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July 31, 2005
A Funny
This column by Andy Borowitz is brief but fun, and when you think about NK nut-job Kim Jong-Il, well...
Posted by Seth at 11:56 PM |
Iraq Positives Ignored By The Mainstream Media
Raven at And Rightly So! has posted an excellent list of positive accomplishments in Iraq that MSM venues like the New York Times and other liberal "news" sources flat out ignore because, though it's important for Americans to know about them, these treasonous, pitiful scumbags would rather lie to the public via omission than show that President Bush's liberation of the Iraqi people is bearing fruit.
It really pisses me off that institutions that are trusted by the American people to keep them informed of current events are blatantly bullshitting the public, using that trust as a propaganda tool to try to make a sitting President look bad and to push a leftist agenda that doesn't even remotely resemble the concepts that founded the United States of America and made this nation great.
Anyway, here is Did You Know....
Posted by Seth at 06:41 AM | Comments (2) |
July 29, 2005
Michael Graham & CAIR
Radio talk show host Michael Graham(WMAL, Washington, DC), commented recently that "We are at war with a terrorist organization named Islam," and immediately CAIR(Council On American-Islamic relations) zeroed in on the radio station. In a Washington Post article,
A local radio talk show host touched off complaints from an Islamic civil rights organization yesterday after repeatedly describing Islam on the air as "a terrorist organization" that is "at war with America."
  Michael Graham said Islam is a "terrorist" group. (By Stephen Salpukas) |
So, the station backed him up, and the only thought I had was, "good for them."
Read the entire article here
On CAIR's website, they had this to say.
But somehow, in the end, due to pressure on station owners ABC and Disney by CAIR, WMAL gave Graham the boot, another media venue giving way to the demands of political correctness that is increasingly stifling any truth and opinion in the "news" media that does not reflect the liberal viewpoint, right or wrong.
On CAIR's website, they cite that their mission is to "enhance understanding of Islam, encourage dialogue, protect civil liberties, and empower American Muslims."
Hmmm, my understandin' o' Islam is, it's got somethin' to do with blowin' folks up, ain't that raht?
An' them bombers sure got them a real unique way o' encouragin' that there dialogue, ain't they?
They sure protected a passle o' them civil liberties back on September 11th of '01.
Yup, an' any o' them there Muslims'd be pretty durn empowered oncet they git issued one o' them suicide vests they set such store on, I s'pose it's the Islamic fashion o' the new millenium, or some such....
Posted by Seth at 10:00 PM | Comments (4) |
Feminist Hypocrites
Living in San Francisco(not for much longer, thank God!) and "getting out quite a bit" I meet a lot of so-called feminists on a pretty regular basis. I have yet to meet one that is not a liberal, and I have yet to meet one that is not a hypocrite.
Why?
Here are women living in a free country, so free that it permits them to openly and vitriolically lambast their government, their president and the "reigning" GOP with a tenacity a hundred times more than would be needed to land them in a prison, a torture chamber or both in a lot of countries, including some of those that support global terrorism.
These American feminists enjoy the right to go out without a father or brother escort without worrying about getting a critical, bloody beating or worse from male family members, and they can go out without having to cover their faces. These American feminists enjoy the right to go as far as they wish in both education and career venues under the law of the land. They are accepted as leaders in business, politics and in the military.
They purport to champion the cause of women's rights and equality, all a lie as they take the stand of the Angry Left, protesting and obstructing wherever possible our efforts to liberate Muslim countries in which the women are both treated and viewed as fifth class citizens, slaves to husbands, brothers and even sons who can beat them or even kill them with impunity, where a woman who is not appropriately attired is pelted with fruit, rocks, whatever comes to hand, beaten by religious police or viewed as eligible for rape.
Why do these feminists not give the proverbial "flying fuck" about these women in Muslim countries? Because they hate Bush. Bush doctrine has freed women in Iraq and Afghanistan and caused women in other repressive Islamic countries to start rethinking their situations, and had Clinton had the spine to do what needed doing during his second term in office and beaten Bush to the punch, you can bet these same feminists would have been singing his praises.
Unfortunately, Slick Willy's lightweight handling of terrorism and his obstructionism of national security operations(ie interagency cooperation between external intelligence and internal security agencies) were strong factors in the ability of terrorists to bring us 9/11.
But that's what it's all about where feminists are concerned: Supporting our liberation of these societies and the resultant freeing of their female populations would mean supporting a Bush agenda. Rather than do that, the rank and file feminist would just as soon see her millions of "sisters" continue to be repressed, veiled, beaten, disrespected from birth to death. Is hypocrisy a strong enough term, do you think?
****************************
Perhaps one reason most Islamic nations are so backward is because they don't allow their women to contribute, and that means they exclude potential major assets for bettering their lot and coming into the modern world.
Women in free countries have more than proven their value to our societies as a whole, in business, politics, science, journalism, culture, and there have been quite a few women inventors. Check out the site, it's definitely worth reading and there are several pages listing women through U.S. history and their inventions in a wide variety of areas.
One of the most enjoyable and thought-provoking novels I've read in quite awhile was Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code. I think the concept of the Sacred Feminine is very real. Being Jewish, I can tell you that in my religion, women are considered very special and their contributions on all levels are welcome. A woman of our faith doesn't need liberal feminists to do her talking for her. The Jewish-cum-atheist women or those who denounce Judaism or even deny God's existence for social convenience, on the other hand, feel the need to support feminist movements that no longer serve any purpose save espousing the farthest left causes that come down the pike, whether they have anything to do with women's rights or not. Of course, today it seems like all liberal based organizations are united in their War On Bush, and national security, the liberation of oppressed peoples and all other considerations be damned.
***************************
Women from both sides of the aisle who lean toward supporting groups like NOW should really give more thought to the actual level of sincerity these people have evolved to, and to what they actually support before sending them money or signing petitions on their behalf.
The feminist movement of today cares less about women's rights and more about liberal political agendas. Period.
Posted by Seth at 08:41 PM | Comments (12) |
July 23, 2005
Is The Global Jihad Entering An "11th Hour" Phase?
Given the events of the last sixteen days, one has to wonder if al-Qaeda and their murderous minions around the world are going into some sort of frenzied overdrive. Surely they're doing their best to isolate themselves from the support and safe harbor they once enjoyed profusely from fellow believers(countries and individuals) in Islam.
In Iraq, they butcher infinitely more Muslims on a 9 to 5 basis than they do "occupying infidels," even while purporting to speak for Islam.
On 7 July 05 in London, a city that has traditionally welcomed Muslims and allowed them to practice their faith without hindrance, these Islamofascists detonated bombs in three subway stations and aboard a double decker bus that claimed scores of lives and caused hundreds of injuries and massive property damage.
Members of London's large Muslim population began expressing concerns that the bombings might precipitate a new surge of anti-Islamic aggression among Londoners.
On 21 July 05 in London, another series of bombings, these of comparably less damage and death toll rocked the London tube network.
