Folksy Fred.

He's putting the smackdown on HillaryCare. It's good. It seems a bit scripted. Maybe I'm looking for that, I don't know. But I know America will love it. He's like your Dad. And Hillary is more like your witchy aunt. The one always nagging you to tuck in your shirt or comb your hair.

I'm keeping my eye on you Fred.

via NRO

The New Republic's New Strategy....

I suppose to try and polish their tarnished image after the Beauchamp debacle, they are publishing articles with the "duh" factor.

But, it makes men happy to read it. I know.

via NRO

I don't know which cartoon is better...

Michael Ramirez via Powerline

Both are right on target. Click for bigger image.

A Celebrity We Can Like.

Finally.

Watch out al Qaeda: Chuck Norris is on the scene in Iraq. As reported by the conservative Web site World Net Daily, the karate champion and action movie star is visiting 15 bases at the invitation of Marine Gen. Bob Magnus.In an e-mail sent from Iraq and cited by World Net Daily, Norris said he’s observed two things: The “surge is working” and “morale is up — way up!”He added that there’s a huge difference in security and safety since his last trip, in November 2006.“It is so much safer and more relaxed, particularly in the Al Anbar province,” Norris said. “It is so much better than often conveyed by the liberal media.”

Interesting Stuff about "The Kingdom"

Esquire.com:

The following is from Peter Berg, the Director of The Kingdom --" a disturbingly gritty, bravely relevant film about a team of special agents investigating the bombing of an American post in Saudi Arabia."

"We couldn't film in Saudi Arabia -- it's culturally prohibited in any form. We wanted to be able to film in the Middle East, so we went to Dubai and asked the government. They said no because there's a terrorist component to the movie. But their sister city, Abu Dhabi, said yes. And Abu Dhabi is somewhat competitive with Dubai, so not only did they say yes, but they pretty much gave us the keys to the city. Nearly anything we asked for they gave us. Almost as a joke, I asked if we could have an Apache helicopter flying thirty feet over a convoy of Suburbans through the middle of downtown Abu Dhabi, and they said, 'Absolutely. No problem. What else?'"

"What I remember most about being in the Middle East with Jamie Foxx is that the Abu Dhabi government insisted that he have security. I was in the restaurant in the hotel having lunch and about twenty-five massive-looking Arab men with machine guns sticking out the bottom of their suits came walking in. And then Jamie came walking in and then another twenty-five behind him. They had given him their highest level of protection--what they would offer an American president. He also had a food taster and an ambulance following him. I didn't get any. Just Jamie. They knew him.

I'm wondering when Hollywood will make movies that might change the perspective of someone growing up in the Middle East toward the United States. It is a very effective tool. Everyone loves a good movie. They know all our movie stars. I believe it could make a big difference in how we are perceived if made properly. Not a propaganda film, like SICKO, but an entertainment film. Maybe about two friends, one Muslim and one American. How they each perceive this war on terror. That kind of thing. A film that shows that not all Americans are like Britney Spears or Paris Hilton and not all Marines are like the ones in "Jarhead."

Hmm...Who am I kidding?

Wrong Place, Wrong Time.

Sept. 13: "One 107mm rocket impacted in an intersection near Forward Operating Base Loyalty, striking a car and engulfing it in flames. Soldiers with the 1st Battalion, 8th Cavalry Regiment, attached to the 2nd Infantry Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division, responded to the blast and cordoned off the area. The wounded were transported to Medical City for treatment."
via Mudville

More Crazy Goodness...

...From the UF Student who was tasered while asking John Kerry a question. "Their gonna try and kill me." KAHRAZY....

Just found this through HotAir. It's the questions leading up to the tasering.

No one seems to be talking about what he was trying to say. First he finds it incredulous that Kerry conceded the election in 2004 on the first day, when clearly he won. (rolls eyes) And then he asks Kerry if was a member of 'Skull and Bones' at Yale like Bush. Don't you guys get it???? Kerry was in on it with Bush! Kerry let Bush win. Kerry was probably in on 9-11 as well.

