Smacking around Godsmack.

I happened to flip to Showbiz Tonight last night and the host was interviewing the lead of Godsmack, a band I have heard of, but never listened to. (They have the #1 selling album I hear) What caught my attention was the host asking how did it feel for Godsmack to be in this controversy by allowing their music to be played on a Navy recruitment commercial. I thought, "What? Now, if you have your music in a military commercial you are what? Rightwing? a Nazi? What is he talking about?" Basically the lead, Sully Erna said that he always appreciated the military for keeping us free and that their band wasn't political. He seemed totally blown away that he was being trashed for saying he supported our troops. He never said whether he supported the war or not. He said (honestly, I thought) that he didn't know enough about such things.

So I looked around to see what started this and I found this site. Godsmack was doing press over the phone (where they talk to all kinds of magazines and radio stations) and he was AMBUSHED by this guy. The following is a transcript from this jerk's site done on May 1st. It tells you all you need to know about the other side. Keep in mind, this isn't about someone like Toby Keith who writes songs specifically for the war, this is a band who let the Navy use it's music in a commerical. That's it. Excuse the language I don't usually allow here.

JAY BABCOCK of Arthur Magazine: Alright let me get the tape rolling here. How you doing?

SULLY ERNA of Godsmack: I’m good!

JAY: How was the Jimmy Kimmel show on Friday? You were outside playing, right?

SULLY: Yeah it’s always cool to do that because it’s so set up for musicians, you know. Big stage, live crowd. It’s not so like indoors with a camera rehearsals. It’s a lot easier.

JAY: Yeah. So you got to be back out in front of your fans.

SULLY: Yeah. It was good. It was fun.

JAY: What kind of people listen to your music, do you think?

SULLY: Ummm… I’ve seen em range as young as 8 and as old as 68. [chuckles]

JAY: Yup.

SULLY: So it’s…

JAY: Well, you’ve seen a lot more of ‘em than I have, and I’m trying to get an idea of what it feels like when you’re out there—to you, on the stage. Do you think there’s a lot of teenagers in the audience? A lot of guys in their 20s? Chicks—

SULLY: Ah you know…

JAY: Is it a dude audience?

SULLY: I would say, if I had to guess what our age group is, it’s probably between …18 and 40.

JAY: Oh yeah?

SULLY: I would have to say that’s kind of where we’re at, maybe more, majority would be 18-30? But I, we definitely, we recruited a lot of new fans off of that acoustic record—

JAY: That did it, huh?

SULLY: —an older audience. And this record seems to be drawing in a different kind of audience as well, so. You know we’re just trying to continue to expand and not have a ceiling over our heads.

JAY: Right. You guys are still having a good time making music after all these years?

SULLY: Of course. We’re musicians, that’s what we do. It may not always be great music, but we love making it! [laughs]

JAY: Cuz music has a power…?

SULLY: Mmm hmm. It’s a universal language.

JAY: So what you say with it, and what you do with it, has an effect…?

SULLY: Of course.

JAY: Right?

SULLY: [emphatically] Of course.

JAY: So I notice you guys have been really involved with promoting the military. [1]

SULLY: Well, they actually came to us, believe it or not. Somebody in the Navy loves this band, because they used ‘Awake’ for three years and then they came to us and re-upped the contract for another three years for ‘Sick of Life.’ So, I don’t know. They just feel like that music, [laughs] someone in that place thinks that the music is very motivating for recruit commercials I guess. And hey, I’m an American boy so it’s not… I’m proud of it.

JAY: You’re proud of recruiting your fans into the military?

SULLY: Well, no. [laughs, then playfully] Don’t be turning my fucking words around, you!

JAY: Well, tell me what you mean. You said your music is powerful, it’s got an effect, like you said, and you’re letting the military use it. The military, who are they recruiting? 18-to-30-year-olds, right?

SULLY: I guess… I don’t know what their recruit age is. I know it’s at least 18.

JAY: Yeah, they do down in the high schools now.

