The Problem With Our Education System Is Not Money: I've been saying for a long time that our education system is not underfunded and our teachers are not underpaid. However, this concept has been hammered into our psyches for so long that the American people get suckered by the same appeals for more money every 2-4 years. We budget huge increases in education spending and then after the schools receive the money, there is no significant improvement in test scores. For all the good it does, we might as well be taking all that money, buying Star Trek commemorative plates with it, and then dumping all that porcelain into the Marianas Trench. (Cont)

Even More Things To Ponder: Here are a few things I wanted to mention that probably weren't quite developed enough to deserve their own posts...

-- John Kerry, Dick Gephardt, and Joe Lieberman seem to now be the big three leaders in the hunt for the Democratic nomination and Kerry seems to have the most momentum. Dean seems to be fading a bit and despite the amount of money he's collected, John Edwards isn't getting a lot of traction. The rest of the candidates haven't been making much of a splash so far.

-- Even if Abbas were sincere (and that's very debatable), there's absolutely no way he can make peace with the Israelis while Arafat, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, & company are all deliberately trying to foil the peace talks. Until all those bad actors are removed from the scene, there is no point to even beginning peace negotiations.

-- IMO, the Democrats and left-wing pundits are making a big political mistake by claiming that the Bush administration made-up or slanted the intelligence on WMD in Iraq. All it's going to take is one vile of anthrax, one artillery shell full of mustard gas, or maybe even just a few scientists or Iraqi higher-ups claiming they destroyed the WMD or shipped it to Syria and these people hammering the Bush administration on the issue are going to have egg all over their faces...again.

-- I was going to talk about this, but Bill Quick beat me to it....

How to lie with headlines and ledes:

In its report last September, the Defense Intelligence Agency said it could find no reliable information to indicate that Iraq had any chemical weapons available for use on the battlefield. But the agency also said Iraq probably had stockpiles of banned chemical warfare agents.

The anti-Bush distortions and spin never stops...

-- Here are just some of the people I'd enjoy interviewing in no particular order (no active politicians included); Muhammad Ali, Dick Morris, Ann Coulter, Jonah Goldberg, Rush Limbaugh, Margaret Thatcher, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Joe Scarborough, David Warren, Matt Drudge, G. Gordon Liddy, Bill O'Reilly, George Will, Ex-FBI Profiler John Douglas, Bill Kristol, Hugh Hewitt, Thomas Sowell, Robert Bork, Neal Boortz, Bill Bennett, Oliver North, Michael Medved, Michael Ledeen, David Limbaugh, Charles Krauthammer, & PJ O'Rourke. I may not get interviews with all of these people, in fact I'm sure I won't, but I'm going to get some of them before it's all said and done. Just you watch and see...

Let Guatemala Take Care Of Its Own Citizens: Here's another reason why health care is so expensive ...

"Martin Memorial Medical Center attorneys asked a judge Thursday to order a penniless Guatemalan man out of the fourth-floor hospital room where he has racked up more than $1 million in bills since a February 2000 head-on crash.

Dr. Walter Gil, who has treated Jimenez for the past 2 1/2 years, said his patient has dramatically improved in the past year. The once-comatose man now has the mental capacity of a 10-year-old and would benefit greatly from contact with his family in Guatemala."

Whether they're here legally or not, human decency demands that we provide emergency medical care for illegal aliens injured in the US. However, we should not be providing long term care for illegal aliens, especially not at a cost of a million dollars that is going to be tacked on in some form or another to everyone else's bill. It's simply not our responsibility to spend years rehabilitating people who come here illegally.

In this case, after Jimenez was stabilized he should have been sent back to Guatemala. If for some reason that wasn't acceptable to the Guatemalan government, then they should have been asked to pay the man's bill.

I know some of you probably think that sounds harsh, but you have to understand, we're not talking about one guy. We're talking massive numbers of illegal aliens siphoning resources off of our public health care system. Health care is expensive enough as it is without giving free long-term health care to anyone who can manage to sneak over the border without getting caught.

Ashcroft Asks Congress for Wonder Twin Powers By Scott Ott: U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft asked Congress today to increase the Justice Department's effectiveness in fighting terrorism by granting his staff so-called "Wonder Twin Powers."

The special powers, previously only available to Super Friends Zan and Jayna, would allow teams of Justice Department lawyers to assume the shape of almost anything that can be made of water, ice or steam, or the form of any animal.

"We saw in the 1970s how effective Wonder Twin Powers can be," Mr. Ashcroft told the House Judiciary Committee. "I'm asking permission to put these crime-fighting tools to work to make America safer."

Under the Ashcroft proposal, government lawyers would wear special rings, and would have to travel in pairs so they could make ring-to-ring contact to "activate" the powers at a moment's notice.

