?

-

Those "Safe" Compact Fluorescents

2007-03-22T09:25:00.001-05:00

Well, Al Gore finally had his moment in the Congressional Spotlight yesterday (was that an incandescent spotlight, or a fluorescent one?). Despite the glowing inaccuracies in his testimony - so rightly pointed out by Texas Rep. Joe Barton and others - Al was treated as a prophet by the Global Warming Kool-Aide drinkers on the committee.

The item from the session that got the most attention was Al's insistence on eliminating incandescent lights bulbs and replacing them with compact fluorescent bulbs. There are so many problems with this ill-conceived proposal, it's hard to pick a starting point.

When the unwashed masses hear someone like Al promote fluorescent lighting, they immediate think it is safe. Has to be, right? After all, it's a huge part of the solution to global climate catastrophe, and Al wouldn't be pushing it unless he was sure it was safe.

Well, as in his movie "An Inconvenient Truth," it turns out Al is wrong... again.

You see, fluorescent light bulbs contain mercury, a known environmental pollutant. Mercury causes death and birth defects in all species that consume it. The EPA has has an aggressive policy regarding the disposal of fluorescent bulbs due to their mercury content.

Fluorescent lamps contain mercury, an essential compound for operation that generates ultraviolet rays that react with the bulb's phosphorous coating to emit fluorescent light. Because fluorescent bulbs have been inconsistently disposed of, specific numbers on the amount discarded are unavailable. However, according to the EPA, mercury-containing bulbs account for 3.8% of all mercury now going to municipal landfills. Such bulbs continue to be a health and environmental concern. Mercury toxicity can cause impaired growth and development, reduced reproductive success, and death in humans. Mercury bioaccumulates most efficiently in the aquatic food chain, where it's converted into toxic methylmercury by bacteria. The primary pathway of exposure for humans and wildlife is by eating fish contaminated with mercury.

Source: EPA Sees the Light on Fluorescent Bulbs

Until recently, the problem of the disposal of fluorescent bulbs was limited to commercial uses - office buildings, factories, schools, government buildings, etc. Fluorescent bulbs were not widely used in homes, so addressing the matter of fluorescent mercury was a simple one.

Finalization by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) of a rule that places mercury-containing fluorescent bulbs under the Universal Waste Rule, regulated by the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), will encourage recycling and proper disposal of the bulbs by making it easier and cheaper to recycle them. The rule will thus reduce the amount of hazardous waste reaching municipal landfills. Placing fluorescent bulbs under this rule will "better protect public health and the environment from mercury contamination," said EPA administrator Carol M. Browner in a 28 June 1999 EPA press release.

Source: EPA Sees the Light on Fluorescent Bulbs

So, now we're going to flood the market with consumer fluorescents. And government is going to help by outlawing the incandescent bulb.

Australia Outlaws Incandescent Light Bulb

Two years to change EU light bulbs

California may Ban Conventional Lightbulbs by 2012

These efforts seem noble on their face, but they are obviously being driven by politicos who are not fully informed on the nature of fluorescent lighting. Some are beginning to ask pertinent questions:

Is it true that compact fluorescent light bulbs contain harmful mercury?

Compact fluorescent lights contain a very small amount of mercury, significantly less than those in fever thermometers. This small amount of mercury slowly bonds with the phosphor coating on the lamp interior as the lamp ages, prohibiting its entry into the atmosphere. Even breaking a fluorescent bulb is not a significant health risk because the amount of mercury vapor released is so small that it dissipates into the air with a minimal chance of inhalation.

What is the proper way to dispose of burned-out compact fluorescent light bulbs?

Though compact fluorescent light bulbs are exempt from Environmental Protection Agency and State of Washington regulations, Tacoma Power recommends that you dispose of burned-out bulbs as you would batteries, motor oil or oil-based paint. City of Tacoma and Pierce County residents can dispose of household hazardous waste, including burned-out compact fluorescent light bulbs, at the City of Tacoma Landfill Household Hazardous Waste Collection Site.

Source: Tacoma Washing Compact Fluorescent Lights FAQ

OK. The warnings are trickling out, but they are obviously being drowned out by the hysteria of the Global Warming Fascists. How many average Americans - or, for that matter, average people everywhere - are going to take the effort to properly dispose of compact fluorescent bulbs? How many are even going to KNOW how to dispose of them?

My guess is these babies are going right in the trash with the rest of the household junk, just like the incandescent bulbs, and they are going to wind up in landfills, causing a severe environmental crises completely unrelated to climate change. The statistic "mercury-containing bulbs account for 3.8% of all mercury now going to municipal landfills" will soon be moot, and the amount of mercury in landfills will jump exponentially.

“Most people don't realize that the thermostat on their wall or the fluorescent light bulb in their lamp contain mercury,” said Tammy Crone, a task force member representing the Gallatin Local Water Quality District.

“If these consumer products wind up in the landfill, the mercury contained in them has the potential to contaminate our groundwater and drinking water resources,” she said. “We really need to encourage alternatives to mercury products and recycle available mercury appropriately.”

Source: Campaign focuses on dangers of mercury

Again, the short-sightedness of government is causing more problems than it attempts to solve. And the consequences of mercury flooding our environment are firmly established, and far more serious than the overblown consequences of the scientifically unproven theory of man-made global warming.

Yet, what will we be hearing in the foreseeable future? The dangers of fluorescent mercury?

Hardly.

EnergyAustralia says by using just one 15-watt compact fluorescent bulb instead of a 75-watt standard bulb, consumers could save about $10 a year.

In Australia lighting represents about 12 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions from households, about 25 per cent of commercial sector emissions, and a quarter of the emissions associated with public and street lighting.

The Federal Government estimates replacing the old bulbs with compact fluorescents in homes could cut greenhouse gas emissions by as much as 800,000 tonnes a year in 2008-12. Australia's emissions in 2004 totalled [sic] 564.7 million tonnes.

Source: Light bulbs ban to slash emissions

[Aside: commercial sector emissions are 25 percent, but commercial building use primarily fluorescent lighting! Also, public and street lighting are halogen lights, not incandescent lights, which present their own set of issues....]

The public is truly being ill-served by the global warming fascists. We need to step back, look at the science, seriously consider all of the consequences of our proposed actions, and only then move forward. Shallow, simple-minded, feel-good "solutions" won't solve anything.

Let's not trade one set of "environmental hazards" for another one in the name of "protecting the planet."

-

Twenty-Something Goodwill Retro-Chic Non-Conformist Conformity

2007-03-13T12:24:00.000-05:00

The title says it all - no comments necessary.

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Blog No More

2007-03-03T23:24:00.000-06:00

On Friday I noted that the anti-US, pro jihad web blog of Dr. Pino - tenured Islamic fascist professor at Kent State - had been hacked; anyone who tried to access the blog, http://global-war.bloghi.com got redirected to http://defendamerica.mil/

This hack didn't last all day Friday, but apparently it was enough for the folks at bloghi. They have taken the blog down - you are now redirected to the bloghi home page.

I'm certain Pino will find another outlet for his hate speech - the internet has become the #1 tool for jihadist recruiters. We'll hear from this creep again.

For now, he's been booted into the dustbin of internet history.

Good riddance.

-

What Blogs Around Comes Around

2007-03-02T12:13:00.000-06:00

You all know who Julio Pino is, right? He's the tenured muslim professor at Kent State who got outed by Mike Adams for running a pro-jihadist, anti-west blog site.

The university has been spinning its wheels feverishly to back away from any association with Pino's blog site. Pino won't talk to Adams, but he won't deny he runs the site, either.

Yesterday, Adams posted a follow-up article on his pursuit of Pino, and the truth. Seems Pino is hiding, and he won't come out and play.

Well, someone has given Piino a taste of his own medicine. It seems Pino's blog site, http://global-war.bloghi.com has been taken over by hackers. Link to the site and you are immediately redirected to http://defendamerica.mil/.

Ah, the sweet smell of justice!

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Courage

2007-03-02T11:38:00.000-06:00

Do you remember when Dan Rather was actually a journalist? Remember how he used to close out the CBS Evening News broadcast? He'd utter a single word: "Courage."

No one has ever figured out what he was talking about.

Today we have an example of true courage:

Islam is taking over, says Dutch politician

Geert Wilders, the 43-year-old leader of the Freedom Party of the Netherlands, is making waves - and converts - by calling on the Dutch to stop Islam from taking over Europe.

Geert Wilders, the 43-year-old leader of the Freedom Party, is convinced that governments are being forced to accommodate a 'tsunami of Islamisation' that is fundamentally incompatible with European social values.

"Islam itself is the problem. Islam is a violent religion," he told The Daily Telegraph. "The Prophet Mohammed was a violent man. The Koran is mostly a violent book. We should invest in Muslim people but they have to first get rid of half the Koran and half of their beliefs," he said.

Strong words.

Brave words, especially in the current atmosphere of western appeasement of Islam.

The thing to note here is that Wilders is right. Islam is the biggest threat to the west, particularly Europe, we have seen since the rise of The Third Reich. It's more dangerous than communism, because it can spread its fascist hatred and violence behind the mask of "religious freedom."

Those who object to Islam's fundamental globalist beliefs can easily be called "intolerant of the faith of others." CAIR - The Hamas-funded Council on American Islamic Relations - calls all objections "Islamic Intolerance," and by doing so they attempt to use the religious freedom of western countries as a sledge against those who correctly point Islam's violent intentions.

Unfortunately for the safety and security - yes, even the survival - of the west, political correctness walks hand-in-hand with religious tolerance to create an environment where violent Islamic zealots can operate freely in our society. When the bombs go off and the heads roll, the hand-wringing is the only recourse left to those blinded by their PC beliefs.

There is almost no country more politically correct than the UK. Look at the terrible things that happened in London after Madrid, you have more reason than most to make this debate transparent and public," [Wilders] said.

Because of his courageous stand, Wilders is now a marked man. The "tolerant" religion of Islam has sentenced him to death for his "defamation" of Mohammad and the "true faith."

Two months later he was living in fear after police arrested suspected terrorists, armed with grenades, accused of planning to kill him. The Dutch politician says he and his wife have received more than 600 death threats.

Mr Wilders, who is always surrounded by plain clothes police guards, said: "I lost my freedom and privacy because of my opposition to Islam."

The only way to see Islam defeated is for more people to join Wilders in his stand. To hide behind fear and political correctness is to play in to the hands of the jihadists.

For the sake of our children, this is something we cannot and must not do.

We must take on the mantle of true courage.

-

Let Them Read Ann

2007-03-01T09:00:00.000-06:00

I'll forgo this weeks rant in deference to a master ranter, Ann Coulter.

