More Light-hearted Saturday Snark

Just CLICK for Infamous Monsters of Filmland. See if you can tell which is which...

"Waiting for Godot"

Here's a pic of some sKerry supporters "Waiting for Godot" Note: "Waiting for Godot" is Samuel Beckett's existential "theater of the absurd" play (that is, no drama, chronological plot, etc.) . In the play, the main characters mostly just sit around waiting for something—anything! Godot!!— to relieve their boredom. Can't you just sense the electricity in the air "Waiting for sKerry"?

Misunderstanding the Iraq war, part 2

"Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and the success of liberty. This much we pledge—and more." –John F. Kennedy "So in war, through the influence of an infinity of petty circumstances, which cannot properly be described on paper, things disappoint us, and we fall short of the mark. A powerful iron will overcomes this friction, it crushes the obstacles..." –Clausewitz, on "friction" in war. Here, Clausewitz reveals another way the Mass Media Podpeople's Army and the DNC (but I repeat myself :-) misunderstand the Iraq War and the President's prosecution of it. For the MMPA and the DNC, problems, mistakes and barriers to a successful conclusion to the war are all reasons to declare it a failure, a "quagmire". They particularly decry George W. Bush's "stubborness" in refusing to admit defeat. Clausewitz knew—and the American soldiers on the ground know—that obstacles are there to be overcome, not to be surrendered to. That mistakes are there to be corrected or worked around, not whined about. That the unknowns are always greater than the knowns, but that courage and determination are key in overcoming both the friction and fog of war. The MMPA, the DNC and their annointed champion, Jean Fraud sKerry, do not understand these things. The "Neville Chamberlain of the 21st Century" is not interested in a determined prosecution of the war on Islamic jihadists. To him, Islamic terrorism is akin to the "nuisances" of prostitution and illegal gambling. To him, magnifying, misrepresenting and actual lying about mistakes committed or problems faced by the boots on the ground is simply a political expedient for use in gaining power and position. Where is the "iron will" in Jean Fraud sKerry's character necessary to overcome the friction of war? He has no obvious consistency of position on any issue except for his consistency as regards blaming America first. In that, he is no different today than when, in 1970, he adopted Madame Binh's seven-point negotiating position and advocated the North Vietnam/Viet Cong position to the American people. His only consistency through the years has been to blame America and seek to make her weaker. Is this a person who can understand or achieve success in Iraq? Perhaps his willingness to have others "pay any price, bear any burden" to advance his own petty ambitions would be enough. But I doubt it.

Misunderstanding the Iraq War

There are many ways in which the Mass Media Podpeople's Army (otherwise known as ABCCBSNBCCNNWaPoNYT, etc.) has contributed to a misunderstanding of the Iraq War, but two things typical Mass Media Podpeople seem genetically unable to comprehend stand out. You may have heard of "friction" referred to as a component of war. Clauswitz, the famous—and still authoritative—Prussian military philospher, defined "friction" mainly as resulting from human frailty thusly, "Everything is very simple in war, but the simplest thing is difficult. These difficulties accumulate and produce a friction, which no man can imagine exactly who has not seen war." Thus, human frailty can lead to errors which in turn lead to complications in war that slow things down, gum up the works, make things more difficult than they need to be. Absent perfect soldiers, battle plans and all the devilish little details of war cannot be conducted perfectly. (Of course, friction can also refer to difficulties of terrain, weather, logistics, etc., that are met as uncontrollable circumstances change.) On a slightly different subject, here's an article by someone who's not a military professional considering the "fog of war". http://abcnews.go.com/Business/SiliconInsider/story?id=88655&page=3 An excerpt: +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Silicon Insider: The Myth of the Mistake-Free War Has the Digital Revolution Led to Expectations of a Perfect World? Commentary By MICHAEL S. MALONE Oct. 28, 2004 -- Compared to the vague, imprecise analog world, digital offers the powerful, addictive incentive of continuous, measurable improvement. We see that improvement all around us: personal computers that are twice as powerful this year as last, credit card sized MP3 players that hold 10,000 songs, GPS systems that can place you to within three feet anywhere on the planet. Compare that with the rate of change of the old record players, tape recorders and printed maps... ...A dangerous form of this perfectionism has, I think, infected the presidential campaign this year. It regards the war in Iraq. I'm not here to take one side or another about whether the war was justified, only to suggest that the premise of the debate has been dangerously skewed by our perfectionist thinking. Large parts of modern warfare, especially as practiced by the United States, have been digitalized — from battlefield communications to precision weapons to satellite surveillance — and it is easy to be lulled into the belief that war, too, can be perfected, that it can be made sterile and clean and, most of all, free of any mistakes. But nothing could be more wrong-headed or dangerous. War is still, as Sherman said, "All Hell" — messy, brutal and riddled with the mistakes made in the fog of war. But you would never know that from this year's campaign. President Bush has been excoriated for not anticipating every contingency in the most complicated of all types of warfare, fighting insurgents. He has been blamed for not fighting this war perfectly, something never demanded of FDR or Ike or Bradley. Every single casualty is a defeat; every truck bomb deepens the quagmire... ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ An interesting layman's understanding of war, written for other non-military folks like me. Much more at the link NOTE: the most telling line associated with the article wasn't written by the author of the article. Since this article is one of the few, the very few, I have seen that reflects any kind of sensible comment on the Iraq War, naturally the editors of ABCNews needed to append this statement: "This work is the opinion of the columnist and in no way reflects the opinion of ABC News." No duh. Clausewitz, again, this time on the "fog of war": "All action takes place, so to speak, in a kind of twilight, which like a fog or moonlight, often tends to make things seem grotesque and larger than they really are." Now, while Clausewitz did not specifically use "fog of war" in any of his writings, the description given above fits the modern use of the term: that which is unknown is always larger than that which is known, and the unknown always distorts our understanding of what is known in ways we cannot anticipate. That is one of the reasons why a general staff works better than a micro-managing Alexander or Lee in modern war. Setting goals and giving the boots on the ground latitude in achieving the goals is simply more realistic than directing minutiae from afar, given the complexity of the tasks of war. And the friction and fog of war demand that modern soldiers be trusted to operate with flexibility, to the best of their abilities—and make human mistakes!—within the minimally controlled chaos that is war. And so, to Iraq. I'm not going to argue the "wrong war, wrong place, wrong time" aspect. Hindsight applied to fixing blame (for purposes of personal gain) is only good for people who are going backwards. No. We are there. And if, in looking back, we see mistakes made by the boots on the ground, we see also phenomenal successes. In spite of the inevitable friction of war, a large majority of Iraqis are much better off in terms of safety and freedom than before the war. About 400,000 tons (of the 1,000,000 tons of munitions Saddam purchased from France, Germany, Russia) have been destroyed and more is under Coalition control and even more being discovered regularly. The Kurdish north is probably safer than downtown Detroit. And much of this is due to a President who knew he was not competent, who knew NO ONE is competent, to micro-manage the boots on the ground. Did President Bush make some mistakes in setting strategy and in making appointments to implement the strategies that were set? I believe so. But even given that (and that I would rather the U.S. have spent the $$ that were spent on this war on other things), is there evidence that Islamic jihadists have been severely damaged by this war and that the U.S. is safer because of it? Yes, there is. We are safer in the most important metric: not the number of terrorists convicted of crimes but the number of terrorists killed. Every dead jihadist taken out by a Marine sniper or killed by a well-targeted air strike is one less Islamic jihadist planning or executing a terrorist strike on our soil.

