Cake or Death

California's worst series of fires ever

2007-10-24T10:58:00.000-07:00

I'm sure I don't need to tell you that Southern California has been on fire now since Sunday. And I'm sure I'm not the only person who has family affected by this fire. I had my sister evacuated from Encinitas as well as my cousins in Santa Clarita, not to mention a dozen other friends in the San Diego area. And living in Riverside county, just north of the San Diego county line, I've been watching their fires very closely, but as of now, they haven't come within 10 miles of me.

Of course it would be nice if the television news casts actually relayed actual news. One problem we face here in south Riverside county is that we're lumped into what's generally considered part of the greater LA area, so we get LA news channels. The problem with that is the fires approaching our area are from San Diego county. So watching the LA news more useless than normal since they aren't covering the SD fires. And even if they were all we would get still follows the "if it bleeds, it leads" mentality. Just more proof that the MSM is totally useless.

Before going to bed last night I watched 90 minutes of news and got absolutely no useful information, and certainly nothing pertaining to the fires nearest to my area. You get the stories of the people in the evac centers, will this be better than Katrina type stories. Something tells me there will be plenty of time later to sort that kind of thing out. Let's stick to reporting the news for now. I think it was 20/20 last night that asked Michael Chertoff three questions all of which were about how the affects of Katrina are still being felt. You're interviewing the head of Homeland Security and all you can ask is about the effects of a hurricane 2 years ago? Please...

Then there are the clips that follow people back to their homes and watch them sift through the rubble and say this was the garage, this was the livingroom... I don't want to seem heartless, because their loss is staggering and tragic, but it does nothing to inform the population as to what the latest fire info is.

Then there are the secondary effects of fire type stories. If you watch you get to learn the breathing smoky air is probably bad for you. I needed you to interview a doctor to tell me that? And what about displaced animals? One report cut to a stable at the LA community college used to house horses from burn areas, and all the reporter there could say was that the stable was full. And the pet interviews were fun, but again, totally useless.

You also get the great helicopter shots of massive flames in some random canyon, with the pilot saying yeah Bob, I'm over Dumb River Canyon and wow it's going up in flames. Now, I've lived in SoCal my entire life in LA, San Diego, and now Riverside counties and I'd like to think I know SoCal pretty well. But I've got no idea where this random canyon is or that tiny creek is or what that hill over there is called. It could be 2 miles away and I wouldn't have a clue because most people don't refer to anything around here by topographic features. Try giving real world references like major streets, freeways, and landmarks. And when the reporters do start talking streets they find the smallest dead end street possible to reference. Start small and then give a larger picture of where that is please.

Then you have the anchors talking about total area burned, total number of houses destroyed, total number of people displaced simply to shock the audience. I like the statistics and hard data info, but knowing the total area burned by each fire, the number of homes destroyed by that fire, etc. doesn't help. Again maps of what the current burn area is would be nice. What area is the fire burning toward, what areas are threatened. And again show major streets and freeways please; I don't know where Rattlesnake creek is.

But my favorite story from yesterday's TV news was the reporter in the Lake Arrowhead area who had just finished filming a clip in front of a house that had a couple embers starting to burn in the backyard. He said this house is about to go up in flames and that fire units were nowhere to be found. Then 2 minutes later, two firemen show up but don't have a truck, hoses, or any water. So the reporter gets to be a "hero" when he goes to the house next door and grabs a garden hose so the firefighter can put out a two foot square patch of fire. I'm sure he'll get a Pulitzer or something for that stunning report.

So who's been the best source of info for me? Local city and county websites and all the phone numbers for fire agencies with the up to date info, and webcasts from the local access channels. Several of the San Diego newspapers have fire info blogs, bulletin boards, and chat rooms up where the public can get info from each other directly.

Petraeus to Congress: the surge is working

2007-09-14T10:05:00.000-07:00

... exactly what the Democrats feared...

WaPo - Army Gen. David H. Petraeus told Congress yesterday that the deployment of 30,000 more troops to Iraq has made enough progress that the additional combat forces can be pulled out by next summer, but he cautioned against "rushing to failure" with a larger and speedier withdrawal.

In what some called the most anticipated congressional testimony by a general since the Vietnam War, Petraeus presented an upbeat picture of improving security conditions in Iraq and offered a grim forecast of the "devastating consequences" of a more rapid pullout. Petraeus said his forces "have dealt significant blows" to al-Qaeda in Iraq but warned that Iran is now fighting a "proxy war" against Iraqi and U.S. forces there.

The partial troop pullout Petraeus outlined in a joint appearance with Ambassador Ryan C. Crocker represents a modest acceleration of what military planners were privately forecasting but is the first drawdown the two men have publicly supported since becoming the top U.S. military and civilian officials in Baghdad. President Bush, in a televised national address later this week, is likely to adopt the recommendation for this rollback of his troop "surge," while war critics immediately condemned it as too little, too late.

Of course the Dems didn't let a little good news prevent them from trying to discredit the General at every chance. They didn't debate his ideas or try to debunk his facts; they went after him. There is of course the Public Relations arm of the Democratic Party, MoveOn.org's full page ad in the NYTimes, "General Petraeus or General 'Betray Us'?". And don't think that it is simply a coincidence that this ran in the NYTimes either. Why would the NYTimes give MoveOn.org a 60% discount on the full page ad? A full page, nationwide ad space in the NYT normally goes for between $182K-$167K. MoveOn.org only paid $65K. Why the discount NYT? Is Soros running low on cash? Are the Dem's really that hard up for money now that Hillary gave back (some of) that money from her criminal supporter, Norman Hsu?

You'd think that perhaps the Dems might try to get what they believe to be the real facts out of Petraeus. This is their chance! The man with the answers sitting right there in front of them! Clinton, Reid, Boxer, et al "know" that the war is a failure and this would be their chance to prove it! But instead of asking questions, they wasted their 8 minute window of opportunity to preach, bluster, and opine from their little soap boxes. That's what California's distinguished Senator Boxer did. So did Sen. Obama. Boxer's ~~question~~ speech was so long the General will have to reply via letter to it, which is exactly what they wanted. They get to talk uninterrupted and no one gets the chance to argue. Heaven forbid they actually have to deal with facts.

But perhaps this apparent ineptitude in the face of the facts on the ground in Iraq could be why Rep. Pelosi accused this reporter of being biased when he asked how we could view her stewardship of Congress as anything other than a failure. She insinuated that surely he was a Fox News plant. But no, he's from CBS. His question has from so far to the left that it just must have seemed like the vast right wing conspiracy. Pelosi should know better though... The left relies on hatchet job reporting. The right simply tries to stay with the facts.

We will not forget...

2007-09-11T09:56:00.000-07:00

September 11th, 2001.

Current market woes claim another victim...

2007-09-08T11:10:00.000-07:00

The mortgage industry is getting hammered, and I'm another casualty. In a company paying commission only to the sales force and loan processing staff, I was the only salaried employee in the company other than the owners. After closing branch offices in an effort to cut overhead, there isn't much else left to cut other than staff...

But it looks like I won't be the only one looking for work...

Sept. 8 (Bloomberg) -- Countrywide Financial Corp., the biggest U.S. mortgage company, plans to cut its workforce by 10,000 to 12,000 in the largest round of firings since the industry's contraction began last year.

New U.S. home loans probably will drop 25 percent in 2008 from this year's levels, forcing the company to eliminate as much as 20 percent of its staff, Calabasas, California-based Countrywide said in a statement yesterday.

More than 15,000 jobs have been lost this week amid the worst U.S. housing slump in 16 years. IndyMac Bancorp, the second-biggest mortgage company, National City Corp. and Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. cut staff. At least 100 mortgage companies have sought buyers or halted lending since the start of 2006, and foreclosures in the second quarter rose to a record, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association in Washington.

Time to look for something new.

How well does blogging pay?

Better late than never...

2007-09-06T15:01:00.000-07:00

Fred Thompson confirmed all the rumors about his presidential candidacy last night on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno.

From his 15 or so minutes he actually made some decent points... his support of the war and being respected by the "international community" instead of being liked. Based on his appearance last night (and I really don't know much else about him or his views) he seems to have a solid grasp of things and certainly comes across in a straightforward, easy to understand manner.

If his campaign team doesn't fall apart on him, he certainly can't be counted out...

Schumer says the surge isn't working

2007-09-06T14:02:00.000-07:00

Huh? Can anyone follow this man's warped logic?

Looks like the Dems are trying to discredit Petraeus' upcoming report before he even gives it.

Perhaps becuase Schumer, like his colleague in the House Rep. Jim Clyburn, realizes that a positive report from Petraeus would be "a real big problem for us."

Sen. Craig's resignation not worth the paper it's written on

2007-09-05T16:31:00.000-07:00

What the hell is this guy thinking? Does he really want to withdraw his previous plea and have this go to trial? This bathroom sex scandal will be just the tip of the iceberg...

WASHINGTON - To the dismay of fellow Republicans, Sen. Larry Craig launched a determined drive to save his seat on Wednesday, vowing to stay in office if allowed to withdraw his guilty plea in a men's room sex sting.

Craig's campaign suffered an instant setback, however, when the ethics committee refused to set aside a complaint lodged against him. "Pending Sen. Craig's resignation, the committee will continue to review this matter," the committee's senior senators wrote.

Craig's decision to deploy his legal team marked a reversal of his pledge to resign on Sept. 30, and raised the possibility of a protracted legal and political struggle, much of it playing out in public, with gay sex at its core.

Please just resign Seantor. You've slimed yourself and the party enough already.

Major terrorist plot broken up by Germans

2007-09-05T15:51:00.000-07:00

The arrests were made because it appeared that attacks were imminent. The US base at Ramstein was a primary target along with Frankfurt International Airport.

BERLIN - Three militants from an Islamic group linked to al-Qaida were planning "massive" bomb attacks against Americans in Germany when an elite antiterrorist unit raided their small-town hideout after months of police surveillance, officials said Wednesday.

Prosecutors said the suspects — two German converts and a Turkish citizen sharing a "profound hatred of U.S. citizens" — had military-style detonators and enough material to make bombs more powerful than those that killed 191 people in Madrid in 2004 and 52 commuters in London two years ago.

[...] Germany's elite GSG-9 anti-terrorist unit arrested two of the suspects Tuesday at a vacation home in Oberschledorn, a town of some 900 people in central Germany. A third suspect fled through a bathroom window, but was caught about 300 meters (yards) away, authorities said.

[...] During the first part of the year, they acquired 12 containers of 35 percent hydrogen peroxide solution, which officials said can easily be combined with other material to make explosives.

As a token of the intense surveillance by German police, prosecutors said that during the investigation they were able to replace the dangerous peroxide in the containers with a harmless solution without the knowledge of the suspects.

The containers were first kept in a garage in the Black Forest region in southern Germany. Subsequently, one of the three rented a vacation cottage in Oberschledorn under a false name on Aug. 17.

On Sept. 2, the two other suspects joined him there with the intention, officials said, of making bombs using detonators and electrical components they had obtained.

Police decided to move in when the suspects moved one of the containers to the cottage, fearing an attack could be in the offing. The more than 700 kilograms (1,500 pounds) of peroxide could have made a bomb with the explosive power of some 550 kilograms (1,200 pounds) of dynamite.

"This would have enabled them to make bombs with more explosive power than the ones used in the London and Madrid bombings," Joerg Ziercke, head of the Federal Crime Office, Germany's equivalent of the FBI, said at the news conference.

Terrorists love to mark important anniversaries (like 9/11) with more death and destruction, so we were probably less than a week away from a massive terrorist attack. Hopefully, German officials can use information obtained from these would-be terrorists to take down other terrorist organizers in teh al Qaeda food chain.

Just how badly is the MSM mis-reporting the news from Iraq?

2007-08-29T12:36:00.000-07:00

On the heels of my post from yesterday, quoting from Robert McFarlane's WSJ piece relating his work getting a joint Shia-Sunni fatwa against violence in Iraq, and how the MSM has yet to report of such a historic occurrence, comes this incredible post over at Protein Wisdom.

Honestly, this is the best single Iraq post since Chrenkoff stopped doing his Good News from Iraq series. It hammers the MSM for its hotel journalism, reducing the number of reporters in Iraq from 570 to, at it lowest level, 9, relying on sources like al Jazeera for their stories, and simply reporting numbers (number of bombs, numbers of crashes, number of casualties, etc.) without doing any analysis whatsoever.

Take, for example, the coverage of events in Anbar province. In September-November 2006, the Washington Post ran a series of articles suggesting that the US military was unable to defeat the bloody insurgency in western Iraq “or counter al-Qaeda’s rising popularity there.” These stories were echoed in the New York Times/International Herald Tribune, The Christian Science Monitor, NBC News, ABC News, CNN, the AP and others, down to local TV.

But this was not the only picture of events in Anbar. In “Will the Real Anbar Narrative Please Stand Up?”, Bill Ardolino juxtaposed the WaPo stories against analysis by bloggers and embedded reporters like the Times of London’s Martin Fletcher and Michael Fumento for the Weekly Standard. Bill Roggio’s military and intelligence sources were angry over the media’s characterization of the secret reports cited by the WaPo. Roggio examined how the claims made in the WaPo coverage were taken out of the larger context of events in Anbar. Roggio and the Mudville Gazette’s “Greyhawk” charted the formation and rise of the Anbar Salvation Council — the alliance of 25 of the province’s 31 tribes in the fight against al Qaeda. Roggio and Greyhawk followed up when the Anbar tribes got US air and artillery support — a development ignored by the establishment media.

We now know which narrative was more accurate. Al Qaeda was not increasingly popular in Anbar. To the contrary, the local tribes were overwhelmingly opposing and increasingly waging war against al Qaeda, with support from the US military. Bloggers — carefully following and synthesizing information from their own sources, military information, embedded reporters, Arabic media and isolated stories in the establishment media over the course of a year — proved to be better remote journalists than those at the WaPo, NYT, CSM, AP, CNN, NBC and ABC (and any others I have overlooked).

Incidentally, as early as September 2004, Roggio had predicted the tribes would eventually turn on al-Qaeda. This type of development is crucial to winning a war against an insurgency. Popular support is key to the continuation of an insurgency; Mao Zedong famously advised his insurgents to “move through the people like a fish moves through water.” Thus, the magnitude of the media’s failure to recognize the import of the rise of the Anbar Salvation Council — and its portrayal of Anbar province as lost — cannot be understated.

It's very long but definitely worth the read.

(h/t LGF)

Bush targets Iran's role in Iraq (and other news items of significant progress in Iraq)

2007-08-28T16:49:00.000-07:00

Bush was speaking to the American Legion and not only reminded everyone that our troops have killed or captured 10,000 terrorists and insurgents, but that Iran is playing a major role in Iraq.

In Iraq, Sunni extremists, led by al Qaeda, are staging sensational attacks on innocent men, women, and children in an attempt to stoke sectarian violence. Their operatives have assassinated those seeking to build a new future for the Iraqi people. Their targets include everyone they consider infidels -- including Christians and Jews and Yezidis and Shia, and even fellow Sunnis who do not share their radical distortion of Islam. Their ranks include foreign fighters who travel to Iraq through Syria. Their operations seek to create images of chaos and carnage to break the will of the American people. These killers don't understand our country. America does not give in to thugs and assassins -- and America will not abandon Iraq in its hour of need. (Applause.)

Shia extremists, backed by Iran, are training Iraqis to carry out attacks on our forces and the Iraqi people. Members of the Qods Force of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps are supplying extremist groups with funding and weapons, including sophisticated IEDs. And with the assistance of Hezbollah, they've provided training for these violent forces inside of Iraq. Recently, coalition forces seized 240-millimeter rockets that had been manufactured in Iran this year and that had been provided to Iraqi extremist groups by Iranian agents. The attacks on our bases and our troops by Iranian-supplied munitions have increased in the last few months -- despite pledges by Iran to help stabilize the security situation in Iraq.

Some say Iran's leaders are not aware of what members of their own regime are doing. Others say Iran's leaders are actively seeking to provoke the West. Either way, they cannot escape responsibility for aiding attacks against coalition forces and the murder of innocent Iraqis. The Iranian regime must halt these actions. And until it does, I will take actions necessary to protect our troops. I have authorized our military commanders in Iraq to confront Tehran's murderous activities.

And one of the ways Bush may target Iran is by labelling Iran's Revolutionary Guards as a terrorist force.

Ahmadinejad responded to that likely threat:

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran would respond if the United States were to label the Islamic state's Revolutionary Guards a "terrorist" force, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Tuesday.

"They know that any action against the Iranian nation would be faced with a proper response," Ahmadinejad, himself a former Guards commander, told a news conference.

But he also said he believed it was "highly unlikely that the American government will take such an illogical approach ... it would be a joke I guess."

U.S. officials said this month Washington may soon name the Revolutionary Guards as a foreign terrorist group, a move that would enable the United States to target the force's finances.

I think it'd be a great joke, and I hope we give it a try. Of course the challenge with the terrorists designation is also going to be getting other nations to recognize the Revlutionary Guards as a terrorist force as well.

But Bush is (finally) out there trying to drum up support for the war, trying to get the word out about our progress in Iraq.

One thing that seems to be slipping through the cracks though was discussed this morning on Dennis Prager's show. Dennis interviewed Robert McFarlane, former National Security Advisor to Ronald Reagan. McFarlane has been working in Iraq and has achieved a momentous agreement; something that should be the headline on every newspaper in the country: A Fatwa Against Violence.

Last week, I participated in a three day meeting here that included six of the most senior Iraqi Sunni and Shia religious leaders. At the meeting, held at a Marriott hotel in a Cairo suburb, they formally agreed to "end terrorist violence, and to disband militia activity in order to build a civilized country and work within the framework of law."

This gathering was a truly historic event, given the authority of the participants -- including Sheikh Ahmed al Kubaisi, acknowledged by all Iraqis as the senior Sunni religious authority (the weekly audience for his Friday sermons, broadcast from Dubai, number 20 million), and Ayatollah Sayyid Ammar Abu Ragheef, chief of staff for Grand Ayatollah Ali al Sistani, the acknowledged leader of the Shia community in Iraq and beyond. One has only to consider the power of these specific religious leaders, and the instruments at their disposal for getting results, to grasp the gathering's enormous potential importance.

Going well beyond traditional rhetoric in their closing statement late last week, they stated their intention to work for the early issuance of a joint Sunni-Shia fatwa to the Iraqi people. A fatwa such as this will carry the force of law for all followers. Think about that. After more than four years of brutal warfare and untold suffering, the leading religious authorities in Iraq have joined hands and said "Enough," and have committed to use their authority to bring peace to their country.

Why isn't this ANYWHERE in the MSM? A google new search of Robert McFarlane yields only 48 results, and the #4 result is the WSJ article linked above. Most of the results appear to be about a completely different Robert McFarlane! Where's the NYTimes? LATimes? Chicago Trib? CNN? MSNBC? ABC? All the other alphabet soup networks?

No where to be found...

Once again the MSM seems to news that shows the progress we're making in Iraq.

Hot Wing Conspiracy Fantasy Baseball: Week 21 recap

2007-08-28T12:04:00.000-07:00

Well we're only 1 week away from the playoffs baby! And these last 2 weeks are going to be huge. Only the top 6 make it, and while it appears that we already have the 6 likely playoff teams, only one had clinched entering this week's action, and just 3 more would join by week's end...

Wookies Will Repeat - 7
Big Damn Heroes - 4
Sure I'm happy with the win, but going into Sunday's games I was winning 10-1, and only end up winning 7 to 4, and on top of that I drop in the overall rankings despite the win from 5th to 6th. Fortunately, the top six make the playoffs which start next week, and barring an absolute meltdown, I'm in!
MVP: Miguel Tejada. He's had a sub- par season, but came through this week with 3 HRs, 6 RBIs, and hit .346
Dud: Heroes pitching staff. He played to waiver wire to try to make up some ground in pitching, but picked up 6 losses, 4 pitchers who's ERA were in the double digits, and 2 wth ERAs at 27.00.

Robots Eat Babies - 5
PFB - 8
Robots just wasn't prepared for the PFB offensive onslaught. 14 HRs, 41 RBIs, 77 hits, .330 average. Wow. He took 5 of 7 offensive stats and took ERA and WHIP on top of that to seal the win.
MVP: Brandon Philips and Carlos Pena combined to hit .400, 20 hits, 6 HRs, 15 RBIs, and 16 runs scored.
Dud: Phil Hughes and Jeremy Bonderman. Hughes ERA was 7.30 and Bonderman's was a sky high 11.12. Needless to say both picked up losses.

Baseball Rulz! - 9
RFTR - 4
Baesball Rulz put together a solid overall performance, winning both offensive and pitching stats. RFTR managed to blow out Baseball Rulz in the HR and SB categories, but that's it. The silver lining for RFTR is that depsite the loss he's clinched a playoff spot.
MVP: Adrian Gonzales and Mike Lowell combined to hit .464 with 4 HRs, 16 RBIs, 16 hits, and 16 runs.
Dud: RFTR's relievers Billy Wagner and Tom Gordon got hammered with ERAs at 12.00 and 18.00 respectively.