To control costs, Mr. Ashcroft said, the proposal does not include funding for hundreds of monkeys, similar to Gleek, the Twins' clever sidekick.

If you liked this satire by Scott Ott, you can read more of his work at Scrappleface.

RWN's Favorite Muhammad Ali Quotes: When I was a kid, I absolutely LOVED Muhammad Ali. He was one of my heroes then...and he still is. I actually have an autographed pic of the champ in my room staring at me even as I write this intro for the his quotes.

Now I know a lot of people don't like Ali for very legitimate reasons. He joined the anti-white/anti-semitic Nation of Islam back in the sixties and then he refused to go to Vietnam. In his defense, I will say that Ali later left the Nation of Islam and whatever you think of his decision not to go Vietnam, he was at least genuine in his beliefs. Even though the military eventually offered to simply let him fight exhibitions rather than Vietcong, he turned them down and that cost him his heavyweight title, his income, turned the majority of the American public against him, and he even risked going to jail. Ali was willing to suffer for his beliefs in ways today's whiney celebrities can't even begin to comprehend.

Despite those bad decisions, Ali is a uniquely American success story. Here's a guy who started with nothing, got rich, and became a beloved celebrity across most of the planet. Furthermore, people forget that Ali was an underdog in some his biggest fights. For example, against Sonny Liston he was a 7 to 1 underdog and few people believed he could beat George Foreman at the, "Rumble In the Jungle". Last but not least, you have love someone who has the guts to tell you he's the best that ever lived and then backs it up when it counts. Again, there's just something so American about that.

Well that's enough lauding of Ali...for now. Here's Ali at his boasting, bragging, best. Read and enjoy! (Cont)

Fifteen Blogs That Have Been On A Roll: For no other reason than because I can, I thought I should link just SOME of the blogs that I have found to be particularly entertaining &/or informative as of late. By the way, if I didn't mention your blog, don't take it personal. These sorts of lists change all the time...oh, and if you're already an "A List" blogger, I didn't bother linking you. People like Lileks & Charles Johnson are big because they're constantly "on a roll" and people already know about them. So here's the list & you may want to take a gander at these blogs...

-- Courtney
-- DANEgerus' Weblog
-- Dean's World
-- Electric Venom
-- Gut Rumbles
-- HobbsOnline A.M.
-- Inoperable Terran
-- Joyful Christian
-- One Hand Clapping
-- Right We Are
-- Roger Simon
-- Social Reject
-- The Yale Diva
-- Zogby Blog

I'd also like to put in a special word for Technorati. That website allows you to see who's linking your blog and puts a timeline on it. I found that to be very interesting because more than a few of the blogs listed aren't showing up in my statistics tracker. So either it's just missing them somehow or these blogs aren't sending me enough traffic to make the list. But in any case, Technorati is helping me find a lot of linkage to articles on RWN that I was totally unaware of before. That's good for me and good for these bloggers because it'll lead to more links from RWN going out to small blogs that I otherwise wouldn't have known about. You'd be surprised how many "websites of the day" and outgoing links from RWN were the result of me seeing a URL in the stats and checking out the page to see what they wrote about RWN. Technorati has now helped me improve on that process.

Stop Learning So Fast Children!: If we had a real voucher system set-up, any parent with a gifted kid at Mt. Diablo high school could move their kids to a decent school that actually meets their needs. But instead, they're being forced to put up with this...

"In a 3-2 vote, the Mt. Diablo school board on May 27 decided against offering a pre-honors English course for freshmen. Board president Gary Eberhart and trustees Bill Leal and April Treece voted against the course, saying they did not agree with separating students based on academic abilities. Trustees Dick Allen and Linda Mayo supported the proposed class, which would have been an elective for students seeking more advanced instruction."

They don't, "agree with separating students based on academic abilities." So they think the kids with genius level IQs and the kids who can barely write their own names should be taking the same English classes?!? It just boggles the mind that people with sort of mentality are sitting on a school board making decisions that effect how children are educated. Here's some of the brilliant reasoning behind that decision...

"Eberhart said he is concerned about offering advanced English courses when a significant number of high school students are not meeting basic proficiency standards and cannot pass the high-school exit exam.

"It's kind of a horse-before-the-cart kind of thing."

So in other words, since the school is failing to educate a lot of the average students, it wouldn't be fair to let the students who are excelling get the education they deserve. Instead, they'll just drag the most successful students down to everyone else's level -- is that the idea?

If only we had a real voucher program in this country those parents would have gotten the pre-honors English course for freshmen that they wanted or they could have voted with their feet. With the exorbitant amount of money we spend on education in this country, there is absolutely no reason that only wealthy parents should be able to say, "to heck with this, we're getting our kids out of Mt. Diablo and sending them to a private school". Maybe that's something Bush can try to get passed if he wins a second term...

Hat Tip to Daily Pundit for finding this one.