Whatever It Takes

Just. Go. See. It. Whatever It takes

"New Math" at CBSNYT

So far, CNN, NBC, FOX and even CBS' own April 04, 2003 report contradict CBS"News"/NYT's hatchett job on President Bush concerning explosives once stored at the al Qaqaa facility. Now, ABCNews weighs in with "new" information that indicates that 1.) there was far, far less (by two orders of magnitude!) RDX explosive material at the facility the last time the IAEA took a peek--about 3 tons instead of 141 tons, and 2.) The RDX and HMX explosives were under IAEA seal, BUT the storage "bunkers" the explosives were stored in had removable slats (!), facilitating easy removal without violating any IAEA seals!! Let's see... before the war, only 3 tons of one of the explosives in question and none of the explosives were secured... CBS/NYT thinks 3 tons=141 tons (that's New Math for ya)... oh, and let's not forget the Russians were in the area trucking stuff out before the shooting started... see here and here. If all this can be uncovered in a few short days debunking the hit piece by the NYT (and planned for October 31 broadcast by CBS "News"), sKerry's use of the hit piece to attack the President reveals yet another character flaw that would be dangerous in a president: jumping on any new report that advances his agenda without even pausing to check any facts. Hmmm... sKerry now criticizes President Bush for "rushing to war" (by delaying the onset of military action for six months while sKerry and others dithered, thus giving Saddam time to move WMD, etc.) but cannot himself wait one or two days to check the facts on al Qaqaa. Bugs Bunny, where are you when we need you? ("What a maroon." —B.B.)

Are you ready to rrrrrrrrrrumble!

This is taken entirely from Drudge, but since the same material is widely available from President Bush's recent appearances, I'm not going to be too troubled by copyright issues, unless someone informs me otherwise. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ BUSH REBUKES KERRY OVER 'MISSING EXPLOSIVES' ATTACK Wed Oct 27 2004 11:59:11 ET Bush at rally in Pennsylvania: "After repeatedly calling Iraq the wrong war, and a diversion, Senator Kerry this week seemed shocked to learn that Iraq is a dangerous place, full of dangerous weapons..." "If Senator Kerry had his way... Saddam Hussein would still be in power. He would control those all of those weapons and explosives and could share them with his terrorist friends. Now the senator is making wild charges about missing explosives, when his top foreign policy adviser admits, quote, 'We do not know the facts.' Think about that: The senator is denigrating the actions of our troops and commanders in the field without knowing the facts..." "Our military is now investigating a number of possible scenarios, including that the explosives may have been moved before our troops even arrived at the site. This investigation is important and it's ongoing. And a political candidate who jumps to conclusions without knowing the facts is not a person you want as your commander in chief." +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Two things: one not in the "news" and another that WAS in the news

Not surprising that this story hasn't made the queue for mass media podpeople to tell us. It seem that U.S. Marine snipers have taken a BIG bite out of the terrorists investing the city of Hit, Iraq. A squad of snipers from the 1/23 Marines have taken out about a company's number of terrorists who had invested the city and were controlling citizens, traffic, etc. (HT to Hamilton—be sure to read the comments there, as well.) And here's a story that CBS "News" (of all places) ran on April 4, 2003—about 18 months before they planned on running a last-minute hit piece on President Bush about the same locale. Notice that six days before the 101 Airborne came through al Qaqaa, the 3rd Infantry Division, which was tasked with locating WMD, etc., spent some time actually searching for dangerous materials at al Qaqaa—and did find some suspicious materials that were sent off for analysis, but NO RMX/HMX explosives. (Cos they weren't there.) Check CBS's own story that contradicts the NYT and the story CBS was planning to run on 10-31-04. (HT to The Belmont Club)

Right to Life; Responsibility to Speak

Charles J. Chaput, Archbishop for the Roman Catholic church for Denver, CO, has an op-ed piece in the NYT that I strongly recommend. Innocuous registration required (but save the UN/PW somewhere so you can go back and fact check the NYT from time to time :-) h.t. to Carol Platt Liebau

No Wonder Joe Biden Loves Him

Joe Biden, confirmed plagiarist, is apparently a natural fit with Jean Fraud sKerry, if this article in the New York Sun is as accurate as it is convincing: "Researcher Alleges Potential Plagiarism in 11 Passages of Kerry's Writings". (h.t. Hugh Hewitt " No wonder Slow Joe Biden is in line for a job in the never-to-be-named Kerry Administration." –H.H.)

NYTrogate: doing the math

Over at Captains Quarters, some observations from retired Army Reserve Captain Ian Dodgson about the logistics of moving 380 tons of materiel. Another spike in the rail running over the Gray Lady's grave... (Hmm... oughta be a song in that. "Gray, Gray Lady's grave... ")

Martha Stewart's failure? She wasn't a U.S. Senator

Professor Stephen Bainbridge (a corporate law prof at UCLA) has an interesting article that describes what can only be charitably called insider trading by U.S. Senators. Big news: Dog bites man. [Yawn] I am soooooo shocked.

Letter from a senior citizen (yeh, THAT letter :-)

I'm sure most folks have seen at least part one of the post below at some time in the past year. Saw it again today (along with the addition) at Polipundit and thought it worth spreading again... +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ To All American Voters, I am a senior citizen. During the Clinton Administration I had an extremely good and well paying job. I took numerous vacations and had several vacation homes. Since President Bush took office, I have watched my entire life change for the worse. I lost my job. I lost my two sons in that terrible Iraqi War. I lost my homes. I lost my health insurance. As a matter of fact I lost virtually everything and became homeless. Adding insult to injury, when the authorities found me living like an animal, instead of helping me, they arrested me. I will do anything that Senator Kerry wants to insure that a Democrat is back in the White House come next year. Bush has to go. I just thought you would like to know how one senior citizen views the Bush Administration. Thank you for taking time to read my letter. Yours Truly, Saddam Hussein +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Interestingly, someone did answer this poor man's e-letter: +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Dear Mr. Hussein, We are saddened by your predicament. Rest assured under my administration you will be treated with sensitivity. Because you did not have any WMD, you will be released on bail awaiting your show trial. You will, after a few weeks of community service, be allowed to return home. You are an excellent candidate to be Iraq’s ambassador to the UN. Perhaps you will be able to form a coalition of fellow Arab states to help us lose our bad image in the Middle East. I regret the loss of your sons. Sincerely, John F. Kerry

"Who Al Qaqaa'd all over the NYT?"

"Doug from Tejas" (post number 200, commenting at Polpundit on NYTrogate) has these offered titles for the NYT hype about Al Qaqaa: “The Vast Left Wing Conspiracy” “Operation Al Qakaa-Grad” “Integrity-gate"; or “Integrity-Integrity-Integrity-gate” “The Al Qakaa Compact” “Pimp my Ride: Times Edition” “plastique-gate” “Revenge of the Neo-Comm’s II: Good Morning Al Qakaa-nam” “This years Cold Fusion Award for Journalism goes to…. The New York Times” “OK, who Al Qakaa’d all over the Times?” “Al Gore, meet Al Qakaa” “The Times-Witch Project”

"Stolen Honor"—Watch the Whole Thing!

Just CLICK this link and watch "Stolen Honor"—the whole 42-minute documentary. And pass this link (http://stolenhonor.com/documentary/watch-video.asp ) on to everyone you know!

