Friday, April 30, 2004
The Manufactured News Network
REPORTING TWICE AS MANY LIES AS THE OTHER LEADING NETWORKS--JUST TO KEEP UP!
Hillary Rodham Clinton recently appeared in Washington for the dedication of the 'Bill Clinton False Affidavit Wing' at the Moloch Institute. "This administration filled with people who disparage sexual harassment laws," said the senator, "and I don't blame them one little bit. A president humbly tries to minister to a...to dozens...alright, hundreds of...okay, probably thousands of troubled young women, and they all turn into stalkers, gold-diggers and trailer-trash who must, of course, be destroyed."
Senator Clinton is wide and widely known for her pro bono work as consigliere of the Clinton Crime Family and on behalf of other families as well--except those containing men, babies or women who aren't shrill, man-hating Maoist shrews.
In his new book, "The Heart is a Lonely Hunting Dog", ethicist Peter Singer claims President Bush has the moral development of a thirteen year-old boy. "Now, if the President wanted to DATE a thirteen year-old boy, I'd have no problem with that," said the professor in an interview with Border Colliers Magazine.
Singer, who believes in the killing of infants up to one year of age, killing retarded children and killing old people, said "The killing of terrorists...that's where I draw the line. That's just wrong." The interview was cut short, however, when a small beaver fell out of Professor Singer's pant-leg, and the toad he had been licking suddenly withdrew consent.
The medium-sized whaling community of Michael Moore, Michigan, says al Sadr's terrorists are "Minutemen". Therefore, he has started a campaign to re-name the New England Patriots the "New England Martyr's Brigade" and have them leave the AFC to join the Canadian Football League, even though the entire country of Canada has been missing and presumed dead since 1993.
Along with such historic sites such as Bunker Hill, Faniuel Hall and the Old North Church, Moore wants to add to Boston's Walking Tour the ticket counters at Logan Airport where Minuteman Muhammed Atta and his Muhammed Mountain Boys purchased their tickets on their famous Mid-Morning Ride. Although Moore is no longer capable of walking himself, he feels it would help set the proper patriotic tone for the upcoming Democrat Coven.tion.
Moore Township is a sister-city to the sprawling, greasy, dilapidated, over-the-hill village of Alec Baldwin, France.
Hillary Rodham Clinton recently appeared in Washington for the dedication of the 'Bill Clinton False Affidavit Wing' at the Moloch Institute. "This administration filled with people who disparage sexual harassment laws," said the senator, "and I don't blame them one little bit. A president humbly tries to minister to a...to dozens...alright, hundreds of...okay, probably thousands of troubled young women, and they all turn into stalkers, gold-diggers and trailer-trash who must, of course, be destroyed."
Senator Clinton is wide and widely known for her pro bono work as consigliere of the Clinton Crime Family and on behalf of other families as well--except those containing men, babies or women who aren't shrill, man-hating Maoist shrews.
In his new book, "The Heart is a Lonely Hunting Dog", ethicist Peter Singer claims President Bush has the moral development of a thirteen year-old boy. "Now, if the President wanted to DATE a thirteen year-old boy, I'd have no problem with that," said the professor in an interview with Border Colliers Magazine.
Singer, who believes in the killing of infants up to one year of age, killing retarded children and killing old people, said "The killing of terrorists...that's where I draw the line. That's just wrong." The interview was cut short, however, when a small beaver fell out of Professor Singer's pant-leg, and the toad he had been licking suddenly withdrew consent.
The medium-sized whaling community of Michael Moore, Michigan, says al Sadr's terrorists are "Minutemen". Therefore, he has started a campaign to re-name the New England Patriots the "New England Martyr's Brigade" and have them leave the AFC to join the Canadian Football League, even though the entire country of Canada has been missing and presumed dead since 1993.
Along with such historic sites such as Bunker Hill, Faniuel Hall and the Old North Church, Moore wants to add to Boston's Walking Tour the ticket counters at Logan Airport where Minuteman Muhammed Atta and his Muhammed Mountain Boys purchased their tickets on their famous Mid-Morning Ride. Although Moore is no longer capable of walking himself, he feels it would help set the proper patriotic tone for the upcoming Democrat Coven.tion.
Moore Township is a sister-city to the sprawling, greasy, dilapidated, over-the-hill village of Alec Baldwin, France.
Thursday, April 29, 2004
From ABC Studios in New York, it's Genesis 50:20
On Friday night, Nightline's Ted Koppel will read the names of our fallen heroes killed in Iraq. He does this however, not to honor them, but to weaken our resolve and demoralize Americans; to show only the precious cost of war--but not the precious gift of our freedoms which our countrymen purchased for us with the last full measure of their devotion.
Just as we should show the caskets, we should read the names. With reverence. And trembling.
"As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today."
Just as we should show the caskets, we should read the names. With reverence. And trembling.
"As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today."
Wednesday, April 28, 2004
"Why now?"
You really have to ask yourself.
That is, why has the liberal media (The LA Times, Charlie Gibson on 'Good Morning, Amerika' and Tim Russert on 'Press The Meat', etc.) suddenly decided that their viewers need to know all the inconsistent stories John Kerry has told about his medals? I'll tell you why...in a minute.
But first, let's look at Kerry's career.
By the time the training wheels came off of his Richie Rich model Schwinn bicycle, John Kerry had decided to follow in the footsteps of his role-model and family yachting buddy, JFK. But there was a problem; by the mid-60's, John Kerry was already anti-war. He did not want to be drafted--yet he still needed his PT-109 box checked in order to pursue his political ambitions. So he enlisted in the Navy, eventually asking for a Swift Boat assignment. He served bravely, yet he knew of the Navy's three-purple-hearts-and-you're-out policy, hence the reporting of every minor scratch. After 3 and 1/2 months on the Swift Boats, Kerry was back stateside, working on his first campaign--which he lost. The urge to capitalize on his medals as a war-opponent became irresistable, and vaulted him into the limelight.
The rest, as they say, is history. Or several versions of history...each one according to Kerry. He threw his medals. He threw someone else's medals--but his own ribbons. He wasn't at the meeting where asassinating senators was discussed. He was there and was against it. He refused to commit atrocities. He commited atrocities like everyone else.
Now, after the liberal media is inexplicably on his case, he lashes out at the President's National Guard service, a truly revolting and despicable new low even for Democrats. This after urging supporters not to question Bush's service (although smarmily equating it with draft-dodging).
If some tough--and long-overdue--questions about lies he's told in the past can induce this sort of panic and force him to immediately abandon whatever little shreds of principle he had, what happens in a REAL crisis?
This alone proves his lack of fitness for leadership.
Not to mention he has again failed to identify the real enemies.
Hint: 8 letters, starts with a 'C'.
"Why now?"
The Clintons, that's why.
These questions are coming, not from the Administration, but from Clinton-backers in the media. Charlie Gibson would give all three of his left testicles for one fleeting smile from the Ice Queen. This is the sabotage I predicted. No Democrat will get a clean shot at the job before Hillary.
Even if she were the VP candidate, I doubt she'd want to go back to the White House on another man's coat-tails again and wait another 8 years for her turn. No, we're more likely to see Kerry suddenly resign for "health reasons" (aka: the secret polaroids). Don't forget; these are the people who gave us the Pardons for Votes Ploy, the Torricelli Gambit--and the Ft. Marcy Park Option.
The very second Hillary's internal polls tell her she's within striking distance, perhaps with a Madrid-style boost, all bets are off.
And no Cardboard Man like John Kerry will stand in her way.
That is, why has the liberal media (The LA Times, Charlie Gibson on 'Good Morning, Amerika' and Tim Russert on 'Press The Meat', etc.) suddenly decided that their viewers need to know all the inconsistent stories John Kerry has told about his medals? I'll tell you why...in a minute.
But first, let's look at Kerry's career.
By the time the training wheels came off of his Richie Rich model Schwinn bicycle, John Kerry had decided to follow in the footsteps of his role-model and family yachting buddy, JFK. But there was a problem; by the mid-60's, John Kerry was already anti-war. He did not want to be drafted--yet he still needed his PT-109 box checked in order to pursue his political ambitions. So he enlisted in the Navy, eventually asking for a Swift Boat assignment. He served bravely, yet he knew of the Navy's three-purple-hearts-and-you're-out policy, hence the reporting of every minor scratch. After 3 and 1/2 months on the Swift Boats, Kerry was back stateside, working on his first campaign--which he lost. The urge to capitalize on his medals as a war-opponent became irresistable, and vaulted him into the limelight.
The rest, as they say, is history. Or several versions of history...each one according to Kerry. He threw his medals. He threw someone else's medals--but his own ribbons. He wasn't at the meeting where asassinating senators was discussed. He was there and was against it. He refused to commit atrocities. He commited atrocities like everyone else.
Now, after the liberal media is inexplicably on his case, he lashes out at the President's National Guard service, a truly revolting and despicable new low even for Democrats. This after urging supporters not to question Bush's service (although smarmily equating it with draft-dodging).
If some tough--and long-overdue--questions about lies he's told in the past can induce this sort of panic and force him to immediately abandon whatever little shreds of principle he had, what happens in a REAL crisis?
This alone proves his lack of fitness for leadership.
Not to mention he has again failed to identify the real enemies.
Hint: 8 letters, starts with a 'C'.
"Why now?"
The Clintons, that's why.
These questions are coming, not from the Administration, but from Clinton-backers in the media. Charlie Gibson would give all three of his left testicles for one fleeting smile from the Ice Queen. This is the sabotage I predicted. No Democrat will get a clean shot at the job before Hillary.
Even if she were the VP candidate, I doubt she'd want to go back to the White House on another man's coat-tails again and wait another 8 years for her turn. No, we're more likely to see Kerry suddenly resign for "health reasons" (aka: the secret polaroids). Don't forget; these are the people who gave us the Pardons for Votes Ploy, the Torricelli Gambit--and the Ft. Marcy Park Option.
The very second Hillary's internal polls tell her she's within striking distance, perhaps with a Madrid-style boost, all bets are off.
And no Cardboard Man like John Kerry will stand in her way.
Sunday, April 25, 2004
U.N. Trouble Now, Boy
Senator Snoozebutton:
"It may well be that we need a new president, a breath of fresh air, to re-establish credibility with the rest of the world so that we can have a believable administration as to how we proceed... you cannot bring other nations to the table through the back door. You cannot have America run the occupation, make all the reconstruction decisions, make the decisions of the kind of government that will emerge, and pretend to bring other nations to the table."
..."If I'm president, I will not only personally go to the U.N., I will go to other capitals..."
..."I will immediately reach out to other nations in a very different way from this administration. Within weeks of being inaugurated, I will return to the U.N. and I will literally, formally rejoin the community of nations and turn over a proud new chapter in America's relationship with the world, which will do a number of things...that will take some of the poison out of the well that this administration has put there."
...MR. RUSSERT: So if Iraq is not secure, how can you possibly say the U.N. and NATO are going to come to our rescue when they don't have the troops or the interest of going in there?