Ghost In A Jar -- Bwahahahahaah!: Are you looking for an "unusual" gift to give to dad for Father's Day? Do you have a friend who has seen "Ghost Busters" 11 times? Have you given up on finding a cool knick-knack to give to your buddy who believes the "Blair Witch Project" is real? Well then never fear, because "Ghost In A Jar" is here! Just listen to this bone chilling description...

"I don't have enough space here to tell the complete story behind this, so I will briefly go over it. Back in the early 1980's, while out metal detecting, I came across and old abandoned cemetery with the foundation of a homesite or Church or something nearby. While searching around the foundation, my detector indicated there was something in the ground close by the southwest corner of the foundation. After digging down about 2 feet my shovel struck a wooden box that had nearly rotted out. The metal hinges and hasp were about all that was left of it. I thought I had discovered a fortune! Boy, did that ever turn out to be wrong!! There were 2 jars and an old journal in the box. The jars had some strange writing and symbols on them. While getting the jars out of the ground, I dropped one and it broke. A black mist or something seeped out of it. I should have known something was wrong right then and covered the find back up but being young and foolish I didn't.

I left the broken jar with what looked like a candle in it there where it fell and took the other one (see the pictures) and the old journal home. What I was able to read in the journal before the pages crumbled made the hair on the back of my neck stand up! That night, I had my first visit from what I can only describe as "The Black Thing". While lying in bed, this "thing" fell on me and it felt like I was being pushed down thru the bed and the floor, into a pit if you will! I struggled with it and managed to somehow escape its clutches. Since that time, I have been attacked twice more and both times the unopened jar was in the close vicinity. I and others have caught fleeting glimpses of a black shadowy thing out of the corners of our eyes as it would pass from one room to another. I finally talked to someone who is versed in these things and was told that the only way to rid myself of this thing was to pass the unopened jar on to someone else. Therefore, I am offering to you, if you dare, the "Ghost in the Jar". With it I am sure you will be getting the "Black Thing" also."

Why that product's the best deal on Ebay at only $2,014.001! But, don't be fooled by cheap knockoffs like "Ghost ly in a Jar of peanut butter! "...

I do not know what it is about this jar of peanut butter but every time I eat it... it causes my tummy to make ghostly noices. It may be haunted! not sure though.... so do not qoute me on that please!

Then there's "Toast In A Jar (hot chick not included)"...

"This auction is for a piece of toast in a jar.

The toast started off as a slice of Sara Lee Homestyle Wheat bread. After a few moments in the fiery southern pit of this Proctor Silex kitchen toaster, the bread had changed irreversibly into toast.

The toast contains about 100 calories.

Although the toast isn't haunted or anything, it is still pretty weird. Toast? In a jar? Bizarre!"

So remember, unless you want to be sub-par, buy a ghost in the JAR! See, it rhymes? It's better than, "Where's the beef" & "Terry Tate Office linebacker rolled into one"...well, maybe not...but it is better than those d*mn Mentos commercials...

Hail Erich Rudolph: Not everyone loathes Eric Rudolph, the man accused of a terrorist bombing campaign. As a matter of fact, he has quite a few admirers. So in today edition of ACPOTI (Anyone can post on the internet), we're featuring comments from some of Eric Rudolph's biggest fans, the backwards white supremacists & Nazis at Stormfront. Here are few quotes of note from these depraved wannabe Hitlers...(Cont)

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The Ted Rall Alternate Reality Quote Of The Day: Either Ted Rall penned his latest column from some sort of alternate universe or he's so detached from reality that he probably needs psychological counseling. I'm guessing option two is closer to the mark. Just look at the opening of his latest column and you'll see what I mean...

We warned the Bush Administration that invading Iraq would destabilize the Middle East and spread radical anti-American Islamism. We told the American people that taking out Saddam Hussein without a viable government to replace him would open a vacuum for anarchy, civil war and a power grab by radical Iranian-backed Shiite clerics. Now the antiwar movement's doomsday scenarios have been fulfilled so completely that military history scarcely mentions a more thoroughly botched endeavor--and we'll be living with the fallout for years."

OMG, "the antiwar movement's doomsday scenarios have been fulfilled...completely?!?!" You mean there has been a Civil War in Iraq and the Shiite clerics won and took over? I guess dissent really has been squashed in America since we haven't heard about this on the news. And, "military history scarcely mentions a more thoroughly botched endeavor?" Wow, there are a lot of dead Frenchmen, Zulus, & Carthaginians (among countless others) who might dispute that statement. Hell, Saddam Hussein might even have something to say about that if he's just hiding in someone's root cellar & isn't dead already. Maybe next week Ted can explain how we're all living in the Matrix and the "Bush Family Evil Empire" is just another method of control used by the system....

Hat Tip To KC Views for pointing out this column.