On 22 July 05 in London, Metropolitan Police officers pursued a "south Asian" male onto a train in a tube station and capped him five times(the man, attired suspiciously in a loose fitting coat and carrying a ruck sack, had fled when approached by police and, suspected of being a suicide bomber, was taken out as a precaution against his setting off a bomb), killing him.
Members of the local Muslim population began expressing concerns of a new "shoot-to-kill" policy among police that might lead to the deaths of innocent Muslims mistaken for terrorists.
It may be noted at this point that many Muslims in London and elsewhere have begun openly deploring the acts of terror that they claim is not the way of Islam, only that of an extremist minority and *get this* have been applying the term "terrorist" to the equation, previously a rare choice of reference coming from believers in The Religion of Peace.
It seems al-Qaeda and friends are beginning to royally piss off their own fellow Muslims in the west and elsewhere.
On 23 July 05, early this morning, terrorists suicide bombed sites in the popular Egyptian beach resort Sharm el-Sheikh, destroying the most popular hotel, damaging neighboring hotels and businesses and killing more than 80 people, injuring at least 200 others.
A group claiming links to the al Qaeda organization said it carried out the bombings in retaliation for "crimes committed against Muslims," according to an Internet statement.
Considering the fact that the majority of the dead and injured(one of the bombers detonated himself and his car at a locale that was a local hangout, where the victims were mostly young Muslims, many of whom were service industry employees who worked at the hotels and other tourism venues in the resort town) were Muslims, it seems to me that this entire terrorist attack, though there were tourists killed who were from Europe and Asia, was a "crime committed against Muslims."
The Sharm al-Sheikh bombings have drawn condemnation even from the Islamofascist theocracy in Iran, from Jordan and several other Muslim countries, and of course Kofi Annan of the useless UN deplored the terrorist atrocity along with most western governments.
Are the Jihadis painting themselves into a corner by committing "acts of war" against their own? Even the Muslims living in western countries like Britain have to see that Osama and friends are fomenting anger by host country natives against resident Muslims, causing suspicion and prejudice that are inherent in human nature, despite what terrorism's apologists and other "intellectuals" might think, when a specific group of people is the source of countless acts of deadly aggression against everyone else. Terrorism, as it continues to rear its hideous head in western states, will inevitably bring about the institution, dissenters be damned, of blatant racial profiling at airports as a standard policy. Terrorism in the west is as disruptive to law abiding Muslims living in western cities.
And no one, not a Muslim, a Buddhist, a Hindu, a Christian, a Jew nor anyone else can honestly say that these terror groups are not making war on their own kind as much as they are on western democracies or coalition troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.
So these animals-without-their-own-sovereign-state have, in the last couple of weeks, made it unarguably plain that they are at war not only with a few countries, but with the entire "rest of the world."
Meanwhile, in London, it turns out that the man the Metropolitan Police waxed in the tube was the wrong man. Despite any criticism of the police regarding that development, let's face it: The police had probable cause to suspect the man might be a suicide bomber and he did run from them. Taking him out was the only way they could have assured that he wouldn't have a chance to "do the deed."
"To give license to people to shoot just like that, on the basis of suspicion, is very frightening," Azim Tamimi of the Muslim Association of Britain told BBC television.
"It is human lives that are being targeted here, whether by terrorists or in this case unfortunately by people who are supposed to be chasing or catching the terrorists."
Sure, Azim, but how would you feel if they hadn't shot the fleeing man and he had been a suicide bomber, and he had taken the afforded 2 or 3 seconds' opportunity to blow up both himself and scores of commuters? I side with the cops.
The sooner the law abiding world Islamic community joins the Global War On Terror, without reservation, to help destroy the extremists who claim to be mass-murdering on behalf of all Muslims(I suppose that also applies to those Muslims they kill, go figure), the sooner we might put an end not only to the al-Qaeda threat, but to the social and other inconveniences it is causing millions of Muslims who say they want to live in peace.
As for all you apologists here at home who believe(or if you're not profoundly stupid, shit-for-brains-morons and you're simply comfortable with Americans being murdered by terrorists "to make Bush look bad") that terrorism is America's fault, I sincerely hope that if, God forbid, there are any further terrorist bombings on U.S. soil, the victims only include your ilk and not those of us who support our President and the GWOT. You want to endanger the rest of us by obstructing our defensive measures -- and yes, those include our presence in Iraq, the Patriot Act, racial profiling at airports and the Camp Delta detention center at Guantanamo Bay -- so it's only fair that you, not the rest of us, pay any price incurred by your picayune political agendas.
Posted by Seth at 06:38 PM | Comments (4) |
July 20, 2005
Take A Bite Out Of Peta
It seems that numerous liberal-approved organizations that start out with the best intentions have a penchant for turning hard to port and establishing strong solidarity with extremist loony left organizations, joining their struggles to turn the United States into either an anarchist state or a socialist one, depending on how far asea the org happens to be.
PETA(People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals)'s has gone that route, big time. Among other things, they have donated more than $150,000.00 to criminal orgs like ELF(Environmental Liberation Front), an organization classified as enviro- terrorists by the F.B.I., to help defend arsonists and murderers. Their leaders encourage them to participate in illegal activities such as burning down restaurants, medical labs and banks.
These people are a true menace 2 society.
The following links are courtesy of Consumer Freedom.com:
First, 7 Things You Didn't Know About Peta but definitely should.
Shocking, but true. The next link is a petition to cut off Peta's federal tax exempt status, a reasonable demand in view of what they've been playing at.
I must admit that it was the title of the petition that first caught my eye, "Take A Bite Out Of PETA." Having been watching some DVDs of La Femme Nakita TV episodes, I thought they meant Peta Wilson and was all set to go, then I read on and found they meant.... Oh, well.
Just kidding.
To get an even more in-depth description of PETA and its activities, click here. You'll also find that the year and a half old petition linked above is still valid by clicking the appropriate box in the right-hand sidebar. I "signed" it without hesitation.
Today's activists want to force you to eat nothing but beans and greens, and wear nothing but cotton, rayon and rubber. They want to ban hunting, fishing, zoos, rodeos, and circuses. Some want to permanently end Kosher slaughter. They even want to outlaw the use of animals in the search for cures for AIDS, Parkinson's Disease, and cancer....
Sorry, guys, no can do, I'm a confirmed carnivore. You order the 'sprout salad and tofu, I'll be the happy dude in the booth, there, having the 20 oz. T-bone with all the trimmings. Bon apetit.
I'll probably have a leather jacket with me, a leather belt holding up my pants and leather shoes or sneakers on my feet, and if I bring a date, she'll quite possibly have a fur coat along. She won't be eating roots and berries, either.
You might recall the recent story from North Carolina about the two PETA members getting caught out regarding the murder and subsequent disposal of dead cats and dogs in a dumpster, well they were to be having their day in court yesterday.
More from Hampton Roads.com, a little attempted damage control by PETA's boss lady.
