Disaffiliates - Think Twice

What is the Occupy Wall Street General Assembly?

2011-11-07T01:05:00.003-05:00

As explained by Georgia Sagri:

"NYC General Assemblies are an open participatory and horizontally organized process through which we are building the capacity to constitute ourselves in public as autonomous collective forces within and against representative politics, cultural death and the crisis of our times."

Got that?

Now here's how you participate as part of the autonomous collective force:

Toyota -- The Car Dealers....of DEATH.

2010-02-28T13:12:00.001-05:00

Iowahawk delivers: Take That, Tojo!

The Sarah Palin as Trainable Parrot Theory

2009-07-08T12:29:00.006-04:00

I continue to read about and hear this notion that if Sarah Palin can "bone up" on her grasp of the issues, she can come back and be a force.

Simple question: Would anyone be saying this if she were a man? Isn't treating her like a parrot misogynistic on some level?

I strongly recommend reading "The Meaning of Sarah Palin" by Yuval Levin.

The fabled shift to a "green energy" economy is a pipe-dream

2009-07-02T10:41:00.003-04:00

It takes a special kind of naivete to believe subsidizing energy which costs 3x to 6x as much as fossil fuels (depending on who you ask) is going to benefit anyone, except for the politically connected...even so, the fabled shift to a "green energy" economy is a pipe-dream to succor the feel-good set into supporting what is essentially just a big tax hike.

Ten years from now, the percentage of energy produced from wind and solar will be no higher than it is today -- we'll just be paying a lot more for the oil and coal energy we consume.

There does exist a real green and cost effective energy source not many in power seem interested in -- nuclear power, of course.

My home state of Maine has been ahead of the curve lately, passing gay marriage laws and income tax cuts. Perhaps Maine can lead country forward with clean nuclear energy. Let's bring Maine Yankee back online and continue to show the rest of the country how it's done.

Only 3.27 Trillion?

2009-02-12T16:40:00.002-05:00

Heritage Foundation estimates the true cost of stimulus: $3.27 Trillion. I actually think they are underestimating, as many of the programs (and the failures they create) will lead to new programs and greater spending in the future.

Best comment:

Dick Turpin, Dallas writes:

True act of highway robbery.

There are two types of people in America today:
1- those who remember the Carter years and
2- those who are going to find out.

Maxine Waters is a complete and utter disgrace

2008-05-23T16:47:00.002-04:00

Who votes for these scum of the earth? Listen to her threaten to nationalize American oil companies. What country is this? Why isn't this all over the news channels?

Link: sevenload.com

We are going to laugh at this fad 20 years from now, right?

2008-04-20T09:43:00.003-04:00

This "green" product brings the movement form ridiculous to absurd.

Green funerals make for eco-exits

And check this out: Natural Death Centre, where they ask you, "How green is your life."

Obama is a politician in denial (video)

2008-04-13T23:12:00.004-04:00

Here is Obama today in Pennsylvania, defending his demeaning put-down of blue collar America. Here is a politician who has already gotten away with so much, always escaping unscathed. Watch this video and you'll see someone in denial (yet sub-consciously, it is clear he knows he is in trouble). He is trying to spin his blunder like it is nothing, only he comes across as an insecure bully who knows he is cornered (even his laughs, and the crowd's laughs, are strange and pleading).

Look at this guy. There is no way he is going to be the next president. Even though I doubt Hillary catches him, especially after Bosnia-gate, it doesn't matter; you are looking at McGovern 2008.

8 Year Old Asks for Divorce

2008-04-11T19:27:00.002-04:00

At Weasel Zippers: 8 Year-old Girl Seeks Divorce From Husband.....

SANA’A, April 9 - An eight-year-old girl decided last week to go the Sana’a West Court to prosecute her father, who forced her to marry a 30-year-old man.

Nojoud Muhammed Nasser arrived at court by herself on Wednesday, April 2, looking for a judge to handle her case against her father, Muhammed Nasser, who forced her two months ago to marry Faez Ali Thamer, a man 22 years her senior. The child also asked for a divorce, accusing her husband of sexual and domestic abuse.

Obama: Merely Changing the Subject

2008-03-20T14:31:00.005-04:00

Investor's Business Daily understands that Obama is merely changing the subject:

But Obama's recent troubles, which this much-hyped speech was supposed to put past him, are not about race relations. They're about one churchman who happens to be black, whose views from the pulpit are repugnant and from whom Obama doesn't seem to have the guts to distance himself.

...

The supposed divide between black and white is not the issue here; Obama's longtime association with Jeremiah Wright is.

Obama is a cynical pragmatist

2008-03-18T16:58:00.006-04:00

The Rev. Jeremiah Wright affair and his "oops, you got me" response speech has only confirmed the obvious. Obama is a typical cynical politician. In his case, he needed credibility in South Chicago so he partnered with the people who could buy him influence (Wright and Rezko).

Obama doesn't believe in Wright's foolishness because he doesn't believe in anything. His prime motivation is the ability to exercise power.

Obama doesn't care to sooth race relations. He seeks to exploit them, evidenced by his proposals for more socialism and more affirmative action.

Obama would happily throw Jeremiah Wright under the bus if it meant more power. His problem now is how to delicately do just that without looking like a hypocrite and damaging his credibility as a uniter. He must now attempt to present himself as a politician unique in American history, someone who doesn't just feel your pain, but feels everyone's pain.

It is Getting Worse -- Obama's Hollywood Cult has Officially Jumped the Shark

2008-03-02T23:45:00.006-05:00

Found at Althouse.

You have to see this video to believe it -- Yes We Can by Will.I.Am was embarrassingly bad. Who knew it was possible, but this one puts it to shame. I'm smiling ear-to-ear. These fools are making it too easy. If they can top this one, I'll be shocked.

Is Will.I.Am working for Karl Rove or something? Wow...

The more I know, the more I doubt

2008-03-01T15:45:00.002-05:00

Oops - Global Warming Paradox at the NY Times Science Blog.

If only the masses could understand the science of global warming, they’d be alarmed, right? Wrong, according to the surprising results of a survey of Americans published in the journal Risk Analysis by researchers at Texas A&M University.

After asking a national sample of more than 1,000 Americans how much they knew about global warming and how they felt about it, the researchers report that respondents who are better-informed about global warming “both feel less personally responsible for global warming, and also show less concern for global warming.” Another unexpected result: “Respondents who showed a great deal of confidence that scientists understand global warming and climate change showed significantly less concern for the risks of global warming than did those who have lower trust in scientists.”

To know Obama, look to the women in his life

2008-02-25T20:23:00.004-05:00

I am throughly impressed with some of the articles recently written identifying the Obama phenomenon for the fraud it is, in beautiful plain English.

Someone writing under the pseudonym 'Spengler' for the Asia Times writes Obama's women reveal his secret. This is without a doubt, a must read. Spengler tells you to look to Obama’s mom and wife for clues to his real motivations. Here are some choice quotes:

"Cherchez la femme," advised Alexander Dumas in: "When you want to uncover an unspecified secret, look for the woman." In the case of Barack Obama, we have two: his late mother, the went-native anthropologist Ann Dunham, and his rancorous wife Michelle. Obama's women reveal his secret: he hates America

...

Obama profiles Americans the way anthropologists interact with primitive peoples. He holds his own view in reserve and emphatically draws out the feelings of others; that is how friends and colleagues describe his modus operandi since his days at the Harvard Law Review, through his years as a community activist in Chicago, and in national politics. Anthropologists, though, proceed from resentment against the devouring culture of America and sympathy with the endangered cultures of the primitive world. Obama inverts the anthropological model: he applies the tools of cultural manipulation out of resentment against America.

...

There is nothing mysterious about Obama's methods. "A demagogue tries to sound as stupid as his audience so that they will think they are as clever as he is," wrote Karl Krauss. Americans are the world's biggest suckers, and laugh at this weakness in their popular culture.

There is so much more in this one. Please read it all.

Thomas Sowell: Dangerous demagoguery

2008-02-13T00:08:00.005-05:00

Another must read (from a long line of must reads) from Thomas Sowell.

"Many people find it thrilling that the mantra of "change" is ringing out across the land during this election year. But let's do what the politicians hope that we will never do — stop and think."

Oh, I love Thomas Sowell. I'm not sure I've ever heard him say something I've disagreed with.

Listen to him in 1980 addressing the Fairmount Conference in San Francisco (still so prescient today):

Make sure and buy his memoir, A Man of Letters

Religous nut-job of the day (The Obama Messiah Watch Continues)

2008-02-12T23:44:00.004-05:00

I mean it -- I hope to see a lot more of this ridiculousness over the next few months. People like this just might convince enough people to steer clear from the Messiah. Watch this 60's throwback...laugh at her...and then weep for her and her cause.

BTW -- there is a new Facebook group dedicated to Obama as Messiah. Join it if you can.

Laughing at the Obama cultists

2008-02-10T12:22:00.000-05:00

It is very encouraging to see so many people recognizing and starting to make fun of the Obama cult. This is the greatest attempt thus far:
Is Barack Obama the Messiah
h/t: instapundit

Read the entire site for the alternating chills and laughs.

It is funny to see the so-called secular leftists embracing religion so fervently. It pretty much blows a hole in Bill O'Reilly's thesis - the secular left was never secular.

Obama is a Messiah for the 21st century

2008-02-07T11:00:00.000-05:00

Props to Jake Tapper at ABC for being brave enough to call Obama's campaign for what it really is -- a religion. Every time I see an Obama self-lauding campaign speech in which he says nothing except for how great the Obama movement is, I get chills in the same way I would if I was watching a fire and brimstone Southern Baptist stumping on a pulpit before millions of true believers. Get to someone's soul and you control their brain.

He quotes one Obama supporter who is starting to get freaked out:

Describing various encounters with Obama supporters, she writes, "Excuse me, but this sounds more like a cult than a political campaign. The language used here is the language of evangelical Christianity – the Obama volunteers speak of 'coming to Obama' in the same way born-again Christians talk about 'coming to Jesus.'

Tapper also refers to a Joe Klein piece titled "Inspiration vs. Substance":

"That is not just maddeningly vague but also disingenuous: the campaign is entirely about Obama and his ability to inspire. Rather than focusing on any specific issue or cause — other than an amorphous desire for change — the message is becoming dangerously self-referential. The Obama campaign all too often is about how wonderful the Obama campaign is. “

I've noted many times how empty Obama's rhetoric actually is. Even the NY Times is under his spell. I must say it now -- this man is dangerous.

Update: Check out this image direct from Obama's homepage!!!!

Van Jones -- Another Crook hanging around Davos

2008-02-02T00:06:00.000-05:00

ANOTHER EMPTY-HEADED SOCIALIST CROOK HANGING IN DAVOS - Van Jones of greenforall.org

Hey Van -- how can we make the world a better place?

"Green collar jobs for 'working people'"

"Green pathways out of poverty"

"A green wave that can lift all boats"

"We need to connect the people who most need work with the work that most needs to be done."

Listen to him --- listen to the lack of conviction in his voice -- the tepidness of his message. He has no clue what the words coming out his mouth actually mean and he knows it.

Wow - Bono is annoying

2008-02-01T23:55:00.000-05:00

Listen to this "rock star."

Bono's Remarks at the National Prayer Breakfast:

Please join me in praying that I don't say something we'll all regret.

That was for the FCC.

If you're wondering what I'm doing here, at a prayer breakfast, well, so am I. I'm certainly not here as a man of the cloth, unless that cloth is leather. It's certainly not because I'm a rock star. Which leaves one possible explanation: I'm here because I've got a messianic complex.

Yes, it's true. And for anyone who knows me, it's hardly a revelation.

Well, I'm the first to admit that there's something unnatural… something unseemly… about rock stars mounting the pulpit and preaching at presidents, and then disappearing to their villas in the South of France. Talk about a fish out of water.
It was weird enough when Jesse Helms showed up at a U2 concert… but this is really weird, isn't it?