The PAWs - 5
Cookeville Engineers - 7
Apparently the PAWs offense is throwing in the towel on the season already. They forgot, however, to tell the pitching staff. Cookeville took all 7 offensive stats, but only managed to get a tie in saves, otherwise PAWs would have swept the pitching stats.
MVP: Jose Guillen hit .407, with 11 hits and 2 HRs.
Dud: Chad Cordero got lit up. A 54.00 ERA and a loss.

bRight & Early - 10
Joe's Keizer Killers - 2
bRight is the one who leap-frogged me in the standings with this 10-2 thumping of the Keizer. Joe put up a fight in the pitching categories, but was no match at all for bRight's offense. bRight's currently in the #5 spot, and while he hasn't clinched yet, it doesn't look like he'll be knocked out by anyone...
MVP: Ryan Zimmerman hit .333, 3 HRs, 9 hits, and 7 runs scored.
Dud: Mike Mussina could've singlehandedly lost the pitching categories for bRight with a 37.80 ERA in his loss to the Angels. Stupid Yankees...

Webcats - 2
Maximum Poo - 10
Max Poo had another solid, but the game was a little closer than that score would indictate, especially in the pitching categories. Max Poo only blew the cats away in a couple categories (hits, average, and RBI), everything else was pretty closely contested.
MVP: Kenji Johjima, Freddy Sanchez, & Magglio Ordonez each had 11 hits, combined to hit .392 with 6 HRs, 19 RBIs, and 17 runs.
Dud: A.J. Pierzynski hit .167 with a grand total of 3 hits in 18 ABs.

Fmragtops Spewers - 4
Leones de Yucatan - 9
Leones shows again why he's the #2 team in the league, clinching a berth with this win. Even though 9-4 isn't quite a blowout, the categories that he did take from FM were by a LARGE margin. 13-3 in HRs, 46-18 in RBIs, 66-48 in hits, and 3-0 in Wins.
MVP: Matt Holiday continues to puch for the MVP with 12 hits, a .400 average, 3 HRs and 7 RBIs.
Dud: Geoff Jenkins had just 1 hit in 16 ABs for a .063 average

Anna Benson is Yummy - 8
JAX Juggernauts - 3
Mmmm.... Anna.... she's got the sweetest pitching staff this side of the Mississippi. She posted 6 wins. Wow. John Lackey, Brandon Webb, and Jake Peavy. She may only be ranked #4 in the league, but I wouldn't want to face her in the playoffs, but at least she clinched her spot in the dance.
MVP: All that pitching and I'm picking Carlos Lee as the MVP in this matchup. A .414 average with 2 HRs and 12 hits.
Dud: The JAX manager. 3 starters didn't play last week. 2 in fact were on the DL. He's lucky he didn't get demolished.

So here's the top 6 teams, and I'm 99% sure they'll be the playoff teams when things are said and done. The ranks may rearrange a bit, but that's about it. bRight and I haven't clinched yet but #7 (Big Damn Heroes) is 12.5 games back so he'd have to sweep webcats this week and I'd have to lose 13-0 to get knocked out of the playoff picture. However there was one 13-0 victory this year, and Big Damn Heroes pulled it off against PAWs. My worst loss though was only 3-9; in fact I haven't allowed an opponent to get double digit points against me, so I like my odds at making the playoffs.

Sen. Larry Craig arrested in airport bathroom for lewd conduct

2007-08-27T16:51:00.000-07:00

YOU'VE GOT TO BE FREAKIN' KIDDING ME!

Are Republicans trying to lose every election for the next 20 years?

Roll Call is reporting that Sen. Larry Craig, an Idaho Republican, was arrested earlier this summer in a men's room at the Minneapolis airport by an undercover officer investigating complaints about sexual activity. The Capitol Hill newspaper says it obtained the arrest report.

So far, CNN and several blogs are reporting the news.

On Aug. 8 Craig pleaded guilty to misdemeanor disorderly conduct. A 10-day sentence was stayed, but he received a year probation and paid more than $500 in fines and fees, Roll Call writes.

A spokesman for Craig described the June 11 incident as a “he said/he said misunderstanding,” and said the senator's office would release a fuller statement later today.

He said/he said misunderstanding... that has all the marks of an Onion news piece...

But don't stop reading now... It only gets better...

[...] After he was arrested, Craig, who is married, was taken to the Airport Police Operations Center to be interviewed about the lewd conduct incident, according to the police report. At one point during the interview, Craig handed the plainclothes sergeant who arrested him a business card that identified him as a U.S. Senator and said, “What do you think about that?” the report states.

I'd be saying that that makes him a bigger loser than George Michael.

[...] “At 1216 hours, Craig tapped his right foot. I recognized this as a signal used by persons wishing to engage in lewd conduct. Craig tapped his toes several times and moves his foot closer to my foot.

I moved my foot up and down slowly. While this was occurring, the male in the stall to my right was still present. I could hear several unknown persons in the restroom that appeared to use the restroom for its intended use. The presence of others did not seem to deter Craig as he moved his right foot so that it touched the side of my left foot which was within my stall area,” the report states.

Craig then proceeded to swipe his hand under the stall divider several times, and Karsnia noted in his report that “I could ... see Craig had a gold ring on his ring finger as his hand was on my side of the stall divider.”

Karsnia then held his police identification down by the floor so that Craig could see it. “With my left hand near the floor, I pointed towards the exit. Craig responded, ‘No!’ I again pointed towards the exit. Craig exited the stall with his roller bags without flushing the toilet. ... Craig said he would not go. I told Craig that he was under arrest, he had to go, and that I didn’t want to make a scene. Craig then left the restroom.”

A caller to Hugh Hewitt's show made the excellent point that if Craig was doing this at high noon and knew all the signals, that this probably wasn't his first time getting busy in a bathroom.

What the hell are Republican elected officials doing?

Unbelievable...

Alberto Gonzales resigns

2007-08-27T11:17:00.000-07:00

Honestly, I wasn't sure what to make of that when I read about it this morning. There was certainly no reason for the Senate hearings he'd been neck deep in for the past couple months, but I've no clue about the DoJ and it's inner workings, so I thought I defer to someone better versed in arena: Capatin's Quarters.

In any case, it's far past time for Gonzales to go. No one did anything illegal in terminating the federal prosecutors, but Gonzales and his team made it into a royal botch-up anyway. Gonzales really should have resigned after telling people publicly that the attorneys had performance issues when their reviews showed that they had performed well. That set off a series of statements that Gonzales had to retract or clarify, including some in Senate testimony that made him appear as though he hardly had anything to do with running the Department of Justice.

It's been an ongoing embarrassment -- and not just for the White House, which refused to acknowledge the reality of Gonzales' incompetent handling of the DoJ. The Senate has spent months trying to nail Gonzales on some sort of crime when none occurred. The SJC, and to a lesser extent their House Judiciary colleagues, have wasted months trying to deliver Gonzmas to the nutroots crowd, and the only thing they can find is mediocrity with frequent bouts of incompetence. Had they left it at that point, they would have won the war, but instead the Democrats overpromised and underdelivered and now look like fools.

At least on that note, Gonzales made the partisan differences fade into the background. He made everyone look like fools in equal proportion.

And the Captain's not alone here. Dean Barnett also thinks Gonzales' resignation was long overdue.

Hugh hadn't really opined on the issue other than to say it's a good chance for the administration to appoint a charismatic, young, anti-terror guru to the post.

So, adios Alberto. I think you got a bit of a bum deal, but hey, that's life.

WHO says US Health Care system ranks 37th in the world

2007-08-24T10:39:00.000-07:00

The US ranked 37th out of 191 countries in WHO's report (PDF) behind such health care giants like Costa Rica, Morroco, and Cyprus, and in a report by the Commonwealth Fund the US ranked last or next to last in all categories except one when compared to Australia, Canada, Germany, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom.

But really... who cares what WHO thinks?

Well Michael Moore does, and apparently he makes a big deal of these statistics in his new anti-American film, Sicko.

But John Stossel takes a closer looks at these studies, and as usual finds out they're not all that they're cracked up to be.

So what's wrong with the WHO and Commonwealth Fund studies? Let me count the ways.

The WHO judged a country's quality of health on life expectancy. But that's a lousy measure of a health-care system. Many things that cause premature death have nothing do with medical care. We have far more fatal transportation accidents than other countries. That's not a health-care problem.

Similarly, our homicide rate is 10 times higher than in the U.K., eight times higher than in France, and five times greater than in Canada.

When you adjust for these "fatal injury" rates, U.S. life expectancy is actually higher than in nearly every other industrialized nation.

Diet and lack of exercise also bring down average life expectancy.

Another reason the U.S. didn't score high in the WHO rankings is that we are less socialistic than other nations. What has that got to do with the quality of health care? For the authors of the study, it's crucial. The WHO judged countries not on the absolute quality of health care, but on how "fairly" health care of any quality is "distributed." The problem here is obvious. By that criterion, a country with high-quality care overall but "unequal distribution" would rank below a country with lower quality care but equal distribution.

It's when this so-called "fairness," a highly subjective standard, is factored in that the U.S. scores go south.

The U.S. ranking is influenced heavily by the number of people -- 45 million -- without medical insurance. As I reported in previous columns, our government aggravates that problem by making insurance artificially expensive with, for example, mandates for coverage that many people would not choose and forbidding us to buy policies from companies in another state.

Even with these interventions, the 45 million figure is misleading. Thirty-seven percent of that group live in households making more than $50,000 a year, says the U.S. Census Bureau. Nineteen percent are in households making more than $75,000 a year; 20 percent are not citizens, and 33 percent are eligible for existing government programs but are not enrolled.

So like most things espoused by Michael Moore, they're shallow arguements based on halftruths and misleading statistics.

This isn't to say that the US healthcare system is without flaws. We all know there's room for improvement. Frivolous lawsuits create higher malpractice premiums for doctors, and higher insurance premiums overall. So doctor visits cost more, testing costs more, and procedures cost more because you're not spending your money. Other people are spending your money, and Stossel quotes Milton Freidman, "No one spends other people's money as carefully as he spends his own."

And multiply that problem by 1000 if you want the government to take over and socialize healthcare. You think ER waiting rooms are packed now, just wait and see. All doctors offices will be like the DMV. Like socialized systems in Canada and Europe, you have to schedule appointments 6 months in advance, and wait months even years for important tesing and surgical procedures. Preventative medicine will be a thing of the past. Doctors and nurses will function more like postal workers; nothing against the post office, but would you bet your life on your package arriving on time via the post office? To quote PJ O'Rourke, if you think healthcare is expensive now, wait to see how expensive it is when it's free. Our public schools spend more per student than any other nation on the planet, and yet our public education system barely makes the top 20.

Whenever people talk about having the government run anything I always think of this satirical scienctific piece on a new elemnet just discovered: governmentium.

A major research institution (MRI) has recently announced the discovery of the heaviest chemical element yet known to science. The new element has been tentatively named Governmentium. Governmentium has 1 neutron, 12 assistant neutrons, 75 deputy neutrons, and 224 assistant deputy neutrons, giving it an atomic mass of 312. These 312 particles are held together by forces called morons, which are surrounded by vast quantities of lepton-like particles called peons. Since governmentium has no electrons, it is inert. However, it can be detected as it impedes every reaction with which it comes into contact. A minute amount of governmentium causes one reaction to take over four days to complete when it would normally take less than a second. Governmentium has a normal half-life of three years; it does not decay, but instead undergoes a reorganization in which a portion of the assistant neutrons and deputy neutrons exchange places. In fact, governmentium's mass will actually increase over time, since each reorganization will cause some morons to become neutrons, forming isodopes.

This characteristic of moron-promotion leads some scientists to speculate that governmentium is formed whenever morons reach a certain quantity in concentration. This hypothetical quantity is referred to as Critical Morass.

Exactly.

Michael Yon: The Ghosts of Anbar

2007-08-23T16:01:00.000-07:00

Michael's back with Marine's in Fallujah. Check out his first dispatch...

Reframed thus from a position of strength, this stage of the Anbar-war is more a sort of business transaction, where alliances beneficial to all sides—except Al Qaeda—are formed. From this perspective, there is now a moment of genuine ground-floor opportunity in Anbar, if the people here can see that by doing business with the Coalition, everyone benefits—except Al Qaeda—an exclusion that most can live with.

From a distance, this seems both obvious and uncontroversial. But on that ground floor things are less pristine, because some of our new business partners were only recently actively trying to kill our soldiers and Marines. Some may even have danced beneath Blackwater Bridge.

Reading Yon's dispatches is like reading a best seller...

Read the rest of the part 1 and keep an for the next 3.

NSA wiretaps target fewer 100 US citizens! Oh the humanity!

2007-08-23T15:17:00.000-07:00

How can they even keep track of so few wiretaps! It boggles the mind!

Chicago Trib - Previously, few details about the scope of the U.S.-based surveillance program had been made public.

McConnell made the revelation while visiting El Paso for a conference on border security. In the interview, he explained the distinction between court-sanctioned surveillance of Americans and the kind of warrantless surveillance that U.S. officials can conduct under legislation signed into law by President Bush this month.

The new law allows expanded, warrantless eavesdropping on foreigners' calls and e-mails to people in the U.S., as long as the Americans involved are not considered targets of the investigation.

If the U.S. recipient of a call turns out to be a terrorism suspect, authorities would "just get a warrant," McConnell said. He described the number of such cases as "manageable."

"On the U.S. persons side, it's 100 or less," he said. "And then, the foreign side -- it's in the thousands.

"There's a sense that we're doing massive data mining. In fact, what we're doing is surgical," he said. "A telephone number is surgical. So, if you know what number, you can select it out."

So we're "surgically" monitoring thousands of foreign calls, but actual US citizens under surveillance is 100 or less. So if you think the US population is 300 million, 100 is a 0.0000316% of the population that's being monitored.

I still bet that the loony left swears their calls are being listened to.

Really people... grow up... the government really doesn't care about your granola, or patchouli, or your new super green hybrid prius. Stop being so narcissistic. the world doesn't revolve around you.

Stay classy San Diego (Zoo)

2007-08-23T14:23:00.000-07:00

Here's a gorgeous shot of Balboa Park from the sky buckets at the San Diego Zoo.

The Fetching Mrs. Wookie and I took the Wookette and my cousin who was visiting for the week to the San Diego Zoo a week and a half ago. We met with the Wookette's God-mother there too.

I think our little Wookette slept most of the time, but we all still had a great time!

Here's some more pics, including the 4 day old giraffe!

More than 10,000 terrorists killed or captured since surge began

2007-08-22T16:28:00.000-07:00

Hugh Hewitt's been replaying the speech the president made earlier today in Kansas City. The entire MSM is hammering Dubya's for his comparison of Iraq to WWII and Vietnam, but they're missing a key bit of info (or conversely you could say that once again the administration isn't communicating our successes in Iraq again): More than 10,000 terrorists killed or captured since January.

Here's the text from Dubya's speech today:

There is one group of people who understand the stakes, understand as well as any expert, anybody in America -- those are the men and women in uniform. Through nearly six years of war, they have performed magnificently. (Applause.) Day after day, hour after hour, they keep the pressure on the enemy that would do our citizens harm. They've overthrown two of the most brutal tyrannies of the world, and liberated more than 50 million citizens. (Applause.)

In Iraq, our troops are taking the fight to the extremists and radicals and murderers all throughout the country. Our troops have killed or captured an average of more than 1,500 al Qaeda terrorists and other extremists every month since January of this year. (Applause.) We're in the fight. Today our troops are carrying out a surge that is helping bring former Sunni insurgents into the fight against the extremists and radicals, into the fight against al Qaeda, into the fight against the enemy that would do us harm. They're clearing out the terrorists out of population centers, they're giving families in liberated Iraqi cities a look at a decent and hopeful life.

Our troops are seeing this progress that is being made on the ground. And as they take the initiative from the enemy, they have a question: Will their elected leaders in Washington pull the rug out from under them just as they're gaining momentum and changing the dynamic on the ground in Iraq? Here's my answer is clear: We'll support our troops, we'll support our commanders, and we will give them everything they need to succeed. (Applause.)

So let's do the math:

1,500 dead or captured terrorists x 8 months = 12,000 dead or captured terrorists
These are the type of word problems math teachers should be giving to their students.

As of right now, there are 716 articles at Google news, referencing the president's speech. Any guesses on how many lead with the "More than 10,000 dead"?

Or even worse, check out the Freudian slip at ABC (via Ace and Hot Air): Iraq like Vietnam - Bush's new talking point...

Obama would remove US-Cuban restrictions

2007-08-22T15:48:00.000-07:00

He must be having a tough time finding good Cuban cigars anymore...

WaPo - "The primary means we have of encouraging positive change in Cuba today is to help the Cuban people become less dependent on the Castro regime in fundamental ways," the Illinois senator wrote in an op-ed piece published in Tuesday's Miami Herald.

Clinton, the New York senator and Democratic front-runner, issued a statement reiterating her support for the current policy toward Cuba, adding, "Until it is clear what type of policies might come with a new government, we cannot talk about changes in the U.S. policies toward Cuba."

She has recently sought to portray Obama as naive on foreign policy.

[...] "We're in a very critical moment where many of us are hoping that we will see a transition as opposed to a transfer of power. Frankly I think his comments are ill-timed," said Florida Sen. Mel Martinez, chairman of the Republican National Committee. "It shows that he either didn't think it through very well or simply hasn't had enough experience on these tough foreign policy problems."

Gee... ya think?

Obama's statement makes absolutely zero sense and Mel Martinez is right on point. Castro is old and dying, so why empower a crumbling regime by caving in now after 45 years of an economic embargo? As Fidel slowly rides off into the sunset, that's where we'll see our opportunity to promote change in Cuba, free an oppressed people, and create a valuable trading partner.

Maybe think a bit next time before you flaunt your brave new policies.

Or at least let Hillary proofread them for you...

6 Minnesota Imams drop "John Doe" passengers from their lawsuit

2007-08-22T14:46:00.000-07:00

We all remember the 6 Imams who were removed from a US Airways flight for "suspicious behavior" that included excessively loud praying, chanting "Allah, Allah, Allah," and angry, muttered conversations. Well, they removed the "John Doe" passengers who reported their behavior as suspicious from their lawsuit.

Normally I'd celebrate a victory of common sense over stupidy, but they still plan to move forward with the suit against US Airways and Minneapolis airport workers.

You can't expect too much good news at once...

Hat tip: LGF

Ledeen gives us some of the history behind our problem with Iran

2007-08-21T14:00:00.000-07:00

It's another fabulous article, published yesterday, in which Ledeen shows us how the US has, for the past 30 years, been suckered by the Iranian regime over and over and over...

Washington diplomats have steadfastly refused to see the Iranian regime for what it is: a relentless enemy that seeks to dominate or destroy us. This blindness afflicted the first American negotiators shortly after the 1979 revolution, and has been chronic ever since, even though Iran declared war on us in that year and has waged it ever since.

During the first negotiations in early 1979, shortly after the Revolution, the Iranians denounced American meddling, and the Americans lamented Iran's dreadful human-rights practices. The Iranian negotiator, Deputy Prime Minister for Revolutionary Affairs Ibrahim Yazdi, said that Iran had just undergone "the cleanest revolution in world history," even though mass executions were underway throughout the country.

Yet American diplomats were optimistic that a grand bargain could be struck. The Iranians wanted arms, and American military men sat down to work out the details of new sales. On the diplomatic front, Assistant Secretary of State Harold Newsom reported that: "the Iranian suspicions of us were only natural in the post-revolutionary situation but that after a transition period common interests could provide a basis for future cooperation-not on the scale of before but sufficient to demonstrate that Iran has not been 'lost' to us and to the West."

This was written almost precisely a month before the American Embassy in Tehran was seized in November, 1979. For the next 444 days, diplomats talked and talked, until, minutes before Ronald Reagan's inauguration, the hostages were ransomed out.

Five years (and a new set of hostages) later, the Reagan administration commenced secret negotiations with the mullahs, using American, Israeli and Iranian back channels. Reagan's deep personal concerns about the fate of the hostages drove the policy, and inverted the logical strategic order.

Iran was a major problem for the U.S.--hundreds of American marines and diplomats had been massacred in Beirut by Tehran's favorite terrorist instrument, Hezbollah--and should have been dealt with on that basis. But some American officials convinced themselves that a deal could be made with Iranian "moderates," and a group led by former National Security Adviser Robert McFarlane flew secretly to Tehran, met with a few mid-level Iranian officials, and returned empty handed. As in the Jimmy Carter years, the mullahs killed Americans, but America did not respond effectively.

The George H.W. Bush administration, with the Iran-Contra scandal fresh in their minds, avoided direct negotiations with Iran, but in recent years two of its leading officials--National Security Adviser Brent Scowcroft and Secretary of State James Baker--have been outspoken advocates for talking to the mullahs.

The Clinton administration passionately sought rapprochement. Believing that the Iranian "moderates" had grown more powerful with the election of President Mohammed Khatami, the president and Secretary of State Madeleine Albright made public amends for real and imagined American sins against the Islamic Republic, and made a series of public and secret gestures calculated to show that the U.S. bore no ill will toward the mullahs.

Iran was secretly authorized to ship weapons into Bosnia in defiance of a United Nations embargo that was formally endorsed by the Clinton administration. Russia was secretly permitted to sell weapons and supply Iran's budding nuclear program, in violation of a law coauthored by Vice President Al Gore in his Senate years. Visas were issued to Iranian wrestlers and scholars, and some Iranian funds were unblocked.

