They are reading blogs...

and apparently lifting material from them as well.

via NRO

When ex-wives attack.

New Jersey's nasty politics got even nastier earlier this week with the Governor's race:

From The Star Ledger:

"U.S. Sen. Jon Corzine's ex-wife said yesterday he "compromised his ideals" to get elected by cutting deals with political bosses, and that his pursuit of power "destroyed" their family.
Joanne Corzine said she was reluctantly breaking her silence because her ex-husband is giving an inaccurate portrayal of himself in his campaign for governor.
She said that when she campaigned by his side five years ago, she urged him not to get involved with Democratic political bosses, but he contributed millions of dollars to them to "buy their loyalty."

"It changed him. I think once you go down that road of making deals, compromising your ideals to get somewhere, it's easier to do it the next time," she told The Star-Ledger in an interview.
For the first time, she also said her ex-husband's affair with Carla Katz, president of New Jersey's largest state workers union, led to the breakup of their marriage.
"I think the relationship between Jon and Carla was the catalyst to our separation," she said.
Joanne Corzine met Jon Corzine in first grade and was married to him for 33 years. The couple raised three children together before divorcing two years ago.
"We grew up together. We came from first grade on. And our family was a unit and I think with the ambition that kind of took over our life -- his ambition -- it really destroyed our family as we knew it," she said.
"When he ran for Senate, family values were an important part of his campaign. We all helped campaign. And then when he got into the political arena, that changed, and I think people should know that because values are the core of what a person is."
Tom Shea, a senior campaign adviser to Corzine, had previously said the senator's romance with Katz began only after his separation from Joanne Corzine in March 2002. Last night, Jon Corzine did not dispute his ex-wife's statement on when the affair began."

Corzine's Republican opponent, Doug Forrester aired a TV commercial that features a disparaging quotation from the former Mrs. Corzine:

"All I could think was that Jon did let his family down, and he'll probably let New Jersey down, too," she told the Times."

Ouch. Ouch.

Should Forrester have used that in his commercial? What do you think? Since she did say it publicly and to a newspaper, it seems to me to be fair game.

Hmmm....

PARIS (AP) France's Cabinet authorized curfews under a state-of-emergency law Tuesday in an extraordinary measure to halt the country's worst civil unrest in decades after violence raged for a 12th night.

Extraordinary? Is it just me or is the French's response to the "worst civil unrest in decades" with rioting and burning out of control, a bit....too little too late? Especially the "too little" part. I mean giving the rioters a time to be home seems sort of ridiculous in the extreme. These kids are burning the neighborhoods down. Does anyone think they will obey a curfew?

What am I missing here? Some French fear of being grounded?

Wow.

Another Defense lawyer in the Saddam trial killed. It's becoming almost as dangerous to be a lawyer on that team as it was to live under Saddam's rule.

Can someone explain to me who and why they would want to kill these lawyers?

Why are these young people rioting in France?

Y ahoo news has this:

LE BLANC MESNIL, France - Bands of youths roaming Parisian suburbs burned more than 500 vehicles and hurled stones at police Friday, as the worst rioting in a decade entered its second week and spread elsewhere in France. The U.S. warned Americans against taking trains to the airport via strife-torn areas.

And Yahoo News explains why:

"The violence has exposed deep discontent in neighborhoods where African and Muslim immigrants and their French-born children are trapped by poverty, unemployment, racial discrimination, crime, poor education and housing."

But Victor Hanson Davis gives us a slightly different view.

I'll go with his:

"In the case of the Paris rioters, there are other explanations for their behavior that are more accurate than liberal clichés about “frustration.” As Dr Jack Wheeler puts it, “The problem is not that these Moslem kids are unemployed, but that they are unemployable. They are illiterate, unskilled except in crime, don't speak French well, refuse to assimilate into French culture and think being Moslem is more important than being French. Worse, they are paid by the French welfare state not to work, living well off the dole (and crime). The problem was epitomized by these words of a young Moslem rioter to a French reporter: 'In the day we sleep, go see our girlfriends, and play video games. And in the evening we have a good time: we go and fight the police.'”


Read the whole thing. It's good. As usual.

What might have been.

Dave Price over at Dean's World summarizes nicely the cost of NOT going to war:

"There's a relevant concept in business finance called "opportunity cost." It's the "cost" of not having the benefits of things you didn't do. What would Iraq's state be today had we not invaded, the opportunity cost of a decision not to invade? No Iraqi free press, no elections, no right to protest, the continued existence of state-sanctioned rape rooms and torture/murder centers, civil rights groups banned, continued Iraqi state support of terrorism, continued uncertainty about clandestine WMD development and WMD stockpiles, the continuation of the massive Oil-For-Food corruption, and very little hope of any of that changing. We'd be looking at another few decades of low-intensity war enforcing the no-fly zones, which inflamed Muslim opinion toward the U.S., or alternatively allowing Saddam to slaughter hundreds of thousands more Kurds and Shia, which we'd also be blamed for. Syria would likely still control Lebanon. And on top of all that, the looming end of the sanctions regime, allowing Saddam to pursue his WMD programs unfettered --with $60/barrel oil."

And we can't forget the two madmen sons waiting in the wings. The ones who so enjoyed the rape and torture rooms.

Liberals shouldn't try to be funny.

Seriously. Please. Stick to what you do best...whine and complain.

This is kinda cool...

Forbes has The E-mail Time Capsule. You type a message to yourself or to your children or maybe your young daughter types a message to herself about what she wants to accomplish for example. The e-mail can be sent back to you even 10 or 20 years later!

via boing boing

Say What??

Saudi to pay for weddings to fight terror

"RIYADH - The Saudi government said that it plans to keep former Guantanamo inmates from returning to terrorism by paying for their weddings. Assistant interior minister for security affairs Prince Mohammed Bin Naif Bin Abdel Aziz said that the government would also provide the men with a monthly salary bonus. The program is being set up for five of the 121 Saudi nationals held at Camp Delta after they were captured in Afghanistan."

Bombings or Brides, you CHOOSE!!!

Ok, whatever works.

Forgive me..

for making fun of a serious subject, but my college age son sent me the following e-mail (and if you knew him, it would be even funnier)

WARNING: Police are warning all men who frequent clubs, parties and local pubs to be alert and stay cautious when offered a drink from any woman.

Many females use a date rape drug on the market called "Beer". The drug is found in liquid form and available almost everywhere. It comes in bottles, cans, from taps and in large "kegs".

"Beer" is used by female sexual predators at parties and bars to persuade their male victims to go home and have sex with them. A woman needs only to get a guy to consume a few units of "Beer" and then simply ask him home for no strings attached sex. Men are rendered helpless against this approach. Many times these unfortunate men are swindled out of their life's savings in a scam known as a "relationship". In extreme cases, the female may even be shrewd enough to entrap the unsuspecting male into a longer term form of servitude and punishment referred to as "marriage".

Please! Forward this warning to every male you know. If you fall victim to this "Beer" and the women administering it.....there are male support groups where you can discuss the details of your shocking encounter

Rove must stay.

Bush letting go of Rove would send a message that the left can dictate things and that is unacceptable.

Bill Kristol also give several reasons Rove must stay, the most important being...winning.

"After all, it was with Rove as his primary adviser that Bush put together the remarkable back-to-back election successes of 2002 and 2004. Bush had barely won the presidency in 2000, and Republicans had lost five Senate seats. Yet with Rove's advice, Bush was able to help the GOP gain seats in both the House and the Senate in 2002 and 2004, as well as building a three million vote majority in the 2004 presidential election."

This is why the left hates him so. This is why this campaign to "get" Rove has been so vicious. This is why the left went into a tizzy when he wasn't indicted.

Rove knows how to win. Period. While I was busy having babies in the 90's, Rove was busy turning our state from Democrat to Republican. Replacing a very well liked Democrat governor, Ann Richards (who everyone thought was unbeatable, including myself) with a man named George W. Bush.

There's loyalty, and then there is just common sense. Rove should and must stay.