Oh, if we could only get these questions answered!

"Elder Bush backs McCain war push"

Bringing in the heavy hitters:

COLUMBIA, S.C. - Former President George H.W. Bush backs John McCain's efforts to increase support for the Iraq war in a new video, a telecast that aides to both men say shouldn't be construed as an endorsement of McCain's White House bid.

Not at all...

On Monday night, the former president appeared in the video shown at South Carolina's military college, The Citadel, during the final stop of the Arizona senator's "No Surrender" tour.
"The bottom line is we must persevere; we must not surrender; we must not quit and run away. God bless our troops and everyone involved in the 'No Surrender' rally there in Charleston," Bush said, according to a transcript of the video provided by the McCain campaign.

Say What?

A few things in the "Say What?" category today.

McCain says he is now Baptist. This has nothing to do with the fact that he is campaigning in the heavily Baptist state of South Carolina does it? Nah.

"Former Detroit Pistons legend Isiah Thomas suggested that when a black man refers to a woman as a "b*tch" it's less offensive than when a white man does the same."

Umm...I'm thinking actual women think it's just as offensive.

"John Abizaid, the retired Army general who headed Central Command for nearly four years, said he was confident that if Iran gained nuclear arms, the United States could deter it from using them."

I'm glad your confident General. Me? Not so much.

More:

"There are ways to live with a nuclear Iran," Abizaid said in remarks at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Yep, there are ways. The main way being America constantly wondering if the insane person known as Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has had just about enough of us infidels.

Romney...you got some 'splaining to do...

This is a flier one of Towleroad's readers received from a Romney campaign volunteer during the 2002 Boston gay pride, when Mitt was running for governor. It reads:

"All citizens deserve equal rights regardless of their sexual preference."

(via Huffington Post)

Just a reminder of Romney's more recent stance:

Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney hastily released a statement yesterday criticizing Judge Robert B. Hanson, who yesterday struck down a state law banning same-sex marriage and told the Polk County Recorder to begin issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples.

Said Romney:

"The ruling in Iowa today is another example of an activist court and unelected judges trying to redefine marriage and disregard the will of the people as expressed through Iowa's Defense of Marriage Act. This once again highlights the need for a Federal Marriage Amendment to protect the traditional definition of marriage as between one man and one woman."

Now, one could argue that equal rights does not include changing marriage. I would hope that we are all for equal rights for everyone, no matter who they are.

Do you think it's hypocritical, or not?

When spouses cheat....with each other.

This is just too funny, in a sad way, of course:

"A married couple are divorcing after they chatted each other up on the Internet using fake names. Sana Klaric and husband Adnan poured their hearts out to each other over their marriage troubles. Using the names 'Sweetie' and 'Prince of Joy' in a online chatroom, the pair thought they had found a soulmate with whom to spend the rest of their lives.

...there was no happy ending after they turned up for a date and realised their mistake. Now the pair, from Zenica, Central Bosnia, are divorcing after accusing each other of being unfaithful.

Sana, 27, said: 'I was suddenly in love. It was amazing, we seemed to be stuck in the same kind of miserable marriages. How right that turned out to be.'

But when it dawned on her what had happened, she said: 'I felt so betrayed.'

Adnan, 32, said: 'I still find it hard to believe that Sweetie, who wrote such wonderful things, is actually the same woman I married and who has not said a nice word to me for years.'

via Fark

If the cartoon in the post below made you mad...

..at least you aren't putting out some serious money to have the cartoonist's “slaughtered like a lamb” by having his throat cut."

Times Online:

"Swedish companies lowered their profile in the Middle East yesterday amid fears that a newspaper cartoon depicting the Prophet Muhammad with the body of a dog could spark bloody reprisals."