JEAN-PIERRE, MARQUIS de la LOUISBURG SQUARE: "I believe the following very deeply: Number one, we cannot fail. I've said that many times. And if it requires more troops in order to create the stability that eliminates the chaos, that can provide the groundwork for other countries, that's what you have to do."
'I believe the following very deeply'...?!!! Who talks like that?
Other 'voices':
Ambassador Steyn:
"So the question now is whether the UN Oil-for-Food programme is just another of those things that slip down the memory hole, and we all go back to parroting the lullaby that "only the UN can bring legitimacy to Iraq/Afghanistan/Your Basket Case Here"."
..."But even by their own revolting standards the UN crossed a line.
"A programme created to allow the world to constrain Saddam appears to have become instead the means by which Saddam constrained the world. Oil-for-Food gave him a free hand to reward well-connected French and Russian suppliers...In other words, Oil-for-Fraud is everything the Left said the war was: it was all about oil - for Benon Sevan, the UN, France, Russia and the others who had every incentive to maintain Saddam in power."
..."Iraq deserves better than an organisation which spent the last six years as Saddam's collaborator."
For a historical perspective, let's listen to another Massachusetts senator:
"You may call me selfish if you will, conservative or reactionary, or use any other harsh adjective you see fit to apply, but an American I was born, an American I have remained all my life. I can never be anything else but an American, and I must think of the United States first, and when I think of the United States first in an arrangement like this I am thinking of what is best for the world, for if the United States fails, the best hopes of mankind fail with it. I have never had but one allegiance--I cannot divide it now. I have loved but one flag and I cannot share that devotion and give affection to the mongrel banner invented for a league. Internationalism, illustrated by the Bolshevik and by the men to whom all countries are alike provided they can make money out of them, is to me repulsive. National I must remain, and in that way I like all other Americans can render the amplest service to the world. The United States is the world's best hope, but if you fetter her in the interests and quarrels of other nations, if you tangle her in the intrigues of Europe, you will destroy her power for good and endanger her very existence. Leave her to march freely through the centuries to come as in the years that have gone. Strong, generous, and confident, she has nobly served mankind. Beware how you trifle with your marvelous inheritance, this great land of ordered liberty, for if we stumble and fall freedom and civilization everywhere will go down in ruin."--Senator Henry Cabot Lodge, Sr. (R-MA), August 12, 1919.
"It may well be that we need a new president, a breath of fresh air, to re-establish credibility with the rest of the world so that we can have a believable administration as to how we proceed... you cannot bring other nations to the table through the back door. You cannot have America run the occupation, make all the reconstruction decisions, make the decisions of the kind of government that will emerge, and pretend to bring other nations to the table."
..."If I'm president, I will not only personally go to the U.N., I will go to other capitals..."
..."I will immediately reach out to other nations in a very different way from this administration. Within weeks of being inaugurated, I will return to the U.N. and I will literally, formally rejoin the community of nations and turn over a proud new chapter in America's relationship with the world, which will do a number of things...that will take some of the poison out of the well that this administration has put there."
...MR. RUSSERT: So if Iraq is not secure, how can you possibly say the U.N. and NATO are going to come to our rescue when they don't have the troops or the interest of going in there?
JEAN-PIERRE, MARQUIS de la LOUISBURG SQUARE: "I believe the following very deeply: Number one, we cannot fail. I've said that many times. And if it requires more troops in order to create the stability that eliminates the chaos, that can provide the groundwork for other countries, that's what you have to do."
'I believe the following very deeply'...?!!! Who talks like that?
Other 'voices':
Ambassador Steyn:
"So the question now is whether the UN Oil-for-Food programme is just another of those things that slip down the memory hole, and we all go back to parroting the lullaby that "only the UN can bring legitimacy to Iraq/Afghanistan/Your Basket Case Here"."
..."But even by their own revolting standards the UN crossed a line.
"A programme created to allow the world to constrain Saddam appears to have become instead the means by which Saddam constrained the world. Oil-for-Food gave him a free hand to reward well-connected French and Russian suppliers...In other words, Oil-for-Fraud is everything the Left said the war was: it was all about oil - for Benon Sevan, the UN, France, Russia and the others who had every incentive to maintain Saddam in power."
..."Iraq deserves better than an organisation which spent the last six years as Saddam's collaborator."
For a historical perspective, let's listen to another Massachusetts senator:
"You may call me selfish if you will, conservative or reactionary, or use any other harsh adjective you see fit to apply, but an American I was born, an American I have remained all my life. I can never be anything else but an American, and I must think of the United States first, and when I think of the United States first in an arrangement like this I am thinking of what is best for the world, for if the United States fails, the best hopes of mankind fail with it. I have never had but one allegiance--I cannot divide it now. I have loved but one flag and I cannot share that devotion and give affection to the mongrel banner invented for a league. Internationalism, illustrated by the Bolshevik and by the men to whom all countries are alike provided they can make money out of them, is to me repulsive. National I must remain, and in that way I like all other Americans can render the amplest service to the world. The United States is the world's best hope, but if you fetter her in the interests and quarrels of other nations, if you tangle her in the intrigues of Europe, you will destroy her power for good and endanger her very existence. Leave her to march freely through the centuries to come as in the years that have gone. Strong, generous, and confident, she has nobly served mankind. Beware how you trifle with your marvelous inheritance, this great land of ordered liberty, for if we stumble and fall freedom and civilization everywhere will go down in ruin."--Senator Henry Cabot Lodge, Sr. (R-MA), August 12, 1919.
Ranger Tillman
GREATER LOVE HATH NO MAN...
"Who are you?"
"My name is Clarence. I'm here to take you home."
"What happened Where am I?"
"You died in that ambush back there."
"What? What are you talking about? Just who the heck are you, anyway?"
"Why, I'm an angel, Pat."
Don't stop now...Read all of Bastard Sword's excellent post here.
To paraphrase C.S. Lewis; " 'He is in God's hands.' That gains new energy when we think of him as a sword. Perhaps the earthly life we shared with him was only part of the tempering. Now perhaps He grasps the hilt; weighs the new weapon; makes lightnings with it in the air. 'A right Jerusalem blade.' "
"Who are you?"
"My name is Clarence. I'm here to take you home."
"What happened Where am I?"
"You died in that ambush back there."
"What? What are you talking about? Just who the heck are you, anyway?"
"Why, I'm an angel, Pat."
Don't stop now...Read all of Bastard Sword's excellent post here.
To paraphrase C.S. Lewis; " 'He is in God's hands.' That gains new energy when we think of him as a sword. Perhaps the earthly life we shared with him was only part of the tempering. Now perhaps He grasps the hilt; weighs the new weapon; makes lightnings with it in the air. 'A right Jerusalem blade.' "
The Kerry Files
nee-jurk lib-rul-izm, see also: "They shut a newspaper that belongs to a legitimate voice in Iraq...well, let me...change the term 'legitimate.' It belongs to a voice--because he has clearly taken on a far more radical tone in recent days and aligned himself with both Hamas and Hezbollah, which is a sort of terrorist alignment."
When asked about al Sadr, Kerry's first response is to bash Bush for quashing 'dissent', as if al Sadr had a constitutional right to shout "Fire on the Americans!" in a crowded Theater of War. After conferring legitimacy on our enemies, he then has to backtrack; both habits of a lifetime. And he diminishes calling a terrorist a terrorist by interjecting the qualifying words "sort of".
Asked if he supported al Sadr's arrest, the "Law-Enforcement On Terrorism" candidate said "Not if it's an isolated act without the other kinds of steps necessary to change the dynamics on the ground in Iraq." Is this guy really running for president...or auditioning for the role of the sophisticated, worldly sheriff in "High Nuance"?
And there is this little exchange:
Math Professor and Former Assistant Dean of City College, Walter Daum: "You have said, "Stay the course." George Bush calls the people there "thugs;" you call them "extremists." But they hated Saddam Hussein, and they now hate us. They wanted Saddam Hussein out. Now they want the United States out. And you say, "Stay the course." What the United States is doing is bombing hospitals, bombing mosques, sniping at civilians, killing hundreds of civilians, wounding thousands of civilians. And you say, "Stay the course." Is that the criminal course that you want to stay? This is an imperialist country that's fighting an imperialist war. You say, "Stay the course of this imperialist war," and you say you are a stark difference from George Bush. People hate George Bush. By the end of your presidency people will hate you for the same thing. You may fool some of the Americans that you are different from George Bush on this war, but you're not fooling most of the world and you're going to fool Iraqis."
KERRY: "I have consistently been critical of how we got where we are, but we are where we are, sir. And it would be unwise beyond belief for the United States of America to leave a failed Iraq in its wake. And I want the Americans out, and so do Americans want--"
DAUM: "No you don't. You say, "Stay the course," Senator."
KERRY: "Let me just finish. Stay the course of leaving a stable Iraq. If you don't leave a stable Iraq with a legitimacy to whatever entity is going to transform the government, you have the potential for a civil war, you have the potential for Shi'a vs. Sunni vs. Kurd. There are all kinds of potentials. Let me just finish..."
DAUM: "They are united against the occupation."
KERRY: "Yes, but...but...but the point is this, sir. You're not listening to me."
DAUM: "Oh, yes, I am."
KERRY: "Well, then you haven't, frankly, listened, because in fact the course that I have proposed is to you turn over to the United Nations the full responsibility for the transformation of the government and for the reconstruction."
Here Kerry misses his opportunity for his 'Sister Souljah' moment (when Bill Clinton stood up to a black female whack-job who advocated race war).
Kerry failed to point out that it is the professor who conflates civilians with "thugs" and "extremists"...not he and Bush. Kerry doesn't chastise the educrat for calling the troops 'murderers'. He neglects to mention how we are building hospitals, not wantonly bombing them. He will not refute the Assistant Dean's charge of Criminal Imperialist America. Why? Because these are the same recyled charges Kerry made 30 years ago and they still reverberate with him.
While in WW II even the N.Y. Times referred to American soldiers as "our troops", Kerry says "I want the Americans out," referring to his own nationality in the third-person. That's not a Freudian slip--it's a full 5-piece Freudian peignoir set, complete with Charmeuse and Lace Overlay, camisole, garter belt, bustier and panty (Boa not included). How very pathetique...how very French.
Instead, Kerry offers Prof. Daum a promise to turn over Iraq (and ipso facto, America's national security) not to the Iraqis, but to the control of the transnational kleptocrats and otherwise-unemployable brothers-in-law of third-world dictators. Also very French. Been there, done that, Jean.
If Kerry can't even stand up to the armchair-Communists on the faculty at City College, how will he possibly stand up to terrorists?
When asked about al Sadr, Kerry's first response is to bash Bush for quashing 'dissent', as if al Sadr had a constitutional right to shout "Fire on the Americans!" in a crowded Theater of War. After conferring legitimacy on our enemies, he then has to backtrack; both habits of a lifetime. And he diminishes calling a terrorist a terrorist by interjecting the qualifying words "sort of".
