The GOP and Me

How could anyone vote for this lady?

2006-05-30T22:32:00.000-07:00

Have ya heard about Hillary Clinton’s latest brilliant idea? She says that the maximum speed limit should be 55 MPH around the country. Doesn’t matter what kind of highway, large or small, between big cities or within them. Everyone should only be allowed to drive 55.

The reason for this? To save gas. Haha, ridiculous.

First of all, let me say that I am in favor of not raising speed limits and maybe even lowering them. I hardly ever drive over the speed limit, mostly to save on gas and be safer.

However, I have several problems with her statement. First, does she realize how many lives the slower speed limit would save? Oh, but nevermind that, she’s only worried about the gas.

Secondly, if she really wants to save gas, how about she give up her plane? Oh, but she’s a member of congress, she has to get places, right? Give me a damn break.

It just seems ridiculous that she can stand up there on her damn high horse flying in her plane, telling us minions that we should drive slower to save gas.

I hate that woman, and she certainly will not be getting my vote in ‘08.

DNC secretly wanted Nagin out

2006-05-22T08:20:00.000-07:00

From Drudge:

DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL COMMITTEE WORKED TO DEFEAT NAGIN

**Exclusive**

The Democratic National Committee (DNC) secretly placed political operatives in the city of New Orleans to work against the reelection efforts of incumbent Democrat Mayor Ray Nagin, the DRUDGE REPORT has learned.

DNC Chairman Howard Dean made the decision himself to back mayoral candidate and sitting Lieutenant Governor Mitch Landrieu (D-LA), sources reveal.

Dean came to the decision to back the white challenger, over the African-American incumbent Nagin, despite concerns amongst senior black officials in the Party that the DNC should stay neutral.

The DNC teams actively worked to defeat Nagin under the auspice of the committee’s voting rights program.

The party’s field efforts also coincided with a national effort by Democrat contributors to support Landrieu.

Landrieu had outraised Nagin by a wide margin - $3.3 million to $541,980.

Preliminary campaign finance reports indicate many of Landrieu’s contributions came from out of state white Democrat leaders and financiers, including a $1,000 contribution from Sen. Ben Nelson’s (D-NE) PAC.

The defeat of Mitch Landrieu is the latest setback for Dean’s often criticized field operation.

In his victory speech late Saturday night, Nagin praised President Bush.

“You and I have probably been the most vilified politicians in the country. But I want to thank you for moving that promise that you made in Jackson Square forward,” Nagin said.

Developing…

Interesting. Nagin sure is an idiot. But at least he acknowledges that Bush has actually done something since the storm...no one else will.

SkypeOut Now Free

2006-05-16T15:17:00.000-07:00

Skype is a free service used to call other people around the country and around the world. Well, it's free to call from your computer to another person's computer. Before now you were charged if you called a land line or cell phone.

Well that has now changed. You can now call a landline or cellphone anywhere in America for free from your computer (at least until the end of the year).

Awesome.

"We Will Never Forget"

2006-05-08T12:42:00.000-07:00

A least I know I won't.

Homer thinks there's a liberal media

2006-05-07T17:09:00.000-07:00

While watching the Simpsons tonight, I heard this:

"I'm Kent Brockman, coming to you live from the storm. My coffee cup lid is gone, long gone!"

Then a stop sign flies in and lodges itself in Kent's head.

Homer, laying on the couch watching this on TV says "Heh, heh, take that liberal media."

There, ya see Tony, there is a liberal media. Homer proves it. Haha.

Just doesn't make sense, does it?

2006-05-06T11:36:00.000-07:00

I applaud Patrick Kennedy (D-RI) for what he did and said on friday. Well, partly anyways. He admitted he has a drug problem and said he will be entering the Mayo Clinic. For this I applaud him. However, there are just too many holes in this story.

At the press conference, Kennedy said he does not remember any part of the early Thursday morning accident, even though he told reporters earlier he had not asked for special treatment when police found him. Interesting.

"I simply do not remember getting out of bed, being pulled over by the police, or being cited for three driving infractions. That's not how I want to live my life, and it's not how I want to represent the people of Rhode Island."

He went on to say: "I am deeply concerned about my reaction to the medication.... I know that I need help."

So, either he had a bad reaction to the medicine, which cause all of this OR he's addicted to the drugs, but took them anyways. This is where the problem is, he's somewhere in between. On one hand he says that it was just an accident, but on the other hand he says he has a drug problem. If that is the case, which he says, then he surely was not just sleep driving as he claims. He knew he had a problem, yet got in the car anyways. This is all presuming he wasn't drinking, which it seems is not true. His story is just full of conflictions.

This begs the other question, even if he was not given a DWI for the presence of alcohol, why has he not been given a DUI? He was under the influence, whether that was drugs or alcohol. From my understanding, anyone else would have at least been cited for Driving Under the Influence (even if it was just prescriptions).

Reports are saying that Kennedy was seen at a Washington bar before the crash.

Anyways, it would just be nice if this story got the same lip service as the Cheney accident, although this seems far worse to me. Cheney's I could see being an accident. Even if he was sleep driving, clearly he knew he had a problem and did nothing about it before this happened.

Oh well, such is life with a liberal media.

Posted in: Patrick Kennedy, Cheney, Drunk driving, DWI

Some numbers that make me happy

2006-05-06T11:14:00.000-07:00

Bush's approval rating is up to 38% according to the latest Fox Poll.

Thirty-six percent approve of the job Democrats in Congress are doing and 49 percent disapprove. Republicans rate about the same: 35 percent approve and 53 percent disapprove. The democrats have lost ground and the republicans have gained ground in this area over the last couple of months.

The economy created 138,000 new jobs in April. While this number is lower than expected, it actually may be a good thing. The dow rose 138 points on friday because of speculation that slowing job creation may cause the feds to stop raising interest rates.

The Dow closed at a 6 year high friday, and is about 150 points away from an all time high.

All these positive economic numbers despite skyrocketing gas prices. Amazing.

Unemployment is at 4.8%. Pretty much anyone who wants a job can get a job.

A recent poll found that around the world, Fox is the most trusted name in news. 11 percent of Americans named Fox News - more than any other news source in the U.S. when asked which news source they trusted most.

Posted in: Bush, Fox News, 138,000, Economy, Approval Rating, Fox News

Kennedy driving drunk?

2006-05-05T07:20:00.000-07:00

Representative Patrick Kennedy (D-RI), son of Ted Kennedy, drove to work at 2:45 AM Thursday morning, claiming he was racing to vote on the floor of Congress. He drove to the Capital and ended up crashing into a barrier. Witnesses said he did not have his headlights on and seemed to be stumbling quite a bit when he got out of his car.

Police said they saw the car swerve before the accident, and it appeared that Kennedy was intoxicated. When questioned, Kennedy told police he was late for a vote, even though the final vote of the night took place six hours earlier. Reportedly, the police officers smelt alcohol on his breath.

Here's the interesting part of all of this. Apparently, just as he was about to be given a breathalizer test, capital police came in and said they would take it from there. They then drove Kennedy home without giving a breathalizer test. Preferential treatment? I think so.

Kennedy later stated that he was taking "prescribed" amounts of Phenergan and Ambien. Apparently this is what led him to drive this way.

Kennedy said "At no time before the incident did I consume any alcohol."

Ya know, I can understand why people were upset that Cheney did not get a breathalizer test. He probably did have a beer or two. But, in my eyes, this situation is far worse. Anyone else in America would have been given a breathalizer when presumably driving drunk. But not Kennedy.

The democratic blogs should be outraged, right? I seem to recall them being very upset that Cheney was not given a breathalizer after he shot a man in the face. Instead he went home, presumably to sleep off the alcohol...or so the democratic blogs think. However, I'll bet they won't be writing about this one too much.

Just interesting how life works, isn't it?

Posted in: Kennedy, drunk driving, democrat

Starting a new site

2006-05-05T07:15:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Tony from Bush the Idiot for coming up with the name for my new science site. Despite the fact that I don't like the blog name, or some of his views, I do sometimes agree with him and he is usually fair. Head on over there for a look at what he thinks.

In case any of you don't know, I am studying to become a high school science teacher and have an abiding love for science. I like nothing more than sharing how awesome science is with other people (even though they usually don't care).

So, if you have any interest in science, please stop by my new site: The Scientific Report. I only have one post up now, but I hope to start really getting it going in the next week or two.

Science Blog

2006-05-03T16:22:00.000-07:00

So, I'm finally ready to create a science blog. It's something I've been wanting to do for a long time now, but I'm finally going to get it done. The only problem is that I need a good name.

Every address I type into blogger is already taken. I'm thinking something along the lines of sciencedaily, scienceman, interestingscience, etc. But I just can't find anything good.

So I'm looking for some help. If anyone has any good ideas post a comment and let me know. Thanks in advance for your help.

Your prize for helping me? Nothing but praise and a link to your site/blog if I don't already have it up.

Now this is what I'm talkin about

2006-05-03T11:03:00.000-07:00

Once again, I'm a couple days late on this, but better late than never.

Democratic senator Joe Biden of the foreign relations committee, has proposed dividing Iraq into three seperate regions, with a central government in Baghdad. In an op-ed piece, he wrote that the idea "is to maintain a united Iraq by decentralizing it, giving each ethno-religious group ... room to run its own affairs, while leaving the central government in charge of common interests."

I don't necessarily agree with this plan, but at least it's an idea. So much from the democrats lately, all we hear is more rhetoric. Bash Bush, say he's doing a bad job, but provide no solid ideas. Or provide ideas that Bush is pretty much already doing. Thus, I applaud the dems (or at least biden) for trying.

He also said this though: President Bush "must direct the military to design a plan for withdrawing and redeploying our troops from Iraq by 2008 (while providing for a small but effective residual force to combat terrorists and keep the neighbors honest)."

Why would you ever say this? It's clear that the terrorists are just waiting us out. Hell, they've TOLD US that this is their plan. They know that eventually we will (we actually already have in general) lose our resolve. Luckily Bush hasn't given in as easy as the rest of the country. So, why would we play right into their plan? Even if it is our plan to mostly move out by then, we certainly shouldn't be saying it outright.

Anyways, props to the dems for finally giving an idea. Maybe next they can try an idea that will actually work!

Posted in: Biden, Bush, Iraq, Politics

If only Clinton would have done something...

2006-05-03T10:48:00.000-07:00

maybe we wouldn't be in this situation now. The situation I am illuding to is the standoff with Iran.

From Newsmax:

A secret 1995 agreement between the Clinton administration and then-Russian Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin was supposed to halt the transfer of nuclear technology and military equipment to Iran.
But when the Russians continued to help build Iran's premier nuclear facility at Bushehr, the White House refused to impose sanctions.
Under the accord hammered out by Chernomyrdin and then-Vice President Al Gore, Russia had agreed to end all weapons sales to Iran by Dec. 31, 1999.
But after uncovering the confidential arrangement, the New York Times reported that the deal "essentially exempted Russia from American sanctions on arms deliveries to Iran [and] emboldened Moscow to ignore other agreements, particularly on sales of missile and nuclear technology to Iran."
"It was one more of these strange deals that Gore and Chernomyrdin had that were kept from people," complained Gordon C. Oehler, who directed the Nonproliferation Center of the Central Intelligence Agency until he retired in 1998.
Oehler told the Times: "If this had been disclosed to Congress, the committees would have gone berserk, absolutely. But the larger problem is, if you have these under-the-table deals that give the Russians permission to do these things, it gives the signal that it's O.K. to do other things."
Within a few years the Russians reportedly had 600 scientists working at the Bushehr nuclear plant.

If only he had actually done something. Seems to be a theme from the Clinton years.

Posted in: Clinton, Iran, Bush, Russia

Oh, the HORROR

2006-05-03T07:42:00.000-07:00

Haha, I like this:

Although I laugh at this picture, I think it personifies the feelings of the illegals marching through the streets. I just can't comprehend how they think they can march through our streets, stopping traffic, demanding their rights. I think I turn against them more and more everytime I see crap like this. Polls seem to indicate the rest of the nation agrees with me. Who do they think they are to threaten America?

Posted in: Immigration Reform, Bush

Nanotubes are awesome

2006-05-03T07:18:00.000-07:00

First of all, let me tell you that nanotubes are awesome. This picture shows how you can wrap nanotubes around each other to make an extremely strong "rope."

Each of the rods you see represents a bond between two carbon atoms. Carbon is freakin fantastic. I won't get in to the properties that make carbon so awesome, but this awesome element can be seen all around you in many forms. Carbon is the basis for our life. Carbon is found in the CO2 that you breath out which is necessary for photosynthesis to make O2 for you to breath in. Diamonds, one of the hardest substances known to man (behind nanotubes), are made from pure carbon (well hopefully). Carbon forms in to tiny sheets that give graphite its phenomenal and unique lubricant properties. Anyways, enough about my love of carbon (can you tell I like science?).

So, back to nanotubes. Here's some properties:
- Composed purely of carbon
- Are tiny tubes about 10,000 times thinner than a human hair. Nanotubes are named for their size. They are on the order of the nano magnitude (1 nanometer=ten to the negative nine meters (meaning one billionth of a meter))
- Consist of interlinking and rolled up hexagon carbon structures
- Were discovered in 1991
- Have the potential for use as minuscule wires or in ultrasmall electronic devices, optics, construction, etc.
- Efficient conductors of heat
- Are difficult to make
- IBM announced this month that they have made an electronic circuit out of nanotubes

Anyways, the list could go on, but back to the main purpose of this post. Nanotubes can act as "thermal velcro" to reduce computer chip heating. This is a big problem as computer chips have gotten big, more powerful, and faster. They simply heat up too much, lowering their capacity to do work. As I said above, nanotubes are efficient conductors of heat.

From ScienceDaily:

Engineers have created carpets made of tiny cylinders called carbon nanotubes to enhance the flow of heat at a critical point where computer chips connect to cooling devices called heat sinks, promising to help keep future chips from overheating.
Researchers are trying to develop new types of "thermal interface materials" that conduct heat more efficiently than conventional materials, improving overall performance and helping to meet cooling needs of future chips that will produce more heat than current microprocessors. The materials, which are sandwiched between silicon chips and the metal heat sinks, fill gaps and irregularities between the chip and metal surfaces to enhance heat flow between the two.
Purdue University researchers have made several new thermal interface materials with carbon nanotubes, including a Velcro-like nanocarpet.
"The bottom line is the performance that we see with nanotubes is significantly better than comparable state-of-the-art commercial materials," said Timothy Fisher, an associate professor of mechanical engineering who is leading the research. "Carbon nanotubes have excellent heat-conduction properties, and our ability to fabricate them in a controlled manner has been instrumental in realizing this application."

Posted in: Nanotubes, Computer, IBM

Hubble turns 16

2006-05-03T07:10:00.000-07:00

Happy birthday dear friend. Oh how thee have long brought the world fantastic images of unforeseen places. How thee have advanced knowledge of scientists and explorers around the world. Oh how it is too sad that you will be decommissioned in 2007 due to Bush's push to return to the moon. We will miss thee.

OK, enough of that. On to this:

To celebrate the NASA-ESA Hubble Space TelescopeÂs 16 years of success, the two space agencies are releasing a mosaic image of the magnificent starburst galaxy, Messier 82 (M82). It is the sharpest wide-angle view ever obtained of M82, a galaxy remarkable for its webs of shredded clouds and flame-like plumes of glowing hydrogen blasting out from its central regions.
Located 12 million light-years away, M82 appears high in the northern spring sky in the direction of the constellation Ursa Major, the Great Bear. It is also called the "Cigar Galaxy" because of the elongated elliptical shape produced by the tilt of its starry disk relative to our line of sight.

See the top 25 images taken by the Hubble here.

Posted in: Bush, Hubble Space Telescope

Scientific Journals now available in Iraq

2006-05-03T07:06:00.000-07:00

From ScienceDaily:

University of Maryland scientist D.J. Patil and colleagues have built a digital library, making 17,422 journal titles available to Iraqi scientists.

"If Iraqi scientists and engineers are going to be able help rebuild and stabilize their country as a peaceful democracy, they have to be able to access current knowledge in their fields," said Patil, a mathematician and scientist with the university's Institute for Physical Science and Technology.

"Physically building such a library in Iraq would be prohibitively expensive, take a long time, and even if you could build it, scientists would not be able to access it easily or safely," added Patil. "We realized that building a digital library would avoid these difficulties, and we recognized that such a digital library could also serve as a model for other developing countries."

