Harry Whittington has a minor heart attack.

Cnn says:

The hunter shot and wounded by Vice President Dick Cheney suffered a minor heart attack after a piece of birdshot moved to his heart, a hospital spokesman said today. "Some of the bird shot appears to have moved and lodged into part of his heart ... in what we would say is a minor heart attack," said a spokesman for the Texas hospital treating Harry Whittington.

I've been encouraged to read Kos more. Wish I hadn't. Here are few choice posts on Whittington.

Setting us up? (4.00 / 3)
Did this guy even survive?
by LauraC on Tue Feb 14, 2006 at 11:38:16 AM PDT

Weekend at Bernie's (4.00 / 4)
It's like the movie... the guy actually died over the weekend but we're going to label it a 'complication' instead.

did this guy (none / 1)
even make it to the "hunting trip"?

Here's My Take on This Whole Mess... (none / 0)
...Cheney desperately needed a distraction and he, and his co-conspirators figured this 78 year old guy was worth the sacrifice..
..These blood-thirsty Republicans will stop at nothing to change the focus of the public..
..Have we heard anything about Plamegate? Katrina report scheduled to come out tomorrow? Abramoff and Bush ties?
...I'm sick of this already. Let's keep our eyes on the ball.
by heavysole on Tue Feb 14, 2006 at 01:10:34 PM PDT

Point well taken, but (none / 0)
negligent homicide by the Veep while "hunting" wingless quail in a hunting preserve (essentially blasting birds trapped behind fences) is a pretty big story.

I think that Cheney was drunk, probably all of them were actually. Most states would require a BAC test. It would be interesting to know if Dick was tested.
by smtfsc on Tue Feb 14, 2006 at 01:28:04 PM PDT

So now Cheney was drunk and Whittington is probably dead and was from the beginning. It's being covered up. And what the hell is "wingless quail?"

WHO ARE THESE PEOPLE????

House with a Bride.

Buy a house, get a bride. (I didn't figure you guys would care about seeing the house.)

You might be wondering why I have my listing at $600,000.00 plus myself for bid as “priceless”. First, I estimate the value of the house with furnishings at approximately $600,000.00. When I asked my girlfriends their advice on what I (the “bride”) was worth, most responded that I was “priceless”. I hope to find that special man, who wants to build a life with me and share this special home with me. Ideally that man is between 40 and 60 years old, is well educated and well spoken, and has a professional career. Since I am the daughter of a minister, spirituality is also important to me. Other important traits include love of travel and adventure, a good conversationalist, and a lover of animals. Although I don’t have children, I do love them, and am very open to the role of “step-mother”. It is important to me that a man be open and caring, kind in words and deeds, spontaneous to a certain extent, and takes pride in his appearance. It also goes without saying that I want to be with a man who is realistic about and committed to a relationship.

Nothing like wishing for the moon. I'm betting she gets more than her asking price.

h/t Simon

Check out the Cotillion!

This week! Cross posted at Darleen's Place.

That's what I'm talking about...

Ace has this:

It's from an email, Mudville Gazette says, and you know those are often very unreliable. Still... worth linking, unless it gets knocked down as spurious:

In the Name of God the Compassionate and Merciful
To the Courageous Men and Women of the 3d Armored Cavalry Regiment, who have changed the city of Tall’ Afar from a ghost town, in which terrorists spread death and destruction, to a secure city flourishing with life.
To the lion-hearts who liberated our city from the grasp of terrorists who were beheading men, women and children in the streets for many months.
To those who spread smiles on the faces of our children, and gave us restored hope, through their personal sacrifice and brave fighting, and gave new life to the city after hopelessness darkened our days, and stole our confidence in our ability to reestablish our city.
Our city was the main base of operations for Abu Mousab Al Zarqawi. The city was completely held hostage in the hands of his henchmen.... Their savagery reached such a level that they stuffed the corpses of children with explosives and tossed them into the streets in order to kill grieving parents attempting to retrieve the bodies of their young. This was the situation of our city until God prepared and delivered unto them the courageous soldiers of the 3d Armored Cavalry Regiment, who liberated this city, ridding it of Zarqawi’s followers after harsh fighting, killing many terrorists, and forcing the remaining butchers to flee the city like rats to the surrounding areas, where the bravery of other 3d ACR soldiers in Sinjar, Rabiah, Zumar and Avgani finally destroyed them.
I have met many soldiers of the 3d Armored Cavalry Regiment; they are not only courageous men and women, but avenging angels sent by The God Himself to fight the evil of terrorism.