Asked if he supported al Sadr's arrest, the "Law-Enforcement On Terrorism" candidate said "Not if it's an isolated act without the other kinds of steps necessary to change the dynamics on the ground in Iraq." Is this guy really running for president...or auditioning for the role of the sophisticated, worldly sheriff in "High Nuance"?
And there is this little exchange:
Math Professor and Former Assistant Dean of City College, Walter Daum: "You have said, "Stay the course." George Bush calls the people there "thugs;" you call them "extremists." But they hated Saddam Hussein, and they now hate us. They wanted Saddam Hussein out. Now they want the United States out. And you say, "Stay the course." What the United States is doing is bombing hospitals, bombing mosques, sniping at civilians, killing hundreds of civilians, wounding thousands of civilians. And you say, "Stay the course." Is that the criminal course that you want to stay? This is an imperialist country that's fighting an imperialist war. You say, "Stay the course of this imperialist war," and you say you are a stark difference from George Bush. People hate George Bush. By the end of your presidency people will hate you for the same thing. You may fool some of the Americans that you are different from George Bush on this war, but you're not fooling most of the world and you're going to fool Iraqis."
KERRY: "I have consistently been critical of how we got where we are, but we are where we are, sir. And it would be unwise beyond belief for the United States of America to leave a failed Iraq in its wake. And I want the Americans out, and so do Americans want--"
DAUM: "No you don't. You say, "Stay the course," Senator."
KERRY: "Let me just finish. Stay the course of leaving a stable Iraq. If you don't leave a stable Iraq with a legitimacy to whatever entity is going to transform the government, you have the potential for a civil war, you have the potential for Shi'a vs. Sunni vs. Kurd. There are all kinds of potentials. Let me just finish..."
DAUM: "They are united against the occupation."
KERRY: "Yes, but...but...but the point is this, sir. You're not listening to me."
DAUM: "Oh, yes, I am."
KERRY: "Well, then you haven't, frankly, listened, because in fact the course that I have proposed is to you turn over to the United Nations the full responsibility for the transformation of the government and for the reconstruction."
Here Kerry misses his opportunity for his 'Sister Souljah' moment (when Bill Clinton stood up to a black female whack-job who advocated race war).
Kerry failed to point out that it is the professor who conflates civilians with "thugs" and "extremists"...not he and Bush. Kerry doesn't chastise the educrat for calling the troops 'murderers'. He neglects to mention how we are building hospitals, not wantonly bombing them. He will not refute the Assistant Dean's charge of Criminal Imperialist America. Why? Because these are the same recyled charges Kerry made 30 years ago and they still reverberate with him.
While in WW II even the N.Y. Times referred to American soldiers as "our troops", Kerry says "I want the Americans out," referring to his own nationality in the third-person. That's not a Freudian slip--it's a full 5-piece Freudian peignoir set, complete with Charmeuse and Lace Overlay, camisole, garter belt, bustier and panty (Boa not included). How very pathetique...how very French.
Instead, Kerry offers Prof. Daum a promise to turn over Iraq (and ipso facto, America's national security) not to the Iraqis, but to the control of the transnational kleptocrats and otherwise-unemployable brothers-in-law of third-world dictators. Also very French. Been there, done that, Jean.
If Kerry can't even stand up to the armchair-Communists on the faculty at City College, how will he possibly stand up to terrorists?
Sunday, April 18, 2004
Follow the Linker
Robert Alt is doing invaluable reporting from in-country Iraq, with good contributions from others as well at No Left Turns.
Before we had film directors and jounalists available to lie to us on a regular basis, we had novelists. French novelists, to boot. Theodore Dalrymple:
"She was married to an idler who had long acted as her pimp, and who used, in her salad days, to send her out to earn the price of his dinner and sorties to the pub. By one of those terrible tricks that Nature sometimes plays upon those whom she wishes to drive mad, the prostitute loved this worthless man to distraction, and with an abiding passion. One day while she was a patient in the hospital he received compensation for an accident in which he had been involved, a huge sum in his circumstances, and he went out at once and bought a mauve car with leopardskin seats; he started to wear those lizard-skin shoes much favored by the business associates of African dictators. Her share of the compensation money was a packet of cigarettes that he did not even bring to the ward, but left at the hospital gate for the porter to deliver."
..."I realized that Maupassant was not a wholly reliable guide to the phenomenon of prostitution."
The always-funny Iowahawk has written a eulogy for artist Ed Roth. 60's kids will immediately recognize his RatFink and Hot-Rod cartoons. Mr. Roth also drew military insignias in his own over-the-top style (examples provided).
He Who Will Not Be Trifled With provides these links for our troops; please indulge freely:
Love From Texas
Operation Interdependence
Operation Shoe Box
VFW Phone Card program
Hero Miles; donating frequent flyer miles
Books For Soldiers
And for our erstwhile allies, Pizza For the IDF.
And this is very worthwhile, too; Help U.S. Marines Equip TV Stations in Iraq.
Good Hunting, Gents.
Before we had film directors and jounalists available to lie to us on a regular basis, we had novelists. French novelists, to boot. Theodore Dalrymple:
"She was married to an idler who had long acted as her pimp, and who used, in her salad days, to send her out to earn the price of his dinner and sorties to the pub. By one of those terrible tricks that Nature sometimes plays upon those whom she wishes to drive mad, the prostitute loved this worthless man to distraction, and with an abiding passion. One day while she was a patient in the hospital he received compensation for an accident in which he had been involved, a huge sum in his circumstances, and he went out at once and bought a mauve car with leopardskin seats; he started to wear those lizard-skin shoes much favored by the business associates of African dictators. Her share of the compensation money was a packet of cigarettes that he did not even bring to the ward, but left at the hospital gate for the porter to deliver."
..."I realized that Maupassant was not a wholly reliable guide to the phenomenon of prostitution."
The always-funny Iowahawk has written a eulogy for artist Ed Roth. 60's kids will immediately recognize his RatFink and Hot-Rod cartoons. Mr. Roth also drew military insignias in his own over-the-top style (examples provided).
He Who Will Not Be Trifled With provides these links for our troops; please indulge freely:
Love From Texas
Operation Interdependence
Operation Shoe Box
VFW Phone Card program
Hero Miles; donating frequent flyer miles
Books For Soldiers
And for our erstwhile allies, Pizza For the IDF.
And this is very worthwhile, too; Help U.S. Marines Equip TV Stations in Iraq.
Good Hunting, Gents.
Thursday, April 15, 2004
Oliver Stone is Castro's Bitch.
Ann Louise Bardach questions Oliver Stone about his reworked Castro documentary. (Evidently, the first version was TOO fawning.)
ALB: "Do you know that the Cubans are refusing visas to virtually all reporters and not allowing them back in the country?"
OS: "You know, the advantage I have is to be a filmmaker. [Castro] seemed to love my movies. Apparently he liked my presence, and he trusted that I wouldn't edit him in a way that would be negative from the outset. But I did tell him, the second trip, that I would try to be tougher, not disrespectfully so. As you see, several times [in the film] he does get upset."
First, note that Stone doesn't answer the question about real reporters being barred from Cuba. And I'm sure Castro does love his movies--Stone pinned JFK's assasination on LBJ while he now lunches with the real killer.
ALB: "I gather you rejected the idea of demonizing him."
"Demonize? Damn, woman; can't you see I'm in love?"
OS: "Of course. My role here was not as a journalist. It really was as a director and filmmaker. In my job, I challenge actors. I provoke them."
Except this is a documentary and Castro is not an actor. That's REAL blood, Oliver.
ALB: "Let me ask you about the part [in the film] where Castro's in front of eight prisoners charged with attempting to hijack a plane [to Miami]. He says to them, "I want you all to speak frankly and freely." What do you make of that whole scene, where you have these prisoners who happened to be wearing perfectly starched, nice blue shirts?"
OS: "Let me give you the background. He obviously set it up overnight. It was in that spirit that he said, "Ask whatever you want. I'm sitting here. I want to hear it too. I want to hear what they're thinking." He let me run the tribunal, so to speak."
I bet you'd really like to help him run his tribunals.
ALB: "But Cuba's leader for life is sitting in front of these guys who are facing life in prison, and you're asking them, "Are you well treated in prison?" Did you think they could honestly answer that question?"
OS: "If they were being horribly mistreated, then I don't know that they could be worse mistreated [afterward]."
"If"? Your concern is touching.
ALB: "So in other words, you think they thought this was their best shot to air grievances? Rather than that if they did speak candidly, there'd be hell to pay when they got back to prison?"
OS: I must say, you're really picturing a Stalinist state. It doesn't feel that way. You can always find horrible prisons if you go to any country in Central America.
"It can't be Stalinism...the weather's too nice!"
ALB: "Did you go to the prisons in Cuba?"
OS: "No, I didn't."
Yes, you did. Cuba IS a prison.
ALB: "So you don't know if they're any different than, say, the prisons in Honduras then?"
OS: "I think that those prisoners are being honest."
You would, dupe.
ALB: "What about when you ask them what they think is a fair sentence for their crimes, and one of them starts to talk about how he'd like to have 30 years in prison?"
OS: "I was shocked at that. But Bush would have shot these people, is what Castro said. I don't know what the parole system is."
If he said it, it must be true, eh? Castro is everything & more these suck-ups accuse BushCheneyAshcroft of being, yet they cling to him like fleas to a syphillitic dog. 'Tis one of life's little mysteries. Since you couldn't bother to inquire, Ms. Bardach will now explain the Cuban parole system to you, Ollie:
ALB: "There is none unless Fidel Castro decides to give you clemency."
OS: (*silence*)
ALB: "They seemed very willing to bring up sound bites that Castro is partial to--that they wanted to leave Cuba only for economic reasons, not political ones, etc."
OS: "You're going to the theory that they were trying to get good time in front of the camera to get lighter sentences."
ALB: "I'm going even further than that. I'm suggesting that they had no choice but to appear there, and that in some ways it was a bit of a mini-show-trial, sort of "Look how well we treat our prisoners.""
OS: "It does have that aura, absolutely. But I do maintain that if it were a Stalinist state--they certainly do a great job of concealing it."
Indeed they do--with help from Useful Idiots such as yourself. Did you bother to meet any of the block captains who enforce revolutionary correctness? Did you trouble yourself to meet the dissidents who are tortured and sickened, only to be released from prison just short of death? Their crime? They want to vote. The bastards.
ALB: "To me, one of the most interesting exchanges in the film is when you ask, "Why did you decide to shoot these three hijackers on the eighth day?" And he bristles and says, "I didn't shoot anyone, personally." You respond, "Well, OK, the state shot these three guys on the eighth day." He then says, "Of course, I take my share of responsibility.""
OS: "He was a huge part of the state, and now, as he points out, he has less power. There is a functioning congress."
Yeah...of hand-picked lackeys. Hey--maybe you should run; Stone For Congress'04!