The Iraqi Virtual Science Library provides Iraqi engineers, medical personnel, scientists and students with access to full-text technical, online training and educational material, as well as funding opportunities.

The library has been made available to seven Iraqi universities, one research institution and the Ministries of Higher Education and Science & Technology.

Cool.

Posted in: Iraq, Science, Iraqi Virtual Science Library, University of Maryland

Awesome

2006-05-03T06:56:00.000-07:00

America's largest soda vendors have agreed to stop selling non diet soda drinks in elementary and middle schools around the country. Wow, what a shocker. These things have been in schools since I was in about the 5th grade, over a decade, and probably more. Schools get paid big bucks to have these machines. They will of course still have them, but will be serving only water, unsweetened juice and low-fat milks.

On the other hand, some say that students should have the freedom to drink what they would like. However, students often don't make the best decisions. With parents not having control over what their children do at schools, and with rising childhood obesity, I think this is a great sign.

Awesome.

Posted in: School, Student, Soda

As I've said before, Ted Kennedy's an idiot

2006-05-02T18:46:00.000-07:00

From Bill O'Reilly:

Why is Senator Kennedy blocking a bill that would protect American kids?
The proposed law is called "The ChildHelp National Registry Act," and it would mandate that federal authorities keep a database of convicted child predators and child abusers.
Of course, that would help local authorities, who could tap into the computerized information and instantly know who is in the neighborhood. Right now, child predators can roam from state to state, and the cops are blind to their backgrounds.
So... does anyone oppose that proposed law? Anyone? Only fools and people who don't care about kids would object to the national database.
But in the Senate, a vote on the bill is being held up by Ted Kennedy and Harry Reid, the Minority Leader in the Senate. Mr. Reid says that Kennedy was promised a vote on a new "hate crimes" bill, and that's why the child protection bill is not going to the floor for a vote. Apparently, Senator Kennedy wants to attach some kind of hate crime legislation to the ChildHelp bill.
With all due respect to Kennedy and Reid... this is politics at its worst. There is no need to burden the ChildHelp bill with any other piece of legislation. The child bill should stand alone. If the hate crimes bill is a good law, that should stand alone as well.
Here's a no spin message to Senators Reid and Kennedy. Every day that you guys dither around, thousands of children get hurt in America. Every day that local law enforcement does not have the information it should have, predators are more free to rape and kill.
Sometimes the people-the folks-have to send a message to Washington, and this is one of those times. We are posting information on BillOReilly.com so you can get a message to Ted Kennedy and Harry Reid. If they put the bill to a vote, it will pass; if they continue to hold it up, more kids will get hurt.
Simple.

Seems simple enough to me. So that begs the question of why they are letting this bill stall. I agree with O'Reilly here....if Kennedy actually thinks this other add on bill is worth while, then why would it not be a seperate bill? Usually they only add on things when they believe it wouldn't stand a chance on its own. Stupid Kennedy, oh and Reid too.

Tags: Democrat, Reid, Kennedy, Childhelp, O'Reilly

What a dumb idea

2006-05-02T18:10:00.000-07:00

Well, the Republicans have proposed giving out a $100 gas rebate in order to offset the rising costs of gasoline. I know I'm several days late on this, but I'm just getting around to writing about it.

What sense does this make? How are you going to distribute these rebates? Is it fair that people who spend $300 a month on gas get the same money back as someone who spends $30?

It's not so much that it's a bad way to do it (although it is), but the logistics of it just seem like they would be way too complicated for just $100 per person. It just doesn't seem logical to me.

The democrats on the other hand have come out with a plan to decrease gasoline taxes in order to lower prices. This would apparently take effect for a two month period.

Of course all of this is just political rhetoric in the run up to the election. I say this because of the fighting between the dems and repubs on this issue. It's become a game of "my plan saves the american people more than yours." The republicans are saying that their plan saves the average gasoline consumer eight or so months of the democrats plan. That raises the question of just how much the two month democrat plan would actually save anyone. But hey, I think that idea is much better.

Estimates put the republican plan at costing about $10 billion. $10 billion just to save each american 100 bucks. Crazy.

While one GOP senator, John Thune of South Dakota, introduced his own tax holiday bill, most Republicans oppose the idea.

They argue there's no assurance the tax break — which is collected from refiners — will be passed on to consumers at the pump. If the lost revenue from a tax suspension — estimated at $6 billion — is made up by imposing additional taxes on oil companies, as Democrats envision, there's incentive for companies not to pass the savings on to retailers, said critics of the plan.

And the fighting goes on. By the time they figure it out natural gas prices will be the bigger concern.

Tags: Democrat, Republican, Gas, Rebate

Good news from Iraq

2006-05-02T06:55:00.000-07:00

10 terrorists were killed overnight in a raid. Three of those terrorists had suicide belts.

In other news, U.S. forces were apparently very close to catching al zarqawi. Supposedly they had him at some checkpoint or something but did not have the orders to fire. I don't know, sounds weird to me, but that's what I've heard on the news. You'd think if that was the case, then they'd at least follow him and not let him get away.

This all seems like pretty good news right? Some are suggesting that this combined with the fact that zarqawi had to come out with a video showing his face last week means that the terrorists are in desperate times. Who knows, we've heard this sort of thing before, although american deaths are down drastically from six months ago (although they did go back up last month).

Tags: Iraq, Bush, Zarqawi

Kennedy opposes alternative energy---more splits in the Democrats

2006-04-28T06:55:00.000-07:00

From the Washington Post:

Mr. Kennedy, a staunch environmentalist, opposes the Cape Wind project, which will place windmills in the sound's shallows to create electricity for customers in Cape Cod, Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket.
Critics say the Massachusetts Democrat doesn't want the Cape Wind project in his own back yard along with 130 windmills that might clutter the water view of the Kennedy clan's vacation home. Sen. John Kerry, Massachusetts' junior senator and another key green ally, called attempts to derail the project an "insult."

Mr. Young, chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, is lobbying members of a House-Senate conference on the Coast Guard supplemental appropriations bill.
He wants them to add his proposal to require windmills to be set back 1.5 nautical miles from any shipping or ferry lanes. Such a buffer requirement would make the Cape Wind project impossible in such a narrow sound.
"Given the potential dangers of siting one of these wind farms in a busy shipping area, [Mr. Kennedy] thinks it is worth the conferees' consideration," Miss Wagoner said.
However, developers of the Cape Wind project say the legislation is specifically directed at them, would cripple the project economically and is a classic case of the "not in my back yard" (NIMBY) attitude toward developments that serve the common good.
"The NIMBY opponents have spent more than $1 million lobbying in D.C.," says Mark Rodgers, Cape Wind project spokesman. "The Young amendment will kill Cape Wind in one fell swoop, which appears to be the intention.
"It would also impose on the U.S. the most stringent laws in the world on offshore wind energy development," said Mr. Rodgers, who noted that oil drilling rigs are only required to be 500 feet from shipping lanes.
Asked about Mr. Kennedy's opposition to the plan, Mr. Rodgers said, "To say you favor wind power, but not here, where you live in a very windy place, calls into question your real commitment to wind power."

And from the Boston Globe:

The maneuver to stop the wind farm is clearly a backroom deal, and they're going to get called publicly on it," said John Passacantando, executive director of Greenpeace USA. The Democrats are going to kill the first big offshore wind farm in the United States because of their relationship with Ted Kennedy."

The 130-turbine, 24-square-mile cluster of windmills would be about 8 miles from Kennedy's home in Hyannis Port, and he has long opposed it. The Coast Guard bill would give Governor Mitt Romney, another wind farm opponent, the power to veto it, even if the project clears all other hurdles.

Kennedy rejected suggestions that he doesn't like the wind farm because it would be near his Cape home, and said the project probably wouldn't be visible from the Kennedy compound. He said he's against the project because it would create a range of environmental and navigational problems and would hurt tourism, one of the area's key industries.

Haha, clearly this guy is an environmentalist. He actually cares about lowering energy prices for Americans and reducing our dependence on foreign oil, right? In this run up to the election, how can he afford to take this hit?

In this time were we absolutely MUST start taking alternative energy seriously, why are our politicians not doing so? I'm not just saying this because of high gasoline prices. Sure, that is a consideration. But, I think the bigger reason here is to lessen our dependence on foreign oil. In addition to that, some estimates say that we could run out of economically drillable oil in about 35-50 years. That means that if we don't start taking action now, by the time I retire, gas will probably cost upwards of 10 bucks a gallon. I just made up that figure, but it very possibly could be true.

There is so much potential in alternative energy, I just have no idea why we're not taking advantage of it. As more and more alternative energy sources come online, prices for just keep getting cheaper and cheaper. Wind power and solar power cost nowhere near as much as they used to do to increased production and technological advances. So, why are we not tapping these resources?

Seems to be the classic NIMBY case.

Personally, I think wind farms are freakin cool to look at:

Tony over at Bush the Idiot (ok, I don't like the name, but it's fun arguing with him....and occasionaly he's right), who likes Kennedy actually called him out on this one. Way to go Tony!

This story can also be seen over at GOP and College and Right From Left.

Tags: Farms, Ted Kennedy, Alternative energy

Interesting Exchange

2006-04-28T06:43:00.000-07:00

From Michelle Malkin an intresting exchange between Scott McClellan and Washington Post reporter Jim VandeHei:

Q [WaPo reporter Jim VandeHei] It's come to my attention that there's been requests -- this is a serious question -- to turn these TVs onto a station other than Fox, and that those have been denied. My question would be, is there a White House policy that all government TVs have to be tuned to Fox?
MR. McCLELLAN: Never heard of any such thing. My TVs are on four
different channels at all times.

Q Because you have four different TVs. But every time I've ever been --

MR. McCLELLAN: Every TV in the White House also has channels every --
has a split screen, where they can --

Q VandeHei Well, they always seem to be tuned to Fox, and there's been requests, and these are paid for by taxpayer dollars. And my understanding is that you guys have to watch Fox on Air Force One. Is that true?

MR. McCLELLAN: First time I've ever heard of it. First time you've
brought it to my attention, meaning the first time the press corps has
brought it to my attention. In fact, I've watched other channels on here.

Q VandeHei There's one --

MR. McCLELLAN: Hang on, Jim, come on. I've watched other channels on
here, so I don't know where you're hearing that. But it's the first time
anyone in the press has raised that question with me.

Q VandeHei You've watched other channels other than Fox?

MR. McCLELLAN: On here, yes, sure.

Q VandeHei I've never seen -- they're always turned to Fox, which a lot of people consider a Republican-leaning network.

Q VandeHei Scott, is it one -- on the airplane, is it one for all? I mean, if
it's tuned for Fox here, is it Fox everywhere?

MR. McCLELLAN: I think that certain areas may be interconnected, but
I'll have to double-check which.

Q VandeHei Is yours off, wherever you are?

MR. McCLELLAN: Well, the conference room, or the senior staff office,
the staff office, they're different TVs, and you can switch to different
channels. I'm not sure if some of these in the back are connected to
some of the others that are watching right here, right now. It doesn't
look like it to me. I've never known anyone that's raised a complaint
about a request from back here to watch a different channel.

Q VandeHei I'm officially raising it and officially complaining about it.

MR. McCLELLAN: Well, I'm going to go see if we can change the channel
for you. Have you called up?

Q [Agence France Presse photographer Tim Sloan] I was the Fox victim, and I was told -- the quote was, "No," when I
asked for CNN.

MR. McCLELLAN: I don't know who you talked to, so -- it didn't come to
my attention. You don't know who you talked to either?

Q Well, the magic people at the other end off the phone.

MR. McCLELLAN: The magic people at the other end of the phone. Well,
I'll see if this cabin is --

Q I was told, "We don't watch CNN here, you can only watch Fox."

MR. McCLELLAN: As I said, it's hard to respond to something when I don't
know who it is you talked to.

Q I used the phone back here.

MR. McCLELLAN: I find this all quite amusing, to tell you the truth. I
mean, there are a lot of people on this plane that do watch that channel.

Q I've never been told, no. They're such nice guys up there.

MR. McCLELLAN: First time you brought it to my attention. I'll go see
what we can do on it.

* * * * *

MR. McCLELLAN: We just called up. They're going to be changing it, at
your all's request, to the channel that you requested, which is CNN --
from the press corps.

Q Thanks, Scott.

Cry me a freakin river. Even if this is the case, what business is it of theirs? They are free to chose which channels they would like to watch, are they not?

And don't give me the line "but, but, our tax dollars are paying their sallaries and paying for those TV's and the cable." My response to that? How about when I walk in a damn airport or anywhere here on Mizzou's beautiful campus and see CNN EVERYTIME!! Are these not publicly funded places?

Tags: Michelle Malkin, Scott McLellan, Bush, Washington Post, Fox News, Mizzou

Four bucks a gallon? Oh my!

2006-04-18T17:06:00.000-07:00

Analysts expect us to be paying $3 a gallon this summer, and $4 next summer. Four freaking dollars for a damn gallon of gas. Absolutely ridiculous. How in the hell am I supposed to afford this?

When watching O'reilly tonight, I heard some interesting facts. Gas supplies are at an 8 year high. Yet, gas prices have doubled since 2004. In just two years! DOUBLED. How is this not price gouging? Obviously it doesn't have much to do with supply and demand.

So, how do they get away with this? Excuse after excuse. After Katrina, I could maybe understand a little bit. But then it was the "civil war" in Iraq. Now its apparently Iran and summer. Or just an overall "unsettlement" in the middle east. Bottom line, there will never be a lack of excuses. There will always be something going on in the world that can be a "reason" for higher gas prices. This will never change.

In addition, Exxon-Mobile gave a retiring CEO or some other big wig a $400 million retirement plan. I'm sorry, but no one is worth that. Especially when that money is coming from overpriced gas.

Just like O'Reilly, unless I'm desperate, I will never again buy a drop of Exxon-Mobile oil, and I encourage others to do the same.

Tags: Gas, Oil, Iran, Exxon Mobile, Iran, O'Reilly,

The Iran situation

2006-04-17T07:09:00.000-07:00

How should we deal with Iran? Tough question to say the least.

Iran announced over the weekend that if they are attacked by the US they will unleash battalions of suicide bombers to attack the US and US interests. They put the number at 40,000 that have been trained and are ready to attack.

The question is, can we take them seriously?

From fox news:
Dr. Hassan Abbasi, head of the Centre for Doctrinal Strategic Studies in the Revolutionary Guards, said in a speech that 29 Western targets had been identified: “We are ready to attack American and British sensitive points if they attack Iran’s nuclear facilities.” He added that some of them were “quite close” to the Iranian border in Iraq.

Meanwhile, the stupid Brits have announced that they will play no part in a military strike. What an idiotic move. I'm definitely not advocating a strike or invasion, but even if they don't want to its just plain stupid to announce that. They've effectively taken that bargaining chip off the table. Morons.

So, where do we go from here. I tell ya what, I think Iran's got us almost in checkmate. An invasion at this point is almost certainly out of the question. Military strikes probably wouldn't do too much good except slow down the process some. So that leaves sanctions, which the UN seems to be doing an effective job at dragging their feet. All this is going to combine to give either a US led strike on Iran, or Iran getting the bomb a few years down the line. What's the civilized world going to do about all this? Who knows, but probably not enough.

Now, where's Bush's role in all of this? He was criticized all over the news shows this weekend for leaving too much of this up to the Europeans. So, let me get this right, he was criticized in the run up to Iraq for not getting enough input from Europe, but now when he tries to fix that, he just gets more criticism. He just can't win...now you know why his pole numbers are in the shitter.

Tags: Iran, Bush, 40,000 suicide bombers, UN

Meredith Vieira fires back

2006-04-12T10:01:00.000-07:00

Set to become the co host of NBC's "Today," Meredith is firing back at her critics who claim she is a radical liberal. Perhaps they were making those statements because she is?

She marched in an anti-war rally back in august of 2004.

Earlier that year, she proclaimed, "Everything's been built on lies. Everything! I mean the entire pretext for war."

With war impending in March of 2003, Vieira argued that anti-war protests "should be consistent and repeated every day, I believe."

Here's her statement on the matter: "I'm an independent. I'm not a Democrat or a Republican. I'm not particularly interested in politics, truth be told. Every time you read the paper, somebody lies about something [about the war.] I've been vocal about it."

Haha, give me a break.

I thought reporters and anchors were supposed to be unbiased? Taking part in an anti-war rally, then bragging about it? That's just absolutely ridiculous.