Sub Class of Egocentric Personality Disorder

DSM IV (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders 4th Edition) lists 9 basic criteria for being Narcissistic: 1. has a grandiose sense of self importance 2. is preoccupied with fantasies of unlimited success power, brilliance, beauty, or ideal love 3. believes he/she is special and unique and can only be understood by or associate with others who share the same qualities 4. requires excessive admiration 5. has a sense of entitlement 6. is interpersonally exploitive 7. lacks empathy 8. is often envious of others or believes others are envious of him/her 9. shows arrogant, haughty behaviors or attitudes Hmmm... sound like anyone running for President this year? At least six of the nine criteria definitely apply to sKerry. Given his mythic tales of his accomplishments, even number 2 is a strong possibility. Does anyone know a better diagnostic fit for his personality? (I mean, of course, apart from "son of Satan, the father of lies".)

Smoking Gun, Blazing Saddle (or, Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire part "n")

Two documents at the Vietnam Archive at Texas Tech University at Lubbock, TX, shed some light on sKerry's meetings with the North Vietnam and Viet Cong representatives in Paris during the Vietnam War. The articles, a "circular" numbered 2150901039bin the archive and a "directive" numbered 2150901041, are Viet Cong documents that show both the favorable lightin which the Vietcong viewed the VVAW (Kerry's organ) and Kerry's parroting of the negotiating stance—point-by-point—of Madame Binh, the head of the Vietcong's "delegation" to the Paris Peace Talks. See the article at The New York Sun, the one at Worldnet Daily and , the one at Wintersoldier.com. Wintersoldier.com is, of course, the most detailed as it is founded and staffed mostly by former Vietnam Vets... That article, titled, "John Kerry and the VVAW: Hanoi's American Puppets?" includes commentary/analysis such as [These] newly uncovered documents help clarify the relationship of the North Vietnamese, the Vietcong, the PCPJ, the Communist Party of the USA, and John Kerry's VVAW. They indicate that these organizations worked closely together, using the Paris Peace Talks as a central point of communication, to employ the strategy and tactics devised by the Vietnamese communists to achieve their primary objective: the defeat of the United States of America in Vietnam. But do read the whole thing. If, after reading it, you do not believe the portion of the XIV Amendment that refers to "an officer of the United States" having unauthorized dealings with an enemy of the United States during time of war compelling disqualification from holding office in the Senate applies to sKerry, then you need to re-read the article(s). After returning from his first meeting with Madame Binh, sKerry began promoting her talking points, item by item, even going so far as to slander all the troops who were in Vietnam as war criminals before the Fullbright Committee and "confessing" to having committed "war crimes" himself in TV and newspaper interviews. The question you must ask yourself is this: having lied and betrayed his country and his "band of brothers" in order to kick start his public lust for power, and having continued by means of lies large and small (invented "facts" and mythic "accomplishments") to promote himself while marking time in the Senate, even continuing to lie to this very day about his record there, can you trust him to do a single damned thing he says he'll do? Or should you instead count on him to do as he has done in the past, that is, do everything in his power to assure the defeat of an America weakened by his actions?

NYTrogate: "Missing" Al QaQaa 380Tons

Go ahead, say it out loud: "Al Qaqaa." That's right, now that you've said it out loud, you can say it again about the NYT story trumpeting the horror! the horror! of 380 tons of "missing" explosives they wanna blame on Bush. Qaqaa, all right. According to NBC's embedded reporters who were on the scene in 2003 when the Al QaQaa dump was inspected, it was gone before our guys got there. In fact, U.N. inspectors' reports (NOT the faked up report "leaked" by a vindictive "IAEA and its head, the anti-American Mohammed El Baradei") indicate the ex[plosives may have been moved before the Iraq War started. NYT: al Qaqaa, indeed... And to top it off, originally CBS was planning on airing the story on October 31 as a last-minute "October surprise" but got "beat" by the NYT printing a story... first reported by NBC in April of 2003, but this time with a "Beat Bush" slant.) (Credit: tons of reports all over the web, and NBC—of all the irony possible, this has to be tops.)

Arrested Development

I've been almost casually looking through Kerry's Senate voting record for the past few months, "Here a look, there a look, everywhere a look-look... " OK, back on track, now. It struck me how, during the Reagan/Bush 1 years, Kerry was always voting in ways to encourage communist and other totalitarian governments, whenever a vote on national defense or intelligence came up. It was almost as if his first thought was "How can I make the world a safer place... for communism?" This realization about Kerry's voting record converged with my growing awareness of his psychological/moral problems (he's apparently a compulsive—and very bad—liar, for example). Like all good Marxists—and by his record, he certainly fits that description—Kerry cannot admit or speak the truth as a general practice. Now, I think I have an understanding of Kerry's character, summed up in this comment from Mike Adams: "Marxism is an emotional disorder, not a political philosophy."

Kerry: Wrong Then, Wrong Now

Americans for Peace Through Strength has a new ad out. Go. Watch it. Send its address to all the people in your address book. And when you forward the address to folks, include the address of their analysis of Kerry's Senate voting record: http://www.thestakesarehigh.org/Kerry/ A few highlights: During his 20-year Senate career, John Kerry has voted to cut the Pentagon’s budget 38 times. Kerry has voted 12 times against providing a pay increase to our military men and women. In 2003, Kerry voted against providing $87 billion in funding for our troops in Iraq. In 2002, Kerry voted six times against President Bush’s proposal to establish a Department of Homeland Security in the aftermath of 9/11. More at the link

Luke 16:10

Just consider this, "He who is faithful in what is least is faithful also in what is much; and he who is unfaithful in what is least is unfaithful also in much." Luke 16:10 Now, just hop on over to Football Fans for Truth and consider yet another (of many, many) example of Jean Fraud sKerry puffing his past (lying) to appeal to voters.

The War On Hibiscus

A cautionary tale... [Blair] Davis heard a knock on the door. He went to answer, but, as the July 29 Houston Chronicle reports, "he hadn't even gotten his hand on the doorknob when it flew open and he was looking at the barrel of a pistol." Davis' crime? He was growing Texas Star Hibiscus--an ornamental plant with smoothe dark green leaves and decorative white (or red) "star" flowers—in his front yard. Some "concerned citizen" mistook it for marijuana, the cops were too stupid to check and... manhandling, a thorough search of his home (they also found some bamboo and cantaloupes! Shocking!) and intense questioning "What are you planning on doing with the melons!"—the doofs) resulted. Idiots. But, in my own experience, more and more typical of LEOs: assume guilt, especially in absence of any evidence. h.t Joel Miller via Paul Jacob

Here's what Houston cops think marijuana looks like...

Good News From Iraq

Don't waste a second. Go to Chrenkoff's "Good News From Iraq" site and read. Then email everyone in your addressbook a link to the stories they will NOT get from the mass media podpeople. Just go.

Sociopathic Tendencies?

Remember this, from Debate #2? "I went to meet with the members of the Security Council in the week before we voted. I went to New York. I talked to all of them to find out how serious they were about really holding Saddam Hussein accountable. I came away convinced that, if we worked at it, if we were ready to work and letting Hans Blix do his job and thoroughly go through the inspections, that if push came to shove, they'd be there with us."–Jean Fraud sKerry Turns out, he didn't really meet with "all of them" at all. Apparently, he thought it was Christmas and had to scurry off to Cambodia... (H.T. Roger Simon for the "sociopathic tendencies" title... )

Sleeping Giant or Slumbering Monster?

George Will points out what is possibly the most important story of this election year: massive voter fraud. "The unexamined belief that an ever-higher rate of voter registration is a Good Thing has met its limit in the center of the state that this year is the center of the political universe -- Ohio. The U.S. Census Bureau's 2003 estimate is that in Franklin County -- Columbus -- there are approximately 815,000 people 18 or over. But 845,720 are now registered." And that, as they said on the Titanic, is just the tip of the iceberg...