Update: Yep, it's legit. Scroll down.

Saddam Shouting.

Here are some of he and his co-horts shouting slogans in court:

"We have been on hunger strike for three days to protest the way they brought us to court."

Do you think anyone cares if you die of hunger? Maybe you could experience a little of the suffering you imposed on so many, not to mention the gassing of women and children. Why don't you hunger strike us out of having this trial?

"God is great."

Yes, he is, but what would you know about him?

"long live the great Arab nation."

Like the one you had? The killing, raping, and torturing one? Yeah. Real. Great.

"I say to all Iraqis fight and liberate your country."

Oh, it's liberated alright, just not in the way you imagine.

"Down with the traitors. Down with Bush."

Just get a MoveOn.org t-shirt and get it over with.

To the judge Saddam says:

"Hit your own head with that gavel.''

Just like a third grade despot.

Ibrahim Barzan, Saddam's half brother and Intelligence Chief said:

"I sacrifice my mother and father for the great Baath Party"

Probably wasn't such a good idea. Just like showing up in court in your long underwear. Bad decisions all the way around.

Democrats endorse wiretapping.

Blogs For Bush has this:

Tom Daschle, Jane Harman: Don't Stop Wiretap Program.

Well, what do you know? Democrats do indeed pay attention to polls.

Former Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle, along with the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, Jane Harman, said emphatically yesterday that President Bush should continue his controversial terrorist wiretapping program.

As Senator Bayh (D - IN ) just said, If the people of America don't trust us with their lives, they aren't likely to trust us with anything else.

Watch for more and more Democrats to endorse protecting this country from terrorist, as we get closer to Election Day.

Update: The American Daily has this:

General Hayden, principle deputy director of national intelligence and former director of the NSA, spoke to the National Press Club on Jan. 23rd and "admits that we knew that Mohamed Atta and his crew were in the US. But he says that “we did not know anything more” because prior to 9/11 “Mohamed Atta and his fellow 18 hijackers would have been presumed to have been protected persons, U.S. persons, by NSA."

It goes on:

When FISA was created there were no cell phones, no internet, no personal computers, etc. Hayden said “I don't think that anyone can make the claim that the FISA statute is optimized to deal with or prevent a 9/11 or to deal with a lethal enemy who likely already had combatants inside the United States.

Once again, we are faced with a pre-9/11 system for a post 9/11 world and to better illustrate that point, Hayden used a revealing example.

“I testified in open session to the House Intel Committee in April of the year 2000. At the time, I created some looks of disbelief when I said that if Osama bin Laden crossed the bridge from Niagara Falls, Ontario to Niagara Falls, New York, there were provisions of U.S. law that would kick in, offer him protections and affect how NSA could now cover him.

”In other words, the U.S.A.’s biggest enemy would be, in essence, invisible to our security agencies if he were to get inside the country. I don’t know about you, but using our Constitution to protect our enemies at the expense of our own citizen’s life and limb is absurd. But it is an absurdity that the left wants to wallow in.

As to the new authority that Bush did require of the NSA after 9/11 Hayden assured us that the NSA reviewed all that was asked of them by the Bush administration, not just in terms of possibility, but also in legal terms. “… our lawyers weren't careful out of fear; they were careful out of a heartfelt, principled view that NSA operations had to e consistent with bedrock legal protections”, Hayden said.

Read the whole thing. It really details how the MSM totally got it wrong in reporting the NSA program and how Democrats are being less than honest in their assessment of it. via The Anchoress

The Kos Curse....

continues. From the New York Times:

Paul Hackett, an Iraq war veteran and popular Democratic candidate in Ohio's closely watched Senate contest, said yesterday that he was dropping out of the race and leaving politics altogether as a result of pressure from party leaders.