My girlfriend is the producer of a morning news show that covers something like 20 counties here in central Missouri. She's not even on air, but she's not allowed to do things such as go to protests or even sign a petition. Yet, the woman who is prepared to take over the Today show does? Doesn't make much sense to me!

Tags: Meredith Vieira, Liberal, Media, Today, Iraq

Tom Cruise has adult sized pacifier made for Holmes

2006-04-10T07:03:00.000-07:00

As I have stated previously, Tom Cruise is a quack. Being a scientologist, he doesn't believe in the woman making any noise during childbirth.

In order to prevent this from happening, he had an adult sized pacifier made for Katie Holmes.

"He commissioned an adult-sized 'binky' for her to clench between her teeth, hoping that it'll squelch her screams," a source tells the mag. "In keeping with a Scientology silent birth, Tom is prepared to do whatever it takes to muffle Katie's moans and groans during the delivery."

While in Germany, Cruise said "Katie could be having our baby at any minute." Um, don't you think that means you shouldn't be over in Germany promoting your movies?

So let me get this right: You're not going to allow your soon to be wife to make any noise during childbirth, presumably not let her have any drugs, and you're a thousand miles away promoting your movies? Can this guy be serious?

Tags: Tom Cruise, Holmes, Scientology Pacifier

Economy Adds 211,000 Jobs in March; Unemployment Rate at 4 1/2 Year Low

2006-04-07T09:35:00.000-07:00

The post title says it all here.

Apparently an "accelerating economic expansion is putting companies in the hiring mood, brightening prospects for job seekers." Well, that's good news, right? Not only that, but the jobs were spread out over virtually all sectors of the economy.

Bush said, "Some are now proposing that we raise taxes either by repealing the tax cuts or letting them expire," he said. "These are the same politicians who told us that letting the American people keep more of their own money would be reckless and irresponsible. They were wrong then and they are wrong now."

But, hey, the economy's still in the dump, right?

Does anyone here think Bush's approval ratings will go up because of this? I certainly don't. He gets absolutely no credit for anything good, and takes all the hits for anything bad.

Tags: Bush Economy, Taxes

MSM has fun with headlines

2006-04-07T09:16:00.000-07:00

Ever since the story broke yesterday about Bush apparently giving the OK on the release of information pertaining to Iraqi weapons, the MSM has been all over it. That's fine and all, but their coverage of it is just terrible.

First, as the title of this post states, they like to have fun with headlines. Example, on the homepages of both CNN and Fox News, I've seen headlines saying "Bush OK'd leak." This is incredibly misleading, because most people know this story only for the fact that Plame's identity was revealed. So, just by looking at the headline, most people would assume that it says that Bush the ok'd Plame leak. Only when you click on the story does the full story come out "Bush authorized leaks ABOUT IRAQ."

Secondly, while watching Good Morning America this morning, the host was talking with their lead white house correspondent about this Bush leak story. Their entire coverage was obviously one sided and biased. The anchor asked the correspondent if this leak gave any risk to national security. He responded that he didn't think it did, but he's sure many people will be going back through that report to check. Seems reasonable, right?

A question or two later, the host referred to the "fact" that Bush's leak did in fact put the security of the nation at risk. Are you kidding me? How ridiculous.

Other coverage of note:
NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams said "There is an allegation tonight that President Bush authorized the leak of government information -- sensitive, classified information about Iraq -- in order to get back at a critic of his administration and the build-up to war." Referring to Libby's charge, Williams asserted: "If what he is saying is true, it would mean he was used, in effect, by the President and Vice President to leak secrets. It is a story of much intrigue, big names, and potentially very high stakes."

Come on, that's absolutely ridiculous, full of deception and lies.

And this one is for Tony over at BTI who calls Hardball "Republican Softball."
From newsbusters:

That didn't take long! Back in the MSM's Watergate heyday, it took a while for a steady drumbeat of revelations, stories and allegations to gather sufficient momentum. The pace has apparently quickened in the modern liberal-media world. On this morning's Today show, speaking of the allegation that President Bush authorized the disclosure of information by Scooter Libby, Matt Lauer asked Chris Matthews: "scale of 1 to 10, [where] 10 is a deal-ender, where does this fall?"

Matthews didn't hesitate: "heading to 10."

Even Lauer seemed taken aback: "Really, that big?"

For good measure, Matthews later analogized VP Cheney to Henry II having put out a hit leading to the murder of a dissenter in his administration.

Tags: Plame CIA Leak, Good Morning America, Libby Matthews, Liberal Media, Bush

McKinney apologizes while grand jury meets

2006-04-06T12:52:00.000-07:00

In an attempt to save her ass, McKinney apologized this morning on the floor of the House.

"There should not have been any physical contact. I am sorry that this misunderstanding happened at all, and I regret this escalation, and I apologize," she stated.

A misunderstanding? Umm, no, sorry. You refused to stop after being asked to do so three times. You then hit a police officer, there's no misunderstanding that.

Three points here. First, she did not apologize to the police officer she hit. Secondly, it took over a week to even get to this point. Third, she did not apologize for escalating the situation by crying racism.

She could have taken the high road by saying "ya know, I was mad, and I was wrong. And for that I am truly sorry both to the Congress which I have disgraced and to the police officer I hit." That's something that I and I think most Americans could have understood. We all get mad. Did she do that? No. Instead, she's made excuses and called the officer racist.

While that was taking place, a federal grand jury was meeting to hear both sides of the story.

"I'm troubled by all the economics going into this, and the U.S. Attorney's office here has a lot of other crimes to look at. ... But on the other hand, the member's not acknowledging at all that what she did was incorrect and now she's putting up the smoke and mirrors that we're racist and it was done because she's black. That's wrong." That's from former U.S. Capitol Police Chief Terrence Gainer, whose last day on the job was Wednesday. He believes prosecutors should bring a case against McKinney.

Apparently, not only is this racism, but McKinney says "that [this is] much ado about a hairdo," McKinney told FOX News on Wednesday. She also has claimed that her being stopped is due to racial profiling.

So, wait, is it racism or because you changed your hairdo?

Some charge that she blames everything on racism. "She has a long history of racism," DeLay, R-Texas, told FOX News. "Everything is racism with her. This is incredible arrogance that sometimes hits these members of Congress, but especially Cynthia McKinney."

Just as I was wrapping up this post, I saw this on the news. Details are sketchy, but here's what we know right now:

As McKinney was entering the building to give her apology statement this morning, a reporter got in an argument/shoving match with someone. McKinney's personal security guard reportedly said he would "throw the reporters ass in jail." Doesn't seem so bad, right? McKinney hasn't don't anything else wrong, right? Ohhhh, wait. You cannot use private security on capital hill. So now we have another investigation for Cynthia McKinney. Strike two for Cynthia.

Tags: McKinney Congress, Racism

Compromise on Immigration Deal Reached

2006-04-06T12:38:00.000-07:00

Well, this morning, in a bipartisan news conference, a compromise was announced on the immigration issue. It is reportedly already supported by a majority of Republicans and many key democrats. President Bush also is thought to be on board. While this sounds like great news, it is only the Senate version of the Bill. Compromise will still have to be made with the House Bill.

Here's what the compromise entails:

— Illegals in the United States less than two years would be required to leave immediately. If caught once, they would be subject to a misdemeanor, and if caught twice they would be charged with a felony. About 2 million to 3 million people fall into this category.

— Illegals in the United States between two and five years would have go to one of 16 ports of entry in the United States, determined by the U.S. Visit program, and declare themselves. They would be given a temporary visa and allowed back to their U.S. residences immediately. Once in the United States, they could apply for the citizenship path spelled out in the McCain-Kennedy bill. About 3 million to 4 million people fall into this category.

— Illegals who could prove they have been in the United States for more than five years would immediately be given guest worker status and would get on the 11-year path to citizenship. They would not have to declare themselves as guest workers. This path would be open to about 5 million illegals living in the United States.

From my initial analysis, I think this is a great compromise, and one that most people can agree on.

When I heard of this compromise, I couldn't help but think that this is how government should work.

Tags: Immigration Reform, Senate, Bush

Moussaoui laughed as Giuliani wept

2006-04-06T12:27:00.000-07:00

Rudy Giuliani gave testimony today in the Moussaoui trial. He recounted his emotions, feelings, and actions on that devastating day. We of course did not get to see it, but I can imagine it was quite stirring testimony.

As they were showing video of 9/11, Zacarias Moussaoui laughed. He laughed at the sight of people jumping from buildings, of the devastation and horror of that day. It just sickens me to think about it.

After that, I'm not sure he has any chance, or even desire, to avoid the death penalty.

Tags: Moussaoui, 9/11, Giuliani, death penalty

McKinney cries racism

2006-04-05T07:19:00.000-07:00

In case you haven't heard, Representative Cynthia McKinney (D-GA), 51, scuffled with a police officer on March 29 when she entered a House office building without her identifying lapel pin and did not stop when asked. Several police sources said the officer, who was not identified, asked her three times to stop. When she kept going, he placed a hand somewhere on her and she hit him, according to the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Her supporters called the incident "political" and not "criminal." I'm sorry, but when you hit a police officer who is just trying to do his job, it certainly is criminal. When she entered the building without her lapel pin and without stopping after being asked to do so three times, she was a security threat. I don't care if she thinks the police officer should have recognized her. That's not his job. His job is to make sure no one that enters that building that shouldn't be there and no one gets through without the officer being sure they are a member of congress or getting searched. It's just that simple.

My question is, why in the hell was she not arrested? Liberals cried foul constantly when Cheney was not arrested (for an accident by the way). Yet, this woman who hits a police officer is not arrested? Why is she being held to a different standard? It doesn't matter if a police officer lays a hand on me, I still cannot hit him/her. And if I did, I would be sitting in jail for a good long time. Why should she be any different?

"Do I have to contact the police every time I change my hairstyle? How do we account for the fact that when I wore my braids every day for 11 years, I still faced this problem, primarily from certain white police officers," McKinney says.

I just love how immediately she makes this situation all about race. This security guard is responsible for the lives of each and every person in that building. If someone is entering who has not shown the proper credentials or passed through the metal detector, it is his job to pursue the situation. From the reports, this is exactly what happened. She got mad because she was late for a meeting, and hit a police officer.

Speaking of fair treatment, that brings up another point. This whole incident never would have happened if congress(wo)men had to go through metal detectors just like everyone else. The people in charge of protecting the American public can't take a minute to go through a metal detector which is designed to keep them safe and our halls of Congress running? Doesn't make much sense to me.

Tags: McKinney, Congress, Police Officer, Racism

24 Wisconsin communities vote for Iraq withdrawl

2006-04-05T07:01:00.000-07:00

24 of 32 Wisconsin communities approved refurendums calling for the pullout of US forces from Iraq.

This of course is absolutely meaningless and was purely a symbolic gesture.

Most of the referendums asked if the voters supported withdrawing the troops immediately, and Evansville also had one urging support of President Bush, which voters rejected.

Measures such as this have been done in other states, which apparently served as the model for Wisconsin.

"They have seven months to listen to us, to the voters and to do the right thing," she said. "The people have spoken. This is what democracy looks like."

"The morale of soldiers _ and their safety _ could dip when they hear about such referendums passing", said Bill Richardson, treasurer of Vote No To Cut And Run, a group that opposed the measures. "It's a political statement and it's hurting people and it could cost lives," said Richardson, 63, a one-time bandmaster in the Wisconsin Army National Guard.

Supporters shouldn't be too pleased with the results, said John McAdams, an associate professor of political science at Marquette University. Victory margins in many of the liberal-leaning cities were lower than rates won by Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry in 2004, meaning swing voters haven't been swayed by anti-war sentiment, he said.

I guess we'll see in six months.

Tags: Wisconsin, Iraq, Pullout, Troops

More Protests in Paris

2006-04-04T10:13:00.000-07:00

I'm currently watching some of the protests in Paris. All I'm seeing just reminds me how happy I am to live in this country. It's absolutely sickening what they're showing. A few minutes ago they cut to a scene where a guy was laying down on the ground, appearing to be unconscious. A man came over and kicked this defenseless man square in the head. A large group of people gathered around the fallen man. After about 20 seconds, this group started fighting.

In addition to that, they also showed video of a group of people throwing rocks and things at photographers. Several times they even ran up to them in an attempt at hitting them. What sense does this make? The photographers seemed to be doing nothing wrong.

They were also reporting that mobs of people were walking around stealing cell phones, wallets, etc. I guess they knew this because reporters and photographers were common targets.

Every live video seems to show people beating each other up, seemingly for no reason. This doesn't even include their main target, the police.

It just disgusts me. What a show of how despicable humankind can be.

And people here in our own country still complain about how awful the economy is. Let me tell ya, our recent recession was nothing compared to what's going on in France. The unemployment for younger people over there is over 20%!! Just remember, as much as Bush haters complain about our economy (which is actually rather strong right now and has been for a couple years), we still have it pretty damn good. This is why I'm proud to be an American.

Tags: Paris, Protest, France, Riot

Wind energy prices pass key milestone

2006-04-03T07:21:00.000-07:00

There is one really good thing about rising gas prices....people are finally realizing that alternative and renewable energy sources are the way to go. While I'm definitely not some crazy environmentalist, I would like to see more money put into renewable energy such as wind, wave, biofuels, etc.

Wind energy demand has apparently been booming since prices for this renewable energy source recently became cheaper than natural gas. Certainly natural gas is not the cheapest source of energy, but this is a milestone none the less.

"In Colorado, Xcel Energy is the state’s largest electricity supplier. Xcel’s 33,000 Windsource customers, who until late 2005 were paying $6 more each month for their electricity, are now paying slightly less than those using conventional electricity, which comes mostly from natural gas and coal. To meet fast-growing demand, Xcel is currently soliciting proposals from wind developers for up to 775 megawatts of new wind power generation, enough to supply 232,000 Colorado homes with electricity."

Here's another novel idea, ranchers leasing land to power companies to make some additional profit: "With a large, advanced-design wind turbine generating easily $100,000 worth of electricity per year, even a 3-percent royalty would earn ranchers $3,000 a year from leasing a quarter-acre of ranchland. And they can still run cattle on the land. If the proposed project is approved as expected, these 30 or so ranchers will have an average of seven turbines each, yielding roughly $21,000 a year in additional income. A decade from now, there may be thousands of ranchers who will be earning more selling electricity than they do selling cattle."

Just as a side note, about a year ago, I saw one of the blades to a wind generator on the back of a truck driving down I-70. They are HUGE!

Tags: Wind, LA, Gas Prices, Colorado

Immigration protests

2006-03-28T10:46:00.000-08:00

So, I'm sure most of you know by now about the massive protests in LA a few days ago. I have a problem with that though.

Some of the things I heard on the media from the protestors:

"We're Americans too." Um, sorry, but no you're not. You're here illegally, you're NOT an American. Hopefully soon it will be a felony for you to be here.

"But we pick your food." You don't have to. I would be delighted to pay more for my potatoes, apples, etc. if it meant that an American was picking it.

"Bush is the worlds worst President." Yeah, I've heard that one already. Dont like it? Then go home!

Here's my other problem with this. We have half a million illegal aliens all in the same spot, basically saying "Hey, we're all here illegally." My question is this: why in the hell did they not start arresting them? Probably 95% of the people there are not Americans, and snuck into this country. They have NO right to protest!!!! Why are they allowed to do such and not be arrested?

Don't get me wrong, I am all for immigration. That is what this country was founded on, and what sets us apart from the rest. That said, I am for LEGAL immigration. Maybe if the Mexicans all didn't sneak across the border they wouldn't have a quota of zero, and could actually come here legally. Hopefully this will be the case someday soon.

Once again, it may not be the most popular move, but at least Bush is trying to do something about this situation.

Tags: Illegal alien, LA, Bush, Protest, Immigration, Reform

Rice warns against delays on Iran resolution

2006-03-24T07:36:00.000-08:00

There can't be any stalling," Rice said in response to a question about U.S. efforts to get Russia and China to sign on to a strongly worded rebuke to Tehran.

To no ones surprise, Russia and China have refused to back a UN Security Council statement demanding Iran suspend uranium enrichment.

Does anyone else see this as absoultely ridiculous? How long is all this UN action going to take just to get a simple resolution? When you step away from all the little things flying around in the news, this is one of the most important events of our time. This is something that will be written about in history books. All this political crap that we see on a daily basis won't. This is something that can and will directly affect the future's of not only Americans, but the world as well.