I've been reading Ann's entertaining columns for years. This week's column has to be the most passionate, most literate thing she's ever written, and it really speaks to the heart of the global warming fascist hypocrisy:

Let Them Eat Tofu!

It's a must-read, and says all you need to know about the environmentalist's true agenda.

Enjoy

-

"...and the fever is high."

2007-02-22T09:25:00.000-06:00

An interesting story today from Australia's Herald Sun:

Fever claim on global warming

The University of Sidney, Australia, did a two-year statistical study at The Children's Hospital at Westmead. The study was investigating the effects of temperature rise on fever rates among children under six years old.

The result?

The two-year study at a major children's hospital showed that for every five-degree rise in temperature two more children under six years old were admitted with fever to that hospital.

A cursory reading would seem to indicate that a major problem in children's health is looming, and that climate change (read: "global warming") is the causative factor.

This conclusion is jumped at fairly quickly by researcher Lawrence Lam, a paediatrics specialist.

Dr Lam said the results, collated from The Children's Hospital at Westmead admissions, back up beliefs that children are less able to regulate their bodies against climate change than adults.

The brain's thermal regulation mechanism is not as well developed in children, making them more susceptible to "overheating" and at risk of developing illness, he said.

Once again the alarm is being sounded, and the gong is being beaten; the drums of global warming war are thundering, and the tide is moving relentlessly towards the tipping point of dire consequences.

Enough hyperbole for you?

Dig a little deeper into the article and you'll find the caveat:

[Dr Lam] said it was still unclear whether the heat directly triggered the illnesses or whether other heat-related problems, like pollution, were responsible.

There are two problems here:

First, Fevers are caused by the body fighting a disease, usually a virus. The fever mechanism is symptomatic of the body's chemical and biological attempt to defeat the invading organism. While fevers can be life-threatening, they are a natural part of our ability to resist, and develop immunity, to the myriads of microorganisms that populate our planet.

Fevers are NOT caused by warm temperatures, in the same way that colds are NOT caused by cold temperatures. Temperature conditions can have a slight effect of lowering the body's resistance to disease, but the factors involved are far more complicated than just a rise or a fall in temperature. [The ostensible exception here being Heat Stroke, which is actually caused by dehydration and over-exertion during hot weather, not by the heat itself.]

[Note, also, that the study did not take into account the fever rates among children who live in warmer climates versus the fever rates among children who live in colder climates.]

The second problem is the nature of the "study" itself. Note at the top of this article I said that the Sidney study was a "statistical" study. As is typical in statistical studies, causative relationships are tautological at best: "when temperatures go up we see more fevers in children under six, so when temperatures go up we expect more fevers in children under six."

Statistical studies can prove nothing. Take, for example, a study that finds that people who have vehicles tend to also have cell phones. Many conclusions can be drawn from this type of data mining, including the notion that having a vehicle causes increased cell phone possession.

The second flaw is that these types of studies are set up to look for specific cause-and-effect relationships, thus they begin from flawed premises. In this case, "The study was investigating the effects of temperature rise on fever rates among children under six years old."

If this is the type of "science" we can continue to expect from global warming supporters - thus throwing more fuel onto the fire being fanned by the Global Warming Fascists - we can expect to see a continued heating up of the fanaticism surrounding this issue.

Which is about the only heat we're likely to see.

-

Taking On The Global Warming Fascists

2007-02-12T21:38:00.000-06:00

You've gotta love Vaclav Klaus, President of Czech Republic. In a testy interview on Mon Feb 12 2007 with "Hospodárské noviny", a Czech economics daily, Klaus takes on a rather rabid pro-global warming acolyte (formerly called a "member of the media", but of late the distinction has been hard to discern).

See, the Czech president has openly criticized the UN panel on global warming, claiming that it was a political authority without any scientific basis. Now, one would think the old adage would apply: "if it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, and sounds like a duck, then it's a duck." The duck in this case is the fanatic propagation of pro-manmade-global-warming fascism, a strictly political entity with very little claims to real science.

But, calling the duck a duck is verboten - unless you have the truth on your side, like Klaus.

Here's the interview:

Q: IPCC has released its report and you say that the global warming is a false myth. How did you get this idea, Mr President?•

A: It's not my idea. Global warming is a false myth and every serious person and scientist says so. It is not fair to refer to the U.N. panel. IPCC is not a scientific institution: it's a political body, a sort of non-government organization of green flavor. It's neither a forum of neutral scientists nor a balanced group of scientists. These people are politicized scientists who arrive there with a one-sided opinion and a one-sided assignment. Also, it's an undignified slapstick that people don't wait for the full report in May 2007 but instead respond, in such a serious way, to the summary for policymakers where all the "but's" are scratched, removed, and replaced by oversimplified theses.• This is clearly such an incredible failure of so many people, from journalists to politicians. If the European Commission is instantly going to buy such a trick, we have another very good reason to think that the countries themselves, not the Commission, should be deciding about similar issues.•

Q: How do you explain that there is no other comparably senior statesman in Europe who would advocate this viewpoint? No one else has such strong opinions...•

A: My opinions about this issue simply are strong. Other top-level politicians do not express their global warming doubts because a whip of political correctness strangles their voice.

Q: But you're not a climate scientist. Do you have a sufficient knowledge and enough information?•

A: Environmentalism as a metaphysical ideology and as a worldview has absolutely nothing to do with natural sciences or with the climate. Sadly, it has nothing to do with social sciences either. Still, it is becoming fashionable and this fact scares me. The second part of the sentence should be: we also have lots of reports, studies, and books of climatologists whose conclusions are diametrally opposite.• Indeed, I never measure the thickness of ice in Antarctica. I really don't know how to do it and don't plan to learn it. However, as a scientifically oriented person, I know how to read science reports about these questions, for example about ice in Antarctica. I don't have to be a climate scientist myself to read them. And inside the papers I have read, the conclusions we may see in the media simply don't appear. But let me promise you something: this topic troubles me which is why I started to write an article about it last Christmas. The article expanded and became a book. In a couple of months, it will be published. One chapter out of seven will organize my opinions about the climate change.• Environmentalism and green ideology is something very different from climate science. Various findings and screams of scientists are abused by this ideology.•

Q: How do you explain that conservative media are skeptical while the left-wing media view the global warming as a done deal?•

A: It is not quite exactly divided to the left-wingers and right-wingers. Nevertheless it's obvious that environmentalism is a new incarnation of modern leftism.•

Q: If you look at all these things, even if you were right ...•

A: ...I am right...•

Q: Isn't there enough empirical evidence and facts we can see with our eyes that imply that Man is demolishing the planet and himself?•

A: It's such a nonsense that I have probably not heard a bigger nonsense yet.•

Q: Don't you believe that we're ruining our planet?•

A: I will pretend that I haven't heard you. Perhaps only Mr Al Gore may be saying something along these lines: a sane person can't. I don't see any ruining of the planet, I have never seen it, and I don't think that a reasonable and serious person could say such a thing. Look: you represent the economic media so I expect a certain economical erudition from you. My book will answer these questions. For example, we know that there exists a huge correlation between the care we give to the environment on one side and the wealth and technological prowess on the other side. It's clear that the poorer the society is, the more brutally it behaves with respect to Nature, and vice versa.• It's also true that there exist social systems that are damaging Nature - by eliminating private ownership and similar things - much more than the freer societies. These tendencies become important in the long run. They unambiguously imply that today, on February 8th, 2007, Nature is protected uncomparably more than on February 8th ten years ago or fifty years ago or one hundred years ago.• That's why I ask: how can you pronounce the sentence you said? Perhaps if you're unconscious? Or did you mean it as a provocation only? And maybe I am just too naive and I allowed you to provoke me to give you all these answers, am I not? It is more likely that you actually believe what you say.

[English translation from Harvard Professor Lubos Motl]

Here are a few salient points you should take away with you. The very first question is designed to be antagonistic: "IPCC has released its report and you say that the global warming is a false myth. How did you get this idea, Mr President?"

"...false myth..."? "...this idea..."?

Clearly the questioner considers the case closed, and any questioning of the notion that 1. there IS global warming, and 2. it is caused by man, can ONLY be ideas without backing.

Klaus takes this head-on: "It's not my idea. Global warming is a false myth and every serious person and scientist says so. It is not fair to refer to the U.N. panel. IPCC is not a scientific institution: it's a political body, a sort of non-government organization of green flavor."

There are a number of recent stories that lend credence to the clear fact that global warming is NOT a crisis - it may, in fact NOT be happening. And even if it were, the factors of its cause do not rest in the demesne of mankind, but rather in the cosmos - factors which have played the causative role in ALL climate change throughout the history of the planet.

Antarctic temperatures disagree with climate model predictions

Blame cosmic rays not CO2 for warming up the planet

Experts question theory on global warming

Cosmic rays blamed for global warming

An experiment that hints we are wrong on climate change

Global Warming: The Cold, Hard Facts? - Global Warming is not due to human contribution of Carbon Dioxide

Environmental Effects of Increased Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide

Mars Melt Hints at Solar, Not Human, Cause for Warming, Scientist Says

I could go on, linking to many other science sites and scientists' work which deals squarely with the gaping holes in the global warming orthodoxy. This will not sway true believers, however, and many in the global warming camp have begun resorting to fascist tactics like censorship, and stripping "unbelievers" of their credentials.

“The Weather Channel” Mess

The person who interviewed Vaclav Klaus brought these guns to bear with this question: "But you're not a climate scientist. Do you have a sufficient knowledge and enough information?"

Popgun tactics, but the tactics of the global warming fascists nonetheless. Amusing, in and of itself, since the most public spokesman of worldwide global warming catastrophe himself is NOT a climate scientist, and not does he have sufficient knowledge and enough information"!

I'm speaking, of course, of Al Gore.

However, we don't need to point out the obvious logical flaw in the question's premise. All we need to do is memorize President Klaus' answer:

Environmentalism as a metaphysical ideology and as a worldview has absolutely nothing to do with natural sciences or with the climate. Sadly, it has nothing to do with social sciences either. Still, it is becoming fashionable and this fact scares me. The second part of the sentence should be: we also have lots of reports, studies, and books of climatologists whose conclusions are diametrally opposite.• Indeed, I never measure the thickness of ice in Antarctica. I really don't know how to do it and don't plan to learn it. However, as a scientifically oriented person, I know how to read science reports about these questions, for example about ice in Antarctica. I don't have to be a climate scientist myself to read them. And inside the papers I have read, the conclusions we may see in the media simply don't appear. But let me promise you something: this topic troubles me which is why I started to write an article about it last Christmas. The article expanded and became a book. In a couple of months, it will be published. One chapter out of seven will organize my opinions about the climate change.• Environmentalism and green ideology is something very different from climate science. Various findings and screams of scientists are abused by this ideology.