Bad Ballots in Ohio

Look at this "butterfly" ballot from Ohio. Kerry? Punch out #6. The arrow ar the Kedwards line points directly to number 6. However, if you want to vote for the Bush/Cheney ticket, the ballot's a little misleading. The correct number to punch is 4, but the arrow points directly to number 14... A little fishy? The latest polls show Ohio moving steadily for Bush (latest Zogby shows nearly a five-point Bush lead). If there's a large disparity between exit polls and actual ballots in Ohio, this ballot might be the place to start looking for the culprit. (H.T. to Powerline for the ballot pic. See the post and a larger image there.) Of course, as Powerline points out, there are a number of ways the ballot can be misaligned to cause problems, and it's probably just another case of stupidity rather than some weird vote fraud conspiracy. Still...

All the buzz

The blogosphere has been buzzing this weekend with rumors of a Washington Times (or in some versions, WaPo) story set to see the light of day Monday. Protein Wisdom points to a SATIRE piece (please note, I said it was satire, and note also that it needs to be R rated for language) that plays off this buzz. NOTE AGAIN: the link leads to a "story" that is not news but satire. (H.T. to Hugh Hewitt for the link.)

The man behind the curtain...

David Limbaugh explains the obvious—why sKerry refuses to allow reprints of his book, The New Soldier and why he refuses to sign a Standard Form 180 (SF-180) to allow the release of all his military records, etc.: What is Kerry so afraid of? Why doesn't he want you to find out the identity of that man behind the curtain? Why doesn't he want you to read his book "The New Soldier"? Why doesn't he want you to see "Stolen Honor"? Why won't he release his medical records? Why won't he talk about his Senate record? Why won't he address specific charges about his Vietnam tour? The answer is that without convincing millions of voters he is someone that he is not, he would suffer the biggest landslide defeat in American history -- bar none. What a sad state American liberalism finds itself in when it can't tout its own candidate as a true believer. And what a sad commentary on the candidate himself that he would willingly participate in such a fundamental deception about his very essence as a human being. Just CLICK here

Zut Alors!

Apparently, Jean Fraud sKerry thinks the color-coded alerts from Homeland security are laughable. (Well, finally an "issue"—though not much of one—sKerry nearly agrees with me about... ) According to WSJ's James Taranto, Jonathan Wilson (one of his readers) suggests sKerry would replace the now familiar Homeland Security color-coded alerts with: Level 1: Ennui Level 2: Comme ci, comme ça Level 3: Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose Level 4: Regardez! Level 5: Zut alors! Hmmm... Maybe I'd better re-think my position on Tom Ridge's color coding...

Yesterday it was teachers; today, it's moms.

Yesterday it was teachers; today, it's moms. Yesterday, TeRAYzah dissed all the teachers out there (see TeRAYzah Heinz-sKerry says "Teaching isn't real work" ). Today, she went after your mom: "I had forgotten that Mrs. Bush had worked as a school teacher and librarian, and there couldn't be a more important job than teaching our children. As someone who has been both a full-time mom and full-time in workforce, I know we all have valuable experiences that shape who we are. I appreciate and honor Mrs. Bush's service to the country as first lady, and am sincerely sorry I had not remembered her important work in the past." Oops. So... all those years raising the twins, supporting George as a housewife were empty? Worthless? Not a "real job"? Somebody needs to tell TeRAYzah that all those moms out there who keep a household squared away so their family can live, who put a home cooked dinner on the table for their family are doing something at least as inmportant as the legions of servants she has do (and has had doing for years--even while she was "a full-time mom" who didn't have to "Mom" anyone much or for long) those things for her day in and day out. Actually, much more important, because real moms are priceless, not just unpaid for their work... But what does TeRAYzah know of such things?

"Reality TV"—go to the back of the line

Go here to download the latest wargames (most for Windows platform PCs) that are used in sim -training U.S. troops for combat situations. Video games as prep for the real world of combat. Maybe too cool...

Getting out the (fraudulent) vote efforts by Dems

Ed Gillespie had this to say about Democratic "Get Out the Vote" and voter registration efforts in Ohio that have come under suspicion because of fairly open and blatant registration fraud: "I'll bet you this. If Mary Poppins and Dick Tracy vote on Election Day, they'll vote for John Kerry." heh. You betcha. See here for the rest of the story.

Voting for crazies?

Ann Coulter, again. Gee that gal has a razor-tongued wit. Must like her coffee (well, I know I'd need a pot to stay ringside, let alone in the ring with her jabs... ). Referring to the sKerry camp, she says today: "This may be the first time in American history that the decisional calculus for many voters will be: Do I really want to throw my hat in with these crazy people?" The sad thing is that many, knowing full well that sKerry and Kid Edwards are crazy (and power mad at that) will vote for them... because it's their kind of insanity. Oh, and one more shot from the same article: "Coincidentally, the very day of the vice presidential debate, a gun was fired into a Bush-Cheney campaign office in Bearden, Tenn. – one of a series of violent attacks on Republican offices around the country. (You can tell it was Democrats firing those guns because none of the shots ever hit anything.)" heh. Go on. Get on over there and read it. Now.

An Amazing Thought...

Tony Blankely can be nearly as cutting as Ann Coulter... "Perhaps the strangest thing about this election campaign is that despite all the vulgarities, lies and probably criminal vote stealing going on, the Clintons are largely out of the picture. .." Ouch! :-)

TeRAYzah Heinz-sKerry says "Teaching isn't real work"

Oh, go ahead, let all your friends and aquaintances who are teachers know TeRAYzah thinks they don't work for a living. Really. Seriously. Here's the question to THK by USAToday and her response: Q: You'd be different from Laura Bush? A: Well, you know, I don't know Laura Bush. But she seems to be calm, and she has a sparkle in her eye, which is good. But I don't know that she's ever had a real job — I mean, since she's been grown up. So her experience and her validation comes from important things, but different things. And I'm older, and my validation of what I do and what I believe and my experience is a little bit bigger — because I'm older, and I've had different experiences. And it's not a criticism of her. It's just, you know, what life is about. OK, I added the emphasis because of this little tidbit listed in Laura Bush's bio: Career and Public Service Public school teacher and librarian in the Houston, Dallas and Austin school systems; First Lady of Texas; First Lady of the United States. So, if Laura Bush's experience teaching and as a school librarian doesn't count as a "real job" then neither does the work experience of any other teacher you know... at least as far as Mrs. sKerry is concerned. Let 'em know.

50 Reasons to Vote for Bush

At American Digest. CLICK for 50 Reasons to Vote for Bush

Pinnipedia for Bush

Here's a piece of a longer comment by SEAL Reservist, Matthew Heidt: "SEALs that I have talked to love the President and Donald Rumsfeld as well. The CINC matters to the military more than you could imagine, and this is a personal matter for me. I served under Bill Clinton, and at the time everybody in the Teams knew that we were never going to be unchained to conduct Direct Action against America’ foes. I was constantly on the road traveling around the country and around the world on training evolutions. It was so frustrating to know that you were going to be away from your family to practice for a game that the coach would never let you play in. Many experienced operators left the Teams with me at the end of the 90s for the same reason. It wasn’t like we didn’t see threats or targets out there, but after Somalia, we knew Clinton didn’t have the sack to pull the trigger. So did UBL as it turned out." The guys out there on the ground know the score.