SULLY: My thing is… Listen, here’s my thing with the military. I’m not saying our government is perfect. Because I know that we make some mistakes and we do shitty things BUT, BUT. You wouldn’t have your job, and we wouldn’t have our lives, if we weren’t out there protecting this country so we could lead a free life. So there’s kind of a ying and a yang to that. Sometimes it’s not always the best choices that we make, or we stick our noses in other people’s shit, but at the same time, we protect this place enough that we’re able to like pursue careers and do what a lot of people in other countries aren’t able to do. They’re kind of picked and they’re chosen to be whatever they become… I’m, I’m, I’m proud to be an American, I’ll tell you that.

JAY: So your country, right or wrong?

SULLY: Uh, no. Not right or wrong. But I’m proud to be an American. I love my country. I’ve seen the depressions and how people live in other countries and how they’re told what to be, and they don’t have the choices that we have. I do love that about our country. So, you know… And I actually sympathize with a lot of the soliders, and the military in general, that are trained to go out and protect FOR us, and what they have to go through, it’s really kind of shitty in a sense that these young kids have to go over there and die, sometimes, for something that isn’t our fucking problem. And that kind of sucks. So what I have to do is at least support them, because they don’t have the choice that we do.

JAY: They don’t have the choice because…?

SULLY: Because they’ve decided to fight for our country.

JAY: And they decided to do that because…?

SULLY: [laughs]…

JAY: Of your song…?

SULLY: Aw, come on. It’s not like that.

JAY: Well I have a quote from you here: “We’ve always been supportive of our country and our president, whereas a lot of people I thought”—and you said this in 2003, to MTV News, you said—”a lot of people I thought lashed out pretty quickly at what we did and I thought the government did everything pretty cleanly and publicly as possible.” [2]

SULLY: Yeah…?

JAY: Well, what are you talking about?

SULLY: That was my opinion at the time. The whole war thing, and trying to keep us up to date like… If you remember, back in other wars, we didn’t have the opportunity to follow it through the media, and CNN, and the news—live updates and that kind of thing. And I thought that for the most part you know we were allowed to follow it as best we could through the media sources that were feeding us information.

JAY: [incredulous] You didn’t think the media was being controlled by the military?

SULLY: Well, it could be. I don’t know.

JAY: You didn’t look into it?

SULLY: Listen. Are you a fucking government expert?

JAY: I’m not telling people to go join the military and then not knowing what the military is doing.

SULLY: I don’t tell people to go join the military!!

JAY: You don’t think using your songs—the POWER of your music, which you were talking about—has an effect on the people that hear it when it goes with the visuals that the best P.R. people in the world use?

SULLY: Oh man, are you like one of those guys that agrees with some kid that fuckin’ tied a noose around his neck because Judas Priest lyrics told him to?

JAY: You were telling me how powerful your music was, and what age the people are that listen to it, and you must have thought, ‘Well the Navy sure thought it was useful,’ so you tell me.

SULLY: Hey, listen. The Navy thought…. It’s the same reason why wrestlers work out to the music, and extreme motorcross riders listen to the music and do what they do. It’s ENERGETIC music. It’s very ATHLETIC. People feel that they get an adrenaline rush out of it or whatever, so, it goes with whatever’s an extreme situation. But I doubt very seriously that a kid is going to join the Marines or the US Navy because he heard Godsmack as the underlying bed music in the commercial. They’re gonna go and join the Navy because they want to jump out of helicopters and fuckin’ shoot people! Or protect the country or whatever it is, and look at the cool infra-red goggles.

JAY: You said to MTV, “We’re not a very political band but we’re supportive of the U.S. military and how they approach things.” [2]

SULLY: Listen. Someone turned that around. I never said “and how they approach things.”

JAY: Okay. So that’s a misquote. Or something–

SULLY [interrupting]: Wow, what—

JAY: What about this? In 2003 you did a show that started with video footage of Apache helicopters”honing in on a desert target interspersed with the words ‘We will prevail…Stronger than them all.”

SULLY: Say that again?

JAY: I’m reading from a Boston Glove review of a show you did at the Tweeter Center.

SULLY: Yeah.

JAY: In front of 13,000 people on May 22, 2003.

SULLY: Yeah, but tell me what it said again.

JAY: Yes sir. It said “Godsmack’s ferociously high energy 90-minute set started with video footage of Apache helicopters honing in on a desert target, interspersed with the words ‘We will prevail…Stronger than them all.” [3]

SULLY: Yeah…?