Look at this empty sack of shit talking to a webcam in Davos. He says absolutely nothing in the most sanctimonious way possible. Nothing.

"Hello, my name is Bono and I'm a rock star....sort of."

While Bono's shtick is grating on the senses, I do think the fat guy chomping on his lunch in the background is a funny counter-point.

William J. Cole gets paid to write this shit

2008-02-01T23:39:00.000-05:00

Take a look: World Captivated by US Presidential Race

Who the hell is this guy, William J. Cole of the Associated Press? Isn't this more like a blog post that belongs on Daily Kos?

Can we re-title this "William J. Cole loves Obama," please? This is not news -- it is so poorly written, it is almost not even pretending to be news. Every paragraph stinks. Every one of them.

"The idea since the country's founding—'You can't become president if you're not a white man'—has already been destroyed," the Mainichi newspaper said in an editorial.

"Nobody in Europe ever took Bill Clinton's problems in office seriously," said Patrick Dunleavy, a political scientist at the London School of Economics. "Nobody could ever understand why Americans were so upset. Bill Clinton was always a fantastic presence in Europe."

"People all around the world are pretty worried," he said. "They want a president who will restore a kind of U.S. legitimacy in the world."

Begging Tiger Woods to be a Democrat

2008-01-30T20:46:00.000-05:00

This has been going on for years. Begging, pleading...

Today's blubbering attempt: Woods impressed by Barack Obama, via Drudge.

Tiger Woods is the consumate sports professional. He knows that, at the end of the day, he alone is responsible for the choices he makes.

See Tiger's response to the idiotic noose cover on Golfweek magazine:

"It was unfortunate," Woods said in a statement Monday. "Kelly and I did speak. There was no ill intent. She regrets saying it. In my eyes it's all said and done."

Something truly sick

2008-01-11T16:14:00.000-05:00

The drug-store chain CVS wants to open a simple clinic service in their existing locations to assist people with easy-to-treat illnesses (such as sore throats). These clinics can help take the burden off of the existing health care infrastructure and in many instances significantly lower the cost of care, ultimately benefiting lower income families most. Of course, the city of Boston wants to outlaw this.

Boston.com: Menino decries clinics in retailers

"Limited service medical clinics run by merchants in for-profit corporations will seriously compromise quality of care and hygiene. Allowing retailers to make money off of sick people is wrong."

That last sentence pretty much sums up the statist's view of the world.

Glenn Reynolds asks:

"Is it too cynical to suspect that the real opposition stems from fears that they will make national healthcare seem less urgent?"

The government doesn't like competition and they aren't afraid to stifle it. Upward mobility for this core-constituency is bad for business of expanding government, so outfits such as Wal-Mart have to be fought every step of the way.

Obama CHANGES your underwear!

2008-01-07T23:03:00.000-05:00

Obama is changing everything...and its really catching on. This change message is really bringing out the best in people.

Here are some brilliants minds at work executing on this brave and innovative message.

This maestro wordsmith was able to incorporate the great word 26 times in one short essay telling us how cool Barack is! Awesome!

These people are selling "Obama for Change" T-shirts here! Change your t-shirt today and show the world how Obama can change more than t-shirts and underwear.

BTW -- right now there are 29,399 news stories for the Google News search "obama change". Not a bad days work.

Obama has some spare change!

2008-01-07T22:48:00.000-05:00

Lets change this country back to the LBJ Great Society mentality. That is some innovative and sorely-needed change. That is change we can believe in. Man, this guy really knows how to bring change. Brother, can you spare some change?

Is this real?

2007-12-20T13:31:00.000-05:00

Hillary Clinton thinks this helps her? Who told her this display of blatant arrogance is a good idea (as if these "gifts" are hers to pass out)?

H/T: Instapundit

Why One Laptop Per Child will fail

2007-12-02T15:57:00.000-05:00

The inevitable grumblings have already begun. The much vaunted One Laptop Per Child was doomed before it ever started. Even if Nicholas Negroponte was somehow magically able to get 200 million laptops into Africa at absolutely no cost to anyone, the program would still fail. The laptops are cool and might be worth buying in their own right -- but the greatest technology in the world will not turn the continent around. Here's why.

Prosperity is not built on technology -- it is built on a platform of fundamental human rights. Prosperity can only be created in a society that respects property, the rule of law and free markets (not something the left is yet adept at defending or understanding). One Laptop Per Child succumbs to the Jeffrey Sachs fallacy - the "Poverty Trap" lie.

From the OLPC website:
The mission of One Laptop per Child (OLPC) is to empower the children of developing countries to learn by providing one connected laptop to every school-age child. In order to accomplish our goal, we need people who believe in what we’re doing and want to help make education for the world’s children a priority, not a privilege.

Education in and of itself is not a recipe for freedom and prosperity. At the end of the day, OLPC-type initiatives end up being self-serving "feel good" exercises in futility that keep the leftists chugging along in justifying their atrocious record in securing peace and prosperity across the globe. As the program fails, expect the usual finger pointing -- blaming US for not doing enough. Don't buy it...

This should not be confusing or controversial. For millennia, human prosperity flat-lined. It is only within the past 300 years that humans have learned to save and generate wealth. The "secret sauce" is not hard to discover - property rights, minority (individuals) protections from governments, justice in the courts, and capitalism. Before laptops, Africa needs fewer Mugabes, Mandelas, and Thabo Mbeki's and more "Declarations of Indepedence."

To no longer be human

2007-11-08T22:16:00.000-05:00

British Muslim woman convicted of penning poems about beheadings

An airport worker who wrote poems about beheadings is the first woman to be found guilty under new terror laws.

Samina Malik, who liked to call herself a "lyrical terrorist", called for attacks on the West and described "poisoned bullets" capable of killing an entire street in her poetry.

The 23-year-old Muslim wrote of her desire to become a martyr and listed her favourite videos as the "beheading ones".

John Murtha - The Face of DC Corruption

2007-11-02T21:40:00.000-04:00

Here is a man so obviously corrupt; a man who stands for absolutely nothing except staying in power. His screaming attacks against a military he once served in was a pragmatic power move, endearing him to a loud minority of anti-American socialists desperate for influence and willing to ignore any indiscretion.

Berkeley's Confused Children Unite in the Struggle to Defend Radical Islam

2007-10-24T07:54:00.001-04:00

Kudos to Zombie for another great report. It is a must see.

"Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week" is a nationwide series of lectures and presentations organized by conservative writer David Horowitz and his various organizations. On the evening of October 22, dozens of famous speakers gave lectures at universities around the country, mostly on the subject of Islamic extremism. The presenter at U.C. Berkeley that evening was Nonie Darwish, an Arab-American author and feminist who has become a Muslim apostate and vociferous critic of radical Islam.

Her appearance at Cal was sponsored by the Berkeley College Republicans, and strongly opposed by several left-wing groups and Muslim organizations, including World Can't Wait, the Muslim Students Association, and Students for Justice in Palestine. Her speech was even condemned by the ASUC, the official student governing body at Berkeley.

The Unabomber's Manifesto explains why the modern leftist can't help themselves - they are compelled to rise up and defend any group they feel is repressed (even if it is a disgusting ideology they have to defend). The struggle itself is as far as the left can see - it is their vision-less end game. Sick and sad and disgusting.

11. When someone interprets as derogatory almost anything that is said about him (or about groups with whom he identifies) we conclude that he has inferiority feelings or low self-esteem. This tendency is pronounced among minority rights advocates, whether or not they belong to the minority groups whose rights they defend. They are hypersensitive about the words used to designate minorities. The terms "negro," "oriental," "handicapped" or "chick" for an African, an Asian, a disabled person or a woman originally had no derogatory connotation. "Broad" and "chick" were merely the feminine equivalents of "guy," "dude" or "fellow." The negative connotations have been attached to these terms by the activists themselves. Some animal rights advocates have gone so far as to reject the word "pet" and insist on its replacement by "animal companion." Leftist anthropologists go to great lengths to avoid saying anything about primitive peoples that could conceivably be interpreted as negative. They want to replace the word "primitive" by "nonliterate." They seem almost paranoid about anything that might suggest that any primitive culture is inferior to our own. (We do not mean to imply that primitive cultures ARE inferior to ours. We merely point out the hypersensitivity of leftish anthropologists.)

12. Those who are most sensitive about "politically incorrect" terminology are not the average black ghetto-dweller, Asian immigrant, abused woman or disabled person, but a minority of activists, many of whom do not even belong to any "oppressed" group but come from privileged strata of society. Political correctness has its stronghold among university professors, who have secure employment with comfortable salaries, and the majority of whom are heterosexual, white males from middle-class families.

13. Many leftists have an intense identification with the problems of groups that have an image of being weak (women), defeated (American Indians), repellent (homosexuals), or otherwise inferior. The leftists themselves feel that these groups are inferior. They would never admit it to themselves that they have such feelings, but it is precisely because they do see these groups as inferior that they identify with their problems. (We do not suggest that women, Indians, etc., ARE inferior; we are only making a point about leftist psychology).

Owell's 1984 - “What a great idea!”

2007-10-16T15:21:00.000-04:00

I just enjoyed a comment from reader "MattR" responding to this post on Andrew Bolt's blog:

"It’s like the moonbat media read nineteen eighty four and thought “what a great idea!”"

Reuters shows their economic ignorance as Quebec institutes a global warming tax

2007-10-02T10:13:00.000-04:00

Reuters:

Quebec province slapped the country's first carbon tax on energy firms on Monday, as Canadian business leaders urged "environmental taxation" to rein in greenhouse-gas emissions.

...

It wasn't immediately known whether the oil companies, including Petro-Canada and Imperial Oil, would pass along the cost to consumers.

Such taxes are ALWAYS passed back to the end consumer. Always.

It is also implied in the article that businesses are behind this 100%.

Separately, the Canadian Council of Chief Executives said Canada should become "an energy and environmental superpower," and suggested higher energy prices to help cut emissions, the Globe and Mail newspaper reported on Monday.

No context is given regarding the nature of the Canadian Council of Chief Executives and their pro-State advocacy going back almost 30 years. The CCCE is made up of 150 CEOs, many of whose businesses are directly tied to the Canadian State. No where in the article does Reuters offer an opinion on how this might affect the other two and a half million businesses in the country. The non-questioning reader may walk away assuming everyone is behind this new tax. Ignorance or bias or both?

A Collective Mess of Ineffectuality

2007-09-30T21:59:00.000-04:00

(From Age of Hooper) Hilarious. What do these clowns do in their off time when they aren't participating in a collective mess of ineffectuality? Nice breasts at the 6:00 mark, btw.

Update (via LGF):
Check out the flag burning bliss. Greatest day of his life.

Wishing it was 1965 all over again?

2007-09-20T21:55:00.001-04:00

Sorry, nope...it isn't. The punishments in this deplorable Jena 6 case were not fair to the deeds, yes (clearly, the white students involved deserved assault charges). Was there racism involved in the justice? Perhaps....but to pretend this is 1965 all over again? Why perpetuate this victim status and feed human scum suckers like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton? Are we regressing out of a need to struggle for the sake of it?

La. Protests Hark Back to '50s, '60s

As she trudged up a hill to a rally at a park, 63-year-old Elizabeth Redding of Willinboro, N.J., remembered marching at Selma, Ala., when she was in her 20s.

"I am a great-grandmother now. I'm doing this for my great-grandchildren," she said.

France's new dance crave?

2007-09-20T21:42:00.000-04:00

This??? via Drudge.

Leftists turning against each other over the war

2007-09-20T00:30:00.000-04:00

Mainstream leftist, Dan Gerstein, turns on the far left, blaming the rabid anti-war movement for Congress's inability to undermine President Bush's Iraq strategy.

They may not say it publicly, for fear of arousing the grass roots’ wrath, but the realist wing of the party seems to think the Democrats’ biggest problem on Iraq these days is not that there’s too much Bush Lite but that there’s too much Bush Left.