This is such an incredible Grand-Slam-Dunk Homerun Winner that the interviewer never recovers.

This must be the rallying cry against the forces of fascism that threaten to undermine the very foundation of open scientific discourse. We must not allow the global warming cult to prevail, for in their desperation to promote a weak ideology, they will resort to the tactics of all fascists before them:

Don't engage the opposition: silence them.

-

"If I Have To See Anna Nichole Smith One More Time on Television..."

2007-02-10T13:57:00.000-06:00

Rosie had another childish rant on Thursday:

Well, Rosie, you got your wish. You no longer have to see "Anna Nichole Smith one more time on television..."

She's dead - died four hours after your immature rant.

Are you happy?

Good.

Now do us all a favor, Rosie: please give us all the pleasure of no longer having to see your fat, ugly mouth one more time on television.

Babba Wawwa, are you listening?

-

Use The Word Faggot, Go Directly to Rehab

2007-01-25T11:08:00.000-06:00

According to news sources:

Life & Style EXCLUSIVE: Isaiah Washington Enters Treatment Facility! http://lifeandstylemag.hollywood.com/2007/01/life_style_exclusive_isaiah_wa.php

When I first read this, I thought, "Rehab. Well, maybe he has a drug or alcohol problem that caused him to blurt out the word "faggot" on the set of "Grey's Anatomy", and again live on the Golden Globes stage.

Turns out his comments were not driven by alcohol or drugs. The article states (rather unabashedly, I might add):

According to an insider, Isaiah, who issued an apology for his statements on Jan. 18, agreed to undergo a psychological assessment after talks with ABC executives.

A "Psychological Assessment."

For using the word "faggot."

Washington is going into Rehab for using a word.

Now, let's be very clear about this. In the wacky world of the left - in particular, the world of homosexual militancy - anything that is spoken against gay behavior is considered "hate speech." Remember how Rosie got her panties all in a jam after Kellie Rippa told a country singer not to touch her mouth, because "I don't know where that hand has been"?

After Rosie accused her comment as being "homophobic" on The View, Rippa called in and ripped Rosie a new one for interpreting her comment through Rosies obsession with her own lesbianism.

Rippa was right.

It seems that any speech deemed offensive by the gay rights groups is considered "homophobic." They have been SO successful at this ploy of turning a moral opinion into a disease - by adding the clinical term "phobic" to the word "homo" - that those who engage in ANY speech against homosexuality are automatically guilty of a mental disorder, and therefore need to be treated CLINICALLY for that disorder.

Hence, Washington's dilemma:

“ABC has told him he must enter a program to examine why he would say such hateful words,” the insider says.

Now, the issue isn't just hateful words. If this were so, much of the Left in America would be in therapy right now for its hatred of George Bush.

No, the issue is the thoughts of those who stand for ideals that differ from the Left's hard-won mainstreaming of their non-morality. Only THEN is speech considered hate-speech. Classifying it as such, and throwing it into the category of a mental disorder - a "phobia" - justifies the Left's penchant for engaging in thought control.

And, through this, speech control.

Censorship, in other words.

So, use the word "Faggot," and you are guilty of offending, you are guilty of hate speech, and you are diagnosed with a mental disorder.

Your punishment?

Go directly to Therapy - do not pass the Constitution, do not collect your First Amendment rights.

-

Dems in a Tizzy

2006-10-11T12:28:00.000-05:00

David Zucker, Hollywood filmmaker best known for the "Airplane" movie series, has produced a hilarious video criticizing the Left's (and specifically the Clinton's) appeasment of world thugs:

Of course, the outcome of this appeasement is obvious; just look around you.

Zucker offered this to the Republican Party, but they thought the video too controversial.

It's a pity, really, because this video really hits Democrats where it hurts. So much so, in fact, that they are launching a campaign to censor the video on YouTube!

http://newsmax.com/archives/ic/2006/10/11/104332.shtml?s=ic

Just like a liberal, as soon as you tell the truth about them they try to shut you up. No dialog, just censorship.

I love it!

--

Islam Must Apologize

2006-10-04T13:20:00.001-05:00

On 12 September 2006, Pope Benedict XVI gave a speech to The University of Regensburg, in Germany.

Full text of the Pope's speech here.

Read the speech. The first thing you will notice is that this speech, contrary to what most in the media would have you believe, was NOT solely a criticism of Islam. And, the section of the speech that got the Pope into the most trouble - "Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached". - was not the original thought of benedict XVI, but was a direct quote from Byzantine emperor Manuel II Paleologus in 1391 to a representative of Islam!

The reaction from Islam was quick and predictable:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/5347876.stm?ls
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/15/AR2006091500800.html?nav=hcmodule
http://www.eubusiness.com/afp/060918115809.n5zzir5r

Islam responded in its typical manner: killing people and blowing up things.

If Muslims were outraged that the Pope was quoting a historical fact detailing the violent nature of Islam, they couldn't have done more to prove his point - and the point of Manuel II - than to react in the way they did.

OK, now the easy stuff is over here - what follows is the difficult stuff. It's not difficult to understand, but it's difficult to see - and for some, astonishingly - difficult to accept.

So, here's the warning:

You are going to see images of Islam. They are violent, bloody, and disturbing. But, they are Islam. This is the faith that a professional I knew in 1986 said, "The only religion I cannot accept in practice is Islam." I didn't know what he meant then. I do now.

Islam seeks to conquer the world. Don't believe it? Look at this:

The green area of the big map consists of current Islamic States, which rule primarily by Shiriah Law. See the little map in the lower right? That's the goal. And Islam is DEADLY serious about this.

How does Islam plan to accomplish this feat? Simple: through violence. Just as Mohammad turned the latter-half of his leadership into a violent crusade to conquer all adjacent lands and peoples in the name of Allah, Jihadists today plan nothing short of international genocide to acheive their aims.

They have been doing this for centuries. The last 40 years have seen a vast increase in thie behavior, particularly against the West (make no mistake, though: Islam is just as brutal against Arabs who do not bow to it's doctrines).

Now, CAIR (The Council for American-Islamic Relations) would have you believe that the West is undertaking a vast campaign to malign Islam.

Don’t Confuse the Accused With Muslims

However, take a quick visit to this excellent website:

http://www.thereligionofpeace.com/index.html#Attacks

What you will find is an extensive list of violence BY Muslims AGAINST innocent people, both Westerners and Arabs.

Still not convinced? Here's where things get really nasty. What follows are pictures of Islamic violence. This is the face of Islam we hear about daily, but don't often see.

Brace yourselves.

A man being beheaded by Muslims

The aftermath being held up by the proud murders (notice the voctims are ALWAYS bound):

Paul Johnson before his beheading.

Children murdered - the Beslan school massacre.

Spain Train attack victim.

Nairobi bombing.

Indonesian bombing.

Damascus embassy bombing.

Assyrian Church bombing.

Proud murderers.

Bus bombing in London.

9/11.

Kenya bombing.

Training Muslim children to hate and kill.

He wants you dead.

These pictures constitute a miniscule portion of the violence of Islam. It is evidence of crimes against humanity.

Is Islam a "religion of peace"? You be the judge. One thing is clear, though. Islam must apologize for its behavior and begin to repair the damage it has cost. Make atonement for the millions of innocent lives it has taken.

And it must reform. Those who call themselves "moderate Muslims" MUST wrest control of their faith from the killers. If they do not, then they will stand in stark relief as supporters of this carnage.

If Islam does not repent, reform, and ask the rest of the world to forgive it's many, many crimes, then it must go.

-

Hot Air Causes Global Warming

2006-09-29T14:38:00.000-05:00

This from Drudge today:

Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore warned hundreds of U.N. diplomats and staff on Thursday evening about the perils of climate change, claiming: Cigarette smoking is a "significant contributor to global warming!"

Are you kidding me?

People have been smoking for centuries, and now it's a problem... not becauses it causes cancer, poor general health, rising health care costs, is a burden to our economy and to society in general. But because it causes... Global Warming?

Is there nothing in this man's fantasies that doesn't relate to his phony science hysteria? Apparently not, because, after his presentation....

....Gore had his staff opened [sic] a stack of cardboard boxes to begin selling his new book, "An Inconvenient Truth, The Planetary Emergency of Global Warming and What We Can Do About It," $19.95, to the U.N. diplomats.

So, it's all evidently a marketing ploy. The Gorester raising money for some future presidential bid (like his former bass, he's denying this, so you know it's true).

One other thing Gore said today:

Gore, who was introduced by Secretary-General Kofi Annan, said the world faces a "full-scale climate emergency that threatens the future of civilization on earth."

Gore showed computer-generated projections of ocean water rushing in to submerge the San Francisco Bay Area, New York City, parts of China, India and other nations, should ice shelves in Antarctica or Greenland melt and slip into the sea.

Now, before you take this too seriously, read this:

http://epw.senate.gov/speechitem.cfm?party=rep&id=263759

In short, it's a floor speech by Senator James Inhofe Chairman, Senate Environment And Public Works Committee delivered on September 15, 2006. Here is a relevant section:

Here is a quote from Newsweek magazine:

“There are ominous signs that the Earth’s weather patterns have begun to change dramatically and that these changes may portend a drastic decline in food production– with serious political implications for just about every nation on Earth.”

A headline in the New York Times reads: “Climate Changes Endanger World’s Food Output.” Here is a quote from Time Magazine:

“As they review the bizarre and unpredictable weather pattern of the past several years, a growing number of scientists are beginning to suspect that many seemingly contradictory meteorological fluctuations are actually part of a global climatic upheaval.”

All of this sounds very ominous. That is, until you realize that the three quotes I just read were from articles in 1975 editions of Newsweek Magazine and The New York Times, and Time Magazine in 1974.

They weren’t referring to global warming; they were warning of a coming ice age.

Let me repeat, all three of those quotes were published in the 1970’s and warned of a coming ice age.

In addition to global cooling fears, Time Magazine has also reported on global warming. Here is an example:

“[Those] who claim that winters were harder when they were boys are quite right… weathermen have no doubt that the world at least for the time being is growing warmer.”

Before you think that this is just another example of the media promoting Vice President Gore’s movie, you need to know that the quote I just read you from Time Magazine was not a recent quote; it was from January 2, 1939.

Yes, in 1939. Nine years before Vice President Gore was born and over three decades before Time Magazine began hyping a coming ice age and almost five decades before they returned to hyping global warming.

Time Magazine in 1951 pointed to receding permafrost in Russia as proof that the planet was warming.