JAY: So you’re using military imagery with your music at your concerts?

SULLY: First of all, it was a COMPUTER image, a computer-animated helicopter that didn’t… There was no scene of a desert in there. It was a helicopter that rose up from the screen and scanned the audience. It was an EFFECT. And then it shot out missiles that hit the stage.

JAY: Uh huh…

SULLY: Because the intro to ‘Straight Out of Line” has the sounds of like, a war thing going on.

JAY [trying to decide if Sully is dissembling or just obtuse]: Oh I see. So it’s just sort of a concept thing. [pause] Well, you’ve done a lot to help out the guys who are in the military, who are stuck there now, whether they chose to be there or they got hoodwinked into being there. For whatever reason, they’re in the military. And they’re doing their job. You guys did a show for them at Camp Pendleton–

SULLY: Yup.

JAY: —called “Rockin’ the Corps.” And so you’ve been doing a lot of benefit shows—

SULLY: [interrupting] Well, like I said, Listen you know, there’s a lot of young kids that die for our country, man, and they don’t have the choice once they’re in there.

JAY: That’s right.

SULLY: So I just feel well you know whatever we can do to say ‘thank you for protecting our country’ is what we try to do. I’m not trying to make this a big political issue.

JAY: Okay. Have you done anything to prevent people from joining the military?

SULLY: No.

JAY: To maybe educate them as to what’s in store for them?

SULLY: I don’t have enough education in the military to educate them in anything.

JAY: Would you let your music be used for anti-military recruiting advertisements?

SULLY: I don’t know, I ‘d have to see what that was about.

JAY: But you’d be open to it?

SULLY: We’re open to whatever, as long as it’s not a Maybelline commercial.

JAY: [laughs] Maybelline’s more offensive than the military…?

SULLY: No. That doesn’t quite go with what we do.

JAY: Buth the military does.

SULLY: Listen. Where are we going with this thing? Is this interview about the government—

JAY: Well, I’ve never seen such a pro-military—

SULLY: Sounds like this is a personal attack or whatever.

JAY: Well I’ve never seen such a pro-military band as you guys. [4]

SULLY: But we’re not! I think [chuckling] you’re making us out to be a little bit more. When we’re asked about something, we just answer the question. We don’t go spend 23 hours out of our day supporting the military and what they do.

JAY: Um hmm.

SULLY: We just simply, an opportunity came up, they wanted to use some music for a recruit commercial. What are we gonna say, no?

JAY: Yeah. How hard is it to say ‘no’?

SULLY: Why would we, though?!?

JAY: Because—

SULLY [interrupting]: Is it because you don’t feel the same way about the government that we do, makes you right and us wrong?

JAY: Yeah. What do you feel about the government? Tell me what—

SULLY: Aw, that’s crazy, man! That’s just an OPINION.

JAY: I can back my opinion up from here to tomorrow if you would like to talk to me all day long.

SULLY: Well obviously you’ve done a lot of research and you’ve—

JAY [interrupting]: That’s right, because—

SULLY: —got a different opinion. We don’t know that stuff that you know, so—

JAY [impatient]: Why don’t you do some research before you get involved with these sorts of things? You’re talking about young kids’ lives. You’re talking about kids—

SULLY: [yelling] Would you rather not have us be protected so they can come and overrun our country?!?

JAY: Do you know what a “fool’s errand” is?

SULLY: I’m asking you a question!

JAY: No one is threatening—

SULLY [interrupting]: Would you rather us not be protected?!?

JAY: You know what I’d like, Sully? A Department of Defense, not a Department of Offense that attacks other countries—sovereign nations—who do things in a different way than us, who we have no right to go over and invade and change their governments. Would we want someone else to do that to us?

SULLY: I’m not saying—

JAY [interrupting]: How hard is that to think about?

SULLY: I’m not saying that we were right on every war that we’ve created. I know that we’ve been damn wrong at times about stuff—

JAY [interrupting]: When have we been wrong?

SULLY: [yelling] but they have also been wrong too!

JAY: When have—

SULLY [interrupting]: I don’t trust someone like fuckin’ Sadaam and Osama to come in here and try to control—

JAY: [interrupting, incredulous] When did Sadaam try to come in here and control our country?