Posted by Seth at 01:52 PM | Comments (2) |
2003 Annual Islamophobia Awards
Back to that Islamic website again: This time it is to view the "winners" of the Annual Islamophobia Awards presented on 31 May 2003.
Check 'em out. Bush was the big winner, of course. Tony Blair was a winner also. Go check out the winners. I'm glad I ran across this, because it has confirmed what I thought was the true definition of the term Islamophobic to begin with.
Islamophobic: Any infidel who is opposed to being a) slaughtered by Muslims in the name of Allah, and b) enslaved by a theo-fascist government.
So okay, I guess that makes most of us here in America, with the exceptions of most folks in the Bay Area, of course, Islamophobics. It is, of course, supposed to be an insulting term, implying that were we normal, we would simply submit ourselves to the nearest mosque for instant beheading.
Ohhhhkayyyy....
Posted by Seth at 01:34 PM |
SCOTUS Nominee
Last night, President Bush nominated John G. Roberts to replace retiring Justice Sandra Day O'Connor on the Supreme Court.
President Bush nominated federal appeals court judge John G. Roberts Jr. to the Supreme Court, choosing a candidate with a long enough history in conservative legal circles to delight Republicans and an affable demeanor and short paper trail that could make him hard for liberals to attack.
Naturally, women's groups are already beginning to carp that the President didn't choose a woman to replace O'Connor, but look: Bush has already proven that he picks the people, regardless of gender or race, that he feels are the best for respective jobs. Here, he has another major consideration as well, and as the first paragraph in the Wall Street Journal article quoted above says, he needed also to consider whom he figures has the best chance of getting through the confirmation process with its inherent hostile Democrats. The short paper trail, as pointed out, gives the Democrats less ammo for turning the process into the same kind of three ring circus they've turned all other such transactions into of late. Sure, they'll still pull the same obstructionist bullshit they have been, but the President apparently believes they'll have a much harder time finding material to use against Roberts.
Roberts has, in the past, stated that he is anti-abortion, but when later queried, he said that since Roe vs Wade is the law, it is to be observed as such. Roe vs Wade is one of the liberals' largest concerns, the right to murder fetuses under the dubious "scientific" pretense that they are not yet human life.
I suppose that all we can do now is sit back and see what the Dems will hit the nominee with to try to throw yet another stumbling block in the president's way.
Read the article here.
Posted by Seth at 01:02 PM |
July 17, 2005
Islamofascist Website
Back on 16 June I posted about Starbucks boss Howard Shultz and his support of Israel, and one of the links I posted was to this Islamic website.
The above link will take you to the site, whose last entry is, at this time, as of 4 May 05. Reading the "Innovative Minds"(that's a good one!) site illustrates the paranoia and bigoted single-mindedness of the Muslim.
"Campaign Against Operation Christmas Child" about shoeboxes of Christmas gifts sent to children in poor, largely Muslim countries by an organization called Samaritan's Purse and how those shoeboxes are a way of stealing children from the religion(Islam, of course) of their parents because the head of Samaritan's Purse, Franklin Graham, is "an Islamophobe" and a "bigot," and because religious tracts are often handed out with these boxes.
I suppose that while these gifts as is are evidently abominable, they would be okay if the shoeboxes contained Semtex and detonators. It's quite alright if their children are incinerated or blown to pieces, just don't let them accept any gifts from Christians.
There's also a BBC Radio moderated audio interview/ debate between a Muslim cleric and Graham.
Anyway, follow the link and give the site a read.
Posted by Seth at 08:57 PM |
Must-Read Interview
In the "Good Day For Following Links" Department, I followed one from Michelle Malkin's blog to Radio Blogger, where an interview with Victor Davis Hanson, author, writer of newspaper and magazine articles, book reviews, op-eds and Senior Fellow of the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, by Hugh Hewitt of Hugh Hewitt.com.
This interview is an absolute must-read, excellent questions and answers, the interviewee both highly informed and possessing a first class analytical mind that gets right to the heart of things. It's about how serious our government is about fighting the Global War On Terror(GWOT).
The interview transcript is here.
Here is a quote I think refutes just about every argument the Democrats use against the Bush Administration regarding the GWOT and the economy.
"...we have more gross revenues coming in after the tax cut than before. The deficit's going down. The problem is spending, not a revenue problem. Within four weeks after 9/11, we conducted this sophisticated military campaign seven thousand miles away. And in less than seven weeks, we took out that God-awful regime, and put democracy where it had never existed before. We took Saddam out in three weeks. We stayed on to try to create a democratic government . There's change in Lebanon, Syria, places like Libya, Pakistan'snuclear roguery is being exposed. So, it(the mainstream Democratic Party)'s just oblivious to that. But it is symptomatic that we've had a midterm election, we've had another election since 9/11, and the electorate, even after the unleashing of the New York Times, CBS, Michael Moore, the electorate still doesn't trust Democrats."
Read the entire transcript, it's worth it...
Posted by Seth at 07:58 AM |
July 16, 2005
African Misadventure
After all the concerts raising money for African aid and the G8 summits gaining governments' pledges to send money to African countries, the fact remains that most of them are dictatorships run by corrupt, despotic pricks ala Robert Mugabe, a typically fucked-up African dictator, who do not represent the people, just themselves.
These are the folks who will receive the bucks we send, and these are the people who will keep the money for their own use(can anybody say, Numbered Account?).
African countries are so badly mismanaged by self-motivated, self styled monarchs who have no problem with letting their people starve as long as they live in luxury, and these leaders control dissent through imprisonment, torture and execution.
In my opinion, sending all this money to African countries at this time is no different from flushing it down the nearest commode and, since some of it comes out of my taxes, I feel completely justified in taking umbrage with it. These African countries need to be repaired from within before they are ready to be helped from without.
Pamela of Atlas Shrugs has a post that tells it like it is.
Posted by Seth at 09:43 PM | Comments (14) |
Wishful Thinking
Over at Intellectual Conservative, there is a list of MSM headlines we would love to see but never will. Check it out.
Posted by Seth at 08:34 PM |
Bush Tax Cuts Perform
Despite reverberations of the Democrats' whiny doomsaying about the Bush tax cuts on dividends and capital gains(yes, they were so loud they still echo a couple of years after the cuts went into effect), you know, despite the shouting about how the tax cuts only help the rich, etc, the tax reductions are proving out. Per an editorial in yesterday's Opinion Journal,
Let's see if we can get this straight:When tax revenues fall and budget deficits go up, it's bad news. But when tax revenues rise and deficits decline, it's still bad news.
At least that seems to be the way a sizeable chunk of Washington is reacting to this week's report from the White House budget office that the federal deficit is down by nearly $100 billion this fiscal year, that the deficit as a share of GDP is down to 2.7%(very near its historical average), and that this is all happening because tax receipts are surging by more than 14%: Uncle Sam is having a better year so far than even Paris Hilton, but half of the Beltway is depressed.
