I'm going to be taking a Labor Day vacation which means that the next update of RWN will be on Wednesday. As per usual when I go out of town, I've put up a few websites I like in the daily news section. If I'm not going to be here, maybe I can at least farm out a little traffic to some deserving blogs.

-- RWN appreciates our advertisers at American Realpolitik, Right Wing Stuff, D-42, Zogby Blog, Electric Venom, Ravenwood's Universe, The Catholic Samurai, & Ghost Of A Flea.

Remember, the money these blogs are paying is covering all the costs associated with RWN. So why don't you show them that they're smart to advertise with RWN by taking a look at their blogs? I'd certainly appreciate it if you could...

-- If you'd like to buy a button ad, I still have at least one spot available. It's $15 and the button would be 88x31. Email me if you're interested. I will be checking in once or twice a day over the week-end.

-- 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'll get more conservative stories out there, & it'll push more RWN posts to the top of the charts. Furthermore, it's free, quick, & easy to sign up. So make sure you're listed.

-- If you need any design work or scripts done for your page, contact Nicole Baker. She did all the work on RWN, she is the best person I've ever seen with scripts, & she does fast & reasonably priced work. As far as I'm concerned, there is absolutely no one better you could get to work on your page.

-- If you're in a giving mood, you'll notice my Wish List, Paypal account, and Amazon links over on the left. Feel free to hit any of them and donate cash, buy me stuff, or buy yourself something that I'll get a percentage of.

-- Last but not least, have a great Labor Day week-end. See you on Wednesday!

-- Does the New York Times give you the news straight and from an unbiased perspective or are they really just claiming to do that while they actually push a liberal agenda? Yeah, you know the answer and so do I. But if there are any doubters out there, then just take a gander at what Dick Morris said in this interview...

"Whenever you'd talk to a New York Times reporter there would always be a supposition to the story, and they eventually would trot out the supposition and get you to comment on it. If you affirmed it, you'd be in the article, and if you disagreed you wouldn't be. Instead of just saying, "Tell me what the facts are about this situation," the bias, the lean, the journalistic political purpose to the story was predetermined. And it's a damn shame. The New York Times assumed the role of being the unbiased and detailed source for national and international news and then just basically gave it up."

-- Bustamante's refusal to cut his ties to MEChA is turning into a HUGE story all across the blogosphere and on all of the big conservative pages. This issue isn't going away and not only will it probably destroy Bustamante's political career, it may very well have wider implications. This is going to be the first time that most Americans are going to be made aware that there are groups out there like MEChA who actually want to take part of the United States. If this issue continues to gather steam -- and that's entirely possible given the interest that the California election is drawing -- this could turn into issue that might significantly effect the whole immigration debate. It'll be interesting to see how it all plays out.

-- A reader of the Spoons Experience asks...

"hi,

Yours
Mark"

I can't say that my feelings about the UN changed significantly after the war. Before the war I thought they were a power hungry, sovereignty threatening, anti-American, chat club largely run by bureaucrats and utopian idealists and the war only confirmed my impressions. Victor Davis Hanson has a little more to add to that...

"Little needs be said about the U.N. After its decade-long impotence where it came to disarming Saddam, and the circus last winter concerning the American invasion of Iraq, its officials will now have no interest in seeing the United States create a just society when they themselves could not. Indeed, many U.N. members probably preferred the old regime anyway. That allegation is not bombast or a slur — given the prominence of Syria in U.N. deliberations, and the elevation of Iran and Libya on key committees.

The U.N. has simply ceased to be the liberal, Western-inspired utopian body that arose from the ashes of World War II with the promise that reasonable, civilized nations could adjudicate differences rather than killing each other over perceived grievances. Instead, it is a mobocracy, where majority votes reflect a passive-aggressive stance toward the United States — guiltily desiring our money and support, while still eager for a televised forum in high-profile New York to pose and showcase its cheap, easy defiance of America."

This statue of Lenin sits in front of Goff's, a "hamburger joint" in Dallas....