...the best the Democrats could do after several months of pressure tactics was, in that July showdown, to get four Senate GOP-ers to back a timeline for troop withdrawal, leaving them seven votes short of the 60 needed to overcome a filibuster and political light years away from the 67 needed to overcome a veto.

Intransigence. The anti-war movement has rightly castigated Bush for his reflexive inflexibility and, specifically, his maddening decision to stick with the same failed strategy in Iraq

Who do Bush opponents insist on re-stating the lie that Bush is sticking "with the same failed strategy in Iraq" when he clearly is not?

Was a troop surge and the decision to bring troops out of their fortifications and back into the streets (a strategy that is clearly achieving positive results) the "same failed strategy" as before?

Anyway...divide and conquer this bunch. Expect the left and far-left's cat fight to become louder going into the 2008 presidential elections. This is 1972 all over -- and the insane anti-war crowd is on the wrong side of history.

The modern anti-war movement shows its stuff

2007-09-16T18:30:00.000-04:00

This is a classic video compilation put together by Charles Ryder at Age of Hooper who embedded with these fools over this weekend's confluence of anti-war, anti-american, anti-everything moonbats in Washington DC. He has been churning out epic material all weekend. Check out his blog to see the full extent of hilarity.

I suggest you watch the video and then follow it up by reading this essay/rant written by a disgruntled leftist:

The American Left's Silly Victim Complex

The sad truth is that if the FBI really is following anyone on the American left, it is engaging in a huge waste of time and personnel. No matter what it claims for a self-image, in reality it’s the saddest collection of cowering, ineffectual ninnies ever assembled under one banner on God’s green earth. And its ugly little secret is that it really doesn’t mind being in the position it’s in – politically irrelevant and permanently relegated to the sidelines, tucked into its cozy little cottage industry of polysyllabic, ivory tower criticism. When you get right down to it, the American left is basically just a noisy Upper West side cocktail party for the college-graduate class.

And we all know it. The question is, when will we finally admit it?

Lock this person up for 20 years

2007-09-11T18:42:00.000-04:00

Vietnam Veterans Memorial Vandalized

What must it be like to feel no shame?

2007-09-08T13:16:00.000-04:00

And now there is this. How do Al Gore lackeys keep lapping up the hypocrisy that constantly is sharting out of his mouth?

(or is that his ass?)

An Inconvenient Snafu

2007-08-09T22:35:00.001-04:00

NASA says that 1998 is actually not the warmest year on record? How does this affect all those climate models championed by prophet Al Gore and his merry band of followers? How does it change their rhetoric?

Coyote Blog is all over it:

Climate scientist Michael Mann (famous for the hockey stick chart) once made the statement that the 1990's were the warmest decade in a millennia and that "there is a 95 to 99% certainty that 1998 was the hottest year in the last one thousand years." (By the way, Mann now denies he ever made this claim, though you can watch him say these exact words in the CBC documentary Global Warming: Doomsday Called Off).

Well, it turns out, according to the NASA GISS database, that 1998 was not even the hottest year of the last century. This is because many temperatures from recent decades that appeared to show substantial warming have been revised downwards. Here is how that happened (if you want to skip the story, make sure to look at the numbers at the bottom).

Thomas Sowell: Moral Paralysis

2007-08-09T13:54:00.000-04:00

A must-read from Thomas Sowell at the Atlasphere, comparing pacifist Europe in the mid-1930s to America and western world today.

“Moral paralysis” is a term that has been used to describe the inaction of France, England and other European democracies in the 1930s, as they watched Hitler build up the military forces that he later used to attack them.

It is a term that may be painfully relevant to our own times.

This ethanol boondoggle is getting costly

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

While politicians and corrupt farmers (note: Archer Daniels Midland -- kings of farm subsidies corruption) extol the virtues of ethanol, the opportunity costs (those unintended consequences Washington DC so eagerly ignores), continue to pile up, snowballing into a very dangerous situation that can only get worse from here, as the percentage of US corn slated for ethanol production continues to increase. These disgusting subsidies are the only reason the market has adjusted, and they must stop immediately before it is too late.

Farm land prices are going up. This will inevitably increase the costs of other core food crops that Americans depend on.

Many poor Mexicans are now unable to afford the staple of their diets - tortillas.

The price of nearly every food is going up. Beef, pizza, coffee, everything.

Al Gore's global warming idiocy is being exploited into a government-sponsored raping of our heartland and core food supply, funneling billions of dollars from the poor and middle-class consumers into bullshit farming lobbies. End the ethanol subsidies now!

Scientific Consensus = the law of thermodynamics, evolution of species, the periodic table of the elements, the speed of light, and global warming

2007-08-07T19:06:00.000-04:00

Power lust will make you say some pretty stupid things...

Yahoo:

"There has been an organized campaign, financed to the tune of about $10 million a year from some of the largest carbon polluters, to create the impression that there is disagreement in the scientific community," Gore said at a forum in Singapore. "In actuality, there is very little disagreement."

"This is one of the strongest of scientific consensus views in the history of science," Gore said. "We live in a world where what used to be called propaganda now has a major role to play in shaping public opinion."

Some people actually cheer for the pathological liar, John Edwards...

2007-08-04T21:26:00.000-04:00

Seriously...there are actually some real, live people out there who clap their hands and stomp their feet and get cherry red in the face dreaming about John Edwards, the "populist" candidate, gutting out a victory over his democratic compatriots, vanquishing GOP cannon fodder in the general election, and carrying this trial lawyer into 1600 Pennsylvania Ave, the address from which he will make poverty history, bring Christopher Reeves back from the dead, and end all bad things, period....BAM!

I can't help it. I get a kick out of it. Lots and lots of people love this fraud. He is exposed over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over again. No matter. We have to increase the minimum wage, save the whales from global warming, and help the poor and stuff...

The more his wife Elizabeth dabbles in public discourse, the easier it is to see how much these two are meant for each other. Are they both compulsive liars or just simpletons in over their heads? Sadly, contracting cancer clearly does not make one intelligent or honest.

In spite of it all, it remains quite enjoyable to sit back and watch the ineffectual supporters of these frauds spend money and get excited over a big cloud of nothing.

Yahoo News:

Plunging headlong into the Internet era, all seven candidates fought for the support of the powerful and polarizing liberal blogosphere by promising universal health care, aggressive government spending and dramatic change from the Bush era.

Edwards received a loud cheer when he suggested his rivals were tinkering around the edges — "I just heard some discussion about negotiation, compromise" — rather than overhauling government. He said the nation needs "big change, not small change."

The party's 2004 vice presidential nominee, Edwards called on the field to join him in refusing donations from Washington lobbyists. He suggested that accepting lobbyists' money would make Democrats no better than Republicans.

"We don't want to trade their insiders for ours," said the former North Carolina senator.

As Jack Marshall says:

Why are so many Americans willing to consider candidates for national office who obviously think the public is made up of morons?

Authoritarian Love Fest for the Mentally Challenged

2007-08-03T16:12:00.000-04:00

"In the name of the peoples of the world, President Bush, withdraw the troops from Iraq. Enough already with so much genocide," Chavez said before an auditorium packed with his red-clad supporters.

Penn sat near the front, at times applauding and nodding in agreement. He is the latest in a series of celebrities who have visited Caracas, including Danny Glover and Harry Belafonte.

Is Obama stupid or just corrupt?

2007-07-24T12:28:00.001-04:00

Here he is, telling us how eager he is to negotiate with the most illegitimate and dangerous regimes in the world - for the sake of "repairing" busted bridges. Obama is a smart man who usually says a lot without saying anything at all. But in this case, he must know better that negotiation with thuggery legitimizes thuggery. Agreements made with thugs always requires a compromising of our interests (presumably in sharing freedom) and ultimately leads to a further erosion of support from countries that would normally be our natural allies in liberty.

For example, the elder George Bush sold out Lebanon to Syria for support in Iraq War 1. In doing so, he legitimized the thuggery of Syrian Baath Party leaders, agreeing to let them occupy a democratic Lebanon, destroying the trust we built with this nation under Reagan. With Nancy Pelosi tripping over herself in the rush to re-establish relations with Syrian thug-master Bashar al-Assad, we're telling freedom-loving people within Lebanon that the US will turn its back on them once Democrats assume the presidency. Why should these people support the US and Israel when Obama is telling the world that he can't wait to talk to Syria and Iran?

Obama can't be this stupid, can he?

You Tube Debate: Unintentional Comedy Scale off the Charts

2007-07-23T23:13:00.000-04:00

Tonight's Democratic Debate was hosted by YouTubers -- and the unintentional comedy scale was off the charts. The self-importance of the questions from these people has me in stitches...Have these people ever even voted before? These are truly embarrassing - who are these people and what do they do in real life?

Here are some highlights. But check them all out - every one elicits a laugh.

This lady is getting a bit ahead of herself. Universal health care for the world, paid for by you.

Pimple-faced, yet so superior in his dogmatic "secularism." All he wants to do is show off his atheism. Good for you, buddy...good for you...

"I want to believe in climate change"

2007-07-08T00:55:00.001-04:00

"I am a partisan democrat - and climate change is good for my candidates. I am very clever. I am an advocate for science and reason."

- roughly 25% of the US population

The sun appears to drive climate change

2007-06-20T19:03:00.000-04:00

The sun? What does the sun have to do with any of this? Are you serious?

Professor Tim Patterson of the University of Carleton explains why he believes sun spots and solar activity are central to the Earth's climate change. Occam's razor at work.

National Post: Read the sunspots

When a liar is exposed

2007-05-31T14:18:00.000-04:00

John Kerry campaign manager Bob Shrum:

Kerry talked with several potential picks, including Gephardt and Edwards. He was comfortable after his conversations with Gephardt, but even queasier about Edwards after they met. Edwards had told Kerry he was going to share a story with him that he'd never told anyone else—that after his son Wade had been killed, he climbed onto the slab at the funeral home, laid there and hugged his body, and promised that he'd do all he could to make life better for people, to live up to Wade's ideals of service. Kerry was stunned, not moved, because, as he told me later, Edwards had recounted the same exact story to him, almost in the exact same words, a year or two before—and with the same preface, that he'd never shared the memory with anyone else.

From one salesman to another

2007-05-16T10:48:00.000-04:00

Larry Flynt on Jerry Falwell:

I always appreciated his sincerity even though I knew what he was selling and he knew what I was selling.

These guys clearly knew how to profit from one another. The religious right knows that the hedonists and the far left is good for their business, and vice versa. Symbiotic and annoying.

Religion

2007-05-02T10:39:00.000-04:00

From the Global Warming is a Neo-Religion files; It gets more overt every day.

Bloomberg News:

Visitors to the Gaia Napa Valley Hotel and Spa won't find the Gideon Bible in the nightstand drawer. Instead, on the bureau will be a copy of ``An Inconvenient Truth,'' former Vice President Al Gore's book about global warming.

They'll also find the Gaia equipped with waterless urinals, solar lighting and recycled paper as it marches toward becoming California's first hotel certified as ``green,'' or benevolent to the environment. Similar features are found 35 miles south at San Francisco's Orchard Garden Hotel, which competes for customers with neighboring luxury hotels like the Ritz-Carlton and Fairmont.

Senator Reid - "To be brief, your words are killing us."

2007-04-20T08:14:00.000-04:00

Via Michelle Malkin,

LT Nichols in Baghdad:

Senator Reid: When you say we've lost in Iraq, I don't think you understand the effect of your words. The Iraqis I speak with are the good guys here, fighting to build a stable government. They hear what you say, but they don't understand it. They don't know about the political game, they don't know about a Presidential veto, and they don't know about party politics.

But they do know that if they help us, they are noticed by terrorists and extremists. They decide to help us if they think we can protect them from those terrorists. They tell us where caches of weapons are hidden. They call and report small groups of men who are strangers to the neighborhood, men that look the same to us, but are obvious to them as a foreign suicide cell.