So, again I ask, how much longer will we have to wait?

Tags: Iran, Nuclear, Bush, UN, resolution, Rice

250 year old turtle dies

2006-03-24T07:29:00.000-08:00

Credited as being one of the world's oldest creatures, a giant tortoise died at a zoo in India. 250 years? WOW! That's quite a long time for an animal to live.

Saddam's connections to Bin Laden becoming more clear

2006-03-24T06:55:00.000-08:00

Didn't believe it? Still don't believe it? Well I'm sure the MSM isn't helping to make that any more clear, are they?

"SADDAM HUSSEIN'S REGIME PROVIDED FINANCIAL support to Abu Sayyaf, the al Qaeda-linked jihadist group founded by Osama bin Laden's brother-in-law in the Philippines in the late 1990s, according to documents captured in postwar Iraq. An eight-page fax dated June 6, 2001, and sent from the Iraqi ambassador in Manila to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Baghdad, provides an update on Abu Sayyaf kidnappings and indicates that the Iraqi regime was providing the group with money to purchase weapons. The Iraqi regime suspended its support--temporarily, it seems--after high-profile kidnappings, including of Americans, focused international attention on the terrorist group."

From Stephen Hayes, in the 3/27/06 issue of The Weekly Standard.

Then there's this, also from those recovered documents.

"A 1997 document from Iraqi intelligence instructed agencies to keep confidential files away from U.N. teams, and to remove "any forbidden equipment." Saddam's inner circle entertained notions of reviving the programs someday, the newly released documents show. "The factories will remain in our brains," one unidentified participant told Saddam at a meeting, apparently in the early 1990s.

Regarding Fedayeen Saddam in al-Anbar, there is an entry that indicates that there is a group of Iraqi and Saudi Arabians numbering around 3,000 who have gone in an unofficial capacity to Afghanistan and have joined the mujahidin (mujahedeen, or holy warriors) to fight with and aid them in defeating the American Zionist Imperialist attack," the translated document stated.

But the U.S. was still unjustified in going into Iraq, right? That not to mention the fact that we removed an awful dictator, ending years of oppression and freed millions of people.

Tags: Iraq, Saddam, Bush, Documents

Good Morning America pokes back at Bush criticism

2006-03-22T07:18:00.000-08:00

While getting ready this morning, I had Good Morning America on. One of their top stories was how the President took shots at the media yesterday for only reporting the bad news from Iraq. Well, it seemed as though they might actually for once take a fair look at the Iraq situation. That's what it sounded like from the intro anyway.

Then they threw it to one of their reporters over in Iraq. The point of the story was that they were going to present both positive and negative stories and let the viewers decide which one they would report on (through sending in email). Ok, seemed like a good idea, right? So, the reporter starts out with a caution for all viewers. He said something along the lines of "now as we take you through these stories, please remember that 38 reporters have been killed over here in Iraq, and another X amount have been injured. Also lets not forget about (insert name here) who was taken hostage and never heard from again." There was absolutely no point to adding this to the story. It had nothing to do with what the story was supposedly about. This reporter was not even out at the site of the bombings they were about to show.

They then showed about a 2 minute long clip of all the different stories out of Iraq yesterday. Apparently we were supposed to see good stories and bad stories and be able to decide for ourselves. Well, they showed bombings, beheadings, and killings for about the first minute and 45 seconds of the story. The end was basically "oh and by the way" soldiers helped build a school and hand out books to children, and there was also a festival that was banned under saddam. This story was absolutely pathetic and showed exactly why Bush was justified in saying what he did yesterday.

The reporter finished the story by adding that the Iraq media shows much more violence and more graphic pictures than the American press does. The way he said it was like saying "well, they're worse than us, so we must be justified." Once again, what did this have to do with the actual story. Oh yeah, nothing!

But, no, there is no liberal media, right?

Tags: Iraq, Liberal media, Bush, Good Morning America

American war casualties down for five straight months

2006-03-20T07:32:00.000-08:00

I figured I would write on this because it certainly isn't something you hear too much on the MSM.

American casualties are down for five straight months. This has never before happened during the entire 36 month long war. In fact, the longest time of decreasing American deaths before this was just two months. Don't believe me? Check out this link.

In October, 96 American deaths were reported. Two-thirds of the way through this month, there have been 16 American deaths. While each death is tragic in its own right, certainly this is a positive sign.

While I don't think these numbers will necessarily stay quite this low, I hope that they will not go much higher than they are currently, and steadily decrease as time goes on.

This positive news also comes with some repurcussions. It seems (and I don't have numbers on this) that Iraqis have been dying more as the violence seems to be shifting to them. If anyone has any numbers on this beyond the "this many Iraqis have died in the war" number, then please post in the comments and I will add it to this post.

Tags: Tags: Iraq, Terrorist, Bush, Casualties

Protest much?

2006-03-20T07:21:00.000-08:00

Attendance at the so called "worldwide anti war protests" was down quite a bit this year. It seems that pessimism and hatred for this war is at an all time high. Yet, people showed up in quite low numbers at protests around the world.

200 marched Sunday down New York's Fifth Avenue, 7,000 through downtown Chicago, 10,000 in Portland, 1,000 in Seoul, 15,000 in London. Still seems like a lot of people, right? Well when you compare those numbers to the millions, yes millions, who protested before and a couple years after the war, these protests don't seem quite so large.

If people are really so outraged over this war, more than they ever have been before, then where are they? I guess staying in their homes watching their favorite biased news source.

Crazy sheehan said "The support for this war has dwindled dramatically," she said. "The rest of America is on board with ending this war." You sure don't speak for me Cindy so why don't you watch what you're saying about the "rest of America."

Tags: Tags: Iraq, Bush, Anniversary, War

Feingold's failure

2006-03-20T07:05:00.000-08:00

Well, as I thought would happen, the democrats are running away from Sen. Russell Feingold's resolution to censure the President. I guess they realize it's a waste of time and taxpayers money to go anywhere with this.

This censure resolution has only brought disgrace to Feingold and the democratic party as a whole. I think this move personifies the thought process for the members of the democratic party. That is "bring the President down, and our stature will surely go up." Well, that's partly turned out to be true, but the democrats definitely have not seized many of the opportunities they've had over the past six or seven months. Ever since katrina, Bush has taken a big hit. Yet, somehow democrats have failed to gain very much ground. The question remains, why?

Well, I have an answer for you. It's that they're just speaking with the same rhetoric that lost them the elections in 2004. They bash the President, say he's moving the country in the wrong direction, yet propose no meaningful ideas to change this. They would rather bring down the President and the democratic party than actually move the country forward.

Tags: Feingold, Censure, Bush, Democrats

Free speech for all

2006-03-17T07:16:00.000-08:00

Take a look at this story which I found today as the headline on CNN's website. It's quite a compelling story of a writer living in Baghdad. I think the most important exchange was on a bus that the writer was riding on the way to work.

As I rode on the bus, most people started out quiet, but within minutes the silence was broken.

"Look! I cannot believe this could happen to us," an old man said pointing his finger at a line of cars that stretched for more than a kilometer outside a gas station -- amazed that an oil-rich country is dealing with an oil crisis for its own people.

"Habibi (my dear), our oil is being stolen by the Americans and the new Iraqi government. What oil are you talking about?" another man replied.

It's not a view shared by most in Iraq, but it is a view that some hold.

Across the aisle, an old woman who sat quietly listening to the exchange in a simple manner brought the debate to an end. "We do not want anything but to live in Iraq safely."

Iraqis often speak of fuel shortages, a lack of electricity, the void in stability, all the things that deeply affect their daily life. Some also speak of the past.

"Life was much better under Saddam," one man said from the back of the bus.

But he couldn't finish the sentence. An angry man at the other end of the bus, turned around and yelled, "What was better under Saddam? Give me one example. Are you talking about the wars Saddam put us through? Or the mass graves that he created during his era? Or the torture centers? Tell me one thing that was better under Saddam and I will applaud you."

As we approach the third anniversary since the fall of that towering statue of Saddam Hussein in Firdos Square in central Baghdad, there are many who have no desire to look back.

"Let's not talk about life under Saddam because it has gone away with the past. Now we have a new life, a new political process and a new government," chimed in a young man sitting in the front next to the driver.

Probably one of the most interesting points here, and one I think most Americans will never appreciate is the free speech these Iraqi citizens were given under their Constitution. Free speech which they never had under Saddam's regime.

Listening to the exchange was remarkable because it never could have happened under Saddam. Before the war, nobody could voice frustration or anger.

There was no free press to question politicians. Now, when there is so much to talk about, we can finally exercise that right. Whether riding the bus or sitting at restaurants, talking freely has become part of the atmosphere everywhere.

This was overall a pretty well written article, and definitely one you should check out.

Tags: Iraq, Terrorist, Insurgent, Saddam

Jessica Simpson loves President Bush?

2006-03-17T07:11:00.000-08:00

Who would have ever thought that Jessica Simpson is a huge fan of President Bush?

Jessica's father and manager Joe Simpson said "We are huge fans of him and of his family, his girls. Jessica loves the heck out of him."

Tags: Jessica Simpson, Bush

Why do I like the President you ask?

2006-03-17T07:04:00.000-08:00

The answer is simple:

"I understand some of the things I've done are unpopular," the President said. "But that's what comes with the territory. If you're afraid to make decisions and you only worried about whether or not people are going to say nice things about you, you're not leading."

He hit the nail on the head. He doesn't care how popular he is. He's not afraid to make a decision that goes against some stupid poll. This is exactly why I like this President. No, he's not a popular guy, but that's because sometimes he knows his decisions are more important than pleasing everyone. Regardless of whether or not you like him, you can't question his leadership.

Thanks to Right from Left for bringing this quote to my attention.

Tags: Bush, Poll, Popularity, Leader

Hail and tornadoes oh my!

2006-03-14T06:48:00.000-08:00

Here's some pictures from the hailstorm that came through on Sunday. Luckily the tornadic part of the supercell missed us by a few miles. But we got the largest hail, a little over two inches at largest. And let me tell ya, it was LOUD! You know how they always talk about a tornado sounding like a freight train? Well, we definitely heard that and we were downstairs in a two story house. We took cover because it looked on radar like the rotational part of the storm was headed right at us. When we came out after a couple minutes, this is what we found:

Most of the cars on the street had their windows busted out. Luckily ours were in the garage.

Just minutes after the storm passed, an eerie fog developed. It was about 70 degrees outside and there was a very weird smell in the air. There were people standing outside every duplex on the street, looking at the damage and just standing there on the cell phone or taking pictures. The fog did provide for some good pictures though:

Tags: Storm, Hail, Tornado, Midwest

Russ Feingold to introduce legislation to censure the President

2006-03-13T07:02:00.000-08:00

Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI) said he will introduce legislation to censure the President over the "domestic" spying program.

"The president has broken the law and, in some way, he must be held accountable."

Don't know what a censure is? Well that wouldn't surprise me since it's only been done once in US history! (against Andrew Jackson in 1834). Basically all a censure does is to scold the President (tsk tsk you bad bad man). May I ask, what's the point of this? I thought this type of thing was done away with after 5th grade. Is it really in the best interests of our taxpayer dollars to be pushing legislation giving the President a slap on the wrist? So, there must be something else going on here. Well, what could it be....hmmm.

I got it! Could Feingold be prepping himself for a White House run?! Yes, that's it! It's just ridiculous what some of these people *cough* Clinton *cough cough* are doing in preperation for 2008. Shouldn't they be focusing on making our country a better place to live instead of proposing meaningless legislation on a fight that's already been fought?

"Congress has to reassert our system of government, and the cleanest and the most efficient way to do that is to censure the president," Feingold said. The president's actions were "in the strike zone" in terms of being an impeachable offense, Feingold said, but he questioned whether impeaching Bush and removing him from office would be good for the country.

Oh, well, that's comforting to hear.

Tags: Feingold, Censure, domestic spying, Clinton,

Iraqi Mayor's Letter to Departing US Regiment

2006-03-10T09:23:00.000-08:00

Thanks to David over at David's Right for this:

In a letter from the Mayor of Tall ‘Afar, Ninewa, Iraq.

In the Name of God the Compassionate and Merciful

To the Courageous Men and Women of the 3d Armored Cavalry Regiment, who have changed the city of Tall’ Afar from a ghost town, in which terrorists spread death and destruction, to a secure city flourishing with life.

To the lion-hearts who liberated our city from the grasp of terrorists who were beheading men, women and children in the streets for many months.

To those who spread smiles on the faces of our children, and gave us restored hope, through their personal sacrifice and brave fighting, and gave new life to the city after hopelessness darkened our days, and stole our confidence in our ability to reestablish our city.

Our city was the main base of operations for Abu Mousab Al Zarqawi. The city was completely held hostage in the hands of his henchmen. Our schools, governmental services, businesses and offices were closed.

Our streets were silent, and no one dared to walk them. Our people were barricaded in their homes out of fear; death awaited them around every corner. Terrorists occupied and controlled the only hospital in the city.

Their savagery reached such a level that they stuffed the corpses of children with explosives and tossed them into the streets in order to kill grieving parents attempting to retrieve the bodies of their young.

This was the situation of our city until God prepared and delivered unto them the courageous soldiers of the 3d Armored Cavalry Regiment, who liberated this city, ridding it of Zarqawi’s followers after harsh fighting, killing many terrorists, and forcing the remaining butchers to flee the city like rats to the surrounding areas, where the bravery of other 3d ACR soldiers in Sinjar, Rabiah, Zumar and Avgani finally destroyed them.

I have met many soldiers of the 3d Armored Cavalry Regiment; they are not only courageous men and women, but avenging angels sent by The God Himself to fight the evil of terrorism.

The leaders of this Regiment; COL McMaster, COL Armstrong, LTC Hickey, LTC Gibson, and LTC Reilly embody courage, strength, vision and wisdom.

Officers and soldiers alike bristle with the confidence and character of knights in a bygone era. The mission they have accomplished, by means of a unique military operation, stands among the finest military feats to date in Operation Iraqi Freedom, and truly deserves to be studied in military science. This military operation was clean, with little collateral damage, despite the ferocity of the enemy. With the skill and precision of surgeons they dealt with the terrorist cancers in the city without causing unnecessary damage.

God bless this brave Regiment; God bless the families who dedicated these brave men and women.

From the bottom of our hearts we thank the families. They have given us something we will never forget.

To the families of those who have given their holy blood for our land, we all bow to you in reverence and to the souls of your loved ones. Their sacrifice was not in vain. They are not dead, but alive, and their souls hovering around us every second of every minute. They will never be forgotten for giving their precious lives. They have sacrificed that which is most valuable. We see them in the smile of every child, and in every flower growing in this land.

Let America, their families, and the world be proud of their sacrifice for humanity and life.

Finally, no matter how much I write or speak about this brave Regiment, I haven’t the words to describe the courage of its officers and soldiers. I pray to God to grant happiness and health to these legendary heroes and their brave families.

NAJIM ABDULLAH ABID
AL-JIBOURI
Mayor of Tall ‘Afar,
Ninewa, Iraq

Wow, how powerful is that? When do we ever hear news such as that on the MSM? Ya know, Iraq is a dangerous place, but not how the MSM would have you believe. The vast majority of cities in Iraq are safe and much better than they were under saddam's regime.

But the liberal media just love to throw around their poll numbers, usually taken exclusively from Baghdad saying how much worse the place is since the US invasion three years ago.

I just think its important for people to understand that there are a lot of good things going on over there, and how so many people's lives have been improved. We have given them a chance. A chance to live and prosper in a hopefully soon to be peaceful democracy.

Bush approval rating hits new low

2006-03-10T07:23:00.000-08:00

Well, after rebounding for a while after Katrina, Bush's approval numbers continue to slide. The newest AP-Ipsos poll puts him at 37% with a margin of error of 3%.

These numbers seem indicate that Bush isn't really losing democrats anymore, he's pretty much lost them all. Bush is starting to lose some Republicans though. I could be wrong, but I really don't think that they could go too much lower unless he does something incredibly stupid, like Nixon. I think I've heard numbers that his main base is somewhere around 34%, so unless he starts to lose some of them, his poll numbers shouldn't go much below that. But with such a liberal media, and constant attacks, many times for no reason, who knows.

Now I'm certainly not entirely blaming the media for this. Let's face it, things could be going much better in Iraq, the Katrina response could have been better, and he was apparently wrong about the ports deal (or so everyone tells me).