ALB: "Do you really think that anything happens in Cuba without his approval?"
OS: "I don't know."
That's a Good German.
ALB: "You don't know?"
OS: "I've heard that the reform elements tried to move in after the Soviet Union's [collapse] in '92 and '93, and Castro took the hard line on that."
ALB: "That's right. As far as I know, Comandante has the first footage of Fidel with his son Fidelito and grandson, aside from formal receptions, etc. How did they respond to each other?"
OS: "I think Fidel said something to the effect that, at the end, he could have been a better father." "...except I was too busy holding international terrorism conferences to play catch with Junior."
ALB: "Now, when you were talking to the prisoners who tried to hijack a plane, one told you he was a fisherman, and you said, "Why then didn't you take a boat?" Why did you ask that?"
OS: "Well, it seemed to me that if they were familiar with boats, it seemed to be the best way."
ALB: "Did you know that in Cuba there are virtually no boats? The boats that are used for fishermen are tightly controlled. One of the more surreal aspects of Cuba, being the largest island in the Caribbean, is that there are no visible boats."
OS: "I see."
Do you really? After you're through whoring for the Palmetto Pimp, you get to jump on a jet and go back to Hollywood.
ALB: "How did you end up in a hospital with him getting an EKG?"
OS: "I went with him to see a functioning hospital in the heart of the city. Spontaneously, he took his shirt off, and said, "Well, I need one. Give me one." The [EKG results] looked good."
Ah; the much-vaunted CubaCare. Boot-heel: meet neck.
ALB: "In other words, he's saying to you, "All these rumors about me dying and my poor health, let me dispel them once and for all"?"
OS: "No, he didn't say that."
ALB: "But by doing this, in essence, he's saying that?"
OS: "In essence. But I had not heard these rumors about him dying. In the first documentary he showed us his exercise regime in the office, pacing back and forth. He walks three miles in his office."
And Hitler was a vegetarian.
ALB: "Did it strike you as interesting that at one point in the scene with the prisoners, Castro turned to the prisoners' defense lawyers, who just happened to be there, and he says, "I urge you to do your best to reduce the sentences"?"
OS: "I love that. I thought that was hilarious. Those guys just popped up."
Of course they did.
ALB: "Is there a show-trial element here?"
OS: "Yeah. I thought that was funny, I did--the prosecutor and Fidel admonishing them, to make sure they worked hard. There was that paternalism. I mean "father knows best," as opposed to totalitarianism. It's paternalism, that's what I meant. It's a Latin thing."
No--it's a Freedom thing, Oliver. And you wouldn't understand.
ALB: "So after 60 hours with Castro, what do you make of this man?"
OS: "I'm totally awed by his ability to survive and maintain a strong moral presence--and we ignore him now at our peril if we start another war with Cuba."
"...moral presence..."? He's a swinish murdering bastard. And you're his two-bit dictator-porn peddler.
ALB: "You say we ignore him at our peril. It seems to me that we're obsessed with him."
OS: "No, I think the focus is wrong. Fidel is not the revolution, believe me. Fidel is popular, whatever his enemies say. It's Zapata, remember that movie? He said, "A strong people don't need a strong leader.""
I think you want Fidel to paddle you, Ollie.
ALB: "So you think that if he went off the scene the revolution would continue?"
OS: "If Mr. Bush and his people have the illusion that they're going to walk into an Iraq-type situation, and people are going to throw up their arms and welcome us, [they are] dead wrong. These people are committed. Castro has become a spiritual leader. He will always be a Mao to those people."
That's PRESIDENT Bush to you, Stone. And Castro IS a spiritual leader...if by 'spiritual' you mean Beelzebub.
ALB: "Did you ask him about his relationship with Juanita in Miami?"
OS: "God, I don't remember. There were so many women."
ALB: "Juanita is his sister."
OS: "Juanita's his sister?...He seemed to be a very straight-shooter, very kind of shy with women."
ALB: "I've called him the movie star dictator. Did you get that sense about him?"
OS: "Totally. I think it would be a mistake to see him as a Ceausescu. I would compare him more to Reagan and Clinton.--They were both tall and had great shoulders, and so does Fidel."
Yep; Ollie wants a paddling. And weren't Reagan and Clinton, uh, you know... ELECTED, toady-boy?
ALB: "For the second film, you received permission to see the dissidents Osvaldo Paya, Vladimiro Roca, and Elizardo Sanchez. They spoke critically of the government. Obviously, that couldn't have happened unless permission for them to see you was granted, right? What do you make of Castro allowing that to happen?"
OS: "I don't think he was happy with it. I don't think he wants to be in the same film with Paya. In his mind they are faux dissidents."
ALB: "He actually calls them faux dissidents? He called them the so-called dissidents?"
OS: "Yeah, so-called, right. I was in Soviet Russia for a script in 1983, and I interviewed 20 dissidents in 12 cities. I really got an idea of dissidents that was much rougher than here. These people in Cuba were nothing compared to what I saw in Russia."
Boot-licker.
ALB: "Did you ever think to bring up why he doesn't hold a presidential election?"
OS: "I did. He said something to the effect, "We have elections.""
ALB: "Local representative elections. But what about a presidential election?"
OS: "We didn't talk about it, especially in view of the fact that our own 2000 elections were a little bit discredited."
Do you kiss your mother with that lying mouth?
ALB: "In the first film, Comandante, he asked you, "Is it so bad to be a dictator?" Did you think you should have responded to that question?"
OS: "I don't think that was the place to do it. --You know, dictator or tyrant, those words are used very easily. In the Greek political system, democracy didn't work out that well. There were what they called benevolent dictators back in those days."
"Spank me again, El Jefe--harder!"
ALB: "And you think he might be in that category?"
OS: "Well, not benevolent to everybody, no."
"...but..."
ALB: "Can't it be said in fact that Castro is quite cynical--the master debater, master lawyer?"
OS: "Well, nobody's perfect."
If Mr. Stone missed an orifice in that Trotskyite tongue-bath, I don't know what that would be. And I don't want to know.
Just like Stone.
ALB: "Do you know that the Cubans are refusing visas to virtually all reporters and not allowing them back in the country?"
OS: "You know, the advantage I have is to be a filmmaker. [Castro] seemed to love my movies. Apparently he liked my presence, and he trusted that I wouldn't edit him in a way that would be negative from the outset. But I did tell him, the second trip, that I would try to be tougher, not disrespectfully so. As you see, several times [in the film] he does get upset."
First, note that Stone doesn't answer the question about real reporters being barred from Cuba. And I'm sure Castro does love his movies--Stone pinned JFK's assasination on LBJ while he now lunches with the real killer.
ALB: "I gather you rejected the idea of demonizing him."
"Demonize? Damn, woman; can't you see I'm in love?"
OS: "Of course. My role here was not as a journalist. It really was as a director and filmmaker. In my job, I challenge actors. I provoke them."
Except this is a documentary and Castro is not an actor. That's REAL blood, Oliver.
ALB: "Let me ask you about the part [in the film] where Castro's in front of eight prisoners charged with attempting to hijack a plane [to Miami]. He says to them, "I want you all to speak frankly and freely." What do you make of that whole scene, where you have these prisoners who happened to be wearing perfectly starched, nice blue shirts?"
OS: "Let me give you the background. He obviously set it up overnight. It was in that spirit that he said, "Ask whatever you want. I'm sitting here. I want to hear it too. I want to hear what they're thinking." He let me run the tribunal, so to speak."
I bet you'd really like to help him run his tribunals.
ALB: "But Cuba's leader for life is sitting in front of these guys who are facing life in prison, and you're asking them, "Are you well treated in prison?" Did you think they could honestly answer that question?"
OS: "If they were being horribly mistreated, then I don't know that they could be worse mistreated [afterward]."
"If"? Your concern is touching.
ALB: "So in other words, you think they thought this was their best shot to air grievances? Rather than that if they did speak candidly, there'd be hell to pay when they got back to prison?"
OS: I must say, you're really picturing a Stalinist state. It doesn't feel that way. You can always find horrible prisons if you go to any country in Central America.
"It can't be Stalinism...the weather's too nice!"
ALB: "Did you go to the prisons in Cuba?"
OS: "No, I didn't."
Yes, you did. Cuba IS a prison.
ALB: "So you don't know if they're any different than, say, the prisons in Honduras then?"
OS: "I think that those prisoners are being honest."
You would, dupe.
ALB: "What about when you ask them what they think is a fair sentence for their crimes, and one of them starts to talk about how he'd like to have 30 years in prison?"
OS: "I was shocked at that. But Bush would have shot these people, is what Castro said. I don't know what the parole system is."
If he said it, it must be true, eh? Castro is everything & more these suck-ups accuse BushCheneyAshcroft of being, yet they cling to him like fleas to a syphillitic dog. 'Tis one of life's little mysteries. Since you couldn't bother to inquire, Ms. Bardach will now explain the Cuban parole system to you, Ollie:
ALB: "There is none unless Fidel Castro decides to give you clemency."
OS: (*silence*)
ALB: "They seemed very willing to bring up sound bites that Castro is partial to--that they wanted to leave Cuba only for economic reasons, not political ones, etc."
OS: "You're going to the theory that they were trying to get good time in front of the camera to get lighter sentences."
ALB: "I'm going even further than that. I'm suggesting that they had no choice but to appear there, and that in some ways it was a bit of a mini-show-trial, sort of "Look how well we treat our prisoners.""
OS: "It does have that aura, absolutely. But I do maintain that if it were a Stalinist state--they certainly do a great job of concealing it."
Indeed they do--with help from Useful Idiots such as yourself. Did you bother to meet any of the block captains who enforce revolutionary correctness? Did you trouble yourself to meet the dissidents who are tortured and sickened, only to be released from prison just short of death? Their crime? They want to vote. The bastards.
ALB: "To me, one of the most interesting exchanges in the film is when you ask, "Why did you decide to shoot these three hijackers on the eighth day?" And he bristles and says, "I didn't shoot anyone, personally." You respond, "Well, OK, the state shot these three guys on the eighth day." He then says, "Of course, I take my share of responsibility.""
OS: "He was a huge part of the state, and now, as he points out, he has less power. There is a functioning congress."
Yeah...of hand-picked lackeys. Hey--maybe you should run; Stone For Congress'04!
ALB: "Do you really think that anything happens in Cuba without his approval?"
OS: "I don't know."
That's a Good German.
ALB: "You don't know?"
OS: "I've heard that the reform elements tried to move in after the Soviet Union's [collapse] in '92 and '93, and Castro took the hard line on that."
ALB: "That's right. As far as I know, Comandante has the first footage of Fidel with his son Fidelito and grandson, aside from formal receptions, etc. How did they respond to each other?"
OS: "I think Fidel said something to the effect that, at the end, he could have been a better father." "...except I was too busy holding international terrorism conferences to play catch with Junior."
ALB: "Now, when you were talking to the prisoners who tried to hijack a plane, one told you he was a fisherman, and you said, "Why then didn't you take a boat?" Why did you ask that?"