To be brief, your words are killing us. Your statements make the Iraqis afraid to help us for fear we'll leave them unprotected in the future. They don't report a cache, and its weapons blow up my friends in a convoy. They don't report a foreign fighter, and that fighter sends a mortar onto my base. Your statements are noticed, and they have an effect.

Finally, you are mistaken when you say we are losing. We are winning, I see it every day. However, we will win with fewer casualties if you help us. Will you?

Respectfully,

LT Jason Nichols, USN
MNF-I, Baghdad

Addicted to Jihad in Iraq - Sunni Al Qaeda wants more dead Sunni Muslims

2007-04-13T13:48:00.000-04:00

Regarding the Tal Afar bombing...

Back talk:

This attack was carried by al Qaeda, not Sunni insurgents (look it up if you don't believe me). Why would al Qaeda do that? Are they in a civil war with the Shiites, too? No. This bombing in Tal Afar, like many such bombings, was definitely not part of the civil war. Instead, it was an act of terror designed to provoke the Shiite militias back into the battle against the Sunnis. Do you understand the difference? The bombing is not an example of a retaliatory attack carried out by Sunnis against Shiites (that's the civil war schema). It is, instead, an example of Sunni al Qaeda trying to get Shiite militias to kill more Sunnis. And al Qaeda is doing that to further its jihadist objectives -- objectives that Sunnni insurgents do not share. I am just amazed that these virtually indisputable facts are not more widely appreciated.

Seeking Victimization

2007-04-13T00:41:00.000-04:00

Jason Whitlock:

I don’t listen or watch Imus’ show regularly. Has he at any point glorified selling crack cocaine to black women? Has he celebrated black men shooting each other randomly? Has he suggested in any way that it’s cool to be a baby-daddy rather than a husband and a parent? Does he tell his listeners that they’re suckers for pursuing education and that they’re selling out their race if they do?

When Imus does any of that, call me and I’ll get upset. Until then, he is what he is — a washed-up shock jock who is very easy to ignore when you’re not looking to be made a victim.

NY Times Officially in Love With Obama

2007-04-07T16:59:00.000-04:00

Who are they kidding? Is this is news or free advertising?

For most Democrats, Mr. Obama is the Illinois senator who riveted the Democratic National Convention with a keynote speech that marked him as one of the most powerful speakers his party had produced in 50 years. But as Mr. Obama methodically worked his way across swaths of rural northern Iowa — his towering figure and skin color making him stand out at out diners and veteran’s homes, at high schools and community colleges — it was clear that he is not presenting himself, stylistically at least, the way he did two years ago when he gripped Democrats at the Fleet Center in Boston.

He is cerebral and easy-going, often talking over any applause that might rise up from his audience, and perhaps consciously trying to present a political style that contrasts with the more charged presences of John Edwards, the former trial lawyer and senator from North Carolina, and Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York.

You want cerebral? See my 6.3 Obama Cliches Per Minute post.

Global Warming is a Neo-Religion

2007-04-06T12:25:00.000-04:00

This topic has been a constant source of posts on this blog through the years and it is encouraging to see a lot of other opinionated folks are picking up on this as well.

See here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.

My question is, how did so many in this generation get duped into becoming so religious? And how come these people have the gall to call it undisputed science? It strikes me funny in the same way when I listen to the laughable "creationist scientists" (the folks who believe the "earth is 6000 years old and we have proof").

Just like the Church banned heretics in the dark ages, so too would the greens like to shut down dissenting voices. The mentality boils down to: "There is no debate - there is only consensus. Think otherwise, and you are going to hell." The environmentalists just have changed who is who.

God = Gaia
Messiah = Al Gore
Holy Spirit = The Atmosphere
Original Sin = man as consumer
Repentance = carbon offsets

There is ample proof that this movement, just like any other religion, is primarily a tool for controlling people. If carbon dioxide is the big worry, there is a safe, inexpensive alternative - nuclear power. But these people are against the most rational answer to their supposed problem. Until their religion gets behind nuclear power, nothing good will come of their prayers.

Not many people deny the greenhouse effect exists or that the earth hasn't warmed up over the past 100 years - that is science. What no one in the religious global warming community can answer is how much of that warming is due of mankind, how much is from the sun, how much is from cow farts. There is not a single model that can explain or forecast this phenomenon. When they figure that out, perhaps they will have something real to say on the topic. Until then, "100% consensus" type rhetoric/lies is meaningless and only serves the political elites who seek to command and control through fear.

The answer to my above question is:
Earth worship is perhaps the only place remaining for the old left to hide their agenda of command and control. And that is the funny thing about the old left - Marx recognized religion as the opiate of the masses. Communism kicked out the Church and put the State in its place. If global warming is the best God the old left can come up with now, I'm feeling pretty good about things.

The lesson of the 20th century is that free markets, private property, and individual rights is better than anything the left can serve, 100% of the time, on every last patch of earth, even where the ice is melting.

Update: The NY Times is even getting in on it:

Cliches Just Pouring Out of Obama's Mouth

2007-04-05T13:21:00.000-04:00

Matt Taibbi for Rolling Stone:

Obama, on the other hand, can close his eyes and the cliches just pour out of his mouth in huge polysyllabic paragraphs, like Rachmaninoff improvisations. In this sense he's exactly like Bill Clinton, who had the same gift. He is exactly what is meant by the term bullshit artist. My usual instinct when presented with this type of Zelig-esque, Eddie Haskell, non-stick personality is to violently reject it. But over the course of the last few weeks I've found myself increasingly amused by the Obama phenomenon.

"Guaranteeing Defeat"

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

By Donald Kirk via the NY Sun:

So great was anti-war pressure across America that Nixon, soon after announcing the foray into the communist base areas, placed a strict limit on the presence of American troops in Cambodia — no more than 60 days. Nor would they go down much beyond the Ho Chi Minh trail network which Hanoi had been sending supplies to for years.

That wasn't all. Just to pin down American forces still more tightly, the next January, our Congress passed the Cooper-Church amendment barring military operations inside Cambodia as a condition for the military budget.

The North Vietnamese suffered devastating blows while American troops were there but had plenty of time to regroup and mount a full-scale invasion of South Vietnam two years later — the Easter offensive — in which they were again thrown back, only to recover and return one last time in the winter and spring of 1975 when all American troops had gone.

Now Congress is playing the same game. Forgetting the lesson of 1970, the House and Senate want to set a limit on the duration of U.S. military operations inside Iraq.

The voting on this maneuver has broken down largely along party lines — the Democrats shouting down the Republicans, but you don't have to be a card-carrying conservative or a Republican to recognize this bid for legislative command of the armed forces as a betrayal of our troops.

We are not going to win a war, or get out with any semblance of honor, by telling our enemy to just lie low for a while and next month or next year we'll be gone. America lost in Vietnam as a result of anti-war opposition at home.

Read the rest.

Pork is Pork, Unless it is a Pet

2007-03-31T10:15:00.000-04:00

Don Surber:

Dana Milbank’s page two-er today, “Senate’s Bold Proposal for Iraq: Sugar Beets and Rural Schools — in the U.S.” in the Washington Post, broke down some of the items added to the emergency spending bill for the war on terror.

Milbank did not tell readers the Democratic Senate used this bill to ladle out its annual $20 billion in pork.

In fact, the word “pork” did not appear even once in his story.

He called it “pet projects.”

That has a much nicer sound, doesn’t it?

Al Gore’s "Faith-Based Initiative"

2007-03-29T17:19:00.000-04:00

Jonah Goldberg:

Global warming is what William James called a “moral equivalent of war” that gives political officials the power to do things they could never do without a crisis.

As liberal journalist James Ridgeway wrote in the early 1970s: “Ecology offered liberal-minded people what they had longed for, a safe, rational and above all peaceful way of remaking society … [and] developing a more coherent central state.”

This explains Gore’s relentless talk of “consensus,” his ugly moral bullying of “deniers” and, most of all, his insistence that because there’s no time left to argue, everyone should do what he says.

Soros is trying to make the left unelectable

2007-03-21T21:17:00.000-04:00

At least that is how I see it...

Obama Rebuffs Soros - New York Sun

The Soros article puts Democrats in the awkward position of choosing between Mr. Soros, a major funder of their causes, and the pro- Israel lobby, whose members are also active in campaign fund-raising.

How can a man be committed to open society overseas while simultaneously destroying it here where it all started?

soros, eli lake, conspiracy, obama, moveon, politics

Mugabe's Meltdown - How Zimbabwe is Destroying Itself from the Inside Out

2007-03-20T13:42:00.000-04:00

Classically Liberal puts you inside the mind of Robert Mugabe, friend to dictators world-wide (Chavez, Castro, Mandela, Iran/Sistani).

2.04 Mitt Romney Cliches Per Minute

2007-02-13T14:16:00.001-05:00

Not that I care about bi-partisanship, but I get an uneasy feeling listening to Mitt Romney stump around, flip-flopping, et al, so I decided to compare his cliches per minute to Obama's insane 6.3 per minute rate. I sense that Romney is the type of guy who needs to be a politician; its all he knows...and he needs the love and adoration and power. It almost feels like he is begging us for it, which would explain why he changes positions so easily.

Mitt Romney officially announced his candidacy today in an 18 minute and 38 second speech. (From 3:30 to 22:08). Below is my count of his cliches and non-speak.

38 cliches and non-speaks in total for a total of 2.04 per minute. Not quite as high as I expected and he almost looks Jeffersonian compared to Obama.

Cliches highlighted in bold below.

"I am happy to be in Michigan this morning. I'm happy to have my brother Scott and Sister Lynn here. And I'm proud to have all my children and grandchildren here too.

"Michigan is where Ann and I were born. It is where we met and fell in love. I still love Ann. And I still love Michigan!

"During my parents' campaigns, I visited all 83 Michigan counties, doing my best to convince Michiganders that Romneys and Republicans could lead the state back to prosperity.

"You know my father as a business leader, a governor, and as an advocate of volunteerism. But he came from humble roots. He labored with lath and plaster. He never graduated from college. But like many other Americans, he made his dreams come true.

"And he made a difference. My father worked here to improve Detroit Schools. He worked to write a new state constitution. And he worked as your governor for six years to get Michigan on the move. His character and integrity left an impression that has lasted through the decades.

"It was Mom who did the lion's share of raising Lynn, Jane, Scott and me. Dad said, that as a successful Mom, she had accomplished more than he. Later she worked in charities, in foster care, in music and the arts, and in volunteerism. She even ran for U.S. Senate.

"I always imagined that I would come back to Michigan someday. That's why I took the bar exam here. I hadn't imagined it would happen this way, but I sure have come back to Michigan today.

"I chose this site for a number of reasons. It's filled with cars and memories. Dad and I loved cars. Most kids read the sports box scores. Dad and I read Automotive News. We came here together, him teaching me about cars that were built before my time.

"The Rambler automobile he championed was the first American car designed and marketed for economy and mileage. He dubbed it a compact car, a car that would slay the gas-guzzling dinosaurs. It transformed the industry.

"This place is not just about automobiles; it is about innovation, innovation that transformed an industry, and in doing so, gave Americans a way of life our grandparents could never have imagined.

"The DC 3 above us was the first true commercial airliner. It transformed aviation from a luxury to a standard mode of transportation.

"Next to us is a Ford hybrid. It is the first giant step away from our reliance on the gasoline engine. It is already changing the world of transportation.

"Just outside is Thomas Edison's laboratory. There, electricity that Benjamin Franklin discovered was transformed from a novelty into a necessity.

"Innovation and transformation have been at the heart of America's success. If there ever was a time when innovation and transformation were needed in government, it is now.

"We have lost faith in government, not in just one party, not in just one house, but in government.

"We are weary of the bickering and bombast, fatigued by the posturing and self-promotion. For even as America faces a new generation of challenges, the halls of government are clogged with petty politics and stuffed with peddlers of influence.

"It is time for innovation and transformation in Washington. It is what our country needs. It is what our people deserve.

"I do not believe Washington can be transformed from within by a lifelong politician. There have been too many deals, too many favors, too many entanglements ... and too little real world experience managing, guiding, leading.

