And just to rub it in...
Worst Yankees Losses
Aug. 31, 2004: Cleveland 22, Yankees 0
July 29, 1928: Cleveland 24, Yankees 6
June 17, 1925: Detroit 19, Yankees 1
July 9, 1987: Toronto 20, Yankees 3
This is what we're up against...
UPDATE:
UPDATE:
"No New Yorker would dare say "you're very nice for a Jew," or "you're very nice for a black person" or "you're very nice for a Catholic." But say it about Republicans, and it's okay."
UPDATE:
Jeff Goldstein gets pissed...
From Charles at LGF:
Top Individual Contributors to 527 Committees:
MoveOn.org: 2004 Election Cycle.
527 Activity:
Total Receipts: $9,086,102
Total Expenditures: $17,435,782
Swift Boat Veterans for Truth: 2004 Election Cycle.
527 Activity:
Total Receipts: $158,750
Total Expenditures: $60,403
hmmm.............
Little Green Footballs has the active links for the numbers so go on over and rock this link.
As the runners went through the streets of Athens, to the cheers of flag-waving onlookers, the intruder came from the runner's left and pushed him to the side, all the way to the curb and into the crowd. It appeard that spectators freed Lima before police arrived and took the intruder into custody.Weeeiiirrrd city, man.........The intruder had a piece of paper attached to his back bearing the message: "The Grand Prix Priest Israel Fulfillment of Prophecy Says the Bible." (more...)
Now they're dictating which laws are acceptable now...
"An Iraqi militant group has kidnapped two French journalists and given the French government 48 hours to end its ban on Muslim headscarves in school, Arabic television station Al Jazeera said Saturday." (more...)
First it's demanding troop withdrawals, now it's amending laws... What's next?
Update: Sir George just covers this so much better than I could in my delusionally stupidly tired state.
California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger will veto legislation that would allow nearly 2 million illegal immigrants who pass criminal background checks to obtain driver's licenses, a spokeswoman said on Saturday.As he should...
She added the governor also wanted licenses for illegal immigrants to be distinguishable from standard driver's licenses, a provision not included in the legislation passed by state lawmakers.How could that NOT have been considered during the drafting stage?
Minority groups have argued that allowing illegal immigrants, many of whom are Hispanics, to obtain driver's licenses could make the state's roads safer because license holders would need to pass a driver's test and buy car insurance.The only vehicles they need to be riding should be large school buses en route to Mexico. (Hey, at least buses have seats, I could have suggested they ride in the back of a tractor-trailer.)
Critics have said allowing illegal immigrants to obtain driver's licenses would reward those who break immigration laws.We already allow them access to free medical care in our hospitals, why not let them have free driver's licenses too?
Source: Reuters
"To me, that's treason," Cooper said. "I call it treason against rock and roll, because rock is the antithesis of politics. Rock should never be in bed with politics".Rock on, man.Cooper continued, "If you're listening to a rock star in order to get your information on who to vote for, you're a bigger moron than they are. Why are we rock stars? Because we're morons. We sleep all day, we play music at night and very rarely do we sit around reading the Washington Journal."
Concluded Cooper, "Besides, when I read the list of people who are supporting Kerry, if I wasn't already a Bush supporter, I would have immediately switched. Linda Ronstadt? Don Henley? Geez, that's a good reason right there to vote for Bush."
"'Anybody that grew up in the U.S. and is able to be a basketball player in the NBA, you understand what that country has done for you and your family,' Iverson said. 'It gave you an opportunity to support your family and be recognized as a household name. I mean, it's just an honor to be able to do something like that, and I would advise anybody that's selected to a team like this to take that honor and cherish it.'"
Is A.I. finally showing signs of maturity?
"...Suggest exchange with Beijing for aerospace technology"
Hmm...
Bret Stephens of the Jerusalem Post wrote this interesting thought piece...
Pretty soon, the Anyone But Bush crowd is going to have to decide: Is the American president an Israeli shill or is he a Saudi shill? Does he do the bidding of the insidious pro-Israel neocons or of the insidious pro-Arab oil lobby?
The Brooklyn Bridge march, organized by the abortion rights group Planned Parenthood, attracted thousands of people on a hot, humid day. They crossed the bridge in a line 10 people wide and about a half-mile long.Uhhh.........'cause abstinence is bad, mmmmmkaaaay??"I demand and cherish that right," said Sara Breman, 22, a student from Austin, Texas. "Under Bush that right is being threatened through their way of teaching sexual education by teaching abstinence."
UPDATE:
From World Net Daily...
The (Elliot) Institute reports: "Studies within the first few weeks after the abortion have found that between 40 and 60 percent of women questioned report negative reactions. Within 8 weeks after their abortions, 55 percent expressed guilt, 44 percent complained of nervous disorders, 36 percent had experienced sleep disturbances, 31 percent had regrets about their decision, and 11 percent had been prescribed psychotropic medicine by their family doctor."Among the many physical consequences of an abortion, the Elliot Institute has documented "minor infections, bleeding, fevers, chronic abdominal pain, gastro-intestinal disturbances and vomiting." Also listed are "excessive bleeding, embolism, ripping or perforation of the uterus, anesthesia complications, convulsions, hemorrhage, cervical injury and endotoxic shock." How interesting that these terms will not be in circulation at the "March for Women's Lives."
Instead, curious women will hear the results of studies as old as 1989, like this one from PlannedParenthood.com: "Research studies indicate that emotional responses to legally induced abortion are largely positive." Other studies date back to 1988, 1985 and 1984. It is not at all surprising that this organization needs to rely on vague, 20-year-old evidence as filler for their "Fact Sheet." The more facts about abortion that come out, the harder it gets to defend abortion and find favorable facts about it.
Ecosystem
2004-08-27 Rank: 487 Link: 179
2004-08-28 Rank: 1355 Links: 81
I think I figured out why though...for the past several days my blog has appeared on the short blogg roll for Blogs for Bush and I think it cycles with new members and I just hit the end of the cycle so back to being a damned kangaroo for me!
#@$%@%
hehe
My favorite New Zealanders act like a buncha playground bullies and steal John Kerry's lunch money.
"Yes."
"It's important for me to emphasize that I never said that the Jews are the root of evil. I said they are at the root of evil."
-Mikis Theodorakis
Er...right...they aren't at the base, but kinda hovering like, near the root?
Years later, before I became a communist, I was a member of a fascist youth movement. [...] We walked up and down the streets in uniform and heiled all the time. It was a bit like the Hitler Youth but comical.This guy is a piece of work.
The Seattle Post-Intelligencer wrote a follow-up piece based on the Haaretz article...
"He said he doesn't hate Jews, but rather Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's policies regarding the Palestinians, which he described as Nazi-like. Sharon - and other Jews in influential positions - persuaded U.S. President George W. Bush to go to war against Iraq, he added."I just love when Israelis are compared to Nazis. The analogy just makes so much sense.
"The composer - who wrote the Palestinian national anthem - also said there is no anti-Semitism in Europe, despite a recent wave of anti-Jewish attacks."First of all, the Palestinian national what?
And nah, there's no Zeropean anti-Semitism in Europe...