SULLY: Dude, [yelling] WHY DON’T YOU GO LIVE IN IRAQ THEN IF YOU HAVE SUCH A PROBLEM WITH AMERICA? Why are you here?

JAY: Why am I here?!? This is the top country in the world, my friend!

SULLY: Well, why do you think so? Because it’s PROTECTED.

JAY: No, it’s not because it’s—

SULLY [interrupting]: –ruled our country.

JAY: No one is attacking us, my friend. Certainly not Iraq. Every first world nation suffers terrorist attacks. Get used to it.

SULLY: I am used to it. I don’t have a problem—

JAY: Get used to it..

SULLY: [laughs] Sounds like you do.

JAY: You’re the one that’s saying it’s alright to not know about stuff and then to send other people to die in our name.

SULLY: I never said that! Don’t put fuckin’ words in my mouth.

JAY: I’ve got it on tape, bro.

SULLY: You’ve got in on tape, bro?!?

JAY: Yeah.

SULLY: You got me saying it’s okay for us to attack other countries?

JAY: I got you on tape saying they’re protecting us by attacking, by going over there and taking out people.

SULLY: Listen, don’t fuckin’ turn my words around to make it to what you want it to be! That’s not what I meant and you know that.

JAY: Okay I’m sorry. Then tell me what you meant.

SULLY: Listen I’m not gonna get into a political fuckin’ conversation with you. This was supposed to be an interview about the band. Where is this going?

JAY: We’re talking about the power of your music and what you’re using it for.

SULLY: What is this for anyway? Who are you working with?

JAY: I’m working for my own magazine, my friend.

SULLY: What’s it called?

JAY: [laughing in disbelief] What do you mean, what’s it called? Are you serious?

SULLY: Yeah, what’s the magazine called?

JAY: It’s called Arthur Magazine. You guys are the ones that set this up.

SULLY: Hey I was just told to do press today, man.

JAY: Hey man, you guys—

SULLY: I got a checklist in front of me, and I don’t have time for a lot of this bullshit.

JAY: Oh yeah?

SULLY: So write whatever the fuck you wanna write, because your magazine obviously is that popular.

JAY: It’s doing pretty good—

SULLY [interrupting]: Yeah I’m sure it is. All three thousand copies of it— [5]

JAY: On our own, without any corporate support.

SULLY: I wish you the best of—… Why would you waste your time calling a band like us when you don’t even give a fuck?!?

JAY: I certainly do give a fuck. Cuz you know what?

SULLY: What is this about?!?

JAY: Because listen man! You know there’s 2,800 people, my brothers and sisters, have died over in Iraq?

SULLY: Yeah?

JAY: You know 30,000 Iraqi humans WHO NEVER DID SHIT TO US have died because of the attacks we’ve made over there? [6]

SULLY: [in disbelief] And that’s Godsmack’s fault?

JAY: Did you know that 78% of women in the military report cases of sexual harassment? [7]

SULLY: [sarcastic] And that’s Godsmack’s fault.

JAY: No, man—

SULLY [interrupting, sarcastic]: That has to do with our new record.

JAY: Okay, let’s talk about your new record.

SULLY: I can’t believe this. This is [inaud]

JAY: Let’s talk about that new record, my friend.

SULLY: Get a life. [hangs up]

JAY: Let’s talk about the new album…

And he is out of the starting gate....

like a bullet!

Changes are a coming people. Rest assured. This is one Press Secretary who knows the secrets of the MSM. The lies will be refuted. Let the games begin!

Pic via LST and link via commenter at LST.

Super Secrets.

Ace has a kind of "what about my privacy rights" smackdown. I wasn't aware that once I had your IP address I could pay $50 for a simple program to find your exact street location, and then a interent reverse-address look-up to find your name. And then find your employer. You would think that alone would force some to be polite on blogs, wouldn't you?

But as Ace points out, none of us are really that interesting.

So for the weekend open thread tell me who you call. Let's just get this out in the open since the government has practically got cameras in our home now.

Me first.

Now, I HATE the phone. Always have. I never never answer it. Caller ID and the "no call" list was a gift from God just for me. So my list is sorta short. Here is who I call or who call me:

My kids, to tell me why they are late.