More:

It seems al-Qaeda has put "a $100,000 (£50,000) bounty on the head of the cartoonist, Lars Vilks.
The statement, in the name of Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, head of al-Qaeda in Iraq, offered a 50 per cent bonus if Mr Vilks was “slaughtered like a lamb” by having his throat cut. It also placed $50,000 on the life of Ulf Johansson, editor-in-chief of Nerikes Allehanda, the local newspaper that printed the cartoon last month."

The Cartoonist is taking it well:

"Mr Vilks arrived back in Sweden from Germany yesterday and made light of the assassination call. “I suppose that this makes my art project a bit more serious. It is also good to know how much one is worth,” he said. "

Not to be outdone, our own Chris Muir basically says with his cartoon, If you don't like Mr. Vilks, Your really gonna hate me.

Chris, if your reading this, I'm thinking that'll get you at least $300,000 and a bonus of $100,000 more. (Chris's cartoon is on my sidebar, but not that one)

via Don Surber and Instapundit

Ugh.

The Palestinian Authority continues a long tradition of celebrating the 2001 World Trade Center terror attacks by publishing cartoons in its official daily that glorify Osama Bin Laden and the attacks, or mock the suffering of the U.S. This year's cartoon shows Bin Laden smiling while making the “V” for victory sign with two fingers in the shape of the burning Twin Towers. The PA daily that published the cartoon, Al Hayat Al Jadida, is owned by the PA and controlled by the office of Mahmoud Abbas. The only text on this cartoon is "Exclusive to Al Hayat Al Jadida," which means it was prepared specifically for the official Palestinian Authority daily.

Via Cliff May at NRO's Corner and Powerline, "who reminds us that U.S. taxpayers provide millions of dollars to the PA each year."

Finally got the "Shut Up and Sing" Dixie Chick's DVD.

I didn't want to rent it and give them money, so I bought it online from a used book store. That way only the bookstore gets the money.

Anyway, for those of you who didn't read the post about this blog being in the opening scene of the Dixie Chick's DVD, it's here.

Well, I had speculated that it must have been my Houston Chronicle blog they were reading, but they clearly show this blog on the computer screen. But, they must have clicked over to my Houston Chronicle blog because a member of their band reads this part of my post out loud:

"It's too bad really. I loved listening to the Dixie Chicks. I loved their music. Even this new angry song is good."

And they all laugh. I don't know why that's funny though. They read through some comments, but I think they edited in comments from other blogs because one of the comments had the "F" word and I don't allow that at either blog. The editing doesn't distinguish between what I wrote and what commenters said. Which is bothersome to me because it gives the impression that I either wrote those things or let them be said at my blog. But I figure the ones who watch this movie probably would hate me anyway, so no big deal.

It's fun to see my blog on screen like that though.

I may even try to get through the whole movie sometime this week.

The Bush Daughters. The Reality Of It.

As many of you know I love to read Vanity Fair. I have learned long ago to skim over the anti-war and anti-Bush pieces, because they are always the same. Bush is stupid. The war is stupid. It's almost like those teen magazines that just recycle old articles on what to do about acne or how to get your hair the softest. Vanity fair just recycles the same old Bush bashing issue after issue. But I do love their human interest articles, which is why I read it.

But as I was skimming the latest James Wolcott's bashing of Bush I noticed this slam on the President's daughters and their seeming absence during Bush's second term:

"As for the daughters-they've been completely AWOL, utterly useless. Sure, they have their own lives to lead it's better for humanity that they're not running red lights with Lindsay or Paris."

I'm always amused at Wolcott's complete lack of knowledge (on just about anything) and letting his burning desire to paint all things Bush in the worst possible light, completely ignore the reality of a situation. And it isn't just him, of course. The lefties in the blogosphere just love to perpetuate the notion that the Bush twins are hard drinking party girls.

Although Wolcott and the rest of the lefties would like us to lump the Bush girls with the likes of Lindsay or Paris, the truth is quite different. You see, Mr. Wolcott, the twins do have their own lives to lead. Shall we take a look at how they have been living it?