Kristol also points out that every time Bush's poll numbers have dropped it has been when he has tried to be bipartisan instead of pushing a Republican agenda. (see Social Security reform and the pork-laden highway bill)

The bottom line message here to Bush should be to stop trying to compromise with those who only want to bring you down. Stand strong on your agenda of advancing pro-growth and pro-family tax reforms. Explain in simple terms the reasons we stay the course in Iraq, and don't be afraid to appoint the judges YOU want appointed. Once again, don't try and please those who only wish you harm.

And for God's sake. Keep Rove.

A daring escape...

And a not so daring recapture. Here in Houston a man sentenced to death escapes jail by changing clothes and flashing a fake badge to securities.

Ok, imagine you're this man. You have just escaped the gas chamber. You are in Houston and they can't find you. You head for the Mexican border, right? Once you're in Mexico you're a free bird, they will never catch you. And what is even sweeter, the border is just a hop, skip, and jump away.

But what do you do??? You go to Shreveport, La. and get drunk and get caught.

Ah, the mind of a criminal.

Not to overstate the obvious...

But everything that is happening now in France illustrates why we should never have respect for anything they say. They are weak willed, frozen in the face of decisions, and incapable of shutting down the violence that rocks their country.

Online Lessons In Terror.

From the TimesOnline:

AN Al-Qaeda website containing detailed instructions in Arabic on how to make nuclear, “dirty” and biological bombs has attracted more than 57,000 hits and hundreds of readers’ inquiries. Terrorism experts are warning that the site could be boosting the organisation’s appeal to would-be assassins in Britain and abroad.

The manual, posted on October 6 on a forum titled Al-Firdaws, or Paradise, contains 80 pages of instructions and pictures of kitchen bomb-making techniques. It is divided into nine lessons under the overall heading The Nuclear Bomb of Jihad and the Way to Enrich Uranium, and is dedicated as a “gift to the commander of the jihad fighters, Sheikh Osama Bin Laden, for the purpose of jihad for the sake of Allah”.

As well as describing how to make a nuclear bomb from enriched uranium — impossible for the layman — the manual explains how to make simple bombs that can blow up anything from electrical generators to petrol stations.

Read more.

They may live in tents and rarely bathe, but they have the internet. I hope we are paying attention.

Splendor In The Ass....

Ok, sorry. I just couldn't resist that one. Warren Beatty is following around Schwarzenegger as Schwarzenegger travels the state drumming up support of ballot measures that would curb the power of the Democrat- controlled Legislature and the state's public employee unions. Another measure he backs would extend the trial period for teaches to get tenure.

On the one hand Beatty says this about Schwarzenegger's campaigning, "To me, this is an abuse of the initiative process." And yet when asked if he would be running for Governor in the future, Beatty says, " "I don't want to run for governor. I want to say what I think."

So Beatty wants to say what he thinks, but he doesn't want the Governor to do so?

Such is the mind of a liberal.

*note: Although my post title may sound like a gay porn movie, it isn't. For those not familiar with old movies,the title is after the movie that first made Beatty famous, "Splendor In The Grass." Which is an interesting movie about a young girl who goes insane because she can't have sex with Beatty. Simply put, of course...;-)

Valour IT!

I forgot to mention that I am part of the MARINE team. So if our team gets the most donations, the Marines beat the Army, Navy and Air Force teams. (note: I love them all!)

If you look over at my sidebar, you can see a button for giving to Project Valour IT. It is a project of Soldiers' Angels. The purpose is to attain voice-activated laptops for injured soldiers , "it is not a matter of a short-term emotional boost, or even the sustenance gleaned from the knowledge that one is "remembered." It is a matter of assistance in reclaiming a part of one's wholeness and independence in the face of life-altering injuries, repeated surgery, painful physical therapy, and the isolation of the hospital room."

As you know, I don't have a pen pay button on my site or a tip jar or ads. I don't ask for money for myself ever. But anyone who reads my blog knows how much I love our military. They are who keep us free. So if you can give a bit to help those who sacrificed for us, I would deeply appreciate it.

Ok, here's a nightmare.....

It's not as scary as Pres. Hillary, but still......

Read some of it. It's funny. In a tragic way. Like talking to someone who seriously believes Elvis is still alive.

h/t Jeff

Former Pres. Carter speaks out against abortion...

about 30 yrs too late.

Here are the quotes from The Washington Times:

Former President Jimmy Carter yesterday condemned all abortions and chastised his party for its intolerance of candidates and nominees who oppose abortion. "I never have felt that any abortion should be committed -- I think each abortion is the result of a series of errors,"

"I've never been convinced, if you let me inject my Christianity into it, that Jesus Christ would approve abortion."

Mr. Carter said his party's congressional leadership only hurts Democrats by making a rigid pro-abortion rights stand the criterion for assessing judicial nominees.

"I have always thought it was not in the mainstream of the American public to be extremely liberal on many issues," Mr. Carter said. "I think our party's leaders -- some of them -- are overemphasizing the abortion issue."

Victor Davis Hanson just rocks.

Once again he shows us how we focus on the wrong things:

"Westerners far too rarely publicly denounce radical Islam for its sick, anti-Semitic, anti-female, anti-American, and anti-modernist rhetoric. Just imagine the liberal response if across the globe Christians had beheaded schoolgirls, taken over schoolhouses to kill students, and shot school teachers as we have witnessed radical Muslims doing these past few months.

Instead, Western parlor elites are still arguing over whether there were al Qaedists in Iraq before the removal of Saddam Hussein, whether the suspicion of WMDs was the real reason for war against the Baathists, whether Muslim minorities should be pressured to assimilate into European democratic culture, and whether constitutional governments risk becoming intolerant in their new efforts to infiltrate and disrupt radical Muslim groups in Europe and the United States. Some of this acrimony is understandable, but such in-fighting is still secondary to defeating enemies who have pledged to destroy Western liberal society. At some point this Western cannibalism becomes not so much counterproductive as serving the purposes of those who wish America to call off its struggle against radical Islam."

And he shows us solutions:

"Instead, the world—if it is to save its present liberal system of free trade, safe travel, easy and unfettered communications, and growing commitment to constitutional government—must begin seeing radical Islamism as a universal pathology rather than reactions to regional grievances, if it is ever to destroy it materially and refute it ideologically.
Yet the antidote for radical Islam, aside from the promotion of democratization and open economies, is simple. It must be militarily defeated when it emerges to wage organized violence, as in the cases of the Taliban and al Qaeda in Afghanistan, Zarqawi’s terrorists in Iraq, and the various killer cliques in Palestine.

Second, any who tolerate radical Islam should be ostracized. Muslims living in the West must be condemned when they assert that the Jews caused 9/11, or that suicide bombing is a legitimate response to Israel, or that Islamic immigrants’ own unique culture gives them a pass from accustomed assimilation, or that racial and religious affinity should allow tolerance for the hatred that spews forth from madrassas and mosques — before the patience of Western liberalism is exhausted and “the rules of the game” in Tony Blair’s words “change” quite radically and we begin to see mass invitations to leave.

Third, nations that intrigue with jihadists must be identified as the enemies of civilization. We often forget that there are now left only four major nation-states in the world that either by intent or indifference allow radical Islamists to find sanctuary."

Read the whole thing.

Can we run this man for President in 08"? Because he just gets it.

I can't describe my disgust.

You have got to read this post at Mudville about how the New York Times "edits" or misquotes American GIs. This example is beyond the pale, mainly because the soldier is no longer with us.

"... the Times took these words from US Marine Corporal Jeffrey B. Starr:

"Obviously if you are reading this then I have died in Iraq. I kind of predicted this, that is why I'm writing this in November. A third time just seemed like I'm pushing my chances. I don't regret going, everybody dies but few get to do it for something as important as freedom. It may seem confusing why we are in Iraq, it's not to me. I'm here helping these people, so that they can live the way we live. Not have to worry about tyrants or vicious dictators. To do what they want with their lives. To me that is why I died. Others have died for my freedom, now this is my mark."

And edited them down to this:

Sifting through Corporal Starr's laptop computer after his death, his father found a letter to be delivered to the marine's girlfriend. "I kind of predicted this," Corporal Starr wrote of his own death. "A third time just seemed like I'm pushing my chances."

Right. Let's just edit out all references to his patriotism and his belief and understanding of his mission, and make it seem that that he just saw it as a numbers game.