This was by far my favorite part:
"He called Jewish claims of anti-Semitism a 'masochistic reaction' by a people who like to be 'the victim.'"...
Pentagon officials and the FBI are investigating the likely presence of an Israeli agent who is relaying sensitive information to two representatives of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), a powerful pro-Israel lobby organization.
Surveillance operations have revealed efforts to pass information from the mole to the AIPAC representatives and then to Israel. Some of the sensitive materials include an early draft of a Presidential policy directive on the U.S. position towards Iran. CBS News broke the story.
This may be significant for more than obvious reasons since some of the sensitive information obtained involved material regarding US policy toward Iran. Israel is allegedly planning covert operations to strike Iran's nuclear capabilities if need be, regardless of American support. The Israelis may have sought the information acquired by their mole in the Pentagon for this very operation.
According to Reuters,
"The network (CBS) described the spy as a 'trusted analyst' assigned to a unit within the defense department tasked with helping develop the Pentagon's Iraq policy. It said the analyst had ties to top Pentagon officials Paul Wolfowitz and Douglas Feith, both regarded as leading architects of the war on Iraq. Asked about the CBS report, a spokesman for the Israeli embassy told reporters: 'We categorically deny these allegations. They are completely false and outrageous.'"This is not the first time such an incident has occurred with our ally.
In 1985, Jonathan Pollard, while working with U.S. Navy intelligence, "was arrested in November of 1985 at the gates of the Israeli embassy in Washington. He was tried, convicted and handed a life sentence."(Haaretz)
Yet the case does not end there. Oh yes, there's more...and more.
"...There is no way to get through to people like that. I hope--that a HUGE bus full of save-the-rainforest freaks falls on Michael Moore. Now THAT is justice."Mickey, from Baltimore's 98 ROCK show with Mickey and Ameilia.
Islamofascists have no shame in considering attacking injured and ill veterans...
Having a random Japanese person leave a comment on my site because he/she Googled their last name and found Whatsakyer?...I can relate to Uncle's situation.
Steve, at Pardon My English posts this gem a little girl who was denied admission to a PUBLIC SCHOOL because she could not speak SPANISH.
From: (Barbara Comstock, National Review Online)
John Kerry speaking at a Martin Luther King day celebration in Virginia last year said, quote, "I remember well April 1968, I was serving in Vietnam. A place of violence. When the news reports brought home to me and my crew mates the violence back home and the tragic news that one of the bullets flying that terrible spring took the life of Dr. King." That date, of Dr. King's death, was April 4, 1968. According to kerry's website, it was not until November 17, 1968, that he reported for duty in Vietnam.
"Alan Keyes, the Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate who once referred to reparations as 'an insult to our slave ancestors,' is now calling for a plan that would exempt the descendants of slaves from income taxes for at least a generation."Riiiiiiggght... What happened to the Keyes who said this?
"You want to tell me that what they suffered can actually be repaired with money? You're going to do the same thing those slaveholders did, put a money price on something that can't possibly be quantified in that way." (cited from 2 years ago on MSNBC's "Alan Keyes is Making Sense")...Meanwhile...
The wonderful Michelle Malkin tells Keyes to stop making a mess...
...and then throws her hat in the ring, justifiably, demanding compensation from the Spaniards.
I was really touched by Mike Borrelli's thoughtful post on the reality that is--media bias--and its effect on the now disoriented individual seeking "the facts" on just about any global event. It is a really well thought out and balanced portrayal of the dilemma the want-to-be-informed populace face everyday.
The only correction I would make, if you could call it one, really, would be his classification of organizations like Amnesty International as "objective"...though hey really are, in principle.
However, if you analyze closely the actions they criticize, there is an appearance of actually taking a "position" on certain things. For example, AI has employed campaigns to prevent the use of certain military arsenal (namely, bombs dropped from aircraft) in the Iraq/Afghanistan wars due to their imprecise nature (ie: their tendency to claim innocents). That, in essence, can be seen as making a statement against an often integral part of a military operation. Realistically, all human rights organizations would rather have no wars at all, if they had their say (but then again, who wouldn't?) Yet, in the end, we need organizations like AI, and HRW and the countless other NGO watchdog groups to report and bring to light both the unintentional errors/mistakes AND the atrocities that occur in violent conflict.
Good show, Mike.
From....
2004-08-24
Rank: 1298
Links: 82
To...
2004-08-25
Rank: 409
Links: 201
All I have to say is....Thank you...very much. I have no idea what accounted for this INSANE spike in linkage...be it the Blogdom of God Alliance or the Alliance of Free Blogs...or something else...but thank you.
...now if only I could develop some activity on my site now... (ahem...COMMENTS! ahem...)
The Guardian Unlimited:
Mark Thatcher, the son of former British prime minister Lady Thatcher, was arrested and charged today over claims that he was involved in a plot to overthrow the government of Equatorial Guinea.(more...)
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, is willing to fund speech advocating the killing of President Bush...
Estonians flip a coin to see who's better...
Heads=Nazis, Tails=Soviets...
This "Oh Shiite..." scenario in Iraq comprises...
"As we enter this election season, the struggle for our culture's soul has simultaneously produced passivity and defeatism in some evangelical quarters and a shrill triumphalism in others. Neither response...is the proper Christian response. We can never retreat into our sanctuaries and neglect our civic responsibility to help set the moral tone of our culture. Leaving your neighbor in ignorance of his folly is inconsistent with the command to love him, and so political and cultural engagement are required for faithful believers. We are, I like to put it, to bring the influence of the City of God into the City of Man, working for justice and righteousness. ... The best citizens of the City of Man are those who remember that their true citizenship is in the City of God."
--Charles Colson
"Kerry gave a big speech last week about how his faith is so 'important' to him. He announced that his favorite Bible verse is John 16:3. Of course, the speech writer meant John 3:16, but nobody in the Kerry camp was familiar enough with Scripture to catch the error. Fittingly, John 16:3 says, "And these things they will do to you because they have not known the Father nor Me." The Lord works in mysterious ways!"
--Unknown, Albuquerque, New Mexico
"So, let me ask you a few questions: Are you an independent? Do you reject 'partisan labels'? Do you like to weigh each candidate on the merits rather than simply vote the party line? Do you wait until the last weeks of the presidential election before you make up your mind on whom to vote for, so you can study the issues as much as possible? Do you watch the presidential debates and feel disappointed that you didn't get enough 'substance' on 'the issues'? Well, bully for you. You might deserve a lollypop, but you don't deserve to run the country. Unfortunately, you (and people like you) do. ... But as a matter of gross generalization, no segment of voters is less deserving of the high esteem they get from the media and politicians than independents, centrists, moderates, swing voters, undecideds, and others we generally call middle-of-the-roaders. ... If you wait until the last minute to figure out whom to vote for; if you can't tell the differences between the parties and their candidates (and you're not politically exotic -- i.e., an anarchist or a libertarian); if you think voting is like a Chinese menu where you can pick a little from here and a little from there; then the odds are you don't know very much about the political system. You may be a brilliant neurosurgeon, but I know interns who are sharper than you about politics."
--Jonah Goldberg
...and unclogs the path to the truth behind the DNC's direct (and did I mention, UNLAWFUL?)monetary connections to the Anti-Bush 527s...