John Spratt, the ranking Democrat on the House Budget Committee, seems especially upset that this revenue surge isn't coming from wage income, but rather from investment income--that is, the so-called non-withholding income tax collections, which have skyrocketed some 30% this year. "These are typically taxes paid on one-time capital gains, bonuses, stock-options income that may not recur, he laments.
Well, sure, Congressman, the 2003 reduction in the tax rates on dividends and capital gains seem to be resulting in much higher tax revenues on...dividends and capital gains. This is called the Laffer Curve effect, and we think Mr. Spratt is validating it. If he wants those revenues to "recur," maybe he'll vote to make these tax cuts permanent.
So, once again events have, as they say, overtaken the tax hungry left, who refuse to acknowledge that the revenues of big business and wealthy investors can be better spent for good of country by being reinvested, generating more taxable income than by being sucked up and spent by the government.
This brings to mind four lines from the 1971 Ten Years After song, I'd Love To Change The World:
Tax the rich
feed the poor
'til there are no
rich no more...
So then what?
Asshats!
The Laffer Curve is a graph that illustrates the relationships between tax rates and taxes collected by a government.
It shows that when tax rates hit certain levels, productivity declines and as a result, less taxes are collected.
Makes sense, doesn't it? If you know the government's going to snatch up most of your profits, anyway, why bother making an effort? Here's a lesson we can learn from Europe--and Canada, for that matter. In those countries taxes are significantly higher than they are in the U.S., and none of them comes anywhere near the level of productivity we enjoy in the United States. Hell, the output of the vast majority of our states, individually, is higher than the collective output of the European Union.
No matter what the port side of politics, even while brandishing rabid, anti-Bush leftist economist/columnist/stooges like drooling Paul Krugman tries so hard to make "go away," the truth remains: The capitalists in our capitalist republic are the entities that pay most of our taxes as it is.
If the tax man charges less, the freed-up profits of the taxee are invested and generate more taxes on profit volume.
Duh! Wake up, Democrats!
Of course they won't, and not because of any logical or patriotic reasons, simply because the Democrats have evolved, since being indoctrinated by their liberal faction, into a party whose leanings tend toward socialism. We are the richest and most powerful nation on earth because we are who we are. Don't fix what ain't broke.
And yes, I can understand why the Democrats on the Hill are distressed by the positive results of the Bush tax cuts; they are once again standing there, looking forlorn. Being proven wrong time and time again has to be a frustrating experience. I tend to think, for some reason, of Rita Repulsa when she is beaten still again by her becostumed super hero teenage enemies, or of Snidely Whiplash after Dudley Do-Right has again cleaned his clock. "Curses, foiled again!"
But you have to give the Dems credit where credit is due: It's awfully hard work trying to make a strong President fail at his job, and to that end they have thus far shown a level of dedication and perseverence that even our enemies would have to admire. Then again, our enemies probably appreciate their efforts, since those efforts are in anything but our country's best interests. If the Dems applied the same tenacity for this country that they do against it, they'd have a lot more people in Congress and maybe even a shot at winning the White House in 2008.
I mean, the Democrats aren't serious about believing all this crap they spew, right? They aren't really that stupid, right? It's all politics, it's gotta be, because if it isn't it means that over there on the left side of the aisle are a whole lot of folks with issues that need to be resolved with professional help, or something.
Nah! It's only partisan politics.
Right?
By the way, we don't recall Mr. Spratt and other Democrats lamenting when a similar spike in taxes from investment income was boosting tax revenues to historic heights as a share of GDP during the dot-com bubble of the late 1990s, as per the nearby chart. Then it was all said to be an economic miracle; now it's a windfall for the wealthy. This selective budget criticism couldn't be related to who's sitting in the White House, could it?
Posted by Seth at 04:12 PM |
July 15, 2005
Stephen J. Cannell
I'm one of those people who snort novels. My favorite novelists are(some living, others deceased) Tom Clancy, Desmond Bagley, Robert Ludlum, Jack Higgins(ne Harry Patterson), Leslie Charteris, John Sandford, Adelaide Manning and Cyril Coles, David Morrell, Patricia Cornwell, Larry Bond, James Clavell, Janet Evanovitch, Sir Arthur Conan-Doyle, Eric Von Lustbaader, John LeCarre, Len Deighton and... Stephen J. Cannell.
Here's a genius: He's created a whole lot of successful TV series', among them The Rockford Files, The A Team, Renegade, Silk Stalkings and Hunter. He's also appeared in various guest roles, most notably as Lt. "Dutch" Dixon, the corrupt cop who framed fellow cop Reno Raines(Lorenzo Lamas) for murder and pursues him throughout the series.
I'd be derelict if I didn't mention lovely Renegade co-star Kathleen Kinmont, just on GP.
Cannell's written a number of novels, all of which I've read and enjoyed tremendously. His books are refreshingly original and he researches his topics so that they are based in situations and details that smack of reality, and they are fluid reading, easy to read cover to cover, never a dull moment, constantly absorbing. Their genre is mostly crime/mystery.
Of all his novels to date, my favorite by far is King Con, a simultaneously amusing and riveting story about a man named Beano Bates who is the acknowledged master of the confidence game -- the Bates clan, scattered throughout the U.S., are a family of proficient con artists and in King Con, Beano brings them all into a megastakes, high-ticket con to bring down a major mobster.
Cannell provides a graphically detailed look into the dynamics of the con game, including the insiders' terminology such as "telling the tale", the different types of cons and how they work and the book is filled with great, well defined and often amusing characters. The novel is full of pleasant surprises yet also has its share of realistic brutal violence.
Cannell has a remarkable sense of humor that manifests itself in all of his books and I have yet to read one that isn't fun to read.
Posted by Seth at 12:18 PM |
July 14, 2005
Al-Ja'fari Interview
Iraqi Prime Minister Dr. Ibrahim al-Ja'fari, interviewed by London based daily Al-Sharq Al-Awsat, provided the viewpoint of himself and his new democratic government regarding the violence in Iraq, the eventual coalition troop withdrawal and the biased coverage Iraq recieves from the Arab media.
...."the first timetable is the exit of the multinational forces at a time that would serve the terrorists and make them destroy the Iraqi citizen and put an end to our democratic experience. The other timetable is to build our security forces and our national army to make them capable of defending Iraq. According to the latter [timetable], the multinational forces will leave with our gratitude, and this is what we have agreed on."
Them's my sentiments exac'ly.
Back in June, a bunch of scum sucking liberal politicians started pressing for an exit date from Iraq. That had to be one of those efforts I've referred to before to make President George W. Bush come out a failure, for purely partisan lefty political reasons. Setting a date would let the terrorists over there know they can stand down and just wait for us to pull out, then renew their attacks with the vim and vigor of the well rested after we've gone.