My Mom, Mother-in-law, brothers, and various sister-in-laws to talk about our kids and why they are always late and when the next visit is.

My best friends, to talk about our kids and how to keep them from being late all the time and sometimes an occasional chicken recipe.

The schools, to ask if I could volunteer for the 5,987th time.

The Church, to ask if I could volunteer for the 7,645th time.

Now, I KNOW most of you don't have as boring a life as I do. So hit me with some juicy phone calls. If the government is listening in, then the least you can do is share with me as well.

How do people live in Boston?

An English professor resigns Boston College because the Sec. of State has been invited to speak as commencement speaker. Read his letter of drivel here.

How to explain such idiocy? how to explain such a disregard for actual truth? How to explain a letter that is nothing more than a cornucopia of leftwing talking points?

Well, the book he has written in the past might explain a bit...."''My Life in Heavy Metal."

'nuff said.

via Jeff at BA

The Heros We Train.

They will change everything.

Michael Yon brings us the pictures of one Iraqi warrior who shows us the kind of heros we train. Michael says they give "us one more example of the reason I continue to believe that the Iraqi people have what it takes to beat this enemy."

The Washington Times brings us this soldier's sad story, but one of hope for a better future for all of us.

Iraq. We Are Winning Against The Terrorists.

Who says? Al Qaeda. That's who.

(emphasis mine)

There is a clear absence of organization among the groups of the brothers in Baghdad, whether at the leadership level in Baghdad, the brigade leaders, or their groups therein. Coordination among them is very difficult, which appears clearly when the group undertake a join operations.
[...]
At the same time, the Americans and the Government were able to absorb our painful blows, sustain them, compensate their losses with new replacements, and follow strategic plans which allowed them in the past few years to take control of Baghdad as well as other areas one after the other. That is why every year is worse than the previous year as far as the Mujahidin’s control and influence over Baghdad.
[...]
First, their media power is presented by their special radio and TV stations as the sole Sunni information source, coupled with our weak media which is confined mainly to the Internet, without a flyer or newspaper to present these events.
Second, in the course of their control of the majority of the speakers at mosques who convert right into wrong and wrong into right, and present Islam in a sinful manner and sins in a Muslim manner. At the same time we did not have any positive impact or benefits from our operations.

*Intercepted messages from CENTCOM

via Op For and LST

Pandering To Evangelicals.

First we hear about McCain speaking at Liberty University, but this....this was a bit of a surprise.

Howard Dean recently appeared on Pat Robertson's Christian Broadcasting Network. That's right. You read it right. It gets BETTER. He told the audience “The Democratic Party platform from 2004 says that marriage is between a man and a woman. That's what it says.” (This is called either lying or willfully misleading)

But as Out for Democracy (a liberal site) points out:

"No Howard, that is most certainly NOT what the 2004 Platform says. Is this a baldface lie to pander to the religious right? I'd like to give Dean the benefit of the doubt, but some Democratic insiders who have corrected Dean on this very point in the past say yes.

Here's what the 2004 Democratic Platform actually says:

"We support full inclusion of gay and lesbian families in the life of our nation and seek equal responsibilities, benefits, and protections for these families. In our country, marriage has been definited at the state level for 200 years, and we believe it should continue to be defined there. We repudiate President Bush's divisive effort to politicize the Constitution by pursuing a Federal Marriage Amendment." Our goal is to bring Americans together, not drive them apart."

The Democrats have gotten this strategy down. Say one thing over and over, even if it is not true, and maybe people will buy it.

via The Hotline

Update: Dean issued a retraction, but the Human Rights Campaign still isn't happy with him. (thanks to concerned citizen for the link)

Case in point...

This is why we are trapped conservatives.

USA Today writes up a story about a database of phone calls and the left runs with it with untrue accusations. This program does not involve the NSA listening to or recording conversations. Yet, I just heard Democrat Congressman Harold Ford Jr. on "The Big Story" with John Gibson saying about three times that the government was "listening in" on Americans in this program. When John pressed him on that asking if he knew for a fact that was true, Ford admitted that he was assuming.