And even with erectile dysfunction disorder...Bob Dole proves he has the biggest brass balls of us all...
Hat tip: Allah
I'd hate to agree with a Reuter's "journalist", but Pascal Fletcher hit it dead on in his latest article . It's what I've been saying for years now, but former president Carter insists on overlooking the polarizing effect of Hugo Chavez's administration.
"Chavez is going back to what he's always been: an element of discord and division, structurally incapable of promoting dialogue," the opposition statement said.Enrapturing the poor with his romantic promises of a new "Bolivarian Revolution", Chavez merely aggravates class tensions and polarizes the electorate. I am not by any means asserting the wealthy ricos (elites) of Venezuela are blameless for their end of the conflict (ie: the US-backed coup attempt 2 years ago to insert a wealthy businessman in the presidency), but legitimate dialogue is essential to the functioning of a true democracy. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I've yet to read of any evidence of a sincere attempt to bridge the divide between Chavez and his massive impoverished constituency.
Meanwhile...Zona Latina has compiled a rather comprehensive list of media correspondence regarding the Venezuela crisis a few years back...
! Man, I can ramble on with sources !
Then why don't you stop talking a good game and do something about it, you douche bag?
(Latest Kerry ad)
Somebody is feeling the heat...
Jan 30, 1992 (in regards to the Clinton presidential campaign)
"I am saddened by the fact that Vietnam has yet again been inserted into the campaign, and that it has been inserted in what I feel to be the worst possible way. By that I mean that yesterday, during this Presidential campaign, and even throughout recent times, Vietnam has been discussed and written about without an adequate statement of its full meaning." [...] "We do not need to divide America over who served and how. I have personally always believed that many served in many different ways. Someone who was deeply against the war in 1969 or 1970 may well have served their country with equal passion and patriotism by opposing the war as by fighting in it. Are we now, 20 years or 30 years later, to forget the difficulties of that time, of families that were literally torn apart, of brothers who ceased to talk to brothers, of fathers who disowned their sons, of people who felt compelled to leave the country and forget their own future and turn against the will of their own aspirations?" (source)
Ay Dios mío...
"...Latin America — the potential last frontier for international terrorism."
The territory could be a perfect staging ground for Osama bin Laden's militants, with homegrown rebel groups, drug and people smugglers, and corrupt governments. U.S. officials have long feared al-Qaida could launch an attack from south of the border, and they have been paying closer attention as the number of terror-related incidents has increased since last year. ...In Central America, Honduran Security Minister Oscar Alvarez said officials have uncovered evidence that terrorists, likely from al-Qaida, may be trying to recruit Hondurans to carry out attacks in Central America.
I say we fill the Rio Grande with piranhas and man-eating crocs and construct pill boxes and gun towers every 50 yards along the border.
The cost and bother of constant trespass and the fear of theft and burglary have meant that many rural people in Cochise County, where Douglas is located, are now arming themselves. Warning shots have been fired and many are worried that something worse might happen. What frightens the ranchers most, however, is not the aliens but rather drug smugglers. These are well-armed men, some carrying fully automatic weapons. Ranchers in both San Diego and Cochise Counties have reported seeing armed men on the U.S. side of the border, military in appearance, dressed in black, and armed with automatic rifles.Some believe that they are from the Mexican army acting in support of smugglers. Whether they are or not, however, Mexican army units and armed police are frequently reported entering U.S. territory, a violation that evokes angry response when U.S. authorities stray across the border into Mexico. Ron Sanders was for five years the chief of the Tucson sector of the border patrol until his retirement in August 1999. Hardly a month goes by, he said, without some kind of incursion by Mexican police or military. Sometimes shooting is involved. He recalls an armed stand-off on the U.S. side of the border between the Nogales police and the Mexican army.
The latest publicized incursion took place in March near Santa Teresa, New Mexico. Two Mexican army Humvees penetrated more than a mile into the United States and fired on a mounted border patrolman and on a border-patrol vehicle. The soldiers were detained but were later returned to Mexico along with their weapons. There was no official protest from Washington, even though firing on a U.S. law officer is a felony offense.
Drug smugglers often use lonely and difficult trails through the mountains, or go on horseback through more remote parts of the desert. At times they mingle with groups of aliens, or follow them for cover. On occasion they also use aliens as "mules" to carry drugs across the border in payment for their passage. One rancher near Douglas tells of a young illegal who knocked at a neighbor's door one night. The young man had slipped away from his group because its guide had forced them all to carry illicit drugs. Fearing they might all end up killed, he ran to the nearest house begging the rancher to call the police.
As the situation near Douglas worsened, some of the ranchers decided to take action on their own. Roger Barnett owns a 22,000-acre ranch outside Douglas. Soon he and his brother Don, like his neighbor Larry Vance and others, began rounding up aliens on their property and holding them until the border patrol arrived to arrest them. Advocacy groups howled in protest, as did the Mexican government. Their lawyers demanded that the ranchers be prosecuted for false arrest, kidnapping, intimidation, criminal assault, violation of civil rights, in short anything lawyers can come up with to advance their clients' interests. Larry Vance retorted that "the only rights that have been violated are those of American citizens whose privacy, property, and nation are invaded from Mexico."
...the Mexican press demonized the ranchers as "racist xenophobic vigilantes" who hunted down innocent Mexican migrants like animals.
...The majority of Americans favor immigration control. This includes half the Latino population. Yet the addiction of American agriculture and some industries to cheap foreign labor creates contradictory interests within the country and an attempt by the government to cover both bases at once. Thus we see the passage of restrictive laws and border shell games to keep the public quiet (no one of either party wants another Proposition 187), while at the same time underfunding enforcement and turning a blind eye so that business can continue as usual.
Sign the petition!
Need more info? Read the latest Federalist Patriot Digest here.
"The right of the citizens to keep and bear arms has justly been considered as the palladium of the liberties of a republic; since it offers a strong moral check against the usurpation and arbitrary power of rulers; and will generally, even if these are successful in the first instance, enable the people
to resist and triumph over them."
--Justice Joseph Story
appointed to the Supreme Court
by James Madison, author of our Constitution.
"The advantage of being armed, which the Americans possess over the people of almost every other nation...forms a barrier against the enterprises of ambition, more insurmountable than any...."
- James Madison,
Federalist No. 48
"To disarm the people is the best and most effectual way to enslave them," - George Mason.
"Guard with jealous attention the public liberty. Suspect every one who approaches that jewel. Unfortunately, nothing will preserve it but downright force. Whenever you give up that force, you are inevitably ruined." - Patrick Henry
In Commonplace Book, Thomas Jefferson quotes Cesare Beccaria from his seminal work, On Crimes and Punishment: "Laws that forbid the carrying of arms...disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes. ... Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve rather to encourage than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man."
My favorite traffic promoter B.C., Imperial Torturer extraordinaire, vents some serious steam after his realization that common sense aint' so common these days...
Trek on over to his expletive filled freakin' fun fest as he tries to comprehend the existence of advocates for... illegal immigrants.
::pats B.C. on the back:: Whoa tiger, easy now. We all feel your pain.
I can't believe nobody has so few people have really blogged about this...