The New York Times makes me sick, sick, sick. Print all the anti-war rants you wish, just don't use and lie about our fallen soldiers to do it.

Scumbags.

UPDATE: From Media Blog-- "The mother of Cpl. Jeffrey B. Starr was on "The O'Reilly Factor" tonight. She said that in addition to quoting only the most negative parts of a letter Starr wrote to his girlfriend to be read in case he was killed, the Times made some factual errors, such as his date of death and how he died. She said the story overall did not portray her son accurately. The Times, which has already tried to defend the story's portrayal of Starr, will now have to look at whether it got basic facts right."

The Political Teen has the video from the O'Reilly show. (link at bottom of post)

One just has to love
European Underwater Hockey.

This picture is just screaming to be captioned.

It's always been a rule of mine.....

to never shop while nude or drunk. But those crazy brits.....

Now, after reading the link. Be honest. Have you ever done either or both???

I figure most of those brits look like this anyway.... Heh.

Let's Investigate.

In a quick followup to the post below. The whole showboating of having the Senate in closed session by the Democrats was all about questioning intelligence that President Bush used in the run-up to the war in Iraq. But if we do more investigating than we already have done, then lets really go through the whole thing. A commenter named Phinn over at Ace had some good ideas on where to start:

"We can talk all about the unanimous opinion of all the world's intelligence services, including our own government going back at least one or two administrations.

We can talk about the production capacity to manufacture chemical and biological weapons that we found.

We can talk about the caravan of trucks on the eve of the invasion that streamed out of Iraq and into Syria that has still not been accounted for or explained.

We can talk about how, when collecting information on the possible attempt by Iraq to buy uranium, one of the members of the Mickey Mouse Section of the CIA sent her husband, a well-established preening idiot, to go drink tea with African officials rather than do a real investigation."

Have you wondered where Hillary is....

with this "Bush lied" crowd? It's interesting. Hillary is the Democrats best chance at the White House in '08. It will certainly be a bloody fight if anyone tries to take away the nomination from her. But there is this loud roar from the Democrat side saying that the intelligent information regarding Saddam was manipulated by the Bush administration. But the thing is, their number one chance at the White House felt very differently:

In the four years since the inspectors left, intelligence reports show that Saddam Hussein has worked to rebuild his chemical and biological weapons stock, his missile delivery capability, and his nuclear program. He has also given aid, comfort, and sanctuary to terrorists, including al Qaeda members ... It is clear, however, that if left unchecked, Saddam Hussein will continue to increase his capacity to wage biological and chemical warfare, and will keep trying to develop nuclear weapons.
- Sen. Hillary Clinton (D, NY), Oct 10, 2002

The intelligence which the president shared with us was in line with what we saw in the White House"
-- - Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, 2003

via Ace

Here are a host of quotes from prominent Democratic leaders that they probably don't want you remembering.

The the most telling one? Well, it's by the guy who will probably give Hillary her bloody fight for the nomination..John Kerry.

[Without question, we need to disarm Saddam Hussein. He is a brutal, murderous dictator, leading an oppressive regime ... He presents a particularly grievous threat because he is so consistently prone to miscalculation ... And now he is miscalculating America's response to his continued deceit and his consistent grasp for weapons of mass destruction ... So the threat of Saddam Hussein with weapons of mass destruction is real ..." Sen. John F. Kerry (D, MA), Jan. 23. 2003.

There is even a quote on that link of Bill Clinton as President asking for military action because of Saddam's WMD program.

So the question is this. If Bush lied, then didn't Both Clintons and Kerry and the rest lie as well?

I heard Arianna Huffington asked this question on the radio yesterday and she said, "But they didn't go to war." How strange. You mean it's only a lie if you go to war? If we hadn't gone, then it becomes the truth?

What a game the Democrats play.

At least the Democrats admit.....

that the closed Senate session was all a game.

"My phones have been ringing off the hook" at the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, Schumer said. "It has played far better than we had thought."

via NRO

Judges Gone Wild.

Ace says it better than I could:

The Ninth Circus Strikes Again

"While exposing children of tender years to the Pledge of Allegiance is a traumatic and searing experience of gob-smacking heartache, apparently soliciting parental consent for a "survey of early trauma" without mentioning that it asks first graders (as well as third and fifth graders) about their sexual habits is just peachy A-OK doubleplusgood!"

The unbelievable quote in the court decision is this:

"We agree, and hold that there is no fundamental right of parents to be the exclusive provider of information regarding sexual matters to their children, either independent of their right to direct the upbringing and education of their children or encompassed by it."

Stunned and sickened are the only words that can describe how I feel about this. This, my dear friends, is the reason it is so important to have judges appointed by common sense Republicans who understand that parents are the ones who decide what is best for their own children.

What have Republicans done for minorities?

The following was said by a commenter in the post below:

"As a Republican, I feel the only way we're going to build an honest and permanent majority in this great nation is by reaching out to all people. First on our list should be addressing problems created by racism, inequality in education and distrust in our nation which are long overdue. If we can take this on, we can destroy the Left's last remaining bastion of strength.

If it sounds like I have some experience here, it's because while I am white, my wife is black. It's difficult to extol the virtues of our chosen party to her family, to say the least. When I'm asked "What have Republicans done for minorities in the United States?" I have no good answers. In fact, I come up pretty empty handed."

Well I can answer that question for you. And it is this. The question is the wrong question. Because the government isn't there to help any particular group based on skin color. I mean, think about it. Isn't that an insult to the black community to ask what a party can do for them as if whites don't need to have that question asked?

If a question is to be asked it also isn't "What have the Democrats done for you?" If anything, it should be "What have the Democrats DONE to you?

I grew up in the middle of the civil rights movement in Mississppi. I graduated from a formerly all black high school. I saw first hand the growth of the welfare state that practically destroyed the black family. The root of poverty in this country, black or white, is clearly children born into families with no father present. Nothing will change if that doesn't change. And there isn't a damn thing the government can do about THAT.

The Democrats had good intentions in the 60's. They did not forsee the vicious cycle of poverty that would become generational because of welfare. They did not see that handing out checks to unwed mothers would discourage marriage and make the man unecessary. But that is what happened and that is the root cause of the problems in the inner city.

As Bill Cosby pointed out, the problems that need to be addressed in the black community are ones that must be addressed by they themselves. But just to make it clear. No President has given more money to education for the inner city than Bush has. His "No Child Left Behind Act" was directly targeting the poor communities exactly where he felt the government could do the best, in education. He increased funding for the head start program, another educational program targeted for the poor. And heaven knows he could not have done more for the victims of Katrina.

While I understand Bush's desire for better education for the poor, he too makes the mistake in thinking that money is the answer. We have been throwing money into education for decades and have seen little improvement. It is clear that children who have stable loving homes get a good education. Not because the school is new looking or the books are not old. But because parents are home to make them study, examples are set, rules are in place, and disipline is taught.

Looking for the government to solve the problems of minorities is exactly where the problems started in the first place and it is high time black Democrats realized this.

Next time a relative asks you that question tell them that the Republicans have done for the black community the same as they have done for the white community and the rest of ethnic groups. We don't see people as groups, we just see them as people. And for all of us Republicans have fought the heavy burden of being overtaxed. They fight against beaucracy and red tape for the small business. They fight for the right to life of all unborn children. They fight against social engineering that the Democrats wish to have (gay marriage). They fight against overregulation that strangles entrepreneurialship. For the most part Republicans fight for the exact thing that the black community needs the most...economic freedom. They provide tax incentives for business. It was the Republican's idea to provide "empowerment zones" for poor communites in order for people to own their own home instead of relying on the government. They fought for years for welfare reform in order to get people to work instead of relying on the government.

The bottom line is that the only government programs that truly promote change in the poor communites are the ones that provide economic freedoms, not the social programs that just provide a bandaid to a wound that must be addressed by the community themselves.

I don't want you to think that I don't feel that racism plays into the distrust that the black community feels. I know racism exists. But it is difficult to be bothered by a racist when one's life is full of opportunity and success, both personal and professionally. I feel the distrust is based on propaganda promoted by Democrats in order to keep blacks away from the Republican party. And it has worked. Laws are on the books against discrimination. That is what the government CAN do. The rest is simply up to us.