This is exactly what I am talking about! The Democrats just lie and most journalists don't call them on it, so most Americans go to bed thinking that the government was listening in on their conversations instead of simply collecting calling patterns.

But this isn't just frustrating for conservatives. Understanding all this is VITAL for our security. RCP blog asks how civil liberties are affected here to those "hyperventilating over the latest revelation that our security agencies are actually trying to do their job."

He goes on:

"Many of the people decrying these violations of civil liberties are the same ones who ripped the government for its inability to "connect-the-dots" prior to 9/11.

But the paranoia on the left, and in particular, the hatred for the Bush administration has become so intense there is an automatic assumption that the NSA has to be engaging in nefarious activity, spying on you and your neighbor. The idea that the agency is thinking creatively and proactively about how they can legally monitor the bad guys instead of just going about business as usual is, apparently, out of the question for some. The sad truth is it is probably going to take another devastating attack to convince many in this country that we are actually at war against Islamic jihadists.

That is something true civil libertarians should think long and hard about. The more vigilant we are today in preventing attacks, the more it will pay off in spades in terms of protecting our civil liberties in the future. Because if this country gets hit with a small nuke and 30,000 or 100, 000 Americans die, all of the debating will be over. The ensuing crackdown will be massive, and the loss of REAL civil liberties will become very, very possible."

The Trapped Conservative.

Conservatives are angry at Bush. The poll numbers clearly show that. We don't talk about it much because we have to spend so much time defending him, or the war, or a dozen other things that are unfairly represented in the media.

Everytime we turn around we hear about some ridiculous accusation from the left. The "Bush lied" mantra is nothing but a joke now, but we had to seriously fight it with facts. Constantly.

The left went crazy over the "secret prisons and torture" thing and now we find out that that bit of information was leaked by a partisan CIA agent to a partisan lefty journalist. We only have her word for it. The left got angry about Terry Shiavo when so many of us saw what happened as protecting one who couldn't protect herself, being a voice for the venerable in our society. A job the Democrats use to claim was their job. No more. Then there was the "illegal wiretapping" that wasn't illegal at all. The story the left tried to sell was that the President was listening in on the private conversations of citizens instead of the reality of people speaking with Al Queda from overseas. Then came Katrina and the left tried to blame Bush instead of the local government (because they were democrats of course) who were actually really to blame. And finally there is Iraq. All the focus is on the negative. None of the good news that we conservatives get from the milblogs and conservative journals is ever put out there in the msm. We are the frustrated lone voices of the positive of having a Democracy in the Middle East. We understand this fight, this war on terror. We understand how great it is for Saddam to be off the world stage. We understand why we haven't been attacked again.

We conservatives are so busy dispelling the myths and the lies of the left we can't even express our anger over the immigration mess, the spending, the compromises, the lack of the veto pen, and the blank check the government seems to want to give to all those things to do with Katrina.

We are trapped. On the one hand we want the President and Republicans to know how we want our party to be run, but how can we do that when we have to fight the dragon of propaganda on the left and their willing partners in the media?

We are the trapped conservatives.

McCain is getting his conservative street creds....

here. And let this be a lesson to all parents. Be very very careful where you send your children to college.

The "Digital Lynch Mob"

Part II.

Actually it would be part 89,756, but you get the idea.

Anderson Cooper

His handsome face and sparkling blue eyes grace the cover of this month's Vanity Fair. I've never really watched Anderson Cooper on CNN. I gave up on CNN long ago, but the article inside was written by him in the aftermath of Katrina in New Orleans and I was interested in reading about that. He also interspersed personal stories in the article.

Let me say this. This guy can write.

Years ago I read the autobiography of Gloria Vanderbilt. A fascinating look into the lives of the privileged. I was riveted by the part where she described her son's suicide in front of her. He came home from college and seemed disoriented and was napping all day. He came into her room confused and then ran up the stairs. She followed him out to a balcony where he climbed up on the stone wall. She pleaded with him, but he simply said "Will I ever feel again?" and dropped over, holding on with his fingers for a moment and she screamed and then he dropped 14 stories down.

Horrifying. I have never forgotten it.

