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Kneecapping Barack Obama at every opportunity. | ||
Ace Of Trump
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Kennedy Vs. The Machine
Michele
RNC Video: Retreat And Defeat Democrats
Target CentermassPS: Tomorrow, RWN will have a 468x60, 20 KB or less banner ad slot opening up. It's of 4 slots on RWN, runs for a month, and costs $60. Shoot me an email if you're interested. PS #2: Currently, I have a 3.1 megapixel digital camera and I'm not satisfied with the quality of the shots that it takes. I may have the opportunity to upgrade the quality of the digital camera I'm using this Christmas and I wanted to get some advice from some of the camera wizzes out there, just in case. If I wanted to take "professional quality" pics to be on the net, including landscape shots, how many megapixels would I need? There are 8 megapixel cameras out there, but would I need that much camera? Keep in mind that money is also an important consideration By the way, if there are any camera company execs out there that would like to chip in a "media copy" of a camera and have me review it on RWN, shoot me an email. Maybe we can work something out...
It has been brought to my attention that the libs at CodePink are encouraging people not to buy war toys for their kids for Christmas.
So we have pacifistic liberals acting like pacifistic liberals. There's nothing surprising about that per se.
But these 2 suggestions on CodePink's were really obnoxious:
Place "surgeon general-type" warning labels on war toys in the stores. Simple mailing labels that you can print off at home are perfect for this action.
Get a bunch of friends to go with you to each buy a war toy, and then go back to the store later to return them. Create long complaint lines, showing other customers (and hopefully you’ve called the media) why war toys are bad.
Most of us learned not to touch other people's things in pre-school. So, why is it that the clowns at CodePink think it's OK to slap stickers on products in someone's store? They should keep their grubby, liberal mitts off of other people's stuff.
The whole staged media event in the return lines is ridiculous, too. You ever waited in line to return a product in a store around Christmas? Let's just say you're usually not in and out the store as it is. But these cretins want to deliberately foul up lines so they can try to get media attention. Hey, Code Pink: It's not your store and the other people in line probably have real jobs and don't want to have to waste an extra hour of their time waiting in line just because you want to publicly make jackasses of yourselves.
These CodePink moonbats are so annoying that I'd like to make a special plea to everyone out there: this year, buy your child a war toy!
How about a GI Joe for your kid? Better yet, what about Army men? They're dirt cheap toys, but they provide hours and hours of amusement for your children and encourage them to use their imagination.
On the other hand, if your kid is a little older, how about a nice, violent video game? Kids love video games! But, what if you're worried about your kid not getting enough fresh air? Then how about a BB gun? You can teach your child lessons about proper gun safety and get him all hyped up to own his own gun one day.
But, what about if your child is in his teens? Isn't he too old for war toys? Nonsense! Not when there are games like paintball out there! It's a little pricey to play paintball, but you get lots of exercise playing and there's nothing quite like catching your opponents out in the open and cutting them down with a barrage of paintballs as they futilely try to run to cover.
Remember, folks, your children need to learn that there are rare, but appropriate, times for people -- and nations -- to use violence. So, why not buy them a war toy this year and let the learning begin!
From last to first...
10) Unleashed: You know how everyone always mocks chop socky movies for not having a plot beyond, "You killed my master and now you have to die?" Well, Unleashed has a nice, long, involved plot featuring Morgan Freeman (How did they con him into doing this?) and it actually detracted from the movie a little bit. In fact, a little less plot and a little more of Jet Li opening cans of whoop *ss on everything walking would have made this a little better. Ranking: B-
9) The Dukes Of Hazzard: Despite the fact that Willie Nelson and Burt Reynolds were both just C-Grade awful in this film, if you love lots of car chases and crashes, violence, explosions, and Jessica Simpson as Daisy, then this is the movie for you! Ranking: B
8) MST3K: Manos: Hands of Fate: The fact that Manos: Hands of Fate may have been the most horrible movie of all-time may have helped make this the best Mystery Science Theater 3000 ever! Hilariously funny -- well, unless you don't like watching an entire movie that features a man and two robots mocking everything that comes across the screen. Of course, the fact that's probably an acquired taste probably explains why MST3K isn't even shown in reruns anymore. Yet and still...Ranking: A
7) The Fantastic Four: After the horrible reviews the movie got, I was expecting another, "This is so horrible, it will take super powers to make it all the way to the end," movie -- like Elektra. But actually, it was a couple notches below the X-Men and a little bit better than Daredevil. Of course, one of the villains in Daredevil had a guy named Bullseye who actually had a Bullseye on his forehead, so maybe being better than Daredevil isn't saying much. Ranking: B-
6) Frankenstein: I wanted to watch this movie because I read the book and couldn't imagine how they could make it into a decent movie. Of course, Dean Koontz held the book together because he's a master storyteller. On the other hand, the director of Frankenstein, Marcus Nispel, who has previously directed such "classics" as The Very Best of Cher: The Video Hits Collection & Ladies & Gentlemen: The Best of George Michael wasn't up to the job. Ranking: F
5) Mr. And Mrs Smith: Imagine True Lies if both spouses were secret agents and all the funny and interesting parts were taken out and replaced with crap. That's Mr. and Mrs Smith. Ranking: F
4) War of The Worlds: The special effects were absolutely amazing and the plot was pretty good, but the movie was almost as gloomy as Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon and the ending was anti-climactic. Plus, Tom Cruise was the protagonist and made it out alive. Ranking: B
3) High Tension: Despite a few flaws and the fact that most of the cast was French, this was a pretty good horror movie until the end. Unfortunately, the ending was so cataclysmically stupid, even worse than The Village, that it dropped the ranking of the movie from a B- to a D.
2) Undead: This movie had a good concept, a nice plot twist, and a few excellent action scenes featuring a hillbilly who thought he was Chow Yun Fat, but they never put it all together and the ending was unsatisfying. Ranking: C-
1) Batman Begins: They could have actually called this, "The only Batman movie that isn't cheesy and doesn't suck," but maybe that title is too long. Ranking: B
It's almost time for me to put together the 40 most obnoxious quotes of 2005 and if you have any suggestions for quotes that you think should make the list, please let me know.
My guess is that most of these quotes will come from liberals, but I'll certainly add conservative quotes in as well if I think they merit being included.
So, feel free to suggest some quotes that you think deserve consideration...
Popular lefty cartoonist and columnist Ted Rall, who has a knack for saying what liberals really think but are afraid to say, has a message for his fellow travelers on the left:
"You can drop the "support the troops" shtick now."
That's from Rally's latest column. So is this:
"What if they gave a war," a poster of the Vietnam era asked, "and nobody came?" If we are, as Jean-Paul Sartre posited, defined by our actions, most of the blame for the murder of more than 100,000 Iraqis belongs to our top government officials. But Bush's armchair warriors couldn't have invaded Iraq without a compliant and complicit United States military--one that, it should be noted, is all volunteer. These individuals, who enjoy free will, fire the guns and drop the bombs. If personal responsibility is to have any meaning, the men and women of our armed forces have to be held individually accountable for the carnage....Soldiers, they say, must obey orders. However, "just following orders" wasn't an acceptable excuse at the Nuremberg trials, where the charges included waging a war of aggression. Do our government's poorly paid contract killers deserve our "support" for blindly following orders?