This would make the liberals and their Democrat lackies, who assininely predicted that Iraq would be a quagmire ala Vietnam, realize their politically corrupt fantasies. If you'll recall, as soon as we exited 'Nam, the communists from the north swarmed in and turned South Vietnam into another "workers' paradise." They murdered, tortured and/ or simply oppressed a citizenry who had trusted us to protect them. Since Iraq is not the Vietnam the libs claimed it would be, they seek to make it so. In order to do this, strictly to make Bush appear to have "fucked up royally", they are more than willing to condemn the Iraqi people to a tragic existence under a severe, fundamentalist Muslim regime. Even the feminist liberals, in order to discredit Bush, are more than happy to assure that the millions of women in Iraq fall under the thumb of subservience to their male counterparts, to the beatings, the lack of respect and the infant genital mutilation that would become coin of the realm.
No sweat, these hypocrite liberals would cheerfully celebrate their dubious victory.
Meanwhile, in the land of reality, there is a whole country full of people who are relishing their freedom from a sadistic despot and his psychopathic sons. They are embracing democracy with all their hearts, and that is good. A free country spawns beau coups less terrorists and its success influences its neighbors.
...."You are aware of what goes on in Iraq concerning the struggle of the Iraqi people... and the enemy of the Iraqi people with all his misdeeds, evils and savagery. Regrettably, many of the satellite television channels ignore and do not display the tragedies that occur in Iraq, such as the rape and murder of women and the violation of the sanctity of women, as though these things did not happen...
"There are crimes committed in Iraq that are not labelled as terrorism[such as] the murder of policemen and heroic Iraqi soldiers... The pure and honest Iraqi woman is killed and this is not reported as terrorism; The innocent Iraqi child is murdered and the Arabic media does not call it terrorism. The Arabic media remains hostile and not objective. I address my admonition to the satellite TV channels to rise to the level of their responsibility by showing the facts and calling a spade a spade."
Hmmmmm.... The Arab media sound an awful lot like our own Mainstream Media, don't they?
Ja'fari warned that the culture of bloodletting that, in his words, characterized the Saddam regime, "has now been adopted by the remaining elements of the [Saddam] regime, who declare: 'Either we govern Iraq or we burn it.' "
From the perspective of our efforts to secure democracy in the Mideast, we have done a lot. We have fostered actual democratic political efforts in a few countries over there, not least of which are Egypt and Lebanon and our efforts in Iraq have borne a democratically elected government there, as well.
The Democrats, for purely political purposes, don't want to acknowledge any of this. They are politically motivated liars (ever heard the term, "the Angry Left?") whose only interest is to depict Bush to be a liar and a failure so they can discredit the GOP and, hopefully for them, get some dishonest, treasonous piece of shit like Hillary Clinton into the Oval Office in the 2008 election. Bye, bye America as we know it....
The battle for Iraq is one we need to win, because in doing so we'll permit an Arab country to flourish and show the rest of the Islamic countries how well their citizens and, as a result their governments, can do when they are run by the will of the people....
Posted by Seth at 09:07 PM |
July 11, 2005
Patton's Ghost
This is just too awesome not to share!
Hat tip to Brenda, my Conservative Democrat aunt who, unlike most of her fellow travelers, was blessed with the gift of logic and the strong sense of patriotism that runs in our family.
Posted by Seth at 08:10 AM |
July 10, 2005
Palestinian Doubletalk
In today's Jerusalem Post, there is a dubious article titled Palestinians condemn London bombings.
Why do I call it dubious? No, I don't question the article itself, merely the fact that Palestinians quoted "condemned" Thursday's tragic events in London on the one hand, adding that they believe such acts can be harmful to Muslims and Arabs, then attempted to justify the bombings from the terrorists' perspective.
Here is a good example, courtesy of Hamas. After condemning that which they specialize in(attacking the innocent, et al) they continue:
"We in Hamas call upon the international community to stop all forms of occupation and aggression against Arabs and Muslims, especially in Palestine, Iraq and Iraq(quotation as it appears in the article), "said the statement. "The continuation of the occupation and aggression will lead to more tensions, hatred and bomb blasts."
I'm reminded of that terrorist in True Lies called Aziz, the "Sand Spider", when he is raving into the videocam about how he'll use his stolen nukes to "rain fire" on American cities if his demands are not met.
That's all that's about.
Oh, and of course there's the usual condolence/ deplorement bit from Arafat heir Fatah whip/ PA owner Mahmoud Abbas to Prime Minister Tony Blair, principally, I suspect, because Abbas desperately needs friends. It's not an unrealistic idea that Hamas might eventually take down Fatah and rule the Palestinians(yes, I said "rule", terrorist organizations don't support democratic causes the way Democrats support terrorist causes), using the polls to achieve this goal.
The article points out the fact that unlike in the aftermath of 9/11, the Palestinians didn't party in the streets after the London bombings. Of course they didn't, because they learned the first time what the rest of the world thinks of animals who joyously celebrate the butchery of large quantities of "infidels".
This time, they're trying to put a humane face on themselves, but don't be fooled: Even as they "condemn" a terrorist attack, they plan their own such operations against innocent men, women and children in Israel.
Recent history has shown that the late Rabbi Meir Kahane was right.
Posted by Seth at 07:29 AM |
July 09, 2005
Great Link
Intellectual Conservative offers this right on post about the western traitors(my take) who take the side of terrorism in order to self-justify their pro-terrorist, anti-western political bias.
If they feel so strongly, why don't they emigrate?
Posted by Seth at 11:20 PM |
I Told You So
On 1 July 2005, I posted my thought about the probability that Chief Justice William Rehnquist would be retiring at around the same time as Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, triggering a judicial circus for the left. It would appear that I was right, even though so many other bloggers and a lot of media venues seemed to avoid dwelling upon such a scenario.
As I said, the liberal/Dems will have an obstructionist's field day.
Trust me, they won't have even an iota of patriotism in their veins, they'll let the requirements of their War On Bush dictate their actions as "politics first, America second" traitors are apt to do....
Posted by Seth at 10:22 PM |
Dumb- Ass Terrorists
In Jewish World Review, Mona Charen has a to-the-point column on why the Islamic terrorists are stupid. Per my second to last post, I concur.
Posted by Seth at 10:15 PM |
Wal Mart's Detractors
Liberals attack Wal Mart the same way a pitbull does a trespasser on his master's property. Why?
Low wages without any chance of unionization. Total outsourcing, most of the chain stores' inventories made in China. One of America's most profound corporate success stories(the libs who program the opinions of Democrats today mostly have their own successful businesses, megasalaries or equally outsourced or "oppressive" corporations, but they conveniently leave them out of any assaults on "corporate America.") Bottom line? They're a prime target.
It matters little(if at all) to these liberals that Wal Mart makes it possible for low income families to enjoy the same luxuries and even necessities that upper income families do. Granted, they may not be manufactured in the U.S.A., but at least they're affordable to those customers who can't afford union-made American products. Why shouldn't a rural American who does a necessary job for $16,000.00 a year have a DVD player, a computer or be able to buy socks without spending money he needs to feed his children?