A New Way Of Spinning Tax Cuts: If political rhetoric were a road, the phrase, "tax cuts for the wealthy" would be a waist deep rut because Democratic pols and pundits use it so often. It doesn't matter whether you're talking about getting rid of the marriage penalty, giving people a tax credit for having children, or even cutting the tax rates for the poor, there are always a gaggle of Democrats mindlessly repeating, "It's a tax cut for the wealthy, it's a tax cut for the wealthy, squawk, Tom Daschle wants a cracker! Squawk!" Ok..OK, I made up the parrot thing, but the Dems really do beat the whole "tax cuts for the wealthy" thing into the ground.

I find that to be interesting because at it's heart, the ranting about "tax cuts for the wealthy" is really just a subtle way to stoke people's envy to the point that people that they'll act against their own best interests in order to hurt the rich. In effect, the message that the Democrats are trying to get across when they cry, "no tax cuts for the wealthy" is, "OK, we can't snow you. You are going to get a tax cut. But, some rich jerk is going to get a tax cut too, one that's even bigger than yours. Isn't it worth it for you to forego your tax cut if you can stick it to old man moneybags at the same time?"

Let me show you some stats from the Washington Post about the Bush tax cuts that bear out what I'm saying. Because of the Bush tax cuts, the poorest among us will pay 10% less in taxes, the next quintile up will pay 12% less, the people between $45,000 and $337,000 will pay 7% less, and the richest 1% will see their taxes drop 15%.

This is the "Tax cut for the rich" that the Democrats have been complaining about....but what do you know, EVERY INCOME GROUP is going to see their taxes drop. Of course, the Washington post has no problem giving these numbers the old liberal spin...

"Three successive tax cuts pushed by President Bush will leave middle-income taxpayers paying a greater share of all federal taxes by the end of the decade, according to new analyses of the Bush administration's tax policies.

The findings, by two groups that have been critical of the Bush administration's tax policies, add a new wrinkle to the increasingly contentious debate over the fairness of Bush's tax policies and which income groups would benefit most."

So you see? The middle class should have risen up as a whole and cut off their nose to spite their face rejected lower taxes because they're going to be paying a, "greater share of all federal taxes by the end of the decade." I tell you what, let Bush keep giving people back more of their own money and let the Democrats keep coming up with different ways to explain why that's a bad thing and then let's see what happens in 2004.

More Mainstream Media Coverage For RWN: The Seattle Post-Intelligencer discussed RWN's A Blogger Symposium On The Media & The Blogosphere in an editorial. They quoted yours truly and ***gasp of shock*** even included a link to RWN, which is believe it or not fairly rare when it comes to the online version of newspapers. On the other hand, I've read the editorial four times and I'm not sure exactly what point they're trying to get across, but I still appreciate the mention.

Gun Control Helps Criminals: If you want to know what's wrong with gun control then you don't have to look much further than this story...

"As his back door was kicked in Monday afternoon, a South End homeowner - confined to his bed because of a disability - called 911 with one hand and grabbed his 9 mm Glock handgun with the other.

Injured and bleeding, the burglar and his accomplice ran out of the house. Police had not found him late Monday."

If you're for strict control, then you're for taking the gun out of that man's hand and leaving him at the mercy those criminals. There are a lot of good reasons to oppose gun control, but one of the most important ones is that gun control legislation helps criminals and hurts law abiding citizens.

Of course gun control isn't going to keep guns out of the hands of criminals --because **duh** they're criminals -- they don't care if the law says they can't have a handgun. So who gets hurt? The law abiding citizens who want to do the right thing. But what happens when your wife, your daughter, your mother gets trapped in dark alleyway by some leering thug? If you're for gun control you just shrug your shoulders and hope she doesn't get hurt ***too much***. If you're pro-Second Amendment, you hope she pulls a handgun out of her purse, cocks it, and says "I don't think so" while the punks who were menacing her run away in terror. That's the difference between people who are pro-gun & people who want to take guns away from the American people.

Paranoid Man Actually Being Watched By Government By Shawn M. Thorgersen : NEW YORK-Agents from a top secret government agency admitted yesterday, on condition of anonymity, to spying on Jack Holderstadt, a Burger King Assistant Manager in Ronkonkoma, Long Island.

"I knew they were out to get me!" exclaimed Holderstadt at a press meeting. "My girlfriend, my family-they didn't believe. But now I'm the one who's laughing last, even though I'm not actually laughing."

"We're not out to get him," explained Agent X. "We just thought it would be kind of ironic if he was right, you know? No one expects that sort of thing. Then we just wanted to keep tuning in."

Another agent explained, "He's our very own Reality T.V. show. You think, 'Who cares?' at first, but then you slowly find yourself waiting to see what he'll do next. Will he have peanut butter and jelly, or go for a ham sandwich instead? I don't know, but I want to find out."