I can't tell you how much I love this. Once Lenin was king commie, but now? Lenin is dead, his evil empire has been lost, & now his statue sits in front of a mere restaurant in the land of the free and the home of the brave.

Sic Semper Tyrannis -- "Thus always to tyrants!"

California Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante today said he is considering renouncing ties to a so-called racist organization which persists in judging a person by the color of his skin rather than the content of his character.

"I don't know if can stay with a group that promotes racial division," said Mr. Bustamante. "Their ideas have resulted in a wave of minority illiteracy and unemployment, third-generation welfare families and the deaths of countless thousands of potential black and Hispanic citizens through abortion. How can I, in good conscience, remain a member of the Democrat party?"

A gubernatorial campaign spokesman said Mr. Bustamante joined the party while in college, and should not be held responsible "for his youthful indiscretions."

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

Left-wingers are highly sensitive to charges that they're not patriotic. Heck, you could hardly make it through a week back during the war in Iraq without two or three angry lefties "courageously" going on TV or doing interviews with major magazines about how their dissent was being squashed and their patriotism questioned by the right. I was highly dubious of their claims then, just as I am now, especially since I and most of the people on the right -- Ann Coulter excepted =D -- went out of their way to say that it wasn't unpatriotic to simply protest the war.

However, I'd like to be the first person -- well the first I've seen anyway -- to question Cruz Bustamante's patriotism. I say that because of what Bustamante said yesterday about MEChA, a racist, seditious group he used to be a part of...

"California Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante, the grandson of Mexican immigrants who counts improving race relations among his biggest pursuits, refused Thursday to renounce his past ties to a little-known Hispanic organization considered by critics to be as racist as the Ku Klux Klan.

"I think the actuality of what takes place in those organizations is to provide student leadership. For me, and many, many others, we were running for student government. That's how I got here today."

Let me be blunt; you cannot be support the Constitution, be patriotic, & be a good American, while being a member or supporter of MEChA at the same time. It's simply not possible to love the United States of America while supporting a group that wants to return the Southern part of the United States to Mexico & who's motto is, "for the race, everything. For those outside the race, nothing."

The fact that MEChA is even allowed on college campuses should be scandalous in of itself. We certainly wouldn't allow the Nazi party or KKK to set up university backed clubs and recruit kids -- so why should MEChA be allowed to do the same thing?

Ridiculous as that may be, having supporters of MEChA actually holding positions of power in our government is far worse. It's one thing to have a bunch of 18 year college kids who believe in this stuff, but voting one of these racist, wanna-be Benedict Arnold's into the governorship of a state like California is a horrendous idea.

Bustamante is clearly an unpatriotic American who is unfit to hold any public office, especially the governorship of California. Now that his association with MEChA is coming to light, there should be more than just conservatives pointing that out. Bustamante may be the left's David Duke, worse actually, since Duke lost when he ran for gov. of Louisiana, with lots of prominent Republicans campaigning against him. But do the members of the left have the guts to take a stand against their own David Duke, even if it means losing the governorship of California? We will find out in the next couple of months...

DES MOINES, IA - In a moment of "sweet, poetic irony," Steve Haskins, former acquaintance of AT&T pitchman Carrot-Top, refused to accept a collect call from the comedian earlier today.

Haskins, who befriended the grating, painfully unfunny man while attending Florida Atlantic University, received the call while preparing for a weekend getaway with his girlfriend. "I answer the phone and the pre-recorded AT&T lady's voice says, 'You have an AT&T collect call from,' and then Carrot-D*ck's voice says, 'Your old buddy CT - like without the A-L-L-A and the second T!' I was like, 'No friggin' way.'"

The financial success of Carrot-Top, whose commercials routinely ruin the moviegoing and TV viewing experience for millions of audience members, has been the catalyst for innumerable violent fantasies for Haskins, who thanklessly manages a Blockbuster store for $44,000 a year. "Thanks to that waste of plasma, I can't go into a movie theater until I know the opening credits have started. As for TV, I only watch DVDs on it. If I were in a public place and I saw that f***ing tool onscreen again, there's no telling what I'd do," says Haskins.