It just doesn't make much sense. Think about it this way: after Katrina, it seemed like the entire nation hated the President for his poor response. His poll numbers did decline, but only to around the mid to high 30's. My question is, could the recent ports controversy really be considered worse in people's eyes than the Katrina response? Apparently so.

Tags: Bush, Poll, AP, approval rating,

Bush averts tragedy

2006-03-10T07:03:00.000-08:00

There's no doubt in my mind that Bush was in a tough position on this ports deal. His own party was using politics against him in order to not get his veto, by attaching provisions to stop the ports deal to legislation providing funding for katrina cleanup and troops in Iraq. Bush had threatened a veto on any legislation to try to stop the Dubai port sale. Would he have actually vetoed? We may never know, but probably would have found out in the next few weeks had Dubai not caved and decided to give up its stake.

I truly thought this whole situation would have blown over by now. I thought people would realize that the company would not control port security. I thought Congress would actually do a reasonable investigation and conclude with a majority that the ports deal could be allowed. Little did I know just how close the upcoming elections are. Democrats, not surprisingly, but also Republicans (62-2 bipartisan vote in the House Appropriations Committee to block the deal) in large numbers broke away from the President on this issue. The media is playing this all out to be a huge rift in the Republican party. They are saying that Bush is pretty much done for because the Republicans are all going to break away from him the rest of his term. I don't think this is true though. We may see more of it until the midterm elections, but I really think that's the main reason. The media is using this opportunity to once again bash the President in showing that even his own party won't stand with him anymore.

One of my first thoughts when I heard that Dubai was pulling out the deal, is did Bush have anything to do with convincing them. You're already hearing this speculation in the media, so I'm sure this isn't the last we'll hear about it. I would say he probably did, but the question is, does it really matter? Bill Clinton was proven to have advised top officials from Dubai on how to best handle this situation in suggesting a 45 day investigation (as I wrote about here).

All in all, Bush had a pretty good day yesterday. He signed the renewed Patriot Act into law, and was averted from possibly the biggest crisis in his recent Presidency.

Tags: Bush, Dubai, Port, UAE,

Clooney is a nut job

2006-03-06T07:33:00.000-08:00

George Clooney, responding to a joke from the Host Jon Stewart at the Academy Awards, claimed that Hollywood being out of touch is in fact a good thing.

"Welcome to the 78th Academy Awards... For many of you, this is the first night any of you voted for a winner," Stewart said. This is "the one night of the year when you can see all your favorite stars without donating money to the Democratic party. A lot of people say Hollywood is too liberal... a pleasure dome... a moral black hole... a Sodom & Gomorrah...out of touch with mainstream America." (Taken from Public Figure's Beware who has a good post on the topic.)

To be fair, he also took shots at Bush, but thats beside the point.

Clooney, winning an award not long after Stewarts comments, said "And finally, I would say that, you know, we are a little bit out of touch in Hollywood every once in a while. I think it's probably a good thing. We're the ones who talk about AIDS when it was just being whispered, and we talked about civil rights when it wasn't really popular. And we, you know, we bring up subjects. This Academy, this group of people gave Hattie McDaniel an Oscar in 1939 when blacks were still sitting in the backs of theaters. I'm proud to be a part of this Academy. Proud to be part of this community, and proud to be out of touch."

Well, I'm glad Clooney is proud of himself. Perhaps he forgot that in 1939, America already had its first black congressman. In addition to that Hattie McDaniel played a slave.

The first black woman to get best actress was Halle Berry in 2002 for Monster's Ball. So don't give me crap that Hollywood is on the "leading edge" of controversial issues.

How about global warming? Yeah, yeah, they (Hollywood) talks a good talk, yet a vast majority of stars have multiple cars, most of which probably 15 miles to the gallon. They live in their big mansions surrounded by gates, and then say they're in touch with the American public? Haha, right.

"PrivatePigg" over at Public Figure's Beware has a good thought on the matter:

"Remember, George: Hollywood doesn't change the world, it merely reflects it. The real ground-breakers are wearing uniforms or holding office. They fight battles and change lives in a real way. If you want to talk about Civil Rights, the ground breakers were the little black children who integrated hostile Little Rock schools, and the mothers and fathers who fought to give their children an equal chance despite the unequal opportunities surrounding them. The important people were hardly the ones handing out statues for "good acting." Important people make real sacrifices. They don't make millions for being "Batman." You're an ass."

Tags: Clooney, Academy Awards, Stewart, liberal, Hollywood,

U.N. Watchdog Optimistic about Iran deal

2006-03-06T07:18:00.000-08:00

"I am still very much hopeful that in the next week an agreement could be reached," Mohamed ElBaradei, the IAEA chief, told reporters.

The Internation Atomic Energy Agency's 35 member panel is apparently not going to talk about the Iran situation until tuesday or wednesday. Delegates believe that whatever they are going to do will stop short of sanctions.

Are you kidding me? First of all, I'm not sure how anyone can be optimistic about this situation. Iran has been buying time for the last three years. They have given the world the runaround, which I and many other people believe is to buy time for building nuclear weapons. Some say they may just be months away.

And what better does the IAEA have to be doing with their time than dealing with this Iran situation? I think its safe to say that nothing they could be doing would be more important than Iran right now. How long do we have to twiddle our thumbs before a nuclear warhead is flying over Iraq on its way to Israel.

We've known Iran's intentions for at least THREE years! And what have we done about it? Let the EU sit there and twiddle their thumbs. I ask, how much closer are we now than three years ago in ensuring that Iran does not get a nuclear weapon? My answer is we've taken many steps back.

And no sanctions? So let me get this straight, we don't listen when Iran threatens to "wipe Israel off the map" or envisions the world without a United States and Israel. But, we listen when they threaten actions in response to sanctions? Does this make any sense to anyone else reading this?

Tags: Iran, Nuclear, Israel, Bush, United States,

"Crash" wins best picture

2006-03-06T07:10:00.000-08:00

The excellent movie Crash won best picture last night at the academy awards. It beat out the favorite "Brokeback Mountain." Now I haven't seen Brokeback, but Crash was simply an amazing movie, as I wrote about here.

"We are humbled by the other nominees in this category. You have made this year one of the most breathtaking and stunning maverick years in American cinema," said "Crash" producer Cathy Schulman.

If you haven't seen it yet, you should.

Tags: Oscar, Crash, academy awards

Conflict?

2006-03-03T07:38:00.000-08:00

In a story brought to my attention by Getting Nothing But Static From MSM, former President Clinton has been helping the UAE navigate the political firestorm over the Port deal.

Clinton advised top officials from Dubai two weeks ago to propose a 45 day delay to allow for investigations. This happened even as his wife, Sen. Hillary Clinton, was leading efforts to stop the deal. Bill Clinton called the UAE a "good ally to America."

I like how liberal blogs have been saying that the only reason Bush is for this deal is because he's somehow getting money from it (even though there is absolutely no proof of this). However, consider this: In 2002, Clinton was paid $300,000 to address a summit in Dubai. So let me get this right, Clinton has clear ties to the UAE, but Bush has none. Yet, the liberal blogs still criticize the President for this deal, saying he must only be in it for his own personal gain. Interesting, don't ya think?

Tags: Bush, Clinton, UAE, Port Deal

New video shows Blanco saying New Orleans levees were fine

2006-03-03T07:00:00.000-08:00

We've all seen the video shown all over the news about how Bush was warned that the levees could break, right? If you haven't, check out BTI's take on it. Well, a new video from the AP shows Governor Kathleen Blanco saying that the levees have not been breached, when in fact they were three hours before.

"We keep getting reports in some places that maybe water is coming over the levees," Gov. Kathleen Blanco said shortly after noon on Aug. 29 — the day the storm hit the Gulf coast.
"We heard a report unconfirmed, I think, we have not breached the levee," she said on a video of the day's disaster briefing that was obtained Thursday night by The Associated Press. "I think we have not breached the levee at this time."

I really don't think this is all that important except it shows the massive confusion and lack of information before the storm. So many people who are and were eager to just blame the President don't understand this simple fact. I'm not saying the President and federal government were perfect by any means. But how is Bush supposed to make a decision based on a person who was much closer to the action than he was?

I just wanted to post these two pictures to show how unfair the criticism was that "Bush was on vacation at Crawford" during the storm. I hate to tell you liberal bloggers that no matter where the President of the United States is, he is NEVER on vacation.

President Bush on a video teleconference with federal and state emergency management organizations on Hurricane Katrina from his Crawford, Texas ranch on Sunday, August 28, 2005.

President Bush and White House deputy chief of staff Joe Hagin appear from a narrow, windowless room at the president's Crawford, Texas, ranch.

Tags: Bush, New Orleans, Katrina, Blanco,

Bush reaches nuclear energy agreement with India

2006-03-03T06:43:00.000-08:00

On his recent trip to India, Bush signed a deal in which the US will share some nuclear know how and nuclear fuel with India. The idea is to get India as a closer ally and to alleviate world oil prices by giving their fast growing economy an alternative energy source. In addition, India has agreed to allow inspections of most of its civilian nuclear power facilities. All in all, this is really quite a historic move. I think its important for us to have a close ally in the worlds largest democracy and gain more knowledge of their nuclear program.

Did you know that Bush's approval rating is much higher in India than in the US? An interesting comment left on Vodkapundit's site:
"10 thousand protest Bush? Bah! More people gather to watch when a cow upsets a hawker's handcart on an Indian Street! Bush's approval is at 40% in US, v/s 54% in India. That coupled with our population being more that thrice that of US means we have much more Bush fans than entire US population! We love him because we are a pragmatic bunch who can cut through the PC/lefty/dhimmi cr@p and see who is fighting the good fight." Interesting to say the least.

Critics are saying we shouldn't be entering this deal because it goes against rules set by the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, which India has not signed.

"Proliferation is certainly a concern and a part of our discussions, and we've got a good-faith gesture by the Indian government that I'll be able to take to the Congress," Bush said. "But the other thing that our Congress has got to understand is that it's in our economic interests that India have a civilian nuclear power industry to help take the pressure off the global demand for energy," the president said. "To the extent that we can reduce demand for fossil fuels, it will help the American consumer."

I think Bush is right here. Hopefully Congress will realize this and it won't become a partisan issue.

Even many liberal blogs I read were calling the agreement a success.

President Bush carries four-year-old girl in Hyderabad, India.

Tags: Bush, India, Nuclear, Nonproliferation

"I was hotter than a pistol"

2006-02-27T07:13:00.000-08:00

What an amazing story. Saw this on TV the other night.

Jason McElwain was the team manager for Greece Athena High School basketball team. He kept the stats, ran the clock, handed out water bottles, etc. He was always one of the most enthusiastic teammates on the sidelines.

"The 17-year-old senior, who is autistic and usually sits on the bench in a white shirt and black tie." He put on a uniform in the teams first playoff game. When he was put in with four minutes left, the crowd went crazy. He hit 6, yes SIX, three point shots and ended the game with 20 points. His teammates carried him off the court on their shoulders. You should have seen the crowd. With every three they went crazy, even though a win was already guaranteed.

“I ended my career on the right note,” he told The Associated Press by phone Thursday. “I was really hotter than a pistol!” One section of students held up signs bearing his nickname “J-MAC” and cutouts of his face placed on Popsicle sticks.

Wow, what a touching story.

I found the video for the story. Click here and then scroll down the box on the right to view the video. It gives me chills everytime I watch it.

The other side of the argument

2006-02-26T15:39:00.000-08:00

Well, I'm still not quite sure where I stand on the Arab port issue. On one hand, a couple of the hijackers came from the UAE. But on the other hand, you have the Bush administration saying that they have been valuable allies in the war on terror, helping us catch many members of al quada. I just think we don't have enough information to make a sound decision yet.

Congressional Republicans are scared. They're afraid they're going to lose ground on the national security issue, which has been their stronghold for four years. I think that's why you see such a divide between the republicans and bush over this issue. In fact, a recent poll shows that the american public believes congressional democrats are stronger on national security than President Bush (43% to 41%). Wow, what a surprising finding. I think that's somewhat temporary though, the democrats being pushed up by the port deal controversy.

Do you realize how few US ports are controlled by American companies? I'll give you a hint, not many (the number I've heard is around is 8 out of 100). Why should we punish a country just because they happen to be Arab? Does that mean we're just going to issolate ourselves from the Arab world? We certainly have spent a lot of time and money trying to befriend the Arab world.

I don't know what to think about all this. Many republicans are saying that Bush should back down, but deep down I think he's probably doing the right thing. We can not alienate our allies. I say this with caution though, as I believe we need to be given more information before we can make a decision.

Tags: Bush, UAE, Port, terrorism

US and Mexican telescope to offer glimpse at Big Bang

2006-02-20T07:07:00.000-08:00

In the biggest joint Mexico-U.S. scientific venture ever, builders are finishing a monster telescope on top of a volcano that will let astronomers look back 13 billion years and uncover secrets about the creation of the universe.

This telescope will be the largest of its kind in the world. It has a 165-foot antenna and a total cost of nearly $120 million.

The telescope will pick up millimeter-long radio waves that have been traveling through space for nearly 13 billion years.

"We will get incredible new insight into how galaxies were first formed," said project scientist David Hughes of Mexico's National Astrophysics Optics and Electronics Institute. "Once we start operating, we should be making breakthrough discoveries on an almost daily basis."

Could this be the next "Hubble telescope" in scientific adventure? It should be ready by the end of the year, I guess we will find out soon. It does have some very exciting possibilities in studying something that we really don't know all that much about. I'll keep you updated

Arab owned firm to take over port operations

2006-02-20T06:57:00.000-08:00

Dubai Ports World recently purchased London-based Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Co. They will now control shipping operations in New York, New Jersey, Baltimore, New Orleans, Miami and Philadelphia.

Homeland Security Director Michael Chertoff is defending the Bush administration's review of the international shipping deal.

"We make sure there are assurances in place, in general, sufficient to satisfy us that the deal is appropriate from a national security standpoint," Chertoff told ABC's "This Week."

Miami firm Continental Stevedoring & Terminals Inc. asked a judge to block the takeover of P&O, saying that U.S. agencies can not guarantee DP World will comply with U.S. security rules.

The deal "may endanger the national security of the United States," reads the suit filed late Friday.

So, what's the big deal you ask? Well, the United Arab Emirates, while being labeled as an ally in the war on terror, just may not be. Let's not forget that Pakistan is also an "ally" in the war on terror. One terrorist, Marwan al-Shehhi, one of the 9/11 terrorists was born in that country.

Sen. Lindsay Graham, R-S.C., said "It's unbelievably tone deaf politically at this point in our history."

Sen. Robert Menendez, D-NJ and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-NY, are sponsoring legislation that would prohibit companies owned or controlled by foreign governments from running port operation in the United States.

My question is, is this really in our best interests in the War on Terror?

Great bumper sticker

2006-02-18T08:24:00.000-08:00

To buy, click here.

Hilarious bumper sticker. Perhaps the liberals have forgotten this story:

On July 19, 1969, Kennedy attended a party on Chappaquiddick Island in Massachusetts. At about 11:00 PM, he borrowed his chauffeur's keys to his Oldsmobile limousine, and offered to give a ride home to Mary Jo Kopechne , a campaign worker. Leaving the island via an unlit, narrow, rickety wooden bridge, Kennedy steered the car off the bridge and into Poucha Pond.
He swam to shore and walked back to the party -- passing several houses and a fire station -- and two friends returned with him to the scene of the accident. According to their later testimony, they told him what he already knew, that he was required by law to immediately report the accident to the authorities. Instead Kennedy made his way to his hotel, frantically called his lawyer, and went to sleep.
Kennedy called the police the next morning. By then the wreck had already been discovered. Before dying, Kopechne had scratched at the upholstered floor above her head in the upside-down car. The Kennedy family began pulling strings, ensuring that any inquiry would be contained. Her corpse was whisked out-of-state to her family, before an autopsy could be conducted. Ted Kennedy tried to get his cousin, Joe Garghan, to say he was behind the wheel. Ted Kennedy was only charged with failure to report a motor vehicle accident!
Further details are uncertain, but after the accident Kennedy says he repeatedly dove under the water trying to rescue Kopechne, and he didn't call police because he was in a state of shock. In versions not so kind, it is widely assumed Kennedy was drunk, that he was having an affair with Kopechne, and/or that he held off calling police in hopes that his family could fix the problem overnight.