This was all evidence of the American belief that an agreement could be reached. The Iranians exploited the opportunity, provided by our invitation to ship arms to the Muslims in the Balkans, by supporting a terror network in Bosnia. Mohammed Atta trained in Bosnia, from there he went to Hamburg, and thence to the U.S. Two other 9/11 terrorists--Ramzi Binalshibh, and Said Bahaji--were recruited into al Qaeda in Bosnian camps. We ignored the Iranian actions.

In 1996, the Iranians were up to their necks in the terror attack against Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia. Still, we pursued the mirage of a deal with our enemies. In the final months of the Clinton administration, former Spanish President Felipe Gonzales traveled secretly to Tehran to explore the possibilities of a new relationship. Like all the others, he made no progress.

And unfortunately, Dubya has fallen into the same pattern: tough talk... all bark and no bite.

You'd think that we'd have learned our lesson after the first, second, or perhaps even the 10th time that our gestures of good will were treated with blatant disregard and contempt; they're certainly not worth the paper they were printed on. We've given them chance after chance after chance and we still look to give them further chances. Hell, if by some disasterous twist of fate, Obama manages to get himself elected president, he said he'd sit down with Tehran personally. Nevermind that our troops on the ground in Iraq have captured suspects who've confessed to receiving training in Iraq from Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, that weapons caches have been destroyed that were of specific Iranian design, and that paperwork and laptops have been analyzed that show direct links between insurgents in Iraq and Iranian suppliers from within the Iranian government.

I'm sure they'll stop all that this time if we agree to negotiate with them.

Again...

Passenger jet explodes on Okinawa runway

2007-08-20T14:53:00.000-07:00

Damn!

The amazing thing is that there were no casualties. All passengers and crew made it safely off the plane before it exploded.

Holy crap!

How Wing Conspiracy week 20 results

2007-08-20T14:42:00.000-07:00

Another fun fantasy baseball week bites the dust.
Here's how the final scores came out...

Wookies Will Repeat - 6
Maximum Poo - 6
I thought I had Poo down for the count, with a 10 - 3 lead on Friday. But Poo came storming back and tied things up. And it it wasn't like either one of our teams played particularly crappy. Any other week we'd both have probably had runaway victories. Just not this week.
MVP - Albert Pujols. Big Al hit .476, 10 hits, & 3 HRs
Goat - Ray Druham. Ray hit a spectacular .100, with only 1 hit. The pisser here is that if I'd left him in the lineup on Sunday, I'd have won since he went 1 - 4 with a HR. HRs was the one category we tied in...

Robots Eat Babies - 2
RFTR - 11
Unfortunately, Robots was thoroughly outmatched. RFTR had a truly dominating performance and Robots never had a chance. Robots only took the offensive and pitching K categories and that was it.
MVP - Bobby Abreu. Bobby hit .375 with 3 HRs, 6 RBIs, and 2 SBs. Who told the Yankees it was OK to win again? I liked them better when they were in the cellar.
Goat - Ryan Howard. A rough week for the Rhino. Only 3 hits for a .125 average and 12 K's.

Baseball rulz! - 9
Cookeville Engineers - 3
This match up was a little closer than the score indicates. The pitching stats were a dead heat here, but Cookeville lost the offensive categories 5 to 1. Cookeville took SBs by 9 but that's were the fun stopped.
MVP - Lance Berkman. Lance finally put together a good week hitting .400 with 3 HRs and 9 runs scored.
Goat - Kevin Youklis. The man with the funny goatee only hit .111 and racked up 12 K's.

The PAWs - 11
bRight & Early - 2
PAW came out to play this week, despite the sub .500 record and took out bRight, a top ranked team. Don't let the score fool you; it was a tight game, but PAWs found a way to come out on top... barely. He took hits by 1, RBIs by 2, runs by 2, and HRs by 2.
MVP - Mark Reynolds. Yeah... I don't know who he is either, but he hit .375 for the week with 2 HRs and 4 RBIs.
Goat - Brad Wilkerson. he came through with just 1 hit and 8 Ks for a total average of .083. Ouch.

PFB - 7
Big Damn Heroes - 6
Another bottom feeder team coming up big against a contender team. Heroes put up a fight but just couldn't quite overcome PFBs well rounded attack. PFB had 3 guys with double digit hits, 4 with 5 or more RBIs (every started had at least 1 RBI), and at least one run scored by every starter too.
MVP - Brandon Phillips, Vlad Guerrero, and Tori Hunter combined for 3 HRs, 30 hits, 16 RBIs, and 14 runs scored.
Goat - Joe Borowski. Looks like he got pounded. 13.50 ERA with a loss.

Webcats - 7
Leones de Yucatan - 5
This must have been the week of the upset! Webcats is ranked #15 in a 16 team league and Leones was #2. Webcats had a solid week, and Leones had a bit of a down week. The cats just barely took 6 of the 7 offensive categories, but that was enought to get them the win.
MVP - Raul Ibanez. We have Raul Ibanez siting! Trying to resurrect an absolutely horrendous season, Raul hit .429, with 2 HRs, and 5 RBIs.
Goat - Scot Shields. Sure he had a 20.25 ERA and a WHIP at 4.50... Could be worse...

Fmragtops Spewers - 6
JAX Juggernauts - 5
FM wins! FM wins! This was your basic mediocre offense vs. mediocre pitching, and we all know mediocre offense will win that matchup at most 50% of the time.
MVP - Geoff Jenkins. He had a modest .261 average, 6 hits 3 of which were HR, and 6 RBIs. Medicrity at its finest.
Goat - Omar Vizquel. We're closing in on Omar's retirement I think. .056 average, with only 1 hit all week.

Anna Benson Is Yummy - 10
Joe's Keizer Killers - 1
As usual, Anna's opponents roll over and bask in her yumminess, and while Joe may be a Keizer Killer, he was no match for her feminine sex appeal. Stats were overall pretty close, so Joe put up a fight at least.
MVP - David Wright. The latest fathead spokeman had 11 hits, posting a .423 average.
Goat - Jon Garland had a rough week. 2 losses with a 9.72 ERA.

And this week's matchups certainly favor the top ranked teams. Teams 1-4 all play the bottom teams this week. I of course being ranked 5th have to play the #7 team. I guess I'll have to dredge the free agent pool for some pitching....

Get your helmet dusted off and those pads strapped on... Fantasy Football is back!

2007-08-17T16:55:00.000-07:00

And who else would be hosting fantasy football but Hot Wing Conspiracy!

First though a baseball update. This season's been much more challenging than my championship year last year; certainly not the runaway success that last year was. But I've beeen plugging away and have worked my way up in the rankings from 10th to 5th. I'm riding a 4 game win streak and am 5-0-1 over the last 6 weeks. Last week I beat Leones, the #2 team in the league and so far this week, I'm up on #1, Max Poo. I just need my starting pitching to pick it up a notch, and I could really start kicking butt. I'll try to put up this week's results early next week.

Now to the pigskin!

Last year my wookies placed 3rd, not too shabby, but I'm going for it all this year with Wookies Will Win. Here's how the draft went down for this year's wookies:

1. (5) Joseph Addai RB
2. (20) Willis McGahee RB
3. (29) Vince Young QB
4. (44) Jamal Lewis RB
5. (53) Darrell Jackson WR
6. (68) Terry Glenn WR
7. (77) Kellen Winslow TE
8. (92) New England DEF
9. (101) Robbie Gould K
10. (116) Jerry Porter WR
11. (125) Jay Cutler QB
12. (140) Greg Olsen TE
13. (149) San Francisco DEF
14. (164) Stephen Gostkowski K
15. (173) Brian Leonard RB

I'm pretty happy with that... My draft strategy was get runningbacks, runngingbacks, and more runningbacks. The one thing I'm running short on here is wideouts. I'm going to need to pick another receiver up and probably drop either Leonard or the SF Defense.

The league favorite has to be bRight, who got LT, but I think Tokyo and The Jerk will also be pretty strong contenders.

Keep an eye on the Hot Wing Conspiracy page for full updates! I'm sure it will get updated soon here as well!

Wookie family update

2007-08-17T16:04:00.000-07:00

I know blogging has been a bit light of late(especially if you don't include the past 2 days), so I thought I'd show you why...

Happy weekend everyone!!

Chavez declares himself president for life

2007-08-17T14:30:00.000-07:00

Don't you love the smell of socialism in the morning?

Telegraph - The Venezuelan strongman Hugo Chavez has anointed himself president for life by proposing sweeping changes to the country's constitution.

Setting out his plans for completing his socialist revolution in the oil-rich Latin American nation, he proposing radical constitutional reform which has at its centre indefinite re-election for himself.

In a rambling televised speech reminiscent of his close ally and friend Fidel Castro, Mr Chavez told the national assembly of 33 changes he plans to make to the constitution he introduced in 1999 which will cement his grip on power.

"We have broken the chains of the old, exploitative capitalist system," said Mr Chavez. "The state now has the obligation to build the model of a socialist economy."

So now that's he's taken control of all media outlets, made most of Venezuela's industries state-controlled, and declared himself dictator for life, you'd think that that would raise an eyebrow or two on the left.

But we are talking about Democratic party afterall...

The Inconvenient Truth of global warming is being hampered by Inconvenient Facts

2007-08-17T10:06:00.000-07:00

I suppose you could say that global warming wackos lied, and people panicked and bought hybrid cars. But what did they lie about? Let's check out Michael Fumento's latest article...

If you follow the global warming debate, you “know” that nine of the ten warmest years recorded in the U.S. lower 48 since 1880 have occurred since 1995, with the very hottest being 1998.

But whaddya know! Those figures are wrong. Data from NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) now show the hottest year since 1880 was 1934. Nineteen-ninety-eight dropped to second, while the third hottest year was way back in 1921. Indeed, four of the 10 hottest years were in the 1930s, while only three were in the past decade.

The real 15 hottest years are spread over seven decades. Eight occurred before the chief “greenhouse gas,” atmospheric carbon dioxide, began its sharp rise; seven occurred afterwards.

Say it ain't so! So all Al Gore's inconvenient graphs in An Inconvenient Truth are inconveniently wrong?

Don't forget though that the global warming debate is over. The polar bears and penguins are roasting to death and it's our fault.

Even if the facts still don't support their premise...

UPDATE @ 8:08am on 8/18 - Michael has a more detailied version of the Townhall article posted at his website. Check it out for all the cool graphs. Chicks dig graphs.

Thanks for the link Michael!

Jose Padilla found guilty

2007-08-16T11:50:00.000-07:00

MIAMI, Florida (CNN) -- The jury in the Jose Padilla terror trial has found the American guilty of conspiracy to support Islamic terrorism overseas.

Padilla's two co-defendants, Adham Hassoun and Kifan Jayyousi, were also found guilty on the three counts as charged: conspiracy to murder, kidnap, and maim people in a foreign country, conspiracy to provide material support for terrorists, and providing material support for terrorists.

The verdict came after less than two days of deliberations, according to a U.S. District Court official.

Sentencing is set for December 5th and he faces a maximum sentence of life in prison.

Prosecutors played 70 intercepted phone calls for the jury, 7 of which actually included Padilla's voice. FBI specialists testified that the calls were conducted in code of course and when translated revealed that Padilla was discussing travelling overseas to fight with Islamic militants in Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan.

I'm sure the leftie moonbats are all weeping into their no foam, soy lattes for this ~~"freedom fighter"~~ wannabe terrorist. We here at Cake or Death will chalk it up to good security and prevention of the deaths of thousands of Americans. Score one for the good guys!

UPDATE @ 11:55am - Oh and then there's this damning piece of evidence (Thanks to Hot Air for the reminder) that the leftwing moonbats would like you to forget:

The key piece of physical evidence was a five-page form Padilla supposedly filled out in July 2000 to attend an Al Qaeda training camp in Afghanistan, which would link the other two defendants as well to Usama bin Laden’s terrorist organization.

The form, recovered by the CIA in 2001 in Afghanistan, contains seven of Padilla’s fingerprints and several other personal identifiers, such as his birthdate and his ability to speak Spanish, English and Arabic.

Oops.

But why let perfectly good things like facts get in the way of a ~~freedom fighter~~ wannabe terrorist?

8.0 magnitude earthquake destroy large portions of Peru

2007-08-16T10:43:00.000-07:00

Holy crap. A 2 minute 8.0 earthquake.

As a Californian, that scares the pants of me...

(CNN) -- Rescuers in Peru frantically combed through rubble Thursday looking for survivors of a powerful earthquake that officials said killed at least 337 people and injured 1,350.

The two-minute, 8.0-magnitude quake struck Wednesday evening, and strong aftershocks followed, including a 6.0-magnitude temblor on Thursday, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

When the shaking stopped, a major highway along the coast was nearly destroyed, said Giorgio Ferrario of the International Red Cross. Rescuers have been severely hampered by fallen debris, he said.

An 8.0 earthquake followed by 11 other quakes including a 6.0 aftershock.

Wow.

I'm sure the number of injured and killed will tragically continue to climb. When you read that the the quake destroyed 75% of towns like Ica, Pisco and Chincha, you can't help but think that 337 dead is going to increase dramatically.

UPDATE @ 11:30am - Australia's news.com increases the death toll to 387.

UPDATE @ 9:57am on 8/17 - The NYT now puts the death toll at 510. And they continue to have aftershocks; big ones. 14 in fact registered at 5.0 or larger.

The Democrats try to come up with a 50th way to run away from war in Iraq

2007-07-25T17:02:00.000-07:00

Murtha's waving the white flag again, although maybe he thinks it's only slightly off-white as opposed to bleached white (a la scared sh*tless).

WASHINGTON - House Democrats have drafted new Iraq legislation they hope will appeal to Republicans fed up with the war: Start withdrawing troops in two months but leave it up to President Bush to decide when to complete the pullout.

[...] The House has passed similar anti-war measures in the past, but has been unable to push the legislation through the Senate, where Democrats hold a slimmer majority and Republicans have routinely blocked such bills from advancing.

Most recently, the House approved legislation that would have required troop withdrawals to begin this November and finish by April 1.

Under his latest plan, Murtha said he envisions troop withdrawals to start in November and take about a year to complete. A draft of his proposal did not include a firm end date.

So Genereal Patreus gets the requested "surge" in troops which he's only had now for a couple months (and which was overwhelmingly approved in the House and Senate), but since that didn't result in an immediate victory, surrender or all terrorists, peace on earth and goodwill toward men, the Dems resort to handwringing, wailing, and moaning again. And who better to do the handwringing for the Dems than the consumate handwringing professional, John Murtha.

So we'd still have to start withdrawing troops in November, but date to finish withdrawal is slightly murkier than the original April Fools Day.

Maybe at some point Murtha will realize the profound Freudian nature of that final exit date and put away his white flag once and for all... but I'm certainly not going to bet on it...

Terrorists using cheese in attack dry runs

2007-07-25T14:54:00.000-07:00

In a blatant display of disregard for the welfare of perfectly good cheese, terrorist splodeydopes are using hunks of fine cheddar and brie cheeses in the place of, say, C4 on 9/11 style dry runs.

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Police across the country should be on the lookout for what could be "dry runs" for a terrorist attack, the Transportation Security Administration advised after series of suspicious incidents occurred at U.S. airports.

An unclassified advisory, sent July 20 from TSA to law enforcement agencies, raised the possibility that recent activity could be "pre-attack security probes."

[...] The advisory details four incidents from the past 11 months in which screeners found unusual objects with items that could mimic bomb components in passengers' checked or carry-on bags.

In one case last September, a couple in Baltimore, Maryland, checked a plastic bag with a block of processed cheese taped to another plastic bag containing a cell phone charger. Earlier this month in San Diego, California, a passenger checked a bag containing two ice packs covered in duct tape. The ice packs had clay in them instead of the normal blue gel.

In the name of all good cheeses everywhere, contact your elected officials! Something must be done to prevent further harm to the fine cheeses of this great nation!

Oh, and the people too... hate to see something bad happen to them either...

Patton takes on terrorism, fascism, and Harry Reid

2007-07-25T14:29:00.000-07:00

Thought something like this would be the perfect post after a brief hiatus in blogging...

Hat tip: Hugh Hewitt

Another proud papa moment...

2007-06-01T09:57:00.000-07:00

I tell you what... I am putty in this little girl's hands...

Bush names Fuzzy Zoeller as World Bank President?

2007-05-30T16:34:00.000-07:00

So on top of being a world class golfer, Fuzzy is a top-notch economist too. Who knew?

Oh... Zoellick. Not Zoeller. My bad.

Here's some quotes from the White House and his formal introduction by Dubya.

*Bob Zoellick brings a wealth of experience and energy to this task. Over the past three decades he's held important posts in government, business and higher education. And in these posts he has worked on issues ranging from German unification, Latin American debt relief, to the transition of post-Soviet economies. For the past six years -- or most of the past six years, he has served as a member of my Cabinet. As the United States Trade Representative, he helped bring China and Taiwan into the World Trade Organization, launched the Doha Round of trade talks at the WTO, and significantly increased the number of U.S. free trade agreements.

Bob has had a strong voice for Africa. He's helped implement the African Growth and Opportunity Act that has increased America's trade with that continent. He has served on the board of the Millennium Challenge Corporation, an initiative designed to change the way we deliver foreign aid. In 2005, I asked Bob to serve as the Deputy Secretary of State. In that role, he managed a global staff of 57,000 people, he played a leading role in our engagement with China, and he traveled frequently to Darfur and Southern Sudan to help find a path for peace. Most recently, he has been vice chairman international at Goldman Sachs. In short, it would probably be easier to list all the jobs Bob hasn't had.

Bob sounds like a fine choice, but to be honest we here at Cake or Death didn't bring this up to give the thumbs up or down to Fuzzy Zoeller's 2nd cousin. We were more than a little shocked at some of the World Bank numbers.

The US is the World Bank's largest donor. Fabulous. Is there an international organization that we aren't the largest donor of? That's probably a much shorter list... and easier to digest...

The World Bank donated $9.5 billion last year to the poorest countries. Half of that went to sub-Saharan Africa. I want to support Africa and all, but I'd have to say at least 75% of that money donated to African nations was probably wasted by the corrupt governments. Maybe 25% actually went to helping the poor. So we're only wasting a quarter of the money we give to the world bank. Awesome.

We've really got to reign in this out of control spending and giving money away to people and nations who'd just as soon spit on us as thank us sounds like a good place to start.

With a name like Fuzzy though, I just don't think he's got the will power to say no...

John Edwards dismisses the GWOT as a bumper sticker slogan

2007-05-24T11:11:00.000-07:00

It's nice to know that our candidates for president take national secrurity and the most important issue of our day so seriously.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The U.S.-led war on terrorism is "a bumper sticker, not a plan" that has weakened Washington's global standing, Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards said on Wednesday as he unveiled his defense policy plans. [original speech text here.]

[...] "By framing this as a 'war,' we have walked straight into the trap that the terrorists have set -- that we are engaged in some kind of clash of civilizations and a war against Islam," said the former senator from North Carolina.

[...] "Finally, we need a diplomatic offensive to engage the rest of the world in Iraq's future -- including Middle Eastern nations and our allies in Europe," Edwards told a meeting of the New York-based think tank. The council has invited all the presidential candidates to speak, and Edwards was the first in the series.

Gee I thought pursuing terrorists and the nations that sponsor them sounds like a pretty good idea to me, but Edwards would rather pull all the troops out and have them prevent al Qaeda from making Iraq a stronghold from somewhere other than in Iraq. Maybe he can work out with Murtha a way to have our troops fight al Qaeda in Iraq from Okinawa. That's be great.

And while we're wishing on a star, I could use a couple million bucks. Maybe Edwards will give me a donation from his high volume of bumper sticker sales.

And I'd like to see how this diplomatic offense would work... Bomb them with paperwork? Staple them to death? Hope the terrorists suffer severe paper cuts? And pray that when they promise to never kill innocent people again they actually mean it?

Edwards, why don't you use some of your millions and buy yourself a clue?

Al Qaeda and bin Laden's direct role in Iraq

2007-05-23T15:18:00.000-07:00

It's always nice to see intel declassified that supports the war in Iraq and the GWOT in general... even if it's released 2 years late and so infrequently it can be easily ignored by the MSM.

That's why you guys read blogs though...

NEW LONDON, Connecticut (Reuters) - Trying to rally support for an unpopular war, President George W. Bush used declassified intelligence on Wednesday to equate the U.S.-led fight in Iraq with the broader battle against al Qaeda.

[...] The White House said the intelligence declassified on Tuesday provided further evidence of bin Laden's connections to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, head of Iraq's al Qaeda wing, who was killed in a U.S. air strike in June 2006.

Bush said bin Laden had ordered Zarqawi in January 2005 to form a cell to conduct attacks outside of Iraq and to make America his "number one priority."

Yes this is 2 year old intelligence, but I sure wish Dubya would release this stuff in a more timely manner. No wonder his approval rating is at 33 (sad thing is that the Democratic Congress has a 29% approval rating) and support for the war is dwindling.

But of course the article is quick to dismiss the report as "politically motivated".

Well duh! He's got to try to gain some political support from the public because the MSM is fighting him tooth and nail at every step of the way. If the media simply reported the news and didn't spin it for their own motives, he wouldn't have to have timely releases of declassified intelligence to scrap for public approval.

I'm back!

2007-05-23T15:02:00.000-07:00

It's scary how time flies when you haven't blogged in a while...

Everything's going fine over in the Wookie household, I was just too busy at work to blog. I rarely blog from home, especially since the little Wookette was born. So that really just leaves work, and since they'd been drowning me in paperwork lately, my blogging suffered. True only 3 off you noticed the hiatus, but we love our loyal readers here at Cake or Death, so I'm back.