I had no idea that Anderson Cooper was also Vanderbuilt's son and that that was his older brother. They had lost their father when they were 10 and 12. It was devastating to them both. Of his brother he writes:

"I thought we had a silent agreement, that we would both just get though our childhood loss and meet up as adults on the other side. I imagined one day we would be friends, allies, brothers laughing about our long-ago fights. I'm not sure why he didn't keep his end of the bargain. Maybe he never knew about our silent pact. Maybe it was all in my head."

Now that is some beautiful writing.

When I was young I fought and fought with one of my older brothers. There were days I hated him. When I became a Christian at 14 hate was no longer an option. We became close friends and have remained so to this day. I can't imagine never having had that chance.

Cooper does just as beautiful a job of describing things in New Orleans. He does what every good writer does. He paints a picture and puts the reader in the painting. I kept waiting for the subtle barb, the political bashing cloaked in journalism that always comes from these pieces. It never came. He wrote a wonderful piece with no political bias right or left. It was refreshing. It was actual, honest to God, journalism.

I haven't watched CNN for a long time, but I think I may start with Anderson Cooper.

Will the foaming at the mouth moonbats mean losing for the Democrats?

Richard Cohen, liberal columnist at the Washington Post thinks so. After writing about Colbert really not speaking 'truth to power' as the leftwing of the blogosphere blathered about, he received hate mail I guess like Michelle Malkin receives every day from the clenched fingers of the moonbats. Cohen calls them the "Digital lynch mob":

"The e-mails pulse in my queue, emanating raw hatred. This spells trouble -- not for Bush or, in 2008, the next GOP presidential candidate, but for Democrats. The anger festering on the Democratic left will be taken out on the Democratic middle. (Watch out, Hillary!) I have seen this anger before -- back in the Vietnam War era. That's when the antiwar wing of the Democratic Party helped elect Richard Nixon. In this way, they managed to prolong the very war they so hated.

The hatred is back. I know it's only words now appearing on my computer screen, but the words are so angry, so roiled with rage, that they are the functional equivalent of rocks once so furiously hurled during antiwar demonstrations."

Interesting.

via Ace and Jill

Caption!

What's wrong with this picture?

Karl Rove made YouTube pull the Colbert Clips.

Ok, just kidding. But that is what the moonbats believed. Heh.

Translation of letter to Pres. Bush from Iranian Pres. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Heh.

Why the "party of corruption" mantra is such a joke.

"Meet The Press" Sunday:

MR. RUSSERT: But wait, wait a minute. But what about the leader of the Democrats in the Senate, Harry Reid, in terms of money from Jack Abramoff?

REP. PELOSI: What about him?

MR. RUSSERT: Well, let me show you. This is the Associated Press: “Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid portrays convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff’s activities as involving only Republicans. But Abramoff’s billing records and congressional correspondence tell a different story. They show Abramoff’s lobbying team billed for nearly two dozen contacts with Reid’s office in a single year. ... Reid also wrote at least four letters to the Bush administration helpful to Indian tribes Abramoff represented, often collecting donations from Abramoff-related sources around the same time. And in the midst of the contacts, Abramoff’s firm hired one of Reid’s top legislative aides to lobby for the tribal and Marianas clients. The aide then helped throw a fund-raiser for Reid at Abramoff’s office.”

Here’s the numbers in terms of lobbyist contributions: from 2004 to 2006, lobbyists gave Republicans $20 million dollars, Democrats 17.8.

REP. PELOSI: Yeah.

MR. RUSSERT: You get your money—both parties get their money from lobbyists.

REP. PELOSI: Well, let me say this: Our party is standing for honest leadership and open government.

Personally, my favorite moment was..."Yeah." Democrats trying to pretend that they are above the Washington politics of favors is never going to fly.

Republicans have not done their job. That is for sure. But thank goodness the Democrats seem to have no idea where they stand. Look at this part with Pelosi about the war:

MR. RUSSERT: I saw in the USA Today in December of ‘05 this story, and I’ll read it to you and our viewers. “House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi switched gears and embraced a call to begin an immediate withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq,” which is quite striking, because in May of 2004 you were on this program, and I asked you specifically, “Should there be withdrawal of U.S. troops by a date certain,” and this is exactly what you said. Let’s watch.