Jenna graduated with a degree in English. In Summer 2006, Jenna taught at Elsie Whitlow Stokes Community Freedom Public Charter School (a school for disadvantaged children) for a year and a half. She is currently teaching at a shelter several days a week as part of an internship for UNICEF's Educational Policy Department in Latin America, specifically in Panama.

Jenna's first book, "Ana's Story"(which just came out) has gotten great reviews. The AP describes it this way:

"Ana's Story" is a short biography of a 17-year-old single mother in Latin America infected with HIV. Bush met Ana, whose real name and hometown are concealed, while working as an intern for the United Nations Children's Fund, better known as UNICEF.

Did you get that last part? Just to be clear. Jenna was an intern for the United Nations Children's Fund, her work included visiting drought stricken Paraguay in 2006.

Let's take a look at the other twin, Barbara Bush. She graduated from Yale with a degree in Humanities. She has been working with a Smithsonian museum in New York. Before that, Barbara had been working with AIDS patients in Africa, Tanzania, South Africa, and Botswana through a program sponsored by Baylor College of Medicine's International Pediatrics AIDS Initiative.

Just for fun, let's compare the girls, raised on that "rich blue blood Republican" way of thinking to another President's young daughter, Chelsea Clinton (a Vanity Fair favorite child). She was raised on the "giving back to humanity" type Democrat beliefs, right? So surely she would out do her compassionate conservative counterparts, right? Ummm... not so much.

After earning a Masters degree at University College in Oxford in international relations, Chelsea join the consulting firm McKinsey and Company in New York City in 2003 earning a six-figure salary. In the fall of 2006, she left McKinsey and went to work for Avenue Capital, a hedge fund run by Marc Lasry, a loyal donor to Democratic causes generally, and heavy supporter of the Clintons. (so says Wikipedia)

What does Chelsea do for the betterment of mankind? How does she help the less fortunate? She serves on the board of the School of American Ballet and has also served as co-chairwoman of a fund-raising weekend for her father’s Clinton Foundation. (Honestly, that is all I could find)

Gosh. Which daughters sound more "Republican" and which more "Democrat?" In Chelsea's case, all things lead back to more money for her parent's political ambitions (and for herself). In the twin's case, all things lead to helping mankind.

I'm just saying. There is perception, and then there is reality. Interesting, is it not?

The Victory Caucus

Sign the petition.



via Grouchy Old Cripple

Celebrate electing those who will be helping the poor and the needy!

And do it in style and let a criminal pay for it!

Los Angeles Times :

Last year, to celebrate New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's reelection victory, Norman Hsu capped an amazingly successful year as a Democratic fundraiser by treating members of her campaign staff to several days at the glitzy Mandalay Bay hotel and casino in Las Vegas, complete with free show tickets and dinners at posh restaurants.
Among Hsu's guests was Patti Solis Doyle, who now heads Clinton's presidential campaign and has long been one of Clinton's most trusted advisors.It was all legal and, Clinton campaign officials say, was typical of Hsu, the kind of thoughtful gesture for which they considered Hsu a treasure.

via Powerline

Mrs. Greyhawk meets the President.

The Milbloggers meet with the President. Awesome.

I'm not sure I should post anything today.

With O.J. being arrested and due to appear in court today, and it looks like Britney Spears might lose her kids today as well, the news will be on a full frenzy of celebrity details.

Why do we care?

Bush Picks New Attorney General?

It looks that way:

President Bush has found a new nominee for attorney general: Michael B. Mukasey, a retired federal judge from New York, and plans to make the announcement on Monday, the Associated Press is reporting.
The White House tonight is neither confirming nor commenting on the report, a senior administration official says.
If confirmed by the Senate – and the selection could be tailored to ensure that – Mukasey could replace Alberto Gonzales, the friend and confidant of the president who has resigned amid controversy surrounding the Justice Department’s firings of several federal prosecutors and handling of secret terrorist surveillance.
Mukasey has handled terrorist cases in the courts and apparently has the support of some influential Democrats in the Senate, making it unlikely that Bush will face a fight.

via The Chicago Tribune's The Swamp