In 1952, the New York Times noted that the “trump card” of global warming “has been the melting glaciers.”

There are many more examples of the media and scientists flip-flopping between warming and cooling scares.

Here is a quote from the New York Times reporting on fears of an approaching ice age.

“Geologists Think the World May be Frozen Up Again.”

That sentence appeared over 100 years ago in the February 24, 1895 edition of the New York Times.

Let me repeat. 1895, not 1995.

A front page article in the October 7, 1912 New York Times, just a few months after the Titanic struck an iceberg and sank, declared that a prominent professor “Warns Us of an Encroaching Ice Age.”

The very same day in 1912, the Los Angeles Times ran an article warning that the “Human race will have to fight for its existence against cold.” An August 10, 1923 Washington Post article declared: “Ice Age Coming Here.”

By the 1930’s, the media took a break from reporting on the coming ice age and instead switched gears to promoting global warming:

“America in Longest Warm Spell Since 1776; Temperature Line Records a 25-year Rise” stated an article in the New York Times on March 27, 1933. The media of yesteryear was also not above injecting large amounts of fear and alarmism into their climate articles.

An August 9, 1923 front page article in the Chicago Tribune declared:

“Scientist Says Arctic Ice Will Wipe Out Canada.” The article quoted a Yale University professor who predicted that large parts of Europe and Asia would be “wiped out” and Switzerland would be “entirely obliterated.”

A December 29, 1974 New York Times article on global cooling reported that climatologists believed “the facts of the present climate change are such that the most optimistic experts would assign near certainty to major crop failure in a decade.”

The article also warned that unless government officials reacted to the coming catastrophe, “mass deaths by starvation and probably in anarchy and violence” would result. In 1975, the New York Times reported that “A major cooling [was] widely considered to be inevitable.” These past predictions of doom have a familiar ring, don’t they? They sound strikingly similar to our modern media promotion of former Vice president’s brand of climate alarmism.

After more than a century of alternating between global cooling and warming, one would think that this media history would serve a cautionary tale for today’s voices in the media and scientific community who are promoting yet another round of eco-doom.

Much of the 100-year media history on climate change that I have documented here today can be found in a publication titled “Fire and Ice” from the Business and Media Institute. http://www.businessandmedia.org/specialreports/2006/fireandice/fireandice_timeswarns.asp

What can we conclude from this?

First, this is the fourth time in little more than a century that pseudo-science and the media have predicted doom for the planet due to climatic change. First, it was cooling (1895), then warming (1939), then cooling (1974), and now, in this phase of the cycle of hysteria, we're back to warming. So, it's only natural to assume that, 30 years hence, when we are not simmering in our own juices, the pundits will be broadcasting another cooling scare.

Second, the "experts" (who are these people, anyway?) were wrong in 1895, they were wrong in 1939, they were wrong in 1974, and - guess what? - they're wrong now. Read Senator Inhofe's entire speech - it's filled with real science (including links to references) that flatly disprove this notion that we're killing our planet. Remember, no less an "expert" than Ted Danson claimed, in 1989, that if we did nothing to fight global warming, our planet would be uninhabitable in 10 years.

That was 17 years ago.

We're still here.

Which leads to the third, and final, conclusion: the real problem with global warming is all the hot air Al Gore and his ilk are pumping out, like old engines that need a tune-up.

The fear global warming evangelists are producing is self-defeating and pointless. The willing accomplices in the media and pseudo-science community (those "experts" we hear from so frequently) are on a mission to subvert real science, and thus undermine real answers and distract us from real issues that need far more attention than global warming is getting.

Set your watches: on January 27, 2006 Al Gore said that, if we did nothing to fight global warming, our planet would be uninhabitable in 10 years. (Sound Familiar? Maybe Ted needs a writing credit from the Gore people).

Keep your eyes on this one, folks. And ten years from now, when you're sitting comfortably on your porch, enjoying a beautiful evening's sunset, think of Al. It's the least you can do.

-

Boycott CITGO

2006-09-21T15:46:00.000-05:00

Enough is enough.

Pass it along.

-

Global Warming Versus The Facts

2006-07-26T10:07:00.000-05:00

As you know, Al Gore is on the prowl. He's on a crusade to end Global Warming in our time.

Actually, he's really on the stump for higher political office, but what's the truth between a few partisan hacks?

In Al's Global Warming fantasies, he wants us to believe that we're getting warmer, that we're boiling, that we're going to hell in a handcart of our own making.

Unfortunately for Al, there are solid scientific facts that stand squarely in the way of his meglomania. Here's one: look at the table below (this is from USA Today). This is the latest listing of RECORD HIGH TEMPERATURES for all 50 United States.


State    Temp    Date          Station                   Elevation (feet) 
Ala.     112   Sept. 5, 1925   Centerville               345 
Alaska   100   June 27, 1915   Ft. Yukon                 420* 
Ariz.    128   June 29, 1994   Lake Havasu               505
Ark.     120   Aug. 10, 1936   Ozark                     396
Calif.   134   July 10, 1913   Death Valley              N/A 
Colo.    118   July 11, 1888   Bennett                   5,484
Conn.    106   July 15, 1995   Danbury                   450
Del.     110   July 21, 1930   Millsboro                 20
Fla.     109   June 29, 1931   Monticell0                207 
Ga.      112   July 24, 1952   Louisville                132
Hawaii   100   April 27,1931   Pahala                    850
Idaho    118   July 28, 1934   Orofino                   1,027
Ill.     117   July 14, 1954   E. St Louis               410 
Ind.     116   July 14, 1936   Collegeville              672
Iowa     118   July 20, 1934   Keokuk                    614 
Kansas   121   July 24, 1936   Alton                     1,651
Ky.      114   July 28, 1930   Greensburg                581 
La.      114   Aug. 10, 1936   Plain Dealing             268
Maine    105   July 10, 1911   N. Bridgton               450
Md.      109   July 10, 1936   Cumberland and Frederick  623, 325 
Mass.    107   Aug.  2, 1975   New Bedford and Chester   120, 640
Mich.    112   July 13, 1936   Mio                       963
Minn.    114   July  6, 1936   Moorhead                  904
Miss.    115   July 29, 1930   Holly Springs             600
Mo       118   July 14, 1954   Warsaw and Union          705, 560
Mont.    117   July  5, 1937   Medicine Lake             1,950
Neb.     118   July 24, 1936   Minden                    2,169
Nev.     125   June 29, 1994   Laughlin                  605
N.H.     106   July  4, 1911   Nashua                    125
N.J.     110   July 10, 1936   Runyon                    18
N.M.     122   June 27, 1994   Lakewood                  N/A
N.Y.     108   July 22, 1926   Troy                      35
N.C.     110   Aug. 21, 1983   Fayetteville              213
N.D.     121   July  6, 1936   Steele                    1,857
Ohio     113   July 21, 1934   Gallipolis                673
Okla.    120   June 27, 1994   Tipton                    1,350
Ore.     119   Aug. 10, 1898   Pendleton                 1,074 
Pa.      111   July 10, 1936   Phoenixville              100 
R.I.     104   Aug.  2, 1975   Providence                51
S.C.     111   June 28, 1954   Camden                    170
S.D.     120   July  5, 1936   Gannvalley                1,750 
Tenn.    113   Aug.  9, 1930   Perryville                377
Texas    120   Aug. 12, 1936   Seymour                   1,291
Utah     117   July  5, 1985   Saint George              2,880
Vt.      105   July  4, 1911   Vernon                    310
Va.      110   July 15, 1954   Balcony Falls             725
Wash.    118   Aug.  5, 1961   Ice Harbor Dam  475       475   
W. Va.   112   July 10, 1936   Martinsburg               435
Wis.     114   July 13, 1936   Wisconsin Dells           900
Wyo.     116   Aug.  8, 1983   Basin                     3,500

You'll notice a couple things. First, only 11 of the 50 states reported record high temperatures AFTER 1960. Thirty-Four are BEFORE 1940. States which have been targeted by environmentalists as high-polluting states (California, New York, New Jersey, Ohio, Michigan) all have record highs in the 1930s.

So if Al's right, why do we not see record temps occurring in the latter part of the 20th Century?

Because Al's wrong.

Michael Crichton has published a number of speeches on Global Warming and the current state of Environmental Science as Religion on his website. Recommended reading....

But only if you want the truth.

-

No Ice With That Drink

2006-02-15T15:47:00.000-05:00

When I was a much younger man I used to work in fast food. I was a bit of a customer satisfaction neophyte, which got me into trouble with the owners. My first two offenses against the bottom line were:

1. Using Hellman's Mayonaise in the sub bucket instead of the cheap crap, and

2. Putting a small amount of ice in the beverage cups.

Both of these offenses were greeted with, "What do you think we are, made out of money?"

Now, soda from the fountain is very cheap. It's a HUGE profit point for all fast food joints. And one of the reasons is the beverage versus ice ratio. You've seen it: you order a soda and the server fills up the cup with ice before putting in the soda.

The soda/ice ratio here comes out to be about 25% soda, 75% ice.

Put that another way: 25% soda, 75% WATER. You're ponying up cash for water (and tap water, at that, for all you bottled-water freaks out there), when you think you're actually buying soda.

Most people in America are perfectly happy to be paying for water. I don't get that, water comes out of the tap every day....

Well, if the ecomonics of this rip-off haven't convinced you, then this will:

http://www.tampabays10.com/news/news.aspx?storyid=25442

It seems that an enterprising Middle-School student in Florida did some research and found that THE WATER IN THE TOILET HAS LESS BACTERIA THAN THE WATER IN THE ICE USED IN YOUR BEVERAGE!

Read that last paragraph again.

Now, next time you pull up to that drive-through, tell the kid "No Ice" in your drink. You'll get two things:

1. A full cup of soda (and it comes out of the soda fountain cold, BTW), not a 25% cup of soda, and

2. A soda free of disease.

Bon Appetite!

-

The Village Idiot

2006-02-02T22:23:00.000-05:00

You've heard the story:

America's Mother Superior Sheehan gets invited to the Capital by Rep Lynn Woolsey for the President's State of The Union Address. She shows up in a protest t-shirt and is promptly hustled out by House Security. Her detainment lasts for the duration of the President's speech.

Cindy was so aghast that House Security would not let her sit in the gallery wearing a protest shirt that she wrote an open letter and had it posted on like-minded simpleton Mike Moore's website, under the title, "What Really Happened".

The letter rambles on in a style fitting Oprah, and if you can pull yourself through it you'll come to this little gem:

After I had my personal items inventoried and my fingers printed, a nice Sgt. came in and looked at my shirt and said, "2,245, huh? I just got back from there."