In one of his many daydreams, Haskins shoves a shackled Carrot-Top into a swimming pool filled with fire ants, scorpions, killer bees, and black mambas. A giant pay phone (and potential rescue) is on a platform in the middle, scant millimeters out of his reach. On the off-chance he gets to it, says Haskins, the handset super-glues itself to his ear and shrieks "Dial down the center! Dial down the center!" at a thousand decibels, rupturing his eardrums. Haskins then offers a telescoping metal pole to him, only for the hapless Carrot-Top to discover the pole is coursing with a billion volts of electricity. He explodes, and Haskins dances like Gene Kelly in the ensuing shower of gore.

Other examples of Haskins' revenge fantasies against the befreckled comedian involve such scenarios as his being slowly ground into sausage and fed to unsuspecting family members, and another whereby his entire body is forced into the change slot of an AT&T pay phone with some sort of industrial hydraulic press. The likelihood of such situations coming to pass, however, forced Haskins to be content with the small opportunity he was given.

"It crossed my mind that I should maybe accept the charges and finally say everything to that 'tard I've wanted to say since college," said Haskins. "But then it occurred to me that simply not accepting a collect call from him would be almost as satisfying as the other things I've wished for. So when the AT&T lady said, 'Will you accept the charges?' I just said, 'No,' like I was talking right to his face. The feeling was indescribable."

Haskins has no explanation for why Carrot-Top called him at all, let alone collect, but suggested that his new catch phrase be changed to, "It's free for you and cheap for them, unless it's me calling and you tell me to go f**k myself. Then it's free for both of us."

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

After talking about some of Arnold Schwarzenegger's positions today, Neal Boortz said this about members of the GOP who won't support Arnold because he's pro-abortion...

"You know these Republican die-hards though. (Arnold's pro-abortion stand) is enough to send many Republicans screaming into the electoral wilderness. If there is anything some Republicans just can't stand it's the idea of the government not having control over a woman's reproductive life."

Oh yeah, it's not the fact that Conservatives like me see abortion as nothing less than the murder of an innocent baby by his own mother, it's actually just the thrill of watching the government boss women around that motivates us.

Simply put, I, and most conservatives believe life begins at conception. If you believe that, as we do, then what sort of vile, evil, dirty, SOBs would we have to be to support abortion? Personally, I see absolutely no ethical difference between aborting a baby in the womb and drowning him in a bathtub when he's say a year old.

Given that, how could I possibly support a pro-abortion candidate if there's another candidate who can win who doesn't back infanticide? I'd prefer not to support any candidate who's pro-abortion, however, I believe that sometimes you have to choose between the lesser of two evils (and yes, "evils" is an appropriate word for it). But there are plenty of conservatives who understandably don't look at it that way. If they decide to stay away from the polls and cost Arnold a victory, well, so be it. Maybe some of the other people running for office on the GOP ticket around the country will take note of that and change their position on the issue accordingly.

I went through my statistics and picked out the websites that have sent me the most "visits" so far this year. I thought it would be nice to send a little traffic back to the websites that have sent it to me so far this year, wanted RWN's readers to check out some excellent web pages, and I'm also hoping some of the bloggers out there might find it useful to see some of best blogs/websites to get linked by. Here they are... (***Note: I decided to exclude Google since they don't care about link backs & the numbers of "visits" each page sent me is also included***)

24) Kim Du Toit: 1,825
23) Daily Pundit: 1,839
22) Bob From Accounting: 1,959
21) Broken Newz: 2,045
20) Blogdex: 2,103
19) The Daily Hmmmm: 2,389
18) Hugh Hewitt: 2,582
17) Curmudgeonly & Skeptical: 2,607
16) Vodka Pundit: 3,127
15) Ernie's House Of Whoop@ss (Some Obscenities & Porn Links): 3,434
14) The Corner: 3,511
13) Scrappleface: 4,009
12) ZCPortal: 4,016
11) Metafilter: 4,076
10) Newsfilter: 4,279
9) Eject! Eject! Eject!: 4,574
8) Blogs Of War: 5,509
7) The Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler: 6,364
6) IMAO: 7,387
5) Rachel Lucas: 8,723
4) Little Green Footballs: 9,810
3) Andrew Sullivan's Daily Dish: 19,479
2) Fark: 42,013
1) Instapundit: 58,901

If you liked this satire by Shamus Young, you can see more of his work at The Lemon.