If Wal Mart was a union shop, they would have to readjust their pricing upwards, and that would mean less revenues from elements of the population that depend on the rock bottom prices to shop there. Or it would mean making adjustments such as staff reductions. Remember, people are in business to make money, and when the profits subside, they cut their losses via layoffs or termination of the the business(es) in question.
Wal Mart employs hundreds of thousands of people, significantly people in rural areas where there are otherwise no jobs at all and a lot of grateful employees stay with them forever.
The big city liberals who oppose Wal Mart's existence do not speak for the chain's customers, nor do they speak for Wal Mart employees. They speak only for themselves and their partisan political agendas. Some prick in L.A., San Francisco or New York who earns $100,000.00+ per year could care less about someone in the "Flyover Zone" who doesn't have the income to buy a major American brand nor any job options outside the local Wal Mart.
FUCK these sanctimonious liberals!
Posted by Seth at 09:29 PM |
Is Osama Over-Extending?
I have to wonder whether Bin Laden and his hordes of Islamofascist murderers are grossly overestimating their actual potentials to carry on their Godless campaign of global terror, as far as recruiting and safe havens, both of which are vital to them if they are to "stay in the game," are concerned.
I mean, you would think they already have enough on their plate, what with having to staff their operations in Iraq and Afghanistan as local troops and Coalition forces take their people out of the equation, and keep their activities in other parts of the world going as well. Instead of taking their war against mankind battle-by-battle with a controlled and controllable number of fronts, they are motivating an increasing amount of countries to move against them with increasing resources.
They kidnapped and executed the Egyptian Ambassador to Iraq, Ayheb al-Sherif, using harsh rhetoric against Egypt and also threatened other Muslim countries of the same treatment should they send diplomats to Iraq to intercourse with the new democratic government. This could only result in the loss of much of their support base in their own bailiwick and also provoke military responses from countries that formerly, if quietly, cheered them on. It could deprive them of places to hide, to store smallarms, explosives and supplies and potentially decrease their recruitment pool(there are almost certainly Muslims who would be more than happy to get to those 72 virgins in the act of murdering Jews, Americans and other westerners, but who would not want to make war on fellow Muslims nor even condone such a concept).
On Thursday, they pissed off the British more than they already were at terrorism and the rest of the Euro community(except maybe France, where they butt- munch tyrants and terrorists) by killing and severely wounding a large number of innocent civilians, while threatening Denmark and Italy. They've already gotten the Dutch people royally P.O.'d, and those folks are a tolerant lot if there ever was one.
After the butchery in London the other day, a stark reminder of 11 September 2001, I can only hope that a whole bunch of liberals wake up to the fact that we really are fighting a war against an enemy who wants only two possible conclusions: That they slaughter us all or that they rule us under the brutal and oppressive yoke of fundamentalist Islam. These "liberated" liberal women would love, I'm almost positive, the opportunity to wear the burka and serve their men as complete slaves who can be beaten by their husbands and even their sons for forgetting their "place," or stoned to death in public for not veiling themselves. The assholes who have managed to take prayer out of schools and who fight so hard to eliminate any references to God on any public properties or in any official forums would have a blast, I'm sure, if their political leadership not only forced them, under penalties of death or torture, to pray five times a day, observe Ramadan and ruled them according to strict Sharia law.
Back on topic, though, I definitely see the al-Queda murder organization inviting its own demise, another defeat in the history of Islam, a history, from the religion's beginning, of aggressive war against body of citizens that doesn't worship as they do, which will merely be a reprieve until the next time they feel they are "ready" to challenge the free world. Then they'll crawl back out from under their stone....
Over at Slate, William Saletan delivers a highly perceptive and in my opinion spot-on analysis of the current bin-Laden PR strategy.
After the London bombings, I don't think Osama will receive the western reactions he hopes to. You don't stir up a hornets' nest and then expect not to get stung.
Posted by Seth at 07:51 PM |
July 07, 2005
More On The London Bombings
The Wall Street Journal Online has some updated in-depth coverage on this morning's multiple bombings in London in which they name a possible suspect, a Moroccan man who's been living in Britain for about ten years.
Mohamed Guerbouzi, at one time a ranking member of GICM, the Moroccan Islamic Combat Group, has been under investigation by the Brits for suspected involvement in a Morocco suicide bombing in 2003 and last year's commuter train bombing in Madrid, which claimed the lives of 191 people. London, described as a hotbed of radical Islamism, also plays host to the likes of terrorism advocates Abu Hamsa al-Masri and Omar Mahmoud Abu Omar, known also as Abu Qatada.
The man has been allowed to move freely through England without any worries about the British government spiriting him away to a torture chamber or an interrogation clinic and making him talk. Had Britain been an Islamic country, his testies would have long ago been fried by electricity and he would have "sang" his heart out.
The Brits, like the United States, maintain a free society whose liberal side battles for "civil rights" that end up protecting terrorists as they plan attacks on those same "rights" advocates. Look at all the whining about racial profiling at airports and about the F.B.I. going into a terror suspect's hard drive being deemed an "invasion of privacy." Look at all the yelling about the "civil rights" of the very well treated prisoners at GITMO, who are of the same ilk as those involved in today's London bombings and the tragic events of 11 September 2001.
All those whining liberals whose words and actions support terrorists and terrorism need to stop and consider that these monsters want just as badly to murder them and their families as they do all other "infidels," and that they are enabling these terrorists to "keep on keepin' on" every time they stand in the way of a definitive measure in the War on Terror.
Of course they won't, they're too busy trying to "understand" the terrorists, to try and define "the reasons why they hate us."
Sing it! "Kumbaya..."
I wonder how many London liberals will come away from today's horrors with a more realistic point of view, as did many in New York after the in-your-face Islam 101 course on 11 September 2001.
Spiegel Online contributed this today:
A letter posted on a website frequently used by al-Qaida claims that the "Secret Organization of Al-Qaida in Europe" is responsible for today's massive terrorist attack on London. In it, the group also issues warnings to Denmark and Italy.
Here are a couple of excerpts that show just what kind of enemy we face in Islam. Liberals take note:
...."Rejoice, community of Muslims.... The heroic mujahedeen have conducted an attack in London..."
Yeah, rejoice at the mass murder of innocent people by the heroic mujahedeen. It takes a genuine hero to detonate bombs in crowded public places.
...."We've warned the British government and the British people time and again.... We've kept our promise and carried out a blessed military operation."
"A blessed military operation." or "A blessed military operation." Blessed by whom? Carried out by what nation's sovereign military authority?
These assholes remind me of the Mysterons from the old Captain Scarlet supermarionation TV series.
This attack against the British people should serve to strengthen the resolve of all nations to commit wholeheartedly to enjoining the GWOT and help those of our allies already thus engaged win this war, stamping out Islamofascist terror root and branch.