"I do not believe Washington can be transformed by someone who has never tried doing such a thing before, in any setting, by someone who has never even managed a corner store, let alone the largest enterprise in the world.

"Throughout my life, I have pursued innovation and transformation. It has taught me the vital lessons that come only from experience, from failures and successes, from the private, public and voluntary sectors, from small and large enterprise, from leading a state, from being in the arena, not just talking about it. Talk is easy, talk is cheap. It is doing that is hard. And it is only in doing that hope and dreams come to life.

"This Christmas, Ann and I gathered my five sons and five daughters-in-law to ask them whether I should run for President.

"We talked about the special time this is in the history of America - the challenges and the opportunities. We talked about the qualities that are needed in our leaders. They were unanimous. They know our hearts. They know our values. They know my experience innovating and transforming, in business, in the Olympics, and in Massachusetts. And they know we love this country.

"And so, with them behind us, with the fine people of Michigan before us, and with my sweetheart beside me, I declare my intention to run for President of the United States.

"It has been said that a person is defined by what he loves and by what he believes and by what he dreams.

"I love America and I believe in the people of America.

"I believe in God and I believe that every person in this great country, and every person on this grand planet, is a child of God. We are all sisters and brothers.

"I believe the family is the foundation of America – and that we must fight to protect and strengthen it.

"I believe in the sanctity of human life.

"I believe that people and their elected representatives should make our laws, not unelected judges.

"I believe we are overtaxed and government is overfed. Washington is spending too much money.

"I believe that homeland security begins with securing our borders.

"I believe the best days of this country are ahead of us, because ... "I believe in America!

"At this critical time, we must 1) transform our role in the world, 2) strengthen our nation, and 3) build a brighter future for the American family.

"Today, as we stare at the face of radical violent Jihad and at the prospect of nuclear epidemic, our military might should not be subject to the whims of ever-changing political agendas. The best ally of peace is a strong America!

"Our role in the world must be defined not only in terms of our might, but also by our willingness to lead, to serve, and to share. We must campaign for freedom and democracy in our own hemisphere, now threatened by a second aspiring strongman. We must extend our hand to Africa's poor and diseased and brutalized. We must lead the world's civilized nations in a partnership that will support moderate Muslim nations and peoples, to help them embrace principles of modernity and defeat violent Jihad. We must link arms with all responsible nations to block Iran from realizing its nuclear ambition. America must never engage and negotiate with Jihadists who want to destroy us, destroy our friends, and destroy our way of life!

"Across the nation, there is debate about our future course in Iraq. Our desire to bring our troops home, safely and soon, is met with our recognition that if Iraq descends into all-out civil war, millions could die; that Iraq's Sunni region could become a base for Al Qaeda; that its Shia region could be seized by Iran; that Kurd tension could destabilize Turkey; and even that the broader Middle East could be drawn into conflict. The possible implications for America and for American interests from such developments could be devastating. It could mean a future with far more military involvement and far more loss of American life. For these reasons, I believe that so long as there is a reasonable prospect of success, our wisest course is to seek stability in Iraq, with additional troops endeavoring to secure the civilian population.

"And no matter how Iraq is resolved, we must honor and care for the veterans who risked their lives, and for the families whose loved ones made the ultimate sacrifice. Our nation has a sacred pact with those who defend freedom. It is a pact we must never break!

"America must regain our standing in the world. Our influence must once again match our generosity. Over the entire 20th century, no nation gave more, shed more precious lives, and took less for itself than America. Our sacrifice for freedom and for human dignity continues unabated. But this is not the way it is seen by others. America's goodness and leadership in the world, must be as bright and bold as our military might!

"America can also overcome our challenges and seize our abundant opportunities here at home, but only if we follow the right course.

"There are some who believe that America's strength comes from government - that challenges call for bigger government, for more regulation of our lives and livelihood, and for more protection and isolation from competition that comes from open markets.

"That is the path that has been taken by much of Europe. It is called the welfare state. It has led to high unemployment and anemic job growth. It is not the path to prosperity and leadership.

"I believe the American people are the source of our strength. They always have been. They always will be. The American people: hard working, educated, innovative, ready to sacrifice for family and country, patriotic, seeking opportunity above dependence, God-fearing, free American people. When we need to call on the strength of America, we should strengthen the American people, not the American government!

"We strengthen the American people by giving them more freedom, by letting them keep more of what they earn, by making sure our schools are providing the skills our children will need for tomorrow, and by keeping America at the leading edge of innovation and technology.

"Our government has become a weight on the American people, sapping their strength and slowing their climb. We must transform our government - to become a government that is smaller and less bureaucratic, one with fewer regulations and more freedom for our people. The innovation we need today is to make government more responsive to the needs of everyday American citizens. It's time to put government in its place, and to put the American people first!

"At America's core are millions of individual families: families of children and parents, aunts and uncles and cousins, grandparents, foster parents. There is no work more important for our nation's future than the work done in the home.

"But the work done in the home isn't getting easier. Values and morals that have long shaped the development of our children are under constant attack. In too many cases, schools are failing. For some, healthcare is inadequate. Family expenses and government taxes take a larger and larger bite. America cannot continue to lead the family of nations if we fail the families at home.

"How is the American family made stronger? With marriage before children. With a mother and a father in the life of every child. With healthcare that is affordable and portable. With schools that succeed. With taxes that are lower. And with leaders who strive to demonstrate enduring values and morality.

"This was the agenda I pursued as Governor of Massachusetts. This is the agenda I will pursue if elected President.

"When I was a boy, the American dream meant a house in the suburbs. The American dream today must mean more than a house. The new American dream should include a strong family, enduring values, excellence in education, dependable and affordable healthcare, secure employment and secure retirement, and a safe and prosperous homeland. It's time to build a new American dream for all of America's families.

"How will this new American dream be built? Our hopes and dreams will inspire us, for we are an optimistic people. But hope alone is just crossing fingers, when what we need is industrious hands. It is time for hope and action. It is time to do, as well as to dream!

"As we look around us in this museum, we see the evidence of American innovation - airplanes, automobiles, appliances. But these are not America's greatest innovation. America's greatest innovation is freedom. Without freedom, we have nothing. With freedom, nothing can hold us back.

"Freedom has made the American dream possible. Freedom will make the new American dream possible. And with the work, sacrifice, and greatness of spirit of the American people, freedom has made America - and will keep America - the greatest nation on earth. God bless America."

Tags: mitt romney, politics, cliches

6.3 Obama Cliches Per Minute

2007-02-11T22:27:00.000-05:00

Every time I hear Obama speak, I can't help but laugh. For the sake of my own entertainment, I counted and highlighted the cliches from Obama's speech announcing his run for the Democratic nomination. 126 cliches in total, and according to the C-Span video, it lasted 20 minutes (from 6:30 to 26:30).

6.3 cliches per minute. It's even worse than I thought; hiliarous and scary at the same time.

Cliches highlighted in bold below.

Thank you so much. Praise and honor to God for bringing us together today. Thank you so much. I am so grateful to see all of you.

Let me begin by saying thanks to all of you who've traveled, from far and wide, to brave the cold today.

I'm fired up.

We all made this journey for a reason. It's humbling to see a crowd like this , but in my heart I know you didn't come here just for me. No, you came here because you believe in what this country can be. In the face of war, you believe there can be peace. In the face of despair, you believe there can be hope. In the face of a politics that's shut you out, that's told you to settle, that's divided us for too long, you believe that we can be one people, reaching for what's possible, building that more perfect union.

That's the journey we're on today. But let me tell you how I came to be here. As most of you know, I am not a native of this great state. I moved to Illinois over two decades ago. I was a young man then, just a year out of college; I knew no one in Chicago when I arrived, was without money or family connections. But a group of churches had offered me a job as a community organizer for the grand sum of $13,000 a year. And I accepted the job, sight unseen, motivated then by a single, simple, powerful idea — that I might play a small part in building a better America.

My work took me to some of Chicago's poorest neighborhoods. I joined with pastors and lay-people to deal with communities that had been ravaged by plant closings. I saw that the problems people faced weren't simply local in nature — that the decision to close a steel mill was made by distant executives; that the lack of textbooks and computers in schools could be traced to the skewed priorities of politicians a thousand miles away; and that when a child turns to violence, I came to realize that there's a hole in that boy's heart no government could ever fill.

It was in these neighborhoods that I received the best education I ever had, and where I learned the meaning of my Christian faith.

After three years of this work, I went to law school, because I wanted to understand how the law should work for those in need. I became a civil rights lawyer, and taught constitutional law, and after a time, I came to understand that our cherished rights of liberty and equality depend on the active participation of an awakened electorate. It was with these ideas in mind that I arrived in this capital city as a state Senator.

It was here, in Springfield, where I saw all that is America converge — farmers and teachers, businessmen and laborers, all of them with a story to tell, all of them seeking a seat at the table, all of them clamoring to be heard. I made lasting friendships here — friends that I see in the audience here today.

It was here we learned to disagree without being disagreeable — that it's possible to compromise so long as you know those principles that can never be compromised; and that so long as we're willing to listen to each other, we can assume the best in people instead of the worst.

It's why we were able to reform a death penalty system that was broken. That's why we were able to give health insurance to children in need. That's why we made the tax system right here in Springfield more fair and just for working families, and that's why we passed ethics reforms that the cynics said could never, ever be passed.

It was here, in Springfield, where North, South, East and West come together that I was reminded of the essential decency of the American people — where I came to believe that through this decency, we can build a more hopeful America.

And that is why, in the shadow of the Old State Capitol, where Lincoln once called on a house divided to stand together, where common hopes and common dreams still live, I stand before you today to announce my candidacy for President of the United States of America.

Now listen, I recognize there is a certain presumptuousness — a certain audacity — to this announcement. I know I haven't spent a lot of time learning the ways of Washington. But I've been there long enough to know that the ways of Washington must change.

The genius of our founders is that they designed a system of government that can be changed. And we should take heart, because we've changed this country before. In the face of tyranny, a band of patriots brought an Empire to its knees. In the face of secession, we unified a nation and set the captives free. In the face of Depression, we put people back to work and lifted millions out of poverty. We welcomed immigrants to our shores, we opened railroads to the west, we landed a man on the moon, and we heard a King's call to let justice roll down like water, and righteousness like a mighty stream.

Each and every time, a new generation has risen up and done what's needed to be done. Today we are called once more — and it is time for our generation to answer that call.

For that is our unyielding faith — that in the face of impossible odds, people who love their country can change it.

That's what Abraham Lincoln understood. He had his doubts. He had his defeats. He had his setbacks. But through his will and his words, he moved a nation and helped free a people. It is because of the millions who rallied to his cause that we are no longer divided, North and South, slave and free. Because men and women of every race, from every walk of life, continued to march for freedom long after Lincoln was laid to rest, that today we have the chance to face the challenges of this millennium together, as one people — as Americans.

All of us know what those challenges are today — a war with no end, a dependence on oil that threatens our future, schools where too many children aren't learning, and families struggling paycheck to paycheck despite working as hard as they can. We know the challenges. We've heard them. We've talked about them for years.

What's stopped us from meeting these challenges is not the absence of sound policies and sensible plans. What's stopped us is the failure of leadership, the smallness of our politics — the ease with which we're distracted by the petty and trivial, our chronic avoidance of tough decisions, our preference for scoring cheap political points instead of rolling up our sleeves and building a working consensus to tackle the big problems of America.

For the last six years we've been told that our mounting debts don't matter, we've been told that the anxiety Americans feel about rising health care costs and stagnant wages are an illusion, we've been told that climate change is a hoax, we've been told that tough talk and an ill-conceived war can replace diplomacy, and strategy, and foresight. And when all else fails, when Katrina happened, or the death toll in Iraq mounts, we've been told that our crises are somebody else's fault. We're distracted from our real failures, and told to blame the other party, or gay people, or immigrants.