(Videotape, May 30, 2004): REP. PELOSI: No. I do not. I believe that because of the mess that has been made in Iraq we have to stay to stabilize Iraq. We have to secure the situation, because now, although it wasn’t the case before the war, now it has become a hotbed of terrorist activity.(End videotape)...

MR. RUSSERT: But you said that, in ‘04, that you were concerned about stabilizing Iraq, securing Iraq, that it has become a hotbed of terrorism activity. Has anything changed?

REP. PELOSI: No.

MR. RUSSERT: Do you think it’s secure? Do you think it’s stable?

REP. PELOSI: No.

MR. RUSSERT: Do you think it’s a hotbed for—of...

REP. PELOSI: Yes.

MR. RUSSERT: Then why would you withdraw troops?"

Democrats want to be on both sides of the issue of the war. They simply can't have it both ways.

via Oxblog

Say what?

I was reading this at the New York Post about a public-relations staffer of the Church of Scientology shopping at a local Walmart for Tom Cruise's baby from the Church's desert retreat in Hemet, Calif. - known as Gold Base (Gold Base??). But this part is what caught my attention:

"Everyone at Gold Base is a Sea Org" - Scientology's highest stratum whose members commit for life - "and they're all prohibited from having kids," said a former Gold Base staffer, who left the church. "Who else could they be shopping for?"

Sea Org?? Prohibited from having kids!!??? Good Grief. When does selling flowers at the airports begin?

Moussaoui Says He Lied on Stand About Role in Sept. 11, Asks to Withdraw Guilty Plea.

I guess the waiting so darn long for the 72 virgins and without the benefit of killing infidels, this isn't exactly what he had in mind.

Too bad.

via Iowa Voice

Kos is Kooky.

I was reading his piece in the Washington Post about Hillary and the Democratic party and his view of the Bush administration wondering how long it would take me to blog about how ridiculous most of what he wrote was, then I saw that Powerline had done it for me.

*I wanted to add this though. It seems both the right and the left seriously underestimate Hillary. This, my dear friends, is the black magic woman. If you don't think she can win, then you are deluding yourself. Every move she has made in the Senate has been calculated for the moderate view with her eyes on the prize.

Let's face it, she has a political genius as a husband/political partner/fundraiser/star power partner. (a scumbag, yes, but a political genius nontheless)

This road was mapped out long ago. She will squash the Kossacks with her big toe like a fat grandma on a midnight roach. She will get the nomination and she will woo America with her "moderate" views without ever letting the wolf peek out from behind the sheep's clothing.

And you guys wonder why I am for McCain......

Update: Kos is Kooky II.

Congress...call home.....

And make sure your kids are NOT on MySpace. You know Congresswoman Mary Bono? The widow of Sonny Bono? Well, their son is a teenager.

Is there some way to outlaw the teenage years?

via Pink Is The New Blog

This is who we fight.

By all that is holy, how can any of you say this fight isn't worth it?

via CJ and papa ray

Update: andy alerted me in the comments that The Jawa Report is reporting that the video described in the article is a hoax.

Ok, well, here is who we fight then.

I don't know why they have to provide a hoax. It's not like they aren't doing this every day.

Related: According to Instpundit, this is Blackfive on TV telling us what needs to be done.

How cool is that?

Update: According to my commenter Uncle Jimbo, it is he and not Blackfive on the video. ( I still like the video though!)

2nd ever fundraiser...

For Jeff at Protein Wisdom. Send him some love (by way of paypal) if you enjoy reading him as much as I do.

I have tried to resist....

the notion that the New York Times is profoundly anti-American and convinced myself they are simply leftists. But now I'm just not so sure.


The New York Times got itself sideways with many bloggers with its story cautioning against criticizing brutal terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi’s for his incompetence in handling a machine gun in a recently released videotape.

Little Green Footballs: “Times leaps to defend the dignity … of Zarqawi”

The Mudville Gazette: “The New York Times and Associated Press are rushing to defend … Zarqawi”

Junkyard Blog: “NYT: It’s wrong to mock Zarqawi”

Sweetness and Light: “Times defends Zarqawi’s skills”

Keep in mind, this is the monster who PERSONALLY sawed off Nicholas Berg's head on video.