I am sure you have seen this. It is all over the blogosphere. I was late getting to it because of being so busy today! Thanks to Jill for reminding me of it.

Michell Malkin is all over it, of course. She knows this kind of leftwing bigotry herself all too well.

The Washington Times today:

"Black Democratic leaders in Maryland say that racially tinged attacks against Lt. Gov. Michael S. Steele in his bid for the U.S. Senate are fair because he is a conservative Republican.
Such attacks against the first black man to win a statewide election in Maryland include pelting him with Oreo cookies during a campaign appearance, calling him an "Uncle Tom" and depicting him as a black-faced minstrel on a liberal Web log.
Operatives for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) also obtained a copy of his credit report -- the only Republican candidate so targeted.
But black Democrats say there is nothing wrong with "pointing out the obvious."

Imagine for a moment if you will, a Republican doing such a thing. The howling from the left would be heard across the nation! You know what really makes me sick? Is thinking it's ok to denigrate his race if you happen to share that race.

The oreos are dispicable. It reinforces the notion to young black kids that they must follow a certain dress code or mindset or way of speaking to be black.

And the ministrel face! Who in their right mind would do such a thing????????

Good Grief! Every black in Maryland should vote for Steele just as a protest alone for this kind of sick behavior.

Things...They are a changin.....

My online friend from townhall chat room is a soldier in Iraq right now. He has an article at Tech Station right now. regarding America having enough troops in Iraq. I misposted earlier and said that he had written the following. I misunderstood him. But he did direct me to the following post by Chuck Holton:

TIKRIT, Iraq - Let's begin in Tikrit, the city best known as the birthplace of Saddam Hussein. We spent some time here on Forward Operating Base Danger, a sprawling compound of 68 palaces that Hussein built for his family.This island used to belong to Saddam's sons. But today, this area is a training center for new Iraqi security forces, which has graduated more than 1,500 new Iraqi soldiers and policemen.

The palace is now the headquarters for the 42nd Infantry Brigade, which is comprised of 23,000 active duty, guard, and reserve soldiers from 29 states. Its commander, Major General Joseph Taluto, laments that the mainstream media does not show the progress that is being made in the region.

"Nobody reports the attacks we stop,” Taluto said. “They don't report the SVBIEDs (car bombs) that we catch at a checkpoint. They don't talk about the thousands of people that we’ve arrested since we've been here in north central Iraq, and put in jail with evidence.

"In addition, the 42nd will soon be leaving this base in the hands of the new Iraqi government.

Forty miles down river is Samarra, a town of 200,000 in the heart of the Sunni Triangle.

There has not been much reported from here lately, either. In fact, our crew was the first media team to enter Samarra this year.

It is considered to be an insurgent stronghold, one of the most dangerous places in Iraq at this time, and the unit we were embedded with has lost an average of one soldier a month since it has been here. But even in this bleak city, progress is being made.

Forward Operating Base Brassfield-Mora is the command post for operations inside Samarra. Lieutenant Colonel Mark Wald commands the unit.

Wald said, "If you talk to the average man on the street, they don't want coalition forces to leave. They love having the U.S. over here. We treat them with dignity and respect. We treat them fairly. We provide them with economic opportunity. We are all about making this a better place. The insurgents don't have that to offer them."

Pursuing this mission, the civil affairs team here has completed more than 150 humanitarian projects in the last nine months.

We saw an electrical power substation that the team is building. And while it may not look like much, it is one of the ways that the U.S. is working to help the Iraqi people get back on their feet, so that troops can come home. The substation will provide electricity for the city of Samarra.
And a water plant, paid for by coalition funds, pulls two million gallons a day out of the Tigris River and pumps it into the city.

A fire station in the city gets a new generator. And a new police station is being built.

But these projects are not without their setbacks. At this local college, the headmaster complains that the new lab building funded by the U.S. has been delayed by problems.

The headmaster said, "The contractor leave this building before about three months. I haven't seen him. I understand that the other side, guerilla, whatever they are, they ask him to give - you know - they want money. Now he leaves, I need this building because I have a lot of students."
This kind of challenge is being seen throughout the country. Much of the chaos seen in Iraq these days is as much from common criminals as it is from insurgents, which underscores the importance of these types of projects.

"Many of the people in Samara have no real economic opportunity right now,” Wald said, “as long as the insurgency stays the way it is. And so, instead of joining the Iraqi army for a few hundred dollars a month, they can put a roadside bomb out for $100. Whether they are effective or not, they can make more money doing that right now than they can in a legitimate enterprise.”

And so, while fighting the insurgency is a big priority, bringing economic stability to the people of Iraq is just as important.
Captain Radcliffe Antoine is a physician's assistant at Forward Operating Base Warhorse in Baquba. From his perspective, things are definitely getting better.

"I think the news gives you the picture that Iraq is on fire and it's burning down,” said Capt. Antoine. “And that's not what we find here day to day. Back in the March - April timeframe, we would generally see eight-10 people a week coming through with significant head/ thoracic/ abdominal injuries. And over the last few months, those numbers have decreased to the point where we'll go three, four weeks without seeing any injuries at all. The news [seems to] broadcast things that are sensational, and the everyday victories are not necessarily newsworthy in their eyes. To say that a school has been constructed - most people don't want to hear about that - but for us it's a steadfast improvement that we see day to day."
Wald stated, "This is the great thing about being an American. We have the ability to show other cultures hope. And we can show them exactly what it is to be free, to be able to have the right to choose what you want to do. Whether it's the right to religion, the right to free speech, the right to protest if you want without fear of being killed in public. We have the ability to show the rest of the world what freedom really is.”

While most of the soldiers we talked to believe our work here is far from over, all of them said that they believe a stable Iraq will eventually make the whole world safer. How long that will take, however, remains to be seen.

Oh For Heaven's Sake....

They didn't get Rove so now this.

WASHINGTON Nov 1, 2005 — Democrats forced the Republican-controlled Senate into an unusual closed session Tuesday, questioning intelligence that President Bush used in the run-up to the war in Iraq.."

Jeff at Protein Wisdom has a pretty good take on it:

"Harry Reid and Democratic Senators have invoked Rule 21 and closed the Senate, barring C-SPAN, reporters, etc. Reid claims to be doing this because he is upset that the Senate has refused to hold hearings into the pre-war intelligence lies of Chimpy McHilterburton and his bloodthirsty band of warmongering neocons. Evidently, the bi-partisan Senate report that already pronounced on such questions isn’t good enough—and, given the recent Libby indictments (which special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald explicitly stated has nothing to do with pre-war intelligence), Democrats wish to be able to waste time and money creating an appearance of impropriety rather than concentrating on the business of governing.
Bill Frist is calling this grandstanding manuever—which is an attempt to call attention to the desire for an even greater grandstanding maneuver, namely, hearings on the false charges leveled by congenital liar Joseph Wilson—an “affront” and a “deeply disappointing.”

"For my part, I find stunts like these almost refreshing, in that they show quite clearly that the Democratic Party’s agenda is driven entirely by a desire to bring down this Republican adminstration and install itself in their place—and any damage done to the country barely rates consideration."

Lawmakers Attend Human Rights Conference
People: Hillary Clinton; Sam Brownback; Gary Haugen

I think a caption contest is in order here.

Deja Vu'????

All over again.

Michael Yon is home for a short time.....

And he is going dancing with Bruce Willis. Read about it here.

The nice before the storm?

Just to say they did? Trying to shine up their tarnished image? Hmmm.. The NYT goes all mushy on Alito.

via Ace

Remembering 2000 of our Best and Brightest.

The Black Republican has this excellent essay doing just that. And he points out the view that our MSM and Democrats don't seem to ever focus on...the brave and noble sacrifice of our soldiers and Marines.

".....it seems that on October 25th we reached some sort of artificial milestone: 2,000 of our country's best and brightest have died liberating Iraq. As is the case with most things done by the MSM, this "milestone" is only recognized for it's negatives, with no mention of anything positive that the sacrifice of those brave 2,000 men and women has attained, nor any mention of the fact that the reality of Iraq is so much better than what most had expected. Senator Patrick Leahy (Democrat-Vermont) even used the occasion to suggest we cut and run from Iraq the way we cut and run from Vietnam. All I can say is if we do what Senator Leahy (Democrat-Vermont) suggests then we will guarantee that those 2,000 soldiers did indeed die for nothing, and sign the death sentences of hundreds of thousands, perhaps even millions of Iraqi citizens. You know the ones, those with the purple fingers."