...What are members of the military to do? They should certainly refuse to applaud when Bush uses them as backdrops to his logo-ridden pro-death pep rallies. Moreover, just as Muslim leaders were pressured to speak out against Islamist extremists after 9/11, soldiers ought to step forward to condemn the atrocities at Bagram, Fallujah and Guantánamo in letters to newspapers and other public venues.
The military used to be an honorable calling. Not under Bush. Ethical Americans considering a military career should seek a civilian job until a lawful, elected government has been restored in Washington and we have withdrawn our forces from occupied Afghanistan and Iraq. Those who are already enlisted should refuse to reenlist. Soldiers trapped by "stop loss" orders should apply for conscientious objector status (which is difficult to obtain) or refuse deployment based on the unlawful order principle. And if all else fails, there's always desertion."
So, the troops are "poorly paid contract killers" who should desert from the military? To say that's not very diplomatic is a huge understatement, but at least it's brutally honest. That's more than you can say for a lot of liberals who feel just like Rall does, but pretend to publicly support the troops.
Hat tip to Robin Mullins Boyd for pointing this column out to me.
Click 3: Please?
Fantasy Fiction For Christians
Hud's Blog-O-Rama
JackLewis
The National Center For Public Policy Research
Place A Bet On The Iraqi Dinar
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RightWingStuff (T-Shirts)
UCLA Survey
Ok, maybe I have an odd sense of humor, but I thought this unlikely Christmas cards from Fark was hilarious:
Hat tip to Im_Just_An_Ordinary_Panda for creating this one.
Unbeknownst to me, yesterday was Ann Coulter's 44th birthday. So, I thought a short tribute to Ann might be appropriate.
Enjoy the retro Coulter from RWN!
An Interview With Ann Coulter
RWN's Ann Coulter Interview #2
The Best Quotes From The Last Year Of Ann Coulter Columns (2005)
RWN's Top 25 Favorite Ann Coulter Quotes
"Perhaps a million illegal immigrants come into the United States each year, joining the 10 million or 20 million already here--nobody seems to know the number. Our borders are less borders than lines you cross if you want to. When you watch videotape of some of the illegal border crossings on a show like Lou Dobbs's--who is not a senator or congressman but a media star and probably the premier anti-illegal-immigration voice in the country--what you absorb is a sense of anarchy, an utter collapse of authority.It's not good. It does not bode well.
The questions I bring to the subject are not about the flow of capital, the imminence of globalism, or the implications of uncontrolled immigration on the size and cost of the welfare state. They just have to do with what it is to be human.
What does it mean that your first act on entering a country--your first act on that soil--is the breaking of that country's laws? What does it suggest to you when that country does nothing about your lawbreaking because it cannot, or chooses not to? What does that tell you? Will that make you a better future citizen, or worse? More respecting of the rule of law in your new home, or less?
If you assume or come to believe that that nation will not enforce its own laws for reasons that are essentially cynical, that have to do with the needs of big business or the needs of politicians, will that assumption or belief make you more or less likely to be moved by that country, proud of that country, eager to ally yourself with it emotionally, psychologically and spiritually?
When you don't earn something or suffer to get it, do you value it less highly? If you value it less highly, will you bother to know it, understand it, study it? Will you bother truly to become part of it? When you are allowed to join a nation for free, as it were, and without the commitment of years of above-board effort, do you experience your joining that country as a blessing or as a successful con? If the latter, what was the first lesson America taught you?
These are questions that I think are behind a lot of the more passionate opposition to illegal immigration." -- Peggy Noonan
Iran's Ahmadinejad Says Israel Should Be Moved To Europe (It's Just A Matter Of Time Until They're Bombed Either By Us Or The Israelis)
Iran President Expresses Doubt Holocaust Happened
UN Ceremony Includes Map Of ´palestine´ In Place Of Israel
U.S. Reporter Denied Entry To Syria Because He's A Jew
Iraq Group Claims To Have Killed US Hostage
Clean Bill Of Health For Thatcher
House Passes 3 Tax Cuts, Plans A 4th (Good Job -- Free WAPO Reg Req)
White House: Air Marshals Acted As Trained
GOP To Launch 'White Flag' Dem Attack
Schwarzenegger Hears Last Appeal For 'Crips' Gang Leader (Execute Tookie)
Human Mistakes Led To N.O. Levee Breaches
U.S. Life Expectancy Hits All-Time High
An End To Dual Citizenship? (Let's Hope So!)
J.R. Dunn: Zarqawi And People’s War (Outstanding)
James C. Cooper & Kathleen Madigan: Why Economic Growth Is Galloping
Charles Krauthammer: Man For A Glass Booth (Free WAPO Reg Req)
Victor Davis Hanson: Bush Turns Tables On Dems
Peggy Noonan: What Does It Mean That Your First Act On Entering A Country Is Breaking Its Laws?
Claim: Broke Michael Jackson Will Be Homeless In Less Than Two Weeks
Survey: 87 Percent Of Americans Don't Like Their Jobs
Pics Of Cute Cards Sent By A Brownie Troop To Soldier Joshua Sparling, Who Received Card Wishing He'd Die
Website Of The Day: Life On The Right
Specialist Joshua Sparling received only one greeting card this holiday season, which is more than any of the Muslim freedom fighters he killed ever will. But when he tore open the envelope and read the note inside, he was't treated to warm words of gratitude or friendly yuletide well-wishes. Instead, Sparling was sucker punched by a sick, twisted scumbag and a horrible waste of human flesh.
Dear Soldier, the crudely handwritten card began. Have a great time in the war and have a great time dieing [sic] in the war. From Miguel. P.S. DIE!
Bush obviously went to great lengths to make the letter seem as if an anti-war progressive crafted it. I wouldn’t be surprised if the chimp scrawled the message himself. Whether he did so to falsely portray the anti-war movement as a bunch of drooling moonbats, or to incite hatred against Hispanic youths, only a dyed-in-the-wool conservative moron is capable of such deplorable spelling and grammer.
The dead giveaway, however, is the postscript: P.S. Die!. Nice try, “Miguel”, but everyone knows it’s the chickenhawk neocons in the White House who are gleefully sending our tots off to die, not peace-loving progressives. Liberals have been fighting since day one to bring them home quickly and safely. Shamed, defeated, and with their tails tucked between their legs, but otherwise alive and ready to campaign against those who forced them to fight a losing war based on doctored intelligence. Writing vile hate mail to the men and women in uniform will just put a bee in their collective helmets and make them want to go on fighting, if only out of pure redneck spite. Instead, progressives must help them open their eyes and realize that they're victims of the Bush War Machine just as much as the innocent Iraqi children they were ordered to murder.