I told him that my son died there. That's when the enormity of my loss hit me. I have lost my son. I have lost my First Amendment rights. I have lost the country that I love. Where did America go? I started crying in pain.

So, The Mama wants us to believe that "the enormity of [her] loss" hadn't hit her until Tuesday night? You mean all the angst and anguish she has been heaping on us for the past five months has been, ah, UNenormous?

Please.

One thing The Mama didn't share in her little heart-twister is that Republican Congressman C.W. "Bill" Young's wife was also tossed from the gallery for wearing a t-shirt supporting the war!

Which pretty much deflates any notion that The Mama was singled out because of her status as an anti-war protester.

Speaking of which, it seems the media and the left have finally had it up to here with Sheehan. So much so, they are beginning to ask, "Has the state of American antiwar protest really come down to Cindy Sheehan?"

Which is a great question, really. Think about it: the 60s anti-war movement had some intellectual heavyweights on its side, as well as widely respected members of the popular media.

Today, all the anti-war movement can muster are a couple of hypocritical hollywood types ("Do As I Say, Not As I Do"), a congressman who has more fingers in the lobby pie that Tom DeLay ("Murky Jack Murtha"), and a doddering mother of questionable intellectual character who is obviously drunk on her own celebrity.

Now, that being said, The mama could have used the State of The Union speech to very quietly make a poignant and powerful point by just sitting in the gallery, looking dignified (if that's possible for her), and knowing that every time George Bush mentioned the Iraq War, gallery cameras would be beaming her image to millions and millions of people all over the world. The contrast would have been glaring, and it's likely Bush would have come out of the evening looking less presidential by virtue of the very juxtaposition between his image and hers.

But The Village Idiot showed up Tuesday night, and snatched away a priceless moment for the antiwar movement.

-

Demon Saddam

2006-01-26T15:41:00.000-05:00

Here's a blog by a person who is not paying attention:

Ramsey Clark: "Saddam Hussein Was Demonized to Justify Iraq War"

I'm not going to quote from this desperate bit of nonsense. The bottom line is that Ramsey Clark, who seems to get his "patriotic jollies" by defending indefensible people against the U.S., is saying that the United States government has ginned up a fictional "Evil Saddam" in order to justify an illegal war.

OK.

If you believe that, you must have been unconscious for the past 20 years. Or stuck on stupid.

As a public service to those of you who are either a. too young to recall Saddam's butchery (which would make you 2 years old), or b. too ignorant to see what's been in front of your faces for the better part of your lives, essaysfromtheedge will provide four links to videos documenting Saddam's evil butchery, torture, and madness.

WARNING: These are very graphic, so don't look at them if you have a weak stomach, or if, in the words of our favorite fictional military leader, "You can't handle the truth!"

When you've seen these videos, write me and tell me again why Saddam is such a good guy. I'd love to hear your justification.

-

Hey, Al! it's Getting Hot Up Here!

2006-01-24T21:38:00.000-05:00

Al Gore is in the midst of writing his second book about Global Warming. In it he will no doubt continue the populist screed against western society and its evironmental dangers, so obvious to everyone hooked on tofu smoothies.

Some news has come in that The Loser will surely ignore: it seems Mars is undergoing its own period of Global Warming.

These articles state:

Scientists have suspected in recent years that Mars might be undergoing some sort of global warming. New data points to the possibility it is emerging from an ice age.

"One explanation could be that Mars is just coming out of an ice age," Feldman said. "In some low-latitude areas, the ice has already dissipated. In others, that process is slower and hasn't reached an equilibrium yet. Those areas are like the patches of snow you sometimes see persisting in protected spots long after the last snowfall of the winter."

Global Warming on Mars. Why is this happening?

If Mars is truly "coming our of an ice age," as the evidence suggests, and if there is no contributing environmental factors to the warming like "greenhouse gases," then the only reasonable explanation is that the causitive factors are outside the planetary system.

Now, we know the earth is warming. That is clear. Junk science claims that man is the culprit - that forces within the environmental system are the primary causitive factors. Computer models have "shown" that "greenhouse gases" trap heat, and this is the primary engine for the earth's heating.

But, if Mars is experiencing a global warming trend concurrently with the earth, then something else must be driving the temperature increases.

If both Mars and Earth are experiencing global warming, then perhaps there is a larger phenomenon going on in the Solar System that is causing their global climates to change.

--http://www.mos.org/cst/article/80/9.html

Clearly, one such factor is the increase in solar activity:

Records of sunspot activity suggest that solar output has been rising slightly for about 100 years. However, only measurements of what is known as total solar irradiance gathered by satellites orbiting since 1978 are considered scientifically reliable, he said.

But observations over those years were flawed by the space shuttle Challenger disaster, which prevented the launching of a new solar output detecting satellite called ACRIM 2 to replace a previous one called ACRIM 1.

[Scientists are now suggesting that the gap in reliable data is not as problematic as originally thought:]

Applying their analytical method to the solar output estimates by the Columbia group, Scafetta’s and West’s paper concludes that "the sun may have minimally contributed about 10 to 30 percent of the 1980-2002 global surface warming."

--http://www.innovations-report.com/html/reports/earth_sciences/report-49939.html

Bottom line: Solar activity has had a larger impact on earth's climate than junk global warming science is willing to admit. This article is quick to point out that this conclusion doesn't lessen the impact of "greenhouse gases" on our climate, a caveat that sheds more light on the entrenchment of the global warming orthodoxy than it does in corroborating man's negative impact on the planet.

What's clear from these readings is that global warming is not a local trend - that it is a solar system-wide trend. Thus, it is out of our control to cause, and to correct.

Earth to Al!

-

A Great Day For Freedom

2005-12-18T22:15:00.000-05:00

Mama Sheehan, that political gadfly the left now wishes would just "go away", has taken her wildly successful booksigning tour to Spain.

As you recall, The Patriarch of Pain spent an uneventful Thanksgiving afternoon in a tent in Crawford, Texas, awaiting the mobs who were surely queing to get her autograph on the ghostwritten, direct-to-paperback book "Not One More Mother's Child."

Her publisher contested reports of the snooze-fest, claiming that "about 100 people showed up." A pretty good day's haul, considering her book hovers between 20,000 and 30,000 on the Amazon ranking.

Looking for more fertile fields, Mama Sheehan jetted off to Spain, where another measly 100 or so people showed up to take pictures of America's Mother.

"Arrgh! Someone get this purple ink off my finger!"

PSST!!

I have some news for you, Cindy: MILLIONS of other mothers are celebrating in Iraq; mothers in a formerly totalitarian society now have something they never had: the right to vote; the right to choose their own future.

These are mothers that surely value Casey Sheehan's life, and his brave sacrafice, far more than his biological mother ever will.

These are the Faces of Freedom - the faces of The Mothers of All Fallen Soldiers. Their joy is matched only by the pride we feel as we stand with the Iraqi people.

-

The Depths of Ignorance

2005-10-11T16:45:00.000-05:00

There are so many words available today. All you need is a computer and an Internet connection, and the world is at your fingertips.

It would take a lifetime to wade through all the material that has been produced in the last 24 hours alone. Blogs, articles, commentary, transcripts, instructions, deliberations… Private papers, public papers, minutes of meetings, minutes of congress, legal briefs… personal ruminations, private diaries, confessions, epiphanies…

The ramblings of an intellectually restless nation are daily on display. Most is the refuse of personal meanderings. There may be a nugget or two to cherish, but let’s face it: most people have nothing to say, really. And if they do, the writing skills they learned at the hands of our inept educational system has left them nothing short of illiterate; they can’t put a cogent sentence together to save their lives.

They have their word processors – their computer keyboards. Access to these tools might seem like the only prerequisites to written expression. At least, that’s the impression we’re given as we cruise the World Wide Web.

And that, in essence, is the problem.

Thirty years ago, before keyboards sprung up in every home, a typewriter was the tool of a wordsmith. Most young people have only seen typewriters in museums, or in their grandmother’s attic. Dusty relics, these tools were used primarily by secretaries, scholars, and those musty loners called “writers”. To these folks, words were the icons of a craft. They used them like fine wire: slowly twisting them about the stems of ideas until sentences emerged that conveyed those ideas in fresh, vibrant forms.

The time spent on this discipline called writing was immense: ideas were first scratched in notebooks (with pens and pencils… on paper!). These ideas were then organized into outlines. There was a flow and a cogency that was worked out. Did these ideas work together? Did they conflict? How best to weave disparate thoughts into a cohesive pattern?

Only when the outline was finished could the process of writing commence. First drafts were hammered out. Hammered out on paper; usually on stencils, carbons: a sticky, black paper between two sheets of white bond that would produce a smudgy copy underneath the incessant beating of the typewriter keys.

Pages would begin to collect in a box: numbered, usually double-spaced. Once the writer was satisfied with the first draft, he would sit down with his carbon copies and a pencil and begin to edit. Reading and re-reading his work he would pare down redundant sentences, cut thoughts that didn’t contribute to the overall harmony of the piece, add fresh ideas, and constantly refine.

A second draft ensued. This second draft meant that the author had to re-type the entire document, plus the changes made, onto fresh paper and carbons. A second box, next to the first, would begin to fill.

A fresh pot of coffee would be brewed, and the second draft would face the same fate as the first: the editing, the scratching-out, the re-writing.

The honing and refining of an idea into a perfect piece of language.

Then, again, the re-typing – the re-writing of the entire manuscript into the Final Draft.

This is the art that is now lost, an orphan in this age of immediate technological satisfaction. We don’t need to re-read our writing: spell checkers hum and grammar cops burble away under the white sheen of the computer screen. Our words don’t need to touch paper. We can cut and paste them into a browser, and they can be read by millions without ever the need of cracking a cover.

Yet, amidst this technological marvel stands a hollow man – a straw man. His chest filled with nothing but the electrical synapses of a worldwide ether. There lacks both the substance and the discipline to harness the power of the written word.

We no longer hone our craft; we no longer refine our work. We seldom read what we have written – that would be a waste of time.

And in our rush to post our words on a global medium we construct icons to our own ignorance. We make pronouncements we cannot possibly back up with fact; we impugn a person’s character without ever meeting him or her. We don’t engage in research – that would cloud the immediacy of the moment. The time spent would be time lost.

We bandy about ideas we cannot fathom with words we don’t understand. We call ourselves enlightened - our work important – we pat ourselves on the back and move forward into our own intellectual gloom.

Our language has the power to lift us from our basest instincts. Yet, on the white bond of today’s new media, we tend only to plumb the depth of our own ignorance.

-

The Poster Boy Of The American Left

2005-09-15T01:04:00.000-05:00

Meet Sean Penn: actor, bon vivant, activist-about-town.