Out of all the titans in American history -- Presidents and generals, inventors and entrepreneurs, reformers and revolutionaries -- have you ever wondered who the left thinks the best of the best were? Well, we here at RWN wondered about that too and that's why we decided to email more than a 130 left-of-center bloggers to get their opinions. Representatives from 28 blogs responded.

All bloggers were allowed to make anywhere from 1-20 selections. Rank was determined simply by the number of votes received. Also, it's worth keeping in mind that this was a fairly liberal group of bloggers and their selections reflected that. Well that's enough about the rules -- without further adieu, the greatest figures in American history according to the left are as follows...(Cont)

In Dr. Chuck Tryon's English 1101 course at Georgia Tech, the students are doing something a little bit out of the ordinary to build their skills. They're studying bloggers! Including these "famous bloggers"...

"Once you've looked around for a while, you can find bloggers whose values either align with or contrast with your own beliefs. A few more famous bloggers:

The Cable News Network (CNN) said today that it would begin announcing daily casualty tallies related to America's various tax-funded government-run operations.

The idea came from the daily count many news organizations keep of American Casualties in Iraq.

The following data will be included in CNN's new 'Casualties of the Great Society':
-- murders and other violent acts in public housing, or by recipients of public assistance
-- public school dropouts
-- condoms distributed to teens through schools and other agencies
-- abortions by teens and women on public assistance
-- low-birth weight and addicted babies born to welfare mothers
-- high school dropouts, and illiterate high school graduates imprisoned
-- welfare babies who eventually dropout of high school and become welfare mothers by illiterate high school dropouts who are wanted by the police for drug crimes

Senator Tom Daschle said that Democrats will not be deterred by "the constant drip, drip, drip of these statistics."

"Despite mounting casualties," he said, "the federal government will continue to fund public education, welfare, subsidized housing and various other entitlement programs for the good of the country."

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

Sawad, alias Sardjiyo, a terrorist who helped make the bomb that killed 202 people in Bali yesterday decided to thank the people who supported his cause. Why who could that be? Osama Bin Laden? Radical Islamists all over the world? Why no! He wanted to thank the anti-war protestors....

"I want to thank the Australian people who supported our cause when they demonstrated against the policies of George Bush. Say thank you to all of them," Sawad said.

Terrorism, he said, was a reciprocal action."

So according to Sawad, if you were out in the street carrying a no blood for oil sign, you're on his side, right? That does seem to be a pretty fair reading of what he's saying isn't it? Yep, I'm sure Sawad would have been right at home beside of some guy holding up an American flag with a swastika sewn on it at one of those peace rallies.

He even has sounds like one of the people from those rallies doesn't he?

"For all human beings to stop now in this world, destroy all of the destructive weapons . . . if there were no weapons then peace can be created."

You may think that sounds a little crazy coming from a terrorist, but didn't we just spend almost a year watching people who ranted endlessly about human rights doing everything in their power to keep the Iraqi people under the thumb of Saddam Hussein? How is what he said any more inconsistent than peace protestors who said the equivalent of...

"We love you Iraqi people! That's why we want you to remain slaves of a man who locks your children in prison, deliberately starves you, fills up mass graves with your corpses, and stands by smirking while his sons & secret police rape & torture everything that moves. No need to thank us for being such caring people."