OS: "Well, it seemed to me that if they were familiar with boats, it seemed to be the best way."
ALB: "Did you know that in Cuba there are virtually no boats? The boats that are used for fishermen are tightly controlled. One of the more surreal aspects of Cuba, being the largest island in the Caribbean, is that there are no visible boats."
OS: "I see."
Do you really? After you're through whoring for the Palmetto Pimp, you get to jump on a jet and go back to Hollywood.
ALB: "How did you end up in a hospital with him getting an EKG?"
OS: "I went with him to see a functioning hospital in the heart of the city. Spontaneously, he took his shirt off, and said, "Well, I need one. Give me one." The [EKG results] looked good."
Ah; the much-vaunted CubaCare. Boot-heel: meet neck.
ALB: "In other words, he's saying to you, "All these rumors about me dying and my poor health, let me dispel them once and for all"?"
OS: "No, he didn't say that."
ALB: "But by doing this, in essence, he's saying that?"
OS: "In essence. But I had not heard these rumors about him dying. In the first documentary he showed us his exercise regime in the office, pacing back and forth. He walks three miles in his office."
And Hitler was a vegetarian.
ALB: "Did it strike you as interesting that at one point in the scene with the prisoners, Castro turned to the prisoners' defense lawyers, who just happened to be there, and he says, "I urge you to do your best to reduce the sentences"?"
OS: "I love that. I thought that was hilarious. Those guys just popped up."
Of course they did.
ALB: "Is there a show-trial element here?"
OS: "Yeah. I thought that was funny, I did--the prosecutor and Fidel admonishing them, to make sure they worked hard. There was that paternalism. I mean "father knows best," as opposed to totalitarianism. It's paternalism, that's what I meant. It's a Latin thing."
No--it's a Freedom thing, Oliver. And you wouldn't understand.
ALB: "So after 60 hours with Castro, what do you make of this man?"
OS: "I'm totally awed by his ability to survive and maintain a strong moral presence--and we ignore him now at our peril if we start another war with Cuba."
"...moral presence..."? He's a swinish murdering bastard. And you're his two-bit dictator-porn peddler.
ALB: "You say we ignore him at our peril. It seems to me that we're obsessed with him."
OS: "No, I think the focus is wrong. Fidel is not the revolution, believe me. Fidel is popular, whatever his enemies say. It's Zapata, remember that movie? He said, "A strong people don't need a strong leader.""
I think you want Fidel to paddle you, Ollie.
ALB: "So you think that if he went off the scene the revolution would continue?"
OS: "If Mr. Bush and his people have the illusion that they're going to walk into an Iraq-type situation, and people are going to throw up their arms and welcome us, [they are] dead wrong. These people are committed. Castro has become a spiritual leader. He will always be a Mao to those people."
That's PRESIDENT Bush to you, Stone. And Castro IS a spiritual leader...if by 'spiritual' you mean Beelzebub.
ALB: "Did you ask him about his relationship with Juanita in Miami?"
OS: "God, I don't remember. There were so many women."
ALB: "Juanita is his sister."
OS: "Juanita's his sister?...He seemed to be a very straight-shooter, very kind of shy with women."
ALB: "I've called him the movie star dictator. Did you get that sense about him?"
OS: "Totally. I think it would be a mistake to see him as a Ceausescu. I would compare him more to Reagan and Clinton.--They were both tall and had great shoulders, and so does Fidel."
Yep; Ollie wants a paddling. And weren't Reagan and Clinton, uh, you know... ELECTED, toady-boy?
ALB: "For the second film, you received permission to see the dissidents Osvaldo Paya, Vladimiro Roca, and Elizardo Sanchez. They spoke critically of the government. Obviously, that couldn't have happened unless permission for them to see you was granted, right? What do you make of Castro allowing that to happen?"
OS: "I don't think he was happy with it. I don't think he wants to be in the same film with Paya. In his mind they are faux dissidents."
ALB: "He actually calls them faux dissidents? He called them the so-called dissidents?"
OS: "Yeah, so-called, right. I was in Soviet Russia for a script in 1983, and I interviewed 20 dissidents in 12 cities. I really got an idea of dissidents that was much rougher than here. These people in Cuba were nothing compared to what I saw in Russia."
Boot-licker.
ALB: "Did you ever think to bring up why he doesn't hold a presidential election?"
OS: "I did. He said something to the effect, "We have elections.""
ALB: "Local representative elections. But what about a presidential election?"
OS: "We didn't talk about it, especially in view of the fact that our own 2000 elections were a little bit discredited."
Do you kiss your mother with that lying mouth?
ALB: "In the first film, Comandante, he asked you, "Is it so bad to be a dictator?" Did you think you should have responded to that question?"
OS: "I don't think that was the place to do it. --You know, dictator or tyrant, those words are used very easily. In the Greek political system, democracy didn't work out that well. There were what they called benevolent dictators back in those days."
"Spank me again, El Jefe--harder!"
ALB: "And you think he might be in that category?"
OS: "Well, not benevolent to everybody, no."
"...but..."
ALB: "Can't it be said in fact that Castro is quite cynical--the master debater, master lawyer?"
OS: "Well, nobody's perfect."
If Mr. Stone missed an orifice in that Trotskyite tongue-bath, I don't know what that would be. And I don't want to know.
Just like Stone.
DNC Memo
IN THE WAR ON GEORGE W. BUSH?
Terry McAuliffe released this broadside at the Bush Administration today:
"It is in the interest of both parties not to give a chance to those who shed the blood of nations for their limited personal interest and obedience to the gang of the White House."
"This war earns millions of dollars for big companies, whether those who manufacture weapons or those involved in reconstruction, such as Halliburton and its sisters and daughters...Rational people do not risk their security, money and sons to appease the White House liar."
Oh...wait a minute; that was somebody called "Osama". Sorry.
Keeps gettin' harder to tell the difference.
Terry McAuliffe released this broadside at the Bush Administration today:
"It is in the interest of both parties not to give a chance to those who shed the blood of nations for their limited personal interest and obedience to the gang of the White House."
"This war earns millions of dollars for big companies, whether those who manufacture weapons or those involved in reconstruction, such as Halliburton and its sisters and daughters...Rational people do not risk their security, money and sons to appease the White House liar."
Oh...wait a minute; that was somebody called "Osama". Sorry.
Keeps gettin' harder to tell the difference.
Tuesday, April 13, 2004
Contest of the Century
BUSH VERSUS KERRY?
No; Miss USA v. Monsieur France!
First, the leadership category:
Miss USA Shandi Finnessey: "A Republican, she told Reuters she would use her position to help explain America's involvement in Iraq. "What needed to be done had to be done," she said." Score: 10
Next contestant:
Woodruff :"What exactly -- right now -- would you do differently?"
Monsieur France Jean Kerry, un Democrat: "Right now, what I would do differently is, I mean, look, I'm not the president, and I didn't create this mess so I don't want to acknowledge a mistake that I haven't made." Score: -11
In the personality category, Miss USA, of course wins by forfeit.
Miss USA's interests include bungee-jumping, playing piano, education & writing. M. France's interests include being President. Period.
Finally, let's go to the swimsuit competition. Here is Miss USA.
And here is Monsieur France, surfing in Sun Valley, Idaho. The daisy fleur-de-lais is a nice touch, but again, advantage Miss USA.
No; Miss USA v. Monsieur France!
First, the leadership category:
Miss USA Shandi Finnessey: "A Republican, she told Reuters she would use her position to help explain America's involvement in Iraq. "What needed to be done had to be done," she said." Score: 10
Next contestant:
Woodruff :"What exactly -- right now -- would you do differently?"
Monsieur France Jean Kerry, un Democrat: "Right now, what I would do differently is, I mean, look, I'm not the president, and I didn't create this mess so I don't want to acknowledge a mistake that I haven't made." Score: -11
In the personality category, Miss USA, of course wins by forfeit.
Miss USA's interests include bungee-jumping, playing piano, education & writing. M. France's interests include being President. Period.
Finally, let's go to the swimsuit competition. Here is Miss USA.
And here is Monsieur France, surfing in Sun Valley, Idaho. The daisy fleur-de-lais is a nice touch, but again, advantage Miss USA.
Sunday, April 11, 2004
More Lawyers
LESS JUSTICE
Marianne M. Jennings finally snaps:
..."I unraveled when some whiner commented that Condi Rice testified under oath whereas Mr. Clinton only met with the Commission. What difference could it possibly make whether that guy was under oath?"
"Blame the 9-11 Commission on trial lawyers. They have us believing that all mishaps that befall us are attributable to malpractice. These snake-oil louts have engrained in us a sense of entitlement to a perfect and linear life, insulated from all harm, accident, and even the consequences of our own choices. One forced detour along a linear path to nirvana, and our contingent friends pounce, prepared to find fault, and, ergo liability."
..."The 9-11 Commission is not about the business of going forward and "Never again." Lawyerly blame and punishment are its goals - hindsight is 20/20. But, the stakes in this blame game are higher than punitive damages; The stakes are effective leadership. The 9-11 Commission is a lynch mob for Mr. Bush."
Not to worry, Marianne; this is The Mob That Can't--and Won't--Shoot Straight.
Marianne M. Jennings finally snaps:
..."I unraveled when some whiner commented that Condi Rice testified under oath whereas Mr. Clinton only met with the Commission. What difference could it possibly make whether that guy was under oath?"
"Blame the 9-11 Commission on trial lawyers. They have us believing that all mishaps that befall us are attributable to malpractice. These snake-oil louts have engrained in us a sense of entitlement to a perfect and linear life, insulated from all harm, accident, and even the consequences of our own choices. One forced detour along a linear path to nirvana, and our contingent friends pounce, prepared to find fault, and, ergo liability."
..."The 9-11 Commission is not about the business of going forward and "Never again." Lawyerly blame and punishment are its goals - hindsight is 20/20. But, the stakes in this blame game are higher than punitive damages; The stakes are effective leadership. The 9-11 Commission is a lynch mob for Mr. Bush."
Not to worry, Marianne; this is The Mob That Can't--and Won't--Shoot Straight.
Happy Easter
The Right Rev. David Warren will give today's service:
..."Civilization is incidentally not something that exists primarily in external objects -- in art and architecture and books and music, which are only the external gestures of the thing; nor even in the graceful manners which reveal its presence regardless of outward dress. It is rather something that is carried within each of its members; forms of nobility that are contagious alike to savages and to our children. It is the creative power that builds all these beautiful things, and which, when it passes, watches the desert and jungle reclaim them -- watches the desert and jungle in turn reclaiming the heart of man."
"It is everything -- moral, aesthetic, ethical -- but especially, civilization is moral. It turns men outward, lifts them above the animal contemplation of immediate need, and towards the requirements of God and our neighbour. And as we have chiefly forgotten today, it is in its very nature sacramental. It is the lifting up of entire peoples in a mysterious aggregative act of prayer."