If the greeting card Sparling received had been written by an actual liberal peace activist instead of George Dumbya Bush, it would have said something like, “Dear Quran-Mishandling Babykiller: While you’ve been off slaughtering Iraqi women and children so Halliburton CEO’s can buy new Ferraris for their kids this Christmas, the unscrupulous recruiter that tricked you into joining up is banging your wife/girlfriend/partner and forcing her to carry the pregnancy to term. Give up and come home soon. Your pal, Lawrence B. Chomstein. P.S. Where’s Osama?”
That’s exactly how I worded the cards I mailed off to Wally Reed this afternoon, after blowing the last of my paycheck on crayons and postage stamps. I also included a 120-minute calling card so our genital-mocking soldiers can phone John Kerry for the truth about what barbaric monsters they’ve all become. I encourage all my readers to do the same. Together, we can show Pvt. Spooball, or whatever his name, that progressives are the ones who truly "support the troops
This satire was used with the permission of BlameBush!.
Can you believe this classless, lame poll at the Daily Kos?
Oh wait, it's not from the Daily Kos, it's from CNN and as I write this, it's currently on the front page.
Can you imagine this sort of headline for a liberal? Would we ever see, who is stupider: Barbra Streisand, George Soros, or John Kerry or the people who are heckling them?
To even have to answer this question for the liberals at CNN is a little insulting, but here's a clue: the smartest person in the room probably went home after the speech, slept well, and then got up and cashed a check for $25,000 as a speaker's fee.
Hat tip to RWN reader Mac Johnson for pointing this poll out to me.
I'm scheduled to be on the Tammy Bruce show at 1:32 PM EST to talk about the 4th Annual Warblogger Awards.
As far as I can tell, there is nowhere you can listen to the show live for free so I'll have to let you know how it went when it's over.
*** Update #1***: The 4th Annual Warblogger Awards For 2005.
*** Update #2: Tammy kept me on for about 20 minutes and we talked about the Warblogger Awards, Ann Coulter, and Tammy really pushed her listeners to RWN, which was nice of her. Doing the show was a lot of fun and I think it went well, although my Southern accent probably threw her left coast listeners for a loop.
If Tammy ever wants me again, I'm at her service.
Patrick Ruffini over at the RNC set up a blogger conference call with a couple of Republican Congressman who just got back from Iraq.
One of the Congressman, Jack Kingston, got in late on the call because he was at the White House, so the majority of the call was handled by Congressman John Kline and *** wow *** this is an impressive guy, especially if you're talking about Iraq.
Not only has he just gotten back, Kline is a 25-year veteran of the United States Marine Corps and has a son who's a Blackhawk helicopter pilot stationed near Tikrit.
Kline pulled no punches.
He essentially said the one concern he heard from troops in Iraq time and time again was that the mainstream media's slanted and negative reporting would undercut support for the troops and the mission from the American people. In fact, he went so far as to say that it would be a "betrayal" of the troops to do an immediate pull-out.
He also said -- and I'm paraphrasing this -- that the Democrats wish we didn't have an enemy and wish the Europeans were cooperative. They have wishes, not plans.
Jack Kingston then got on and noted the progress in Iraq. He said the morale of the troops is sky high, 30,000 new businesses started since the liberation, and there have been 36,000 teachers trained. Then, he also slammed the mainstream media. In fact, he even said you can't have an intelligent discussion with people about Iraq because the media coverage is so slanted.
Then we had a Q&A period where we got to ask a few questions. Here's the question I asked:
Although President Bush has refused to set a timetable, we've had multiple generals and Iraqi officials speculating that we'll have a significant number of troops leaving the country during 2006 as the Iraqi military improves. So, do you think that there is any possibility that the Democrats like Pelosi and Dean understand that the troops are coming home anyway and are just trying to steal credit for that, when it happens, by calling for an immediate withdrawal?
Jack Kingston plainly answered, "yes" and pointed out that's the sort of thing the MSM should be talking about, but that blogs are having to be the ones that point it out.
On that note, they finished the call -- which was great, by way. This is the first time the RNC has set up a conference call on Iraq, but they should do more of them.
*** Update #1 ***: Others discussing the call include:
Blogs for Bush
Tim Chapman at Townhall
Decision '08
Blogs of War
Kennedy Vs. The Machine
If the Democrats were to ever get their way and implement socialized medicine in the United States, here's the sort of nightmare situation we'd see as a consequence:
"One of the most decorated British fighter pilots of the Second World War has sold his medals, diaries and other memorabilia partly to pay for a hip replacement operation for his wife who faced at least a six-month wait on the National Health Service.Sqn Ldr Neville Duke, 83, the Royal Air Force's top-scoring ace in the Mediterranean theatre who set a world air speed record of 728 mph in 1953, put the collection up for auction rather than subject his wife Gwen to months of pain and discomfort while she waited for an operation.
The standard waiting time for hip replacements in the orthopaedic department at the Royal Bournemouth Hospital, one of the nearest facilities to the Dukes' home, is six months.
Mrs Duke, who has been in pain with her hip for eight months, was told by her chiropractor that the wait might be 15 months.
Before the sale Mrs Duke, 85, explained: "It is very likely I will need a new hip and that is something we just cannot afford. If I went on a NHS waiting list I would have to wait forever, and at my age that's no good.
'By selling Neville's things we will be able to pay for the hip. We pulled out of BUPA because they practically doubled the rate when we reached 60.
"There are other important reasons, such as security, for selling. He's very upset about it."
In the event, the auction at Dix Noonan Webb in Mayfair raised £138,000, some £8,000 of which would be required for an operation. The medals went to a private British collector.
Sqn Ldr Duke's DSO, awarded in the field after he shot down seven enemy aircraft in seven days, DFC and two bars, Air Force Cross and OBE for his achievements as a test pilot for Hawker form one of the finest collections of medals accrued by a pilot of his generation.
The lots also included the ripcord he pulled when he baled out for the second time in the war and came near to drowning in an Italian lake after almost falling out of his harness.
Sqn Ldr Duke said the decision to sell the medals was a hard one but had been forced upon him by worries about his wife's condition, security at the family home following three burglaries, the cost of insuring the collection and the desire to keep it together, the couple having no children."
So we have a war hero selling his treasured momentos because he can't bear to see his 85 year-old wife needlessly hobbled for up to 15 months to get a "free" operation from the government.
That's what socialized medicine is like, folks.
On Tuesday, after I hyped Dawn Yang as the most drop dead gorgeous woman walking planet earth at the moment, I couldn't help but notice that her name, which had dropped off of Technorati's top 10 searches, rocketed back up the list again (Did I do that?)
Combine that with the fact that one of the readers in the thread pointed out that Dawn had a bunch of public pictures I hadn't seen posted on Friendster and I thought I should do just one more Dawn Yang thread.
First, here's another head shot:
That is the kind of woman who could walk up to you and say:
"Can I use your car?"
"Sure!"
"When do I need to bring it back?"
"Uh -- bring it back? Oh -- Oh, you don't want to keep it -- just whenever you're done using it."
Ok, that's an exaggeration, but you get the idea.
Here's one more pic:
Dude, all I can say is that I would buy a copy of Michael Moore's next book if it had Dawn Yang on the cover and a few pics of her in the middle. This is a woman who should be getting paid seven figures to be on billboards and appear in commercials. If she doesn't have an agent already, she should get one...