Now of course, the majority of the peace protestors didn't support terrorism. But their protests evidently did buoy the spirits of the terrorists, did it make it more difficult to get rid of a terrorist supporting thug like Hussein, and did cost American soldiers their lives by encouraging Saddam to draw things out as long as possible in the errant hope that America would lose the will to fight. Sure, they probably didn't mean to make those things happen, but that's why they call them useful idiots isn't it?

Hat tip to Tim Blair for finding this one.

Michael Van Winkle over at The Chicago Report disagrees with the rhetorical beating about the head and shoulders that I gave to Mohamed ElBaradei over his ridiculous comments about nuclear weapons. Here's a sample of what Michael had to say...

"If the mission of the War on Terror, with respect to nukes, is ever to be accomplished, it seems necessary to seriously reduce the availability and use of the technology for weapons purposes. This is not to say that the US should unilaterally rid itself of nukes, becoming vulnerable to our enemies. Yet, why on earth should we oppose destroying stockpiles in exchange for other countries doing the same?

The cost of an "America First" strategy in nuclear disarmament is the ultimate failure to regulate proliferation and eventually risking nuclear holocaust at the hands of some Bin Laden. Cooperation does not mean that America should be so naive as to expect the world to break into a chorus of 60's music. We should be measured in our reduction and vigilant in pressuring other countries to follow our lead. If they don't, obviously the process breaks down and we should stop disarming ourselves immediately."

I'll have to respectfully disagree with Mr. Van Winkle's analysis here for several reasons.

First off, if you believe that we're not going to "have a world safe for democracy, which also contains a significant number of nuclear weapons," then you're just going to have to live with the fact that the world isn't going to be safe for Democracy for the forseeable future. We are not going to negotiate away nukes. To the contrary, the only way they're going to disappear is if either we come up with a defensive weapon that makes them obsolete or if a cheaper, more destructive, weapon is created. Once the genie is out of the bottle, it's not going back in.

Next, nuclear proliferation has occurred for the most part because France, China, & Russia helped make it happen for a price and everybody -- including the US -- looked the other way. If the civilized world was serious about stopping nukes from the beginning instead of just putting together a non-proliferation treaty that no one was willing to enforce, we would probably only have 6 nuclear powers (I think the Indians would have made it regardless).

Now let's talk about stockpiles. We have already greatly reduced our stockpiles of nuclear weapons and are continuing to do so. A lot of people may have forgotten this already, but back in November Bush agreed to significant joint cuts in the American & Russian nuclear arsenals. So we're already planning to drop from about 6k nukes to around 1,700 to 2,200 within the next decade. As far as terrorists stealing or buying a nuke out of an existing stockpile goes, the Russians are really the only country of concern and we're already spending hundreds of millions of dollars per year to help them secure their arsenal. So this whole focus on reducing stockpiles is largely irrelevant to the problems of stopping proliferation or keeping terrorists from getting their hands on nukes. There aren't going to be any members of Al-Qaeda driving a pick-up truck right up to a Chinese silo, loading a missile in the back, and then hopping on a slow boat from China headed for LA while screaming, "Jihad, Jihad, Jihad, ulululullululull" all the way.

So if we're worried about nukes (and not just dirty bombs), the danger is mainly that some country like Iran, North Korea, or Pakistan if &/or when Musharraf gets shot or deposed in a coup will either sell or give nukes to terrorists. We can forget about getting nukes out of Pakistan as long India has nukes and the Indians aren't disarming as long as China still has weapons. So unfortunately, it looks like we're going to have to live with a Pakistani nuclear state unless they get into a nuclear war with India....and trust me, you're probably better off not even thinking about that. On the other hand, I'm of the belief that we can negotiate the nukes out of North Korea and we can keep Iran from ever developing nukes if we're willing to do whatever it takes to stop them...and I believe the Bush administration has the necessary will to do so.

Last but not least, having "global support" for these actions and to stop other nations from developing nukes would be nice, but as we have learned again and again since 9/11, we can't count on it. If the choice is between giving up a lot to get the Europeans to wag their fingers at countries like North Korea or Iran or between threatening to launch missiles at Iran and North Korea if they don't stop building nukes, I'll take option #2 every because it may work whereas no nation is going to get rid of nukes because of nagging from UN toadies like Mohamed ElBaradei.