Mr. Hackett said Senators Charles E. Schumer of New York and Harry Reid of Nevada, the same party leaders who he said persuaded him last August to enter the Senate race, had pushed him to step aside so that Representative Sherrod Brown, a longtime member of Congress, could take on Senator Mike DeWine, the Republican incumbent.

Mr. Hackett staged a surprisingly strong Congressional run last year in an overwhelmingly Republican district and gained national prominence for his scathing criticism of the Bush administration's handling of the Iraq War. It was his performance in the Congressional race that led party leaders to recruit him for the Senate race.

But for the last two weeks, he said, state and national Democratic Party leaders have urged him to drop his Senate campaign and again run for Congress.

"This is an extremely disappointing decision that I feel has been forced on me," said Mr. Hackett, whose announcement comes two days before the state's filing deadline for candidates. He said he was outraged to learn that party leaders were calling his donors and asking them to stop giving and said he would not enter the Second District Congressional race.

"For me, this is a second betrayal," Mr. Hackett said. "First, my government misused and mismanaged the military in Iraq, and now my own party is afraid to support candidates like me."

I remember some lefty commenter going on and on here about how the veterans of the Iraq war running for congress was Democrats. I guess that doesn't mean much to the party leadership.

Also, does Kos even realize how hurtful he is to the party? Or does he just enjoy losing?

A Sweet Valentine.

Little Melissa comes home from first grade and tells her father that they learned about the history of Valentine's Day.

"Since Valentine's Day is for a Christian saint and we're Jewish," she asks, "will God get mad at me for giving someone a valentine?"Melissa's father thinks a bit, then says "No, I don't think God would get mad. Who do you want to give a valentine to?"

"Osama Bin Laden," she says. "Why Osama Bin Laden," her father asks in shock."Well," she says, I thought that if a little American Jewish girl could have enough love to give Osama a valentine, he might start to think that maybe we're not all bad, and maybe start loving people a little bit. And if other kids saw what I did and sent valentines to Osama, he'd love everyone a lot. And then he'd start going all over the place to tell everyone how much he loved them and how he didn't hate anyone anymore."

Her father's heart swells and he looks at his daughter with newfound pride. "Melissa, that's the most wonderful thing I've ever heard."

"I know," Melissa says, "and once that gets him out in the open, the Marines could blow the @#*@ out of him."

Ted Rall is a whiny twerp.

Ace has this:

Coulter reportedly said Friday at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington, D.C.: "Iran is soliciting cartoons on the Holocaust. So far, only Ted Rall, Garry Trudeau, and The New York Times have made submissions."

Rall announced on his blog that he would look into taking legal action against Coulter if readers of his blog wanted him to -- and if they pledged the $6,000 needed to draft and file a lawsuit in New York.
"If enough 'yes' votes come in with enough serious pledges, I'll see Ann in court," wrote Rall. "If not, well, chalk up another victory for the Right."
Rall said people were voting roughly 3-1 in favor of suing. And he told E&P Monday that pledges are coming in fast. "If pledges continue to come in at the present rate, I'll have the $6,000 available by tonight," Rall said. "A lot of people are fed up with how Coulter has turned slandering liberals into a cottage industry and want to see her held to account. I'm actually fairly overwhelmed by the response -- more than 300 pledges, many in the $20 to $100 range."

This makes me sick, really. Even if what Ann said was out of line, what does Ted do for a living but insult people? Try this and this and this and finally this. Is this man a hypocrite or what?? And the worst thing is that he is asking readers TO PAY FOR IT. If he wants to sue, he can pay for it himself and not use his reader's hatred of Ann pay for his revenge. What complete idiots they are to give him any of their hard earned money.

The Money Shot.

Rep. Ciro D. Rodriguez raised quite a bit of money for his primary campaign against freshman Democratic Rep. Henry Cuellar in Texas’ 28th District with this picture of Rep. Cuellar getting some Presidential love from Bush after the SOTU address.

Since no one seems to want to talk about anything else but Cheney's hunting accident, we might as well have a caption contest with this pic as well.

What the heck is wrong with the White House Press Corp?

I'm sitting here watching the press conference with Scott McClellan and the press is practically foaming at the mouth about not being informed about the hunting shooting accident the moment it happened. One reporter actually asked if the Vice President was preparing to resign!!! McClellan just said that was an absurd question. Really. What is wrong with these people?