Isn't it something that, in the coverage of Saddam's trial, his antics of telling the judge off and saying that he won't return to the trial gets equal coverage of the terrible stories that the witnesses are telling? Or, rather it's not even equal coverage. In this story from Reuters, it isn't until the sixth paragraph that the witnesses' testimony gets a cursory mention. The bulk of the article is about Saddam's behavior in the trial. Why are his rants more newsworthy than the witnesses tales of torture?
Think of the article that could have been written if the reporter had covered the witnesses more in detail and contrasted their stories of torture and death with Saddam's complaints about not getting a shower and clean underwear?
Contrast Reuters coverage with this story from the Associated Press.
The most compelling testimony came from the woman identified only as “Witness A,” who was a 16-year-old girl at the time of the crackdown. Her voice breaking with emotion, she told the court of beatings and electric shocks by the former president’s agents.“I was forced to take off my clothes and he raised my legs up and tied my hands. He continued administering electric shocks and whipping me and telling me to speak,” Witness A said of Wadah al-Sheik, an Iraqi intelligence officer who died of cancer last month while in U.S. custody.
The woman, speaking from behind a beige curtain, broke down several times as she struggled to maintain her composure.
“God is great. Oh, my Lord!” she said, moaning.
Such treatment of a young woman is gravely offensive in traditional Arab culture and Saddam was careful to avoid any insulting gesture in Tuesday’s session, which was televised in Iraq. On Monday, he angrily challenged male witnesses, insulting them and suggesting one needed psychiatric treatment.
“Witness A” strongly suggested she had been raped but did not say so outright. When Chief Judge Rizgar Mohammed Amin asked her about the “assault,” she said: “I was beaten up and tortured by electrical shocks” but repeated she had been ordered to undress.
“They made me put my legs up. There were more than one of them, as if I were their banquet, maybe more than five people, all of them officers,” she said.
I think her story is much more compelling than Saddam's complaints about his lack of hygiene. Is this the tactics that Ramsay Clark has advised him will get him lots of play on the international news to counterbalance the stories of torturing 16 year old girls. Does the media have to fall for such obvious grandstanding?
This content was used with the permission of Betsy's Page.
Fellow blogger Brian, over at Iowa Voice just lost his job.
Ouch.
I've been there and it's no fun, although unlike Brian, I was lucky enough not to get laid off until after Christmas.
So, why don't you head over to Iowa Voice, pad his stats a little bit to help with advertising, and if you're so inclined and are feeling really "Christmasy," you could even chip in a few bucks (the Paypal button is near the top, on the left side of his page).
Airline Passenger Who Made Threat Killed
A Federal Law Enforcement Officer Fired His Gun On A Passenger Jetway
'Holiday' Cards Ring Hollow For Some On Bushes' List (Free WAPO Reg Req)
Sears Puts 'Merry Christmas' Signs In Its Stores
'Silent Night' Secularized. School Changes Beloved Christmas Carol To 'Cold In The Night' With All New Lyrics
Conservatives Look At Ending Birthright Citizenship For Immigrants
Schiavo Husband Launches Political Action Committee (Will Kervorkian Launch A PAC Next?)
Angst Of The Right Over Frist
Hecklers Cause Coulter To Cut UConn Speech
Poll: Four Years After The Fall Of The Taliban, Afghans Optimistic About The Future
Bush: US Overcoming Iraq 'Mistakes'
Nuke Over U.S. Could Unleash Electromagnetic Tsunami
"Iron Lady" Thatcher Taken To UK Hospital
Edward Morrissey: Rally Round the (White) Flag, Boys!
Don Rumsfeld: Why Aren't The Media Telling The Whole Story About Iraq
Ann Coulter: DeLay Hammers Earle of Austin
Dick Morris: Hillary Can't Have It Both Ways
What Happened To Paul Mirecki?
How Do You Tackle An Invasion Of Giant Jellyfish? Try Making Sushi
10 Question Quiz: Could You Pass The US Citizenship Test?
Were The Levees Bombed In New Orleans? Ninth Ward Residents Give Voice To A Conspiracy Theory
Video: BarneyCam 2005
Video: Hip Hop Pastry
Website Of The Day: Basil's Blog
Unfortunately, the Iron Lady has taken ill and will have to spend the night in the hospital. On the upside, Margaret Thatcher should be out of the hospital in the morning.
But of course, a few of the folks at the Democratic Underground are well, unfortunately, behaving as we've come to expect them to behave in situations like this.
From a thread called CNN: Margaret Thatcher Hospitalized, we have:
Nebraska_Liberal: good. She should be put out to pasture.
stepnw1f: Big F*n Deal die already... seriously.
Gregorian: she'll never be on any of our money. Nor our stamps. No libraries will be named after her. No USS Maggie.The bad news is, she's still breathing.
edit- for my rotten grammar. Haha.
Kipling: Hope she's in agony.
Not very nice people, are they?
"An agitated passenger who claimed to have a bomb in his backpack was shot and killed by a federal air marshal Wednesday after he bolted frantically from a jetliner that was about to take off, officials said. No bomb was found.
The man, identified as Rigoberto Alpizar, a 44-year-old U.S. citizen, was gunned down on a jetway just before the American Airlines plane was about to leave for Orlando, near his home in Maitland.It was the first time since the Sept. 11 attacks that an air marshal had shot at anyone, Homeland Security Department spokesman Brian Doyle said.
According to a witness, the man frantically ran down the aisle of the Boeing 757, flailing his arms, while his wife tried to explain that he was mentally ill and had not taken his medication.
The passenger indicated there was a bomb in his bag and was confronted by air marshals but ran off the aircraft, Doyle said. The marshals went after him and ordered him to get down on the ground, but he did not comply and was shot when he apparently reached into the bag, Doyle said.
...Mary Gardner, a passenger aboard the Orlando-bound flight, told WTVJ-TV in Miami that the man ran down the aisle from the rear of the plane. "He was frantic, his arms flailing in the air," she said. She said a woman followed, shouting, "My husband! My husband!"
Gardner said she heard the woman say her husband was bipolar — a mental illness also known as manic-depression — and had not had his medication."
Assuming everything in this initial report is accurate, it sounds like a tragic, but righteous shooting by the air marshal.
In fact, since we're talking about a man with a backpack, claiming to have a bomb, on a plane full of passengers, the Air Marshals would have been completely justified in killing him before he even had time to get off the plane. But, perhaps they figured he was moving away from the plane and it was better to get him away from the passengers, rather than risk an accidental detonation near those civilians.
As far as his wife saying he was bipolar goes, you simply can't take her word for it. For all the air marshals knew, she could be Chechen Black Widow trying to trick the marshals into getting closer to him or trying to distract them while he got the bomb ready.
It's a terrible thing for an innocent man to be gunned down like that in front of his wife, but unfortunately, mentally ill or not, he brought it on himself. You run around an airplane claiming to have a bomb in front of armed air marshals, you're just asking to get killed as surely as if you jumped in front of an oncoming train.