Read the rest.

"Geraldo At Large?"

Large ego maybe. New show for Geraldo.

Read all about how America would be if he ruled it. He considers himself "an Oprah Winfrey Republican. You know, by that I mean I admire Oprah's entrepreneurial skill, but I admire her compassion, also. She's a true compassionate conservative. You could also call me a Hillary Clinton Republican. That's my own personal philosophy. It's all about free trade, and capitalism is the engine that drives the world -- but you have to have really deep feeling for people. You need a real safety net, not one that's spoken about in political jargon."

Aren't those things like being a sexy Janet Reno or a brainy Pamela Anderson?

Yeah. Nice try Geraldo.

It's all about abortion.

Judge Alito is already being criticized for his abortion rulings. Look, pro-choice or pro-life, Roe v. Wade was bad law. In 1973 we didn't have 3-D sonograms. We didn't know what we know now scientifically about unborn life. We also know that Jane Roe lied about being raped, NARAL lied about the number of women having illegal abortions ect... The whole case was decided on lies. Shouldn't that be enough to look at it again? It is time for those on both sides to look at the various abortion laws and look at what abortion has done to women (not to mention their babies) WARNING! Last link VERY graphic!

It's time.

And if it takes overturning Roe (which will NOT outlaw abortion) so we can have a national debate. Then we need to do it. We may not like it. But it is necessary. And fighting every Judge that is willing to do so will just continue the divide.

Good Consumer News.

Here.

Here is what some prominent Democrats had to say in the past about Judge Alito.

Courtesy of the Republican Party:

SEN. TED KENNEDY (D-MA): "You Have Obviously Had A Very Distinguished Record, And I Certainly Commend You For Long Service In The Public Interest. I Think It Is A Very Commendable Career And I Am Sure You Will Have A Successful One As A Judge." (Sen. Ted Kennedy, Committee On The Judiciary, U.S. Senate, Hearing, 4/5/90)

SEN. FRANK LAUTENBERG (D-NJ): "I Believe Mr. Alito Has The Experience And The Skills To Be The Kind Of Judge The Public Deserves -- One Who Is Impartial, Thoughtful, And Fair. I Urge The Senate To Confirm His Nomination." (Sen. Frank Lautenberg, Congressional Record, 4/27/90, p. S5281)

FORMER SEN. BILL BRADLEY (D-NJ): "[T]he Confirmation Of Sam Alito As U.S. Attorney For New Jersey Is Testimony To The Commitment He Has Shown And The Success Of His Efforts As A Law Enforcement Official. I Am Confident That He Will Continue To Do All He Can To Uphold The Laws Of This Nation With The Kind Of Determination And Vigor That Has Been His Trademark In The Past." (Sen. Bill Bradley, Congressional Record, 12/8/87, p. S17427)

Kennedy and Lautenberg are still in the senate.

via A Face Made 4 Radio, A Voice Made 4 the Internet

Also Alito's biography.

Halloween Origins.

"The true origins of Halloween lie with the ancient Celtic tribes who lived in Ireland, Scotland, Wales and Brittany. For the Celts, November 1 marked the beginning of a new year and the coming of winter. The night before the new year, they celebrated the festival of Samhain, Lord of the Dead. During this festival, Celts believed the souls of the dead—including ghosts, goblins and witches—returned to mingle with the living. In order to scare away the evil spirits, people would wear masks and light bonfires.

When the Romans conquered the Celts, they added their own touches to the Samhain festival, such as making centerpieces out of apples and nuts for Pomona, the Roman goddess of the orchards. The Romans also bobbed for apples and drank cider—traditions which may sound familiar to you. But where does the Christian aspect of the holiday come into play? In 835, Pope Gregory IV moved the celebration for all the martyrs (later all saints) from May 13 to November 1. The night before became known as All Hallow’s Even or “holy evening.” Eventually the name was shortened to the current Halloween. On November 2, the Church celebrates All Souls Day.

The purpose of these feasts is to remember those who have died, whether they are officially recognized by the Church as saints or not. It is a celebration of the “communion of saints,” which reminds us that the Church is not bound by space or time.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church says that through the communion of saints “a perennial link of charity exists between the faithful who have already reached their heavenly home, those who are expiating their sins in purgatory and those who are still pilgrims on earth. Between them there is, too, an abundant exchange of all good things” (#1475)."

Saint Anthony Messenger.

Happy Halloween Everyone! Have Fun!

Bush nominates Judge Samuel Alito to the US Supreme Court.

Let the bloodletting begin.

Project Valour-IT

Soldiers' Angels' has this:

"Project Valour-IT, in memory of SFC William V. Ziegenfuss, provides voice-controlled software and laptop computers to wounded Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Marines recovering from hand and arm injuries or amputations at major military medical centers. Operating laptops by speaking into a microphone, our wounded heroes are able to send and receive messages from friends and loved ones, surf the 'Net, and communicate with buddies still in the field without having to press a key or move a mouse. The experience of CPT Charles "Chuck" Ziegenfuss, a partner in the project who suffered hand wounds while serving in Iraq, illustrates how important this voice-controlled software can be to a wounded servicemember's recovery."

Read more and do what you can to help!

Who is outraged when Christians suffer?

Three teenage girls beheaded in Indonesia

JAKARTA (Reuters) - Men in black clothes and masks beheaded three teenage Christian girls on Saturday in eastern Indonesia as they walked to school near the Muslim town of Poso, officials said.

The article goes on:

Poso, 1,500 km (900 miles) northeast of the capital Jakarta, is in an area where Muslim-Christian clashes killed 2,000 people until a peace deal was agreed in 2001.
Although religious fighting has largely subsided, tension is still high in the region following bombings in the neighboring Christian town of Tentena which killed 22 people in May.
Security experts have said local Islamic radicals may have been responsible for the bombings in Tentena.

Will this get the same kind of global outrage as the burning of Taliban bodies? Especially since these were INNOCENT GIRLS and not terrorists?

We shall see.

WARNING!!! Extremely disturbing still pictures of the girls here. To be honest. I haven't viewed the pictures. I am just going on what they are saying at Ace about it. I can't view these things.

Interesting.

DUBAI (Reuters) - Deposed Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein had secretly accepted a last-minute plan to go into exile to avert the 2003 Iraq war, but Arab leaders shot the proposal down, Al Arabiya television reported on Friday.

According to Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak the U.S. had expressed it's support of the plan as well.

I am always amazed at the vital informative news that seems to get away from journalists these days. We find out things long after they are of any value except to ask why? Perhaps it is because they are too interested in going after only that which suits their agenda?

via Ace.

Ok, here is my most interesting Halloween story. When I was in high school my best friend (Diane) and I decided to make the rounds of the various haunted houses around the city. We were having a blast just joking around in line (I don't remember what we were dressed up as) when this guy behind us in one of those creepy old men mask said in this deep strange voice, "Well, hello pretty ladies. Should you really be out alone?" That was kinda weird, but we laughed it off.

After that house we drove about 20 minutes to another one. As we were waiting I glimpsed someone in the crowd that looked like the creepy old man mask. I told Diane, but she never saw him. She started kidding me about it and making jokes about how he was some Halloween killer. (The very first "Halloween" movie with Jamie Curtis had just come out) We finally went to the last haunted house way out in the country, but nearer my house. While we were IN that house walking around in a strobe lighted room I SAW THE CREEPY OLD MAN MASK AGAIN! Well, I sorta freaked out and told Diane were leaving NOW. On the way home I kept checking my rearview mirror. I was a nervous wreck. Diane just kept making fun of me getting scared.

When we got home, we got ready for bed. My room was on the second story, but there was another roof below the window in my room from a lower floor addition. I had had the window open because of the nice weather, but I decided I was so creeped out that I would close it. So I went to close it..AND THE GUY WITH THE CREEPY OLD MAN MASK POPPED UP!!! On reflex I screamed and pushed with both my hands the window screen and the guy with all my might. The guy went tumbling down the roof and on the ground. Diane screamed my name. I turned to Diane to say something, but she was flying out of my room down the stairs. I was totally confused so I went after her yelling for my Dad the whole time.