Sean has decided to lend his immeasurable help to the people of New Orleans. He flew down with his retinue – almost a week after the hurricane - commandeered a boat, and hit the water. What he intended to accomplish was not clear. “Whatever I can.”

The boat had a leak. Well, not a leak, really – a drain hole that wasn’t plugged. In his zeal to lend “whatever aid he could”, Sean didn’t check the boat for water worthiness. As soon as Sean’s party cast off, they took on water, leaving the chagrined actor with nothing to do but bail with a red, plastic cup (dressed in the height of hurricane relief fashion, a white flak jacket).

Sean didn’t do much that day – he couldn’t, really, because his boat was filled with his retinue of publicity men, photographers, and FOS (Friends Of Sean). There was no room for victims. One bystander asked Sean, “How are you going to get any people in that thing?”

Sean spent a few hours paddling around the streets of New Orleans – he had to paddle, because the boat’s motor didn’t work. When he was done he ran straight for the news cameras and complained.

Whined, really. Whined about the lack of boats with federal government people on them. This was proof enough for the brilliant actor that the feds – read, “Bush,” in Liberal-Speak - weren’t doing anything. Of course, had the feds known Sean was going to be paddling in a sinking boat with a red, plastic cup, I’m sure they would have pulled all 40,000+ troops from the tedious job of rescuing people, whisked them off to the vicinity of Mr. Penn’s party, just so they could have been witnessed “doing their job,” which, of course, is to massage the actor’s ego.

You see, getting people into the boat is not the intention of the American Left. The goal here is for the Left to appear as though they care. Sean is surrounded by his aides, his photographers, and his spin-masters. The boat is full to the brim with his propaganda machine – there is no room for the truly needy.

Based on this Oscar-caliber performance, I nominate Sean Penn for The Poster Boy of The American Left.

Consider:

The Boat is Liberal America. It is taking on water (losing both popular opinion and the intellectual debate), and the reason is clear to everyone involved (their unwillingness to correct their agenda to meet the facts). Yet, rather than fix the leak, the left is satisfied solely with bailing out the boat with a red, plastic cup (blaming George Bush, or any handy conservative Republican, for their problems). They proclaim immense interest in the welfare of average Americans, yet they have no room in their boat for those very same Americans. And when all is said and done, their only contribution to our politics and culture is to complain bitterly and to pass the blame on to someone else.

That’s pretty much it in a nutshell.

Think I’m making it up?

Here is evidence to back up my claim, from the mouths of the very same Liberals we have been hearing from for months and years; those same people who offer no new ideas, just hatred.

Item 1: George Bush is responsible for the hurricane

“There is much to be said and done about the manmade annihilation of New Orleans, caused NOT by a hurricane but by the very specific decisions made by the Bush administration in the past four and a half years. Do not listen to anyone who says we can discuss all this later. No, we can't. Our country is in an immediate state of vulnerability. More hurricanes and other disasters are on the way, and a lazy bunch of self-satisfied lunatics are still running the show.”

http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/message/index.php?id=184

This quote is from Michael “Farenheit 9/11” Moore. Despite the fact that Global Warming is not proven, and that George Bush has been president for only 4 1/2 years, Moore considers it an open-and-shut case that he and he alone bears the guilt of this act of nature.

Michael Moore isn’t satisfied being the only left Looney to blame the hurricane itself on George Bush. RFK, Jr. gets into the action on his Huffington Blog:

“On March 13, Bush reversed his previous position [on CO2 emissions], announcing he would not back a CO2 restriction using the language and rationale provided by [former Louisiana Governor] Barbour. Echoing Barbour’s memo, Bush said he opposed mandatory CO2 caps, due to “the incomplete state of scientific knowledge” about global climate change.

“Well, the science is clear. This month, a study published in the journal Nature by a renowned MIT climatologist linked the increasing prevalence of destructive hurricanes to human-induced global warming.”

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-f-kennedy-jr/afor-they-that-sow-the-_b_6396.html

Item 2: George Bush is responsible for ALL of the poor response by local, state, and federal officials in their respective relief efforts

The Mayor of New Orleans, Nagin, put it this way in an interview with WWL radio:

WWL: “What do you need right now to get control of this situation?”

NAGIN: “I need reinforcements, I need troops, man. I need 500 buses, man. We ain't talking about -- you know, one of the briefings we had, they were talking about getting public school bus drivers to come down here and bus people out here.

“I'm like, ‘You got to be kidding me. This is a national disaster. Get every doggone Greyhound bus line in the country and get their asses moving to New Orleans.’

“That's -- they're thinking small, man. And this is a major, major, major deal. And I can't emphasize it enough, man. This is crazy.

“I've got 15,000 to 20,000 people over at the convention center. It's bursting at the seams. The poor people in Plaquemines Parish. ... We don't have anything, and we're sharing with our brothers in Plaquemines Parish.

“It's awful down here, man.”

http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/09/02/nagin.transcript/

Now one would think from the Mayor’s response that he had exhausted all of his options in rescuing his fellow city dwellers from Katrina’s deadly waters. Yet, one only needs to look under the media’s wrappings to find this picture of New Orleans school buses:

Before Katrina struck federal officials were on the phone to Nagin, begging him to evacuate people, and to declare a State of Emergency. The mayor refused, letting his bus fleet drown in filthy water, rather than use it to evacuate the people of his city. His incompetence resulted in hundreds of deaths.

The Mayor also turned down an offer by Amtrak to evacuate hundreds of people before the hurricane struck:

http://newsmax.com/archives/ic/2005/9/12/103905.shtml

In an intense exchange with NBC’s Tim Russert, Nagin again peddles his excuses, all the while laying the entirety of blame on the federal government, despite Russert’s quoting the New Orleans' comprehensive emergency plan, which directly contradicts Nagin’s statements:

RUSSERT: “But, Mr. Mayor, if you read the city of New Orleans' comprehensive emergency plan-- and I've read it and I'll show it to you and our viewers--it says very clearly, ‘Conduct of an actual evacuation will be the responsibility of the mayor of New Orleans. The city of New Orleans will utilize all available resources to quickly and safely evacuate threatened areas. Special arrangements will be made to evacuate persons unable to transport themselves or who require specific life-saving assistance. Additional personnel will be recruited to assist in evacuation procedure as needed. Approximately 100,000 citizens of New Orleans do not have means of personal transportation.’

“It was your responsibility. Where was the planning? Where was the preparation? Where was the execution?”

MAYOR NAGIN: “The planning was always in getting people to higher ground, getting them to safety. That's what we meant by evacuation. Get them out of their homes, which – most people are under sea level. Get them to a higher ground and then depending upon our state and federal officials to move them out of harm's way after the storm has hit.”

http://wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=46269

Here’s a complete transcript of the Meet The Press interview: http://wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=46271

In the face of these accusations, the fact remains that the federal response to Katrina was faster than for hurricanes Hugo, Andrew, Iniki, Francine, and Jeanne. http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05254/568876.stm

And, in a final embarrassing blow, the past few days has seen the breaking of the story of how Red Cross was not allowed in to New Orleans by State Officials before the levees broke:

http://www.redcross.org/faq/0,1096,0_682_4524,00.html

http://wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=46224

http://newsmax.com/archives/ic/2005/9/9/105455.shtml

Item 3: George Bush let New Orleans go to hell in a handcart because Bush Hates Blacks

Kanye West breathlessly proclaimed this before live TV:

West: “I hate the way they portray us in the media. You see a black family, it says, ‘They're looting.’ You see a white family, it says, ‘They're looking for food.’ And, you know, it's been five days [waiting for federal help] because most of the people are black. And even for me to complain about it, I would be a hypocrite because I've tried to turn away from the TV because it's too hard to watch. I've even been shopping before even giving a donation, so now I'm calling my business manager right now to see what is the biggest amount I can give, and just to imagine if I was down there, and those are my people down there. So anybody out there that wants to do anything that we can help -- with the way America is set up to help the poor, the black people, the less well-off, as slow as possible. I mean, the Red Cross is doing everything they can. We already realize a lot of people that could help are at war right now, fighting another way -- and they've given them permission to go down and shoot us!”

“George Bush doesn't care about black people!”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/03/AR2005090300165_pf.html

Kanye repeated this on Ellen DeGeneres’ show:

"They have been trying to sweep us (African-Americans) under the kitchen sink and it was so in people's faces and so on TV... that they couldn't even hide it any more.”

http://www.contactmusic.com/new/xmlfeed.nsf/mndwebpages/kanye%20fires%20off%20again

West was shown how his words were received by America during his performance spot on the NFL Kickoff show Thursday night:

“The chart topping hip hop rapper star who used a network hurricane fundraiser to charge ‘George Bush doesn't care about black people’ was loudly and lustily booed during last night's NFL kickoff show.

“The appearance of Kanye West, who was beamed into the Boston stadium via remote from Los Angeles, received a strongly negative response from the crowd.

“’The boos were thunderous and lasted for much of his number,’ reports the BOSTON GLOBE.”

http://drudgereport.com/flash9nfl.htm

And lest one think that these sentiments are only expressed by black rappers, the DNC’s Howard Dean said, "We must ... come to terms with the ugly truth that skin color, age and economics played a deadly role in who survived and who did not.” http://www.breitbart.com/news/2005/09/07/D8CFNMPG0.html

Item 4: The left used the tragedy to score both money and political points

Sen. Charles Schumer, a New York Democrat and the head of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, issued an appeal Thursday urging people to sign an online petition to fire the head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency over his handling of the Katrina response. The same web page also called for donations to the DSCC – money that would be used for political campaigns, not for hurricane relief.

After an inquiry from the Associated Press, the DSCC quickly pulled down the page and said they would donate to charity any money raised by the anti-FEMA petition.

http://www.nynewsday.com/news/local/wire/newyork/ny-bc-ny--katrina-democrats0908sep08,0,3588467,print.story?coll=ny-region-apnewyork

http://www.nypost.com/postopinion/editorial/27913.htm

Even Al Gore got into the act:

"When the corpses of American citizens are floating in toxic flood waters five days after a hurricane struck, it is time not only to respond directly to the victims of the catastrophe, but to hold ... the leaders of our nation accountable," Gore told environmentalists at the Sierra Club's national convention.

http://www.kron4.com/Global/story.asp?S=3830037

Just as Cindy Sheehan used the tragedy of her son Casey’s death to propel her political agenda, so the American Left is using the tragedy of Hurricane Katrina to propel their political agenda.