And as people have looked away in disillusionment and frustration, we know what's filled the void. The cynics, the lobbyists, the special interests who've turned our government into a game only they can afford to play. They write the checks and you get stuck with the bills, they get the access while you get to write a letter, they think they own this government, but we're here today to take it back. The time for that kind of politics is over. It is through. It's time to turn the page right here and right now.

Now look, we have made some progress already. I was proud to help lead the fight in Congress that led to the most sweeping ethics reform since Watergate.

But Washington has a long way to go. And it won't be easy. That's why we'll have to set priorities. We'll have to make hard choices. And although government will play a crucial role in bringing about the changes that we need, more money and programs alone will not get us to where we need to go. Each of us, in our own lives, will have to accept responsibility — for instilling an ethic of achievement in our children, for adapting to a more competitive economy, for strengthening our communities, and sharing some measure of sacrifice. So let us begin. Let us begin this hard work together. Let us transform this nation.

Let us be the generation that reshapes our economy to compete in the digital age. Let's set high standards for our schools and give them the resources they need to succeed. Let's recruit a new army of teachers, and give them better pay and more support in exchange for more accountability. Let's make college more affordable, and let's invest in scientific research, and let's lay down broadband lines through the heart of inner cities and rural towns all across America. We can do that.

And as our economy changes, let's be the generation that ensures our nation's workers are sharing in our prosperity. Let's protect the hard-earned benefits their companies have promised. Let's make it possible for hardworking Americans to save for retirement. Let's allow our unions and their organizers to lift up this country's middle-class again. We can do that.

Let's be the generation that ends poverty in America. Every single person willing to work should be able to get job training that leads to a job, and earn a living wage that can pay the bills, and afford child care so their kids can have a safe place to go when they work. We can do this.

And let's be the generation that finally tackles our health care crisis. We can control costs by focusing on prevention, by providing better treatment for the chronically ill, and using technology to cut the bureaucracy. Let's be the generation that says right here, right now, we will have universal health care in America by the end of the next president's first term. We can do that.

Let's be the generation that finally frees America from the tyranny of oil. We can harness homegrown, alternative fuels like ethanol and spur the production of more fuel-efficient cars. We can set up a system for capping greenhouse gases. We can turn this crisis of global warming into a moment of opportunity for innovation, and job creation, and an incentive for businesses that will serve as a model for the world. Let's be the generation that makes future generations proud of what we did here.

Most of all, let's be the generation that never forgets what happened on that September day and confront the terrorists with everything we've got. Politics doesn't have to divide us on this anymore — we can work together to keep our country safe. I've worked with Republican Senator Dick Lugar to pass a law that will secure and destroy some of the world's deadliest weapons. We can work together to track down terrorists with a stronger military, we can tighten the net around their finances, and we can improve our intelligence capabilities and finally get homeland security right. But let us also understand that ultimate victory against our enemies will come only by rebuilding our alliances and exporting those ideals that bring hope and opportunity to millions of people around the globe. We can do those things.

But all of this cannot come to pass until we bring an end to this war in Iraq. Most of you know that I opposed this war from the start. I thought it was a tragic mistake. Today we grieve for the families who have lost loved ones, the hearts that have been broken, and the young lives that could have been. America, it is time to start bringing our troops home. It's time to admit that no amount of American lives can resolve the political disagreement that lies at the heart of someone else's civil war. That's why I have a plan that will bring our combat troops home by March of 2008. Letting the Iraqis know that we will not be there forever is our last, best hope to pressure the Sunni and Shia to come to the table and find peace.

And there is one other thing that is not too late to get right about this war — and that is the homecoming of the men and women — our veterans — who have sacrificed the most. Let us honor their courage by providing the care they need and rebuilding the military they love. Let us be the generation that begins that work.

I know there are those who don't believe we can do all these things. I understand the skepticism. After all, every four years, candidates from both parties make similar promises, and I expect this year will be no different. All of us running for president will travel around the country offering ten-point plans and making grand speeches; all of us will trumpet those qualities we believe make us uniquely qualified to lead the country. But too many times, after the election is over, and the confetti is swept away, all those promises fade from memory, and the lobbyists and the special interests move in, and people turn away, disappointed as before, left to struggle on their own.

That's why this campaign can't only be about me. It must be about us — it must be about what we can do together. This campaign must be the occasion, the vehicle, of your hopes, and your dreams. It will take your time, your energy, and your advice — to push us forward when we're doing right, and to let us know when we're not. This campaign has to be about reclaiming the meaning of citizenship, restoring our sense of common purpose, and realizing that few obstacles can withstand the power of millions of voices calling for change.

By ourselves, this change will not happen. Divided, we are bound to fail.

But the life of a tall, gangly, self-made Springfield lawyer tells us that a different future is possible.

He tells us that there is power in words.

He tells us that there is power in conviction.

That beneath all the differences of race and region, faith and station, we are one people.

He tells us that there is power in hope.

As Lincoln organized the forces arrayed against slavery, he was heard to say this: "Of strange, discordant, and even hostile elements, we gathered from the four winds, and formed and fought to battle through."

That is our purpose here today.

That is why I'm in this race.

Not just to hold an office, but to gather with you to transform a nation.

I want to win that next battle — for justice and opportunity.

I want to win that next battle — for better schools, and better jobs, and better health care for all.

I want us to take up the unfinished business of perfecting our union, and building a better America.

And if you will join with me in this improbable quest, if you feel destiny calling, and see as I see, a future of endless possibility stretching before us; if you sense, as I sense, that the time is now to shake off our slumber, and slough off our fear, and make good on the debt we owe past and future generations, then I am ready to take up the cause, and march with you, and work with you. Today, together, we can finish the work that needs to be done, and usher in a new birth of freedom on this Earth. Thank you very much everybody — let's get to work.

Tags: obama, politics, cliches, president

Britain is looking up...

2007-02-04T00:57:00.000-05:00

Hilarious article by a perplexed Robert Booth of Sunday Times looking the scourge of Great Britain's most selfish Generation Y.

Generation Y speaks: it’s all us, us, us

Research by the Henley Centre, a research consultancy, shows that for the first time in 10 years a majority now believes the quality of life in Britain is best improved by putting the individual first.

The latest generation of graduates — Generation Y — shows the most extreme traits of self-absorption.

...

“It’s all about what they can get away with so they can go out and have a good social life with their friends,” said Linsey Perry, vice-president of the AGR.

Bring back Thatcher...

"Want to talk cowardice? Want to talk chickenhawk?"

2007-01-14T01:15:00.000-05:00

Via Ace of Spades HQ:

The Democrats are now actually trading American lives for votes.

You're So Vain...

2007-01-11T18:29:00.000-05:00

U.S. lawmakers hammer Bush's new Iraq plan (Reuters)

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said he expects to have the votes, with the support of some Republicans, to pass a non-binding resolution opposing the new deployment, which would bring American troop levels in Iraq to more than 150,000.

But leading Democrats stopped short of threatening to block funding for the new forces, mindful that would give Bush and his allies a chance to accuse them of abandoning the troops.

...you probably think this song is about you.

Sounds fair to me

2006-12-29T15:12:00.000-05:00

Chavez to shut down opposition TV

Update (8-Jan-07): Chavez: Will Nationalize Telecoms, Power

"C.A. Nacional Telefonos de Venezuela (CANTV), let it be nationalized," Chavez said. "The nation should recover its property of strategic sectors."

Update (10-Jan-07): Chavez says he will seek to allow unlimited presidential terms...

Further cementing his role as slave master of Venezuela...

Oprah for President!

2006-12-13T14:44:00.000-05:00

Update: From Peggy Noonan:

He doesn't have an issue, he has a thousand issues, which is the same as having none, in the sense that a speech about everything is a speech about nothing. And on those issues he seems not so much to be guided by philosophy as by impulses, sentiments. From "The Audacity of Hope," his latest book: "[O]ur democracy might work a bit better if we recognized that all of us possess values that are worthy of respect." "I value good manners." When not attempting to elevate the bromidic to the profound, he lapses into the language of political consultants--"our message," "wedge issues," "moral language." Ronald Reagan had "a durable narrative." Parts of the book, the best parts, are warm, anecdotal, human. But much of it pretends to a seriousness that is not borne out. When speaking of the political past he presents false balance and faux fairness. (Reagan, again, despite his "John Wayne, Father Knows Best pose, his policy by anecdote and his gratuitous assaults on the poor" had an "appeal" Sen. Obama "understood." Ronnie would be so pleased.)

Unlikely Political Allies

2006-12-12T14:19:00.000-05:00

Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, Afghan Insurgent Leader opines: “It seems that every bullet that mujahedeen had fired toward the Americans in Iraq and Afghanistan has turned into a vote against Bush"

Via Pajamas Media.

"An affront to the entire civilized world"

2006-12-12T10:59:00.000-05:00

AP Reports:

The Bush administration condemned Iran on Tuesday for convening a conference of people who deny the Holocaust happened, calling the move "an affront to the entire civilized world."

The Iranian regime is an affront to the entire civilized world. This absurd "conference" of "scholars" questioning the holocaust is just the latest in a continual attack on civility.

Bush ought to use this opportunity to highlight the greater damage the world's number one state sponsor of terror inflicts on a daily basis through the funding of Hezbollah, Hamas, the insurgency in Iraq and Lebanon, to name just a few. He also ought to laugh at James Baker for encouraging the US to negotiate with such people. How is negotiation possible when one side lives in an alternate universe? Get Real, James Baker.

For more information on the "Neturei Karta" Orthodox Jews fringe kook group often seen here in New York City, check out wikipedia.

What we can learn from El Comandante Chavez

2006-12-04T14:49:00.000-05:00

Let me celebrate with my leftist brethren the advances to human freedom that was cast from the Venezuelan ballot boxes this weekend! May we remain true to the great Chavez as we seek to rid the Devil from our daily lives. Socialism is human. Socialism is love. God Bless! Allah Akhbar!

We here in the US have much to learn from this greatest of great men. Here is a list of suggestions:

-Perhaps we too may capture fingerprints of the US electorate before they vote. It is vital that that Venezuelans allow El Comandante Chavez keep tabs on the enemies of freedom so that they may be punished. This is the only path to a free and OPEN election. I suppose this is easier to accomplish when the voting machine company is owned by the State. Diebold, beware (see below).

-We ought to consider shutting down private news services here as well. The imperialists are poison and this is essentially a national health issue at the heart of it all. Congratulations Chavez on clamping down the Corporate Media. There is no need to be timid any more when the enemies’ goals are so plain.

-Using government busses to amass voters to the polls makes plenty of sense…

-We must take back our great industries such as oil and gas. Nationalization is a no-brainer! And then we can fund a massive anti-poverty campaign and pro-literacy initiatives with the proceeds. Yeah!

-Iran can be our friend too. Together we can smash the devil out of office and destroy the imperialist assault on our collective liberty.

-Belarus, with the benevolent Alexander Lukashenko at the helm is a model state. How can we also seek to mimic their fine example?

-Daddy Chavez really excites me! I’ve always wanted a Daddy that stood for fair, tough justice when I was a kid. Democracy gives us such wonderful presents. Long live Daddy Chavez!

Church of Clinton Growing

2006-09-28T23:22:00.000-04:00

From the UK's Daily Mirror

In words that would not have been out of place in the Arkansas churches where he first learned the power of oratory, he thundered: "The great promise of progressive politics in the end is that we really do believe our common humanity is more important than our differences."

At that moment he became warrior and missionary, his faith helping the poor, his battle-plan to end global injustice.

See The Statist's Creed
We believe in one Ruler, the Lord Bill Clinton....

Quite a circle of friends developing...

2006-09-19T21:46:00.000-04:00

Speaking of war so easily

2006-09-19T21:19:00.000-04:00

“Why is the U.S. government so against our people?” “They speak of war so easily, as if it’s on their daily agenda. We never speak of war.”
-Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, speaking through a translator, in an interview with NBC News.