And to be truly honest, I really wasn't very excited about blogging anything lately. Nothing in the news was really grabbing my attention. I needed a jumpstart and who'd have guessed it'd come in the form of an email forward.

The Fetching Mrs. Wookie hasn't been feeling well the past couple days, so in her recovery time, she sent out a few forwards. Some are political, some are religious, some are just fun, but one in particular caught a couple people's attentions which led to an interesting reply.

The email in question was about, the Religion of Peace. A state employee was participating in a regular training session that included representatives from Protestant, Catholic, and Muslim faiths who were there to summarize their beliefs. Each got their turn to speak, and when the Q&A period came the original author of the email asked the Imam some pointed questions regarding jihad (holy war against infidels), infidels (non-believers), and who qualifies to be labelled as an infidel (anyone not Mulsim), and what devout Muslims are supposed do to infidels (namely, kill them). It was interesting in that the Imam acknowledged everything including the interpretation that Muslims are supposed to kill infidels. But it was the replies to the email that the Fetching Mrs. Wookie got that started the blogging juices flowing again.

One friend replied back saying how emails like this promote discrimination and hatred, that Muslims are a peaceful religious community, and that we ought to do the Christian thing and stop such prejudiced emails.

That got me a little fired up.

My reply was as follows...

The problem is that the vocal sects are the ones with the extremist tendencies and the peaceful Muslims around the world stand by and say nothing as the extremists in their midst tarnish the good name of their religion. If a Christian commits crime in the name of Christianity, pastors, clerics, and priests around the world would (and have) publicly denounce the extremists’ actions as evil and not in accordance with their religion’s beliefs. But where are the Imams publicly defending their peaceful religion that’s been hijacked by ruthless killers? They are unfortunately to few and far between.

The email was in no way an attack on the millions of peaceful Muslims here in the US or abroad. It was certainly an indictment and criticism of how their religion has been distorted, but not distorted by US citizens or those who distribute these emails. It wasn’t distorted by the news media or our government. Its good name is being destroyed by its own practitioners; those who peacefully practice their religion but say nothing as well as those who murder in the name of Allah.

“All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.” – Edmund Burke

So you can either view this email as an attempt to incite hatred and prejudice against Muslims or you can view it as an attempt to flush out those who smear the true nature of Islam and motivate Islam’s peaceful but silent followers to publicly ostracize those who abuse their religion.

It's good to be back...

"You're cursed Jack..."

2007-05-01T20:19:00.000-07:00

"... Everything you touch, in one way or another ends up dead."

And SecDef Heller is saying that like it's a bad thing?! If you're job is national security for a sooper-sekret covert agency, then that's a very good thing. Terrorists have a tendency to turn up dead when you send Jack Bauer after them.

Of course the down side is that Jack goes through wives and girlfriends rather quickly. And the downside for Kim Bauer fans is that she always has these near death experiences; at least two a season for the seasons she's been a part of. Whether it mountain lions or Edgar-eating toxic gas, Kim always narrowly escapes death.

But that makes us here at Cake or Death wonder, did Jack pass this grim reaper-like quality on to his daughter? We believe he did, only she can't control it. Where Jack is like the grim reaper or Chuck Norris, killing at will, Kim is like the plague, death simply wipes out everything in her wake. Her mom? Dead. Chase? Lost his arm, probably dead. New psycho-babble boyfriend from last season? I'm sure he's OD'd by now. Jack even had to fake his death to get away from her.

So while this may be bad for Kim Bauer fans everywhere, at least it's an excuse to try to convince 24 writers to bring back Kim next season as the ultimate WMD. Oh, and it's an excuse to put up a nice little pic too...

So while you enjoy Kim, enjoy this week's Jack Bauer Moment of ZenTM:

~~Chuck Norris~~ Jack Bauer doesn't have to wait 30 minutes after a big meal to go swimming. He can swim whenever he wants.

The tighter the jeans on ~~Chuck Norris~~ Jack Bauer, the more kick ass he becomes.

~~Chuck Norris~~ Jack Bauer actually speaks three languages: English, Pain, and Death. He is currently working on a fourth language, Dismemberment, and is doing quite well.

Heh.

Saudis arrest 172 in airplane terror plot

2007-04-27T15:32:00.000-07:00

They're saying this plot was at the zero hour. Even scarier then that is how extremely well funded these psychos were.

Times Online - Police in Riyadh say that they have arrested Islamic militants who were being trained as pilots to fly suicide attacks on Saudi Arabia’s oil fields.

The Saudi interior ministry issued a statement saying that the 172 detainees held in raids today were involved in plots to carry out suicide atttacks against “public figures, oil facilities, refineries ... and military zones". Some of the planned targets were outside the Saudi kingdom.

“They had reached an advance stage of readiness and what remained only was to set the zero hour for their attacks,” Brigadier Mansour al-Turki, an interior ministry spokesman, told the Associated Press news agency.

“They had the personnel, the money, the arms. Almost all the elements for terror attacks were complete, except for setting the zero hour for the attacks.”

The ministry did not say that the militants would fly aircraft into oil refineries, as the 9/11 hijackers flew planes into buildings in New York and Washington, but it said in a statement that some detainees had been “sent to other countries to study flying in preparation for using them to carry out terrorist attacks inside the kingdom”.

The militants also planned to storm Saudi prisons to free the inmates, the statement said.

In their crackdown, the police seized large quantities of weapons, explosives and money. More than 120 million riyals (US$32.4 million) had been seized in the operation, one of the largest sweeps against terror cells in the kingdom.

Wow.

It makes me wonder though, suppose this plot had been fully executed, assuming the targets were strictly located in the Saudi kingdom, how would that change the perception of the world toward the GWOT, toward the Bush adminstration, and to the US/west in general?

Saudi Arabia says they're an ally, but in reality they're no major help. If the Saudis were devestated by several suicide air attacks, the US is instantly there with aid and any military support they request. Saudi Arabia immediately moves away from the terrorist groups and their politics and begins to vigorously pursue them, ostracizing them from the majority of society. Perhaps the marginalized terrorists begin to lash out more like their bastard Iraqi insurgent brothers; they're not part of the solution for the country so they turn to the only option they have: cowardly acts of violence and murder. World opinion can't hammer Arabs for trying to police and protect themselves, so as an Arab nation takes the point (even if only for the moment) in the fight against terrorism, the world supports them, re-legitimizing the GWOT and strengthening Iraqi resolve and our position in it. Bush is once again the maverick cowboy trying to police the world.

Of course excellent intelligence, surveillance, and police work went into preventing these planned attacks, no doubt saving thousands of lives.

So I guess we'll never know how the world would react because the MSM sure as hell won't pay this story any attention.

Al Qaeda's military commander in Afghanistan captured

2007-04-27T10:01:00.000-07:00

And guess where they caught him?

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - An Iraqi al Qaeda member accused of assassination plots against Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf and other attacks was transferred by the CIA to the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo this week, the Pentagon said on Friday.

Abd al-Hadi al-Iraqi was also accused of commanding al Qaeda's paramilitary operations in Afghanistan and launching attacks on U.S. and coalition forces from Pakistan, the Defense Department said.

Al-Hadi was detained trying to get back into Iraq to "manage al Qaeda's affairs" there, according to Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman.

There's no mention of axactly where al-Hadi was captured, or how long he's been in custody.

Al-Hadi was a known long time trainer at terrorist camps in Afghanistan and Pakistan and was known and trusted by bin Laden.

Seems like we might be able to get some good intel out of this guy if only Democrats would let us speak to him without his lawyer present. Heaven forbid we infringe on his civil liberites or so much as mess his hair up.

Giuliani hammers Democrats for being pinko commie peace-mongers

2007-04-26T16:47:00.001-07:00

There's so many good quotes in this speech it's hard to narrow it down...

“But the question is how long will it take and how many casualties will we have?” Giuliani said. “If we are on defense [with a Democratic president], we will have more losses and it will go on longer.”

“I listen a little to the Democrats and if one of them gets elected, we are going on defense,” Giuliani continued. “We will wave the white flag on Iraq. We will cut back on the Patriot Act, electronic surveillance, interrogation and we will be back to our pre-Sept. 11 attitude of defense.”

He added: “The Democrats do not understand the full nature and scope of the terrorist war against us.”

[...] “This war ends when they stop coming here to kill us!” Giuliani said in his speech. “Never, ever again will this country ever be on defense waiting for [terrorists] to attack us if I have anything to say about it. And make no mistake, the Democrats want to put us back on defense!”

Giuliani said terrorists “hate us and not because of anything bad we have done; it has nothing to do with Israel and Palestine. They hate us for the freedoms we have and the freedoms we want to share with the world.”

Giuliani continued: “The freedoms we have are in conflict with the perverted, maniacal interpretation of their religion.” He said Americans would fight for “freedom for women, the freedom of elections, freedom of religion and the freedom of our economy.”

Addressing the terrorists directly, Giuliani said: “We are not giving that up, and you are not going to take it from us!”

Amen Rudy!

Now if only we could steer you a little further to the right on some of those social issues you'd be damn near the perfect candidate.

"You tell them the acting president is a dirty old man."

2007-04-25T20:52:00.000-07:00

Look Curly Bill... The US already had a dirty old car saleman of a president, so 2 is probably a bit much. Not that we here at Cake or Death have anything against dirty old men. Hopefully I get to live long enough to be one. A nice little grandpa sitting on a porch watching the chicks walk by.

Anyway, now that president Palmer has resumed his THC induced coma Curly Bill is back in the saddle and that means Karen Hayes is out. But she's gonna sell her man out rather than see her career go up in smoke faster than Valerie Plame's career as an undercover agent. So adios chiggy killer. You have served honorably and got the chance to say "Jack has gone rogue" one last time before you got the boot.

Jack on the other hand is ready and willing to risk his life to save Audrey and his country at the same time. He's got the microchip, he's got his C4, and he's got his splodeydope vest ready to go in his Jack Sack. But Silverspoons has to go and ruin the perfect plan by shooting up the joint. His backup didn't get there in time because Chloe and her froggy ex-bubby are reliving their rocky marriage. You married couples know how the arguement goes...

... You left your dirty clothes on the floor again...

... Your cooking is horrible...

... Stop sending encrypted cell phone calls to my screen without telling me first...

... Stop arming nuclear weapons for terrorists. I don't care how deep they stick that powerdrill into you...

Ahh... love. And we get to see Audrey's nose for at least one more episode, but now she's got a wicked torture induced twitch. Awesome.

And now your Jack Bauer Moment of ZenTM:

~~Chuck Norris~~ Jack Bauer killed Mcgyver by making a set of nun-chucks using newspaper, two toothpicks, a womans weave, and a 3 legged dog.

~~Chuck Norris~~ Jack Bauer was there at the beginning of mankind, and he's damn well going to make sure he'll be the end of it.

When ~~Chuck Norris~~ Jack Bauer goes through airport security, the metal detectors bow before him.

Heh.

Ding Dong! The witch is dead! Which old witch? The Rosie witch!

2007-04-25T16:39:00.001-07:00

Donald Trump insists she was fired, but everyone involed in the dealing say she quit.

Rosie O’Donnell, who raised both the profile and the ratings of “The View” this season by commandeering it as a bully pulpit for her opinions on the Iraq war, Donald Trump, Oprah Winfrey and even her own cast mates, will leave the show in June after failing to reach a contract extension, she announced on the program yesterday morning.

“I have decided that we couldn’t come to terms with my deal with ABC, so next year I’m not going to be on ‘The View,’ ” Ms. O’Donnell said on the show just after it began broadcasting live at 11 a.m. She said, however, that she expected to return to the program as a guest host occasionally next year, including to preside over one-hour special episodes like those this year about autism and depression.

Ms. O’Donnell, whose contract with the program was only for this season, said that ABC had wanted her to sign a three-year extension, while she had wanted to commit only to a year. An ABC executive who was directly apprised of the negotiations but who was not authorized to discuss them confirmed Ms. O’Donnell’s account, but said that there had also been wide differences between the salary she was seeking and what the network was willing to pay.

Honestly, ABC should have fired her for using their camera as her own personal propaganda pulpit. Don Imus gets fired for saying the Rutgers women's basketball team looked like nappy headed whatevers, but Rosie can say 9/11 was a fake, the Iranians are the victims, we should impeach the president, that there is basically no good and evil, and the Brits staged the Iranian hostage situation so we could go to war and blow some shit up so we can get gas cheaper.

Oops! Looks like Rosie was wrong on that last one. Makes you wonder what other lies she's knowingly spreading.

But it doesn't matter. Good riddance Rosie. We won't miss you.

Harry Reid: "My mind is lost. No... wait... I mean the Iraq war is lost. maybe"

2007-04-25T16:25:00.001-07:00

I was originally going to title this post Harry Reid is a moron, but since I gave that headline to Rosie O'Donnell not too long ago I wanted to do something different. And to be honest, I could use that headline above just about any Democrat's comments.

The war in Iraq "is lost" and a US troop surge is failing to bring peace to the country, the leader of the Democratic majority in the US Congress, Harry Reid, said Thursday.

"I believe ... that this war is lost, and this surge is not accomplishing anything, as is shown by the extreme violence in Iraq this week," Reid told journalists.

Reid said he had delivered the same message to US President George W. Bush on Wednesday, when the US president met with senior lawmakers to discuss how to end a standoff over an emergency war funding bill.

"I know I was the odd guy out at the White House, but I told him at least what he needed to hear ... I believe the war at this stage can only be won diplomatically, politically and economically."

Whoa talk about a shirt trial period for the surge. They only voted and approved the surge on January 10th and he's already declaring it a failure!! Damn. Tough town. Well, either that or Harry is trying to make a loss in Iraq a reality. Because if he says it long enough and loud enough someone might actually start paying attention to the drivel that comes out of his mouth...

Peace committed Palestinians fire barrage of rockets into Israel

2007-04-24T14:34:00.000-07:00

That's how much they support the peace process.

JERUSALEM, April 24 — The military wing of Hamas fired a barrage of rockets and mortar shells from Gaza into Israel today for the first time since the Palestinian faction committed to a cease-fire in November.

A spokesman for the military wing in Gaza, who identified himself only as Abu Obeideh, declared the truce over.

But more moderate political figures from Hamas who participate in the Palestinian unity government, including Prime Minister Ismail Haniya, said they were making efforts to preserve the cease-fire. And a spokesman for the Hamas movement in Gaza, Ismail Radwan, stopped short of calling off the cease-fire, saying today’s attacks were “a natural response to Israeli aggression and violations of the truce in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.”

Over the weekend, Israeli forces killed up to nine Palestinians, mostly militants in the West Bank, in the course of military operations and confrontations. The November cease-fire agreement pertained only to Gaza. Palestinian leaders have asked to extend it to the West Bank, but Israeli officials have said that it must be implemented properly in Gaza first.

Smaller Palestinian factions like Islamic Jihad, which rejected the cease-fire, have continued firing rockets at Israel on an almost daily basis.

On. a. daily. basis.

And the Paleswinian ~~government~~ terrorists wonder why there are confrontations at checkpoints. Maybe it because the Israeli government takes Paleswinian slime killing its citizens seriously. What a novel concept. What kind of response would you expect from a government after enemies sworn to the complete obliteration of not only the Israeli state, but the Jewish people as well, fire over 100 rockets and mortars into your cities.

I'd say bombing begins in 10 minutes, but that's just me.

Mr. President... You owe me.

2007-04-18T15:15:00.000-07:00

Damn.

Jack's got cajones the size of basketballs to make a statement like that. The Fetching Mrs. Wookie and just about fell off the couch when he said that. Who else could possibly put the President of the most power country in the world behind the eight ball like that? And sure, president Chapelle isn't nearly as gutsy as his brother, but still he stone-cold bluffed the diplomat from Dirkadirkastan with an actual nuclear launch. Sure it turned out the missile was a dud but that's a damn good bluff.

And Jack pushes him around like a chess piece. Jack's got his Jack sack full of C4 to use as his insurance that the stolen, Russian nuke-bits don't actually make it into the hands of the Chinese. The assumption is of course that Jack would kill himself rather than start World War III, but we're forgetting that Jack is the creator of "the force," the original Jedi. A little Jedi mind trick here and some levitation there, and we've got a bunch of dead Chinamen.

Then Jack gets to snuggle with Audrey again. As long as her nose doesn't get in the way...

And with that happy thought in mind, I bring you this week's Jack Bauer Moment of ZenTM:

~~Chuck Norris~~ Jack Bauer only brakes for people dressed like ~~Chuck Norris~~ Jack Bauer.

~~Chuck Norris~~ Jack Bauer once killed 5 people in less than a second. The only thing he said after this incident was, "Damn it, when ~~Chuck Norris~~ Jack Bauer doesn't want Girl Scout cookies, ~~Chuck Norris~~ Jack Bauer doesn't want Girl Scout cookies."

When ~~Chuck Norris~~ Jack Bauer wants espresso, he simply gets a bag of whole bean coffee, and glares at it until his cup is full of the nervous sweat and tears of the coffee bean.

Heh.

A story of heroism amid the tragedy

2007-04-17T10:22:00.000-07:00

I heard this mentioned on the Dennis Prager show and found the article at LGF: professor and holocaust survivor died shielding students from the gunman.

(IsraelNN.com) As Israel observed Holocaust Day, thousands of miles away, A Rumanian-born Holocaust survivor gave his life in another senseless murder - and apparently in an act of heroism.

Among the 32 people killed by a lone gunman at Virginia Tech Monday is 77-year-old engineering professor, Liviu Librescu, a citizen of Israel. According to eyewitness accounts, Librescu ran to the door of his classroom and blocked it with his body – preventing the gunman from entering but getting shot to death himself as a result.

Alec Calhoun, a 20-year-old student who had been in Librescu's class in room 204, told a reporter that at 9:05 a.m. the heard screams and a loud banging sound from the next-door classroom. When the students realized it was gunfire, he said, some hid behind tables, and others leapt from the classroom's windows. Calhoun himself was among the last to jump. "Before I jumped from the window, I turned around and looked at the professor, who stayed behind, maybe to block the door. He had been killed."

He is survived by his wife of 42 years and two sons.

BREAKING - At least 20 killed at Virginia Tech in campus shooting incident

2007-04-16T10:20:00.001-07:00

***Scroll down for updates***

Another tragedy on a US campus.

Police said there had been "at least 20 fatalities" in two locations at Virginia Tech university this morning. Earlier, the university released a statement saying that one person had been shot and a suspect had been arrested but released the higher total to astonishment several hours later.

"Today the university was struck with a tragedy that we consider of monumental proportions," said university president Charles Steger. "The university is shocked and indeed horrified."

The shootings are reported to have occurred two hours apart at an engineering building and a dormitory, on opposite sides of the campus. Amateur footage showed armed officers running over the campus with the sounds of gunshots in the background.

At the news conference where the initial death toll was announced, Wendell Flinchum, the university's police chief, said that one man was believed to be responsible for the shootings and that he had been killed. Most of the victims are believed to have been students.

"We have a ballpark figure on fatalities. It’s at least 20 fatalities," he said to gasps. "We don't know whether the shooter was a student."

There's a lot of information that still hasn't been released yet, and rumors abound... was the shooter a student? One rumor states it was a young man who was looking for his ex-girlfriend (this is still rumor at this point of course). Was his fatal wound self-inflicted or was he shot by authorities responding to the incident?

I'll post updates as I find them.

UPDATE @ 10:22am: The VT website confirms 22 dead. Families wishing to reunite are suggested to do so at The Inn at Virginia Tech.

UPDATE @ 10:47am: ABC reports 29 dead now.

UPDATE @ 11:25am: Fox reports 32 dead and 21 injured.

UPDATE @ 2:31pm: The LATimes put the number wounded at 56, but not all of those were shot by the gunman. Medical personnel are seeing lots of injuries from people trying to escape; cuts from broken glass, broken bones, and sprains as people fled the shooter.

UPDATE @ 3:02pm: Seems like this might be a good point for a timeline of events (as reported in this SFGate article). The first shooting was at about 7:15am at West Ambler Johnston, one of VT's dorms. 2 were killed in the dormitory. The second set of shootings occurred at least 2 hours later about a mile and a half across the campus at Norris Hall, an engineering building. 30 were killed at Norris Hall; the shooter killed himself here as well. Much of the confusion with the inceident stems from the 2 hour gap as the gunman moved from the dorms to the engineering building which is why initial reports released had only one killed. University president Charles Steger says a school closure wasn't put into effect after the initial shooting in the dorms because authorities believed the dorm shooting was a "domestic dispute" and the gunman had fled the campus.

UPDATE @ 3:11pm: Fox News says the gunman was described as an asian male. He was wearing a vest covered in clips which I assume were for the two 9mm handguns that police recovered at the scene.

UPDATE 4/17 @ 9:12am: The information on the gunman yesterday has been released

April 17, 2007 — Cho Seung-hui, 23, the Virginia Tech student who police believe is responsible for killing 33 people yesterday, was "a loner, and we're having difficulty finding information about him," said university spokesman Larry Hincker.

Police identified Cho, a native of South Korea and resident alien who lived in Centreville, Va., as the shooter by linking the fingerprints at the scene to his immigration documents.