My sincere condolences go out to the Alpizar family, but it sounds like the air marshal who killed him did the right thing.
From last to first...
(Currently Reading) Dean Koontz: Dark Rivers of the Heart
30) Robert Leckie: Story of World War I (B+: I bought this one sight unseen so I didn't realize it was for young adults and therefore shorter than the normal Leckie book. Still, it was an excellent overview of WW1. Probably the equivalent of reading one of those World War 1 for dummies books, except better writen)
29) Peter Schweizer: Do As I Say (Not As I Do): Profiles in Liberal Hypocrisy (A: Lots of entertaining dirt on the hypocritical left. Full review here.)
28) Dean Koontz: Frankenstein, Book One: Prodigal Son (B: This was obviously meant to be the first part of a trilogy or a series which in part, alleviated my dismay at the fact that there wasn't all that much Frankenstein in this book about Frankenstein.)
27) Tammy Bruce: The New American Revolution: Using the Power of the Individual to Save Our Nation from Extremists (B: A good read. Bruce reminds me of David Horowitz in some places. No one loathes the left like a convert to the right who has the scales ripped from his/her eyes.)
26) Victor Davis Hanson: Wars of the Ancient Greeks (D: This is by far the worst thing I've ever read by Hanson, perhaps because it was part of a Smithsonian series and they put too many restrictions on him.)
25) Jenna Jameson: How to Make Love Like a Porn Star: A Cautionary Tale (B: I thought reading a book by the world's most famous porn star would be a nice change of pace -- and it was, although it got a little dull in the middle when she killed time by talking about her childhood. Also, while -- as you'd expect -- this is a very racy book, it really is a cautionary tale.)
24) Noam Chomsky: Imperial Ambitions: Conversations on the Post-9/11 World (F: Don't waste your time with this garbage. Full review here.)
23) Katherine DeBrecht: Help! Mom! There Are Liberals Under My Bed! (A for kids: I had a media copy of this one sent to me since it got so much attention. I thought it was an excellent children's book with a great message and some very funny illustrations.)
22) Tommy Franks: American Soldier (C: Lots of interesting tidbits -- for example, the guys at the Pentagon think Douglas Feith is a clown -- but very, very dry in some places.)
21) Robert Leckie: Delivered from Evil: The Saga of World War II (A: Typical Leckie. Very long with lots of detail, but so well written it keeps you interested.)
20) Ric Flair: To Be the Man (A+: The best wrestling book ever, even better than Mick Foley's, "Have a Nice Day!.")
19) Roger Ailes: You Are the Message (A: This is a reread, but it's always good to brush up on your communications skills)
18) Ann Coulter: High Crimes and Misdemeanors: The Case Against Bill Clinton (B: Lot of good info on the scandals in the Clinton administration, but it's a little dry and incessant lobbying for impeachment feels a bit dated at this point)
17) Michelle Malkin: Unhinged: Exposing Liberals Gone Wild (A-: I read this book when it was months away from being published and I thought Michelle did a great job of cataloguing how loony the left has gotten.)
16) Robert Leckie: The World Turned Upside Down the Story of the American Revolution (A: You'll learn more about the American Revolution by reading Leckie than any history class you'll ever take)
15) John Douglas & Mark Olshaker: The Anatomy of Motive: The FBI's Legendary Mindhunter Explores the Key to Understanding and Catching Violent Criminals (B: It's a good read and if you enjoyed other books by Douglas or on profiling, you'll probably like this one, too)
14) Brian Anderson: Southpark Republicans (B: This is a good intro to the blogosphere, Southpark Republicans, and the "new face of conservatism.")
13) Steven Pressfield: The Virtues Of War (A-: Not as good a piece of historical fiction as, "Gates of Fire," but what is? This was still a great read)
12) Milton & Rose Friedman: Free To Choose (B+: Good book, but I still think Sowell is better at breaking down economics issues)
11) Robert Leckie: Conflict: The History of the Korean War, 1950-53 (A: Only VDH is better at making history come alive than Leckie)
10) Mark Dubbin: Shadow Patriot (Unranked: Advertiser)
9) Thomas Sowell: Applied Economics: Thinking Beyond Stage One (B: Good stuff, but I liked Basic Economics better)
8) Ann Coulter: How to Talk to a Liberal (If You Must): The World According to Ann Coulter (B-: If you've regularly read Ann's columns for the last few years. A- if you haven't)
7) Paul Cartledge: The Spartans: The World of the Warrior-Heroes of Ancient Greece, from Utopia to Crisis and Collapse (C: Good information, but very dry reading and poorly organized)
6) Steven Pressfield: Gates of Fire: An Epic Novel of the Battle of Thermopylae (A+: Incredible read, loved it, loved it, loved it)
5) Ed Rollins: Bare Knuckles and Back Rooms : My Life in American Politics (B: Great for political junkies)
4) Dick Morris: Power Plays: Win or Lose -- How History's Great Political Leaders Play the Game (A-: Great for political junkies)
3) P.J. O'Rourke: Peace Kills: America's Fun New Imperialism (B-: Readable, but not's P.J.'s best work)
2) Joe Scarborough: Rome Wasn't Burnt in a Day : The Real Deal on How Politicians, Bureaucrats, and Other Washington Barbarians are Bankrupting America (A-: The real deal on how Congress wastes your money)
1) Scott Keith: Wrestling's One Ring Circus: The Death of the World Wrestling Federation (A for wrestling fans)
"The day after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, President Roosevelt addressed a joint session of Congress. "Yesterday, December 7, 1941 -- a date that will live in infamy," he began, and concluded by asking Congress to declare war on Japan. Congress did, with but a single disssenting vote....The war lords of Japan might have been surprised to witness the reaction ot Pearl Harbor among the effete, luxury-loving Americans. True, there was some fleeting panic and hysteria among a few jittery residents of the West Coast, and there were faint hearts as far east as St. Louis who expected momentarily to see Japanese battleships sailing up the Mississippi River. But on the whole, the American people were outraged as never before. Many Congressmen, led by Lyndon B. Johnson of Texas, volunteered for active duty, asking only for a day's respite to cast their votes for war, while across the land recruiting stations were overwhelmed by a flood of patriotic young men ready to enlist....Their country had been treacherously attacked, and they were angry. They spoke of the Japanese in terms that were neither complimentary or printable.
...Never before had Americans been so united. Isolationists and interventionists alike burned with anger at Japan's treacherous sneak punch...In truth, Japan could have done nothing worse. With one blow it had aroused and united a nation that had been dedicated to passivity and torn by dissension.
...For Japan, retribution was to be complete. The nation had arrayed against it an immensely superior coalition of powers. It had foolishly believed that the United States would allow it to fight a limited war. It had misjudged the American character, and for the sake of an initial advantage had given that character greater strength and purpose. "One can search military history in vain," wrote the naval historian Samuel Eliot Morison, "for an operation more fatal to the aggressor." -- Robert Leckie's Delivered from Evil: The Saga of World War II."