My Dad and Mom came running out and I was trying to tell them what happened but Diane had already run out the front door!!!! Turns out, it was Diane's cousin. They had planned the whole thing to scare the beejees out of me (And it did!) But they didn't expect me to push him off the roof! She had run to see if he was ok. He had broken his arm and we had to take him to the hospital. My Dad wasn't happy. Her cousin wasn't happy. The hospital staff thought my version of the story was hilarious and I thought the whole thing was funny LATER.

It turns out the creepy old man was actually a pretty cute 19 yr old who I got to date a bit before I went off to college.

Oh yeah, one more little funny thing. He loved to tell people how his "girlfriend" broke his arm. Heh.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

Ok, it's really Friday right???..;-)

I'm going out! Tonight and tomorrow night. I will be with actual adults. No kids in sight. I will not talk about politics. I will drink wine (or witch's brew) and have some fun!

This is an open thread. It can be about anything but tell me your most interesting Halloween story and I will tell you mine when I get back.

Interesting Double Standard.

NEW YORK -"Vice presidential adviser I. Lewis "Scooter' Libby Jr. was indicted Friday on charges of obstruction of justice, making a false statement and perjury in the CIA leak case."

So basically Libby supposedly lied to a FBI agent on where he heard about Valerie Plame. He is also accused of that same lie to the grand jury.

Ok, now that is wrong. And if he did it, he should be punished. That whole "do not lie" thing really really is a good creed to go by. Why anyone EVER in Washington would do that, I cannot fathom. But as goldeneagle pointed out in my comments, there is a bit of double standard going on here:

NewsMax reminds us of this:

Here's a short list of potential criminal violations for which prosecutors decided not to file indictments during the Clinton administration.

� Lying under oath to a federal judge - a crime U.S. District Court Judge Susan Webber Wright determined that President Clinton committed in the Paula Jones sexual harassment case. Legal resolution: No criminal indictment.

� Lying under oath to a federal grand jury - as Independent Counsel Ken Starr found President Clinton had done in the Monica Lewinsky investigation. Legal resolution: No criminal indictment.

� Lying under oath both to Congress and to federal investigators - as Independent Counsel Robert Ray concluded that Mrs. Clinton had done in the Travel Office probe. Legal resolution: No indictment

� Hiding evidence from Starr's Whitewater investigation - as the Senate Banking Committee concluded Mrs. Clinton did in the case of her missing Rose Law firm billing records. Legal resolution: No criminal referral, no indictments.

� Trading presidential pardons for financial contributions - which President Clinton allegedly did in the Pardongate case. Legal resolution: No indictments.

� Trading presidential clemency for votes in a federal election - as President Clinton allegedly did with village elders in New Square, NY - which backed Mrs. Clinton's 2000 Senate candidacy 1400 to 12. Legal resolution: No indictments.

� Nuclear missile guidance technology allegedly traded by the Clinton administration to China in exchange for campaign contributions. Legal resolution: No indictments.

� The Illegal gathering of confidential FBI files on political opponents - as the Clinton White House did in the Filegate case. Legal resolution: No indictments.

� Misusing the IRS to audit political opponents - as the White House allegedly did with numerous conservative organizations, as well as with witnesses against the Clintons. Legal resolution: No indictments.

� Hiring private detectives to intimidate and/or smear potential witnesses in the Starr investigation. Legal resolution: No indictments.

� Illegally leaking Linda Tripp's confidential personnel file to the press. Legal resolution: No indictments.

Who should be the next nominee?

This sounds good to me. One always has to take into consideration the inevitable smearing the Democrats are now known for. I don't think they can smear this one too well.

Since I have so many of these commenting on my blog....

Perhaps they would like to read about themselves.

Star Trek.

Going where... well, I guess where a lot of men have gone before.'Mr. Sulu' has come out of The Starship Enterprise closet as being gay.

A Quick Look.

Fox News is reporting that Rove won't be indicted, but Libby Scooter might. But for lying to a grand jury. So it looks like no one will be indicted for "outing" a "covert agent."

I suppose the Kos/Dem talking point and stupid phrase "Merry Fitzmas" will have to be put away until they can come up with other juvenile phrases to use.

Harry Reid blames the far right for the withdrawal of Miers as does the blather coming from the rest of the left. HELLLOOOO!!! All of us on the "far right" here thought she was great. She satisfied me being pro-life for sure. It was the more moderate conservatives that opposed her. Especially the elites. Democrats just say things they WANT to be true. Dobson loved her, Kristol didn't. Do we see the difference here?

So hey Dems, let's drop that talking point too.

You have probably heard...

Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has said that 'Israel must be wiped off the map.'

Here is some reaction. What can one say? Iran HANGS girls who have sex before marriage. What can we expect from this barbaric and backwards nation? The danger here is obvious. As one commentator pointed out Israel might be justified in attacking Iran.

Why must man hate each other so?

Growing Galloway Garbage.

TimesOnline has the scoop. I look at his estranged wife and think she probably deserved every penny that was snuck into her account. I can't imagine...uhhh....'living' with this guy.

Eww.

Just eww.

h/t Jill

I'm such a doofus.

I was thinking that today was Friday. I guess I was HOPING it was. Anyway, I will be posting tomorrow, the fun won't begin until later. Dang it.

I'm off for some Halloween fun this weekend! Consider this an open thread! (But I WILL be checking in!)

Miers Withdraws.

ABC News has this:

"Miers told the president she was withdrawing at 8:30 p.m. Wednesday. In her letter dated Thursday, Miers said she was concerned that the confirmation process "would create a burden for the White House and our staff that is not in the best interest of the country."
She noted that members of the Senate had indicated their intention to seek documents about her service in the White House in order to judge whether to support her nomination to the Supreme Court. "I have been informed repeatedly that in lieu of records, I would be expected to testify about my service in the White House to demonstrate my experience and judicial philosophy," she wrote.
"While I believe that my lengthy career provides sufficient evidence for consideration of my nomination, I am convinced the efforts to obtain Executive Branch materials and information will continue."

I say nominate a hardcore conservative and take the gloves off.

It's time to show those Democrats who is in charge here. They got Ruth Bader-Ginsberg, we get who we want.

Hippie funk and Taco Bell --- a lethal cocktail.

Just some kids that didn't have dinner with Grandma because they were stoned. Nothing to see here. Just move along...

Is that a scene from the Million Morons March?

It's happened: They've finally whined themselves to death.

via Caption This!

Hannity vs, Rep. Maurice Hinchey (D-NY)

And Hinchey, as my teen's might say, got told. (this is from last night)

HANNITY: I’m listening to what you’re saying. So you’re saying when the President told the nation that Saddam’s nuclear threats are a real grave danger to America and Saddam’s WMDs are a threat to America, you’re saying that George W. Bush purposely lied to America? Is that what you’re saying?

HINCHEY: I’m saying whoever wrote that speech gave false information to the Congress. Whether or not the President knew it when he gave the speech, I’m not sure. Whoever wrote that speech certainly did.

HANNITY: The only problem is, Congressman, the words I just said to you were John Kerry’s words. John Kerry said that to America. You voted for John Kerry. Now I’ll ask you, did John Kerry give false information to America?

HINCHEY: John Kerry, I think, made a mistake and voted for the resolution —

HANNITY: Oh, he made a mistake and Bush is a liar.

Heh. NRO’s got the video.

via LST

Unfreakinbelievable.

If this were any other black Democrat official the N.A.A.C.P., Al Sharpton, Russel Simmons, Kanye West, and Jesse Jackson would be stumbling over each other to get in front of the cameras to express their outrage and everybody reading this knows it.

Who is afraid of the Pig?

Just read it. Too weird to be believed.

h/t BigDog

More on Elites.