...
"We, ourselves, need personally to be saved, but so does the world around us. And it is in the mystery of Christ's Resurrection, on this Easter morning, that we can see the way clear."
"It is more than a reminder, a list of "things to do today", for Christ is in charge. The actual Christ, not the semblance or an image or a myth or a symbol or a custom from old times, but Our Lord, risen from the dead, carrying the victorious standard of Christendom. And the way forward is not the way back."
"We have carried the cross of a battered Christian civilization, one now beyond the possibility of repair. But there is nothing to stop us from building another."
From "Easter MMIV".
..."Civilization is incidentally not something that exists primarily in external objects -- in art and architecture and books and music, which are only the external gestures of the thing; nor even in the graceful manners which reveal its presence regardless of outward dress. It is rather something that is carried within each of its members; forms of nobility that are contagious alike to savages and to our children. It is the creative power that builds all these beautiful things, and which, when it passes, watches the desert and jungle reclaim them -- watches the desert and jungle in turn reclaiming the heart of man."
"It is everything -- moral, aesthetic, ethical -- but especially, civilization is moral. It turns men outward, lifts them above the animal contemplation of immediate need, and towards the requirements of God and our neighbour. And as we have chiefly forgotten today, it is in its very nature sacramental. It is the lifting up of entire peoples in a mysterious aggregative act of prayer."
...
"We, ourselves, need personally to be saved, but so does the world around us. And it is in the mystery of Christ's Resurrection, on this Easter morning, that we can see the way clear."
"It is more than a reminder, a list of "things to do today", for Christ is in charge. The actual Christ, not the semblance or an image or a myth or a symbol or a custom from old times, but Our Lord, risen from the dead, carrying the victorious standard of Christendom. And the way forward is not the way back."
"We have carried the cross of a battered Christian civilization, one now beyond the possibility of repair. But there is nothing to stop us from building another."
From "Easter MMIV".
Friday, April 09, 2004
Uncivil Libertines
Here's an interesting post on Condi ("Better put some ice on that, bin Veniste!").
Noted chef, distiller and misogynistic angler Steve H. debunks this (alleged) Franklin quote: "They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
Steve also correctly notes that the Constitution contemplates the suspension of habeus corpus. (Did you know a person may be held to answer for a capital crime without an indictment "in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger"? Or that Kansas may have its own Navy with Congress' permission?)
While Franklin makes a good point, most aphorisms come in pairs. Our problem is not trading essential liberty for temporary safety, but the opposite; trading essential security for temporary liberties.
For example, we let the Saud slave-power write their own visas so's we could feel all warm and fuzzy about our multi-cultural selves. To be reasonably secure in one's person and in one's country are the most fundamental liberties of all.
In 'An End to Evil', David Frum mentions how Hollywood glorified Ellen Brockovich for exposing a greedy corporation who was allegedly poisoning the water supply. Yet encouraging citizens to report suspicious activity at the local reservoir...why, that's rank McCarthyism!
As for libraries, that whole kerfuffle is much ado about nothing. First, libraries are not even mentioned in the Patriot Act. Second, one does not have an inherent right to use library resources to send e-mails to Osama.cave and demand copies of "How to Poison Infidel Water Supplies" from lowlyfemale librarian. Again, trading essential security for temporary liberties.
I was trying to gather up books to return to the library and the librarian wouldn't tell me what books my six year-old had out. Evidently, my child has a right to check out "Heather Has Two Mommies, Three Daddies, Four Calling Birds, A Turkey Baster and a Shetland Pony In a Hot-tub" without my consent--in their view, parents are all eveeill John Ashcrofts too.
The Libs seem blithely unconcerned with, say, an outbreak of Plague, except perhaps as a way to bash Bush. No, what troubles them is something much darker, more ominous and deeply threatening of their most cherished beliefs:
Mommy catching them in the bathroom, poring over a copy of 'Catcher in the Rye'.
Spanky, please.
Noted chef, distiller and misogynistic angler Steve H. debunks this (alleged) Franklin quote: "They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
Steve also correctly notes that the Constitution contemplates the suspension of habeus corpus. (Did you know a person may be held to answer for a capital crime without an indictment "in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger"? Or that Kansas may have its own Navy with Congress' permission?)
While Franklin makes a good point, most aphorisms come in pairs. Our problem is not trading essential liberty for temporary safety, but the opposite; trading essential security for temporary liberties.
For example, we let the Saud slave-power write their own visas so's we could feel all warm and fuzzy about our multi-cultural selves. To be reasonably secure in one's person and in one's country are the most fundamental liberties of all.
In 'An End to Evil', David Frum mentions how Hollywood glorified Ellen Brockovich for exposing a greedy corporation who was allegedly poisoning the water supply. Yet encouraging citizens to report suspicious activity at the local reservoir...why, that's rank McCarthyism!
As for libraries, that whole kerfuffle is much ado about nothing. First, libraries are not even mentioned in the Patriot Act. Second, one does not have an inherent right to use library resources to send e-mails to Osama.cave and demand copies of "How to Poison Infidel Water Supplies" from lowlyfemale librarian. Again, trading essential security for temporary liberties.
I was trying to gather up books to return to the library and the librarian wouldn't tell me what books my six year-old had out. Evidently, my child has a right to check out "Heather Has Two Mommies, Three Daddies, Four Calling Birds, A Turkey Baster and a Shetland Pony In a Hot-tub" without my consent--in their view, parents are all eveeill John Ashcrofts too.
The Libs seem blithely unconcerned with, say, an outbreak of Plague, except perhaps as a way to bash Bush. No, what troubles them is something much darker, more ominous and deeply threatening of their most cherished beliefs:
Mommy catching them in the bathroom, poring over a copy of 'Catcher in the Rye'.
Spanky, please.
Wednesday, April 07, 2004
Another Foreign Leader
ENDORSES KERRY:
"Hassan Nasrallah, a Sadr relative and leader of the Lebanese Hezbollah, succinctly put it: "We may be unable to drive the Americans out of Iraq. But we can drive George W. Bush out of the White House."
This follows last week's Saudi endorsement at OPEC.
"Hassan Nasrallah, a Sadr relative and leader of the Lebanese Hezbollah, succinctly put it: "We may be unable to drive the Americans out of Iraq. But we can drive George W. Bush out of the White House."
This follows last week's Saudi endorsement at OPEC.
Sunday, April 04, 2004
Georgia Chief
Justice Clarence Thomas:
"Again, by yielding to a false form of "civility," we sometimes allow our critics to intimidate us. As I have said, active citizens are often subjected to truly vile attacks; they are branded as mean-spirited, racist, Uncle Tom, homophobic, sexist, etc. To this we often respond (if not succumb), so as not to be constantly fighting, by trying to be tolerant and nonjudgmental-i.e., we censor ourselves. This is not civility. It is cowardice, or well-intentioned self-deception at best.
Immanuel Kant pointed out that to escape shame and self-contempt we must learn to lie to ourselves. These lies create a formidable obstacle to action on behalf of truth, and one of the greatest human accomplishments is to find a way to shatter those lies.
We've learned how easy it is to deceive ourselves, even when the truth is luminously clear. The little-known story of Dimitar Pesev shows both the power of self-deception and the explosive effect of telling the truth, and the dangers inherent in allowing the rule of law and the truth to succumb to political movements of the moment.
Pesev was the vice president of the Bulgarian Parliament during World War II. He was a man like many, simple and straightforward, not a great intellectual, not a military hero. Just a civil servant, doing his job as best he could, raising his family, struggling through a terrible moment in European history.
Bulgaria was pretty lucky, because she managed to stay out of the fighting, even though the Nazis had placed the Bulgarian government, and the king, under enormous pressure to enter the war on the side of the Axis, or at a minimum to permit the destruction of the Bulgarian Jews. Bulgaria had no tradition of widespread antisemitism, and the leaders of the country were generally unwilling to turn over their own citizens to certain death. But, like all the other European countries, Bulgaria moved toward the Holocaust in small steps.
Pesev was one of many Bulgarian officials who heard rumors of the new policy, and constantly queried his ministers. They lied to him, and for a time he believed their lies. Perhaps the ministers somehow believed the lies themselves. But, in the final hours, a handful of citizens from Pesev's hometown raced to Sofia to tell him the truth: that Jews were being rounded up, that the trains were waiting.
According to the law such actions were illegal. So Pesev forced his way into the office of the interior minister, demanding to know the truth. The minister repeated the official line, but Pesev didn't believe him. He demanded that the minister place a telephone call to the local authorities, and remind them of their legal obligations. This brave act saved the lives of the Bulgarian Jews, and Pesev then circulated a letter to members of Parliament, condemning the violation of the law, and demanding the government ensure that no such thing take place.
According to his biographer, Pesev's words moved all those "who until that moment had not imagined what could happen but who now could not accept what they had discovered." He had broken through the wall of self-deception, and forced his colleagues to face the truth.
There is no monument to this brave man, quite the contrary. The ministers were embarrassed, and made him pay the price of their wickedness. He was removed from the position of vice president, publicly chastised for breaking ranks, and politically isolated. But, he had won nonetheless: The king henceforth found ways to stall the Nazis; the leader of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church publicly defended the country's Jews; and even the most convinced antisemites in the Bulgarian government dared not advocate active cooperation with the Third Reich.
After the war, when the Communists took over Bulgaria, they rewrote the wartime history to give the Communist Party credit for saving the Jews. Pesev was sent to the Gulag, and his story was only rediscovered after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Though this is a dramatic case, examples of this sort are not as rare as one might imagine, nor should they be. Pope John Paul II has traveled the entire world challenging tyrants and murderers of all sorts, speaking to millions of people, bringing them a single, simple message: "Be Not Afraid.""
"Again, by yielding to a false form of "civility," we sometimes allow our critics to intimidate us. As I have said, active citizens are often subjected to truly vile attacks; they are branded as mean-spirited, racist, Uncle Tom, homophobic, sexist, etc. To this we often respond (if not succumb), so as not to be constantly fighting, by trying to be tolerant and nonjudgmental-i.e., we censor ourselves. This is not civility. It is cowardice, or well-intentioned self-deception at best.
Immanuel Kant pointed out that to escape shame and self-contempt we must learn to lie to ourselves. These lies create a formidable obstacle to action on behalf of truth, and one of the greatest human accomplishments is to find a way to shatter those lies.
We've learned how easy it is to deceive ourselves, even when the truth is luminously clear. The little-known story of Dimitar Pesev shows both the power of self-deception and the explosive effect of telling the truth, and the dangers inherent in allowing the rule of law and the truth to succumb to political movements of the moment.
Pesev was the vice president of the Bulgarian Parliament during World War II. He was a man like many, simple and straightforward, not a great intellectual, not a military hero. Just a civil servant, doing his job as best he could, raising his family, struggling through a terrible moment in European history.