*** Update #1 ***: The front page of two newspapers from Dec 7 & Dec 8, 1941.
Democrat National Committee (DNC) Chairman Howard Dean will join the USO Christmas tour this month, bringing holiday cheer to troops in Iraq with an inspiring musical message of hope entitled “We’ll Retreat ‘fore Christmas.”
“Like all Democrats, I support our troops,” said Mr. Dean, who yesterday told WOAI radio in San Antonio, Texas, that Iraq is another Vietnam and that President George Bush lied to Congress. “I look forward to hearing the cheers of the troops as I sing of the futility of their mission.”
Mr. Dean treated reporters to a few verses of the title song from his show, sung to the tune of “I’ll Be Home for Christmas,” with the following lyrics:
We’ll retreat ‘fore Christmas
far from Ramadi
Bombs will blow, but we’ll just go
and leave it to Zarqawi
Christmas eve will find you
in the land o’ the free
We’ll retreat ‘fore Christmas
glad we’re not I-ra-qi
This content was used with the permission of Scrappleface.
Gallup's annual Ethics Poll is out and there are no real surprises here. The annual poll asks Americans to rate, on a scale of one to five, the honesty and ethical standards of those in 21 professions. Here are this year's results. The number after the profession indicates the percentage of people polled who rate it high or very high in maintaining ethical standards.
Nurses 82
Druggists/Pharmacists 67
Medical doctors 65
High school teachers 64
Policemen 61
Clergy 54
Funeral directors 44
Bankers 41
Accountants 39
Journalists 28
Real estate agents 20
Building contractors 20
Lawyers 18
Labor union leaders 16
Senators 16
Business executives 16
Stockbrokers 16
Congressmen 14
Advertising practitioners 11
Car salesmen 8
Telemarketers 7
I am curious as to why Lawyers, Labor Union Leaders, Business Executives and Stockbrokers rate higher or as high as the Senators and Congressmen to whom they pay bribes. You would think that the bribe takers would rate several percentage points below those who actually pay the bribes.
...A special note of congratulations to police officers everywhere (except New Orleans) for their well deserved high ranking (in spite of New Orleans). It is tough to try to teach my kids that, when in Mexico, a police officer is the last person you call for help, but in the United States a police officer is the first one you look to.
This content was used with the permission of Mark in Mexico.
Kerry: 'U.S. Soldiers Terrorize Kids'
Bush Slams Howard Dean's Comments On Iraq
Police Baffled by Booby-Trapped Pens (Free LA Times Reg Req)
Valerie Plame Is Set to Leave the CIA (Free LA Times Reg Req)
Angry Anti-War Activists To Hound Hillary Clinton
Former Florida Professor Acquitted Of Terrorism, Jury Deadlocked On Other Charges. Prosecutors To Decide Whether To Retry
A Fellow Torture Victim Splits With Sen. Mccain On The "Torture" Amendment
Two Suicide Bombers Struck Baghdad's Police Academy Tuesday, Killing At Least 43 People And Wounding 73 More
Plane Plows Into Tehran Building
Saddam Tells Judge: 'Go to Hell'
Kyoto Protocol Declared 'Dead' At UN Climate Conference
Wesley Pruden: Out Of The Bunker And Into The Fray
Mark Steyn: What Planet Are The Eco-Cultists On?
Bruce Bartlett: Tax Cuts For The Wealthy: Appearances V. Reality
Rich Lowry: Fear And Loathing Wal-Mart
Walter Williams: Basic Economics
Michelle Malkin: Hillary Vs. Moonbats
Washington Post Pattern: Good Economic News On D-1, Bad Economic News On A-1
Vigilantes Take Photos Of Hog-Tied Suspect
Website Of The Day: AmbivaBlog
So, a few days ago, I'm looking at the top searches on Technorati and I see the name Dawn Yang. I have no idea who Dawn Yang is, but I decide to check it out on a lark and this is Dawn Yang...
That is the most unearthly beautiful woman I have ever seen. She is like a 10 on a 10 scale, which means, for example, that a 9.4 would be 94% as hot as Dawn Yang.
Tragically, Dawn Yang has recently quit blogging (which means no more new pics) over some sort of nasty rumors that she had plastic surgery to look that perfect. I have no idea if she had plastic surgery or not, but if plastic surgery could make people look that good, then we should start giving out government grants to go under the knife.
Now you're probably wondering: "Hawkins, what does this have to do with conservatism?" Absolutely nothing. But, it's a slow night and wow, she just blows me away...
*** Update #1 ***: Dawn Yang pics part #2:
There is nothing that fills a liberal media with quite as much glee as finding out that a prominent conservative has done something hypocritical. But, the media has never seemed to have much of an interest in investigating the hypocrisy of liberals.
Enter Peter Schweizer's new book, Do As I Say (Not As I Do): Profiles in Liberal Hypocrisy.
Schweizer did a little research into the lives of Noam Chomsky, Michael Moore, Al Franken, Ted Kennedy, Hillary Clinton, Ralph Nader, Nancy Pelosi, George Soros, Barbra Streisand, Gloria Steinem, and Cornel West and -- what do you know -- it seems that none of them are living up to their liberal principles they espouse in public.
For example, it's fascinating to note that some of the same liberals who agitate for Affirmative Action and constantly call Republicans racists live in lily white neighborhoods and don't hire black Americans for prominent positions on their films and projects. It's also worth noting that some libs who promote unions non-stop have also blocked unionization in their own companies.
Furthermore, Schweizer's book brings to light an interesting question: is liberal hypocrisy different than conservative hypocrisy? In many cases, the answer to that question is, "yes."
After all hypocritical conservatives usually believe in setting high standards and then hurt themselves and their families when they fall short of their own ideals. On the other hand, liberals often improve the quality of their lives and enrich themselves by living at odds with left-wing philosophy that they espouse to the world. That might seem to be an indicator that conservative ideals are superior to those that liberals hold dear.
In any case, the book was a great read, gets a big thumbs up, and here's a little overview of the book, from the conclusion, to give you an idea of what it's like:
Al Franken, Michael Moore, and Barbra Streisand are not racists because they hire few (or no) blacks. They are simply hiring the most qualified individuals available at that particular time for the job. Nancy Pelosi doesn't despise working people just because she eschews labor unions in the business that her family owns. She is simply trying to run those businesses efficiently and effectively. Ted Kennedy doesn't care less about the environment because he's in the oil business. He sees a business opportunity that is profitable and takes advantage of it. Hillary Clinton, Kennedy, Soros, Streisand, and the others are not greedy and selfish simply because they try to avoid paying more in taxes. They (or in the Kennedys' case, their forebears) worked hard for their wealth and are trying to preserve it for their children. Gloria Steinem is not anti-woman just because she got married. She fell in love and found someone she wanted to spend the rest of her life with. All these individuals are simply making private decisions that are in their own best interests.The real question is not why they live the way they do, but why they continue to espouse ideas that so badly contradict their behavior. Why can't they stop affixing sinister labels -- racist, greedy, polluter -- to people who are doing the exact same thing they are, only without the hypocrisy?