At least Cheney didn't kill anyone. At least Cheney wasn't drunk, besides the best efforts of some to assume so. At least Cheney wasn't having an affair. At least Cheney didn't try to cover anything up. Or was Kennedy really just in a "state of shock?"

Airlines lost 10,000 bags a day last year

2006-02-17T13:01:00.000-08:00

On average, U.S. airlines lost 10,000 bags per DAY in 2005. Yes, that's right, per day! Is it just me or is that an enormously large number? 10,000? Geez.

This was a 23% increase from the year before. The reasons for the increase include a surge in the number of passengers, airline budget cuts, backed-up flights and tighter inspections of luggage.

US Airways had the highest rate of lost bags at one in every 100.

Specter admits inserting 13 provisions into spending bills

2006-02-17T07:11:00.000-08:00

"Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA) acknowledges inserting 13 provisions into spending bills that directed $48.7 million to clients of lobbyist Michael Herson of American Defense International. Herson is the husband of Specter aide Vicki Siegel Herson. A list of those clients, their lobbyists and the funds, known as "earmarks:"

•Drexel University got $20.9 million in the 2005 and 2006 budgets. Drexel paid ADI $200,000 a year since 2002. The university also paid another lobbying firm, American Continental Group, $120,000 a year during the same time. A third company, the lobbying and law firm Hogan & Hartson, was paid $40,000 in 2004 and another $40,000 in the first half of 2005.

•Gentex Corp. got $11.2 million in the past four years. Gentex paid ADI $80,000 a year from 2002 through 2004 and $20,000 during the first six months of 2005. Gentex also paid the lobbying firm PMA $400,000 between 2002 and July 2005.

•Gestalt LLC got $10.6 million in 2005 and in this year's budget. Gestalt paid ADI $360,000 from 2002 through the first half of 2005. No other lobbyists registered to represent Gestalt.

•Power+Energy Corp. got $2.5 million in the 2006 budget. Power+Energy hired ADI in March and paid the firm $40,000 through the end of June. No other lobbyists registered to represent the company.

•Universal Space Network got $2.5 million in 2005. USN paid ADI $40,000 a year in 2002 and '03.

•3e Technologies International Inc. got $1 million in the 2006 budget. 3e hired ADI in March and paid $40,000 through July. 3e also hired Edington, Peel & Associates last year and paid that lobbying firm $20,000 through July."

Not good. Not good at all. How are these things allowed to happen? And what's with all the Republican scandals lately. I have a feeling this sort of thing goes on on both sides of the aisle, yet you recently only hear about the republicans. Could it be that the Republicans really are the only corrupt party? My instinct tells me no, but what do I know. Let's hear it liberals, let the republican bashing begin!

Driving down the road

2006-02-14T16:38:00.000-08:00

So I was driving home from school the other day, and on the car in front of me I saw a magnet that said "Question war" in the shape of a question mark. Now, I would have no problem with this except that it was yellow and clearly designed to look like the yellow ribbon magnets that say "Support our troops."

It led me to think, can't they find other ways of questioning the war? If you want to make a magnet, or bumper sticker, or whatever, that's fine. But these were clearly supposed to mock and directly contradict the Support our Troops magnets. Thus, the designers and buyers of these in my view do not respect those who support our troops. Why is that?

Now some of you might say this is a stretch, and I'm just complaining because this person obviously doesn't agree with the war. This is not true. I absolutely respect their right to an opinion, and if it was just a bumper sticker or other magnet, I would have no problem. But when it is designed to contradict supporting our troops, I do have a problem.

Whether or not you agree with the war, you should support our troops. We have brave men and women over there. Much more brave than I am and ever will be. Magnets such as this do nothing but mock our troops and those who support them. My question is, what do others think of this?

Cheney shoots hunting partner

2006-02-12T19:55:00.000-08:00

Dick Cheney accidentally shot a hunting partner, Harry Whittington. They were hunting with a small group on the Armstrong Ranch in south Texas. Cheney hit his friend in the face with birdshot from about 30 yards away.

Whittington shot a bird and went to look for it in the tall grass. Cheney and another hunter found a group of quail. Whittington "came up from behind the vice president and the other hunter and didn't signal them or indicate to them or announce himself,"

"The vice president didn't see him," Amstrong told The AP. "The covey flushed and the vice president picked out a bird and was following it and shot. And by God, Harry was in the line of fire and got peppered pretty good.

The Vice President's medical team was there to help and an ambulance arrived in minutes. The shots didn't cause too much damage, and luckily missed his eyes.

Geez, is this how the Vice President is going to handle politics from now on? If he doesn't like you, he'll just shoot you. Just kidding of course because these two are both Republicans and good friends. But still, you better not make Cheney mad!

Sheehan Scraps Campaign Plans

2006-02-10T07:40:00.000-08:00

Well crazy liberals are going to be upset, but Sheehan has decided not to run for Congress.

Cindy threatened a Senate run against Sen. Dianne Feinstein, California's most popular Democrat, whom Sheehan has accused of not doing enough to stop the war in Iraq. Yeah, I'm pretty sure sheehan wouldn't win. I'm guessing she'd get around 1% of the vote from the crazies in california.

Sheehan said her decision to run would be based on whether she believed more lives would be saved in Iraq with her in office or out of office. She said she also will weigh the decision with her family.

In other sheehan news, she does plan to file suit next week against the federal government for what she said was a false arrest at the Jan. 31 presidential address to Congress.

I think overall the moderate and reasonable left is embarrased by Sheehan. I'm guessing they're happy she's not running for office, knowing the embarrasment she would get.

This is also interesting to note:
Bruce Cain, who is director of the University of California-Berkeley's Institute of Governmental Studies, said Sheehan and other vocal activists can do a lot to shape lawmakers' agendas.

For instance, Sheehan told the Associated Press that if Feinstein voted to end debate over Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito, thereby helping prevent a filibuster, she would definitely run against Feinstein. Feinstein, who just a week earlier said she didn't think a filibuster was the best option, promptly turned around and supported the failed filibuster attempt.

Clearly an example of liberal congress(wo)men listening to the far left.

Bush reveals foiled attack

2006-02-10T07:28:00.000-08:00

Back in October of 2001 an attack was scheduled to blast open the doors of an airliner with shoe bombs and crash the plane into Los Angeles' tallest building, President Bush said yesterday.

Bush presumably gave this information to gain support for his terrorist surveillance program. However, there is no indication that the plot was foiled with the use of wiretaps. White House spokesman Scott McLellan would not reveal whether any wiretaps helped uncover the LA plot. I think it's pretty unlikely that this was the case. I say this because he probably would have revealed that information yesterday.

The target was the Library Tower -- a 310m office building in the Los Angeles central business district. In fact this building was the first destroyed by the aliens in the movie Independence Day.

Can you believe this?

2006-02-08T10:13:00.000-08:00

Did anyone else catch a bit of the coverage of Coretta Scott King's funeral? I did. Unfortunately I did not get to see any of the four Presidents in attendance. But I did read up on some of what Carter said.

Jimmy Carter decided to use his speech at the funeral (yes a funeral of a wonderful patriotic woman and true American) to bash President Bush....all while the President was sitting right behind him.

First he says: "We only have to recall the color of the faces of those in Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi who are most devastated by Katrina to know that there are not yet equal opportunities for all Americans." Not too bad yet, but keep reading.

Then he went on to talk about the apparently illegal wiretapping program. In what could only be taken as a direct attack on Bush's electronic surveillance of suspected terrorists, a program Carter has repeatedly denounced as "illegal." Carter said of Mrs. King and her slain husband, Martin Luther King, "they became the targets of secret government wiretapping and other surveillance" to which he got a great applause from the mostly African American crowd. Although talking about wiretapping on King, he was clearly alluding to the current terrorist surveillance program. Don't get me wrong, he has every right to say this, but at a funeral? Come on...ridiculous.

Perhaps Carter didn't remember that the wire-tapping was conducted under Presidents John Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson, and was originally ordered by Attorney General Robert Kennedy, all Democrats. Interesting.

Even worse than Carter's comments were Rev. Joseph Lowery's, who once was a figure of some note among Dr. King's colleagues. "We know now there were no weapons of mass destruction over there," he said. "But Coretta knew and we knew that there are weapons of misdirection right down here. Millions without health insurance. Poverty abounds. For war, billions more, but no more for the poor." He got a humongous ovation for his weapons of mass distruction statement. He said this all while the President sat just feet behind.

This was a civil rights event celebrating a civil rights hero. Coretta was responsible for getting Martin Luther King Jr. Day passed as a national holiday (one of only three Americans to have a national holiday named for them).

President Bush sat there with grace, dignity, and class when the democrats had none. He took the criticism when there was no place for it. Just put yourself in Bush's shoes. You're going into an environment that's at least 95% democrat, if not higher. You're being criticized without being given a chance to respond. You just sit there and bite your tongue. That's a true leader ladies and gentlemen.

Democrats and democratic blogs were up in arms crying foul when Bush gave a speech on veteran's day defending the war. Yet the liberals use a funeral, yes A FUNERAL, to push their agenda....once again, ridiculous. Don't look for the liberal blogs to be covering this one.

Newsbusters has a good post about coverage of this on Hardball.

By the way, this is my 100th post!

Funny pictures

2006-02-01T12:20:00.000-08:00

Saw this picture of Hillary on Yahoo News' most emailed photos:

That reminded me of a photo which I believe was taken of Kerry just last week on his trip overseas:

Then that reminded me of Kerry's football skills, so I did a google search for that, heres just a couple of them:

I searched for pics of this sort for Bush, but there really weren't any that both had weird expressions and are postable on my blog (i.e. him photoshopped in front of a Nazi flag). Have a look for yourself. Liberal photoshoppers are a bit more cruel than conservatives I guess.

Documents show that Louisiana turned down help from FEMA

2006-02-01T07:38:00.000-08:00

"A ranking Louisiana health official turned down federal offers to help move or evacuate patients as Hurricane Katrina bore down on New Orleans, a newly released document shows."

"Two days before the Aug. 29 storm, HHS was told by the state‘s health emergency preparedness director that the help was not needed, according to an e-mail released Monday by a Senate panel investigating the government‘s response to Katrina."

Yes, just TWO days before the storm, Louisiana denied federal help. Just think of all the people who could have been taken to safety before the storm even hit. We'll never know how many lives could have been saved.

"At least 40 bodies, many of them elderly patients, were found inside a flooded New Orleans hospital after Katrina hit. Thirty-four patients at a nursing home near New Orleans died Aug. 29 in the wake of massive flooding brought by the storm‘s surge."

Interesting.

WMD's moved to Syria?

2006-02-01T07:21:00.000-08:00

It seems like lately more and more evidence has been emerging that says the WMD's were transported to Syria before the beginning of the war.

Georges Sada, the former # 2 official in Saddam Hussein's air force, claims in a new book, "Saddam's Secrets," that shortly before the start of the war, Saddam had the weapons moved to Syria.

"There are weapons of mass destruction gone out from Iraq to Syria, and they must be found and returned to safe hands," Mr. Sada said. "I am confident they were taken over."

In June of '02, a dam collapsed causing a severe flood in Syria. It is believed the weapons were transferred during this time and attracted no attention because it was viewed as humanitarian aid.

Apparently two Boeing passenger jets were converted to cargo planes. These planes flew 56 flights to Syria (along with a ground convoy of trucks) transporting what Sada describes as "yellow barrels with skull and crossbones on each barrel."

Hmmmm, I don't think medicine and food are transported in barrels with crossbones.

So, we have this information. Don't get me wrong, I'm certainly not guaranteeing it is true, but consider this: Millions of documents found by the US in Iraq and Afghanistan are showing that Saddam did in fact train up to 8,000 terrorists (as I wrote about here and here). In addition, we now have information that Saddam actually did have the WMD's. Saddam was a brutal dictator who murdered countless numbers of his own people. There is now a great democracy and friend in the Middle East. The Iraqis are voting in numbers we could never have imagined (obviously they want a democracy).

What more proof and reason do the liberals need to convince them that this was a justified war?

Howard Dean caught flat out lying

2006-01-27T07:16:00.000-08:00

This just astounds me. How can he get away with this?

Democratic National Committee chairman Howard Dean denied on Sunday that any Democrats had taken money from lobbyist Jack Abramoff, even though several top Democrats, including Sen. Hillary Clinton, have already announced they were giving their tainted Abramoff cash to charity.

The exchange on CNN's Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer went like this:

DEAN: There are no Democrats who took money from Jack Abramoff, not one, not one single Democrat. Every person named in this scandal is a Republican. Every person under investigation is a Republican. Every person indicted is a Republican. This is a Republican finance scandal. There is no evidence that Jack Abramoff ever gave any Democrat any money. And we've looked through all of those FEC reports to make sure that's true.

BLITZER: But through various Abramoff-related organizations and outfits, a bunch of Democrats did take money that presumably originated with Jack Abramoff.

DEAN: That's not true either. There's no evidence for that either. There is no evidence...

BLITZER: What about Senator Byron Dorgan?

DEAN: Senator Byron Dorgan and some others took money from Indian tribes. They're not agents of Jack Abramoff. There's no evidence that I've seen that Jack Abramoff directed any contributions to Democrats. I know the Republican National Committee would like to get the Democrats involved in this. They're scared. They should be scared. They haven't told the truth. They have misled the American people. And now it appears they're stealing from Indian tribes. The Democrats are not involved in this.

Are you kidding me? I ask, why is Hillary Clinton giving back her Abramoff money if it didn't come from Abramoff? Is the senator just giving away free money and openly admitting she took it, if she actually didn't? I think not. It's well known that about 2 million dollars was given to democrats....TWO MILLION. While this number does not exceed that given to Republicans, it is still quite significant.

Gateway Pundit says that 40 of the 45 democratic senators took money from Abramoff.

It just astounds me at what these people are able to get away with. And by these people, I mean the likes of Nagin (a chocolate New Orleans), Clinton (calling the running of the House like a plantation), Dean, and the list goes on and on. It sickens me.

Kerry and Kennedy pressing for a filibuster...dems divided

2006-01-27T07:00:00.000-08:00

Massachusetts Sens. John Kerry and Edward Kennedy called Thursday for a filibuster of Samuel Alito's Supreme Court nomination. They did however acknowledge the bid is likely to fail and Alito will be confirmed Tuesday. But they said extended debate may draw more Americans' attention to Alito's conservative stands on abortion, civil rights, presidential powers and other matters.

"Judge Alito will take America backward, especially when it comes to civil rights and discrimination laws," Kerry said. "It's our right and our responsibility to oppose him vigorously and to fight against this radical upending of the Supreme Court."

Are you kidding me? He was nominated what back in November or so? They've had TWO MONTHS in order to "draw" Americans attention to the matter. They have failed to do so because Americans believe he is a well qualified judge. 47% of Americans would vote to confirm Alito to replace retiring Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, while only 32% would oppose him. Most of this 32% would never endorse a Bush nominee anyways, so I believe this means the vast vast majority of Americans approve of Alito.

Kennedy said Alito "does not share the values of equality and justice that make this country strong. He does not deserve a place on the highest court of the land."

It just doesn't make any sense. They don't have the votes to keep a filibuster going. What's the point in all of this? One again, the democrats are going to take a hit for what they're about to do.

"Continuing to threaten a filibuster, even after it is crystal clear that Democrats don't have the necessary votes ... is needless, strange and at odds with many of their fellow Democrats," said Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas.

At least three Democrats Â Sens. Ben Nelson, Robert Byrd Jr. and Tim Johnson said they will vote to confirm Alito. Others have said they would not support a filibuster, regardless how they vote on confirmation. This means the Republicans should easily have the required 60 votes to break the filibuster.

I think the bigger story here is this: the democrats are very divided on this issue. Sen. Harry Reid (yeah, thats right, Reid) repeatedly told colleagues this week that he wanted to avoid a filibuster. "This matter will be resolved without too much more talking, but ... everyone has the right to talk" Reid said.

Once again the democrats are sharply divided. I cannot believe how many times in the past couple months they have shot themselves in the foot in the eyes of the American public. They are losing and will lose on this issue, just as they are and will on the TERRORIST SURVEILLANCE program.

Conservatives take back Canada

2006-01-25T07:16:00.000-08:00

On Monday, 65% of Canadians (yes 65%!, a number we Americans should be envious of) voted. Stephen Harper, a conservative, won the position of Prime Minister. The conservatives now hold 124 seats in Parliament. The liberals have 103, Bloc Québécois have 51 and New Democratic Party have 29. The conservatives fell short of a majority by 31 seats.