The truth is they are ticked that a local reporter got the story before they did. Maybe they did make a mistake by letting the Corpus Christi paper have it first, but there is no need to make a mountain out of a molehill.

Tricked out Computer Screen!

Why should pimp cars have all the fun?

via Boing Boing

Hillaryland.

The New Republic (subscription required) gives us some insight into the powerful world of Hillary: (emphasis mine)

Ever since 1992, when a young campaign staffer answered a phone call from Hillary with the greeting "Hillaryland," the future first lady and her devoted, mostly female aides have embraced the cutesy sobriquet as a way to describe their unique, un-Bill (and sometimes anti-Bill) sorority. In the 1992 campaign, it described a small corner of office real estate in Little Rock where her staff toiled. In the Clinton White House, Hillaryland grew into an influential but often frustrated power center inhabited by dutiful staffers whose first allegiance was to the first lady, not the president. "[W]e were also our little subculture within the White House," Hillary writes in her memoir. "My staff prided themselves on discretion, loyalty and camaraderie, and we had our own special ethos. While the West Wing had a tendency to leak, Hillaryland never did. While the president's senior advisers jockeyed for big offices and proximity to the Oval Office, my senior staff happily shared offices with their young assistants." Bill Clinton staffers regarded the dwellers in Hillaryland as Kool-Aid drinkers with awful political judgment. Hillarylanders saw Bill's people as showboats and referred to them dismissively as the "white boys." Hillary "took a dim view of many of her husband's West Wing advisers," writes John Harris in The Survivor, his excellent account of the Clinton years, "who she regarded as too immature and too worried about currying favor with the Washington press." Hillaryland was different.

Today, Hillaryland is a vast political empire based in Washington and New York that, in its scale and ambition, is unrivaled in Democratic politics. But the spirit of Hillaryland, as well as many of its leaders, remains the same. Alan Patricof, Hillary's Senate campaign finance chair, who has been raising money for the Clintons for two decades, says, "She's got a very loyal group of people around her who have supported her for a long time." In fact, everyone in Hillaryland says that. They prefer to compare Hillary's operational style to George W. Bush's rather than Bill's. The unspoken, and sometimes spoken, premise is that, unlike her husband's White House team--not to mention the last two Democratic presidential campaigns--there are no mercenaries in Hillaryland, only true believers, a culture they say is hardening now that many Democratic sharks are circling Hillaryland, looking for a way in. "I have been involved with her for seven years. [Advisers] Patti [Solis Doyle] and Maggie [Williams] are going on 15," says one close adviser. "There is an intense loyalty."

For anyone who doubts that she will get the '08 nomination, you seriously underestimate the empire that Hillary has carefully and systematically built.

...getting answers to simple questions is always a little harder in Hillaryland. Part of the problem is that there are so many power centers. For most senators, there's only one--their Senate office. But, in Hillaryland, the Senate is just one outpost in a sprawling political organization. Says an adviser, straining not to offend Hillary's Senate aides, "Let's just say there are big and important players outside of the Senate office."

The office is, however, an interesting microcosm of greater Hillaryland. It is relentlessly on-message and extremely wary of reporters. When I called the communications director to ask about the culture of the office and the backgrounds of its senior employees, she read me a staff directory. "Tamera Luzzatto is our chief of staff. ... Miguel Rodriguez is the counsel. ... Phillippe is the press secretary...." According to other denizens of Hillaryland, the Senate staff is especially tight-lipped because many aides don't have longtime Hillary connections and realize that most of Hillary's top strategists and advisers work elsewhere. "It's a unique Senate staff, in that the main decisions don't get made by the Senate staff," says one Democrat.

A look into Hillary's "centrist" move tells us how she will shape her presidential bid including moving to the right of her previous issues.

..for example, Hillary's new legislative director, Laurie Rubiner. The newest senior staffer in Hillaryland, Rubiner came to Hillary by way of former Republican Senators John Chafee and Bob Dole and, most recently, the aggressively centrist New America Foundation, where she ran a program on universal health insurance. Her hiring says a lot about where Hillary is headed on the issues that may define a presidential campaign. Rubiner favors a universal plan, whereby the government mandates the purchase of health insurance, just as it does car insurance, from competing private providers, while subsidizing the neediest. Back in the '90s, this was the centrist alternative to Hillarycare, and it was sponsored by Rubiner's ex-bosses, Chafee and Dole.