The Wind at His Back

Check Hugh Hewitt's blog for all the Election 2004 links you need to share with friends via email... Example—this paragraph clipped from today's posts: This is where you want to be, and with the wind at his back, Bush's speech in New Jersey yesterday hit exactly the right notes on the war. It needs to be fought hard and far from our shores, and it cannot be waged by a man who has not supported any war since he began his opposition to Vietnam in 1971. And add to message of resolve on the crucial issue of the election, a sudden unveiling of the real inner Kerry --nasty, willing to punch low, fear mongering on the draft and social security-- plus the stories on Democratic voter fraud are adding up up in the public's mind: the DNC/Kerry-Edwards manual; the rotten registrations done for crack-cocaine in Ohio; the requests for hundreds of thousands of extra ballots in Milwaukee. Americans don't like cheaters, and the cheating from the Kerry side is getting very obvious. The blatant voter fraud discovered so far is likely just the tip of the iceberg...

Ashley's Story

Just go to the Progress for America website and watch Ashley's Story. Just go.

The Prancing Pony or... "The Breck Girl"?

Oh. Dear. Just go here to watch the Prancing Pony making much ado about... his "do". As Slate put it, "For a guy who's been known derisively to the Bush crowd as the Breck girl," observes [Harry] Shearer, vice presidential candidate John Edwards seems "way too interested in his hair." He tries to straighten it with his fingers. A makeup technician approaches with a comb, but the senator likes it just so and does the combing himself. He signals he's ready for hair spray by closing his eyes expectantly, like a child. Then Edwards and the technician straighten a little more with their fingers. Please don't tell me that thing in his hand is a compact. Oh, dear. It is.

Ph.D.B.S.

Before I get to the point of this post, let me state, contra my considered mode of operation, one credential. Years ago, in fact several years before I finished my B.M., in general agreement with my entire Western Civ class (well, at least there were no dissenters) the profs awarded me an honorary degree: my Ph.D.B.S. (yes, a doctorate in bovine scatology) for my accomplishments in the field of bullshitting. (Well, why not? The class was predominantly discussion of readings and essay exams. An ideal fit for my natural talents.) Since that day, I have honed my skills in the field through post-doctoral work stroking professors on the way to a couple of other degrees (one, the aforementioned B.M.); stroking bosses who couldn't find their own buttocks with a map, a flashlight and a guide; talking to politicians in their native tongue; in insurance sales; etc. In fact, it seems every good thing (including bamboozling my wife into marrying me and sticking around) has resulted either from divine intervention or a liberal application of bullshitting. IOW, I have all the experience I need to recognize bull shit when I hear it. And that brings me to my point. Jean Fraud sKerry is widely touted by his minions and by mass media podpeople (but I repeat myself, as M.T. said of idiots and congressmen*...) as having a great intellect, of being able to percieve and deal with the complexities of the modern world. But as I listen to sKerry's "nuanced" comments, all i hear is hot air, liberally punctuated by flat-out lies, as well as less than adoit bullshit. That's right. It's my assertion that not only is sKerry not all that bright but that his dimness is hid from other useful idiots not only by many highly transparent lies but by some rather poor bullshitting.. Good bullshit has an internal consistency that will cause even the most observant person to believe—if only momentarily, or until they check Factcheck.org— that what is being said is at least plausible, instead of, as with sKerry's pronouncements, resulting in only the most gullible swallowing the whole pig. And this is yet another thing I find offensive about Monsieur Jean Fraud sKerry: he even gives bullshit a bad rap. ======================== The M.T. comment mentioned earlier: *"Suppose you were an idiot. Suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself". –Mark Twain

"Man's Search for Meaning"

"The meaning of our existence is not invented by ourselves, but rather detected."–Viktor Frankl Co-inkydink? Well, on a macro level, of course it was. But to be human is to see patterns, make connections, sometimes where there are none. So... there I was, reading a novel by Elizabeth Moon, Rules of Engagement, and took, as I sometimes do, a break to get a snack—in this case an almond butter and strawberry jam sandwich— check email, a couple of blogs. One of the blogs lead me to an article by Chris Rose, "Rules of Engagement." Connection? Only the titles. But still... The desire to detect patterns, to see meaning in those patterns—even where there may be no pattern, no connection, no meaning—is a very human thing.

Character is THE Issue, Part II

In a recent interview in HumanEventsOnline Col. George E. "Bud" Day, the "most highly decorated living veteran officer" America has, outlines why he is campaigning against the election of Jean Fraud sKerry. In short, it's sKerry's character. "Bud" Day, who certainly ought to know if anyone does, insists that sKerry does not have the qualities of character to be Commander-in-Chief of America's armed forces. As a man with over 50 combat-related awards in three wars (WWII, Korea and Vietnam), including the Medal of Honor, Col. Day has both the credentials and the well-earned right to question sKerry's character. John McCain has famously said questioning sKerry's honor is "dishonest and dishonorable." I wonder what he will say now, since Col. Day was his commanding officer in the North Vietnam prison where they were both held prisoner... Will McCain question "Bud" Day's honor, too? Just read the entire interview... and go see the ad at http://www.swiftvets.com (or download the ad and view it). More ads here: Ads page

More Lies, Damned Lies and Statistics

In answer to a question about a "litmus test" for judges, in Wednesday's debate, sKerry essentially answered "yes"—citing Roe v. Wade elliptically—then he went into some of his trademark weirdness (weirder than Bush bringing up the Dred Scott decision last Friday? yes.). Weird? How does his citation of a "50% unemployment rate for black men in NY" relate to a question about appointing judges? Oh. I see. He's asserting an unjust society, yada, yada, yada... But what about his "statistic"? According to an Amsterdam News article ("Part of the BlackPressUSA Network"), yes... and no. Statistic almost right, but very, very misleading. (As Mark Twain famously said, there are three kinds of lies, "Lies, damned lies and statistics.") sKerry's "50%" is an exaggeration, and he hides the fact that the actual statistic reflects a major decline in unemployment among black men in New York since Bush took office. "The unemployment rate for Black men in New York City has hit a new low. Nearly one-half of African American men living in the city are jobless, according to a new study released this week. [so far, sKerry's comment seems to check out, but wait, there's more!–D] In the report, “A Crisis in Black Male Employment: Unemployment and Joblessness in New York City, 2003,” the Community Service Society (CSS) of New York reveals that unemployment rose among Black men during the nation’s recent recession and that only 51.8 percent of Black men between the ages of 16 through 64 were employed. According to the nonprofit organization, this is a dramatic decline of 12.2 percentage points from 2000..." [emphases added] Hmmm... taking a page from the serpent in Eden: twist a truth to tell a lie. sKerry was attempting to use the stat as an indicator of an unjust society which he would address by appointing justices who would ameliorate such woes (although the connection was...weird, even for him, in his comments). "Oh. Dear. Woe am us that such evil should be perpetrated by the ChimpBush: unemployment among black men in New York has declined by 12.2 percent during ChimpBush's illegitimate reign. That's certainly something we Kedwards Kids will remedy in a heartbeat by appointing activist judges who will form an affirmative action employment line at the bench to reverse such trends... " Makes. No. Sense. But it's the sKerry position, all right. His doom and gloom and "Let's see every good thing as a bad thing and undo it" approach earns him the Grimma Wormtongue Lifetime Achievement Award for Lies, Damned Lies and Stab-tistics.

Lies, Damned Lies and Lying "Statistics"

Just read Joel Mowbray's column. He details lies sKerry used in Wednesday's debate. An example (one of many): Repeating a populist—and untrue—line from his stump speeches, Kerry said, “The jobs the president is creating pay $9,000 less than the jobs that we’re losing.” This sounds like a devastating indictment, and it plays right into the urban legend that disappearing manufacturing jobs are replaced by burger-flippers. According to the nonpartisan FactCheck.org, “Higher-paid occupations, like managers (who can be in any industry) and health professionals, are growing faster.” This claim is largely based on Federal Reserve of Chicago study released last month. As Charles Krauthammer said of Edwards, "There is absolutely nothing the man will not say to get elected," so, too, with sKerry. Any lie is acceptable to him, as long as it serves his short-term ends. (BTW, read the Krauthammer piece, too. WOW! Is Krauthammer rigtheously angry or what?)