During the Cold War we may have been concerned about stockpiles of nukes, but today there is much more of a threat from rogue nations building nukes that they may use or share with terrorists. That's what we should be concerned about, not the stockpiles that we have in the US...

Most of you capitalist, Yankee, pigdogs who are reading RWN probably have some concerns about nuclear weapons. Maybe you're concerned that the rabidly anti-American, anti-Israeli, Islamo-fascists in Iran will get nukes and launch them before their regime is pulled down in a bloody revolution. Then there's that pumpkin-headed goon Kim Jung-Il who's so crazy he might launch a nuke at California or Japan if his supply of prozac is five minutes late. And of course, you can't forget Al-Qaeda, Hamas, and the rest of the terrorist crazies who probably go to bed dreaming of blowing up a nuke or dirty bomb in the middle of an American, Israeli, or even European city.

See YOU might be concerned about all of those scenarios, but Hans Blix sidekick, Mohamed ElBaradei, the head of the United Nations nuclear watchdog, knows that the real threat is of course the United States and to a lesser extent the four other original nuclear powers...

"The head of the United Nations nuclear watchdog called on the United States Tuesday to set an example to the rest of the world by cutting its nuclear arsenal and halting research programs.

Under the terms of the 1968 nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, the global pact aimed at stopping the spread of atomic weapons, the five original nuclear powers were permitted to keep their nuclear arsenals but agreed to negotiate terms for full global disarmament in good faith."

So there you go. If only the original nuclear powers would disarm and if the Great Satan would also agree to stop building a missile shield -- which is by the way inherently unfair since it doesn't protect everyone -- then all of the world's problems would be over. Why as soon as we got rid of our nukes, all other nations would disarm and then North Korea, Israel, Pakistan, India, & Iran would get together, hold hands, and sing "Kumbaya," "We Are The World," & "I'd Like To Teach the World To Sing" in that order.

ElBaradei is just ridiculous. Why doesn't he demand that the world get together to stop Iran & North Korea from building nukes instead of incorrectly acting as if it's fait accompli? How is it that Mr. big UN nuclear muckety-muck isn't raising hell about China & Russia actually helping to spread nuclear weapons across the globe? While that might be what ElBaradei should be doing, he can't score brownie points at the UN by complaining about those countries. But if you tear into the US, even if you come of like a 5th grader writing an essay about world peace in the process, it helps you rack up major brownie points with the UNacrats. So that's way ElBaradei is going, even though nations like North Korea and Iran are going to build nukes whether we're dumb enough to disarm or not. But I guess that's all we should expect from a representative of the modern day League of Nations. No wonder they're so irrelevant...

Following the publishing of a report stating that France does not consider Hamas or Islamic Jihad to be "terrorist" organizations, France is now openly soliciting new ideas which could further alienate and offend its neighbors and former allies.

The statement, made just two days after Hamas assumed responsibility for killing twenty civilians on a bus in Jerusalem, came as a staggering blow to Israelis and Americans alike. In the statement, French diplomatic adviser Maurice Gourdault-Montagne (who is a man) affirmed that France is actively soliciting to keep Hamas and Islamic Jihad off of the EU's list of known terror organizations.

"Hamas and Islamic Jihad are not terror organizations," said Gourdault-Montagne (who is a man). "They are more like social clubs or church groups."

After a year of vigorously opposing the United States on virtually ever issue imaginable, "France has run out of ideas," said French President Jacques Chirac (a hominid). Chirac (a hominid) described the frustration his government faces. "We realized that all the really offensive ideas had been tried. Supporting Saddam Hussein? Done. Desecrating the graves of fallen US soldiers? Done. Not bathing? Slutty women with hairy legs and armpits? Old hat."