"And we've made a lot of discoveries, too," added the agent. Check this out-statistically speaking; Jack is 75% likely to sit down to urinate in the morning. Our research analysts theorize that this trend is related to a high level of drowsiness, and a tendency to 'sprinkle' in the early a.m. hours."

The first piece of evidence came to Holderstadt when he noticed that the mailman, the ice cream truck guy, the landscaper, the garbage man, and the Jehovah's Witness that frequented his apartment complex were all the same man. "At first, I just sort of felt sorry for the guy-except when he was a Jehovah's Witness-having to do all those jobs just to make it in Corporate America. But then I thought this guy looks a hell of a lot like Groucho Marx, and that's when it hit me: fake glasses, fake nose, and fake moustache."

"Yeah, that was me," admitted Agent W. "I dropped the ball."

When asked whether there were more pressing issues in need of the government's attention, Agent X explained, "You can only look for things like terrorism and illegal drug trafficking for so long. Eventually, you sort of want to change the channel, you know?"

"Besides," added Agent W, "Who wants to dwell on that kind of stuff all day? Talk about depressing."

When asked if the agents would continue observing Mr. Holderstadt, they indicated no, mentioning only that it would be less fun now that Holderstadt knows.

Holderstadt does not have plans to investigate the spy network any further, stating that he had more important goals. He concluded the conference by saying, "Now maybe the people of Long Island will believe me about the U.F.O. crash site behind the truck stop and all the probing that goes down over there."

If you enjoyed this satire by Shawn Thorgersen, you can read more of his work at Broken Newz.

Turning Young Minds Full Of Mush Into Cyber Criminals: It's ridiculous that any college would have a course like this...

"A university course in Canada teaching students how to create computer viruses has been met with derision by angry industry watchers, who believe it will create a pool of future virus writers.

The thinking behind the course is that educating students in virus writing will lead to a greater understanding of how to stop viruses. The teaching will also cover legal, ethical and computer security issues."

Let me get this straight...they're going to teach these kids how to do something with no socially redeeming values so they'll be better equipped to stop it? Well what's next?

Pimping 101: Learn how to spot vulnerable runaways, when to lay the pimp hand down on your hos, and how much of money should you let your hos keep.

Setting Up Your First Meth Lab Where to get the chemicals you'll need without attracting unwanted attention, how to make sure that new employee isn't a NARC, and when to do a drive-by on the competition.

Being a New York Times Reporter: How to make sure the stringers do all the work and you get all the credit, brown nosing Howell Raines until you get promoted, and how to pretend you're writing stories from all over the globe without ever leaving the comfort of a New York City bar.

Excuse me for being for crude, but this is the biggest steaming load of crap I've seen since they were digging through that huge pile of T-Rex dung looking for a cell phone in Jurassic Park 3. No responsible teacher would ever teach a bunch of a college kids how to make viruses. It's obviously just a bad idea...

***Update***: Since I've had some reasonable people disagreeing with me in the comments, I thought I should elaborate a bit. Not to put too fine a point on it, but unless you work for Symantec, McAffee, or a similar company, there is absolutely no legitimate reason you'd ever need to take a class to learn how to make viruses.

Moreover, if you have the programming skills to get hired by one of these companies, they can teach you what you need to know about making viruses. I do think this is the equivalent to teaching someone to set up a meth lab, or pimp, or even build bombs. There's a very tiny subset of people who actually need this information for a legitimate purpose, but a much larger group of people who'd be likely to misuse this info.

Because of that, as time goes on, you're going to have 50 people pumping out viruses for every one person who actually uses the skills they learn in this class legitimately. That's why a university has no business setting up a class designed to teach their students how to do something like this. If people want to get detailed instructions on how to create cyber mayhem with viruses they're going to find the information somewhere. However, that place shouldn't be the University of Calgary...

***Update #2***: Some quotes from an article in Computerworld on this issue...

"The announcement has raised a few eyebrows. Antivirus vendor Sophos PLC's CEO Jan Hruska, for example, said in a statement that those who have engaged in writing viruses need not apply to the company for a job.

"It's sort of like asking if you provide people with the recipe for how to build an atomic bomb, what will they do with it," said Jim Hurley, vice-president of security and privacy at Aberdeen Group Inc. in Boston. He added that it will be very difficult to determine if teaching students how to write malicious code would lead to "good hackers or bad hackers" after completing such a class."

Furthermore, if you go to the Avien homepage you'll find an open letter signed by a long list of security professional's that states...

"The signatories of this public letter, all security professionals with years of experience in dealing with computer viruses, and who work in all sectors, wish to express their whole-hearted support of the following principle:

It is not necessary and it is not useful to write computer viruses to learn how to protect against them."

Exactly.