Between March 1 and April 6, airline agents tried to block Mr. Kennedy from boarding airplanes on five occasions because his name resembled an alias used by a suspected terrorist who had been barred from flying on airlines in the United States, his aides and government officials said.more...Instead of acknowledging the craggy-faced, silver-haired septuagenarian as the Congressional leader whose face has flashed across the nation's television sets for decades, the airline agents acted as if they had stumbled across a fanatic who might blow up an American airplane. Mr. Kennedy said they refused to give him his ticket.
Sean Hannity speaks with an organizer of the upcoming RNC protests at the RNC...
(Proppage:Allah)
MAYO: I'm gonna answer that in the best way that I can. I can't answer it as a yes or no answer. What I can say, is ...
HANNITY: Wait a minute, wait a minute. You can. Will you encourage people in your protest not to be violent with the police - yes or no?
MAYO: People are concerned with the fate of the people of the world . . . .
HANNITY: Yes or no? Answer the question, Tanya.
. . .
MAYO: I think our members are a very diverse group of people and individuals will have to make a decision what lines they choose to cross at any given point.
Allah has got the MAD GOODZ on the pre-meditated violence of the strangely coordinated anarcho-moonbats descending on Manhattan for the upcoming GOP convention at the end of August. It's a must read. GO GO GO.
As for me, I'm using soda to wet my toothbrush and I'm flushing the toilet once a week to conserve. Are you doing your part?
The Dpt. of the Interior's newest campaign spokesbear:
Your Kids,PETA's Pawns:
How the Animal Movement Hurts Children
(note: link is an online PDF file so be patient)
En las palabras de un catolico:
"hay un pasaje de la Biblia para cada situación de la vida "
En las palabras de un adicto:
"para cada situación de la vida, hay un capítulo de Los Simpson"
hahaha
¡esto es cierto! ;D
"How many times have we been told that George W. Bush 'squandered' the good will of the world 'community' after 9/11? The assumption behind all of this seemed to be that anything which cost America the support of allies like France or Germany was, in effect, too costly. In other words, the means -- 'strong alliances' -- are more important than the ends -- winning the war on terror, toppling Saddam, and so forth. Listening to these folks, one gets the sense that America's greatest foreign policy triumph was to get sucker-punched on 9/11 because it resulted in sympathetic newspaper headlines in Paris and Berlin." - Jonah Goldberg
"If ever there were a bleeding-heart liberal, it was Jesus Christ...I think the carpenter from Galilee was the original Democrat." says James C. Moore.
The Rev. Timothy Tutt, pastor of United Christian Church in Austin, declined to say whom he will support in November.Hmmm....think you gave it away there, buddy."As I read the Scriptures and as I understand faith, God's side is the group that's feeding the poor, caring about children, making sure that people have enough food to eat — not killing others," said Tutt, who opposes the war in Iraq.
Derek Davis' perspective should clear up the confusion regarding Jesus' voting record and noticeable absence from Senate committee meetings...
"Interestingly, Jesus never sided with any of these groups but remained above such earthly disputes. This does not mean we should do the same. He was God. We are mere humans."
Even more interesting is how Kerry's attendance record closely resembles J.C.'s... is there a connection???
From an interview in the upcoming September issue of GQ magazine....(via AFP/Yahoo)
When asked about, "his feelings for President George W. Bush and his family's political dynasty, Kerry said: 'I like Junior, but I like the senior Bush enormously. A very decent, thoughtful guy. And I have great respect for him.'"
mad proppage to: Allah
I have been waiting for this to happen...
"We have some soldiers who are obviously not overjoyed about being deployed," Clark told Reuters by telephone. "I have had to look them in the eye and say 'hey, you are going."'Rumsfeld better address this situation pronto if he doesn't want to start replacing thousands of extended-tour reservists with Bloods and Crips to maintain adequate firepower.
On one hand, I really sympathize with the premise of the reservist's lawsuit that a period of enlistment in the reserves should not be indefinite and to be prevented from returning to one's home after his/her committment has been fulfilled is... unfair. Yes I agree. As for me, I consider it difficult for a civilian to take a firm stance on this issue unless one is familiar with the fine print.
Capt. Kincy Clark, who is mentioned in the suit by the plaintiff comments that, "reservists know when signing up that 'stop loss' or extension of service is a possibility." Who knows if the concept is thoroughly explained to enlistees upon signing up? I don't doubt it.
However, the plaintiff has apparently served in the Marine Corps and Army for nine years on active duty prior to his enlistment as a reservist in the Army National Guard for the past three years. One must wonder how a 9 year active veteran would fail to remember if he/she was informed of such a possibility of longer retention at the time of enlistment.
This lawsuit has the potential to get messy for the DoD pending they are unable to back up the "stop-loss" protocol as being common knowledge to reservist enlistees.
It's skankulous I tell you! Scandalous even!
My two oh-so-favorite online bloggerettes just so happen to share the same name (plus or minus an "l"). Stand back as these ladies extend their digital claws and tear D.C.'s 21st Century Monica to shreds...
Michele's
MichelLe's "The Skanks on Capitol Hill"
...meanwhile, Allah illustrates a point...
...and Tanya paints a a picture of reality.
Trackbacks-a-plenty!
B.C., Imperial Torturer™ wrote up a nice little piece on the reality of kidnapping for a living as a lucrative career path for some of our Southern neighbors.
Drop by the Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler for a look-see. Also, make sure to check my 2 Lincolns in the comment section.
John McCaslin's latest article at TownHall.com, "Vision and Mission," clears the air for those of you still uncertain as to why someone you may know and love is off fighting a war on the other side of the world.
President Bush came face-to-face with the sacrifice and uncertainty surrounding the war in Iraq during an "ask the president" event this week at Okaloosa-Walton College in Niceville, Fla."I have a brother who served in Afghanistan and is going back to Iraq," a young woman stood up and told the president, wondering whether his administration has a vision and strategy to complete the mission.
"That's a very legitimate question," Bush replied. "And the answer is, we do. . . . I just want you to know that your brother is going on a mission that has historic proportions to it."
He then recalled a story that "I hope helps you and helps everybody understand." He said he was sharing dinner with Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi in Tokyo and thought it significant their conversation centered on world peace.
"Now, the interesting part of the story, I think, as far as your brother is concerned, is that during the course of the conversation I thought it was pretty neat to be talking to a prime minister of a country that we had been at war with. . . .
"And that day I was talking to the head of a former enemy, and we're talking about keeping the world more peaceful. There were a lot of people after World War II who did not believe that Japan could be a self-governing, peaceful nation. . . .
"But, fortunately, our predecessors in the presidency and the Senate and the Congress . . . never forgot that fantastic American belief that freedom has the capacity to transform lives, transform enemies to allies in peace."
Bush concluded by telling the woman: "Someday, an American president is going to be sitting down with an elected leader from Iraq, huddled and talking about how to keep the peace. That's what your brother's mission is."
Time for some GOOD news...
PATRAS, Greece - In its first Olympic competition since its country was shattered by war, Iraq upset star-studded Portugal 4-2 on Thursday in a gritty, come-from-behind victory that set off cheers and celebrations among some 200 fans. more...Great job, fellas.