...Experience has taught these individuals that their ideas just don't work. When it comes to the fundamentals -- the things that matter the most in their lives -- they suddenly forget about affirmative action, environmentalism, progressive taxation, and antiglobalist hostility. They really don't respect their own ideas and have privately concluded, whether they admit it to themselves or not, that liberalism as practiced today does not offer them a road map to happiness. Soak the rich, but don't soak me. Protect the environment, but let me drive my hummer and water my lawn. Workers of the world, unite! But running a union shop is just too complicated and difficult. Hire more blacks to fight racism, but let me hire my own people based on ability, not race. Romance and marriage are a form of patriarchal oppression, but I still want wine and roses and a powerful man to sweep me off my feet.
The simply fact is that those in the vanguard of the liberal-left have found their own ideas to be ultimately self-defeating, self-destructive, and unworkable.
Rating: A: recommended reading
My DSL has gone completely crackers. The only lights on are the Power and USB lights -- despite the fact that I'm using an Ethernet connection. Of course, tech support has no clue how to fix it and quite frankly, dial up is so painfully slow that it makes me want to hit myself in the head with a hammer until I pass out.
First thing tomorrow morning, I'm headed out to my ISP's local office to try to talk them into giving me a replacement modem without having to wait for "2nd level tech support" to call me first. Maybe they only make calls after they finish playing World of Warcraft, maybe there's just like 2 of them who are supposed to help 200 customers a day, who knows, but take it from a former tech support worker; you don't want to spend a lot of time sitting by the computer, loading a page every 30 seconds, waiting for 2nd level tech support.
What this means for you, the readers of RWN, is that there will probably be no news today and there will be no updates until later this morning. I know, I know, too slow, especially since I have all these new readers coming in from the Warblogger Awards. Very disappointing!
Well anyway, keep your chin up because I'll be back to rhetorically put the boots to the left all afternoon long.
C'ya a little later!
*** Update #1 ***: So, I talk to my ISP and they refuse to just give me a modem. Instead, they insist on having their repair people call me again. Then, after they're unable to fix the problem, they'll come out and "install" the modem. The reason I put quotation marks around the word install is because all you have to do is plug three cords into the modem. You could teach a chimp to do that, but still, we have to have one of their employees come out and do it. Undoubtedly, it's just so they can charge me for putting in the modem...and what do you think the chances are that they'll try to put this off until tomorrow?
It's not happening. If I have to talk to every person in the company, all the way up to the CEO, I'll have this taken care of today.
In the interim, until I'm downloading pages with DSL instead of d...o...w...n...l...o...a...d...i...n...g them with dial up, I'll try to update, but this is cramping my style...
*** Update #2 ***: Guess who's back, back, back, Hawkins is back, back, back...
After 3 calls to 2nd level tech support and not getting a call back, I went back to my ISP's local office, talked to the same person I talked to this morning, and told her, nicely, that I had come there to get a modem whether 2nd level support was fine with it or not.
I was also totally prepared to unload the big spiel on her if I had to. Ya know:
"Well, if you can't help me, I'll need to speak to your manager and if your manager can't help me, then I'll need to speak to his manager."
Then, right as she's walking back to get the manager or getting ready to call him, you say:
"Tell him I am very angry and displeased with your service."
You say all this in a calm voice because there's no point in beating up on the peons. Not only are they probably not being allowed to help you, but they're used to having people yell at them. If you're going to get angry, you get angry with the manager because he got where he is by pleasing the customer, which means his first instinct is to give in. Plus, since he's not doing face to face meetings with the customers all day, he's more affected by anger.
Trust me, that's how it works. When I did tech support, you could scream at me, curse me out, call me an idiot, I just got more pleasant because I'd heard it all before. Here's how it usually worked
Customer: "You $%$#$#%^$#%#$% $%$%$#%#$ idiot. I've been down all day!"
Hawkins: "Wow, I know it's frustrating to have your internet service down and it's ridiculous that it has been down all day. Let me see if I can help you get it back up!"
Customer: "I don't think you can help me. It's your stupid service."
Hawkins: "Well, it could be. But, I can probably go over everything with you in 5-10 minutes and that way we can know for sure if it's the service, the modem, or something else. Boy, I'd sure love to try to help you out and I've been doing this for a couple of years so I do know what I'm doing."
Customer: Well, OK, Let's try it.
Hawkins: "Well your problem is fixed" or "Gosh, it looks like the problem is on our end, so I'll report that to second level tech support immediately."
Customer: (Either way) Thanks for helping me out. You're really nice and I know this isn't your fault.
Hawkins: You're welcome! I'm happy to help you!
Customer: (Hangs up)
Hawkins: (To other tech in the vicinity). Oh, you should have heard me work this lady. She was all cursing and angry when she called but I had her eating out of my hand by the time I was done. All of you, immediately bow to the God of tech support!
Ah, those were fun times...well, not really.
Anyway, the tech rep caved, gave me a new modem, I took it home and naturally, after I put the password in the modem, bingo, bango, bongo -- it was money!
Unfortunately, I wasted all day waiting around for these clowns to call (I couldn't even use dial-up because that would tie-up the line), so we're only going to get a half day's worth of updates in, but at least I'm back in the game.
Just look at Howard Dean, the chairman of the DNC, waving the white flag to Al-Qaeda and you tell me the Democrats can be trusted to defend America (Yeah, sure):
"Saying the "idea that we're going to win the war in Iraq is an idea which is just plain wrong," Democratic National Chairman Howard Dean predicted today that the Democratic Party will come together on a proposal to withdraw National Guard and Reserve troops immediately, and all US forces within two years.Dean made his comments in an interview on WOAI Radio in San Antonio.
"I've seen this before in my life. This is the same situation we had in Vietnam. Everybody then kept saying, 'just another year, just stay the course, we'll have a victory.' Well, we didn't have a victory, and this policy cost the lives of an additional 25,000 troops because we were too stubborn to recognize what was happening."
Dean says the Democrat position on the war is 'coalescing,' and is likely to include several proposals.
"I think we need a strategic redeployment over a period of two years," Dean said. "Bring the 80,000 National Guard and Reserve troops home immediately. They don't belong in a conflict like this anyway. We ought to have a redeployment to Afghanistan of 20,000 troops, we don't have enough troops to do the job there and its a place where we are welcome. And we need a force in the Middle East, not in Iraq but in a friendly neighboring country to fight (terrorist leader Musab) Zarqawi, who came to Iraq after this invasion. We've got to get the target off the backs of American troops.
Dean didn't specify which country the US forces would deploy to, but he said he would like to see the entire process completed within two years. He said the Democrat proposal is not a 'withdrawal,' but rather a 'strategic redeployment' of U.S. forces."
So Howard Dean thinks a few thousand terrorists are just so unstoppable that we need to cut, run, and surrender? That means, in Howard Dean's view that...
* Osama Bin Laden was right to think America was a paper tiger.
* All the generals who've said American troops who will be coming home next year because the Iraqis will be ready to start taking over significant parts of their own security next year are wrong.
* Democracy in Iraq can't last.