Posted by Seth at 10:00 PM |
Yeah, It's Terrorism In London
The explosions in London earlier were apparently terrorist acts and credit was claimed by Islamic militants. Why aren't I amazed?
Three explosions shook the London subway and one tore open a packed double decker bus today during the morning rush hour. The blasts killed at least two people and injured about 190 in what a shaken Prime Minister Tony Blair called a series of "barbaric" terrorist attacks.
...."Whatever they do, it is our determination that they will never succeed in destroying what we hold dear in this country and in other civilized nations throughout the world," said Blair.
A group calling itself "The Secret Organization of al-Qaida in Europe" posted a claim of responsibility for the blasts saying they were in retaliation for Britain's involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Web statement, republished on the site of the German magazine Der Spiegel, could not be immediately confirmed.
There is more at Middle East Online and the Guardian.
The death count being at 40 is abominable, hopefully the wounded will survive in a majority, but here we go again! These Islamofascists have destroyed property and done harm to civilians in the name of their cause. That is what they do. They wage war on the innocent. They rejoice in the butchery of small children in the name of their religion, enjoy heaping destruction and death on people and property that are incapable of fighting back because they are basically cowards, scum that is afraid to take on soldiers eyeball to eyeball but doesn't hesitate to murder when there is no one around to return fire.
So now they've attacked England, or at least they've demonstrated their usual cowardice there by using bombs to commit murder and mayhem.
Islam= Religion of dickless men who murder innocent, unarmed people over their phony 'religion of peace' and bully their women because men would kick their butts. Fucktards! Their men probably love it up the ass, and their women probably secretly prefer other women because they're more man than the men.
Posted by Seth at 02:00 PM |
Possible Terrorist Event
According to the Beeb, it is possible that London has been subjected to a series of terrorist attacks. There have been blasts in the "tube"(subway) and in above-ground public transit vehicles.
We will await further reports.
Posted by Seth at 09:42 AM |
Army Reenlistment Rate Is Healthy
According to this article at Military.com, while we hear that enlistments are down due to the public's supposed "disenfranchisement" with the war in Iraq, it seems that Army reenlistments are on the way to exceeding this year's target numbers, a large part of those numbers coming from among elite forces.
Through the end of May, 45,333 soldiers had reenlisted, said Lt. Col. Pamela Hart, an Army spokeswoman at the Pentagon. That's 70 percent of the Army's full year goal.
....Nearly 11,000 soldiers from the elite 18th Airborne Corps, which includes four of the Army's 10 active divisions, have "re-upped" this year. That's about 86% of the corp's full year goal, said the corps commander, Maj. Gen. Virgil Packett.
"The 18th Airborne is carrying the Army right now in retention," Packett said.
And leading the corps is the 82nd Airborne, which has reached 97 percent of its annual goal, even though it has deployed regularly to Iraq and Afghanistan.
The 82nd's paratroopers are "a special cut of American society," Packett said. "It takes a cut of a different person to jump out of an airplane."
Staff Sgt. Daniel Metzdorf decided to reenlist even though a roadside bomb blew off part of his right leg last year while he was in Iraq with the 82nd Airborne.
Interestingly enough, while so many of our young people are being turned off to enlisting and going to Iraq by the anti-war(anti-Bush, using the war as a political tool to attack our President) Mainstream Media's aggressive and continuous downplaying of the importance of what our brave military personnel are doing over there, it seems that tens of thousands of people who have been fighting the war know the truth; They see why we are there and are willing to remain in harm's way to help accomplish the mission.
Where do they find heroes like Sgt. Metzdorf, true patriots who, even having lost a limb, are willing to return to hell on behalf of their country? They find them among Americans who are proud of their country and the freedom America stands for, neither of which means anything to the anti-war liberals in our society nor to the spineless Democrat butt- munchers that march to their beat.
Posted by Seth at 02:44 AM |
July 06, 2005
On Sex Offenders
The illustrious Raven at Rightly So has posted this spot-on story about the kind of monster, a child-victimizing sex offender, that we need to do a lot more about eliminating than we have been doing.
The post cites a case of a man who kidnaped an eight year old girl and her nine year old brother and in the girl's case, kept her and abused her for six months. Her brother is presumed dead.
Raven's take on this is completely right, we have to deal with assholes like these in a definitive manner, not treat them like normal people with normal rights that enable them to mingle among the rest of the citizenry and choose their targets at their leisure.
"And the liberal sex freaks will come to his defense...and make excuses for all his "behavior" and blame his upbringing and everyone else but HIM..."
There are too damn many liberals who, not seeing any immediate dangers in sight for their own households, will expound upon this pervert's "rights" while ignoring those of the victim. The scenario's become all too commonplace. This "he suffered as a child" thing is genuinely too bad, but it's not the rest of our fault nor something the rest of us have any reason to feel guilty about. It doesn't excuse the courts for endangering the public by letting them have any kind of benefit of a doubt that lets them walk free. For the protection of the innocent, these types of predators have to be deprived of access to the public, not given a chance to wander the streets in search of new victims, not on bail, not on OR, not on an outpatient basis, parole or probation.
Posted by Seth at 03:51 PM |
No Hamas On Fatah Cabinet
I posted on this situation this past Friday, and yesterday, it would seem, Hamas decided to decline the Palestinian Authority's kind offer of membership in their cabinet, which Mahmoud Abbas had hoped they would accept in time for both entities to work together on transitioning the Gaza Strip, after the Israeli evacuation, to Palestinian occupancy.
Hamas' decision not to join the Palestinian Authority's cabinet poses a serious threat to the PA's efforts to impose law and order in the Gaza Strip after Israel's evacuation, PA officials warned on Tuesday.
....Hassan Yousef, a senior Hamas leader in the West Bank, said his movement prefers to hold parliamentary elections first before a national unity government is formed.
...."We are not interested in being in the PA just for the sake of it. We believe that the right way to do it is through elections." Mushir al-Masri, a spokesman for Hamas in the Gaza Strip said his movement was insisting on the formation of a united national committee to run the affairs of the Palestinians after the withdrawal.
Hmmm, what do I read into this?
I think Hamas is being clever here, not as in sneaky(at least no more so than anyone engaging in politics), but as in smart.
a) Had they joined the PA's cabinet, the Israelis might well have objected to the terrorist organization's being part of the official mix and decided to delay the evacuation of Gaza, while the turnover of the Gaza Strip to the Palestinians will be a phenomenon that will be in their best interests as it will present them with an independent subdivision on which they can stockpile weapons and from whence they can mount terrorist operations into Israel.
b) Hamas has designs upon taking the PA away from Abbas and Fatah and they realize that the most "legitimate" way of doing so in the current climate is by winning democratic elections. When they say they believe that elections are the only way to go, they are looking at the fact that they have become a popular political party and realize they could do better winning the votes of the people than suborning themselves to the Abbas faction by allowing themselves to be absorbed(keeping in mind that, as a "political party," the terror organization has both gained legitimacy among the Palestinians and also won a hell of a lot of municipal elections).