Bulgaria was pretty lucky, because she managed to stay out of the fighting, even though the Nazis had placed the Bulgarian government, and the king, under enormous pressure to enter the war on the side of the Axis, or at a minimum to permit the destruction of the Bulgarian Jews. Bulgaria had no tradition of widespread antisemitism, and the leaders of the country were generally unwilling to turn over their own citizens to certain death. But, like all the other European countries, Bulgaria moved toward the Holocaust in small steps.
Pesev was one of many Bulgarian officials who heard rumors of the new policy, and constantly queried his ministers. They lied to him, and for a time he believed their lies. Perhaps the ministers somehow believed the lies themselves. But, in the final hours, a handful of citizens from Pesev's hometown raced to Sofia to tell him the truth: that Jews were being rounded up, that the trains were waiting.
According to the law such actions were illegal. So Pesev forced his way into the office of the interior minister, demanding to know the truth. The minister repeated the official line, but Pesev didn't believe him. He demanded that the minister place a telephone call to the local authorities, and remind them of their legal obligations. This brave act saved the lives of the Bulgarian Jews, and Pesev then circulated a letter to members of Parliament, condemning the violation of the law, and demanding the government ensure that no such thing take place.
According to his biographer, Pesev's words moved all those "who until that moment had not imagined what could happen but who now could not accept what they had discovered." He had broken through the wall of self-deception, and forced his colleagues to face the truth.
There is no monument to this brave man, quite the contrary. The ministers were embarrassed, and made him pay the price of their wickedness. He was removed from the position of vice president, publicly chastised for breaking ranks, and politically isolated. But, he had won nonetheless: The king henceforth found ways to stall the Nazis; the leader of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church publicly defended the country's Jews; and even the most convinced antisemites in the Bulgarian government dared not advocate active cooperation with the Third Reich.
After the war, when the Communists took over Bulgaria, they rewrote the wartime history to give the Communist Party credit for saving the Jews. Pesev was sent to the Gulag, and his story was only rediscovered after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Though this is a dramatic case, examples of this sort are not as rare as one might imagine, nor should they be. Pope John Paul II has traveled the entire world challenging tyrants and murderers of all sorts, speaking to millions of people, bringing them a single, simple message: "Be Not Afraid.""
When Herbert Met Dewey
The Kerry campaign has dishonestly called this 'the worst economy since The Great Depression' and compared Pres. Bush to Herbert Hoover.
But thanks to decades of miseducation by their friends in academe, only about 4 out of 10 Americans even know of Pres. Hoover.
CBS: "Just 43 percent of the 634 adults questioned by the University of Pennsylvania's National Annenberg Election Survey correctly identified Herbert Hoover. Twelve percent thought he was the director of the FBI, a post held for 48 years by J. Edgar Hoover." Others thought of vaccum cleaners. And speaking of drama queens who suck, only 20% could identify Jane Fonda as a TraitorBitch.
The Dewey Effect.
But thanks to decades of miseducation by their friends in academe, only about 4 out of 10 Americans even know of Pres. Hoover.
CBS: "Just 43 percent of the 634 adults questioned by the University of Pennsylvania's National Annenberg Election Survey correctly identified Herbert Hoover. Twelve percent thought he was the director of the FBI, a post held for 48 years by J. Edgar Hoover." Others thought of vaccum cleaners. And speaking of drama queens who suck, only 20% could identify Jane Fonda as a TraitorBitch.
The Dewey Effect.
Street Cred
From WSJ's Opinion Journal
Hitch:
..."The mob could have cooked and eaten its victims without making things very much worse. One especially appreciated the detail of the heroes who menaced the nurses, when they came to try and remove the charred trophies."
"But this "Heart of Darkness" element is part of the case for regime-change to begin with. A few more years of Saddam Hussein, or perhaps the succession of his charming sons Uday and Qusay, and whole swathes of Iraq would have looked like Fallujah. The Baathists, by playing off tribe against tribe, Arab against Kurd and Sunni against Shiite, were preparing the conditions for a Hobbesian state of affairs. Their looting and beggaring of the state and the society--something about which we now possess even more painfully exact information--was having the same effect. A broken and maimed and traumatized Iraq was in our future no matter what."
..." I hope I do not misrepresent my opponents, but their general view seems to be that Iraq was an elective target; a country that would not otherwise have been troubling our sleep. This ahistorical opinion makes it appear that Saddam Hussein was a new enemy, somehow chosen by shady elements within the Bush administration, instead of one of the longest-standing foes with which the United States, and indeed the international community, was faced. So, what about the "bad news" from Iraq? There was always going to be bad news from there. Credit belongs to those who accepted--can we really decently say pre-empted?--this long-term responsibility. Fallujah is a reminder, not just of what Saddamism looks like, or of what the future might look like if we fail, but of what the future held before the Coalition took a hand."
Buy that man a drink.
Notwithstanding the bleatings of those still in denial, we're doing the right thing for the right reasons.
Hitch:
..."The mob could have cooked and eaten its victims without making things very much worse. One especially appreciated the detail of the heroes who menaced the nurses, when they came to try and remove the charred trophies."
"But this "Heart of Darkness" element is part of the case for regime-change to begin with. A few more years of Saddam Hussein, or perhaps the succession of his charming sons Uday and Qusay, and whole swathes of Iraq would have looked like Fallujah. The Baathists, by playing off tribe against tribe, Arab against Kurd and Sunni against Shiite, were preparing the conditions for a Hobbesian state of affairs. Their looting and beggaring of the state and the society--something about which we now possess even more painfully exact information--was having the same effect. A broken and maimed and traumatized Iraq was in our future no matter what."
..." I hope I do not misrepresent my opponents, but their general view seems to be that Iraq was an elective target; a country that would not otherwise have been troubling our sleep. This ahistorical opinion makes it appear that Saddam Hussein was a new enemy, somehow chosen by shady elements within the Bush administration, instead of one of the longest-standing foes with which the United States, and indeed the international community, was faced. So, what about the "bad news" from Iraq? There was always going to be bad news from there. Credit belongs to those who accepted--can we really decently say pre-empted?--this long-term responsibility. Fallujah is a reminder, not just of what Saddamism looks like, or of what the future might look like if we fail, but of what the future held before the Coalition took a hand."
Buy that man a drink.
Notwithstanding the bleatings of those still in denial, we're doing the right thing for the right reasons.
Saturday, April 03, 2004
Arsenal of Democracy
From ABC*cough*News:
"While the military's presence in space stretches back decades, now there appears to be a new emphasis. Officials in the Bush administration and the Department of Defense are actively pursuing an agenda calling for the unprecedented weaponization of space."
"The first real step in that direction appears to be coming in the form of a little-noticed weapons program at the U.S. Missile Defense Agency. The agency has now earmarked $68 million in 2005 for something called the Near Field Infrared Experiment."
"The NFIRE satellite is primarily designed to gather data on exhaust plumes from rockets launched from earth, and defense officials claim it is therefore designed as a defensive, rather than offensive weapons."
"But the satellite will also contain a smaller "kill vehicle," a projectile that takes advantage of the kinetic energy of objects traveling through low-Earth orbit (which move at several times the speed of a bullet) to disable or destroy an oncoming missile or another orbiting satellite."
Great...but wouldn't that be the 'unprecedented "de-"weaponizing of space'?
(hat-tip Right Wing News)
"While the military's presence in space stretches back decades, now there appears to be a new emphasis. Officials in the Bush administration and the Department of Defense are actively pursuing an agenda calling for the unprecedented weaponization of space."
"The first real step in that direction appears to be coming in the form of a little-noticed weapons program at the U.S. Missile Defense Agency. The agency has now earmarked $68 million in 2005 for something called the Near Field Infrared Experiment."
"The NFIRE satellite is primarily designed to gather data on exhaust plumes from rockets launched from earth, and defense officials claim it is therefore designed as a defensive, rather than offensive weapons."
"But the satellite will also contain a smaller "kill vehicle," a projectile that takes advantage of the kinetic energy of objects traveling through low-Earth orbit (which move at several times the speed of a bullet) to disable or destroy an oncoming missile or another orbiting satellite."
Great...but wouldn't that be the 'unprecedented "de-"weaponizing of space'?
(hat-tip Right Wing News)
I'm Sharp W. Knife
AND I APPROVED THE FOLLOWING POST:
Via Country Store, The New York Post reports:
"President Bush's campaign yesterday accused John Kerry of illegally coordinating political ads with anti-Bush groups and donors - including billionaire George Soros."
That's odd; I thought that McCain/Feingold ushered in a New Age of Honest Politics, free from the corrupting taint of Big Money and the Consent of the Governed, in which politicians would frolic with fluffy bunnies, swim with the dolphins, free, like a flight of feral butterflies, to follow wherever their whimsy might lead them. Free, at long, long last to grapple with their consciences--nay, to touch the very hem of the Goddess of Pure Reason's golden robes, leading us, the benighted sheep, into the broad, sunlit political uplands, the dew-kissed, honey-drenched Elysian Feilds of dappled clover and unlimited entitlements.
No?
Well, perhaps if we extended the Free-Speech ban from 60 days before an election to all year-round...surely that would do the trick.
In response to the charges of coordination with Soros, the Kerry campaign claimed spousal privilege.
Via Country Store, The New York Post reports:
"President Bush's campaign yesterday accused John Kerry of illegally coordinating political ads with anti-Bush groups and donors - including billionaire George Soros."
That's odd; I thought that McCain/Feingold ushered in a New Age of Honest Politics, free from the corrupting taint of Big Money and the Consent of the Governed, in which politicians would frolic with fluffy bunnies, swim with the dolphins, free, like a flight of feral butterflies, to follow wherever their whimsy might lead them. Free, at long, long last to grapple with their consciences--nay, to touch the very hem of the Goddess of Pure Reason's golden robes, leading us, the benighted sheep, into the broad, sunlit political uplands, the dew-kissed, honey-drenched Elysian Feilds of dappled clover and unlimited entitlements.
No?
Well, perhaps if we extended the Free-Speech ban from 60 days before an election to all year-round...surely that would do the trick.
In response to the charges of coordination with Soros, the Kerry campaign claimed spousal privilege.
Thursday, April 01, 2004
Don't think of them as 'trespassers', Karl
They're just undocumented lawn-jumpers.
Michelle Malkin:
"An estimated mob of 800 protesters trampled on Rove's lawn to demand passage of Utah Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch's abominable "DREAM" Act granting amnesty to illegal alien college students and allowing them to receive in-state tuition discounts. The Washington Post reported that after chanting and knocking on Rove's door, the "crowd then grew more aggressive, fanning around the three accessible sides of Rove's house, tracking him through the many windows, waving signs that read 'Say Yes to DREAM' and pounding on the glass." An angry Rove called the authorities and berated the protest leaders for driving the children inside his home to tears.
As a vocal critic of Rove's idiotic pro-illegal alien policies, I am not all that sad to see Rove come face to face with the consequences of his politically expedient ideas. (Rove is the one who declared that Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., the nation's leading advocate for secure borders and immigration enforcement, would "never darken the White House door.") Now Rove knows how millions of ordinary Americans -- who don't have Secret Service protection -- feel when illegal invaders overrun their homes and darken their doors.