The Senate office has also been instrumental in executing Hillary's high-profile campaign to co-sponsor legislation with practically every extremist Republican in the Senate. Her policy seems to be: The more right-wing the co-sponsor, the better; extra points for anyone involved with her husband's impeachment. There was the legislation to ban flag-burning, co-sponsored with Utah's Robert Bennett. There was the video game violence bill with Sam Brownback and Rick Santorum and the work on National Guard benefits with impeachment leader Lindsey Graham. Most of the issues on which she has allied herself with Republicans are symbolic, an effort to show, in the words of one senior adviser, that she's "a little more socially conservative than people think."

She is making sure no one can call her a leftwing radical. I believe that every single step she has taken in the Senate is carefully planned with a white house run in mind and always has. I don't think she is guided by principles any more than her husband was. The difference is Bill wanted to be liked, Hillary just wants to win.

The article describes the small population of Hillaryland. It is a close tightknit group of people devoted to Hillary. They are powerful and loyal and they make sure that nothing but good press goes out regarding Hillary and they are very good at it.

And then there is the money. Oh goodness..is there money:

If you really want to understand Hillaryland, you have to look outside the Senate at the array of political machinery that runs and finances the Hillary empire. Between her own political and campaign committees and the fund-raising she has done for other Democrats, aides say that Hillary has raised some $50 million since 2001. In true Hillaryland fashion, the person who actually manages this expansive operation is almost unknown in political circles. She rarely talks to the press, save for an occasional anodyne quote about successful fund-raising numbers or one repeating how focused Hillary is on her Senate reelection, not the White House. She never appears on television. She declined to cooperate with this article. Her name is Patricia Solis Doyle--Patti to everyone in Hillaryland--and her job is running Hillary's two main fund-raising entities, HillPAC, a so-called leadership committee, and Friends of Hillary (FOH), the senator's reelection vehicle.

The money machine continues:

HillPAC, which is really the holding company for Hillary's political machine, supplements the salaries of Hillary's Senate staffers. It pays the consultants who write Hillary's speeches for, say, a Gridiron dinner. It pays for the Beverly Hills firm Capital Strategies, which lassoes Hollywood money for Hillary. It pays about $5,000 a month to Hudson Media Partners, the political arm of the Glover Park Group, the powerhouse corporate consulting firm of Hillary's top communications guru, Howard Wolfson. It writes checks to Occasions, the swanky Washington caterer that outfits Hillaryland events at Whitehaven. One of its largest expenses is to direct mail firms like O'Brien, McConnell & Pearson and Merkle Response Services, which are canvassing every nook of the United States for Hillary donors. By 2008, Hillary may have the most massive fund-raising database in politics.

Where does the "middle of the road" messages come from?A man named Mark Penn.

Penn has been the messaging mastermind of Hillaryland. His stubborn centrism, arrived at by sifting through tons of granular-level psychographic polling--that is, psychological and demographic--has long angered liberals, and it is likely be the greatest source of future tension in Hillaryland.

Like Bill, Hillary will depend on locking into what the people want. Not just through polls as Bill did, but by even more intense probing of the American mind. She will discover what people really want and run on that. Of course we all know that doesn't mean she will govern that way. I feel pretty confident that the deep lefty politics that she is devoted to will emerge when she wins and I figure the left will hold their nose at the right of center messages to get her elected.

Everyone here wonders why I still think McCain is the one to run against her. Let me assure you of something. No novice, no first timer, no matter how wonderful, is going to overtake the Hillarymachine. No way. McCain is the only one I see having the political muscle to take her down.

Annan to ask Bush for help with Darfur.

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Secretary-General
Kofi Annan intends to ask
President George W. Bush on Monday what the United States can contribute to a mobile UN force to stop the killings, rape and pillaging in Sudan's Darfur region.

From everything that I have read about this I think we should be more involved. I know we can't help everyone in this world, but this seems beyond the pale. Let's do it.