Friends & Enemies In The Post-Iraq World: There are quite a few interesting stats in the latest Pew Poll that I thought were worth commenting on. In fact, there's so much stuff in here worth talking about that I'm going to have to keep my comments short or this post will end up being ridiculously long....

To begin with, we're less popular in Europe than we used to be although the numbers have gone up quite a bit since the last Pew Poll. We're at a robust 70% favorability in Britain, but at 38% in Spain, 43% in France, & 45% in Germany. I expect those numbers to continue to creep back up as we get farther away from the war (at least until the next war), but I don't see them getting back to where they used to be. Without the Soviets to hold America & Europe together, I think it's very possible that we will become rivals over the next decade or so (and yes, that includes Britain). That's unfortunate, but there are a lot of people in Europe working very hard to drive wedges in-between the United States and Europe because they believe that's a necessity if there is going to be a truly united Europe. We often try to paper over the differences, but America and Europe see the world very differently and I believe our conflicts with Europe are just beginning, not at an end.

Interestingly enough, Americans don't think too much of certain parts of "Old Europe" either. The favorability rating for the French has dropped from 79% to 29% and Germany has taken it on the chin almost as bad with a plunge from 83% to 44%. I'm sure that surprises a lot of Europeans who have been taking shots at America for years with no effect, but 9/11 has changed everything. Americans correctly view their security as being at stake and they have little patience with what they view as ingratitude from European nations that have frequently taken our help in the past, but now sneer and show us the back of their hands when we've asked for their cooperation in return. As I said, "I believe our conflicts with Europe are just beginning, not at an end."

Furthermore, America is VERY unpopular in the Muslim countries that were surveyed. Our unfavorable rating is 83% in Turkey & Indonesia & although the actual numbers aren't mentioned in the article, supposedly they look similar in Jordan & the "Disputed Territories". The article also says that in Indonesia, Jordan, Morocco, Pakistan, & the "Disputed Territories" Bin Laden was tagged as one of the, "three political leaders they would most trust to do the 'right thing'." That number probably isn't as damaging as it would appear since the % of people who actually picked Bin Laden wasn't mentioned & may be relatively small. In any case, I believe that if we help Iraq become a Democracy and support Democracy in the region where we find it, those numbers will change radically in our favor over time just as they did in Eastern Europe. Now they're not sure of our intentions, but if we're consistent and help the region start to become free, attitudes will change.

Then we come to a quote that is going to make a lot of Conservatives happy, "In fact, not a single country surveyed has a majority who believes that the United Nations still plays an important role in dealing with international conflicts." I love it! That quote reminds me of something I wrote back on October 17, 2002 in a post called, "We'll Get Our UN Resolution -- Or Else". I got something right and something wrong in that post. I turned out to be wrong when I predicted that we'd be in Iraq by the end of Feb "at the latest" in that post. But, I did nail this....

"On the other hand, Russia and France (they're the real hold-ups on the UN security council) have a lot to lose by not giving us what we want. Iraq owes Russia billions that it will never see unless it goes along with us. Both nations have companies with contracts to develop Iraqi oil fields that are worth tens of billions of dollars. Unless they go along with us I'm sure the new Iraqi government will decide that those contracts are null & void. Moreover, France, Russia, and The UN itself risk becoming largely irrelevant if the world's lone super power defies them and invades Iraq without UN approval. Since both France and Russia have gained a great deal of power and prestige from being the UN Security Council, having the UN lose credibility would be devastating for them."

Everyone has been so busy talking about the Iraqi museum, getting Iraq under control, and WMD that they've forgotten the TITANTIC hit that France & Russia took over this whole thing. Not only did not going along with us cost them billions, they also frittered away most of the UN's influence on American policy. Now that we have invaded Iraq without the UN's approval, the United Nations is hemorrhaging credibility & they've lost their hold on us which suits me just fine.

Threat Level Upped to Red When Broker Says "Enron" by Scott Ott: The Homeland Security Department briefly increased the national security threat level to "Red" this afternoon when a Wall Street Broker apparently used the word Enron in a sentence. Fighter jets were scrambled over New York City, and some school children donned gas masks and headed for fallout shelters.

By 4 p.m., FBI and SEC agents verified that the broker had not used the name of the disgraced energy-trading company, so the threat level returned to "Yellow".

"I didn't use the 'E' word," said the unnamed stockbroker. "I was simply telling a colleague about who I ran into at Starbuck's this morning. I told him I saw Bob and Ron. Next thing you know, it's sirens, bells and jack-booted Federal agents with automatic weapons."

The Dow Jones Industrial Average dipped below its opening level at about 3:30 p.m., just after the alleged remark, and barely recovered before the close. The NASDAQ slumped and stayed down, losing more than 5 points on the day.

If you liked this satire by Scott Ott, you can see more of his work at Scrappleface.