-----

So, the template is established, the boat continues to sink, and the little red cups flail. Left-wing politicians are demanding accountability, and an investigation. They want Bush to come out looking bad. But they had better be careful what they wish for: as in times past, those investigations may reveal Bush as the only principled man in this whole sorry affair. He has taken full responsibility for the slowness of the government’s response. Has New Orleans’ Mayor, or Louisiana’s Governor, taken responsibility for their own failed actions?

No. And they won’t. Not because they can’t see the truth – I believe they can. They see their boat filling with water, but they would rather bail with red, plastic cups, and blame others for their own mistakes, and hope that Americans don’t notice their own culpability.

It’s the only paradigm the American Left knows.

-

Shoot The Looters

2005-09-01T19:56:00.000-05:00

"Pond Scum" Is Too Good For Them

Tonight, a news schmebette on Indianapolis Channel 8 pronounced, "Desperation is pushing the people of New Orleans to despair, which is resulting in looting...."

No. Wrong.

This thinking is part of the shallow justification that is beginning to percolate from certain small-minded people in the media class for the selfishness, violence, and utter immorality we are seeing from thugs in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

Please explain, news schmebette, how desperation drives someone to steal a wide-screen tv?

What levels of hunger and thirst compel otherwise moral people to fill their pockets with iPods and car stereos?

Are these people eating diamond rings?

Are they drinking the bullets and guns they have stolen?

No. They are using these guns to shoot at police. To shoot at rescue helicopters.

To keep people away from their crimes.

Those who engage in mindless sophistry in defense of common criminals should keep in mind how our collective humanity is debased by people who prey on victims and the helpless.

Those pukes in New Orleans - in the all communities devistated by the hurricane - are not just walking off with other people's property. They are walking off with our national honor.

That self-same honor that rose from the ashes after 9/11.

They are stealing that from each and every one of us. And it's time we put down the fluffy pronouncements and said, "Enough".

Martial law needs to be declared.

Looters need to be shot.

On sight.

We can't allow the American Spirit to sink into the swamp. We need to do what one commentator suggested:

"Shoot first, ask questions later. And don't be too concerned with the answers."

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Poor Babs

2005-08-21T17:53:00.000-05:00

Ya gotta love Barbara Streisand

It's really the only way you can put up with her boundless stupdity and whiney celebrity.

It's been a long 5 years for the Simpering Streisand. George Bush's 2000 Presidential victory seemed to shake loose all the remaining gray cells that clung desperately to the inside of her cranium. Her involvement in the 2004 presidential election did nothing to help John Kerry.

Then there was that flap over the California Coastal Records Project publishing a photo of her home in Malibu. Remember? She went after the photographer for $50,000,000! That's 50 MILLION!

Fortunately for sanity, she lost, and was forced this year to pay the photographer's attorney fees.

Here's the complete story, including the offending photograph.

Now, despite Babs' consistent refusal to look things squarely on, she continues to crank out the rants on her private blog.

The one I intended to comment on today is dated July 21, 2005. In it she states:

How lucky for George Bush that his well-timed nomination of Judge Roberts to the Supreme Court has taken the heat off of Karl Rove. Let's hope that the press does not forget about Mr. Rove and the White House's role in the leak of undercover CIA agent Valerie Plame's identity....

....Let's hope that the media does not take the bait as the President continues to do everything in his power to shift the spotlight away from Karl Rove. We'll be watching...

You can read the whole thing here.

Now, here's what Babs is not telling you:

She is still sorely pissed at Carl Rove for winning 2000 and 2004 for George Bush, as well as winning GOP seats in congress in 2002 (traditionally a time when the party in the White House loses congressional seats).

She sniffed blood when Rove's name came up over the alleged "outing" of Valerie Plame, CIA employee and former covert operative.

Plame was actually "outed" over ten years prior to Novak publishing her name by Cuba, a country Babs admires.

The law is very clear that a covert operative has to be "outed" within 5 years of his/her losing covert status in order for their to be a crime.

Neither Novak nor Rove broke the law.

Plame's husband, Joe Wilson, was actually the one who "outed" his wife to Novak!

Babs loves Wilson, because he hates Bush, so she will never admit the truth about him.

President Bush did not plan Sandra O'Conner's retirement from the Supreme Court.

Therefore, his nomination of Roberts was not "well-timed", nor was it part of Bush's "continu[ing] to do everything in his power to shift the spotlight away from Karl Rove".

Bad luck for Babs?

Not really.

Here's why:

Cindy Sheehan is now a left-wing media star, and has been dominating the front pages for almost three weeks.

Don't tell me you don't know who Cindy Sheehan is: the mother who was camped out in Crawford, TX, waiting for the President to talk to her about her son, who was killed in Iraq (forget the fact Cindy already talked with Bush: that doesn't count).

Now, when Roberts dominated the front pages because of his nomination to fill the Supreme Court vacancy of retiring O'Conner, Babs had her hissy-fit, reminding her friends in the media not to forget Carl Rove.

Yet, when Sheehan dominates the front pages, effectively deep-sixing the Rove story for good, Babs writes about the 60th Anniversary of Hiroshima!

Where's the rage at the press for bumping Rove for Sheehan?

There is none, precisely because Sheehan is trying to make Bush look bad. Because Sheehan is parroting the same stupid liberal rants that spill from Babs' brain.

They're on the same team.

So, it's not really about Rove, Roberts, or Sheehan, is it?

No, it's about hating Bush.

The Big One

So, in revisiting Streisand's blog to pull quotes for this piece, I discover that the Rove story has been bumped down by Babs herself! And in its place is an August 5, 2005 posting about Hiroshima.

Here are the first two sentences:

August 6, 2005 marks the 60th anniversary of the US bombing of Hiroshima. The Atomic Bomb, which decimated the Japanese city and its people, was never used in combat again.

Anyone notice the error here?

Check it out:

ON THIS DAY | 6 | 1945: US drops atomic bomb on Hiroshima

BBC ON THIS DAY | 9 | 1945: Atom bomb hits Nagasaki

So, who's going to tell Babs she's wrong again?

You simply can't trust liberals in general, and Babs in particular, with the facts.

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The Politics of Stupidity

2005-04-11T15:54:00.000-05:00

The American Left wants you to think that ALL Politics Of Personal Destruction come from the Right (eg., "Stupid Conservatives"). After all, that's what Hillary told us, right? And she is the self-proclaimed "Smartest Woman In America" (if you don't count 80% of actual women in America)!

So, it came as quite an embarrassment to members of the "High Road" Left to see that members of their ilk are - or were, until they got caught - trying to sell this t-shirt on Monday:

In case you can't read it, it says:

Dear Tom Delay,

Please commit suicide.

Sincerely, Everyone

The shirt was being sold by cafepress.com, an outfit that sells political paraphenelia of all persuasions. If you go here you will see this shirt among other Delay shirts for sale (one brilliantly expounds Tom DeLay - Evil GOP Bastard).

Click on the link for the offending shirt, and you get "We are sorry, but the product you requested could not be found. The page you are looking for may have been renamed, moved, or deleted.". Evidently, being outed by Matt Drudge has caused cafepress.com to pull the shirt from their store (the shirt was still online earlier on Monday, just so you know).

The shirt is the brainchild of Christopher Goodwin, some left-wing artist-type living in Washington, DC. He has developed other fun shirts for cafeexpress.com, with such brilliant witticisms as Bush Is Vile.

In being outed by Drudge, cafeexpress.com has simply pulled the shirt (it will probably re-appear in a few days - why waste the investment?); Goodwin has posted the following, typically Contrite Liberal apology on his blog:

The Tom DeLay suicide shirt was in poor taste. I apologize. Now, please stop sending me hate mail. I get the point.

Evidently, being outed as a hate-monder is cause for some serious self-reflection, or what passes for it in the arrogant American Left.

Not enough, it seems, for mister Goodwin, who has replaced his "Please Commit Suicide" shirt with this one:

It says:

Dear Tom Delay,

Please go away, far, far away.

Sincerely, Everyone

He has also updated the "apology" on his blog:

Earlier today, I came to my own conclusion that the Tom DeLay suicide shirt was in poor taste and could legitimately cause offense to people who have had to deal with suicide in their own families. I decided to pull the shirt from the web site.

Before I was able to take the shirt down, however, Drudge had posted it on his site, and I was immediately inundated with hate mail. As I've posted on my web site, www.goodwinart.com, I unreservedly apologize to anyone I offended with the shirt. I made a mistake.

Someone pointed out to me today that, by admitting I was wrong, I've shown a great deal more character than Mr. DeLay himself, who, it seems, can never admit to any wrongdoing.

For the record, I do not wish Tom DeLay dead, and of course I never expected him to heed the shirt's request. I just want him to resign.

I will be putting another anti-Tom DeLay shirt up for sale; this one, however, will not mention suicide.

Sincerely,
Christopher Goodwin

So, Mr. Goodwin "saw the light" before being outed by Drudge? Not likely. Who believes that? And he has obviously recanted his "apology", which wasn't much of an apology to begin with.

We've seen this all before.

Not wishing to be outdone by the loving Mr Goodwin, someone called "Crazy Liberal" (a statement too obvious for most people, evidently), is offering this shirt:

It says:

Dear Tom Delay,

Please drop dead.

Sincerely, The American People

This shirt is still for sale by cafeexpress.com as of this writing.

And in a final fit of subtelty, this t-shirt has also been offered by cafeexpress.com:

It says:

Kill Bush

Again, after being outed by Drudge, cafeexpress.com has pulled this one, but not, evidently (or, not yet) the "Delay Drop Dead" shirt.

Or how about these stamps from an "art" exhibit by Michael Hernandez deLuna at Columbia College's Glass Curtain Gallery titled "Axis of Evil, the Secret History of Sin".

It offers, among other items, this enlightening image:

What does this tell us about the these people?

First, they're really stupid. They obviously never learned anything from the Schiavo fiasco. The democrats as the "Right-To-Death" Party? How about just the "Death Party", since they obviously wish so much of it on people they disagree with?

Second, they really, really hate conservatives, and Republicans in general. This is the group that have, over the past 13 years, been painting Republicans as the party of hate, but who revealed themselves in toto in the 2004 presidential campaign as the true despisers.

The amount of pure HATRED spewed forth from such fronts as moveon.org (they don't deserve a link) was a real eye-opener to mainstream America. We conservatives understood the true measure of Liberals' acrimony for years. However, they seriously misjudged the observation powers of Middle America - they thought most people would continue to believe their lies, so they could push the envelope.

They were wrong.

Third, they are desperate. So desperate, in fact, that they are willing to hang their cerdibility as "The Party of Compassion" on the yardarm of of their anger.

Which is a good thing, really.

Because the more Liberals do this, the more Middle America sees them as they truly are:

Stupid, hateful, desperate people.