* All the sacrifices our soldiers have made in Iraq, and are still making, have been for nothing.
Also, if the Democrats think that the "idea that we're going to win the war in Iraq is an idea which is just plain wrong," then why do they want to take two years to pull out of Iraq? If it's futile, if it's hopeless, why didn't all the Democrats in the House vote to immediately withdraw when they had a chance? What's the point of risking our soldiers' lives for 2 years for what the Democrats believe is a lost cause?
Moreover, what's the point of sending more troops to Afghanistan if you cut and run in Iraq? Setting aside the fact that we don't need any more troops in Afghanistan, is the idea supposed to be that we're going to give in to Al-Qaeda in Iraq so we can fight harder against them in Afghanistan? If we don't have the guts to fight them in Iraq, what makes Howard Dean think the terrorists wouldn't just relocate there? Why wouldn't they go where the "Great Satan" was too cowardly to follow?
This just goes to show that basically we have one Party, the Republicans, that believes in defending in America and another Party that believes in appeasement, giving up, and putting politics ahead of the security of the American people.
In order to recognize the excellent work some of our fellow bloggers have been doing, RWN has put together the "4th Annual Warblogger Awards". More than 225 bloggers were invited to vote for their favorite blog in 15 different categories...
1) The Funniest Blog
2) Best Designed Blog
3) Most Missed (The best blog that's out of business now)
4) Best Original Reporting By A Blog
5) Best Blog Round-Up Site (Best website/blog to go to see the top/most interesting stories in the blogosphere for the day)
6) Favorite Columnist Who's Not A Blogger
7) Least Liked Columnist Who's Not A Blogger
8) Favorite Political Website That's Not A Blog
9) Favorite Left-Of-Center Blogger
10) Most Annoying Left-Of-Center Blogger
11) Most Annoying Right-Of-Center Blogger
12) Most Overrated Blog
13) Best Linker
14) The Best Original Content For A Blog
15) The Best Blog Overall
To see all the winners, click here.
"I have always believed that good policy is good politics for Republicans. Reagan won against an incumbent president in 1980, declaring in his first inaugural address that "government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem." I beat an incumbent Democrat in 1984, against the dire predications of my party's political experts, on an aggressive agenda of smaller government and Social Security reform based on large personal retirement accounts. In 1994, Republicans took control of the House for the first time in 40 years, running on the Contract with America, a clearly articulated public policy agenda based on smaller, smarter government.Conversely, when we let politics define our agenda, we get in trouble. The highway bill is one example in which the criterion of choice was politics. An even better example was 2003's expansion of Medicare to cover prescription drugs. This was an explicitly political effort to take health care "off the table" for the 2004 elections. I said at that time that the proposed legislation was "a case where bad politics has produced a bad policy proposal." I predicted that the deal was "bad news for senior citizens and possibly even worse political news for the Republican Party." Here is another one of Armey's Axioms: You can't get your finger on the problem if you've got it in the wind.
Bad policy is bad politics. The 2003 expansion of Medicare enacted by Republicans has dramatically increased the financial pressures on an already broken program, and it has become a political albatross around the necks of Republicans who voted for it.
...Notice that the brightest liberal politicians, like Hillary Clinton, always move toward our policy ground as they prepare to run for national office. Why would Republicans want to act like them when they act like us in order to win?" -- Dick Armey
The old right-wing canard about having to pick up a Baghdad paper to read something positive about the war has proved as bogus and contrived as the reasons for invading Iraq in the first place.
Suspicious over reports of actual progress in Iraq, the Los Angeles Times launched an investigation and was shocked to discover that the Pentagon had been paying the Iraqi media to publish articles that “while factually correct, presented a positive view of the conditions in Iraq”. As they descended further down the rabbit hole, the Times learned that many of the planted reports were penned by U.S. troops stationed in Iraq, most of whom don’t even have journalism degrees and therefore cannot accurately describe the pointless futility of an illegal and immoral war for oil. According to the Times, the stories would often “praise the efforts of U.S. and Iraqi troops, denounce terrorism and promote the country's reconstruction efforts”, a total contradiction what the Los Angeles Times has been printing for over two years.
I guess this will put to rest the radical right’s constant attacks on the integrity of the mainstream press. Say what you will about the New York Times, but you certainly couldn’t pay the Old Gray Lady to write anything positive about the troops.
This satire was used with the permission of BlameBush!
Gosh, it's annoying when Congressmen seek the limelight by sticking their noses in where it doesn't belong. Now, they're off investigating the Bowl Championship Series.
“College football is not just an exhilarating sport, but a billion-dollar business that Congress cannot ignore,” said committee Chairman Joe Barton, a Texas Republican. Barton’s panel is separate from the House Government Reform panel that tackled steroids in baseball“Too often college football ends in sniping and controversy, rather than winners and losers,” Barton said. “The current system of determining who’s No. 1 appears deeply flawed.”
Barton said he does not have legislation in mind to force a change, but said he hopes congressional hearings will spur discussion and improvements. It won’t be the first time Congress has looked at the BCS. In 2003, the Senate probed whether the system was unfairly tilted against smaller schools.
Great, now Congressmen think that their role is to "spur discussion." I guess that is because, without Congress, no one would be talking about college football and the BCS.
Link via Lorie Byrd. Content used with the permission of Betsy's Page.
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IAEA Chairman Muhammad ElBaradei On Monday Confirmed Israel's Assessment That Iran Is Only A Few Months Away From Creating An Atomic Bomb. (Free Jerusalem Post Reg Req)
Israeli Aircraft Fire On Gaza Rocket Lab
US In New Offensive In Iraq
Former Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi Says A Group Tried To Kill Him During A Visit To An Important Shia Shrine In The Central City Of Najaf
Plot to Rocket Saddam Trial Uncovered
A U.S. Army Study Warns Against Announcing A Timetable For The Withdrawal Of American Troops From Iraq
Former House Majority Leader Tom Delay Told A Group Of Soldiers Saturday Night That Withdrawing Troops From Iraq Now Would Be "A Death Warrant For Americans In Future Terrorist Attacks."
44 Acres of Coastline Collapse Into The Ocean In Hawaii
GOP Congress Earmarks $4 Million for Leftist Pro-Illegal Alien Group
Arkansas Man Scales White House Fence
Georgia's Republican Gov. Sonny Perdue Changes Holiday Tree To Christmas Tree
Documents Show Katrina's Political Storm
Michael Barone: Getting Specific On Iraq
Mark Steyn: Dems Determined To Ignore Progress In Iraq
Dick Armey: Why Are Republican Leaders Governing Like Democrats?
Donald Myers: Recall WWII Sacrifice And Consider 'What If?'
Jack Kelly: The Relentless Media Emphasis On The Negative In Iraq Obscures The Truth
Calling The Bowl Championship Series "Deeply Flawed," The Chairman Of A Congressional Committee Has Called A Hearing On The Controversial System Used To Determine College Football's National Champion. (Argggghhh!)
Game: Missile Strike
Humor: The Progressivist Left Reveals Its Official Plan For The War On Terror
Website Of The Day: Milblogging
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