“Those who benefit from the pope’s comments and drive their own arrogant policies should be targeted with attacks and protests”
Ahmadinejad's boss, Iran's "supreme leader" Ayatollah Ali Khamenei (from LGF)

Khamenei is urging attacks against the US while Ahmadinejad claims to "never speak of war." Anyone applauding Ahmadinejad's UN speech can be checked off on the enemy list. Can he be allowed to speak such lies when it is clear what that Iran's oil money is funding Hezbollah and Hamas? This post feels redundant...

Gore: "elimination of all payroll taxes" for a pollution tax

2006-09-19T15:52:00.000-04:00

"For the last fourteen years, I have advocated and advocate today the elimination of all payroll taxes - including those for social security and unemployment compensation — and the replacement of that revenue with pollution taxes — principally on CO2. The overall level of taxation would remain exactly the same. It would be, in other words, a revenue neutral tax swap. But, instead of discouraging businesses from hiring more employees, it would discourage business from producing more pollution. A good swap."

—Vice President Gore speaking yesterday at New York University
(hat tip, NY Sun)

This is the first time I've ever heard of such a proposal, but I would welcome such an offer with open-arms. It is also becoming clear that Mr. Gore is running for president.

New York is Alive

2006-09-12T13:24:00.000-04:00

From 9/11 - Five Years Later

A tough stretch for the MSM

2006-09-08T20:00:00.000-04:00

Wow…

• Reutersgate (here, here, and here)
• Plamegate (here, here, and here)
• Path to 9/11 movie (here, here, here, here, here and here)

I have said it a million times, and I must say it again. Getting away with a lie in the Internet age is getting harder and harder. The more obvious it becomes that the entrenched media has its own bias (left bias) and is willing to lie and threaten people to cover them up, the more they are digging their own grave. Give the the liars a microphone.

Twisted Sisters/Twisted Reactions - Mahmoud Ahmednejad and Mel Gibson

2006-08-13T16:53:00.000-04:00

There are interesting similarities between sadistic, mystical, and racist actor Mel Gibson and the masochistic, mystical, and racist President of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmednejad. Both incite some sort of grand Jewish conspiracy against the world.

Their language is essentially the same; however the real threat they possess is quite different. Mel Gibson attacks Jews in drunken epithets and in stupid movies with lots of blood-letting. Ahmednejad attacks Jews by funding terror and proxy wars against the State of Israel.

Yet the press saved their outrage for the ultimately impotent Gibson; meanwhile, with Iranian missiles raining down on Haifa, Mike Wallace was in Tehran to offer the west a sympathetic view of Ahmednejad.

Gibson is a fool but he is his own worst enemy in the free world. Ahmednejad, on the other hand, not only states clearly his desire to destroy Israel, he actively funds its destruction.

Who has the guts to call a spade a spade here?

When is it time to go?

2006-08-11T07:47:00.000-04:00

If you have people marching in US streets openly declaring allegiance to the head of a terrorist group who seeks the destruction of the Little and Great Satans, do we have a right to revoke their citizenship and get them out of our shores? Isn't this beyond speech and an open committal of treason?

Why are they here to begin with? The answer is likely the green card lottery, which has to be replaced with a more open immigration system (but with a strict interview process and selection criteria). We should never turn away someone willing to respect individual rights - but if you are bringing in people who swear allegiance to terrorists, than you have forfeited the right to exist in freedom.

Daily protests occur in Dearborn. At one recent demonstration, organized by the Congress of Arab-Americans, about 1,000 people attended. College-age men asked, in call and response fashion, "Who is your army?" Protestors responded: "Hezbollah." "Who is your leader?" they were asked. "Nasrallah," the chanters responded. Many carried placards of the Hezbollah leader. A few days earlier at an even larger demonstration, more than 15,000 turned out, about half of Dearborn's Arab community.

Those who regularly attend the demonstrations tend to be the most strident.

"Oh, Jews, remember Khaibar," the marchers chant. "The army of the Prophet will return."

The line is a reference to Khaibar, a Jewish town north of Medina that, according to Islamic tradition, was overtaken by the Prophet Muhammad in the seventh century. Once defeated, the surviving Jews of Khaibar were forced into serfdom. Two decades later, they were expelled from the Arabian peninsula.

The Church of Global Warming's Satan

2006-07-03T23:57:00.000-04:00

Richard Lindzen is the Alfred P. Sloan Professor of Atmospheric Science at MIT and today he shreds the religious global warming alarmists to pieces. Al Gore is wrong. There's no "consensus" on global warming.

"...there is a clear attempt to establish truth not by scientific methods but by perpetual repetition. An earlier attempt at this was accompanied by tragedy. Perhaps Marx was right. This time around we may have farce--if we're lucky."

Is MySpace behind proposed "social networking" website regulation?

2006-06-30T11:07:00.000-04:00

Congress targets social-networking sites

Rep. Diana DeGette, a Colorado Democrat, originally proposed legislation (click here for PDF) in April that would require Internet service providers to retain activity logs to aid in criminal investigations, including ones involving child abuse.

Now DeGette and some of her colleagues in the House of Representatives are suggesting that social-networking sites should be required to do the same thing.

"How much would it cost your company to preserve those IP addresses?" DeGette asked at a hearing on Wednesday that included representatives from Facebook, Xanga and Fox Interactive Media, the parent company of MySpace. "You're going to store the data indefinitely?"

Of course, any successful regulation of the internet is going to come in the name of protection of children. If this regulation is passed, costs of entry for new "social networking" sites are going to be significantly higher, thereby helping preserve MySpace's monopoly power. Who is the government to define what social networking is anyway?

When I was younger, I created a massively popular rating website frequented by a number of people under the age 18. When the NY Times wrote an article about the site, but would not publish the URL because we allowed minors to use it, our investors (lawyers) and someone we worked with (grandson of a former NY senator and a Georgetown law student at the time) suggested we work with the newly elected Senator Hillary Clinton to develop legislation to protect children online. We would then create a newly mandated software that "protected" the children (anyone with children connecting to the internet would be required by law to install this software). We would then have an immediate monopoly and guaranteed riches - all in the name of the children. Clinton could paint herself as tough on child predators and we could paint ourselves as a company protecting minors. Of course, I vowed to walk away from the company if we ever went down such a path.

But that approach is not very different than what we are likely seeing today. MySpace may very well be quietly working behind the scenes for regulations that on the surface seem to harm their business, but in actuality, harm smaller websites and companies much more than MySpace. Hiring a few more employees and servers to store this sort of information is a platry investment for News Corp. But what about the 16 year old entreprenuer working on a shoe-string budget who has the next great "social networking" website idea? Using the heavy hand of the State to destroy competition is nothing new.

The internet is an even playing field, a place where children can compete with multi-nationals, and it better stay that way.

Religious Al Gore

2006-06-14T23:42:00.000-04:00

Despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, Al Gore and his disciples are happy to spread their religion to gullible souls the world over. Its clear the majority of movie reviewers across the country shouted hallelujah to their preacher.

From Canada Free Press

"There is no meaningful correlation between CO2 levels and Earth's temperature over this [geologic] time frame. In fact, when CO2 levels were over ten times higher than they are now, about 450 million years ago, the planet was in the depths of the absolute coldest period in the last half billion years." Patterson asked the committee, "On the basis of this evidence, how could anyone still believe that the recent relatively small increase in CO2 levels would be the major cause of the past century's modest warming?"

Restating the case for the war in Iraq

2006-05-29T15:56:00.000-04:00

I wanted to post a succint defense of the war in Iraq that I read on Orkut today. The author's name is Peter Lusby. I would like to see the new White House Press Secretary Tony Snow explain Iraq in terms like this.

The known facts are that, in the 1990s, Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction, and programs to develop more of them. The UN call for him to stop the programs and destroy the weapons was to be enforced by inspections, but he threw the inspectors out. By 2003, there was no way for the new inspectors to determine whether or not Saddam was in compliance. No records existed of the destruction of the weapons known, on the basis of Saddam's own earlier statements to UN officials, to have existed. No documentation existed to show what had become of the facilities, materials, and organizations involved in the WMD development programs known, once again on the basis of Saddam's own admissions, to have existed. The fact that Saddam was probably being conned by his own people is irrelevant.

But, leaving aside completely the issue of WMD, Saddam's régime was a blatant, open and public supporter of international terrorism. For the world to allow this thug and his henchmen to thumb their noses at the whole world, and continue to supply arms, money, training and sanctuary to Hamas and its fellow travellers was intolerable. It was essential to send a clear message, to every government who might be tempted to use terrorism as a tool of foreign policy, that the world would no longer sit idly by and let this happen.

As a result, Erupoean terrorist groups like the IRA, the ETA, and the Corsican separatists have been largely defanged, deprived of money, weapons, and popular support. Suicide attacks on Israeli civilians have dwindled to a tiny percentage of what they used to be. Governments of countries like Pakistan, Indonesia, Libya, Columbia, have all cracked down on terrorist activities, rather than risk being the next to suffer the wrath of American outrage.

Pragmatically, this administration has achieved a watershed in the elimination of terrorism as a tool for change. The war is not yet over, and it probably never will be, but at least the problem has suddenly been cut down to manageable proportions.

Internet libre para Cuba

2006-03-27T15:18:00.000-05:00

A hunger strike to protest the Castro dictatorship's draconian limits on internet use within the slave labor prison known as Cuba.

On a side note, I am currently enjoying Humberto E. Fontova's "Fidel: Hollywood's Favorite Tyrant." The author's pure hatred for Fidel, Che, and their supporters in the free world flows onto these pages in a way that just makes you smile. Eloquent honesty in describing not only of the sick deeds of the Cuban communists or the adoration Fidel receives from the glitterati is much appreciated. You'd be up in arms too once you understand the hypocrisy. If you have ever wondered why the Miami-based Cuban-American population was up in arms over Elian Gonzalez, check this one out.

Apparently, the free flow of information is not in the interests of the glitterati who worship Castro.

Link: The famous free health care that Cuban's enjoy

Tags: Guillermo Fariñas Hernandez, Cuba, Castro, communism

Activist Under Fire for Wal-Mart Position

2006-03-23T22:38:00.000-05:00

Akinyele Umoja, a professor of black studies at Georgia State University, complained: "What he's doing is providing credibility and legitimacy for some of these corporations that have policies that just reinforce inequality."

In the meantime, "the new store has received more than 8,000 applicants for 500 jobs." What is Umoja's advocacy of socialism doing for those 8,000 applicants?

Tags: wal-mart, WalMart, civil rights, capitalism

Political posturing on Dubai port deal will hurt security efforts

2006-02-19T01:13:00.000-05:00

Democrats plan bill to block Dubai port deal

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Two U.S. Democratic senators said on Friday they would introduce legislation aimed at blocking Dubai Ports World from buying a company that operates several U.S. shipping ports because of security concerns.

Robert Menendez of New Jersey and Hillary Clinton of New York said they would offer a measure to ban companies owned or controlled by foreign governments from acquiring U.S. port operations.

"We wouldn't turn the border patrol or the customs service over to a foreign government, and we can't afford to turn our ports over to one either," Menendez said in a statement. The Senate Banking Committee also plans to hold a hearing on the issue later this month.

P&O, the company Dubai Ports World plans to buy for $6.8 billion, is already foreign-owned, by the British, but the concern is that the purchaser is backed by the United Arab Emirates government.

This is a bit more than normal political grandstanding - Hillary considers this an opportunity to look tough on terrorism in her seemingly ever-failing attempts to capture political middle she needs to ascend to the presidency. While seeing past her actions to her political aims might be easy for many, understanding the unintended consequences of a successful blockage of the port sale might require a second look.

Why do they hate us? Western culture, with an underscored respect for reason, capitalism, and individual rights for all members of society is diametrically opposed to the virus of Islamic extremism which is escalating a battle for greater control of the Arab world and beyond. Any progress in lifting the Arab world into modern western standards is not going to be achieved by bribing these regimes to not attack us or capitulating to the demands of the extremists. Our greatest weapon is appealing to the self-interest of Arab companies and workers with the mutual benefits thankfully available through cooperation in modern global markets. Shared interests and shared fortunes with the Arab world will create equal incentives for security both on our shores and theirs. An attack on America by Arabs becomes a self-inflicted wound and sets off internal forces overseas to eradicate the virus.