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The MRI From Hell

2005-03-24T14:04:00.000-05:00

OK.

All we have been hearing the past few days is that Terri Schiavo has NEVER undergone an MRI on her brain.

Never.

Rush is saying it, Ann Coulter is saying it, Savage, Hannity, Beck, tons and tons of "conservative" websites (just do a Google for "Schiavo MRI" and you'll see what I mean)....

Yet, two nights ago, on the NBC Evening News, there was a picture of Terri's MRI compared with the MRI of a cognizant person.

Was I dreaming?

Maybe, but if you really dig through the Google junk, you'll find a reference to this webpage:

Medical Observations Show Schiavo Cognitive, Alert.

This purports to be "[the actual medical] chart [that] outlines the progress of Terri Schindler-Schiavo from February 25, 1990 through December 2003 as noted by healthcare professionals."

The actual medical chart.

Click on it. Now, do a page search for "MRI".

Here's what you'll find:

"7/24/1990

"MRI Report Dr. Pinkston

"Profound atrophy w/ very atrophic appearing cortex. Mild white matter disease, anoxic/hpoxic injury"

So, there was an MRI done of Terri Schiavo's brain. And a Dr. Pinkston did a report based on this MRI. Why, then, is the conservative media so rabid on insisting there was NO MRI?

Their argument concerns me, because uninformed and passionate people can come away from it with the false assumption that Mrs. Schiavo has never had any imaging done on her brain. This is not true, as the following link will attest:

Analyzing Terri Schiavo's brain.

This is the picture of a CT Scan done on Terri in 2002. The damage is clearly shown, and explained.

After hearing about this case ad nauseum, I've come to the inescapable conclusion that the conservative media is being manipulated by the Schindler family. They're pawns in this case, and the Schindler's are playing them like virtuosos.

Why does this strike me so?

The first inkling was the release of that audio recording purporting to be Terri right after the feeding tube was removed last Friday. Remember? Her Daddy saying "Hi, sweety", and Terri moaning....

Glenn Beck devoted most of the first hour of his show on Friday, March 18 to this tape, complaining bitterly that what we were hearing was Terri in pain, Terri fighting for her life, Terri starving to death.

Turns out the tape is a year old. The Schindler lawyer admitted as much to Sean Hannity on Sean's Monday show, March 21.

So Beck was had. As were all the other conservative media who played that tape over the weekend.

Then there was the Schindler lawyer who went on Hannity on Friday, March 18. She claimed to have asked Terri to just tell her she wanted to live, "then it would all be over." Terri allegedly said, "I waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa....."

That's it.

But both this lawyer and Hannity interpreted this as Terri saying she wanted to live! How did they get that? Maybe Michael Schiavo is right, maybe Terri really wants to die. Maybe she was saying "I waaant to die!"

"I waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa...." isn't enough to decide either way.

Then there's the issue of the money. The Schindler family has been painting Michael as a money-grubber, who is only after Terri's settlement cash, which he is entitled only after she dies. I even bought that one, and wrote about it last week.

My apologies to Michael Schiavo. NBC News mentioned the money last night. They said that the Schiavos got $1 million in a medical settlement. $700,000 went to Terri, $300,000 to Michael.

But the figure that struck me is this: NBC claimed that only $40,000 of the $1 million remains!

So, why hasn't Michael given up and just handed custody over to the Schindlers? There's no money in it for him now.

Then there's the "coming out" of the nurses. They claim they are doing it on their own. But, my suspicions, given everything else that's been happening, lead me to believe the Schindlers are behind this.

The final straw was Mrs. Schindler, begging on national TV: "Someone please do something to save my daughter!"

How gut-wrenching. How sad.

And the conservative media lapped it up like puppies.

Now, I want to reiterate here what I wrote last week: I don't want to see Terri die. Not at all. It would have been best if Michael had just divorced Terri and handed custody over to the Schindlers. We never even would have heard about this case; it would have remained what it always was: a quiet issue between two families over the tragic injury to an adored wife and beloved daughter.

But, thanks to lies about MRIs, audio tapes, and the law, the Schindlers have shoved this baby right down our throats.

And we just opened up and swallowed.

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Pulling The Feeding Tube On The Courts

2005-03-18T14:38:00.000-05:00

So, today is the big day. Terri Schiavo's feeding tube is due to be removed today.

It's been an interesting 24 hours; in some respects a microcosm of the past 10+ years. We've had some extremely calisthenic legal maneuverings, including - finally, some would say - an interest by the US Congress.

But it appears, at this minute, to all be in vain - Judge Greer has overruled all, including the Congress, and has said, "Enough".

Again.

And I have to say, as much as I don't want to see Terri starved to death at the wishes of her incredibly selfish husband - who stands to profit financially from her death through her estate - I'm more concerned with what this case has done to the court system.

To put it succinctly, the past 10+ years have seen this case march all around the Florida courts. It's even touched the US Supreme Court, who diecided this week to leave it be.

Here's what bothers me: when party #1 in this case lost in a court, they went to another court. They won, and Party #2 took it to another court. They won and Party #1 took it to another court. Another victory and another appeal; another loss and another appeal.

Appeal, appeal, appeal.

Bounce, bounce, bounce.

If you don't like what one judge says, then go shopping for another one.

This sets an incredibly bad legal precedent: if you don't like a verdict, appeal. Which, in and of itself, is fine - it's a cornerstone of our legal system. But we've seen the appeal process become so stretched and prolonged that it's begun to erode the idea that a person can ever have a case finished.

If the Schiavo case is any indication, no one can ever win in our legal system: appeals can drag on indefinitely. Gone is the ostensible principle of legal finality. Verdicts become mere opinions, ready to be overturned by another judge.

So, when Judge Greer said, "Enough," part of me wanted to weep - for Terri and her family - but also part of me wanted to sit back and sigh with relief; maybe this case is going reach a conclusion after all.

In all the musings of the million-dollar pundits, no one has bemoaned the fact that our legal system is being eroded by the noble effort to keep Terri alive, and the effort by her husband to see her dead. We hear about the evils of Terri's husband; and I concur with this concensus. We hear about the pain of the family; and I understand their desire to assume the care of their daughter. It certainly would have been best for everyone if Terri's husband had signed over custody to them years ago.

But we don't hear about the courts.

It's too bad, because I would like to see some serious legal discussion of this issue. Without this discussion, I'm afraid that the starving of our courts is being masked by the good intentions of millions of Americans.

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Babies in Suits

2005-03-03T10:29:00.000-05:00

Yesterday, March 2, 2005, Indiana state democrats were faced with 132 bills in the current session at the statehouse.

Bauer, the current leader of the minority democrat party, was faced with a bit of a quandry. Among those bills were issues he was not keen on tacklng: daylight savings time, BMV reform (the BMV is a huge source of money from its vanity plates), and the Colts stadium (the democrats are smarting because Republicans didn't just roll over and accept Indianapolis Mayor Peterson's proposals on the new facility).

So, Rep. Bauer cast around for some fresh ideas on how to handle the crisis. And his gaze fell squarely on previous democrat strategies: one from Texas, the other from Washington.

The first strategy was borne out of the Texas Republicans' desire to redistrict the state. Such redistricting would have favored Republican lawmakers, since they are the majority. They sought to use gerrymandering as a way of solidifying their base by drawing "new" Republican voting zones.

The Texas democrats didn't like this one bit - despite the fact that gerrymandering has been a favored tactic of theirs for decades.

So, the Texas dems fought back the only way they knew how: they cut and ran. Instead of standing nose-to-nose with the Republicans and fighting for their principals, they bailed: left the state, in fact. High-tailed it for Oklahoma and New Mexico.

They thought the voters would interpret their immature action as a sign of determination.

It didn't work. The voters saw through the charade, saw them exposed as the unprincipled little babies they are, and the Republican gerrymandering was a success.

Et tu.

In Washington, whining has been raised to the level of an art form by Senate democrats. Rather than fight the good fight on Bush appointments, democrats have chosen the unconstitutional tactic of the fillibuster (the constitution does not allow fillibuster for "advise and consent" issues like judicial appointments).

They basically sat down, grabbed a magazine, and said, "Make me."

Passive-aggressive behavior at its pre-teen best.

Of course, they may have won the moment, in no small part because of the Republicans failure to force closure, but they eventually lost they day with both the voters and with the government. They lost seats in both the Senate and House in 2004, and Bush has re-issued his appointments, which the dems are now forced to approve.

So, Indiana democrat Bauer has obviously taken these two examples of democrat "principles" and has chosen to adopt the party option:

Cut And Run.

Indiana State House democrats spent the entire day yesterday in what they call "caucus". What this really amounted to is a boycott. A walkout.

A temper tantrum.

Rather than staying and fighting the Republicans toe-to-toe (which any reasonable adult would do), the Indiana dems put on their whiner hats, stomped for good measure, and threw a passive-aggressive party.

They let 132 pieces of very important Indiana lawmaking fail - budget issues, education issues, economic issues, BMV reform, daylight savings time, the Colts,... everything got trashed because the dems took their ball and went home.

Which leaves Indiana two options: either award the babies in suits by supporting them, or throw the bums out when they come up for re-election.

The second option seems the only adult thing to do.

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Suing God

2005-02-15T13:40:00.000-05:00

Even though John Edwards' physical presence was not evident, his spirit continues to thrive in the crazy world of trial lawyers.

Today, Herwig Hasslacher, one of three lawyers representing a group of Austrian and German victims of the December 26, 2004 Asian tsunami, has filed suit against Thailand, French hotel chain Accor, and U.S forcasters. The suit askes the defendents to "prove they reacted adequately to the disaster".

Evidently, according to Hasslacher, not enough was done by Thailand and NOAA to warn vacationers in the Indian Ocean of the impending natural disaster (forget the natives - they don't contribute to the economy). Accor is being sued because it didn't adequately notify victims' relatives (once it found them), and because it buit its Sofitel on a fault line.

The suit is currently just a fishing expedition; no damages are being sought... "at this time".

How comforting.

In related news, mark Friday, April 13, 2024 on your calendar!

On that fateful day asteroid 2004 MN4 - the size of three soccer fields - will pass between the Earth and the Moon! It will, according to scientists, actually be closer to the earth than some communication satellites!

Better make sure your dish network is upgraded to accomodate for any asteroid-related outages.

So far, the asteroid is only a thrilling nuisance. It is not expected to hit the earth.

However, we can rest assured that, in the case it veers slightly from its current path, an army of attorneys is already prepping briefs to be filed on behalf of its victims!

No, wait. That won't fly, will it?

We will have had 19 years warning about 2004 MN4.

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