"That left the hole card: taking sides with Hamas and Islamic Jihad as they kill innocent Israelis. It was a brilliant move, but how can we top this?"

The government has launched a new campaign, entitled "Piss On The World," to spur French people into creative new ways to offend everybody on Earth. The campaign "taps the vast wealth of belligerence and repugnance of the French population," said Chirac (a hominid).

If you enjoyed this satire by Rip Rowan, you can read more of his work at The Skeptician.

Just for the heck of it, here are my 31 favorite editorial columnists in order.

31) George Will
30) Larry Elder
29) Michael Ledeen
28) Peggy Noonan
27) Johnathan Last
26) Daniel Pipes
25) Charles Krauthammer
24) Rich Lowry
23) Jackie Mason & Raoul Felder
22) John Leo
21) David Limbaugh
20) Heather Mac Donald
19) Neil Boortz
18) Bill O'Reilly
17) Larry Miller
16) Andrew Sullivan
15) Bob Novak
14) Michelle Malkin
13) David Warren
12) Mona Charen
11) Thomas Sowell
10) Neil Cavuto
9) John Podhoretz
8) David Horowitz
7) Walter Williams
6) Dick Morris
5) Ann Coulter
4) James Lileks
3) Victor Davis Hanson
2) Jonah Goldberg
1) Mark Steyn

Do keep in mind that these sorts of lists change -- sometimes quite a bit -- over time. Also, this was originally going to be my fave 30 columnists, but someone mentioned Peggy Noonan and after thinking about it, I thought she deserved to make the list.

There are a lot of people in America, mainly on the left, who have a great love of international institutions, coalitions, and who crave approval from the rest of the world for every action our nation takes. Now don't get me wrong, there's nothing wrong with cooperating with other nations or taking help from countries that share our interests.

But notice that I said "nations that share our interests." Here's the problem with getting everyone else in the world to go along with us...are you ready for it?

Not every nation shares our values, interests, & goals. (Cont)

The United States will send 22 million troops to Iraq this year to ensure the safety of every Iraqi and every structure in the country.

Dubbed 'Operation Buddy System' by Pentagon planners, the idea is to pair each Iraqi citizen with a battlefield-equipped soldier or Marine.

"Since we disturbed the peace by overthrowing Saddam Hussein," said an unnamed Pentagon spokesman, "it's our responsibility to protect this nation. We don't know who the terrorists are, nor when and where they will attack. So, we'll just have to keep an eye each of the 22 million Iraqis 24/7."

The spokesman acknowledged that military recruiting would have to "increase substantially" to provide such a force, but in the meantime Manpower Inc. would provide temp workers to fill most of the positions. The rest would be covered by Transportation Security Administration (TSA) workers who will scan and frisk Iraqis coming from, and going to, anywhere.

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

I wasn't particularly pleased when I originally heard that Dick Lugar was going to become the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. I say that because I knew the day would come when he'd make a boneheaded proposal like this one...

"As violence escalates in the Middle East, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee says military involvement by the United States and its NATO allies might be required to bring stability to Israel and the Palestinians.

..."At some point the United States and its NATO allies and somebody is going to have to work with the Israelis and the Palestinians who want a state to get rid of the terrorists. I think it's just that simple," Lugar said."

Lugar should have been alerted that he was suggesting a bad idea when Dianne Feinstein agreed with him...

"You have to have some military entity that is going to be able to control the terror. Otherwise, the situation is going to dissolve into nothingness," said Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif. "

You want "direct action"? Why don't we let the Israelis do it? Do we want a "military entity" to "control the terror"? How about the Israelis? Why don't we just make it clear that until Hamas, Islamic Jihad, the Al-Aksa Martyrs Brigade & company that we're not going to waste anymore time in futile negotiations?

That means no more money for the Palestinians, no more pushing for a Palestinian state, no more complaints about the security fence, no more ceasefires, no more acting as if the Palestinians & Israelis are morally equivalent, & most of all -- no more saying that, "We support the Israelis right to defend themselves, but....".