Police say the senior English major, who lived in Harper Hall dormitory on the university campus, was likely responsible for both shootings at the university, the first of which took place at around 7:15 a.m. Monday morning when two people were killed at West Ambler Johnston Hall dormitory. Later that morning, the remaining victims were killed in Norris Hall, the engineering studies building.

ABC News has learned that Cho left behind a note after the killings at West Ambler Johnston Hall. He then returned to his own room, rearmed and entered Norris Hall, roughly a half a mile away, to continue his shooting rampage.

The Sydney Morning Herald confirms what I posted yesterday as simple rumor: the gunman's rampage began with the death of his ex-girlfriend, Emily Jane Hilscher, whom he shot in a jealous rage allegedly because she cheated on him. The second victim was the RA, Ryan Clark, who came by most likely responding to the gunfire.

Thus far, those who are confirmed to have died in yesterday's tragedy are Maxine Turner, senior, chemical engineering; Henry Lee, freshman, computer engineering; Matt La Porte, freshman; Jamie Bishop, instructor, foreign languages and literature (German); Professor G.V. Loganathan, civil and environmental engineering; Juan Ortiz, graduate student, civil engineering; Jarrett Lane, senior, civil engineering; Ryan Clark, senior, biology, English, psychology; Leslie Sherman, sophomore, history and international studies; Caitlin Hammaren, sophomore, international studies and French; Professor Liviu Librescu, engineering, science and mechanics; Professor Kevin Granata, engineering, science and mechanics; Reema Samaha, freshman; and the killer's former girlfriend, Emily Hilscher, freshman, animal and poultry sciences, and equine science.

Signs the surge is working

2007-04-13T16:45:00.001-07:00

Charles Krauthammer has a novel idea to determine if its working: talk to the people on the ground making the decisions to find out what's going on.

You'd think something so profound yet simple would have occurred to some others in the MSM, but apparently they're too busy reading their Democrat talking points...

The news from Anbar is the most promising. Only last fall, the Marines' leading intelligence officer there concluded that the U.S. had essentially lost the fight to al-Qaeda. Yet, just this week, the marine commandant, Gen. James Conway, returned from a four-day visit to the province and reported that we "have turned the corner."

Why? Because, as Lt. Col. David Kilcullen, the Australian counterinsurgency adviser to Gen. David Petraeus, has written, 14 of the 18 tribal leaders in Anbar have turned against al-Qaeda. As a result, thousands of Sunni recruits are turning up at police stations where none could be seen before. For the first time, former insurgent strongholds such as Ramadi have a Sunni police force fighting essentially on our side.

Retired Gen. Barry McCaffrey, a major critic of the Bush war policy, now reports that in Anbar, al-Qaeda is facing "a real and growing groundswell of Sunni tribal opposition." And that "this is a crucial struggle and it is going our way -- for now."

Baghdad's a bit more of a mixed bag, but don't take my word for it. Read the rest at Real Clear Politics.

Duke lacrosse players delcared innocent

2007-04-13T14:08:00.000-07:00

Now all they've got to do is rebuilded their tattered lives, reconstruct their shredded reputations, and try to recoup some $5 million in legal costs. And they're not the only victims in this. There is this interesting little piece in the Charlotte Observer which notes that this may have unintended consequences: making it harder for true rape victims to come forward.

The three young former Duke lacrosse players who were accused must rebuild their lives. The university they attended must buff the tarnish left on its reputation. North Carolina's criminal justice system has to heal a painful black eye.

But there is also painful collateral damage.

Rape victims may find it harder than ever to report and press charges. Law enforcement and district attorneys may be more reluctant to investigate and prosecute. And when charges are leveled, victims and prosecutors could face juries that are more skeptical because of the scam in Durham.

[...] Why? Rape victims often face shame and blame. Sadly, the facts of the case in Durham -- an unstable victim, trumped-up charges, a district attorney who ignored inconsistencies and plunged ahead during a political campaign -- plays to wrong-headed public attitudes.

DA Nifong was disgusting throughout this entire scandal. He saw a black victim, upper class white perps, and a pot of gold at the end: re-election.

Disguting.

Rutgers women's basketball team accepts Don Imus' apology

2007-04-13T10:15:00.000-07:00

Thank God. I was so worried.

NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. — Rutgers women's basketball coach C. Vivian Stringer said Friday the team had accepted radio host Don Imus' apology. She said he deserves a chance to move on but hopes the furor his racist and sexist insult caused will be a catalyst for change.

"We, the Rutgers University Scarlet Knight basketball team, accept — accept — Mr. Imus' apology, and we are in the process of forgiving," Stringer read from a team statement a day after the women met personally with Imus and his wife.

"We still find his statements to be unacceptable, and this is an experience that we will never forget," she said.

To be honest, until all this happened I'd never heard of Don Imus, and from what I've heard of his show in general, it sounds like its a bit on the crass side, but still he's still got free speech. Don't get me wrong... Imus should have apologized, and it was gracious of them to accept. And people who were pissed over his nappy head comment had every right to put pressure on his sponsors and press his employers to reprimand him. Hell I'd do the same to Rosie for her treacherous remarks. But the lynch mob that's formed over this mess didn't stop there, they wanted him fired, wanted publicly flogged, castrated, as well as the blood of his first born.

The problem however is that this still won't be the end of the issue. Will Jesse "Hymietown" Jackson or Al "Steve Pagones is a racist rapist" Sharpton ever be satisfied? The answer there is, of course, no. Imus is white so he can't make racial comments. Jackson and Sharpton are free to be as racist as they like. They are black after all. So to what extent must Imus excoriate himself to cleanse himself in the eyes of these two moral arbiters of all that is derogatory, racist, or insulting? He's lost his job. he's lost his reputation. Perhaps a scarlet letter is in order?

This is a lamer scenario then the Michael Richards mess and all the crap he took for his outburst in that comedy club. Richards at least used true racial slurs; Imus didn't even go that far, but he's still a racist, or bigot, or whatever other slander the well intention yet pitifully ill-informed Reverends wish to throw at him.

UPDATE @ 2:32pm: Cox & Forkum... On point as usual...

UPDATE @ 4:06pm: Jackson and Sharpton are terrorists?!? Thank God this guy's black or the esteemed reverends would force him into an early retirement (via HotAir and The Big Lead).

Audrey's alive?? Noooooo!!

2007-04-11T18:41:00.000-07:00

Just when you thought it was safe again. Just when you though the danger was over. Just as soon as Jack hitches a ride underneath the terrorist's garbage truck, locates their secret hideout, singlehandedly kills all the terrorists, strings Fayed up from the nearest yardarm, and gains control of the remaining suitcase nukes; who decides it's that moment to call Jack out of the blue?

Audrey.

Yep, she's back and contrary to previous reports, she's very much alive. And now it's the Chinese shot at Jack. Again. I mean really... talk about bad days. Can this really get any worse for Jack? Sure it can, the only question is how.

So I'm betting now that Audrey dies; some Chinese guy kills her and makes Jack watch. How they tie it into national security, I don't know. I mean we've got a few hours left before the day's over, so how is Audrey being held hostage put the nation at risk? If Jack tries to save her, do the Chinese attack?

And what was with that secret plot to let Fayed escape? That was a horrible conspiracy (nevermind that it worked) because it was so complicated. But still it wasn't as bad as Captain Dudley's sooper-dooper conspiracy. So hopefully all those Loose Change nuts were taking notes; government conspiracies never work. Some mid-level bureaucratic nitwit ends up spilling the beans and the whole plan goers to crap. That's why the government couldn't have pulled off 9/11. It couldn't be that organized and efficient if it wanted to.

And now your Jack Bauer Moment of ZenTM:

Michael Jackson wrote the song "Bad" while pretending he was ~~Chuck Norris~~ Jack Bauer.

If ~~Chuck Norris~~ Jack Bauer were an Olympic athlete, the Olympics would be canceled. Every four years they would just mail ~~Chuck Norris~~ Jack Bauer his 237 gold medals.

The total number of deaths from World War II is 52,199,262. ~~Chuck Norris~~ Jack Bauer is 2 kills from breaking that record.

Heh.

UPDATE 4/12 @ 12:01pm: Check out the Carnival of Bauer being hosted this week at Remote Access. Funny stufff!

Hot Wing Baseball returns!

2007-04-11T14:48:00.000-07:00

Yes, it's a new baseball season and when opening day rolls around even the Cubs fans think their team has a shot.

But more important than that is the return of Hot Wing Conspiracy Fantasy Baseball! And it returns in new and improved fashion! We've got a dedicated blog that will be all Hot Wing sports, all the time. So check it out for the full weekly recaps, news, notes, and sexy chick pics!

My Wookies return to the field with a chance to defend their title, and with Albert Pujols leading the charge at first base again this year, we've got a good shot. So let's look at the rest of the roster...

Replacing Paul LoDuca at catcher this year is Jason Varitek. To me that's a bit of an upgrade. Jason's pretty clutch and seems to get those big hits when Boston needs them.

Ray Durham replaces Nick Punto at second base, and again I feel its an upgrade. I'll lose a little in batting average, but I think Ray will make up for that in power numbers and maybe a few extra stolen bases.

Chipper Jones' spot at third is being taken this year by Scott Rolen. I want to call this a push, but to be realistic Rolen is more potential than anything else. Chipper will have another solid year, but Scott hasn't done much over the past couple years so I think this ends up being a net loss.

Rafael Furcal had a stellar year for me last year, so he's leaving Miguel Tejada some big shoes to fill, but if anyone can do it, it's Miggy. Even if Miggy has an off season like he did last year, the power numbers are a push with a small upgrade in RBIs. I'll lose out on Raffi's stolen bases though, so I'm calling this an overall push as well, with a possible upgrade if Tejada puts up the out of this world numbers Baltimore's paying him the big bucks for.

Last year's outfield of Jermaine Dye, Magglio Ordonez, and Alex Rios (with Garret Anderson subbing where needed) is replaced by Corey Patterson, Jeff Francouer, and Hideki Matsui (with Sammy Sosa as a sub). With Dye's near MVP like numbers from last year and Rios' huge breakout season, it's a tough act to follow. Overall I'm losing power numbers but picking up stolen bases thanks to Patterson. The key I think is going to be Sosa. I picked him up off waivers which is a steal if he can find his homerun groove again. But as it stands now, I have to think this is a net loss overall.

As far as utility players go, I've got an excellent one this year with Hanley Ramirez (and perhaps Placido Palanco every so often). But Ramirez is replacing Carlos Delgado who couldn't play first base because Albert Pujols was a baseball god last year. I obviously lose a lot in power numbers, but Hanley should make up for that with stolen bases, runs, and batting average. I think it might be a bit generous but I'm calling this a push.

Starting pitching this year is going to be a bit interesting however. Last year I was pretty consistent with John Smoltz, Curt Schilling, Tim Hudson, Jason Marquis, AJ Burnett, and Woody Williams. combined they had 80 wins last season. This year they are being replaced by Eric Bedard, Mark Buehrle, Dave Bush, Brett Myers, Zach Duke, Josh Johnson, and Esteban Loaiza and these 7 only had 4 more wins last year than my starting 6. Since Johnson and Loaiza started the year on the DL, I picked up Matt Morris and Mark Redman. Morris has bounced back well from a dismal season last year; Redman on the other hand ran into a bit of tough luck and has Atlanta's only loss so far this year. Overall, this I've got to say my sarting pitching has been downgraded.

Relief pitching isn't looking much better. Bob Wickman and Tom Gordon combined for 67 saves last year. All I've got this year is Jonathan Papelbon. Definitely a downgrade simply because I don't have that second closer.

And since we've put the first week behind us already, let's see how my defending champion Wookies played last week!

Wookies Will Repeat - 7
Fmragtops Spewers - 6
This score was a repeat of last season, only this time wookies were leading the whole time. Pitching wise, both teams sucked it up with the winning team having a 5.80 ERA And offensively both teams seemed pretty average. We'll see how these teams perform later.
Game MVP: Hanley Ramirez - .320 average, 3 Stolen Bases, and 8 Runs. That's a good lead-off hitter.
Game Goat: Jose Contreras - 1 inning, 8 hits given up, and 7 Runs for an ERA of 63 for the week. Eww.

Hanley even threw me a bone and knocked a homerun for me too!

This week's matchup for the Wookies is against Anna Benson is Yummy. And hopefully the Wooks will beat the pants of her... them... whoever...

Anna's got some damn good pitching, but I think my offense can wipe them off the field. So we'll see who wins this one, pitching or offense.

Happy Anniversary to me and my Fetching Mrs. Wookie

2007-04-06T17:10:00.001-07:00

Married 5 years ago today! I can't believe it... seems like it's been much longer than that.

And now of course we've got the bundle of joy too.

Happy anniversary babe. Love ya!

Denying global warming is tantamount to heresy

2007-04-05T14:59:00.001-07:00

I guess I'm a heretic now, equivalent to the scum who deny the holocaust.

But the bright spot is that maybe this whole global warming thing means that next year my front yard won't die from 2 straight months of severe cold. That'd be nice...

But in the mean time, check out this great op-ed piece by Walter E. Williams over at Townhall.com.

Most climatologists agree that the earth's temperature has increased about a degree over the last century. The debate is how much of it is due to mankind's activity. Britain's Channel 4 television has just produced "The Great Global Warming Swindle," a documentary that devastates most of the claims made by the environmentalist movement. The scientists interviewed include top climatologists from MIT and other prestigious universities around the world. The documentary hasn't aired in the U.S., but it's available on the Internet.

Among the many findings that dispute environmentalists' claims are: Manmade carbon dioxide emissions are roughly 5 percent of the total; the rest are from natural sources such as volcanoes, dying vegetation and animals. Annually, volcanoes alone produce more carbon dioxide than all of mankind's activities. Oceans are responsible for most greenhouse gases. Contrary to environmentalists' claims, the higher the Earth's temperature, the higher the carbon dioxide levels. In other words, carbon dioxide levels are a product of climate change. Some of the documentary's scientists argue that the greatest influence on the Earth's temperature is our sun's sunspot activity. The bottom line is, the bulk of scientific evidence shows that what we've been told by environmentalists is pure bunk.

And it just so happens The Great Global Warming Swindle is over on YouTube (thanks to commenter Ted for pointing it out to me). It's about 75 minutes long so snuggle up with a cup of hot cocoa and a warm blanket and... Wait a sec... global warming... duh...

Snuggle up in a t-shirt, shorts, and flip-flops with an iced tea and watch it.

Good stuff.

Terrorists are very appreciative of Pelosi's visit to Syria

2007-04-05T13:36:00.001-07:00

And the terrorists hope that she'll continue to win elections. They came right out and said it... We want the Democrats to win.

Palestinian terror group members call US House speaker's visit to Damascus 'brave' and hope for talks with Iran; ‘I think the Democratic Party can do things the best,’ Islamic Jihad member says

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's visit to Syria Wednesday – in which she called for dialogue with Damascus – was "brave" and "very appreciated" and could bring about "important changes" to America's foreign policy, including talks with "Middle East resistance groups," according to members of Palestinian terror organizations whose top leaders live in Syria.

One terror leader, Khaled Al-Batch, a militant and spokesman for Islamic Jihad, expressed hope Pelosi would continue winning elections, explaining the House speaker's Damascus visit demonstrated she understands the Middle East.

Pelosi's visit was opposed by President Bush, who called Syria a "state sponsor of terror."

"Nancy Pelosi understands the area (Middle East) well, more than Bush and Dr. (Condoleezza) Rice," said Al-Batch, speaking to WND from Gaza. "If the Democrats want to make negotiations with Syria, Hamas, and Hizbullah, this means the Democratic Party understands well what happens in this area and I think Pelosi will succeed. ... I hope she wins the next elections."

Terrorists say, Pelosi understands us and if Democrats continue to win they will legitimize terrorist groups like Islamic Jihad and Hezbollah by involving us in international discourses and summits.

In light of that, we ought to rename our esteemed speaker of the house Damascus Nancy (a la Hanoi Jane). Or perhaps Hezbollah Nancy? Hamas Nancy?

Which one do you think sounds better?

Jack Bauer: The terrorist whisperer

2007-04-04T19:32:00.001-07:00

But I don't think Robert Redford will be making that movie anytime soon...

Still it was pretty cool... Jack was pinned down by terrorist gunfire while pursuing Fayed and Chernobyl (who was doing his best impersonation of Romano the one-armed wonder doc). Jack takes down the first terrorist with one shot and then whispers to the second, "Show your head," and the terrorist just pops up like he was in some whak-a-terrorist game and Jack gives him a new ventilation hole in his forehead.

How did Jack do it? Is it the force? Can Jack make weak-minded terrorist fools do his bidding? Is Jack the great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandfather of Luke Skywalker? Did Jack Bauer create the force? Maybe that question will be answered when the series comes to its finale...

In the meantime Presdient Chapelle needed a few more hits care of Dr. Dre to survive Curly Bill's attempted coup. But it still looks like Dr. Dre is going to pull some Cheetos out of his bag of tricks because President Chapelle's about to pass out from a major case of the munchies.

And now we come to the 24-South Park connection. South Park did their interpretation of 24: blinking clock, annoying CTU ringtone, funny split screens, and all. But the big question is have Trey Parker and Matt Stone revealed this season's finale? Will the terrorists take one of their remaining suitcase nukes and put it up Hillary CLinton's snizz to create what Cartman referred to as "the snuke"? This of course raises an even bigger question: If they do create a Hillary "snuke" will Jack disarm it or let it detonate? Because really... what's better for the US in the long run?

And while you ponder over that cunundrum, please enjoy this week's Jack Bauer Moment of ZenTM:

~~Chuck Norris~~ Jack Bauer has a Hot or Not rating of 1,000,000.

~~Chuck Norris'~~ Jack Bauer's blood has never been tested because everytime testing is attempted, his blood destroys the equipment.

~~Chuck Norris~~ Jack Bauer can turn back time simply by staring at the clock and flexing.

That sure sounds like the force to me!

Especially that Hot or Not rating... damn.

UPDATE 4/5 @ 2:02pm: Morning Maniac Music has the latest Carnival of Bauer up! Stop by and check it out.

Wackypants Ahmadinejad says he's freeing the kidnapped British soldiers

2007-04-04T15:13:00.000-07:00

After he gives his Iranian troops who captured them medals of honor of course...

WaPo - Iran today announced the release of 15 British sailors and marines it seized two weeks ago in disputed waters of the Persian Gulf, ending a diplomatic crisis with a bit of political theater that included a chatty, smiling round of goodbyes between Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the Britons.

In a surprise turn of events, Ahmadinejad in a Tehran press conference first awarded bravery medals to an Iranian commander involved in seizing the British seamen on March 23, then announced that the captives were being freed as a "gift" honoring both the Easter holiday and Muslim celebrations commemorating the birth of the Prophet Muhammad.

"I announce their freedom," the Iranian president said, according to a translation of his press conference aired on CNN. "They will be free after our meeting. They will go to the airport and be with their families."

Wackypants also took the media spotlight and used it to poke fun at the West by questioning our family values because we allow women to join the armed forces and also jokingly pleaded with Blair to not be mad at his soldiers for their remarks that Iran broadcast saying Britain was at fault. As if Britain would actually bring legal action against them for statements made while be held captive, basically a POW.

But that's what you get from a megalomaniac with delusions of grandeur... a lame sense of humor after reckless acts of war.

An "adorable-baby-picture-for-no-reason" post

2007-03-30T16:42:00.001-07:00

I do it because I can and because she's so damn cute.

Have a great weekend!

Newsflash! Rosie O'Donnell is an idiot

2007-03-30T03:09:00.000-07:00

I know, I know... You're saying "Tell me something I didn't already know..."

But if you still need covincing check out this clip from The View where she says 9/11 was a fake, she believes the Iranians are the victims, we should impeach the president, and that there is basically no good and evil.

You know... standard stuff...

So the Brits and Americans staged this British hostage situation to instigate a war... Nevermind that the Brits have come out and given the exact coordinates where their boat was. It took Iran two tries to make up coordinates that were in Iranian waters; funny how the first set they publicized were actually in international waters. The second set was two miles away, and, you guessed it, in Iranian waters.

Despite that lie, despite their lies that they'd release the lone female marine held hostage, despite their refusal to allow UN and IAEA inspectors verify their "peaceful" nuclear program, despite the fact that they've taken hostages before, despite their involvement in supplying Iraqi insurgents with weapons that are killing Americans, despite their desire to destroy Israel, one of our greatest allies, Rosie still trusts them more than she does our own government. Well if Rosie trusts them, heck... that's good enough for me... Still, heaven forbid that we actually apply a universal set of standards to Iran's behavior and label them as "bad" or "evil". Those poor Middle East countries just can't get a fair shake from the right wing media machine...

Then Rosie goes all Loose Change on us and all but says that 9/11 was orchestrated by our own government. Starts saying that we should get a couple Harvard physicists who'll say that Tower 7 was brought down by demolition. Hey Rosie: Screw Loose change. How about that Popular Mechanics article debunking the conspiracies propogated by you leftwing moonbat lunatics. You want one or two Harvard elites who'll play to your fantasy. Popular Mechanics consulted more than 70 experts from across the country. But I'm sure that's easy to ignore since it doesn't jive with your warped view.

You want to get pissed, get pissed at the terrorists who killed nearly 2,000 Americans without provocation on 9/11. That's right, no provocation. We weren't in Iraq or Afghanistan. Wackypants Ahmadinejad wasn't even in power yet. So don't blame Bush for doing his best to bring justice to the terrorists and the countries that support and harbor those terrorists.