Seems Canadians were sick of liberal leadership. The liberals have been in power for quite some time in Canada (the liberals had won the previous four elections and were in power the vast majority of the last 30 years).

It will be interesting to see how the relationship between President Bush and Harper grows. Hopefully some fences can be mended in our relations with Canada.

Osama and Michael Moore...BFF?

2006-01-23T07:25:00.000-08:00

Chris Matthews recently said that on his lastest tape, Osama Bin Laden sounded a lot like Michael Moore.

Ankelbiting Pundits has the full story.

Here's a couple of the highlights:

On Polls About Iraq
Osama:
But I plan to speak about the repeated errors your President Bush has committed in comments on the results of your polls that show an overwhelming majority of you want the withdrawal of American troops from Iraq.. .And so to return to the issue, I say that results of polls please those who are sensible, and Bush's opposition to them is a mistake.
Michael Moore (In a writing titled "Sorry, George, I'm In the Majority ...from Michael Moore"...haha, right)
I would like to extend my hand and invite you to join us, the mainstream American majority. We, the people -- that's the majority of the people -- share these majority opinions:
1. Going to war was a mistake -- a big mistake.
2. You and your administration misled us into this war
3. We want the war ended and our troops brought home.
4. We don't trust you.

On Who Will Win The War And Those Fighting Against America In Iraq
Osama:
Iraq has become a point of attraction and restorer of (our) energies. Only metal breaks metal, and our situation, thank God, is only getting better and better, while your situation is the opposite of that. . ..Don't let your strength and modern arms fool you. They win a few battles but lose the war. Patience and steadfastness are much better. We were patient in fighting the Soviet Union with simple weapons for 10 years and we bled their economy and now they are nothing. In that there is a lesson for you. Finally, I say that war will go either in our favor or yours. If it is the former, it means your loss and your shame forever, and it is headed in this course.
Michael Moore
The Iraqis who have risen up against the occupation are not "insurgents" or "terrorists" or "The Enemy." They are the REVOLUTION, the Minutemen, and their numbers will grow -- and they will win.

GOP and College also has an excellent post on the subject. Go there and read the last paragraph, its an interesting one.

Ted Kennedy has a love child!

2006-01-19T15:23:00.000-08:00

Haha, it appears Ted Kennedy hooked up with a woman back in 1983 who then got pregnant. Apparently, Kennedy wanted her to terminate the pregnancy, but she wouldn't. Kennedy proceeded to pay her off with large sums of money to keep it quiet.

The whole story at GOP and College.

Documents linking Saddam to terrorism set to be released?

2006-01-18T16:29:00.000-08:00

About a week ago, I posted about documents which are indicating that Saddam trained some 8,000 terrorists between the years of 1999 and 2002. At that point, the papers, hard drive records, cd's, etc. were not released. Apparently the Bush Administration is strongly considering releasing these records. I will keep you up to date on this important story. If true, it would serve as justification (as if there already was none) for this war that the liberals have been crying for.

Nagin's latest comments

2006-01-17T11:49:00.000-08:00

In an attempt to rectify his outrageous comments about hoping New Orleans will be a "chocolate" city, Mayor Nagin later had this to say:

"How do you make chocolate? You take dark chocolate, you mix it with white milk, and it becomes a delicious drink. That is the chocolate I am talking about," he said.

No, that's how you make chocolate milk, so this is clearly not what he was originally referring to. He went on to say:

"New Orleans was a chocolate city before Katrina. It is going to be a chocolate city after. How is that divisive? It is white and black working together, coming together and making something special."

Are we seriously expected to believe this? Give me a break, this guy is clearly a racist and should not be in office.

When asked today on Fox News if he wishes he could take back any of his comments, his only reply was that he wishes he didn't make the comment about God. That's it....ridiculous.

Al Gore: Unhinged

2006-01-17T09:19:00.000-08:00

Courtesy of Gateway Pundit:

These were the words of Al Gore yesterday:
"Yet, just one month ago, Americans awoke to the shocking news that in spite of this long settled law, the Executive Branch has been secretly spying on large numbers of Americans for the last four years and eavesdropping on "large volumes of telephone calls, e-mail messages, and other Internet traffic inside the United States." The New York Times reported that the President decided to launch this massive eavesdropping program "without search warrants or any new laws that would permit such domestic intelligence collection."

"At present, we still have much to learn about the NSA's domestic surveillance. What we do know about this pervasive wiretapping virtually compels the conclusion that the President of the United States has been breaking the law repeatedly and persistently."

Yet back in the 1990's here is what Al Gore and Clinton thought about warrantless searches when they were in office:

"The Department of Justice believes, and the case law supports, that the president has inherent authority to conduct warrantless physical searches for foreign intelligence purposes," Deputy Attorney General Jamie Gorelick testified before the Senate Intelligence Committee on July 14, 1994, "and that the President may, as has been done, delegate this authority to the Attorney General."

"It is important to understand," Gorelick continued, "that the rules and methodology for criminal searches are inconsistent with the collection of foreign intelligence and would unduly frustrate the president in carrying out his foreign intelligence responsibilities."

Executive Order 12333, signed by Ronald Reagan in 1981, provides for such warrantless searches directed against "a foreign power or an agent of a foreign power"...

...Gorelick signaled that the administration would go along a congressional decision to place such searches under the court — if, as she testified, it "does not restrict the president's ability to collect foreign intelligence necessary for the national security." In the end, Congress placed the searches under the FISA court, but the Clinton administration did not back down from its contention that the president had the authority to act when necessary.

Bill Clinton expanded the use of warrantless searches in 1994:
In 1994, President Clinton expanded the use of warrantless searches to entirely domestic situations with no foreign intelligence value whatsoever. In a radio address promoting a crime-fighting bill, Mr. Clinton discussed a new policy to conduct warrantless searches in highly violent public housing projects.

Interesting. I'm surprised the Democrats have not yet given up on this issue like they have on so many others recently. This is obviously a losing issue for them, seeing as most of the American public agrees with the President.

Nagin's outrageous remarks

2006-01-16T18:53:00.000-08:00

New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin used Martin Luther King Day to say that Hurricanes Katrina and Rita and other storms were a sign that "God is mad at America. He sent us hurricane after hurricane after hurricane, and it's destroyed and put stress on this country." He went on to say, "surely he doesn't approve of us being in Iraq under false pretenses."

That's not even the worst:
"It's time for us to come together. It's time for us to rebuild New Orleans — the one that should be a chocolate New Orleans," the mayor said. "This city will be a majority African American city. It's the way God wants it to be. You can't have New Orleans no other way. It wouldn't be New Orleans."

WOW. That's all I can think. How can he get away with this? Just think about this....if New Orleans was 60% white, and this was a white mayor who came out and said "It's time for us to rebuild New Orleans - the one that should be a vanilla New Orleans." This city will be a majority white city, because that's the way God wants it to be. You can't have New Orleans any other way. It wouldn't be New Orleans."

Can you imagine the outrage? There would be protests. How can he say things such as this and get away with it? On a day that is supposed to celebrate one of the most courageous Americans in history, this is absolutely ridiculous.

Nagin is nothing but a racist, and somehow gets away with it. I don't think New Orleans deserves any more of our tax money in order to rebuild his "chocolates only" city until Nagin is gone.

US, EU, Russia, and China meet over Iran

2006-01-16T08:07:00.000-08:00

The United States, EU, Russia and China met Monday to discuss Iran's nuclear program, with Washington and the European Union pushing to bring the Islamic state before the U.N. Security Council. It seems that the EU is finally on board with agreeing to refer Iran to the UN security council for sanctions. Britain, France, and Germany finally agreed to give up two years of negotiations, declaring them a "dead end."

Bush and the US has been saying for quite a while now that Iran should be referred to the Security Council. This attempt was always stopped by the EU, because they believed that Iran could be dealt with through negotiations. Well, they were wrong, dead wrong, and Iran is now a more dangerous place because of it. The continuous cycle of Iran pushes the envelope, EU forces talks, Iran backs down seems as though it has ended. It was just ridiculous how the EU kept getting fooled. They would say to the US, look they're cooperating again. Then a month later, Iran was defying them again, so they would call for more talks. The sooner this issue is dealt with, the better and easier it will be (or would have been).

It seems obvious that Iran never intended to comply with the EU negotiations. This is evident in the fact that they have openly admitted to wanting a nuclear program (apparently for peaceful purposes). Yet, the EU and the rest of the world was not able to see this. The US, however, did. We told the rest of the world all along that this was the case. Yet everyone continued to ignore us.

Well, now that seems to have all changed. The only problems with referring Iran to the Security Council might be China and Russia. China is highly dependent on Iran for oil, and has said that referring Iran to the Security Council will only escalate the confrontation.

I guess we'll have to wait and see what happens with this. Hopefully the world will not back down this time.

Wrap up of Alito's Confirmation Hearings

2006-01-15T10:41:00.000-08:00

Well, it was an interesting week in the world of politics. The biggest story was the Alito confirmation hearings. I happened to watch quite a bit of the hearings because I didn't have anything better to do. One of the most shocking moments came at the hand of Judge Alito's wife. Martha Ann Alito became teary eyed and distraught when Sen. Lindsey Graham apologized for the ugly grilling her husband had been subjected to near the end of a long day on Wednesday. She left the room. "Judge Alito, I am sorry that you've had to go through this. I am sorry that your family has had to sit here and listen to this," the South Carolina Republican Graham said.

I think the tears of Alito's wife sent a powerful message around the country. The headlines up til then were mostly about Alito and Roe v. Wade. The country finally was able to see what the democrats have done and how out of line they were. Interesting how the MSM did not report on the brutal attacks by the dems, but tears were just not something they could ignore.

Earlier in the proceedings, Sen. Ted Kennedy challenged Alito over his 1980s membership in The Concerned Alumni of Princeton. Quoting from an article critical of affirmative action written - not by Alito - but by a fellow CAP member, the Massachusetts Democrat suggested that the prospective Supreme Court Justice was racially insensitive. Alito had no ties to this person, and apparently didn't even know him. The democrats somehow spun this to try to portray Alito as a racist. Interesting to note that Kennedy belonged to an all-male social club — the Owl — at Harvard University. The Owl refused to admit women until it was forced to do so during the 1980s. Hmmmmm....

One of the other points which democrats brutally attacked Alito on was the VanGuard issue. On a questionnaire for the Senate Judiciary Committee during the confirmation process for the Third Circuit Court of Appeals in 1990, Alito said he would avoid a conflict of interest by not voting on cases involving First Federal Savings & Loan of Rochester, NY, and two investment firms, Smith Barney and Vanguard Group, because he held accounts with them. However, this statement apparently only applied to his first couple years in the position.

Over a decade later, in 2002, Alito upheld a lower court's dismissal of a lawsuit filed against multiple investment company defendants, including Vanguard Group. When notified of the situation, Alito denied doing anything improper but recused himself from further involvement in the case. The case was reheard with the new panel coming to the same conclusion. So, let me get this straight, he did not break the law, did not go against what he said he would do, and even rectified the situation after it was brought to light. So, why is this apparently such a big deal? Because the democrats have nothing better to attack him on, that's why.

The worst part of all of this was that these democrats already knew going into the hearings that they would vote Alito down. They did not give him a fair shake and used their time to push their agenda and bash bush. I believe this was obvious by the fact that many democrats spent a vastly greater amount of time talking than asking questions.

The democrats were just ridiculous and out of line in these hearings. They went nothing like they should have. The point is to understand more about the nominee and decide whether or not they are qualified to be on the highest court in the land. This did not happen. Everything the democrats brought up and attacked Alito on amounted to nothing. They tried to dig up whatever they could, but in the end they really didn't find much. I believe Alito will be confirmed

Some Blogthings things:

2006-01-10T11:59:00.000-08:00

I'm bored today, and I found the Blogthings website and decided to fill out some surveys:

You Are 60% Weird

You're so weird, you think you're *totally* normal. Right?
But you wig out even the biggest of circus freaks!

How Weird Are You?

Your Dating Purity Score: 89%

You are an innocent dater.
You're either lacking in dating experience or have had a long serious relationship.
Either way, there's still plenty of fish in the sea out there for you to sample!

Dating Purity Test

Your Elf Name Is...

Fuzzy Snow Bunny

What's Your Elf Name?

Your Pimp Name Is...

Big Playah Dogg

What's Your Pimp Name?

You Passed 8th Grade Math

Congratulations, you got 9/10 correct!

Could You Pass 8th Grade Math?

Saddam's Terror Training Camps

2006-01-09T18:47:00.000-08:00

Documents found in Iraq and Afghanistan may be revealing that the Iraqi regime was training thousands of radical Islamic terrorists.

Roughly 2 million "exploitable items" have been found in Iraq and Afghanistan since the end of 2001. These include handwritten notes, typed documents, audiotapes, videotapes, compact discs, floppy discs, and computer hard drives. Only 2.5% of these items have been thoroughly examined. However, those that have been reviewed seem to be indicating that Saddam's elite military units trained some 8,000 terrorists from 1999 to 2002.

The secret training took place primarily at three camps--in Samarra, Ramadi, and Salman Pak. Many of the fighters were drawn from terrorist groups in northern Africa with close ties to al Qaeda. Intelligence officials believe that some of these terrorists returned to Iraq and are responsible for attacks against Americans and Iraqis in the years since the invasion.

Most of the 50,000 translated documents relate directly to weapons of mass destruction programs and scientists, says David Kay and his Iraq Survey Group.

It should be noted that this information comes from the Weekly Standard, a conservative publication. However, they claim they have confirmed "the existence and character of these documents" by eleven U.S. government officials.

Not quite something you'll see in the MSM, eh?

Study shows strong liberal bias in the media

2006-01-08T09:55:00.000-08:00

A recent study shows that 18 of 20 major media outlets studied scored left of center on the political spectrum. Of those, the most liberal were the Wall Street Journal, CBS Evening News, New York Times, and LA Times. The two programs deemed conservative were Fox News' Special Report with Brit Hume and the Washington Times.
The most centrist outlet proved to be the "NewsHour With Jim Lehrer." CNN's "NewsNight With Aaron Brown" and ABC's "Good Morning America" were a close second and third. "Our estimates for these outlets, we feel, give particular credibility to our efforts, as three of the four moderators for the 2004 presidential and vice-presidential debates came from these three news outlets — Jim Lehrer, Charlie Gibson and Gwen Ifill,"
Another interesting find is that the fourth most centrist outlet was "Special Report With Brit Hume" on Fox News. This program is often cited by liberals as an example of a right-wing outlet. Yes, it does have a conservative bias, but not nearly as much as many media outlets are left wing biased.

Click here for a chart of all 20 media outlets studied.
Click here for more information on how this study was conducted.

Your cell phone records are for sale

2006-01-08T09:19:00.000-08:00

Yes, that's right. Anyone can get a list of the numbers you have called from your cell phone, for $110 (you can get land line records also). Just go on over to locatecell.com, give them a credit card number and a cell phone number. Apparently you can get the list of anyone you would like, no questions asked. Is it just me, or is this a bit ridiculous? I don't think the people I call should be public information for anyone with a bit of curiosity and money.
To test the service, the FBI paid locatecell.com $160 to buy the records for an agent's cell phone and received the list within three hours.
It appears Congress might soon take action on this matter, as Sen. Charles Schumer has called for legislation to criminalize phone record theft and use.

Communication disaster in the West Virginia Miner tragedy

2006-01-04T22:27:00.000-08:00

A terrible tragedy took place last night. There was an explosion in a mine in West Virginia several days ago. Throughout yesterday I watched some of the coverage, with increasingly discouraging news. It was reported that air tests of where the miners were believed to be trapped showed very high levels of CO2.
Everyone believed there was no chance of survival. Many family members gathered at the local church. Around midnight, they were given the news that 12 of the miners were found alive. Jubilation spread throughout the church like wildfire. The church bells rang, and people sang "Amazing grace." It was truly quite a scene. The people seemed happier than they've probably ever been in their lives, just minutes after they were completely devastated thinking their loved ones were dead.
No one seemed to know though when they would get to see the miners, or what their medical condition was. The original plan was to bring in helicopters to evacuate those who needed medical help. Apparently firefighters even cleared a landing zone for this purpose. The helicopters never came. There were even very few ambulances. Even the media did not know anything. Something seemed very peculiar. It seemed like no one minded though, because 12 of them were apparently alive. Life was good.
I went to bed last night, thinking a miracle took place, and very happy for the families of the survivors. Just the looks on their faces said it all.
I woke up this morning to realize that there was some sort of miscommunication, and in reality only one miner survived. After watching some of the footage of the families leaving the church, I was horrified. The looks on their faces showed exactly the opposite of what I saw before bed. I just can't imagine what these families had been through. It's bad enough that they originally thought that their loved one was dead. Then they were told they were alive, only to discover three hours later that this was not the case. What an awful roller coaster ride of emotions.
Don't get me wrong, after that long trapped in a mine one survivor could be considered a miracle. However, the way it all played out is just awful.
My heart truly goes out to those families, who have been through so much due to one simple miscommunication.