For more Iraqi football highlights, check out Adrian Wojnarowski's column, Iraq Celebrates 'Victory for Freedom' over at ESPN.com.
what's a kyer? a fútbol fan. that's what.
Chalk another one up for the religion of peace.
The al-Sadr militia is holing up inside the holiest (man that's redundant) mosque of the Shi'ite sect, the Imam Ali shrine, occasionally coming out to exchange fire and throw grenades at Coalition Forces. The looming spectre of nationwide Shi'ite unrest should, the mosque be accidentally harmed, is heavy on the minds of U.S. commanders. The al-Sadr militia is occupying the mosque waiting for just this to occur.
Here we find a perfect example of radical Islam's own indifference towards their supposedly sacred places of worship. If it so sacred to their sect, why would any Muslim in their right mind lure the fight there knowing full well they risk damage, desecration and even total destruction of the shrine? Like I mentioned previously, they may be trading up a most holy site for the blood of American (and Coalition) forces that will surely be sought should a Shi'ite uprising occur throughout Iraq. (Iran is probably crossing their fingers right now)
...or... they are simply praying Allah will protect them there.
I'm betting on the former.
Yet interestingly enough, this scene invokes an air of familiarity to the Palestinian occupation of the Church of Nativity two years ago.
"On April 2, 2002 armed Palestinian Arab terrorists forced their way into the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, one of Christianity's most sacred sites, the birthplace of Christ. In the midst of over 200 nuns and priests, they sought refuge from Operation Defensive Shield, the Israel Defense Forces action against suicide bombing activity originating from West Bank locations. For 38 days, until May 10, 2002, the world watched as the gunmen refused to surrender their positions inside the Church. Only Israeli restraint and respect for the Christian shrine prevented the Palestinian desecration from turning into its destruction." (source)It appears only the Coalition and Israeli forces are capable of maintaining a degree of reverance and respect for the holy and sacred sites of other religions. Once again, unsurprisingly, it was Islamic extremists who holed up inside a sacred site, with little regard for the consequences of its desecration.
Part of me wants the Coalition Forces to reduce the shrine to ashes and rubble, but fearing for their safety and well-being, I pray there's another way to capture the rebel Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr and disband his group of thugs.
I think it says something of the degree of enthusiasm, loyalty and pride (however misguided it may be) Islamic extremists have in their sick, twisted cause when Western forces bring the pain.
I wish for once the tables would turn and we'd hear how the destruction of the World Trade Center and the attacks on the Pentagon and the USS Cole, the embassies in Africa, and the very real and live threat to our very existence as a nation every day would result in the "swelling of new recruits" for the U.S. Armed Forces!
"In Kerry's insistence that the commitment of our allies -- British, Italian, Polish, Ukrainian, Dutch, Australian, Romanian, Bulgarian, Japanese, Thai, Danish and others -- adds up to a big fat zero in a 'unilateral' American adventure, he has shown himself bereft of all diplomatic smarts. Talk about Ugly American. Only this one speaks perfect French." --Diana West
So very very very angered by this...
Yahoo! News - U.S. to Get International Election Observers
Meanwhile...somebody has the balls to say something...
"Obviously, somebody over at Foggy Bottom misread the Constitution. According to our Founding Fathers, it is the 'States' - not the 'State Department' - which are in charge of overseeing federal elections." - Tom Kilgannon, president of the Freedom Alliance.
Rep. Stephen Buyer, during debate on the floor of the House of Representatives echoes Kilgannon's defense of America's historical principles, "For over 200 years, this nation has conducted elections fairly and impartially, ensuring that each person's vote will count. Imagine going to your polling place on the morning of November 2 and seeing blue-helmeted foreigners inside your local library, school or fire station."
The fact this article was written by OneWorld.net, "the world's favourite and fastest-growing civil society network online, supporting people's media to help build a more just global society." just screams: "We are alllll citizens of the world...one nation...under the U.N., indiscernable, with LSD and hemp anklets for all!"
God, I'm cynical when I write posts half-awake.
(And as always...emphasis is mine.)
...or here either.
According to the Reuters news wire, an EU mission to the Darfur region of Sudan said it had found
"no evidence of genocide in the Sudanese region of Darfur, although killing was widespread, with little evidence of government efforts to protect civilians."The saga continues...
The conclusion of a fact-finding mission put the EU at odds with the U.S. Congress, which has leveled accusations of genocide at Sudan over a campaign of looting and burning by Arab militiamen against African village farmers.Wait... does this mean the U.S. government has learned its lesson from the tragedy of its indifference 10 years ago? Not really. The only difference this time is that instead of primitive indigenous tribes butchering eachother, Arab militias are involved.
General Romeo Dallaire(ret), former commander of the UN mission in Rwanda reflects on the international "intervention" in Rwanda:
"Some 2,000 personnel from several countries, including France, United Kingdom, United States and Italy, had come to evacuate their expatriates and though they were stumbling on corpses, they remained firm in totally ignoring the catastrophe." (source)Pieter Feith, speaking on behalf of EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana comments, "We are not in the situation of genocide there...But it is clear there is widespread, silent and slow, killing going on, and village burning on a fairly large scale," (Reuters)
Though the United Nations report "more than a million people have been driven from their homes by the conflict and many are threatened by hunger and disease," Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir responded, "Those who say 30,000 and 50,000, we challenge them to bring their names, their families, their tribes, their graves." (Reuters)
Sorry, Mr. Bashir, being that your country possesses nothing of vital interest to the Western world, you probably won't be sent any blue helmeted undertakers to gather your dead.
Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail said, "he was pleased that the Arab League and the African Union had both said there was no ethnic cleansing or genocide in Darfur." (Reuters)
I'm sure you are, Ismail, ol' buddy. I'm sure you are.
Africa Focus: Rwanda/U.N.: Acknowledging Failure
(all emphasis added is mine)
Because this woman was careless with gun safety and proper storage... an entire gun manufacturing outfit is out of business after her CHILD filed a lawsuit...
"Maxfield's life-changing injury happened when he was 7 and a 20-year-old family friend who was babysitting thought he heard a suspicious noise and grabbed a gun from a dresser drawer. The babysitter called Brandon's mother, who instructed him to immediately unload the .38-caliber pistol. While trying to do that, the babysitter accidentally pulled the trigger."
What really happened?
Babysitter: "If you don't shut up, I'll give you something cry about!"
"I always wanted to protect my kids and this is something you can't reverse and you can't erase," said Sue Stansberry, Maxfield's mother. "I wish now I had locked it up in a locked case. I didn't do that, and I will have to live with that for the rest of my life."
yet.... the attorney had this to say:
"'It started with horror, the realization that — notwithstanding the fact that we had this unanimous finding of defect — there was nothing in the law to prevent them from putting these defective guns back on the market,' said Ruggieri, who took on Maxfield's case in 2001 when no other lawyers would."
So...which is it? The gun being defective? Or the mother's careless lack of regard for her child's safety, leaving a LOADED PISTOL IN A DRESSER DRAWER? Or is it simply the mother is the one with the defect?
Meanwhile...I'm going to file a suit against the no-name toy-making company based in Thailand for creating a neon-green water pistol that allowed Tommy Nicks to fill it up with lemonade and shoot citric acid in my eye when I was in 4th grade.