So what's next Rosie? Global warming is a reality?

Jack Bauer the merciful!

2007-03-27T16:54:00.001-07:00

He kills terrorists and helps the de-de-dee's cross the street... What doesn't this guy do?

But most important things first. The investigation against the token hot Muslim Republican chick hits a snag when some microchip they found proves she didn't do it. But that's nothing that a little lost evidence can't cure for Richie Rich's cohort from Denver, but when when the Denver slime ball (a new mole??) spills the beans to Milo, dude goes apeshit and plants a big wet one on Nadia. Chloe played the jealous peeping tom. That's hot.

Jack leads his team against the security leak that was feeding the terrorists secure intel. The guy's a glorified security guard and was using his Rain Man little brother to break the security firewalls at CTU. Chernobyl was his ex-boyfriend and when he called begging for juicy intel, Tom Cruise caved and had Dustin Hoffman crack the code.

But when Jack takes Tommy boy down, he befriends the de-de-dee and convinces him to stage a handoff to Tommy's lover boy Chernobyl by promising him an all night marathon of Judge Wapner. And a cookie.

Jack hoped that would stop Curly Bill and his ruthless gang of cowboys from turning Dirkadirkastan into a smoldering crater, but alas, Bill is determined to create more parking in the Middle East. That is until President Chapelle is woken up from his THC induced coma to call off the attack. Curly Bill blames the drugs and asks for Alberto Gonzales to come on by to declare the president incompetent after he finishes firing the rest of the US Attorneys.

And while we wait to see who will play AG Gonzales next hour, please enjoy your weekly Jack Bauer Moment of ZenTM:

Every year, two Nobel Peace Prizes are given out. One for a regular person, and one secret prize given to ~~Chuck Norris~~ Jack Bauer for allowing human existence to continue.

When ~~Chuck Norris~~ Jack Bauer runs he actually stays in the same place and the world spins underneath him.

~~Chuck Norris~~ Jack Bauer plans on putting an "i" in team.

Heh.

UPDATE 3/29 @ 2:30pm - The Carnival of Bauer has begun! Check it out over at New Word Order.

Senate votes 50 to 48 to add expiration date to Iraq war

2007-03-27T16:16:00.001-07:00

They also want to make sure all the pork is shoved down our throats before the American public wakes up and realizes the Democrats they elected just a few months ago have totally abandonned the middle-of-the-road positions they took during the campaigns, taking a sharp turn to the left.

Thank you sir may I have another....

WASHINGTON, March 27 — The Senate defeated an attempt to erase an American troop withdrawal date from an Iraq spending bill this afternoon after an emotional debate about the powers of the presidency and Congress and the well-being of front-line soldiers.

By a vote of 50 to 48, the Senate allowed a withdrawal date of March 31, 2008, to remain in the $122 billion bill, which has yet to be acted upon. The majority defeated an amendment offered by Senator Thad Cochran of Mississippi, the ranking Republican on the Appropriations Committee, that would have removed the date.

The March 31, 2008, date is nonbinding, so the spending bill emerging from the Senate differs markedly from the version narrowly passed by the House last week that demanded a withdrawal by Sept. 1, 2008. Moreover, the margins in both chambers were far too narrow to override a veto promised by President Bush.

Republican Senators Chuck Hagel (Nebraska) and Gordon Smith (Oregon) voted with the Democrats to pass the bill.

At least we know Bush will veto it, and as of now the cut-and-run Dems don't have the votes to overturn the veto.

Aussie al Qaeda detained at Gitmo pleads guitly

2007-03-27T15:24:00.000-07:00

Al Qaeda operative pleads guilty!! Too bad that will probably lead to a reduced sentence as opposed to death.

[David] Hicks, a Muslim convert, allegedly attended al-Qaida camps in Afghanistan, conducting surveillance on the British and American embassies as part of his training. But he remained on the margins once the U.S. invaded to oust the Taliban following the Sept. 11 attacks. He eventually joined al-Qaida fighters hours before the front lines collapsed and was captured as he tried to flee, according to the U.S. military.

The count he pleaded guilty to says he intentionally provided support to a terror organization involved in hostilities against the United States. He denied the charge that he supported for preparation, or in carrying out, an act of terrorism.

The charge carries a maximum penalty of life in prison, but Davis has said he would seek a sentence of about 20 years. He said the five years Hicks has spent at Guantanamo could be considered in the ultimate sentence.

Of course now the talk is that Hicks will be sent to Asustralia, and th anti-war left in Australia insist this military tribunal decision won't be upheld down under. I'm not sure they can overturn it legally... I know Howard would never allow it, but I'm sure the looney left and their lawyers will try to come up with something...

UN bans free speech in defense of human atrocities

2007-03-27T11:36:00.001-07:00

As if you really needed another example of how totally inept and pointless the UN really is...

Thanks to LGF for posting this video...

I'm surprised they even let the guy in the door let alone allow him to speak to the assembly.

Iran interrogates captured British soldiers

2007-03-26T15:40:00.001-07:00

And why hasn't their been any sort of response yet?

TEHRAN, Iran - Iran said Monday it was interrogating 15 British sailors and marines to determine whether they intentionally entered Iranian waters. Britain denies its personnel had left Iraqi territory when they were captured and detained by Iran.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair ‘s office sought to play down fears that the incident would deepen tensions with Iran, which threatened to charge the 15 with illegally entering its territory.

The seizure of the British service personnel has deepened troubles between Iran and the West, which is concerned about Iran‘s nuclear program and accused the country of interfering with the U.S.-led war in Iraq .

According to Iranian state television, Deputy Foreign Minister Mehzi Mostafavi did not say what Iran plans to do with the sailors and marines, but he said they were being interrogated.

He said the British government was accountable for the group‘s actions.

Iran rejected British requests to visit them, warning they could face charges for allegedly entering Iranian waters — charges that Blair‘s office has repeatedly rejected.

Britain‘s Defense Ministry would not disclose details of positioning equipment carried aboard the craft that sailors were using when they were seized, but said it was "categorically certain" they had not strayed into Iranian territory.

As much as I'm a fan of Tony Blair, he hasn't adequately responded to this. This is in every sense, an act of war. Diplomatic talks while a great option, shouldn't be the only option. Perhaps a naval blockade or a precision strike on a republican guard training compound... Something that says these soldiers lives are more important than some soundbites and a couple rounds of diplomatic talks. Their capture deserves swift a decisive action.

Iran seizes 15 British soldiers

2007-03-23T16:05:00.001-07:00

Bombing of Tehran starts in 5 minutes.

At least it should. That's an act of war.

March 23 (Bloomberg) -- Iran seized 15 British sailors and Marines who were conducting "routine boarding operations" in Iraqi waters, the U.K. Ministry of Defence said.

"The boarding party had completed a successful inspection of a merchant ship when they and their two boats were surrounded and escorted by Iranian vessels into Iranian territorial waters," the ministry said in an e-mailed statement. "We are urgently pursuing this matter with the Iranian authorities at the highest level."

Iran's foreign ministry confirmed seizing the Britons "for investigation and questioning" and said it was because British sailors have illegally entered its own territorial waters "a number of times," Agence France-Presse reported, citing Iranian State television.

They better get all 15 soldiers back in a timely manner without a hair on their heads out of place. Otherwise you can bet Iran gonna be up to their neck in in shit courtesy of British and US marines.

Audrey's dead... and in other news...

2007-03-21T19:11:00.001-07:00

Jack takes it easy again this hour, takes a nap, gets his busted rib wrapped, cries over Audrey's dead... file. And who spills the beans but none other than the newly widowed Mrs' Romano the one armed wonder doc. Right after she tried to plant one on Jack.

So Jack takes a personal moment while vice president Curly Bill and his gang of cowboys do everything in their power to nuke the Middle East back into the stone age. First he says, if they nuke us again, we'll nuke 'em back. Then after Jack stops that nuke, he says we're gonna nuke 'em anyway.

Looks like the Arabs just can't win. Sure he's just going to level off a few mountains in Dirkadirkastan, maybe kill about 20 people and 20,000 goats; it's the principle of the thing. Why waste a perfectly good nuke redecorating the landscape and killing off a few goats when you can go for the jugular and wipe the whole country off the map?

Since no one appreciates vice preisdent Curly Bill's decorating tastes, looks like their gonna try to wake president Chapelle from his coma to save the day. We'll have to wait to see how that works out.

But bigger than the impending nuclear holocaust: Nadia's a mole!!!!! Nooooo! Say it ain't so Nadia! What happened to the token hot Muslim Republican chick at CTU!!!

And as we mourn Nadia's impending death at the hands of Jack, I give you our weekly Jack Bauer Moment of ZenTM:

~~Chuck Norris~~ Jack Bauer once squeezed an M&M so hard that it turned into a Skittle.

When ~~Chuck Norris~~ Jack Bauer wants a back massage, he lays down on railroad tracks.

~~Chuck Norris~~ Jack Bauer invented EZ Squeeze Cheeze. He got the idea from crushing a man until his intestines came out of his mouth.

Heh.

This is the type of scum that our troops are dealing with in Iraq

2007-03-20T17:02:00.000-07:00

And for leftist moonbat like Michael Moore, he can say the Iraqis insurgents are the new minutemen. Well, I'm sorry but I don't remember George Washington using children to get close to the British and then killing them the same as he would kill his enemy.

VOA - A senior U.S. military officer says insurgents in Iraq used two children to help them pass a coalition checkpoint in Baghdad in recent days, and then detonated a car bomb, killing the children. The officer reported the incident during a news conference at the Pentagon, and VOA's Al Pessin reports.

Major General Michael Barbero says this is the first time he has heard of insurgents using what he called this brutal and ruthless technique.

"We saw a vehicle with two children in the back seat come up to one of our checkpoints, get stopped by our folks, the children in the back seat lowered suspicion, we let it move through," he said. "They parked the vehicle, the adults ran out and detonated with the children in the back."

And somehow the coalition forces, who are trying to stop this kind of senseless murder get lambasted by the anti-war freaks and the MSM as the bad guys.

That's f*cked up.

US officials report Russia won't give Iran nuclear fuel

2007-03-20T13:21:00.000-07:00

Russia is of course denying the report, but I was in the mood for some good news, so here's a quote from the news piece.

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Bush administration Tuesday applauded a Russian ultimatum to Iran that it will not supply fuel for Iran's Bushehr nuclear power plant until Iran agrees to suspend uranium enrichment.

A senior Bush administration official confirmed the Russian stance and said it will help ratchet up pressure on Iran to end its push for nuclear weapons.

Iran denies its nuclear program is intended for anything but peaceful purposes. Iran's state-run media said Tuesday that Moscow was an "unreliable partner" in nuclear cooperation, The Associated Press reported.

The senior administration official said the move came because Russia has "rising concerns about Iran having nuclear weapons on their southern flank."

The report of the ultimatum first appeared in Tuesday editions of The New York Times.

Russian and Iranian officials denied there had been any ultimatum issued.

That's not to say there aren't other problems with the Russian-Iranian nuclear relationship. UN sanctions are preventing completion of the Bushehr plant, Iran is of course refusing to comply with the IAEA requests to verify the nature of Iran's nuclear program, and lastly, Iran is late on their payments to the Russians. Because of the late payments, Russia has slowly been pulling its technicians and engineers off the project.

It's not like it's going to matter anyway. Israel's going to have to save the day again and bomb the plant minutes before it goes active...

More good results from Gitmo

2007-03-19T16:57:00.000-07:00

As much as liberal weenies have complained about Gitmo and how we're violating the civil rights of the prisoners there, we continue to get good results in the form of confessions for attacks perpetrated against the United States and if we're getting confessions, I'm sure we're getting actionable intel as well.

And here's the latest. Waleed bin Attash, a prisoner at Gitmo just confessed to planning and purchasing materials for the attack on the USS Cole and the two attacks on our African embassies. You remember, those attack on US sovereign territory, before we invaded Iraq and deposed Saddam, before Afghanistan and the removal of the Taliban, before the GWOT, before 9/11; way back when al Qaeda was at war with us even though we'd done nothing to provoke them besides exist. Now of course we're at war with them and the liberal world condemns us for it, but that's another story...

WASHINGTON — Waleed bin Attash, a suspected key al-Qaida operative, confessed to plotting the bombings of the USS Cole and two U.S. embassies in Africa, according to a Pentagon transcript of a hearing at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

More than 200 were killed in the simultaneous attacks on the embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998. And 17 sailors were killed and dozens injured when suicide bombers steered an explosives-laden boat into the guided missile destroyer Cole on Oct. 12, 2000.

"I participated in the buying or purchasing of the explosives," bin Attash said when asked what his role was in the attacks. "I put together the plan for the operation a year and a half prior to the operation, buying the boat and recruiting the members that did the operation."

The point of this and the previously released transcript, is an effort by the military to determine whether several Gitmo detainees can be classified as enemy combatants in which case we'd be able to hold them indefinitely.

I vote for indefinitely. How about you?

Man started Esperanza fire for his dog

2007-03-19T15:00:00.000-07:00

It's disgusting. 40,000 acres were burned, he destroyed 10 structures, and killed five firefighters and he did it to free his dog from a local pound.

RIVERSIDE, Calif. -- Raymond Lee Oyler, who stands accused of setting the wildfire that killed five firefighters in October, is alleged by a relative to have said he wanted to set a mountain on fire as a diversion to break his family's pit bull out of a nearby pound, it was reported Thursday.

Investigative reports show that the claim was made by Oyler's cousin, Jill Frame, when she spoke to investigators probing the Esperanza fire, which burned 40,000 acres west of Palm Springs, the Los Angeles Times reported.

The dog impounded by animal control officers was one of two Oyler family pit bulls that attacked a woman and her dog in early October, The Times reported.

Oh and he's accused of starting 10 other fires in the area in the three months before the Esperanza fire.

I hope they consider the death penalty.

California state employees' pensions are funding terrorists

2007-03-19T11:12:00.000-07:00

Beyond the fact that their pensions will eventually bankrupt the state, the California Public Employees' Retirement System (CalPERS) system invests in companies that do business with terrorists. Double trouble...

The California Public Employees' Retirement System, the largest U.S. pension fund, and the state teachers' fund would have to unload shares in companies including BNP Paribas of France, Siemens AG of Germany and Eni SpA of Italy.

``Who's funding terrorism? It sure as hell shouldn't be our public employees,'' said Joel Anderson, a Republican assemblyman from El Cajon who introduced the measure. ``When you're looking at the war on terrorists, this is one of the best weapons we have -- just defunding them.'' Anderson estimated his legislation would affect $24 billion worth of investments.

[...] Calpers and the California State Teachers' Retirement System control $388 billion in investments. The legislation would affect overseas-based companies, since U.S. businesses are already mostly barred from trading with the countries on the State Department list: Iran, Sudan, Cuba, North Korea and Syria.

Some might say these companies can't be that bad, can they?

BNP Paribas has current investments in Iran valued over $2 billion including directly lending cash to the Iranian government (and they still can't seem to pay back the Russians for their nuclear technology). And on top of that BNP was probed by British intelligence for its involvement in the Iraq Oil for Food scandal.

Siemens AG is a leading telecommunications company that has done billions on dollars of work in Iran on their cell phone and fixed line networks. They also did business with Saddam's regime in Iraq selling him devices called lithotripters. These devices were designed for medical purposes but their electric switches can be used as nuclear detonators (think that will come up in the Plame hearings?).

Eni SpA, an energy company, currently has $4 billion in investments in Iran with stakes in Iran's oil fields of up to 60%. They continue to help Iran develop their extnesive oil reserves.

There are some 400 companies that do business with nations that sponsor terrorism. The Center for Security Policy has a list of the 12 worst offenders. Siemens AG is #1 on that list; BNP Paribas is #4 and Eni SpA is # 6. Other companies you may have heard of that are on their Dirty Dozen list are Alcatel SA, Statoil ASA, Stolt Nielsen, Technip Coflexip, Hyundai, Total SA, Lundin Petroleum, Oil & Natural Gas Corp. Ltd., and PetroChina.

Considering all this CalPERS and CalSTRS representatives currently have no position other than to say that they don't invest directly in Iran. That's brilliant.

I'm still in shock that Saddam was sold technology that could easily be used as triggers for a nuclear weapon...

Senate Republicans stand firm and block the Democrats attempt to force troop withdrawal

2007-03-16T15:45:00.000-07:00

The only Republican that broke ranks and voted with the Dems was Sen. Gordon Smith of Oregon.

WASHINGTON, March 15 — The Senate on Thursday rejected a Democratic resolution to withdraw most American combat troops from Iraq in 2008, but a similar measure advanced in the House, and Democratic leaders vowed to keep challenging President Bush to change course in Iraq.

Go to Complete Coverage » The vote in the Senate was 50 against and 48 in favor, 12 short of what was needed to pass, with just a few defections in each party. It came just hours after the House Appropriations Committee, in another vote largely on party lines, approved an emergency spending bill for Iraq and Afghanistan that includes a timeline for withdrawal from Iraq. The House will vote on that legislation next Thursday, setting the stage for another confrontation.

[...] The Democratic resolution in the Senate would have redefined the United States mission in Iraq and set a goal of withdrawing American combat troops by March 31, 2008, except for a “limited number” focused on counterterrorism, training and equipping Iraqi forces, and protecting American and allied personnel. The House measure set a withdrawal deadline of Sept. 1, 2008.

Good work Senate Republicans blocking the Democrats proposal. Setting a set date for withdrawal is like giving the terrorists a date after which they can do whatever they want. It's like Aussie Prime Minister Howard had said about a possible presidential Democratic victory in '08: "If I were running al-Qaeda in Iraq, I would put a circle around March, 2008, and pray as many times as possible for a victory, not only for Obama, but also for the Democrats." Whatever date we set for withdrawal, I'm sure the terrorists' calendar would have a big circle around that date.

But cheer up Democrats. Your party finally did a couple things right. They finally had an original idea, and they actually tried to enact policy based on that idea. Sure it was about as wrong an idea as they could have possibly come up with, but at least it's more than the pointless anti-Bush blather that they usually rely on.

Happy Friday!

2007-03-16T11:53:00.000-07:00

"I love March Madness! Daddy and I watched five hours of of tournament ball yesterday including Duke's terrible game against VCU.

You should have seen my Daddy jumping up and down, swearing at the TV... something about Duke not being able to hit a damn freethrow..."

Al Qaeda #3 confesses to plotting 9/11 attacks plus dozens more

2007-03-15T15:02:00.000-07:00

We'd suspected as much for years, but I won't turn down a flat out confession...

Washington, D.C. (AHN) - Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, long suspected as the chief architect of the Sept. 11 terror attacks, confessed to masterminding those attacks and dozens more during a U.S. military hearing held Saturday at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, according to a transcript released Wednesday by the Department of Defense.

"I was responsible for the 9/11 operation, from A to Z," says Mohammad.

In a meandering series of admissions, Mohammad claims full or partial responsibility for nearly 30 terror actions, including the 1993 World Trade center bombing, a blast at an Indonesian nightclub, the attempt by Richard Reid to use shoe bombs on an airliner over the Atlantic, and the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks that brought down the World Trade Center towers and damaged the Pentagon.

On the edited transcript, Mohammad, a key aide to Osama bin Laden, also admits being the principal behind plots to assassinate Pope John Paul II and Presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton.

I bet this guy is a wealth of good intel and I hope they get all that they need from him in a timely manner now that he appears willing to cooperate. But what's slightly more interesting in this piece, beyond the confession, is this little quote.

[...] Towards the end of his statement, Mohammad compared himself to a patriot, saying that "if now we were living in the Revolutionary War and George Washington he being arrested through Britain, for sure he, they would consider him enemy combatant."

Hmmmm... Now where have we seen that comment before? What liberal idiot has compared the terrorists to the minute men?

Hmmmm... I wonder...

UPDATE @ 3:19pm: Mohommad also claims he personally beheaded Daniel Pearl too.

Jack Bauer finally gets to rest

2007-03-14T21:35:00.000-07:00

This was Jack's hour to recharge after getting knocked out, beat up, and thrown down a flight of stairs.

Instead we get that spoiled brat, who had the train runnng through his house, Richie Rich running the show. And apparently all that money couldn't keep him out of the military, a government job, or get him a face lift. Man he looked old...

And former president weasel continued to try to weasel himself into the government's good graces by insisting that only he can convince his ex-wife, big boobs Logan to call up the Russian president's boss, his wife, in an effort to stop an international incident at Jabba the Hut's embassy. And props to Red for bagging the former first lady. Sure she's in the looney bin for crazy rich people, but she's his crazy rich lady. That's what's important.

And about the time big boobs was driving that steak knife into her ex-weasel's carotid, Jack was taking a short nap after having a small bite to eat and finally getting a chance to pee after what, 12 hours now? Maybe longer because, really, what are the chances the Chinese let him pee on that flight back to the US...

So after a relaxing, day at the beach for Jack I give you, your Jack Bauer Moment of ZenTM:

~~Chuck Norris's~~ Jack Bauer's golf score is always 18 because they put the hole wherever his ball lands.

~~Chuck Norris~~ Jack Bauer has never been charged with murder, this is becuase the government realizes he is simply cleansing the gene pool.

~~Chuck Norris~~ Jack Bauer doesn't use toilets. His colon actually compresses his waste to the point of nuclear fusion. The resulting energy is converted into electricity which powers Las Vegas.