Latest comments from Murtha

2006-01-03T18:23:00.000-08:00

When questioned in an interview taped on Friday "Would you join (the military) today?"
"No," replied Murtha.
"And I think you're saying the average guy out there who's considering recruitment is justified in saying 'I don't want to serve'," the interviewer continued.
"Exactly right," said Murtha.
Are you kidding me? First, he started off (last November) with criticizing the war in Iraq. I don't have a problem with that as long as it is done responsibly. Constructive criticism can only help our troops. I do however have a problem with him undermining our military. This is exactly what he has done with this comment. He's telling those considering joining the military not to do so. The fact that he is allowed, with no repercussions to undermine the credibility and the power of our military absolutely astounds me.
This goes far beyond the defeatism policy which he has held since November. If he really is a strong supporter of the military, like he is portrayed to be in the media, he would have never spoken these words. Even though he does not agree with the war, that does not give him any justification in weakening the military.
The one thing that does bring me joy in the defeatism point of view is that the American public is and will continue to realize that democrats are weaker than ever on national security. Just remember, this is the issue that carried Bush in the last elections.

100 things we didn't know this time last year

2006-01-01T16:34:00.000-08:00

Very cool article listing just what the title of this post says. Some of the more interesting ones I found were:
2. Mohammed is now one of the 20 most popular names for boys born in England and Wales.
18. If all the Smarties eaten in one year were laid end to end it would equal almost 63,380 miles, more than two-and-a-half times around the Earth's equator.
32. "Restaurant" is the most mis-spelled word in search engines.
41. Tactically, the best Monopoly properties to buy are the orange ones.
67. Giant squid eat each other - especially during sex.
73. One in six children think that broccoli is a baby tree.
Take a look for yourself.

Boxer considers impeachment for Bush?

2005-12-21T21:44:00.000-08:00

The democrats continued their baseless attacks on Bush, when Senator Boxer asked "presidential scholars" if the use of secret wire taps without court approval was impeachable. Let's face it, he won't get impeached, and here's why:

-This program was targeted at people overseas, or those talking with people overseas. One of those involved must have been believed to be involved with terror.
-Why should everyone be so concerned if they have nothing to hide?
-If I was talking to someone in Afghanistan, I would assume, no I would EXPECT, someone to be listening to my conversation. I don't think there's anything wrong with that.
-Almost every American citizen will never be "spied" upon. This was a very small number of individuals in comparision to the american population. If I have to take this chance in being "spied" upon in order to save my family, friends, and other americans from being killed in a terrorist attack, you're damn right I wouldn't care.
-Those in Congress knew about this and it was approved on a bipatisan basis, as Rep. Jane Harman (D-CA) agrees by saying, "I believe the program is essential to U.S. national security and that its disclosure has damaged critical intelligence capabilities."
-The Clinton administration believed it had the same power. President Clinton authorized the break in and instillation electronic bugs WITHOUT WARRANTS of Aldrich Ames. His deputy attorney general Jamie Gorelick argued "The Department of Justice believes and the case law supports that the president has inherent authority to conduct warrantless physical searches for foreign intelligence purposes." Patrick Leahy (D) argued that this was an "entirely different power" claiming "those are searches into embassies, foreign embassies, and things of that nature." No, sir, this was a man's home that Clinton authorized spying of, NOT AN EMBASSY.
-Something interesting happened on September 11, 2001. America, at least for a short while seemed different. People seemed united, united against a common enemy. That has changed for many Americans, who feel their time would be more worth while going after the President. But, this President has not swayed, he has not faultered, and he has made our country a safer one because of it. Honestly, I think what he has done in a general sense is nothing short of miraculous. He's put his political life on the line for our country. Most people don't see it, and will tell me I'm full of shit, and thats fine, you can have your opinion. But, just remember one thing....think about how you felt on september 11th, september 12th, and so on. I remember those days. Even though none of my family or friends were directly affected, I remember how I felt eating lunch in the school cafeteria on that awful day. I was so sad, so hurt by what had happened. Suddenly it seemed like my problems were so small. I remember going to work that night at the bakery. Selling baked goods just didn't seem very important at that point. It was just such a different feeling. I knew I never wanted that to happen...ever again. Unfortunately, many don't feel that way, just four years after that terrible event.

More blatant media bias

2005-12-14T13:00:00.000-08:00

In a headline CNN claims that "Bush takes responsibility for invasion intelligence" The next paragraph gives the specific words of Bush: "It is true that much of the intelligence turned out to be wrong," Bush said during his fourth and final speech before Thursday's vote for Iraq's parliament. "As president I am responsible for the decision to go into Iraq. And I'm also responsible for fixing what went wrong by reforming our intelligence capabilities. And we're doing just that."
Interesting because I don't see anywhere in there that he took "responsibility for invasion intelligence." He stated that the intelligence was wrong, he took reponsibility for the decision to go into Iraq, and that he is responsible for reforming the intelligence capabilities! Obviously media bias when they run a headline which is purely false. They're trying to make it sound like Bush was the person responsible for the incorrect intelligence, which is false. Ugh, ridiculous.

The Iran situation is really starting to scare me

2005-12-13T12:11:00.000-08:00

In case you've been hiding under a rock, in the past few months the idea of what to do about Iran has come into the spotlight. Iran is bent on creating a nuclear program. They say they have the right to produce nuclear power, and that is all this program is used for. However, most of the rest of the world is worried they may be doing this to create nuclear weapons. With the rhetoric of the leader of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, saying israel should be whipped off the map, a nuclear iran worries me. The general idea is that if iran is allowed to continue as they are, they could have a nuclear weapon in a couple years. I dont think they would hesitate to use it if provoked at all by israel or anyone else in the world. This could obviously be a very scary situation. It doesn't help the matter that Russia is selling Iran advanced Tor-M1 systems capable of destroying guided missiles and laser-guided bombs from aircraft. Apparently Israel is planning to have their troops ready by march for an attack on secret uranium enrichment sites in Iran. I guess we'll have to see how this plays out, but it certainly seems like diplomacy is the way to handle both iran and north korea.

CNN is just plain ridiculous

2005-12-12T09:44:00.000-08:00

So, after Bush's speech today, I was watching CNN to see how they covered it. During one segment they had one of their reporters on location in a diner in chicago. First mistake: illinois is a strong democratic state, and chicago is its stronghold. The reporter at the end of the segment even admitted this saying what I just said and "its hard to find a bush supporter here." The reporter interviewed three people, all of which were definitely anti-war, pro pulling our troops out. Second huge mistake: in this segment, they were trying to get reaction from bush's speech. None of the three even saw it!!!!!!! They were all in the diner eating and working! Haha. So, first they interviewed a woman about in her 40's who was working there. The first question went something like this: "Even though you didn't see the speech today, has the speech Bush gave changed your mind at all on the events in iraq?" Hahaha, you cant be serious....The woman answered that, we should have never invaded Iran (yes, she said iraN not iraQ, lol). She went on to argue that we're not making progress in iraq and she doesnt think people are swayed by the Presidents speeches. Then the reporter went over to a table and interviewed two people. The first guy he interviewed didnt really say much except that we shouldnt be in iraq. The woman they interviewed said washington has been trying very hard to "sell the war in iraq to her." But, she said, she is not swayed in her opinion. She went on to say that this is a war about religion, and wars over religion never win. Oh, and she also said it was a war for oil. That's interesting, because our highest gas prices ever have been after the war. This is why that argument has mostly died down as a reason for us going to war. Even the crazies dont believe that anymore.
So, then the reporter wrapped up the segment by saying "Even though these people didnt get to see the speech, I think their insights into this question over iraq are very interesting." Keep in mind this was supposed to be all about people's reaction to the speech. Haha, now I know why I dont watch CNN (I do like to watch it every once in a while to remember why its so ridiculous). I also know now why CNN's ratings are absolutely awful compared to Fox.

Already seeing it

2005-12-08T08:12:00.000-08:00

Well, it seems that we're already seeing how the democrats might take a big hit for their stance on iraq. I predicted just a month ago that the democrats would pay a big price for what they're doing. It now seems thats becoming a reality.
"Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chairman Rahm Emanuel (Ill.) and Rep. Steny H. Hoyer (Md.), the second-ranking House Democratic leader, have told colleagues that Pelosi's recent endorsement of a speedy withdrawal, combined with her claim that more than half of House Democrats support her position, could backfire on the party, congressional sources said." --Washington Post.
Actually, its already clear that their strategy is backfiring. Murtha originally called for the immediate withdrawal of troops (no I'm not talking about his first speech, but on the floor of the House). Now, he has a plan to bring them home in six months....interesting.
The article goes on to say that the democrats seem to be solidifying around one solid approach. That doesnt seem to be the case at all though because yesterday a meeting was held to find a suitable strategy, and it sounds like nothing came out of that meeting. You have Dean saying we cant win, Pelosi and Murtha calling for a 6 month withdrawal, Liebermann saying we need to stay, others saying we need immediate withdrawal, and everyone else somewhere in the middle. Doesn't seem to be a solid position to me.
The article then talks about how democrats "have tried over the past year to put aside deep philosophical differences and rally behind a two-pronged strategy to return to power: Highlight the growing number of GOP scandals and score Bush's unpopular war management."
Well, they're not winning on the first one. Libby was not charged with anything dealing with the CIA leak, just for lying about it. Delay got many of his charges dropped, with the toughest to prove conspiracy ones left.
Secondly, its pretty clear now that they're definitely losing on the war debate. Their position is only solidifying peoples thoughts that the democrats are weak on national security.

XBConnect

2005-12-07T09:22:00.000-08:00

So, I recently discovered how I can basically get Xbox Live for free (don't worry, its not illegal)! There's a website called xbconnect.com. There you can sign up for an account (which is free) which allows you to play online with other members from around the world. It's pretty easy to set up, you just have to connect your xbox to a PC which is connected to the internet, download the program and go! Wahoo! So, I finally got to play some Halo 2 online the other day for the first time ever. I was pretty excited, but I really sucked since I hadn't played in a while. Oh well, I'm sure there will be more in my very near future.

Howard Dean is an idiot

2005-12-06T15:45:00.000-08:00

I make this claim for several reasons:

1. He now wants the US to "redeploy," sending 20,000 troops to Afghanistan 80,000 others to a friendly country in the middle east. He wants to fight Zarqawi with these moved troops...hmmm. Let me make sure I have this straight, he wants us to leave iraq in order to fight Zarqawi, who is in iraq, well that just plain makes no sense...In addition to the fact that there is no damn country in there right mind that can/would host 80,000 troops, simply because of the fact that they would be a huge target for terrorist attack.
2. He claims that Zarqawi entered Iraq only after the US forces invaded. This is in fact not true, he entered Iraq a year before the invasion after being hurt in Afghanistan.
3. "...The idea that we're going to win the war in Iraq is an idea which is just plain wrong...This is the same situation we had in Vietnam." - Dean No, this is NOT the same situation we had in Vietnam.
4. Please get your numbers correct. Dean said 25,000 people died in Vietnam. Please, sir, get your numbers correct. The actual number is well over 50,000. Seems to me to be a blatant attempt at comparing iraq to vietnam (which are very very different wars).
I'm sure there's more but I think I'll stop for now...oh I know, perhaps its the use of the word "idear." And people make fun of how the President talks? Haha.

Dems determined to ignore progress in Iraq

2005-12-04T17:03:00.000-08:00

I think its interesting how, first of all, the democratic party is so incredibly split on the iraq issue, but second of all how the liberals and the liberal media have ignored Sen. Joe Lieberman's recent article. In case you dont know, he is indeed a democrat. You see, he recently took a trip to iraq and says he "can report real progress there." "Progress is visible and practical."
Some of the recent progress I've heard:
- A major terror plot was foiled yesterday by, get this the IRAQI FORCES!
- Iraqis controls over 50% of Baghdad (altough the US forces still mostly control the most dangerous areas). Regardless, the fact that they are taking the lead in many parts of baghdad is interesting, because you dont hear that on the news.
- Millions of iraqis are now able to us cell phones, something that was banned by saddam.
- This is the best: Iraq, yes Iraq, has the fastest growing economy in the world! Far outpacing even china!
It's just very interesting how the liberals calling for pullout are not basing their decisions on the evidence and things actually occuring in iraq, but on political issues. Honestly, that makes me sick, and its absolutely awful.

New polls look good for Bush

2005-12-01T20:19:00.000-08:00

Well the polls seem to be turning in bush's favor, actually by quite a bit. It's surprising to me that they're turning around so fast. Of course the liberals will dismiss these results, but thats ok. This, if nothing else gives clear evidence of how well the liberals and the liberal media can unfairly sway public opinion. You can see this just by the fact that these polls have generally changed back so quickly. Anyways, heres the numbers from the most recent Fox Poll.
-Perhaps the biggest is bush's approval rating, back up to 42%, after hitting its low in the mid 30's. 48% still disapprove of bush's job rating.
-46% think the President gave Americans the best prewar intelligence available, while 44% think he intentionally misled the public.
-By 47% to 41%, the public believes there should be a publicly announced timetable for iraq.
-55% want US troops to stay and finish the job in iraq.
-This is a very interesting one: 42% believe that iraq had weapons prewar and moved or destroyed them, 19% believe iraq still has them, and only 28% believe iraq never had them. This is really very interesting, because the liberal media all seems to think that everyone believes that iraq never had them. But, a whopping 61% believe that iraq did/does have them.....interesting indeed.
-Another very interesting one: 52% believe that the world would be worse off if the US stayed out of iraq, while 59% believe iraq would be worse off had we stayed out.
-44% believe that the presence of US troops encourages terrorist attacks. This seems pretty obvious to me the way the question is asked. Seems like a pretty dumb question, I'm surprised that number isnt higher. A better question would be something like: "would there be more/worse terrorist attacks with US troops there or without."

All in all, these are generally very good numbers for Bush and the republicans, and well all of America for that matter. As long as Bush keeps up what he's been doing, I only expect these numbers to continue to turn in his favor....especially with the elections coming up in a couple of weeks in iraq.

Republicans are winning the war....

2005-11-28T09:48:00.000-08:00

It seems in the past couple weeks, ever since the republicans have started fighting back against the unfair criticism, that they are winning the war over iraq. Many democrats were calling for immediate withdrawal, while only 16 percent of the american public agree with this. 49% say we should stay until the Iraqi government can provide for their own security. In addition, 55% of the american public say criticism hurts troop morale. While the democrats continue to say that criticism helps troop morale, only 21% of the public believe this to be true.
In addition to this, a week and a half ago, the House voted 403-3 not to immediately withdrawal troops from iraq. I know I didnt post on this earlier, but this was an ABSOLUTELY BRILLIANT move by the republicans. It sure as hell pissed off the democrats because they were finally forced to put their opinions on paper. I just love how all the democrats and the press were calling it a "political stunt." And the use of rule 21 wasnt? HA! The democrats are all about political stunts, and the second the republicans just want them to put in their official stance on the war, they get all pissed off. Hahah, I love it!
Continuing with the republicans winning this war at home, cindy sheehan's protest only drew 200 people over the thanksgiving holiday, down from its near 12,000 the first time she was down there in crawford.
In yet another positive poll for the bush aministration, 56% of the american public believes that democracy will succeed in iraq. Really, thats quite astounding considering the lapdog biased media we have in this country. Don't believe me?...this proves it: only 33% of reporters believe that iraq will be a success. The liberal media is obviously out of touch with reality.
Bottom line, we will stay in iraq until the iraqis are able to take over (which they are already and have been doing), the republicans will and already are winning this war at home, and history will look back on this iraq war as a success (just keep in mind that our own constitution took 11 years to create, and we ended up fighting a civil war over it. also remember that lincoln was consistently criticized and urged to give up the fight, with protests and countless attacks from the minority party, and look how that turned out)....