My lawyer can kick your lawyer's butt any day. :P
...I'll state it again. I'm voting for George W. Bush.
Bill, at INDCJournal.com has a wonderful post about the peerless humility of our Commander-in-Chief.
Matt from MartiniPundit, has a letter and a picture about W's 1-mile jog with Mike McNaughton, whose leg was lost to a landmine in Christmas of '02 in Afghanistan and later replaced with a robotic limb.
And what's that you say? More examples of decency and honor restored to the Oval Office? Snopes has the story of Bush's visit to LTC Brian Birdwell, who was badly burned in the attack on the Pentagon on September 11th.
From FTheVote.com: Trade Sex for Votes
SEXY LIBERALS OF THE U.S. UNITE in taking back the government from the sexually repressed, right-wing, zealots in control! Everyone knows liberals are hotter than conservatives - we look hotter, we dress hotter, our ideas are hotter, and we are infinitely hotter in the sack. We must use our sexual appeal to our advantage, as one more weapon in our already diverse arsenal. By stripping conservatives out of their clothes, we can also strip them of their powerBelieve it or not, even the most deeply rooted right-wing ideologue can be manipulated by sex. As we all know, the sex drive is a powerful beast that has the potential to change people. People lie for sex, they cheat for sex, they even kill for sex - and you can be sure that they will change the way they think (and therefore vote) for sex. All you need to be armed with are your sexy progressive values, a razor-sharp wit, your genitalia, and a mindset that doesn't mind taking one for the team.
Un-freakin-believ-able.
I broke down and prayed that this wasn't true.
One more reason to remain a chaste-until-marraige-conservative...(no STDs from dirty hippy Villagers!)
Hat Tip: Anthony
(Note: emphasis mine)
"When I think about the tragedies of AIDS and abortion, I wonder why so many pro-choice "humanitarians" who want to end the AIDS epidemic are fighting so hard to preserve the legality of abortion. Indeed, I have often heard liberals say that those who are not in favor of international AIDS relief are "racists." This accusation is linked to the indisputable fact that those of African descent are disproportionately infected with the disease.But what about the fact that abortions are grossly disproportionately performed on African American babies in the United States? What is the real reason why many of those who are fighting against AIDS because of the fact that it gravely threatens the African population, are fighting just as vigorously to preserve abortion despite the fact that it gravely threatens the African American population?
The answer to this obvious contradiction is simple. It is not stupidity or ignorance of the facts. It is basic human selfishness."
zing!
This article speaks for itself, ladies and gentlemen.
Long story short: In the mind of these selective humanitarians, black people deserve to the right to live...in Africa...just not here in the States, right? Heck, why don't dont we just annex Madagascar and turn it into Liberia II? They've only been independent from French rule for about 44 years so the smell of freedom is still fresh in their minds, they won't miss it...
Head on down to the Town Hall to read more of Mike Adams' excellent article on the hypocrisy of liberal "humanitarians"...
"To be good, an interview has to stick itself into, sink into, the heart of the interviewee. ... In this I have always seen an act of violence, of cruelty."
Don't know who she is? Head on over to the National Review Online to find out more about this fine lady.
Hat tip: The Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler
...Says Girls Scout ‘Was Asking For It’
Too. Damn. Funny.
Check it out! (oh! if only this was true!)
BOROWITZ report.com
Jay over at Wizbang has written a thoughtful "the-truth-can-often-be-hard-to-swallow" commentary on the reality of the international(er...American) hesitancy to get involved in the conflict in the Darfur region of Sudan. Head on over to his place and read his piece:"Enabling Genocide"
Proof people on the Left Coast have way too much time on their hands...
"It was part of a stunt, but no one noticed it up until now," Vanderford said. "I did this for a couple of reasons. One is to attract attention. But two is to just make a statement on these type of videos and how easily they can be faked."
...
"We need to leave this country alone. We need to stop this occupation," he said on the video, adding that he had been offered for exchange with prisoners in Iraq. "Everyone's going to be killed this way."
Anti-Semitism rearing its ugly head in...New Zealand now of all places. Silent Running has posted a dozen truly sad photos of vandalized and desecrated Jewish gravestones. I hope these monsters are found and punished severely.
Again from those wonderful people at the Federalist Patriot from the August 6, 2004 Friday Digest (No. 04-31)
"In other Demo-news, Kerry added a religious outreach arm to his campaign, headed by Rev. Brenda Bartella Peterson. Unfortunately, Peterson did not disclose on her job application that she was a signer on an amicus brief before the Supreme Court in support of Michael Newdow, the atheist suing for the removal of "under God" from the Pledge."
zing!
The entire contents of this post below the line are cited directly from Mark Alexander's latest article from the Federalist Patriot. Though I realize it is a very long post, it is by far worth repeating in its entirety.
"I will be a commander-in-chief who will never mislead us into war," claims John Kerry, with a none-too-subtle implication that President George W. Bush lied about the threat posed by Saddam Hussein.
On that note, we decided to take a look at the historical record. Indeed, we wanted to know precisely what the senator from Massachusetts had been saying all along about the Butcher of Baghdad. Lo and behold, we found that Kerry makes a compelling argument in support of President's Bush's actions to free the Iraqi people -- and the world -- from Saddam's terror.
Back in 1991, Kerry voted against the use of force in removing Iraq from neighboring Kuwait (S. J. Res. 2), later explaining that he only "voted against the timing of it. I said very clearly in my statement on the Senate floor that I was committed to getting Saddam Hussein out of Kuwait...and that I was prepared to go to war if it took that...."
Regarding Bill Clinton's attacks on Iraqi targets, Kerry said in 1997, "So clearly the allies may not like it...where's the backbone of Russia, where's the backbone of France, where are they in expressing their condemnation of such clearly illegal activity?"
A year later, after additional bombing, Kerry said, "We have to be prepared to go the full distance, which is to do everything possible to disrupt [Saddam's] regime and to encourage the forces of democracy. ... [H]e can rebuild both chemical and biological. And every indication is, because of his deception and duplicity in the past, he will seek to do that. So we will not eliminate the problem for ourselves or for the rest of the world with a bombing attack. ... I believe that in the post-Cold War period this issue of proliferation, particularly in the hands of Saddam Hussein, is critical."
Three months after the 9/11 attack on our countrymen by state-supported Jihadi terrorists, Kerry argued, "Saddam is one who is and has acted like a terrorist. ... For instance, Saddam Hussein has used weapons of mass destruction against his own people. ... He is and has acted like a terrorist, and he has engaged in activities that are unacceptable."
Reiterating his position on Saddam prior to 9/11, Kerry said, "[I] think we ought to put the heat on Saddam Hussein. I've said that for a number of years. I criticized the Clinton administration for backing off of the inspections...." He then added, "I think we need to put the pressure on, no matter what the evidence is about September 11."
Regarding Afghanistan and Iraq, Kerry said, "I think we clearly have to keep the pressure on terrorism globally. This doesn't end with Afghanistan by any imagination. And I think the president has made that clear. I think we have made that clear. Terrorism is a global menace. It's a scourge. And it is absolutely vital that we continue [to combat terrorism], for instance, Saddam Hussein."