Being Themselves

(Thx to Belmont Club for a reminder of the scripture below... and for hinting at an anlogy.) Matthew 11:7-9 7 As they departed, Jesus began to say to the multitudes concerning John: "What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken by the wind? 8 "But what did you go out to see? A man clothed in soft garments? Indeed, those who wear soft clothing are in kings' houses. 9 "But what did you go out to see? A prophet Consider this imperfect pictorial analogy, if you will...

At home in his suit...

At home in his skin.

I have to figure out how this thing works!

It's probably just early oldtimers' disease... These kindsa posts will just have to stand in, for a while, for better organization. I thought it'd be a service to include a few acronyms, abbreviations, etc., somewhere, so I'll start this post off and edit it from time to time, linking to it when I use an acronym that might be less than widely used. A couple to start, then I'll just come back whenever it suits, until I discover a better way to do it within the parameters of this free blog format. MMP: Mass Media Podpeople/Podperson MMPA: Mass Media Podpeople's Army RCOB: Red Curtain of Blood (that falls over my eyes when a berserker rage threatens to overwhelm--thanks to Kim duToit for the acronym) GWT y PP: Grimma Wormtongue and the Prancing Pony, AKA, the Kedwards Kids, AKA Jean Fraud sKerry and the Ambulance Chaser Re-"published" from 10/12

Fake it!

Click on the picture to go to the larger pic posted by Drudge. The text (point 1) under the graphic reads, "If no signs of [voter] intimidation techniques have emerged yet, launch a 'pre-emptive strike' ..." Yes, that's right. The DNC is telling their foks to fake stories about voter intimidation. But, really, is anyone with two or more active brain cells surprised? Still, this is going a little farther than one might expect them to do openly. After all, creating reports of fantasy voter intimidation and reporting them to the authorities would be a false report of a crime, which is... a crime. So, would the instructions to create and report phony instances of "voter intimidation" be a conspiracy to commit a felony? Legal eagles would have to examine that issue, but it'd be interesting to discover if the Dems were placing themselves under RICO examination... [heh]

Trading hats

Three Democrats were ship-wrecked on an uninhabited island. Ten years later, when they were rescued, all three were immensely wealthy, from trading hats with each other. That's about the way sKerry's Social Security and health care plans will work. (Modified from a "joke" in H. Beam Piper's novel, "Space Viking")

Patrol THIS border

Patrol THIS border...

Like the phony "we had Osama trapped in Tora Bora" accusation, I've also heard sKerry (well, actually both GWT and the PP have said it--if they only had a brain. Sing it!) sound out about not patrolling the Iraqi border to prevent foreign terrorists from entering. See the map below. The "unsuitable" (for military action) areas around the Syrian and Jordanian borders are filled with wadis (think S.W. USA border "arroyos"), where they are not arable land. sKerry's a doof. And he thinks you are too. It would take the entire armed forces of the U.S. along with the entire population of our domestic law enforcement to make a dent in "patrolling" such a border. But why do so in order to keep terrorists out? First, isn't it better that they are there, where much of our armed forces are concentrated and large numbers of the population are both armed and largely hostile to foreign terrorists? (See recent developments where armed Iraqi terrorists have been killing Al-Zarqawi group members... ) As one letter I recently read from a U.S. marine in Iraq said, send 'em more so they can kill them there, not here. Second, notice the only areas through which foreign terrorists were likely to have been able to enter.: Syria and Jordan. Forget entering through the Kurdish-controlled mountains to the north. That northern third of the country is not only safe, it is deathly dangerous to armed thugs. Even Saddam knew it was only "safe" to mess with the Kurds from a distance and with weapons like dropped poison gas and explosive bombs. The lesson of history: the Kurds are people you screw with at your own peril. Even the Turks fear them, for good reason. So, now we know where the foreign terrorists entered, and which states (Syria and Jordan) are likely to encourage such incursions in the future... except that... Syria has been making roll-over-and-exposed-soft-underbelly noises after seeing the reslove of this administration... Patrol Iraq's borders and keep foreign terrorists out? Impossible and undesirable, both.

Global Test

Ann Coulter... what can I say? Well, "Go read her latest," for one thing. An excerpt: "As if it means something, Kerry keeps vowing: 'I will never stop at anything to hunt down and kill the terrorists.' But he will stop at the Iraqi border. Or if the French and Germans aren't on board. Or we don't have United Nations approval. Or it would require investigating a Muslim under the Patriot Act."

Choice November 2

Hugh Hewitt asked for characterizations of the choice we have set before us in the Presidential election 11/2. The following is a list of the responses he's recieved so far: Reagan v. Carter offense v. defense advance v. retreat resolve v. dithering blunt talk v. nuance England and Australia v. France and Germany Allawi in power v. Saddam in power post 9/11 v. post-Cole values of America at its founding v. the values of Europe today leader v. talker lightning v. lightning bug White House v. waffle house Noah's Ark v. Titanic Lincoln v. McClellan limits on abortion v. no limits on abortion and taxpayer-funded abortions parental notification v. no parental notification of teens seeking abortion tax cut v. tax hike private sector growth v. public sector growth cheeseburger v. escargot honest humility v. prideful arrogance "Let's roll" v. roll over Thanksgiving in Baghdad v. Christmas Eve in Cambodia F-102 v. hot air balloon September 12 v. September 10 reality v. make believe big fish v. big fish story Patton v. Peter Pan Popeye v. Wimpy Iceberg v. crushed ice Battle Hymn of the Republic v. Kumbaya Pat Tillman v. Michael Moore D-Day v. Dunkirk Brit Hume v. Chris Matthews G-suit v. stuffed suit national identity v. international anonymity to be v. not to be G-man v. g-string tastes great v. less filling Gary Cooper v. Inspector Clouseau Red Dawn v. Reds 007 v. Austin Powers Osama running from us v. Osama coming at us adult v. adolescent Henry V v. Dauphin Braveheart v. Chickenheart Jim Brown v. Ricky Williams hard blow v. blow hard Heart of America v. Le Car steak v. pate (Lileks) hard sharp cheddar v. runny brie (Lileks) red, white, blue v. tie die 10 gallon stetson v. the magic hat Saving Private Ryan v. Gigle rock v. hard face world series v. world cup eagle v. magpie cowboy hat v. blue helmet (radioblogger.com) bulldog v. poodle Laura v. Theresa John Wayne v. Jane Fonda Ray Lewis v. Jerry Lewis filet mignon v. ground turkey safety blitz v. prevent defense "nuculur" v. nuisance (radioblogger.com) body armor v. body bag global freedom v. global test we the people v. we are the world adverb v. adjective (Adam Youngman) big rocks v. botox Toby Keith v. Milli Vanilli bazooka v. oompaloompa Bring it on v. time out backbone v. back flip Thor v. Loki action v. a plan character v. caricature stars and stripes v. smoke and mirrors Arnold v. Gray Hannibal v. Varro marriage v. same sex marriage Dirty Harry v. Barney Fife Alexander v. Darius "Blood, sweat, toil, and tears" v. "Peace in our time." "Never, never, never, never, never give up" v. "wrong war, wrong place, wrong time" Charge of the Light Brigade v. Electric Light Parade (Adam Youngman) a Bradley v. a Yugo hard hat v. beret Lambeau Field v. Lambert Field 101rst Airborne v. 101 Dalmatians Old Glory v. white flag road warrior v. road kill Mr. T v. mystery Sun Tsu v. sun tan The Great Santini v. Forrest Gump logical v. pathological Jaws v. Flipper men v. boys Zorro v.zero Secretariat v. Frances the Talking Mule mini skirt v. burkah victory v. Vichy God Bless America v. God-less America compass v. windsock Predator v. prey tough calls v. pratt falls The Star Spangled Banner v. The Internationale composure v. poser boots on the ground v. hands in the air "I'm the greatest!" v. "No mas." Captain Kirk v. Colonel Klink safer shores v. manicures a grand slam v. french toast tough in the trenches v. courting the frenches sanity v. vanity "bring it on" v. "Not in the face! Not in the face." Spanky v. Alfalfa fire power v. flower power bunker busters v. spit balls Baghdad '03 v. Dien Bien Phu '54 iron v. irony Navy SEALs v. navy beans high and inside v. intentional walk Monday Night Football v. Sex in the City USS Missouri v. USS Minnow Brett Farve v. Ryan Leaf putting down insurrections v. botox injections rawhide v. chiffon a man who kept his promises v. a kept man who promises winner v. whiner a stance v. a pose chaps v. lycra head coach v. Monday morning QB "T-Rex v. Barney the windshield v. the bug manwich v. lean cuisine Die Hard v. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest Axis of Evil v. nuisance Tour de force v. Tour de France ten feet tall v. a mile wide and an inch deep Frank Sinatra v. Frankie Avalon Lawrence Taylor v. James Taylor a shield v a target pummel v. Hummel (sorry, James) Lincoln log v. tinker toy payback v. payoff oak v. quaking aspen a hearty handshake v. throwing a kiss Texas-raised v. taxes-raised Crawford v. Martha's Vineyard man's man v. tan-in-a-can shock and awe v. hem and haw Semper Fi v. simpering