That actually explains a lot...

Bush fires 8 US Attorneys!! Oh the humanity!!

2007-03-14T16:52:00.000-07:00

Apparently the Dems never got the memo that as Commander in Chief of the most powerful nation on the planet, if someone under your employ doesn't perform up to expectations, you can fire them. As if these were the first US Attorneys a president had ever fired... The key here is "perform up to expectations" as opposed to "on a whim" or "to avoid your own criminal prosecution."

But the Democratic Presidential candidates smelled blood and added to the MSM's feeding frenzy over this non-issue. But who would take the the 1st place for the "best shameless grandstanding", "beating a dead horse beyond recognition", and "wasting perfectly good airtime on a major news network for absolutely nothing" contest?

Senator Barack Obama needs to fire his PR guy for not getting him more airtime on this exceedingly pointless issue as well as his speechwriter for not coming up with something with a bit more panache. Well maybe not fire... that's so Republican...

I opposed Mr. Gonzalez's nomination, in part, because he had shown in his role as White House Counsel a penchant for subverting justice to serve the President's political goals, and I feared that in an Attorney General. Sadly, the latest revelations underscore my concern. Americans deserve to know who in the White House is pulling the strings at the Department of Justice, and why. Anyone involved should appear under oath and answer these questions.

You opposed him from the beginning. Is that really the best you could come up with?

Rookie... You get 3rd place.

Senator John Edwards is outraged and takes 2nd place in our little contest for lumping the firing of US Attorneys to the Patriot Act, Gitmo, and Abu Ghraib. Kudos John!

Today's news is only the latest and most disturbing sign of the politicization of justice under President Bush. From the abuse of investigative authority under the Patriot Act to the unconstitutional imprisonment of the Guantanamo Bay detainees and illegal torture of prisoners at Abu Ghraib and Bagram Air Force Base, this president has consistently shown contempt for the rule of law.

But Senator Hillary Clinton takes the cake and is our grandprize winner due to her complete and total hypocrisy.

"The buck should stop somewhere," Clinton told ABC News senior political correspondent Jake Tapper, "and the attorney general — who still seems to confuse his prior role as the president's personal attorney with his duty to the system of justice and to the entire country — should resign.

"I'm deeply disturbed by what we have learned thus far," Clinton said, "and I join those who are calling for a full and thorough investigation to try to get to the bottom of these very political decisions that interfere with prosecutorial responsibility by U.S. attorneys, and I think that the attorney general should resign."

But where's the hypocrisy you ask?

When Clinton's husband took office in 1993, one of the first actions his attorney general took was to remove every U.S. attorney. Clinton was asked how this was different from the termination of eight U.S. attorneys last December.

"There is a great difference," Clinton said. "When a new president comes in, a new president gets to clean house. It's not done on a case-by-case basis where you didn't do what some senator or member of Congress told you to do in terms of investigations into your opponents. It is 'Let's start afresh' and every president has done that."

Oh Hillary! How soon we forget! Check out this great op-ed from the WSJ that explains a little better how unprecedented Clinton's firing of all 93 US Attonreys was and not only the Democratic buddies he helped, he quite possibly quashed the White Water scandal he and his wife were up to their necks in as well. Mega-sooper-dooper bonus points for using the executive powers to prevent investigation into your own shady dealings!

At the time, President Clinton presented the move as something perfectly ordinary: "All those people are routinely replaced," he told reporters, "and I have not done anything differently." In fact, the dismissals were unprecedented: Previous Presidents, including Ronald Reagan and Jimmy Carter, had both retained holdovers from the previous Administration and only replaced them gradually as their tenures expired. This allowed continuity of leadership within the U.S. Attorney offices during the transition.

Equally extraordinary were the politics at play in the firings. At the time, Jay Stephens, then U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, was investigating then Ways and Means Chairman Dan Rostenkowski, and was "within 30 days" of making a decision on an indictment. Mr. Rostenkowski, who was shepherding the Clinton's economic program through Congress, eventually went to jail on mail fraud charges and was later pardoned by Mr. Clinton.

Also at the time, allegations concerning some of the Clintons' Whitewater dealings were coming to a head. By dismissing all 93 U.S. Attorneys at once, the Clintons conveniently cleared the decks to appoint "Friend of Bill" Paula Casey as the U.S. Attorney for Little Rock. Ms. Casey never did bring any big Whitewater indictments, and she rejected information from another FOB, David Hale, on the business practices of the Arkansas elite including Mr. Clinton. When it comes to "politicizing" Justice, in short, the Bush White House is full of amateurs compared to the Clintons.

This doesn't of course mean that Bush's firings weren't politically motivated. They were. They just weren't of the grotesquely criminal nature the Clintons' were. I mean really... has our society reached a point where it's criminal to fire someone for performing required tasks poorly or not performing them at all?

The supposed scandal this week is that Mr. Bush had been informed last fall that some U.S. Attorneys had been less than vigorous in pursuing voter-fraud cases and that the President had made the point to Attorney General Albert Gonzales. Voter fraud strikes at the heart of democratic institutions, and it was entirely appropriate for Mr. Bush -- or any President -- to insist that his appointees act energetically against it.

Take sacked U.S. Attorney John McKay from Washington state. In 2004, the Governor's race was decided in favor of Democrat Christine Gregoire by 129-votes on a third recount. As the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and other media outlets reported, some of the "voters" were deceased, others were registered in storage-rental facilities, and still others were convicted felons. More than 100 ballots were "discovered" in a Seattle warehouse. None of this constitutes proof that the election was stolen. But it should have been enough to prompt Mr. McKay, a Democrat, to investigate, something he declined to do, apparently on grounds that he had better things to do.

In New Mexico, another state in which recent elections have been decided by razor thin margins, U.S. Attorney David Iglesias did establish a voter fraud task force in 2004. But it lasted all of 10 weeks before closing its doors, despite evidence of irregularities by the likes of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, or Acorn. As our John Fund reported at the time, Acorn's director Matt Henderson refused to answer questions in court about whether his group had illegally made copies of voter registration cards in the run-up to the 2004 election.

As for some of the other fired Attorneys, at least one of their dismissals seemed to owe to differences with the Administration about the death penalty, another to questions about the Attorney's managerial skills. Not surprisingly, the dismissed Attorneys are insisting their dismissals were unfair, and perhaps in some cases they were. It would not be the first time in history that a dismissed employee did not take kindly to his firing, nor would it be the first in which an employer sacked the wrong person.

So sure this could have been handled better. But once you actually start to look at facts as opposed to innuendo, you pretty quickly figure out just how liberally biased the MSM is and just how much hot air Democratic presidential candidates are full of.

Jack Bauer hates foreign diplomatic consulates...

2007-03-07T19:10:00.000-08:00

I think we should support Jack's personal war on consulates. Foreign punks claiming US soil as sovereign property! How dare they! Jack should have every right to break into any building in the US and torture its occupants if it's in the interest of national security. Any building in the world for that matter! Especially ones containing slimy Russians that look like Jabba the Hut who harbor terrorists. I mean really... did you see his saggy skin folds? Eww...

Anyway, that's two seasons and two wars on Asian consulates. Maybe Jack just doesn't like Asians? Don't see many Asians working at CTU. That's kinda weird... With all the high tech gagdetry around a sourpuss white chick and her British shoe salesman, ex-hubby are the best techies the American government can afford? No wonder the US keeps getting attacked by terrorists!

But at least they will employ hot, Muslim, Republican women, so there is some hope...

And now, without any further ado, your Jack Bauer Moment of ZenTM:

When asked his opinion about the war in Iraq, ~~Chuck Norris~~ Jack Bauer said "Those Iraqis are lucky we got an army, cause if we didn't I would be forced to over and beat the tar out of every individual within my perimeter". He then roundhoused the reporter and walked off in anger.

~~Chuck Norris~~ Jack Bauer was recently credited with finding a new race of people living in his chest hair.

~~Chuck Norris~~ Jack Bauer will become president in the year 2008 after he beats every member of the electoral college in a 537 to 1 caged death match.

If only...

Is Obama taking a staunch position against Iran?

2007-03-03T09:56:00.000-08:00

That's certainly what this Chicago Tribune headline makes it seem like: Obama calls Iran threat to U.S., Israel.

Kinda makes him sound like he's the next JFK... Could it be true?

Seeking to woo Jewish votes and contributions, Sen. Barack Obama told an audience in Chicago Friday that he considers Iran "one of the greatest threats to the United States, Israel and world peace" and pledged he would try to end that nation's uranium enrichment program.

At least the ChiTrib is honest enough to note a political campaign promise when they see one. Still, Obama says Iran is one of the greatest threats to world peace. So far he's on the money...

As he criticized the Bush administration's Iraq policies, the Democratic presidential candidate suggested that the danger posed by neighboring Iran has grown in recent years because of U.S. policy in the Middle East.

Ahh the truth at last... It wouldn't be a Democratic fundraiser without a good ol' fashioned Bush-bash: Iran is our fault! So it's a back-assed view of national security. Yes, Iran's a threat, but because we screwed the region up. Nevermind that the region has been screwed up for centuries and we just got there...

And then the annointed one speaks!

"One of the most profound consequences of the administration's failed strategy in Iraq has been to strengthen Iran's strategic position, reduce U.S. credibility and influence in the region, and place Israel and other nations friendly to the United States in greater peril," Obama (D-Ill.) said before a regional gathering of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a major pro-Israel lobbying group.

Obama is looking at the strategy completely backwards. Iran is stronger by default because we ahnililated the stronger military threat in the region, and they're in a strategic position now because we already took out Iraq that was in a more strategic position. And it's not like Iran just figured out Israel existed in the past three years since we've been in the Middle East. Israel's been a target since the country was founded, and they've been a target simply because they exist. America has probably done more to inhibit Israel than help Israel. US officials talk alot about our great ally Israel, but most of our foreign policies have been made to placate the Arab street at the expense of Israel. And Obama's audience ought to realize that if he or any other Democrat is elected, we'll be leaving the region shortly after they take office, and Israel will be left alone to defend itself. Again.

So sure Obama sounds great.

It's easy to sound great when you spew misconceptions and half-truths...

UPDATE @ 10:22am: And good luck to Obama when he tries to play the black card to get elected. Especially since his white ancestors owned slaves.

24 breaks cultural barriers! Terrorist "real men of genius"!

2007-02-28T21:03:00.000-08:00

Leave it to the intrepid 24 writers to blaze new trails for the rights of typecast terrorists everywhere! They won't typecast those terrorists as, well, terrorists anymore!

And leading the charge for terrorists rights to be heroes is the former shirpa turned terrorist turned diplomat himself as he risks life and limb to save President Chapelle who was obviously too high at the time to be paying attention to the suspiscious blinking bomb, planted not-too-subtley by the assistant to the formerly weasel-ly Dr. Janosz who was lurking around the presidential podium. I mean really the last person who wasn't the president who was hiding that close to the presidential podium was Monica Lewinsky.

But I digress. The former shirpa turned terrorist turned diplomat has likely saved the day and kept the evil Halliburton conspiracy from taking over the presidency (again) and enslaving wannabee terrorists everywhere.

So this Bud's for you mister formerly typecast terrorist who won't be typecast as a terrorist anymore. Are you ready for the hero role yet? Who knows. But at least you can always fall back on the shirpa role.

And now, without any further ado, your Jack Bauer Moment of ZenTM:

Chuck Norris actually speaks three languages: English, Pain, and Death. He is currently working on a fourth language, Dismemberment, and is doing quite well.

When he is alone at night, Chuck Norris likes to wear slippers with bunnies on them. Real bunnies.

Chuck Norris doesn't smash beer cans on his forehead, instead he stares them down till they shrink in fear.

Heh.

Britain sends a prince to Iraq

2007-02-22T16:06:00.001-08:00

Prince Harry will be fighting for his country in the GWOT in Iraq.

Forbes - He's the redheaded son of the late Princess Diana, the rowdy royal known more for dancing until dawn than waking for battle. But Britain's party prince, Harry, is getting his wish and is being deployed to Iraq this spring with his Blues and Royals regiment.

Royal officials announced Thursday that the 22-year-old prince would fight for his country, confirming feverish tabloid speculation about the future of the best-recognized tank commander in Britain. His regiment is expected to set out in May or June for a six-month tour.

Harry, a second lieutenant, has been trained to lead a team of 12 men in four armored reconnaissance vehicles and could become the first British royal to see combat since his uncle, Prince Andrew, flew as a Royal Navy pilot in the Falklands War against Argentina in 1982.

This has of course been all over the MSM lately and deservedly so, but for the wrong reasons. You can hear the newscaster's hand-wringing when they say, "Won't Harry be a huge target for the insurgents?"

Sure it's easy to have a brain-fart moment and say of course he'll be a big target, but I think that's giving a little too much credit to the insurgents. How are they going to recognize Harry? I don't think he'll be wearing a crown in the field, or have anything else on him that's going to make him stand out as a Prince of England. It's not like Medieval times when the royalty wore royal garbs into battle. He's going to look like every other tank commander Britain has over there. And when I'm sure by the time a terrorist gets close enough to recognize him, I'm sure his men will make short work of the would-be terrorist.

That brings up another good point. His men, knowing who Harry is, are going to fight until their last dying breath to protect their commander, which could very well make it even more difficult to get to Harry. You don't think one of them would throw themselves on a grenade to save him? Take a bullet? They'll stop at nothing to protect him.

So good luck Harry. Be safe.

A public service announcement from Jack Bauer

2007-02-21T20:34:00.000-08:00

Do you have a handgun? Do you know how to use it?

Take this lesson from Jack Bauer:

Jack: Have you ever used one of these before?

Marilyn: No.

Jack: Just point and shoot.

This concludes our publice service announcement. And now your Jack Bauer Moment of ZenTM:

When ~~Chuck Norris~~ Jack Bauer enters a room, he doesn't turn the lights on, he turns the dark off.

~~Chuck Norris~~ Jack Bauer once fought of 767 wild Grizzly bears which is why they are now endangered.

~~Chuck Norris~~ Jack Bauer has defined the word "upchuck" as when ~~Chuck~~ Jack kicks someone so hard in the testicles that they vomit out their entire digestive tract.

Heh.

BBC debunks the Loose Change loonies

2007-02-19T16:32:00.001-08:00

LGF posted these three video clips of the BBC show meant to expose the "Truthers" (aka "Idiots" or "Weak Minded Fools"). When you've got 20 minutes or so, watch the BBC videos below.

Thanks to LGF for the heads up...

You never know when you'll run across a conspiracy whack-o and need a fact or too. I like the debunking of the "Jews stayed home that day" myth. Nevermind that the lie was started by a Hezbollah propaganda/news station. I'm sure they were totally objective when they perverted a Jerusalem Post story that simply tried to put a number on how many Israeli citizens were in the NYC and DC area.

Iran: not only a potential nuclear threat, they're late making the nuclear plant mortgage payments as well

2007-02-19T13:43:00.000-08:00

It's just so hard finding responsible megalomaniac dictators trying to bring about the return of the 12th Imam who want to buy nuclear technology these days...

BBC - Iran has rejected claims by Russian officials that it has failed to meet payments for work on the Bushehr nuclear plant in southern Iran.

[...] Under the Bushehr deal, Russia would have started the fuel shipments by March, launched the plant in September and begun to generate electricity by November.

Russia's Federal Nuclear Power Agency spokesman Sergey Novikov said the "launch schedule definitely could be affected" by the reported delay in payments.

One unnamed Russian official told Associated Press Iran was blaming "technical reasons" for the delay.

So they're a nuclear threat and a credit risk for lenders as well.

Of course beyond the fact that they haven't paid the Russians for the nuclear technology they've been given, is the scary fact that the Russians are selling them nuclear technology.

Does anyone else think that's a bad idea or is it just me.

Rudy Giuliani slams the nonbinding resolution against the war and the government officials who support it

2007-02-15T15:52:00.001-08:00

Amen Rudy!

GIULIANI: I mean, you can look at the practical and common sense conclusion on that anyway you want. But there's something more important than that. We have a right of free speech in this country and we elect people to make decisions. Here's what I would prefer to see them do, though, if you ask me what's my view on that. The nonbinding resolution thing gets me more than are you for it or against it. I have tremendous respect for the people who feel that we either made a mistake going to war, who voted against the war, who now have come to the conclusion, changed their minds, they have every right to that, that it's wrong, you should, in a dynamic situation, keep questioning. What I don't like is the idea of a nonbinding resolution.

KING: Because?

GIULIANI: Because there's no decision.

KING: But it's a statement.

GIULIANI: Yes, but that's what you do. That's what Tim Russert does and that's what Rush Limbaugh does. That's what you guys do, you make comments. We pay them to make decisions, not just to make comments. We pay them to decide. The United States Congress does declarations, the war.

We pay them to make decisions.

Amen. If they're so opposed to the war, defund it.

So put your money where your mouth is Democrats (and White Flag Republicans). Put up a resolution to defund the war, something that would actually be a decision, or are you afraid of the consequences?

I had money that Milo was dead as soon as Buchanan sent him into the field...

2007-02-15T15:30:00.001-08:00

But for a computer geek he did pretty well. We are reminded of Chloe's brief foray into the field in season 3 or 4 (or maybe 2? I can't keep them all straight...) where she was weilding a shotgun in front of some apartment building.

But Milo's got a big job. He's got precious cargo afterall... Jack's high school sweetheart, stolen by his evil brother, but who gave birth to Jack's love child. So now it's just a matter of time before Mini-Jack kills his grandpa, Captain Dudley, and reveals his true identity to the world.

In the mean time, Jack takes the tacteam into the decoy house and is, of course, the only survivor of the explosion that follows. He suffers only minor cuts and abrasions.

I still think Milo's a dead man though. Next hour perhaps...

And before we move on to the Jack Bauer Moment of ZenTM I might have missed the deadline to submit for the Carnival of Bauer, but that doesn't mean you have to miss out. Head over to Riding with Ricky and check out the mayhem.

And now your Jack Bauer Moment of ZenTM:

There's only one way to skin a cat because ~~Chuck Norris~~ Jack Bauer has a patent on the other 311.

Although the Chinese have a larger army than USA, they are reluctant to attack because they know we have ~~Chuck Norris~~ Jack Bauer. Reruns of ~~Walker, Texas Ranger~~ 24 haven't made their way to the Middle East yet.

The hammer was crafted after ~~Chuck Norris'~~ Jack Bauer's fist.

Heh.

Several Republicans begin to break ranks and join the Democrats

2007-02-14T15:06:00.001-08:00

They're supporting the Democrats' non-binding resolution disapproving of the 20,000 troop surge.

WASHINGTON — Breaking ranks, a small band of House Republicans declared their opposition to a troop buildup in Iraq on Wednesday, and President Bush appeared resigned to passage of a nonbinding measure disapproving of his decision.

Whoopee. That dumb resolution is about as important as my opinion on who should advance on American Idol and who they should employ as a judge on the show. You know what, I'm going to write a non-binding resolution that says I do not support Simon Cowell's continued employment as a judge on American Idol.

H. CON. RES. 63
Disapproving of the decision of ~~the President~~ American Idol producers and Fox Television announced on January 10, 2007, to ~~deploy more than 20,000 additional United States combat troops to Iraq~~ continue the employment of Simon Cowell as an American Idol judge.

Resolved by ~~the House of Representatives (the Senate concurring)~~ JWookie (the blogosphere concurring), That--

(1) ~~Congress~~ The blogosphere and the American people will continue to support and protect ~~the members~~ citizens of the United States ~~Armed Forces~~ who are ~~serving or who have served bravely and honorably in Iraq~~ pursuing their dream to be the next American Idol; and

(2) ~~Congress~~ The blogosphere and JWookie specifically disapproves of the decision of ~~President George W. Bush~~ American Idol producers and Fox Television announced on January 10, 2007, to ~~deploy more than 20,000 additional United States combat troops to Iraq~~ employ Simon Cowell as a judge for American Idol.

I bet it only takes hours for Fox to fire him...

... just you wait and see...

... any day now he's gone...

... fired...

... unemployed...

... don't blink you might miss it...

... there will be thousands of Idol contestants taking to the streets in joyous celebration...

... really... there will...

"Daddy didn't get to watch 24 last night..."

2007-02-13T16:10:00.000-08:00

I got all caught up watching her trying to figure out the whole sitting up thing.

And she's cuter than Jack Bauer anyway...

Iraq cracks down on terrorist imports from Iran and Syria

2007-02-13T15:47:00.000-08:00

They closed the borders.

Maybe America has something to learn from Iraq...

Iraq is closing its borders with Iran and Syria as part of a security crackdown to attempt to rein in violence.

The new measures were announced by the Iraqi official in charge of the security plan, Lieutenant-General Abboud Qanbar.

"We have decided to close two Syrian and four Iranian border posts for 72 hours," he said.

"The Iranian border post of al-Sheeb will reopen partially after one week and fully after 60 days, other border posts will remain closed until further notice."

A government official said an announcement would be made when the frontiers had been closed.

Iraqis making and executing policies. That's a good sign. There is a lot of border to watch there though. Hopefully they can keep an eye on enough of it to keep Iranian and Syrian influences out of Iraq.

Bernanke to testify before Democratic committees for the first time

2007-02-13T15:08:00.001-08:00

And this article makes the point that the Federal Reserve Chairman and the Democrats grilling him might not be on the same wavelength...