No, not liberals. I realize there are many liberals who are patriotic and love our country. Michael Barone of U.S. News and World Report gives us an insight on the true elites:

"But not all of us cherish ties to past traditions. "America's business, professional, intellectual, and academic elites," writes Samuel Huntington in his 2004 book Who Are We? have "attitudes and behavior [that] contrast with the overwhelming patriotism and nationalistic identification with their country of the American public. . . . They abandon commitment to their nation and their fellow citizens and argue the moral superiority of identifying with humanity at large." He believes that this gap between transnational elites and the patriotic public is growing. Huntington knows whereof he speaks: He's been at Harvard for more than half a century."

But Democrats would do well to notice this trend:

"This gap between transnational elites and the patriotic public has reverberations in partisan politics. Americans in military service and those with strong religious beliefs now vote heavily Republican. Americans with strong patriotic feelings are more closely split between the parties, but the growing minority with transnational attitudes vote heavily Democratic. Which doesn't necessarily help the Democratic Party."

Read the rest.

HILARIOUS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Southpark lampoons the overhyped coverage of Katrina. It's the main excerpt, not long. Video excerpt available in Real orWindows Media. My favorite line? "George Bush doesn't care about beavers!" Heh.

h/t BigDog via PW

The Best Summer of My life.

I spent the summer I was nineteen going to the University of Hawaii. I took art photography and history. Have you ever had a time in your life where when the time ended, you just knew that nothing like that would ever happen to you again? Where you knew that that kind of moment would never be better? That is how I felt when I said goodbye to Hawaii.

It was the best summer of my life.

I went alone, but from the moment I stepped on the plane, I was never alone the rest of the summer. Other kids were on their way there too. Everyone from snotty SMU girls to good ole boys from Oklahoma.

My luckiest moment came when I was trying to teach myself to surf and a guy who was born and raised in Hawaii took pity on me and offered to help. Not only did I finally get to feel the strength of a wave under my tanned legs, but he showed me the islands in a way no tourist really gets to see.

I saw the most beautiful sunsets you can imagine with colors not yet named. I played tag football on black beaches and slept on orange beaches. I stood on top of a volcano. I saw a waterfall so perfect it seemed like a dream. The lush earth surrounding it made me imagine I had been thrown back to the beginning of time to the Garden of Eden. I jumped off a small cliff into a pool of the bluest water I had ever seen and the water was so deep I never touched the bottom. I came face to face with eels while snorkeling. (it is possible to scream underwater)

I met people from all over the world for the first time. I met teenagers from Australia, England, Brazil, and Japan. We laughed at each other's accent. One boy from Germany told me that my accent sounded like music. I have never forgotten that. It is probably the most romantic thing anyone has ever said to me.

I watched a rich boy from Dallas, who had decided to just buy a used Volkswagen Beetle while he was in Hawaii instead of renting a car, just hand the keys to a guy on the street (who looked like he could use a car) and tell him the car was his. The boy drove off in a taxi and left the man staring at the keys in his hands. We had to go over and assure him that he could actually have the car. That was one happy guy.

I took pictures of prostitutes for my art photography class, which turned into quite the adventure. (hint: never go to a bad part of town in an open air jeep)

I had dinner with the family of the boy from Hawaii and had food that I can't remember the name of, but won't soon forget the taste. They told me to use an English accent to ask directions. For some reason the locals loved to give the mainlanders wrong directions.

It just so happened that I had just finished a play, "The Importance Of Being Earnest" and I thought I had my English accent down pretty well. The locals bought it, but at a club one evening using my accent for fun, a guy from England came over with a smirk asking which part of England I was from. I was busted.

On the plane home watching Hawaii fade through the clouds, I knew that nothing would ever be as fun as that summer. I was young. I was happy. I had no worries, no children, no lovers, no responsibilities. Nothing would ever be as easy as it was that one summer.

The best summer of my life.

Did LIberal Elites Ruin The Power of Britain?

Johnathan V. Last from the Weekly Standard thinks so. What can we learn from the history of England?

Does this sound familiar?

"These elites could see evil only at home. The French intellectual Simone de Beauvoir did not believe that Germany was a "threat to peace," but instead worried that the "panic that the Right was spreading" would drag France, Britain, and the rest of Europe into war. St"afford Cripps, a liberal Labor member of Parliament, feared not Hitler, but Churchill. Cripps wrote that after Churchill became prime minister he would "then introduce fascist measures and there will be no more general elections."

Read the whole thing. Good Grief, history really does repeat itself.

h/t Jeff

Never forget who we fight.

Bruce Thornton enlightens us regarding this fight with our enemy. He reminds us of who we are fighting and how we need to get over our own delicate sensibilities in this war (ie: making more of a big deal over the burning of dead Taliban bodies than the atrocities committed by those same people):

"Remember what type of people the Taliban are? Like the jihadists we are fighting in Iraq, they are murderers whose religious beliefs warrant any kind of brutality and atrocity against the “infidel.” These are the people who, when they ran Afghanistan, tortured and murdered their own citizens in a soccer stadium built with Western money. These are the people who behead and murder, the people who kill women and children. And these are the people whose corpses we are supposed to worry about mistreating, whose religious beliefs, the ones that justify murder, we are supposed to be respecting."

He goes on:

"We need to get over the peculiar arrogant belief that everything the enemy does is a mere reaction to what we do, as though these people don’t have their own motivations for their actions. They know that we rescued the Muslims of Kuwait, the Muslims of Bosnia, and the Muslims of Iraq. They know that we are sacrificing our own citizens to create an ordered society that will allow Muslims to worship in peace and prosper in freedom. They know that Muslims are killing Muslims all over the world, that the greatest threats to the safety and well-being of Muslims are other Muslims, as we currently see in Sudan. They know all these things, but they don’t care, because what’s important is the jihad against the infidel, the divinely sanctioned struggle to compel the people of the world to accept Islam, live as second-class citizens, or die."

He ends with this:

"All means cannot justify all ends, but some means can justify the right ends. Every war this country has fought employed terrible means that none of us would want to choose, but that were justified by the rightness and goodness of the end. If we truly believe that our goals in Iraq are just enough to kill and die for, then we should stop undercutting and second-guessing our troops in the field who are laying their lives on the line to achieve those noble ends. And if we don’t really believe in those goals enough to grit our teeth and do what must be done, as our fathers and grandfathers did in World War II, then we should pack up right now and go home."

He has a point. Read the whole thing. It's good.

h/t Jeff

Priceless....

Mudville has The Salt Lake Tribune report that 80% of Utah National Guard troops intend to reenlist - a number similar to retention rates nationwide.

1Lt Bruce Bishop, a Salt Lake County firefighter and Afghanistan veteran who's currently deployed to Louisiana gives us his reason why:

"because as I look around at the state of this nation and see all of the weak little pampered candy-asses that are whining about this or protesting that, I'd be afraid to leave the fate of this nation entirely up to them."

Heh. I love it.

via Ace

Open thread on Valerie Plame.

This is all I know. The editor of the NY times is saying that Plame lied to them about her source. Mona Charen is implying that Plame slept with Scooter Libby (they are both married)

To be honest, I don't even understand what this is all about. I read that Rove might have leaked that she was a covert agent, but she wasn't at the time (?) I read that everyone knew anyway. I read that Rove was called by the reporter, not the other way around.

I truly don't even see why this is a big deal. And I would say that even it were a Democrat administration.

Ya'll fill me in please.

Rosa Parks, R.I.P.

Rosa Parks died yesterday at the age of 92. Her arrest for not sitting in the back of the bus in 1955 caused a black boycott of the buses in Montgomery Alabama for 381 days.

As the article mentions, there have been theories that she was a plant of the N.A.A.C.P, since she was a part of that organization, but I say, "So what if she was?" The law was wrong and it needed someone willing to stand up to that law. Remember, the N.A.A.C.P. was not always the liberal leftwing democratic hack organization it is today. Back then it was a determined honest organization committed to civil rights for blacks.

This is what we have forgotten. Civil disobedience isn't about holding up profane signs about our President or showing up nude to protest. It isn't about violence or using crude language. It is about peacefully disobeying a law that you feel is morally wrong and be willing to go to jail for that belief.

Rosa Parks will always be remembered to me as someone who used her "celebrity" in a dignified manner and never tried to make it about herself, but about a greater cause.

She serves as an example of how all of us should approach those things that we feel are wrong. Let that be the lesson she leaves us.