McGruff the Crime Dog to Restore Order in Baghdad: Washington, DC - President Bush has called McGruff the Crime Dog out of retirement and asked him to establish a Neighborhood Watch program in Baghdad.

Mr. McGruff, who for the past five years has resided at a luxury retirement kennel in Boca Raton, said that he is delighted to once again be asked to "take a bite out of crime."

During a press conference at the White House this morning Mr. McGruff reminded the people of Baghdad to keep their eyes and ears open and to report any suspicious activities in their neighborhoods such as:

(1) strange kids playing in the streets with rocket-propelled grenades;

(2) neighbors mixing martinis with centrifuges used to produce weapons-grade plutonium;

(3) kindergarten students taking lapus lazuli statues from the ancient city of Ur to school for show and tell;

(4) any cable repairman who looks suspiciously like Tariq Aziz.

If you enjoyed this satire by William Grim, you can read more of his work at Broken Newz.

Miscellaneous: A few things of note...

-- Many blogs entered our "Link RWN & Win Contest", but only a few sent us enough traffic to qualify. Here are the blogs that qualified...

IMAO, Right We Are!, The Catholic Samurai, Gut Rumbles, 4Ranters, Sgt. Hook, & Curmudgeonly & Skeptical.

And the two big winners are.....Right We Are! & 4Ranters! Both of those pages gets ads on RWN's main page. The other 5 blogs get daily news ads. Email me your ads and we'll get them up!

-- I've been thinking about updating RWN's look. We're not talking about a total site redesign here, just making the page look a little more shiny and new. Anyone who works on the page will at a minimum have to be familiar with PHP, CSS, & they'd need to be able to create graphics. Ideally, they'd also be familiar with Movable Type & MySQL.

If you're interested, send me some pages you've designed, & your qualifications, and your rates...unless you love RWN and want to do the work gratis =)

-- Just a quick tip for all the bloggers out there. If you haven't already done so, submit your blog to Daypop, Blogdex, & Popdex. It may help you get more traffic, it helps get more Conservative stories out there, & it helps RWN get more posts to the top of the charts. Furthermore, it's free, quick, & easy to sign up. So make sure you're listed.

-- Thanks to our advertisers! RWN appreciates the support of Those Shirts, Solomonia, & The Politiblog last month.

We also appreciate the continuing support of Between The Coasts, Zogby Blog, Electric Venom, & Ravenwood's Universe.

Last but not least, much thanks to The Catholic Samurai, our newest advertiser.

Remember -- their money pays for hosting, consultants, interview phone bills, bandwidth, & all the other costs of running a blog. So show these pages that they were smart to advertise with RWN by taking a look at their blogs.

According To The Guardian, America Is Practically A Dissent Free Zone: This editorial by the Guardian's Gary Younge about the lack of dissent is America is so far off the mark you'd think it was written by a space alien observing human beings for the first time. Just look at how far he goes out on a limb he goes to claim that there's no dissent allowed in America...

"..."This nation is now at war," said Peter Beinart, the editor of the liberal magazine New Republic. "And in such an environment, domestic political dissent is immoral without a prior statement of national solidarity, a choosing of sides."

...The problem for the American media is not so much whether dissent comes in strange packages as whether it comes at all."

I can just imagine Younge helping the BBC put together a special on this subject. It'd probably go something like this...

(Things start with Gary Younge sitting in a plush office chair)

Gary Younge: Good evening BBC viewers. We've prepared this dramatization to show you what things are like in America. While some of it may shock you, we can assure you that the BBC & the Guardian have done painstaking research to insure that this is completely accurate. Let us begin..."

(4 Americans with buck teeth appear in overalls)

Man 4: "Is that dissent I hear?"
Man 2: "Come on everybody, get the tar & feathers!"
Man 3: Whee-haa, we'll teach those liberals to voice their opinions!

(Cue twanging banjos as they run off stage).

(Barbra Streisand appears)

Barbra Streisand: "I...I...think they're gone & that makes me want to burst into song!"

(Streisand starts singing)

"America, what has happened to you?
When did the red, white, and blue
Take rights from all but a few....

(Cue Beverly Hillbillies theme song as the 4 bucktoothed men run back in)

Man 1: "There's someone dissenting..."
Man 2: "And she's a celebrity!"
Man 4: "Get a rope!"
Man 3: "Wheee-doggies! Let's go to the celebrity hanging tree! I got a nice thick branch all picked out!"

(Men close in on Streisand as everything fades to black)

That would be about as spot-on as Younge's ridiculous editorial....

PS: I've noticed a number of articles (including this one) trumpeting the fact that the, "American audience figures for BBC World news leapt 28% in the first few weeks of the war". The audience blossomed for most news sources in the first few weeks of the war. My numbers went up 25%. If I remember correctly, Fox's numbers were up more than 50%. Then the numbers dropped back to earth once the war was over. I'm sure it's the same deal for the BBC. So at this point, pointing out that the BBC went up that much without mentioning the context and without also letting people know that their numbers have certainly dropped since then is deliberately misleading....