H/T Muslihoon

Vice President Shoots Friend.

I bet that has never been a headline before. Cheney accidentally shot fellow hunter Harry Whittington, who is doing fine at a Corpus Christi hospital.

I wonder if they could have tried any harder to find a snarling picture of Cheney. I surfed over at the lefty blogs just to see how crazy they would get with this and Democrats.com actually had a pretty funny "Dick Cheney's Top 10 Excuses For Shooting Fellow Hunter." Heh.

The SobekPundit interview....

with me. Enjoy.

30 days as a Muslim.

I watched this program last night on FX channel about a 34 yr old Christian white guy who goes and lives with a Muslim family for 30 days. Have you guys seen this show? I think it is called "30 days." They are advertising the next one where some black people get a makeover to live as white for 30 days and some white people do the reverse. I bet that was interesting. I can't wait to see it.

Anyway, I was kind of surprised by how much the Christian guy didn't know about the roots of Christianity and that he didn't know that Allah was the same "God" that we worship (according to their beliefs) The show was interesting and I think the Christian guy did come away with a desire to defend peaceful Muslims against those who equate the entire religion with terrorism.

He did ask the Muslim family why they don't come out more against terrorism that is done in the name of Islam and one Muslim man basically said why should they apologize for what fanatics do? I thought he might have a bit of a point there. When I think of those few that have set off bombs in abortion clinics, I don't consider them pro-life, I consider them insane. They aren't what pro-life is about. In fact, they are the complete opposite, so maybe Muslims see the terrorists in the same way?

The Christian man said that he admired the Muslim's discipline. And it does take a lot of discipline to live a Muslim lifestyle. The dress, the prayer five times a day (done in an exact physical way), fasting, and the meal preparation must follow strict rules. For example, the meat they eat must be slaughtered facing east (toward Mecca) and the religiously trained slaughterer must recite the name of Allah when doing so. These types of restrictions and rules are common throughout every aspect of a Muslim's life, from sexual issues to washing to death. I noticed at one point a cleric asks the Christian man if the way he was sitting was proper. The man seemed confused. It seems when putting one leg up on the other knee and showing the bottom of the shoe to the person you are speaking with is rude. (or rude to Allah, I wasn't sure which)

I found the life so restrictive that I wondered how they ever have fun at all. This summer I posted about seeing 2 Muslim women at a waterpark. They were dressed head to toe in black. They went into the water with their children that way as well. But I noticed that their husbands were bare chested with regular swimsuits on. If the women are suppose to be keeping men from lusting after them by dressing this way, then do the men not worry about that as well? It just seemed so oppressive and unfair to me.

I think that such discipline is actually something that draws people to Islam as well as keeping the children in the faith. Living in a part of the world where nothing is stable and everything seems out of control, it is probably a relief to them to have something that is so rigid and controlled define their life. There is a lot of comfort in structure.

On the cul-de-sac where I live I have neighbors who are practicing Baptists, Hindus, Jews, and Evangelicals. One is a non-practicing Muslim. Our kids play together and we all get along well. But none of these faiths have such a restrictive lifestyle where it would interfere in the normal course of a day in a kid's life. None require a certain dress that would make them stand apart from the other kids. It is in this way that I can see why it would be difficult for a Muslim family to fit in with people of other faiths.

After watching the "30 days as a Muslim" show, I only felt what I felt that day at the waterpark watching the two women covered in black on a hot Texas day..... a sadness I couldn't explain.

Open thread!!!

Behave though.

What bored rich white kids....

do for fun.

God save us from teenagers.

Reason #682 of why I HATE the dark side of the web.

Ugh. (it's a link to Boing Boing discussing the site I am disgusted with, but the top banner is NSFW)

To the commentary about privacy rights, I say boo freaking hoo. If you are an adult playing this game you're an idiot and a pervert, which of course, is your right, but it doesn't mean you have a right to a game online that might entice kids. Boing Boing makes the point that she got in (as a child might) anyway without too much trouble. So that is suppose to make the fact that they are trying to make it strictly for adults only not worth it????? To me it just means there needs to be even more of a security system involved.