And a great lesson it is indeed.

I never had relations with the food for oil scandal!

Remember the truly obnoxious George Galloway, former Labour Party British MP, testifying before Congress with his deliberate indignant pronouncement of never having anything to do with the food for oil scandal? He was as adamant and sincere as Clinton's famous finger wagging denial of an affair with Lewinsky.

Now, it's looking like he is as good as an actor as Clinton was.

He is denying it of course. We shall see if the paper trail ends up being his blue dress.

UPDATE: A bit more information.

"But the report provides bank account details tracking payments from an oil company through a Jordanian middleman to Mr GallowayÂ’s now estranged wife, Amineh Abu- Zayyad, and his Mariam Appeal fund."

UPDATE 2: I just heard Christopher Hitchens reaction. The best quote:

Referring to Galloway as a -"Prostitute of Iraqi fascism."

Chris has a way with words, doesn't he?

Say What?

I suppose you have heard the latest Howard Dean rant. Here is the quote that stands out:

"I'm tired of the ayatollahs of the right wing," Dean said. "We're fighting for freedom in Iraq. We're going to fight for freedom in America."

Everyone seems to be focusing on the first part, but wait a second! Is Dean admitting that we are actually fighting for freedom in Iraq????

Welcome aboard Howard!!!!

Looks like the comments are working again!

Go for it!

The Media's bias on Iraq.

Brent Bozell brings us this:

" On Saturday, (the 15th) millions of Iraqis walked with determination to the polls to vote for a new constitution. The turnout was high. The violence was down dramatically from the triumphant elections of January. But the network found all this boring. On the night before the historic vote, ABC led with bird-flu panic. CBS imagined Karl Rove in a prison jumpsuit. NBC hyped inflation."

Bozell goes on:

"A massive new study by Rich Noyes of the Media Research Center reviews every Iraq story on the evening news programs of ABC, CBS, and NBC from January through September of 2005. That"s 1,388 news stories. He titled it "The Bad News Brigade," because 61 percent of the stories were negative or pessimistic, while only 15 percent of the stories were positive or optimistic - a four-to-one ratio. The trend in coverage has also become increasingly negative during 2005, with pessimistic stories rising to nearly three-fourths of all Iraq news by August and September, with a ten-to-one ratio of negative stories over positive ones."

TEN TO ONE!!!! That is an incredible number. What it becomes is not news, but propaganda, in my opinion. We here in the tiny world of the blogosphere, can read Michael Yon (who has a new post on the elections btw) or any of the milblogs and get the real deal. The journalists can as well of course, and probably do. They just don't want to report that part of the war because it doesn't fit their agenda.

And the most sickening of all the left leaning media stories involve our soldiers themselves:

"Noyes found that 79 stories focused primarily on allegations of wrongdoing by American forces in Iraq, including this year's Abu Ghraib hangover stories, compared to only eight that focused on the heroism of American soldiers. Is that still a story? Sure. But what about positive stories about the military? There were only eight stories that focused on the heroism of American soldiers, and only nine on soldier acts of kindness or generosity. The TV news titans not only suggest the mission in Iraq is a waste of money and lives, they are painting our soldiers as a big problem there, not a part of the solution."

Did you get that number? Out of 79 stories only a total of 17 showed our soldiers in a positive light. That is especially shameful since it is easier now more than ever for the journalists to get positive stories straight from the soldiers themselves via the milblogs.

If that isn't left wing propaganda, I don't know what is.

Wonders never cease.

Anne Rice finds God. No more vampire novels, folks.

I tried to read her, but I found her novels too dark. I might have to read the next one though.

via Drudge

UGH!

Free Speech? It makes you wonder, doesn't it? But then, everything is allowed, right?

Like I said, ugh.

via Drudge

I want to add something here. We must keep in mind that as disgusting as these girls are, We should be just as disgusted with people like Kanye West and his lie about Bush hating black people and the recent rantings I quoted of Louis Farrakhan. All are bigoted and do nothing but separate us.

The Prozac Nation (warning! Religious Alert!)

As I have mentioned many times, I sorta checked out of the political and cultural scene in the 90's. Clinton was President, which made me literally sick to me stomach and this was way before Lewinsky. My husband's family is from Arkansas, so we knew all about Bill and Hillary. I was busy with 2 small children and I had two more in the 90's. I had my hands full and I wanted to concentrate on what was the most important thing in my life, raising these children right.

If Jack Kemp had been the Republican nominee in 92' instead of Dole, I would have worked hard to get him elected. I had campaigned for him in 88' and I still think he is a wonderful man who would have made a great President. His 'empowerment zone' idea, which was later put through in a very watered down form, would have truly changed things for those stuck in the vicious cycle of poverty in this country. Just like so many good people, I think Kemp saw that it wasn't worth it to stay in public life. It was too mean. And that is a crying shame for all of us.

Anyway, I missed the national bestseller "The Prozac Nation" by Elizabeth Wurtzel. It was made into a movie as well. If you hadn't read it , it is an autobiography of Wurtzel from childhood to her late 20's and her struggle with depression, drug abuse, her father's desertion, being sexually used, and suicide attempts. As you might expect, not an easy read. I had been meaning to read it forever and I finally did this weekend.

Even through her decidedly pathetic and sad personal life, she manages to graduate from Harvard. When she wrote the book in her early 20's, even she was shocked by the reaction to it. She had been one of the first to be on Prozac when it came on the market. Just a few years later 6 million people were on Prozac. Now there are 20 million of Americans on some type of anti-depressants. She has an "afterword" in her paperback about how shocked she was by the number of depressed people in the country. She wonders (as I do) how many are truly clinically depressed and how many are just sad about life.

As I read about her childhood and life, I kept thinking that if my Dad had left me and ignored me for most of my life and I had the kind of life she had, I would be depressed too. Not to downplay her real depression, but I wonder if it would have developed if not for her circumstances? She does touch on some subjects of her experiences with broken kids from broken homes. She sees a pretty clear connection between the broken home and the broken child. At one point she miscarries without even knowing she is pregnant. She brings up abortion and how she would of course had one if she hadn't miscarried, but she says that saying it is a "choice" is a lie. She feels that for women like her, there really is only one choice. A sad telling statement. We live our lives in such a way where we see no other choice but that which we know to be awful. So isn't the choice made long before we become pregnant?

Anyway, let me get to the heart of my point here. At the same time I was reading this book, I heard a homily where the Priest was speaking of the sin of adultery. What he said touched me deeply. He said that when Christ came upon the woman about to be stoned for adultery, he did not condemn her, he did not tell her she was going to hell. He said to the crowd, "You who are without sin, cast the first stone." Christ himself could have cast that stone, because he was without sin. But he didn't. He didn't because he knew that what the woman had been looking for was love. He knew she had been looking for Him.

I see that in so many people. They are looking for love, and as the country song goes.."in all the wrong places, looking for love in too many faces..." When the one face that they will find that love, THE LOVE, they ignore. They ignore because the culture makes it seem as one has to be like Pat Robertson or TammyFae Baker to love Christ. But that isn't true. It is a false picture of Christianity.

So my heart went out to the little girl that Elizabeth Wurtzel had been. The pain she felt as her father ignored her most of her life. My heart broke for the teenager and young woman she became, so damaged and hurt by life that she turned to drugs and sex and fell into the pit of despair. When the Father she had been looking for and needing was right there all along.

Toward the end of the book, she is in England and at the end of her rope. Her soul is twisted with despair and grief. She feels she can hardly hold on any longer. She meets a couple who are going to Israel for Passover and she asked them to leave a note for her in the Kotel, in the cracks between bricks of the Wailing Wall, because she had been taught that God answers all prayers that are deposited there. She scrawls on a piece of paper, "Dear God, Please send me a miracle that gets me out of this depression because I can't go on this way."

She doesn't believe in God, but she reaches out this way in her desperation. Almost as soon as she returns to Harvard from England, her Doctor decides to try and give her this new drug called Prozac that finally, after a lifetime of sadness, lifts her out of the black wave of depression. But for some reason, she doesn't seem to make the connection that God had answered her prayer in the Wailing Wall.

And that, to me, was the saddest thing of all.