In the long run, free trade is a more effective diplomacy tool than any number of guns. We are open to working with the Arab world as equals, not as terrorists. Money knows no borders or race or religion.

If these Clintonian political postures are successful, we will send a clear message to the Arab world that America is xenophobic - Arabs need not apply to the modern world, leaving options such as Hamas the seemingly only viable alternative. Assuming the deal is accepted, we send the message that America responds positively to peaceful cooperation and our wrath is only reserved for attacks on the rights that make such free trade available at all.

After WWI, Europe closed the door on German participation in modern society. The unintended consequence was, of course, Hitler. We can invite Arab society into the modern world, but only so long as our interests are aligned.

Tags: hillary clinton, free trade, dubai, UAE, arabs, Terrorism

Snow Hedge

2006-02-10T00:36:00.000-05:00

I love this!

Chicago Merc to Trade Snowfall Futures

CHICAGO (AP) -- First came temperature futures, then frost-day futures. Now - futures involving how much snow falls at Logan Airport in Boston or New York's Central Park.

The world's largest derivatives exchange said the new product, which will trade electronically starting Feb. 26, should help cities manage risk associated with snow accumulation. Insurance companies, retailers and other businesses with a lot riding on the weather also can use the futures to hedge their risk.

Cindy Sheehan and the Michael Moore effect

2006-01-24T16:56:00.000-05:00

Today's Opinion Journal has a perfectly sharp expose of Cindy Sheehan's planned engagement with the disgraceful dictator-in-waiting Hugo Chavez, thereby cementing her anti-western celebrity. Harry Belafonte has nothing on Cindy.

Again, I can't help but wonder if Cindy is working for the people she publicaly decries as war-criminals. Each time she meets with a Chavez or calls George Bush the "world's biggest terrorist," she marginalizes the left further out of the mainstream of American thought and influence. Perhaps this should be known as the Michael Moore effect. The louder these people speak, the less their interests are served. Turn up the volume!

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez now rivals Fidel Castro as the Western Hemisphere's most visible symbol of anti-Americanism, which explains why "peace activist" Cindy Sheehan is climbing abroad the Venezuelan firebrand's bus. She has announced plans to attend the World Social Forum in Caracas, which kicks off today and will celebrate, among other things, Chavez's Bolivarian Revolution.

The annual "forum," which began in Brazil in 2001 as an anti-globalization conference, is also sometimes referred to as the "carnival of the oppressed." Like most events of its kind, it has become flypaper for the planet's kookiest activists, including many who still espouse the "armed struggle" against capitalism, the "North," whatever. Perhaps the grieving Ms. Sheehan, an avowed peace lover, has been so busy with the makeup artists and the cameras to pay attention to the violence-prone types she's now embracing. But the name of one of the forum's organizers -- Ernesto "Che" Mercado -- could have given the anti-Bush publicity hound a hint. A Latin American revolutionary who takes the moniker of a legendary Cuban executioner is hardly a follower of Gandhi.

Indeed, the Sheehan tour to Caracas belongs in the "you-can't-make-it-up" category: A bitterly outspoken American citizen who has made a career of lambasting her president, she travels abroad to celebrate with a dictator who has thrown his own critics out of work and even put them in prison, stripped the press of its freedom, destroyed property rights and militarized the government. His political supporters are known to be armed and dangerous and many Venezuelans in poor neighborhoods have reported that they are afraid to dissent from the Chavez agenda. Venezuela's arms build-up is frightening his neighbors and threatening regional stability.

We're glad Ms. Sheehan has the freedom to travel abroad. Many of Chavez's critics are denied that right, as are the critics of Castro. But she shouldn't wonder why, when she opens her mouth in the U.S., nobody takes her seriously.

Update: More wonderful news @ Gateway Pundit -
More Democrats Speak Out, Rally Around Cindy, Bash Bill Clinton

Tags: cindy sheehan, michael moore, hugo chavez

Mr. Tally Mon, tool of Hugo Chavez

2006-01-08T18:20:00.000-05:00

Mr. Harry "Day-o" Belafonte further entrenched his anti-western legacy today, meeting with and praising the dictator-in-the-making and great friend of Iran, Hugo Chavez, happily proclaiming that Bush is indeed a terrorist.

This is same Harry Belafonte who noted "Hitler had a lot of Jews high up in the hierarchy of the Third Reich." The same guy who labled black Republicans as "tyrants." You can't forget his obligatory anti-business zinger: "We have got to bring corporate America to its knees." To service you, Harry, I presume? We're on our knees begging to hear you puppet Chavez's praise of Iran next. You won't let us down - you never have.

Chavez with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Tags: hugo chavez, harry belafonte, iran

Get a brain, Moran

2006-01-08T13:55:00.000-05:00

Via Michelle Malkin, as seen on a C-Span, broadcasting a town hall meeting in Arlington, Va this week, run by anti-war Democrat Reps. Jim Moran and John Murtha:

"Yes sir my name is Mark Seavey and I just want to thank you for coming up here. Until about a month ago I was Sgt Mark Seavey infantry squad leader, I returned from Afghanistan. My question to you, (applause)

"Like yourself I dropped out of college two years ago to volunteer to go to Afghanistan, and I went and I came back. If I didn't have a herniated disk now I would volunteer to go to Iraq in a second with my troops, three of which have already volunteered to go to Iraq. I keep hearing you say how you talk to the troops and the troops are demoralized, and I really resent that characterization. (applause) The morale of the troops that I talk to is phenomenal, which is why my troops are volunteering to go back, despite the hardships they had to endure in Afghanistan.

"And Congressman Moran, 200 of your constituents just returned from Afghanistan. We never got a letter from you; we never got a visit from you. You didn't come to our homecoming. The only thing we got from any of our elected officials was one letter from the governor of this state thanking us for our service in Iraq, when we were in Afghanistan. That's reprehensible. I don't know who you two are talking to but the morale of the troops is very high."

Watch the video here.

The Wobblies Resurface in New York, Targeting Starbucks and FreshDirect

2006-01-04T10:48:00.000-05:00

Today's NY Sun has a front page story highlighting the Industrial Workers of the World, also known as the "Wobblies," attempt to unionize New York City Starbucks and FreshDirect employees.

I always get a kick out of the futile attempts of modern day communists to make a dent (they even utilize Soviet-style art work in their propoganda). In the wake of overwhelming public backlash against the New York Transport Union Workers, the timing and location of this push couldn't be worse.

That effervescent handmaiden of the left, Howard Zinn, cheered that "Wobbly Spirit" way back in 1965.

There is a stirring among the young, and talk of a "new radicalism." The timing could hardly be better...

While the wobblies set about to "abolish the wage system," their progressive impotence is always worth a chuckle.

The entertaining story of Farris Hassan

2005-12-29T18:34:00.000-05:00

"And I'm like, 'Well, I should probably be going.' It was not a safe place. The way they were looking at me kind of freaked me out."

Sorry Guys! It was just a theory.

2005-12-22T15:36:00.000-05:00

I don't know these people - but I wish I did. There are a ton of t-shirt sites out there, but these folks are doing it right. Hilarious through-and-through.

"Subversive tees at Bureaucrash.com"

"It looks like an Ernst Wilhelm Nay"

2005-12-21T03:10:00.000-05:00

Chimp's painting fools experts
From: From correspondents in Moritzburg, Saxony

A GERMAN art expert was fooled into believing a painting done by a chimpanzee was the work of a master.

The director of the State Art Museum of Moritzburg in Saxony-Anhalt, Katja Schneider, suggested the painting was by the Guggenheim Prize-winning artist Ernst Wilhelm Nay.

"It looks like an Ernst Wilhelm Nay. He was famous for using such blotches of colour," Dr Schneider confidently asserted.

The canvas was actually the work of Banghi, a 31-year-old female chimp at the local zoo.

While Banghi likes to paint, she is not able to build up much of a body of work as her mate Satscho generally destroys her paintings before they can get to the gallery.

But this one survived long enough to give Dr Schneider a red face.

"I did think it looked a bit rushed," she told Bild newspaper.

Examples of Nay's work - is it any wonder there was confusion? I suppose this is artwork that only a chimp could love.

Can someone set off some bombs or something?

2005-12-15T20:24:00.000-05:00

Today was an absolute disaster. The Sunni's showed up to the polls - who would have guessed!? They even showed up in droves to vote in Mosul, of all places! and Tikrit! WHAT!? and you'll never believe it - FALLUJAH had a stunningly high turn-out. FALLUJAH!

And the Iraqis singing songs of freedom and democracy in the peaceful streets? A disgrace...

What are we going to do now!? The Iraqis are much too happy for their own good. Something must be done, NOW!

http://iraqthemodel.blogspot.com/
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20051215/D8EGR3JO3.html

Tags: iraq, iraqi election, middle east

Defining victory in Iraq

2005-12-04T15:11:00.000-05:00

Next week's open Iraqi election - as opposed to a murderous dictator and his sons running an oil-for-food scam while enriching the likes of George Galloway and his ilk - is a victory in and of itself. This will be the most open election in the entire history of the Middle East - a HUGE victory is unfolding before those whose eyes are open.

Syria out of Lebanon is a victory.

A weakened Syrian dictatorship (Assad) is a victory.

Jordanians en masse condemning one of their own - Zarqawi - is a victory.

Libya giving up nuclear weapons is a victory.

The economic boom in the Iraqi Kurdish north and Shia south is a victory.

Egypt holding its first ever election (even if it was mostly a farce) is still a big victory.

Citizens of dictatorships such as Azerbaijan asking President Bush not to forget about them are victories.

The Democratic Party being pulled further to the left and further away from reality is a victory.

Saudi Teacher Sentenced to 750 Lashes

2005-11-17T23:35:00.000-05:00

(11-17) 09:10 PST DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) --

A Saudi high-school chemistry teacher accused of discussing religion with his students has been sentenced to 750 lashes and 40 months in prison for blasphemy, officials said Thursday.

The court ruling was condemned by human rights activists, who said Mohammed Salamah al-Harbi was being imprisoned for having an "open discussion" with students.

Al-Harbi was convicted of questioning and ridiculing Islam, discussing the Bible and defending Jews, judicial officials said Thursday on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.

Our government isn't going to verbally criticize this. How can citizens, using technology, educate open-minded people on the ground in these draconian societes about individual rights? Answer - more of this:

Sabbah’s Blog
The Religious Policeman
Mahmood's Den - nice blogroll here too
Saudi Jeans

...and more voices fighting against this:
Saudi Arabia blocks access to Blogger, Flickr, LiveJournal

Killing medical researchers was "morally justified" to save laboratory animals - says animal rights activist

2005-10-28T11:29:00.000-04:00

This is why we need free speech - the louder a microphone we give these people, the easier it is for the public to identify and root our their influence throughout all elements of society.

Jerry Vlasak, spokesman for the Animal Liberation Front, told the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works that killing medical researchers was "morally justified" to save laboratory animals.

Vlasak compared the life of lab animals to African American slaves and the Jewish victims of Nazi concentration camps.

He made his comments while defending a similar statement, made to the news media last year: "I don't think you'd have to kill – assassinate – too many vivisectors before you would see a marked decrease in the amount of vivisection going on. And I think for five lives, 10 lives, 15 human lives, we could save a million, 2 million, 10 million non-human lives."

The left is anti-individual its philiosophical core (or lack thereof) -- such a view of man is meaningless in future self-determined society -- these people are just louder than in the past because they have new media (capitalist) tools to spout their anti-humanity mantras. Thankfully, this is for the better -- because the louder they speak, the easier it is for people to see the lie and reject it.

Tags:animal rights, animal liberation front, peta, animals, socialism, terrorism