Feb. 12 (Bloomberg) -- When Ben S. Bernanke testifies before Congress's new Democratic majorities this week, it may be hard to tell that he and his questioners are talking about the same economy.

The Federal Reserve chairman will use his semiannual appearances before House and Senate banking panels to describe a healthy economy and a strong job market. Democrats such as Representative Paul Hodes of New Hampshire will paint a much different picture -- of stagnant incomes and jobs lost to foreign competition.

"Part of the reason I was elected and many of my colleagues were elected was because of the deep concerns that folks have about the economy," says Hodes, president of the freshman House Democrats and a member of the Financial Services Committee that will hear from Bernanke Feb. 15.

And Rep. Hodes wasn't alone. Joining his "concerns" is the opinion that the economy's "not so good" from Senator Brown and that people are "checking the help-wanted ads" not the latest stock prices according to Rep. Wilson. That's some brilliant economic analysis all around right there. Random, pointless concerns, a general not-so-good by someone who probably doesn't understand how supply and demand works, and anecdotal unemployment stories probably put forth by lobbyist unions, rather than reality.

I'll be the first to say unemployment sucks. I was unemployed for a couple months a few years back; I quit a dead end job that cost me more in gas and mileage than I made. How did I re-employ myself again? I went to a temp agency, and yes, my college education paid off. I worked hard at that company and they hired me full time. Even gave me a raise, thanks to a college education. I worked so hard that when I said I was moving and going to have to quit, they found me a job close to my new house. All that was me, my hard work, a grateful and generous employer, and a bit of luck. The government had nothing to do with it.

And that's how it should be. While certain sectors of the economy aren't performing as well as those that are carrying the GDP, the government shouldn't be creating jobs for steel workers in Ohio, miners in West Virginia, or computer programmers in California. I mean, really, the government does too much as it is.

Honestly, the free market, capitalist system maintains itself pretty well on its own. Government officials just need to stay out of its way. It's a whole lot easier for bureaucrats to muck it up that fix it once they've broken it.

Sure she's cute... that's because never take pictures when she's crying

2007-02-12T15:57:00.001-08:00

Baby update!!

I'm kidding of course. Our little Wookette is an angel. She is however an angel with colic, and colic for those who don't have kids is a baby that will cry for at least 3 hours straight every day.

But seriously, a secret message to all new parents out there with colicky babies...

Gripe water. Seriously.

The. best. stuff. ever.

North Korea makes a tentative agreement to disarm?!?

2007-02-12T14:12:00.001-08:00

Wow.

Somewhere in the world pigs are flying and frost is forming on the rocks in Hell...

BEIJING (AP) -- International negotiators reached a tentative agreement on initial steps toward North Korea's nuclear disarmament, the first concrete progress after more than three years of talks, the U.S. envoy said early Tuesday.

The draft agreement, worked out at the latest round of six-nation talks on the North's nuclear program, contained commitments on disarmament and energy assistance along with ``initial actions'' to be taken by certain deadlines, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill said. He said working groups will be set up, hopefully in a month, laying out a framework for dealing with regional tensions. Hill declined to give further details of the draft.

The agreement could herald the first step toward disarmament since the talks began in 2003; the rounds have been marked by repeated delays and deadlock. The process reached its lowest point in October when North Korea conducted its first nuclear test explosion, alarming the world and triggering U.N. sanctions.

Hill said the draft agreement still must be reviewed by the home governments of the six countries at the talks, but he was upbeat about it. He said he was in ``constant communication'' with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. ``We feel it's an excellent draft, I don't think we're the problem,'' he said.

I'd love to believe that this will actually happen, but they've lied to us before. What's to stop them from lying to us, signing a disarmament treaty, and then only disarming the nukes that we know about, leaving their sooped-sekret stash for a rainy day?

Nothing.

They'd better put some major inspections and public missiles decommissionings in this thing, so that we can verify they actually get rid of each and every nuclear weapon they have.

It'd be great if this actually happened though... Just what would the moonbat lefties do? The evil, baby-killing, warmonger of a president disarming the world's most dangerous nuclear threat with a pen and a handshake.

I think their heads might actually explode...

A great discussion piece on what's wrong in Iraq...

2007-02-12T11:46:00.001-08:00

GOP and College has a great piece up about what's wrong and why...

Have I gone mad? No. My roommate is of Christian-Jordanian descent, and lived there for some time. When it comes to discussions about the Middle East, I'm very open to what he has to say. And when compared to Middle Eastern people, we are too thin skinned. Americans see a man stripped of his clothes in an interrogation room and think that it is a heinous crime. True Arabs see that and think "Wow, he got off lucky. He didn't even lose a finger."

Loud, screaming, almost violent arguments are an every day thing in Arab countries. People get into an argument about how much they think an article of food should cost, and other simple things. The mindset there is that civility in an argument is a sign of weakness, and if you want to win the argument, you have to force your view. This goes for fighting as well; You have to have prove to your opponent that you are stronger, and make him beg for your mercy. Only then can you let off, because the battle is won.

Go check it out and read the whole thing.

Aussie PM John Howard rips Barack Obama

2007-02-12T10:07:00.001-08:00

It's put up or shut up, and John Howard has been a staunch ally and understands what's at stake in the GWOT and in Iraq. So he gets to make comments like this.

National Post - In a rare intervention by a foreign leader into U.S. domestic politics, Australian Prime Minister John Howard ridiculed a proposal by Mr. Obama to completely withdraw U.S. troops from Iraq over the next 13 months.

Mr. Howard's unexpected criticism of Mr. Obama -- an underdog candidate to win his party's presidential nomination -- stunned Democrats even as U.S. conservatives joined the attack on the Illinois senator's dovish foreign policy views.

"If I were running al-Qaeda in Iraq, I would put a circle around March, 2008, and pray as many times as possible for a victory, not only for Obama, but also for the Democrats," Mr. Howard told an Australian broadcaster.

I wonder if Obama will put that on his campaign bumper sticker?

UPDATE @ 11:56am: This story has gone around the world and back again and everyone's got an opinion.

Obama responded to Howard's remarks...

"I think it's flattering that one of George Bush's allies on the other side of the world started attacking me the day after I announced," Mr Obama told reporters in the mid-western US state of Iowa.

I would also note that we have close to 140,000 troops in Iraq, and my understanding is Mr Howard has deployed 1400, so if he is ... to fight the good fight in Iraq, I would suggest that he calls up another 20,000 Australians and sends them to Iraq.

Otherwise it's just a bunch of empty rhetoric."

As far as I'm concerned those 1400 could simply be cooking meals over there and it's still notable and as a nation we ought to be thankful. Or we can be like Obama and look a gift horse in the mouth. You decide...

Howard won't take that lying down and he of course refuses to retract any part of his statement.

What I have done is to criticize Sen. Obama's views on a particular issue, and I don't retreat in any way from that criticism," Howard said. "I think if America is defeated in Iraq that will be catastrophic for the West and it will have tremendously adverse consequences for Australia."

Howard, who trails the opposition Labor Party in his re-election bid this year, criticized his opponents as being hypocritical.

"Apparently it's all right for people in the Labor Party to regularly criticize the Bush administration's policy on Iraq -- and they do that almost on a daily basis," Howard said. "Yet my criticism of the policy position of somebody who is not president -- and is not even the Democratic candidate for the presidency -- that is interfering in American politics and is absolutely to be forbidden."

Can't disagree with that. If you disagree and/or hate George Bush, that's fine. Speak your mind, no one will judge you. Of course if you agree with him you're an idiot. Expect to be shunned.

Before everyone gets their panties in a wad about Iraq pre-war intelligence...

2007-02-09T16:29:00.001-08:00

... I'd go read the correction the Washinton Post put up. It's not a small correction either. The original story said the big report questioning the pre-war intelligence was put out by the Pentagon.

Oops.

It was really put out by Democratic Seantor Carl Levin.

That changes things a bit wouldn't you say?

Thanks to Allah at Hot Air.

Denying global warming is now equivalent to denying the holocaust

2007-02-09T15:55:00.001-08:00

It's so unbelievable, what can you say?

By every measure, the U N 's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change raises the level of alarm. The fact of global warming is "unequivocal." The certainty of the human role is now somewhere over 90 percent. Which is about as certain as scientists ever get.

I would like to say we're at a point where global warming is impossible to deny. Let's just say that global warming deniers are now on a par with Holocaust deniers, though one denies the past and the other denies the present and future.

So denying global warming is the moral equivalent of denying the holocaust. Since holocaust denial is illegal in much of Europe, will global warming follow suit? Talk about crazed fanatics...

For a more skeptical perspective let's take a look at another Boston Globe article.

Perhaps the Chicken Littles are right and the sky really is falling, but that opinion is hardly unanimous. There are quite a few skeptical scientists, including eminent climatologists, who doubt the end-of-the-world scenario. Why don't journalists spend more time covering all sides of the debate instead of just parroting the scaremongers?

Only rarely do other views pierce the media's filter of environmental correctness. A recent series by Lawrence Solomon in Canada's National Post looked at some of the leading global-warming dissenters, none of whom fits the easy-to-dismiss stereotype of a flat-Earth yahoo. There is, for example, Richard S.J. Tol -- IPCC author, editor of Energy Economics, and board member of the Centre for Marine and Climate Research at Hamburg University. Tol agrees that global warming is real, but he emphasizes its benefits as well as its harms -- and points out that in the short term, the benefits are especially pronounced.

Another dissident is Duncan Wingham, professor of climate physics at University College London and principal scientist of the European Space Agency's CryoSat Mission, which is designed to measure changes in the Earth's ice masses. The collapse of ice shelves off the northern Antarctic Peninsula is often highlighted as Exhibit A of global warming and its dangers, but Wingham's satellite data shows that the thinning of some Antarctic ice has been matched by thickening ice elsewhere on the continent. The evidence to date, Wingham says, is not "favorable to the notion we are seeing the results of global warming."

Still other scientists profiled by Solomon contend that the sun, not man, plays the dominant role in planetary climate change.

Henrik Svensmark of the Danish National Space Center, for instance,believes that changes in the sun's magnetic field, and the corresponding impact on cosmic rays, may be the key to global warming. Nigel Weiss, a past presidentof the Royal Astronomical Society and a mathematical aerophysicist at the University of Cambridge, correlates sunspot activity with changes in the Earth's climate. Habibullo Abdussamatov, who heads the space research laboratory at Pulkovo Astronomical Observatoryin Russia, points out that Mars is also undergoing global warming -- despite having no greenhouse conditions and no activity by Martians. In his view, it is solar irradiance, not carbon dioxide, that accounts for the recent rise in temperature.

If only Al Gore would make a horrible movie that no one would go to see, we could finally put this issue to rest.

Oh... wait a sec... he already did that.

Oops.

Bloggers on staff with Sen. Edwards are giving him a bit of a headache

2007-02-09T14:34:00.001-08:00

Two bloggers Sen. Edwards staffed put him in a bit of a sticky spot the other day...

WaPo - Former senator John Edwards (D-N.C.) condemned comments made by two bloggers on his presidential campaign staff but chose not to fire the women, an incident that exposed the fault lines between the largely unfiltered world of new media and the highly regulated universe of national politics.

At the center of the brouhaha are Amanda Marcotte and Melissa McEwen, both of whom were hired last month by Edwards to oversee his "Net roots" outreach. A loose conglomeration of liberal-minded bloggers have grown increasingly influential in Democratic politics.

Before joining the Edwards campaign, Marcotte and McEwen each maintained personal Web logs on which they posted highly critical and profane thoughts about topics including the Roman Catholic Church. Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic League, called on Edwards to fire the duo, whom he described as "vulgar, trash-talking bigots."

Wow... second chances abound for liberals who trash WASPs. Of course we were talking about Mitt Romney and some off his staffers popping off, we'd have a national outcry and the oh-so-tolerant left would demand he withdraw from the race, no matter how many apologies he and the staffers issued.

And since the MSM isn't paying attention, this isn't the only issue Edwards has made for himself at the moment. He's getting himself in enough trouble talking out of both sides of his face (after all, he did learn from from the best in the business, John Kerry, who flipped flopped more than a fish out of water).

2 weeks ago, speaking at the Herzliya Conference in Israel Edwards addressed the issue of Iran and their pursuit of nukes quite firmly.

"Let me be clear: Under no circumstances can Iran be allowed to have nuclear weapons . . . The vast majority of people are concerned about what is going on in Iraq. This will make the American people reticent toward going for Iran. But I think the American people are smart if they are told the truth, and if they trust their president. So Americans can be educated to come along with what needs to be done with Iran."

He then took a page from John Kerry's playbook and proceeded to change his position.

Q. Can we live with a nuclear Iran?

A. "I'm not ready to cross that bridge yet... When [Bush] uses this kind of language 'options are on the table,' he does it in a very threatening kind of way - with a country that he's not engaging with or making any serious diplomatic proposals to. I mean I think that he's just dead wrong about that."

How else should a military threat be made? What option does Edwards mean to leave on the table - a bouquet of flowers?

On the February 4 edition of Meet the Press, Edwards was asked, "Would President Edwards allow Iran to develop nuclear weapons?" His response: "There's no answer to that question at this moment... We ought to negotiate directly with the Iranians, which has not been done...."

Q. But they may get one.

A. "I think we don't know, and you have to make a judgment as you go along."

So he's gone from staunch position to a policy of jibberish flexible it's spineless.

So Edward has become the protege of John Kerry. Only Edwards has charisma and better hair

It's always fun mixing it up with dissenting, anonymous commenters...

2007-02-08T16:55:00.000-08:00

This person wasn't exactly a troll, but did their best to cover their tracks... So I thought I'd post their original comment as well as my repsonse. It's so much easier to read when you don't have to scroll through those tiny Haloscan comments windows...

I stumbled across you blog. it's so fascinating to read a conservative perspective on war.

The problem I have with Iraq war is the number of Iraqi deaths. The fucked up situation in Iraq wasn't created by Americans...it happened way before all of that with the division of the Ottoman empire...the formation of a multi-tribed nation state later living under a dictator...
the problems are complex but why are American troops in there trying to liberate a country and killing so many people in the process? THere's this paternalistic attitude that only Americans can save these people because they are too uncivilised to govern themselves.
They support unpopular governments that promote the American agenda. While the idea of saving a country from an evil dictator is noble (and Hollywood) the reality is the dictator is dead, there are more people dying.
What is being gained from this war?
Meanwhile North Korea has nukes, and after seeing what happened in Iraq I'm sure more countries will be nuking up to protect themselves.
The only country that has ever dropped a nuke on a civillian population is us.

More people will die for nothing.
So many in Iraq already have. An American life is not worth more than an Iraqi life. All life is equal.
You people amaze me with your over simplification of issues. I guess it makes the world an easier place to live in.

Have a nice life.

- Interest

A fabulous comment, no? So here's my reply...

Hey, thanks for stopping by. Other perspectives are always welcome here.

I can appreciate your concern for the Iraqi civilian casualties, and I agree that the problem in Iraq (and the Middle East in general) is based on issues and hatreds centuries old. We are coming into this fight a bit late...

And that's about where my agreement with you ends.

99% of civilians killed in Iraq were murdered by the insurgents in an effort to break the spirit of not just Americans, but Iraqis as well. They're certainly not being killed by US troops. All you have to do is read any newspaper or tune to any news program to see the latest car bomb at a market, mosque, or recruitment center. And since you appear to by confused by who's who over there, our guys are the ones wearing uniforms, in jeeps, holding guns. You know... normal soldiers. The bad guys are hiding among the innocent, using them as shields, blowing them up in an effort to blackmail us. What I love about the liberal perspective is how they make the terrorists moral equivalents to our troops. They kill civilians, we kill terrorists. Apparently that's a distinction only those not blinded by their liberal hate can recognize.

As far as the popularity contest, you'd prefer be the main priority of the US government, the Iraqi government is only unpopular with the insurgents. The average Iraqi was thrilled at the chance to vote on their leadership. Just see the poll turnouts. And they're damn thankful we ignored the rest of the world and helped free them from the oppressive, genocidal, murderer that had been ruling their country.

As far as North Korea and their nukes, you've got a great example of what happens when you ignore the rest of the world and rely 100% on diplomatic efforts. Kim Jong Il flat out lied to Clinton, signed the nuclear proliferation treaty, and then went ahead with his nuclear programs anyway. We didn't attack NK, or anywhere nearby that made him fear for the safety of his nation. Evil dictators don't need an excuse for their nuclear agendas, and saying they'd only pursue nukes because we are in the region is a gross, childish oversimplification. Sure we've got nukes and yes we've used them and we did so to force the hand of an adversary unwilling to surrender. How long should we have let that war drag on?

That of course brings us to your million dollar question, why are we there? How's national security, global war on terror, and freeing an oppressed people strike you? And wouldn't you know it, that also shows that we value Iraqi life just as much as we value American life. We value it so much that we're sending our own sons and daughters there, risking their lives for the lives of Iraqis. Some might even argue we're valuing the lives of the Iraqis more than our own. Regardless, it certainly doesn't prove we don't value Iraqi lives.

So when you're done oversimplifying things with your pacifist hopes and dreams that we ought to be trying to make a world were all problems are solved with hugs and puppy dogs, I'll be having a nice life. In reality.

Anyone want to add something? Feel free to leave a comment!

And hopefully, in the next couple days, I'll get a chance to repsond to a global warming email I got. This guy didn't like the little Al Gore image over on the left... So check back soon for that!

It's only the world's most intricate and flawlessly executed conspiracy ever, ever

2007-02-07T17:02:00.001-08:00

OK so Romano the one-armed wonder doc and his dad, Captain Dudley conceived the most intricate and flawlessly executed plan ever. Ever. First Jack has to learn his family's involved. Easy, CTU working at their best, even if Edgar is still dead.

Second, Jack has to go question his brother about the family company's involvement. OK, fair enough... Throw in a little love triangle with Romano's wife and sibling rivaly (which leads to torture) and it makes for nice backstory.

Third, Jack has to take Romano to the office looking for the British 007 and his Astin Martin, so that Captain Dudley can have his henchmen sneak up on Jack and capture him. This of course is the signal for wonder doc to take back control of what are really his henchmen and take both his Dad and Jack into custody.

Four, Romano gives the "you know what to you know who" order and heads back to the Romano compound. This of course means Jack will escape...

Five: But who knew the escape was staged and in the process Captain Dudley kills the last henchman before Jack can question him. Suspicious? Hell yeah, but for the conspiracy's sake we'll say the old man's Parkinson's acted up and Blam! Another notch for the season's body count.

Six: So now Jack and his Dad are a team (Bicardi and... seltzer? Soda? old wrinkly cranberries?) and track down the one-armed wonder doc at the most obvious place he could go... home. Casa de Romano.

Seven: Not making the same mistake twice, Jack goes in with 20 agents to capture one little wonder doc. What's this mean? Torture time!

Eight: Romano gives in and let's himself be tortured. Again. Jack starts him on some bad ass neurotoxin. Jack of course ups the dose to the magical 8cc mark, a point so toxic, the torture assistant refused to give it for fear of killing the good doctor. Jack politely asks him to proceed, and then threatens him at gunpoint. And to throw Jack off he gives up the ghost from last season's plot, that he was behind Palmer's assassination and all of President Weasel's shenanigans. Jack goes for the death blow, but stops because he doesn't want to kill his brother in front of his dad. That's always something you do when the parents aren't looking.

Nine: Captain Dudley does a little improvising and after discussing how well their sooper sekret plan has gone, and how much pain Romano can take, he kills his own flesh and blood. Then threratens to sue CTU. Nice touch.

Seriously, the weirdest, most complicated plan ever, ever.

I guess it'd have to be to fool the one and only Jack Bauer.

And now, without any further ado, your Jack Bauer Moment of ZenTM:

It's no coincidence that the tattoo on Mike Tyson's face and the sole of ~~Chuck Norris'~~ Jack Bauer's boot share the same pattern.

Michael Jackson's face is a result of a ~~Chuck Norris~~ Jack Bauer ass kicking.

~~Chuck Norris'~~ Jack Bauer has won placing bets on the Super Bowl every year for the last 40 years. Not because he successfully picked the winning team each year, but because the bookies are too scared to tell him he was wrong.

Heh.

UPDATE @ 12:24pm 2/8/07: Thanks to New World Order for hosting this week's Carnival of Bauer! Check out the other submissions...

Big game this weekend... What do the pros do to prepare?

2007-02-02T14:36:00.001-08:00

A small insight into the mind of a professional athlete (warning... completely inappropriate and hysterically funny language). Thanks to Rex Grossman for being our guinea pig.

Is that Berrian? I think he's triple-covered. You know what? Fuck it. I'm throwing it downfield.

Yeah, I see Jones open on the flank. But fuck that. Dumpoff passes are for faggots. I'm fucking Sexy Rexy Grossman. I can get that ball in there. And, even if I can't, I bet I'll be able to pull it off the next go round. I like throwing the ball long. It makes my dick hard.

What's that? I should throw a quick slant? Fuck that. That's gay. Button hook? Gay. Flare out? Gay. Screen pass? Kevin Spacey gay. This is fucking football. You can't just expect wins to come to you. You can't massage that shit. You gotta grab that game by the throat and rape the ever-loving shit out of it. You think a 5-yard out is gonna win you a game? You're a pussy. This ain't John Shoop running this offense. Sexy Rexy's got the arm. The dragon. You gotta unleash the dragon.

Go read the rest...

I wonder what Peyton's thinking....