Regarding diplomatic solutions and the Bush administration's efforts to get the UN to enforce the Security Council's unanimous mandates on Iraqi arms, Kerry said, in May of 2002, "[Saddam is] buying time and playing a game, in my judgment. Do we have to go through that process? The answer is yes. We're precisely doing that. And I think that's what Colin Powell did today."
In July of 2002, Kerry told the Democrat Leadership Council, "I agree completely with this Administration's goal of a regime change in Iraq.... Saddam Hussein is a renegade and outlaw who turned his back on the tough conditions of his surrender put in place by the United Nations in 1991."
That's "completely," fellow Patriots.
A month later in a New York Times op-ed, Kerry asserted, "If Saddam Hussein is unwilling to bend to the international community's already existing order, then he will have invited enforcement even if that enforcement is mostly at the hands of the United States, a right we retain even if the Security Council fails to act."
That's even if it's "mostly at the hands of the United States."
In September of 2002, a year after 9/11, Kerry said: "It is imperative that we issue an ultimatum to Saddam Hussein, and that would require immediate and full compliance, and if Hussein doesn't comply, the United States must be prepared to go in and...if need be, largely alone remove Saddam Hussein from power. There is also no question that Saddam Hussein continues to pursue weapons of mass destruction, and his success can threaten both our interests in the region and our security at home. ...[Saddam] may even miscalculate and slide these [WMD] off to terrorist groups to invite them to be a surrogate to use them against the United States. It's the miscalculation that poses the greatest threat."
A few days later, he told MSNBC, "The president...always reserves the right to act unilaterally to protect the interests of our country." On 11 October 2002, Kerry voted for the Iraq War Resolution (H.J. Res. 114).
That's "unilaterally."
In May of 2003, Kerry defended that vote, saying, "I think it was the right decision to disarm Saddam Hussein, and when the President made the decision, I supported him, and I support the fact that we did disarm him." But when Howard Dean turned up the heat with his anti-war message, Kerry began to waffle. Announcing his candidacy, Kerry's support for regime change morphed into, "I voted to threaten the use of force to make Saddam Hussein comply with the resolutions of the United Nations."
Notice the head of the pin on which Kerry is now attempting to dance. He's claiming that he only "voted to threaten the use of force." In other words, he's now insisting that he only voted to deliver a hollow threat. Not exactly a profile in courage, eh?
As the Demo-primary season approached, Kerry began to hone his newfound opposition to the removal of Saddam: "They rushed to war. They were intent on going to war."
When it came time to provide supplemental appropriations for our troops in Iraq, Kerry (who planned to run his campaign on his veteran status) claimed, "I don't think any United States senator is going to abandon our troops and recklessly leave Iraq to whatever follows as a result of simply cutting and running. That's irresponsible. I don't think anyone in the Congress is going to not give our troops ammunition, not give our troops the ability to be able to defend themselves. We're not going to cut and run and not do the job."
But on 17 October 2003, Kerry abandoned our troops, voting against S. 1689, the Emergency Supplemental Appropriations for Iraq and Afghanistan Security and Reconstruction. Thus, he put pure political expedience ahead of his obligation to arm and equip our fighting forces -- specifically those fighting forces currently standing in harm's way.
In January of this year, when asked if he was "one of the anti-war candidates," Kerry answered firmly, "I am -- yeah." After announcing his running mate in March, he said of John Edwards, "I'm proud to say that John joined me in voting against that $87 billion...."
Got that? He's actually "proud" of having stiffed our troops.
Last month, when asked by CBS if his vote for the removal of Saddam was a mistake (which, politically, it clearly was), Kerry fumbled his answer: "What -- what -- what I voted for, you -- you -- you see, you're playing here. What -- what I voted for was a -- an authority for the president to go to war as a last resort if Saddam Hussein did not disarm and we needed to go to war." When pressed for a direct answer to the question, Kerry responded curtly, "I think I answered your question."
When asked why he "voted for the war, but didn't vote for the money to finance the war," Kerry responded, "That's not a flip-flop. That's not a flip-flop."
And this week, Kerry claims, "I believe this administration is actually encouraging the recruitment of terrorists. The policies of this administration, I believe and others believe very deeply, have resulted in an increase of animosity and anger focused on the United States of America." (Here we suppose "others" is in reference to the same yet-to-be-identified foreign leaders who Kerry claims support his candidacy.)
The reality is, of course, that it's our very existence, and not our actions, that the Jihadis really object to. Kerry's failure to acknowledge this fact is indicative of just how deeply he has delved into the fevered swamp.
Last week, greeting Demo-conventioneers with a limp Clintonesque salute, Kerry intoned that he was "reporting for duty." To which we say, it's about time -- because he has been AWOL from Iraq since he voted to invade.
Think domestic violence is a social disease native only to the United States? Think again. I would be very interested in seeing a report sometime in the future comparing and analyzing the similar characteristics between domestic violence in Chinese and American societies. Much could be learned from such a study.
The following are exerpts from this sobering article:
[sic]... tens of millions, perhaps hundreds of millions, of Chinese women [are] regularly abused by their husbands or partners, experts say. Wife beating and alarming female suicide rates have been well documented in China's remote, dirt-poor villages.But experts say young, cosmopolitan women [sic] are increasingly falling victim to domestic violence as they bear the brunt of unprecedented social upheaval sweeping the country, spurred by an economy galloping at more than 9 percent a year.
In a bizarre twist, many women even say their status in society has been eroded as economic reforms unleashed 20 years ago cast aside the last vestiges of Maoism, under which women were famously told they "hold up half the sky."
Wang Simei, said the level of violence in domestic assault cases has increased.
According to a recent survey by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, as many as one-third of women in 270 million households across the country have been victims of domestic violence.
Researchers say surveys often understate the problem because many women are unwilling to "lose face" by admitting, even anonymously, that they have been beaten. In traditional Chinese society, family strife is considered best kept from the public.
Whatever the true number, experts agree domestic violence has become more common as China moves toward a market economy, throwing millions of people out of jobs and ushering in a return to the more traditional values that preceded communist rule.
"Domestic violence has gotten worse," said Ren Yuan, a professor at Shanghai's Fudan University who studies women's issues. "People are more stressed. We all feel this. China is changing very quickly, too fast for social support services and the law."
(NOTE: Emphasis mine, and words in [brackets] were added to maintain contextual flow)
Source: Reuters News Wire
Wed August 04, 2004 02:40 PM ET
Wife Beating Grows in China as Economy Roars Ahead
By Juliana Liu (With additional reporting by Cher Gao)
URL: http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=ourWorldNews&storyID=5873932
Kerry also pledged to “open the doors of the White House to Native Americans.” And in an unusual pledge, he said he would prod the nation’s news executives to increase the number of jobs for Native Americans in the media.- MSNBC
Not only was the entire article full of Democrapic touchy-feely political sentiments about the plight of American minorities and how Bush, and Bush alone keeps the black man down, but it had that one tiny snippet about Kerry's promise to provide more opportunity for Native Americans in the media.
All 2,475,956 of them.