"Moderated" by the Forgery Broadcast System

I absolutely could not believe Bob Shiefer tonight. Easily 3/4 of the questions he asked were taken almost word-for-word from GWT y PP's campaign talking points! It's as though Dan Rather's shadow anchor at CBS "News" (Schiefer) dropped by the Kedwards campaign and asked for a list of questions to ask. And yet... on roughly sixteen of twenty questions asked, I score President Bush a winner. Why (apart from the fact that by now I know sKerry is a liar and a poltroon)? Because skerry avoided actually addressing a majority of the questions directly and because the answers he gave (even the portions of answers that did address the questions) were 1.) Simply his pre-rehearsed stump speeches ("Thank you, Bob, for asking for that particular speech.") 2.) Often "wrong on facts" (scare quotes used because "wrong on facts" is code for "lying") 3.) Weird and creepy, or simply in exteremely poor taste (another reference to Cheney's lesbian daughter, for example) But, gee, folks, somebody needs to call a modern day Hercules to clean out the Augean stables at 555 West 57th Street, New York, NY 10019 ( CBS "News").

Character is THE Issue

William J. Dyer charatibly cites the character issue, speaking about sKerry: "I will certainly concede that the man talks a good game. But it's almost all beautiful soap bubbles, and I'm not confident that I know what's at his core. To the extent I think I know what's at his core, I dislike and distrust it. He's a conflicted, blurry man — the only consistent bright gleam I see in his eyes is one of personal ambition, and around the edges of even that brightness is condescension and arrogance. " The whole thing is worth reading. (Of course, I think Dyer is far too kind.)

Voting Guide

I recieved the following in a forwarded email. There was no author attributed, and the neither the sender nor the person who sent it to him had an author to ID for me. (That's just the way email forwards often seem to work. :-) The only changes I made were corrections of spelling and simple typo errors. Oh, and I changed the inappropriate use of the word "gay" to "homosexual" in one instance. (I've met very, very, very few homosexuals who were happy, carefree people... hence, "gay" is scarcely a term that applies to them outside George Orwell's 1984 doublethink model... ) The author is pretty clear about his political views, given the issues chosen and their presentation, but I have no problem with that. Were it my voter guide, I'd probably add a few... And, of course, while instructive, this doesn't provide a clear guide to other races. 2004 Election Voter Guide Depending on the way you lean, the following information could have bearing on decisions you make November 2004. Issues of Importance? Homosexual Marriage President Bush is opposed John Kerry favors Partial-Birth Abortion President Bush is opposed John Kerry favors Allowing voluntary prayer in the public schools President Bush Favors John Kerry is Opposed Assault on Mel Gibson for making film about Christ President Bush supports Gibson John Kerry participated in Left's assault on Gibson suggesting possible anti-Semitism, even though Kerry had not seen the film. Assault on Boy Scouts for belief in God and not allowing Homosexual Scout Leaders President Bush supports Boy Scouts' stand John Kerry opposes boy Scouts' stand Asking for God's blessing on America President Bush often asks God to bless America in his speeches John Kerry attacks Bush for mentioning God so often Judges President Bush says "We need common-sense judges who believe our rights are derived from God." John Kerry insists on judges who support the ACLU's radical anti-Christian, anti-God, anti-family agenda. John Kerry is insistent on blocking President Bush's federal judge appointments. Overall Record President Bush does not vote on issues before Congress but, based on his publicly stated positions, would receive an 85% conservative rating from the American Conservative Union if he did. John Kerry, according to the highly respected, politically-neutral National Journal rates Kerry the most liberal U. S. Senator in 2003 -- more liberal than Ted Kennedy and Hillary Clinton.

Back to our regular programming...

The U.S. Constitution, Amendment XIV Section. 3. No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof... The title of this post is linked to a site featuring excerpts of a real documentary (as opposed to the Micheal Moore mockumentaries "Bowling for Columbine" and "Fahrenheit 9/11"), "Stolen Honor." Just a few clips from the movie and two things become clear: 1.) John F. Kerry is a disgustng bastard, and he ought to be tarred, feathered and run out of the country. At least. (I hope the petition with 150,000+ signatures newly delivered to Dick Cheney (in his capacity as President of the Senate) and Attorney General Ashcroft calling for Kerry's removal from office at least gets a little email and blogosphere buzz. ) 2.) A RCOB moment is in the offing...

The Wrong Question

A friend of mine sent me an email forward. I have no idea who composed it. It details a laundry list of "positions" taken and actions performed by Jean Fraud sKerry and asks the question, "Can Christians vote for Kerry?" My answer... Sure Christians can vote for Jean Fraud sKerry. Christians can also get drunk, beat their wives, shoot random passers-by, and commit all other kinds of atrocities. But that they can certainly does not make any of those things right or or even remotely Christian. But then, some folks feel it's better to live with a philosophy Paul rebuked in Romans 6:1-2, "What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? [to which some sing, "I was sinking deep in sin/Wheeeeee!"] Certainly not!" Of course, there's this article in the NYT (obnoxious, but relatively harmless registration required) where Mark Roche, a dean at Notre Dame, argues Catholics should vote for Jean Fraud sKerry. That pro life Catholics should vote for sKerry. Huh?!? Yeh, his reasoning is tortured past reason. Figures. he's taking after his father, sKerry... Seems like some really are still arguing with Paul about the "benefits" of abounding in sin...