This Is Pathetic -- Even For The French: France put America's security at risk by undercutting the war in Iraq & they've worked hard to rally Europe and the rest of the world against us. Make no mistake about it, France has acted like an enemy nation that views it's own success as being tied to American failure. Despite all of that, the French are terrible upset that the American public has not taken kindly to France's sneering betrayal. Just listen to what France's ambassador to the United States, Jean-David Levitte has to say about the jokes aimed at France...

"It's my job to remind that these funny little jokes are not so funny, because they are taken seriously on the other side of the Atlantic," he says. "We may differ on very serious issues - war and peace, pre-emptive war, international law, but is it a good reason to have this campaign of french-bashing?"

....It's not funny because if fuels resentment," Levitte said. "You know, people in France see that and say, 'How can a great democracy like America be so petty, so absurd?' We may differ on war and peace, but please, French fries are french fries."

See? We Americans are petty and absurd -- doesn't that make you want to buy more French wine? But wait, it gets better! France has decided to run advertising campaigns in the United States (it worked so well for Saudi Arabia right?). Their spokesman is perfect for them. Guess who it is... no..it's not Jerry Lewis...it's Woody Allen! Yes, the French picked an effete perv to be their spokesman. I guess Michael Jackson was unavailable. Oh and you just have to read what Allen says in one of the pro-French commercials...

"I don't want to freedom kiss my wife. I want to French kiss her."

Wait a second...if I remember correctly, didn't Allen marry Soon-Yi Previn, who Allen helped raise from the time she 8 years until old she started cheating on her mother with "daddy"? It's almost as if the French are saying, "We think so little of you Americans that we are only using Woody Allen in our commercials. If we did not hold you in such contempt, we'd use better spokesman like Clint Eastwood or Harrison Ford."

Were I in the White House, we'd have policy meetings that would start out with, "OK, I want to see 15% unemployment in France, Jacques Chirac crying like a baby on national television, & France less popular than Vanilla Ice at the Apollo. How can we make that happen?" We should make an example out of France. Let's hope the Bush administration doesn't go soft on them.

Hypocrisy Overload: I wanted to post this snippet from today's Raspberry column because I thought it was so incredibly hypocritical and because I've heard similar sentiments voiced over & over again by other lefties...

"(The Democrats) lost an election that should have been theirs on a gimme, requiring, for instance, only that their standard-bearer carry his home state -- or that the Supreme Court stay out of the matter. I mention that for a reason. Imagine, if you will, the same airtight campaign with the prize going to the Democrats, helped out publicly by officials sworn to neutrality. The airwaves would crackle with cries of righteous indignation and accusations of illegitimacy. The Republicans -- most certainly conservative Republicans -- wouldn't have let the matter die.

And while I'm glad they did -- we've strife enough without the sort of endless jabbing and rabble-rousing the Rev. Jesse L. Jackson promised to lead after the Supreme Court's delivery of the election to the Republicans -- it might serve as an illustration of the differences between the two parties."

So the Republicans were helped by the Supreme Court, "officials sworn to neutrality"? Well, what does Raspberry say about ultra-liberal Florida State Supreme Court? Where was their "neutrality" when they threw out the rules written before the election & ordered up two recounts judged unconstitutional 9-0 & 7-2? Had they actually been neutral, the USSC would have never had to get involved.

I also love the way he says Democrats "let the matter die" even as he in essence alleges that the USSC helped the Bush steal the election. Moreover, much of the American left is still atwitter about the 2000 elections. We're more than two years out and if you read a variety of left-wing pages regularly you'll run across references to it daily.

Page also complains that the Democrats didn't speak out against the war enough, talks about the Democrats "admirable decorum", claims Arianna Huffington is a Conservative (like David Horowitz is a Liberal I suppose), & then through Huffington calls Republicans "fanatics".

Let me just call it as I see it; Raspberry and a lot of other lefties today are simply delusional. Maybe they're furious that they're out of power or perhaps their loathing of George Bush has driven them over the edge. Heck, it could just be that they've started to believe their own spin. But in any case, they've stopped seeing reality clearly and that's a very dangerous thing for a political party because it causes you to spend a lot of time tilting at windmills instead of grappling with issues that can help you. Of course, that suits me just fine. It gives me lots of easy targets to take aim at on RWN and helps the GOP win elections. But, were I a Democrat, I'd be very concerned...

A Blogger Symposium On The Media & The Blogosphere: Thanks to Juan Gato from The Shallow End, Susanna Cornett from Cut On The Bias, N.Z. Bear from The Truth Laid Bear, & Eugene Volokh from The Volokh Conspiracy for participating in our latest symposium. Read & enjoy! (Cont)