Say...Now there's a minority group the DNC hasn't reached out to in the past. Talk about a swing voter bloc! Where were they hiding in 2000?
OH WAIT!
... in small isolated polluted Federal reservations that we've historically crammed them into with limited autonomy.
And I always thought they were just private camp grounds.
From the Associated Press (link now dead):
MEMPHIS, Tenn. - Iraqis visiting on a civil rights tour were barred from city hall after the city council chairman said it was too dangerous to let them in.The seven Iraqi civic and community leaders are in the midst of a three-week American tour, sponsored by the State Department to learn more about the process of government. The trip also includes stops in Washington, Los Angeles and Chicago.
The Iraqis were scheduled to meet with a city council member, but Joe Brown, the council chair, said he feared the group was dangerous.
"We don't know exactly what's going on. Who knows about the delegation, and has the FBI (news - web sites) been informed?" Brown said. "We must secure and protect all the employees in that building."
Elisabeth Silverman, the group's host and head of the Memphis Council for International Visitors, said Brown told her he would "evacuate the building and bring in the bomb squads" if the group entered.
"They are in charge of setting up processes in their country. They have to educate themselves about how it works in this country," Silverman said.
How ignorant, racist, and alarmist can you be?
"Gee, we don't get none too many of you towel heads round these here parts, so you must a being look for trouble of some sort. We don't take none too kindly to strangers so gon git now, ya hear?"
The Iraqi delegation were invited by the State Department ...and this guy probably wanted to check with the Feds to make sure they were aware a potential terrorist cell was present in Memphis, Tennessee. Apparently, Councilman Brown subscribes to the same illogical equation as most uneducated Americans: Bin Ladin is from the Middle East and is a terrorist, therefore, all Middle Easterners are terrorists.
The Iraqi delegation learned their first lesson in the politics of exclusion and privelidged access to those in power. Hopefully they didn't write that down in their notes.
Vilmar at Barking-Moonbat has a post on June's Douche Bag of The Month, Hella-where?'s very own, Senator Joseph Biden. Apparently, poor Mr. Biden's house was struck by lightning in a recent storm. Wah.
How is Mr. Biden being awarded June's DBOTM award when this blog began in July, you may ask? Because that bastard ruined my graduation ceremony with all his talk of the "HUNDREDS AND HUNDREDS OF DEAD DEAD DEAD BODIES BEING FLOWN INTO DOVER AIR FORCE BASE FROM IRAQ" and how much he think's Bush sucks.
Well, dickhead, guess you got what was coming to you.
Driving home at 2am and not quite awake enough for the usual rock radio, I turned the dial to a local AM station. On it I was surprised to hear a live talk radio show at this hour of the night. I caught the tail end of the discussion with the guest, Scott Gulbransen, who seemed to be an educated guy, talking about the what he called a "schizophrenic" national security/counter-terrorism policy the U.S. is currently engaging.
He brought up an interesting point at the end of the show about how the Russian high-tech mafia was making a killing by selling leftover stockpile nuclear goodies after the break-up of the U.S.S.R. on the black market to interested terrorists throughout the nineties. Suitcase nukes are not that difficult to acquire these days, so it was a valid assertion.
Being the fan of checking credentials that I am, I discovered Mr. Gulbransen has a colorful resume for an author of a book on terrorists crossing the border.
Upon learning of his impressive background as a Manager of Corporate Communications with the TurboTax software company and as a Media Relations Assistant/Marketing Manager for the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, athletic department for 4 years, I figured this guy had to know what he was talking about...especially since he also mentioned he's conferred with numerous friends from the FBI, CIA, Border Patrol (etc. etc.) on these issues as well.
In fact, three of the four people who read his book praised it as a wonderful piece of fiction...er...non-fiction. One reader read both the first and second editions.
But enough debasing of the poor guy. After all, he's probably just trying to make a buck in the private sector by playing on the insecurities of America, right?
The way this guy was dropping references on the show left and right about all of the acquaintances/contacts from the Feds he's spoken with on the matters really had me convinced he was some long time former 20-year veteran with the FBI spilling what he was cleared to say about how screwed we are:
" I shudder to think of what will happen when I am proved right and our nation gets off its collective ass and does something about it."After hearing of how once Department of Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge retires/resigns and enters the private sector, perhaps as a security consultant for some large corporation, he will be making boku bucks (literally, in the millions), I figured this guy was playing the same hand. Did I mention he's a former radio play-by-play sports broadcaster for UNLV b-ball, football and baseball?
However, to be fair, he did have some rather valid comments and assertions regarding the rise of Leftism in Latin America and its impact on the U.S.
The following are excerpts from an interview with Ryan Mauro of http://www.worldthreats.com/ :
WRM: What are the implications of the common trend among US companies of hiring immigrants from countries, some of us see as potential enemies, like China, the former Soviet republics and Russia, etc?SG: The ramifications of moving all of our manufacturing jobs overseas are unknown but, in my view, it cannot be good. If an international war or incident broke out, we wouldn't be able to produce enough goods and services at home to compensate for the loss of overseas resources. In reality, we're all giving up economic freedom so we can buy items at Wal-Mart for less than we can elsewhere. We're selling our souls to save a few bucks.
WRM: How do you respond to the allegations that "sightings" of Asians in Mexican military uniforms may just be soldiers of the Indian population usually found in the southern portion of Mexico?
SG: I think the allegations that many make of the Asians being Native Mexicans is a smoke screen. If you're going to sit there and tell me that Border Patrol agents and Customs officers don't know the difference between those Mexicans and Asians, I'll say your nuts. These men and women deal with Mexican Indians all the time, they know the difference. These are not sightings by tourists or unqualified people. They are on the border every day and round up illegal immigrants all the time. To say they are mistaken questions their intelligence and is just another way to ignore the possibility that this is really happening.
WRM: Are these foreign units possibly helping the Marxist, anti-American rebel movements in Mexico (particularly in the south) such as the Zapatistas, or are being used to assist officials seen as "favorable" by governments seeking to undermine American power?
SG: Absolutely. These Marxist elements are on the rise in Mexico AND America. The recent peace protests over the Iraq War was a clear sign that Communism is back strong in the Western Hemisphere and they are making inroads. We are being undermined internally daily and Mexico and its revolutionaries are aiding and abetting.
Whoaa now...hold up. I HARDLY think a small, isolated, indigenous insurgency fighting for self-autonomy in the depths of Chiapas, Mexico, are playing a significant part (if any at all) in "aiding and abetting" a communist effort to undermine American national security. As a self-professed Latin Americanist who has studied individuals/groups like Subcomandante Marcos and the EZLN throughout my college career, again, I hardly consider them a threat to the States...masked guerrillas hiding in the highlands with obsolete weapons and all.
It would be far too extensive a discussion to explain the rise of socialist/Marxist populism throughout several Latin American nations like Brazil, Venezuela and Ecuador here. Its implications to American security are by far more accurately described as a long and steady growing negative socio-political reaction to the economic oppression of neo-liberal free trade market reforms imposed...er....implemented in the early 1980s (and beyond).
And on the assertion that "the recent peace protests over the Iraq War was a clear sign that Communism is back strong in the Western Hemisphere"...c'mon..give me a break.
"communist" insurgent protester