That said, NPA's militant tactics cross the bounds of decent political debate."
Karl may be having his Rockefeller moment.
Michelle Malkin:
"An estimated mob of 800 protesters trampled on Rove's lawn to demand passage of Utah Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch's abominable "DREAM" Act granting amnesty to illegal alien college students and allowing them to receive in-state tuition discounts. The Washington Post reported that after chanting and knocking on Rove's door, the "crowd then grew more aggressive, fanning around the three accessible sides of Rove's house, tracking him through the many windows, waving signs that read 'Say Yes to DREAM' and pounding on the glass." An angry Rove called the authorities and berated the protest leaders for driving the children inside his home to tears.
As a vocal critic of Rove's idiotic pro-illegal alien policies, I am not all that sad to see Rove come face to face with the consequences of his politically expedient ideas. (Rove is the one who declared that Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., the nation's leading advocate for secure borders and immigration enforcement, would "never darken the White House door.") Now Rove knows how millions of ordinary Americans -- who don't have Secret Service protection -- feel when illegal invaders overrun their homes and darken their doors.
That said, NPA's militant tactics cross the bounds of decent political debate."
Karl may be having his Rockefeller moment.
What went Wrong?
So Condi will testify. So be it. The Dems wanted to play "Bush must be hiding something!", so Bush called their bluff. She already talked to them privately for 15 hours, so any bombshells would have already leaked. Let the grandstanding continue.
But let's name ALL the babies. Let's have some mayors and police chiefs explain their non-cooperation policy with Immigration. Some governors should tell us how 15 of the 19 terrorists of Sept. 11 were able to obtain 63 different driver's licenses. State could explain why it wants to reintroduce the "Let the Saudis Write Their Own Visas!" program. CIA can say why they have sensitivity-trainers to spare, but no Arab linguists. Academics should come forth and tell us why they think it's their job to teach our children to hate this country. And let's have some Senators and Representatives--judges too--justify their hand-cuffing of our intelligence agencies, law-enforcement and military.
And a few things before Richard Clarke fades into his deserved obscurity; when this country needed light, he chose to provide only heat. And even that at $29.95 a pop. His book, "Kinda' Sorta' Against Some Enemies, Once in a While" is little more than a resume for a gig in a improbable Kerry Administration. Mr. Clarke is a failed bureaucrat, a disloyal employee, a delusional liar and a partisan hack engaging in CYA.
Don't get me wrong; a principled case can be made against Iraq, incorrect as that case may be. But Clarke accepted a top job in the Administration and should have resigned, not injected himself into the campaign for his 15 minutes of fame and 29.95 pieces of silver. Clarke:
"But I don't think everyone (in the Clinton Administration) came to the understanding that it (Al Qaida) was an existential threat....(they thought) 'Yes, we should spend some time some energy trying to get them, but it's not the number one priority we have'."
"...fighting terrorism, in general, and fighting Al Qaida, in particular, were an extraordinarily high priority in the Clinton administration -- certainly no higher priority."
Yet Clarke was the main source for the Clinton indictment", Losing bin Laden"...although one doubts that Clarke mentioned that he (Clarke) once personally vetoed a missle strike on the live-on-drone-TV bin Laden (drones that Kerry tried to abolish, by the way).
Then there is this:
" Later, on the evening of the 12th, I left the video conferencing center and there, wandering alone around the situation room, was the president. He looked like he wanted something to do. He grabbed a few of us and closed the door to the conference room. "Look," he told us, "I know you have a lot to do and all...but I want you, as soon as you can, to go back over everything, everything. See if Saddam did this. See if he's linked in any way.""
"I was once again taken aback, incredulous, and it showed. "But, Mr. President, Al Qaeda did this.""
""I know, I know, but-- see if Saddam was involved. Just look. I want to know any shred--""
""Absolutely, we will look again." I was trying to be more respectful, more responsive. "But you know, we have looked several times for state sponsorship of Al Qaeda and not found any real linkages to Iraq. Iran plays a little, as does Pakistan, and Saudi Arabia, Yemen.""
""Look into Iraq, Saddam," the president said testily and left us.""
This is all meant to portray the President as close-minded and hell-bent on attacking Iraq.
But who is close-minded? The day after the attack, Clarke had already decided that al Qaida, and al Qaida alone, was responsible. Perhaps the President knew that half of the first WTC bombers were Iraqis. One escaped and was sheltered by Iraq. One had a false identity looted from occupied Kuwait. And Clarke himself said the reason for the aspirin-factory bombing was because bin Laden had secured secured bio-weapons tech...from Iraq!
Whatever. The larger picture is that Democrats and the Left are so desperate to seize power that they are perfectly willing to undermine our security to grasp it. They wouldn't support Bush's actions if Kim Jong Il gave a dozen nukes to bin Laden at high noon in Fearless Leader Square live on world-wide television. And Bush or no Bush, they are uncertain that this nation is even worth defending...and certainly not without France's permission.
We've tried everything; diplomacy, foreign aid, 17 UN Resolutions, carrots and sticks, missle strikes, sanctions, propping up dictators, more diplomacy, limited wars, no-fly zones, encouraging rebellions, law-enforcement, Oil-for-Palaces-and-UN-Kleptocrats, appeasement, multi-culturalism, treaties, cease-fires, inspections, yet more diplomacy; we've tried it all. Everything...except what Pres. Bush, however imperfectly, is now doing; methodically hunting down our enemies, invading their strongholds and transforming their societies.
And when everything was going wrong on that September day, that is What Went Right.
But let's name ALL the babies. Let's have some mayors and police chiefs explain their non-cooperation policy with Immigration. Some governors should tell us how 15 of the 19 terrorists of Sept. 11 were able to obtain 63 different driver's licenses. State could explain why it wants to reintroduce the "Let the Saudis Write Their Own Visas!" program. CIA can say why they have sensitivity-trainers to spare, but no Arab linguists. Academics should come forth and tell us why they think it's their job to teach our children to hate this country. And let's have some Senators and Representatives--judges too--justify their hand-cuffing of our intelligence agencies, law-enforcement and military.
And a few things before Richard Clarke fades into his deserved obscurity; when this country needed light, he chose to provide only heat. And even that at $29.95 a pop. His book, "Kinda' Sorta' Against Some Enemies, Once in a While" is little more than a resume for a gig in a improbable Kerry Administration. Mr. Clarke is a failed bureaucrat, a disloyal employee, a delusional liar and a partisan hack engaging in CYA.
Don't get me wrong; a principled case can be made against Iraq, incorrect as that case may be. But Clarke accepted a top job in the Administration and should have resigned, not injected himself into the campaign for his 15 minutes of fame and 29.95 pieces of silver. Clarke:
"But I don't think everyone (in the Clinton Administration) came to the understanding that it (Al Qaida) was an existential threat....(they thought) 'Yes, we should spend some time some energy trying to get them, but it's not the number one priority we have'."
"...fighting terrorism, in general, and fighting Al Qaida, in particular, were an extraordinarily high priority in the Clinton administration -- certainly no higher priority."
Yet Clarke was the main source for the Clinton indictment", Losing bin Laden"...although one doubts that Clarke mentioned that he (Clarke) once personally vetoed a missle strike on the live-on-drone-TV bin Laden (drones that Kerry tried to abolish, by the way).
Then there is this:
" Later, on the evening of the 12th, I left the video conferencing center and there, wandering alone around the situation room, was the president. He looked like he wanted something to do. He grabbed a few of us and closed the door to the conference room. "Look," he told us, "I know you have a lot to do and all...but I want you, as soon as you can, to go back over everything, everything. See if Saddam did this. See if he's linked in any way.""
"I was once again taken aback, incredulous, and it showed. "But, Mr. President, Al Qaeda did this.""
""I know, I know, but-- see if Saddam was involved. Just look. I want to know any shred--""
""Absolutely, we will look again." I was trying to be more respectful, more responsive. "But you know, we have looked several times for state sponsorship of Al Qaeda and not found any real linkages to Iraq. Iran plays a little, as does Pakistan, and Saudi Arabia, Yemen.""
""Look into Iraq, Saddam," the president said testily and left us.""
This is all meant to portray the President as close-minded and hell-bent on attacking Iraq.
But who is close-minded? The day after the attack, Clarke had already decided that al Qaida, and al Qaida alone, was responsible. Perhaps the President knew that half of the first WTC bombers were Iraqis. One escaped and was sheltered by Iraq. One had a false identity looted from occupied Kuwait. And Clarke himself said the reason for the aspirin-factory bombing was because bin Laden had secured secured bio-weapons tech...from Iraq!
Whatever. The larger picture is that Democrats and the Left are so desperate to seize power that they are perfectly willing to undermine our security to grasp it. They wouldn't support Bush's actions if Kim Jong Il gave a dozen nukes to bin Laden at high noon in Fearless Leader Square live on world-wide television. And Bush or no Bush, they are uncertain that this nation is even worth defending...and certainly not without France's permission.
We've tried everything; diplomacy, foreign aid, 17 UN Resolutions, carrots and sticks, missle strikes, sanctions, propping up dictators, more diplomacy, limited wars, no-fly zones, encouraging rebellions, law-enforcement, Oil-for-Palaces-and-UN-Kleptocrats, appeasement, multi-culturalism, treaties, cease-fires, inspections, yet more diplomacy; we've tried it all. Everything...except what Pres. Bush, however imperfectly, is now doing; methodically hunting down our enemies, invading their strongholds and transforming their societies.
And when everything was going wrong on that September day, that is What Went Right.
Tit for Tat
OR TAT FOR TIT?
"White House "troubled" by Yassin attack By Adam Entous"
"WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House says it is "deeply troubled" by Israel's assassination of Hamas leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, but unlike the European Union and U.S. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, its reaction fell short of an outright condemnation of the attack."
U.S. Secretary-General...?!! Kofi's gone too far this time!
Sometimes I wonder how we would feel if we saw something like this:
TEL AVIV (RotoRooters) - The Knesset says it is "deeply troubled" by America's planned retaliation for the Fallujah massacre, but unlike the European Union and Secretary-General Kofi Annan, its reaction fell short of an outright condemnation of the planned attack.
Friends don't let friends fight terrorism alone.
"White House "troubled" by Yassin attack By Adam Entous"
"WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House says it is "deeply troubled" by Israel's assassination of Hamas leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, but unlike the European Union and U.S. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, its reaction fell short of an outright condemnation of the attack."
U.S. Secretary-General...?!! Kofi's gone too far this time!
Sometimes I wonder how we would feel if we saw something like this:
TEL AVIV (RotoRooters) - The Knesset says it is "deeply troubled" by America's planned retaliation for the Fallujah massacre, but unlike the European Union and Secretary-General Kofi Annan, its reaction fell short of an outright condemnation of the planned attack.
Friends don't let friends fight terrorism alone.