Break Out the Tinfoil hats

Eugene Volokh has a pretty comprehensive deveolpment of what's gone on so far with the Indymedia "server "seizure": "First, it is important to recognize that this is an Italian and Swiss investigation, not a U.S. investigation. U.S. officials are involved only because the U.S. is obligated to help the Italians and Swiss under international treaties known as Mutual Legal Assistance Treaties... ...U.S. officials still must comply with the First and Fourth Amendment, as well as other laws; they can only obtain the needed court order if doing so would be allowable under United States law for an equivalent domestic investigation. Given that teams of DOJ career lawyers screen and review MLAT requests before they are processed, the chances are quite high that this was all done correctly under United States law."(1) and "Second, it remains unclear whether the FBI ordered the server owner to hand over its hardware, and it seems quite unlikely that the FBI ordered any websites shut down. This story suggests that the FBI obtained a subpoena requesting information on behalf of the Italian and Siwss authorities from Rackspace, a U.S.-based web-hosting service with a branch in the UK that has Indymedias as one of its clients..."(1) Further develpments suggest nothing beyond a subpoena for relevant evidence in an investigation, and, anyway, one correspondent's e-—noted at Volokh's site—suggests that the the easiest way to provide information required by a subpoena would likely be to "...just shut down the boxes, pull them, and give them to the Feds... non-production servers could be re-assigned and automated restores queued." Pull the hard drives, send 'em off, done with the Feds, back to business. Law enforcement can and does subpoena information all the time. Heck, private parties do so in civil law suits. If the information is on a company's servers and its integrity is best assured by surrendering the "documents" themselves, I see no First Amendment isssue. Happens all tyhe time, routinely, in a myriad of cases. So, this was apparently a first under the MLAT. I've seen it said by an email correspondent, "...there are no first amendment implications in server seizures in Britain" where the seizures too place, but that is irrelevant. There would have been no First Amendment issues here, either, and in fact there were not: the company the information was subpoenaed from, Rackspace, a U.S.-based web-hosting service, did have the information on servers in the U.K. Again, so? If it had been a stack of hardcopy accounting records that was subpoenaed, that were stored in the U.K. they still would have had to produce them. Where's the beef? The Rackmount servers involved were surrendered in an investigation of Indymedia? Even real press (although there's darned little of that left, it seems) must comply with duly issued subpoenas (or face consequences), and Indymedia skates the edge of legitimate jounalism anyway, never quite making it onto the legitimate side (well, perhaps a little closer to legit than Al-Jazeerah or the old Pravda... about on a par with CBS, i.e., no credibility with anyone who has two active brain cells. Hmmm... that about sums up moveon.org wackos, the DNC and those who plan on spending Christmas in Cambodia with sKerry... ). [yawn] So, Indymedia temporarily lost a little functionality and some tinfoil hats were exercised. Another [yawn] ... Let's see what shakes out before crying wolf. So far, it seems everything's been done by the book, and if the book's not to someone's taste, there's always the ballot box. Or a tinfoil hat

Check Chrenkoff

Good News from Iraq, Part 12 is up at Chrenkoff's blog. Check there regularly for the rest of the story.

An Iceberg in Your Coke

I'm not even going to give you a clue what this quote from James Lileks is about. Read it in context. "It’s one thing to inch towards the lifeboat when you overhear the crew talking about icebergs ahead; it’s another to run around shrieking like a little girl with a spider in her hair because you’re watching the movie “Titanic” and discover cubes of frozen water in your jumbo Coke." I will say that making Lileks' blog an occasional stopover will give your mind a little good exercise, and that the lil exercise noted above pretty thoroughly takes some of the hysterical Bush-haters to task...

Democratic Donor tied to Saddam/Oil for Food scandal

Spinsiwmming has a breakdown of links between Houston oilman Oscar Wyatt, Saddam Hussein, the U.N. Oild for Food Program scandal and... donations to Democratic political campaigns. The info's still pretty fresh and only the surface is seen, but of $700,000 in political donations, over $500,000 are Democratic political donations from a guy who seems to have profitted to the tune of somewhere in the neighborhood of $22,000,000 from dealings with Saddam during the embargo. The investigation is ongoing, so nothing solid or final from official channels, but it seems pregnant with possibilities...

What? Me worry?

Waffle House, USA

Shortly after 9/11, this was sKerry's view... "... I remember feeling a rage, a huge anger, and I remember turning to somebody and saying, 'This is war.' I said, 'This is an act of war.''' Now, " ''We have to get back to the place we were, where terrorists are not the focus of our lives, but they're a nuisance... It isn't threatening people's lives every day, and fundamentally, it's something that you continue to fight, but it's not threatening the fabric of your life.'' That's right, now sKerry equates Islamic jihadist "acts of war" as simply a nuisance, a matter strictly for law enforcement activity. On 9/11 the truth finally broke through to him and remained in his awareness for some time: it was an act of war. Now, "a nuisance"... NOT someone to trust in prosecuting the war against Islamic jihadists, or someone with a worldview (well, with his egocentric personality discorder, would you expect a "worldview"?) that can combat Islamic jihadists, let alone the array of forces aligned against Western Civilization as a whole. A "dangerous and naive" view, indeed (Thanks, GWB for the phrase—link to Friday's debate transcript). Note: the link above—"Now"— is to an October 10, 2004 article in the NYT and requires a relatively innocuous sign-up/registration to view. But do read the whole thing. It's intended, as you can tell from the first paragraph, as campaign lit for the sKerry campaign, disguised as "news" but nevertheless manages to reveal sKerry's "dangerous and naive" (as well as disingenuous and destructive) "worldview"...

LOTR/2004 Election: Meet at The Prancing Pony

OK, I've mentioned (below) casting Bush and sKerry as characters in LOTR, and although typecasting like this would seem to be simple, I did have to search a bit to cast one of the players... Bush as Samwise Gamgee is a pretty solid fit in terms of character, although I doubt Sam ever earned his M.B.A. sKerry as Grimma Wormtongue is a lock: a minor character with undue negative influence on an entire people. Cheney was a little tougher, but only because he just doesn't fit the physical description of Gandalf. He can be as warm as Gandalf, and as folksy, but if I had a Balrog coming up fast on my six, I'd be glad to hand off to Cheney as Gandalf. The really tough one to cast, though, was Edwards... I mean, seriously, there was not one single character in the books I could come up with for a role for him, until... hmmm... Yep. It fits. Edwards as the inspiration for the name of the inn where the hobbits met Aragorn: The Prancing Pony.

Bandaged hand, cane... his first vote (Link and Pic via Allapundit)

A truly historic day

President Bush's concerning the election in Afganistan: "A marvelous thing is happening in Afghanistan. Freedom is powerful. Think about a society in which young girls couldn't go to school and their mothers were whipped in the public square. And today, they're holding a presidential election. The first person to vote in the presidential election, three years after the Taliban ruled that country with such barbarism, was a 19-year-old woman, an Afghan refugee, who fled her homeland during the civil war. Here's what she said: "I cannot explain my feelings, just how happy I am. I would never have thought I would be able to vote in this election." She's voting in this election because the United States of America believes that freedom is the Almighty God's gift to each man and woman in this world. And today is an appropriate day for Americans to remember and thank the men and women of our Armed Forces who liberated Afghanistan. The people of Australia voted today, as well. And I want to congratulate my good friend, Prime Minister John Howard, who won a great victory." ...a remarkable achievement of the Afgan people in partnership and with the aid of the U.S. And as an added benefit, it really puts sKerry's panties in a bunch.

The stakes in the Jihadi war

The war against Islamic jihadists is an important part of the War to Preserve Civilization, and one mother sees that clearly. An excerpt: "Tonight, in one place in the world where there was no hope, there is now hope. This is how we will win the Jihadi War, one country at a time. Everytime I look at my daughter, I know what the stakes are in the Jihadi War. When I stand in line to vote in November, I will be standing with the women of Afghanistan." Read the whole thing.