It's fine for us to apply pressure behind the scenes, but we don't need to put our troops into a situation where they'll be attacked by Palestinian terrorists while getting in the way of the Israeli military. Let's just let the Israelis know that we back them to the hilt and then tell them to do what they have to do. Once we make it clear that we're giving Israel a free hand, either the terrorist supporting individuals and nations will back off or the Israelis will kill them. Either way, we're better off.

If you needed any evidence that France doesn't see the war on terrorism as America does, you need look no further than this...

"France voices objections to placing Hamas and Islamic Jihad on the European Union's list of terror organizations, ynet reported Monday.

Diplomatic advisor to President Chirac, Maurice Gourdault-Montagne, is quoted to have said to the Israeli ambassador in France, Nissim Zvilli, that there is no proof that these two organizations are terror groups. "If we find that Hamas and Islamic Jihad are indeed terror groups opposed to peace, we may have to change the EU's stand," said Gourdault-Montagne. "However, we mustn't limit ourselves to one, clear cut, position."

Of course, the French for being cowardly appeasers who are inclined to look the other way because Hamas & Islamic Jihad are for the most part limiting their activities to murdering Jews. Make no mistake about it, if Hamas was sending suicide bombers into Belgium or Finland and blowing up buses full of non-Jewish school kids, the French would be falling all over themselves to declare them terrorists. This is a loathsome position to take, even for the French...

A few things...

-- RWN appreciates our advertisers at American Realpolitik, Right Wing Stuff, D-42, Zogby Blog, Electric Venom, Ravenwood's Universe, The Catholic Samurai, & Ghost Of A Flea.

If you enjoy reading RWN, why not take a look at some of our advertisers...unless you're a commie who hates advertising and profit & the whole capitalist system. Is that what you are? Are you sure? Then let's take a little test. How many links to RWN's advertisers have you clicked on in this post?

0 -- I love hippies and Hillary Clinton!
1 -- Thank goodness Gorbachev decided to turn the Soviet Union into a Democracy & saved the world from Ronald Reagan.
2 or 3 -- Ted Kennedy? He's my favorite Senator!
4 or 5 -- I think Helen Thomas is snuggalicious!
6 or more -- Trumpets blow when I enter, women swoon in my presence, and young children want to be like me when they grow up!

-- I was scheduled to release an article titled, "Left-wing bloggers select the greatest figures in American history" tomorrow. However, while the Conservative numbers bounced back from the last week, the liberal numbers did not. So rather than just release the article with less than 30 replies, I'm going to find another 30 or so lefty bloggers and give them an opportunity to vote as well. That means the article will not be released until Thursday.

-- Speaking of the bloggers select articles, there will be no new polls next week. I'm going to be on vacation Mon & Tues & there are some other articles I'll need the time to work on. Also, I'm going to be adding new bloggers to both lists. If you run a left or right wing blog that REGULARLY UPDATES and you want to be included, shoot me an email or post in the comments section and I'll try to include you on the next poll.

Right Wing News emailed more than a 125 right-of-center bloggers and asked them to send us a list of who they considered to be the "worst figures of the 20th century". Representatives from 39 blogs responded.

All bloggers were allowed to make anywhere from 1-20 selections. Rank was determined simply by the number of votes received. Without further adieu, the "worst figures of the 20th century" according to the right side of the blogosphere are as follows...(Cont)

***Update #1***: My selections were as follows....

Idi Amin
Yassir Arafat
Leonid Brezhnev
Emperor Hirohito
Alger Hiss
Adolph Hitler
Saddam Hussein
Jean Kambanda
Kim Jung-Il
Osama Bin Laden
Vladimir Lenin
Chairman Mao
Ho Chi Minh
Benito Mussolini
Mullah Omar
Pol Pot
Joseph Stalin
General Suharto
Kim Il-Sung
Hideki Tojo

(***Whoops, I originally left off Hitler & Mao, #'s 1 and 3 on my list respectively. Do keep in mind it was very late when I finished compiling this list =D***)