If the Palestinians finally gain statehood and then Hamas takes over their government, they'll be Terrorist Central, not only imposing Sharia law on their people but also intensifying the violence against innocent Israeli men, women and children.
Posted by Seth at 12:54 PM |
Fatal Hate Crime
I'd like to be able to say, with total honesty, that this is "fucking unbelievable," but unfortunately I can't as it seems our society, from the perspective of timing coinciding with the War On God, has regressed in some quarters to a level at which human life is valued as worthless as it is in so many third world countries while racism, thanks in large part to the bottom feeders at the ACLU, has begun a revival in America.
Despite what the ACLU would have us believe, racism can also define an anti-white stance.
July 6, 2005 -- A racist excon confessed that he fatally stabbed a beloved mother of two at a White Plains mall because he wanted "to kill a white person."
"She was not innocent. She was white," convicted rapist Phillip Grant confessed in a chilling videotaped statement to cops that was played in White Plains City Court yesterday -- the same day victim Concetta Russo Carriero was laid to rest.
This is a real shame, my prayers and my deepest condolences go out to the family of Mrs. Russo Carriero.
Posted by Seth at 12:29 PM |
July 04, 2005
The 4th Of July, 2005
Today is our country's birthday, the day the patriots who founded our great nation gave King George his walking papers and declared the United States of America a free country. The 229th birthday of a nation that, despite to this day being many centuries younger than countries that once dominated the globe is today the most free, the most awesome economic force and the nation that "owns" the most powerful military machine in existence.
I won't expound, I'll simply leave the talking to my president.
Happy 4th of July!
Posted by Seth at 11:10 AM |
A Mistake Pays Off
I hope this guy's luck holds to the end, screwups that work out like this one are truly a rare gift.
Goof Puts Man in Major Poker Tourney
Killeen, Texas - A computer Goof has Robert Guinther headed for a seat at the World Series of Poker tournament in Las Vegas later this week.
Guinther, 65, entered what he thought was a $10 online poker tournament, but midway through he realized that he had accidentally clicked on a World Series of Poker satellite tournament with a $100 entry fee and it was too late to back out. He went on to win, defeating 180 other competitors and earning a spot in the WSOP $10,000 no-limit championship.
The tournament, which begins Thursday, will involve more than 6,600 players who either qualified by winning a satellite tournament or paid the $10,000 entry fee.
"This is the dream of a lifetime," Guinther said. "I watch these guys on television all the time, and I'm excited about the chance to sit down and play with them."
Posted by Seth at 09:33 AM |
July 03, 2005
Peace through Superior Firepower
"Diplomats.... The best diplomat I know is a fully armed phaser bank."
----Lt. Commander Scott, Engineering Officer NCC 1701
Episode 23: A Tale Of Armageddon
Posted by Seth at 03:33 PM |
July 02, 2005
Mahmoud Abbas, Dumbass
I found this article in tomorrow's Haaretz online(time zones, remember).
Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas has invited the militant group Hamas to join his cabinet immediately so the two can jointly oversee the smooth handover of the Gaza Strip following Israel's withdrawal under the disengagement plan this summer, a Hamas official said Friday.
Hamas is considering the offer....
WTF!!!?
What was it Abba Eban said, "The Palestinians never miss the chance to lose an opportunity," or something like that?
Does Abbas really think the Israelis will maintain benevolent diplomatic relations with, let alone negitiate with a government comprised in part by a terrorist organization?
It seems like every time peace negotiations over there begin moving forward, the Palestinians find some way to sabotage them.
Predictably,
"Hamas is a murderous terrorist organization responsible for countless acts of senseless violence against innocent civilians,"(Israeli foreign Ministry spokesman Mark) Regev told the Associated Press. "Hamas is no partner for us in any sort of political process. They are part of the problem, not part of the solution," he said.
Did I say Mahmoud Abbas is a dumbass?
He's got to be, unless....
....he's doing this to forestall any Israeli concessions in order to prolong the violence, which would no doubt suit the al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade, Fatah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad and all the rest of the asshats whose only true ambitions involve killing Jews and causing whatever collateral damage(tourists, fellow Arabs, etc.) they can in the process.
Remember this website?
Posted by Seth at 12:48 AM |
July 01, 2005
Sandra(calling it a) Day O'Connor
Justice Sandra Day O'Connor has announced that she is stepping down from the Court.
Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, an important swing vote and the first woman appointed to the Supreme Court, said she is stepping down, opening the door for President Bush to begin reseating the high court with a more conservative bent for a generation to come on everything from abortion to affirmative action to business regulation.
In the near term, however, the high court vacancy could lead to a paralyzing confirmation fight that ties up Congress for the foreseeable future, delaying -- or derailing -- other ambitious elements of Mr. Bush's second term agenda, like overhauling Social Security and the tax code.
Justice O'Connor, 75 years old, said she expects to leave before the start of the court's next term in October, or whenever the Senate confirms her successor. It's been 11 years since the last opening on the court, one of the longest uninterrupted stretches in history.
....Justice O'Connor's departure would leave Ruth Bader Ginsburg as the only woman among the current justices. Congress and various interest groups had been gearing up for Chief Justice Rehnquist, who is battling thyroid cancer, to step down, and the list of possible replacements discussed had largely focused on those who would take his seat. Possible replacements for that position include Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales and federal circuit judges J. Michael Luddig, John Roberts, Samuel A. Alito, Jr., Michael McConnell, Emilio Garza and J. Harvie Wilkinson, III.
....The length and intensity of the confirmation battle hinges on how the White House chooses to fill the court opening. While Mr. Bush and aides have said repeatedly they're looking for "strict constructionists" of the Constitution -- judges seen as more likely to curb the powers of the federal government and more accepting of religion in public life -- some candidates would be more controversial than others.
Yeah, it looks like we're in for a long haul, here, where confirmation of a Bush nominee is concerned. If the track record of Democrat opposition to every other Bush nominee for every position is any indicator, this one will be another quagmire, courtesy of those folks on the left, as they continue their bitter, relentless war on George W. Bush. It doesn't matter whom he puts forward, there'll still be a battle just because the Dems have no other platform than their driving will to make Bush fail.
So far, luckily, they themselves have failed miserably in their attempts because the President is a stronger and better man than anyone musterable-up from among the human resources of the DNC.
I say a "long haul" for two reasons. There will not only be the pitched, lengthy battle over the O'Connor replacement, but if Chief Justice Rehnquist also retires as anticipated, there will be two positions to fill on the court and thus double the fun for the obstructionist Democrats, who will see a sterling opportunity to tie up Congress for an even longer period, holding up other legislation important to the Bush Administration as they pound exhaustively away at every detail they can think of to discredit Bush nominees.
In the Silver Lining Department, being ever the optimist, I wonder how many more conservative Democrats the coming partisan BS will move into the GOP camp in time for next year's elections. Hopefully lots.
Posted by Seth at 07:29 PM |