You all know how I feel about this. It just DRIVES ME CRAZY that we care more about our own perverted desires than the accessibility of filth like this to our kids.

Don't try and defend it. It will just make me not like you.

Cartoons and Craziness.

I was reading at the Captain's about a cartoon depicting Anne Frank in bed with Adolf Hitler circulated by European Muslims as a tit-for-tat response to their outrage over the Jyllands-Posten editorial cartoons.

I just had to shake my head at the absurdity of it all. People have actually been killed at some of the "protests" over the Muslim cartoons and now we have those trying their best to come up with something that will insult Jews as much as possible.

As you might imagine, the "Jews" aren't taking the bait. Thank Goodness. Imagine WWIII be started by CARTOONS!!!!

It's sort of like the siblings who yell "he touched me!!!!!" As parents we know that someone lightly touching their brother/sister with the tip of their finger is hardly a reason for them to get into a full blown knock down drag out fight, but we also know that if we don't intervene, it will become just that.

So, as absurd as it is for these cartoons to be making the impact that they are, I think it best if we stop it in it's tracks and not let it get to the point of a knock down drag out fight. Which is why the Bush administration and news outlets ect.. are trying to calm things down by either recognizing the insult or refusing to air the cartoons.

This is not, imo, a surrender of free speech or hypocrisy on the side of CNN and the like who would think nothing of airing cartoons depicting Christians in a negative light. It is simply recognizing the fact that this isn't worth the grief that it is causing and that trying to simmer it down is not a bad thing.

In America it's always about proving our point. Maybe sometimes it should be about not letting ridiculous things get out of hand, whether our point is made or not.

This has got to hurt....

The Democrats just can't get a break.

More on Harry Reid's Ties to Jack Abramoff.

More on the unseemly conduct of the Democrats at Coretta Scott King's funeral.

Surveillance Wins Some More Backers.

Check it out...

My buddy Charmaine Yost at Reasoned Audacity . She has the clip where she was on CNBC on "On Your Money" discussing this month's Vanity Fair cover.

Michael Yon

The LA Times has a great story on Michael Yon and his blogging from Iraq. If you loved his blogging as much as I did and wanted to know more about Michael and where he came from, this article is a good place to start.

Stuff.

Powerline points to polls that says Hillary is VERY unpopular. I still say she gets the '08 nomination no matter what the polls say. (And the polls say she will get the nod too)

Cindy Sheehan says she is not running for the Senate. Darn.

Reid Aided Abramoff Clients. I'm actually starting to feel sorry for Howard Dean.

This morning Bush gave some details on a 2002 terror attack that was thwarted.

Out of the kindness of my heart...

I am giving you lefties a tip. Someone out there get in touch with the Democratic side of the House of Representatives and let them know that Stephen Colbert is not a real reporter.

Colbert has been having this segment where he goes to Representatives of different districts and "interviews" them and makes a complete fool of them. Very funny stuff and so far it seems to be only Democrats. Now, I don't know if that is because Republicans are on to him or what, but even if you knew who Stephen Colbert was and you were ready for him, you have to know that they edit the interview to make you look foolish anyway, no matter how prepared you are.

I think Stephen Colbert is hilarious. I love his show, but I do feel sorry for the politicians that get caught in his "interviews." So, someone...Please. Tell your Representative to BEWARE.

Crossing the line.

Ever since I mentioned how wrong I thought it was to report on politician's children, the left has brought up Rush making some reference to President Clinton's daughter and a dog. I have never really heard that reference or even know how he said it. If someone has that, let me know.

As I have said before, I checked out of politics during the Clinton administration. I simply couldn't bear it and I was busy busy with small babies. I obviously missed TV at the time too because just in the last week I have seen two references to Chelsea in old SNL skits. One had Hillary and Barbara Bush during the 92 campaigns debating and Barbara refers to Chelsea looking like a dog. The one I saw today was with Paulie Shore saying "Did you hear that Clinton has been renting out the Lincoln bedroom for $50,000? For another $100 he will throw in Chelsea."

Awful. Just awful. It seems that Chelsea was beat up pretty bad with comedians during the Clinton years. Yet the only thing the left seems to remember is Rush saying something which I have yet to hear exactly what he said. If we are going to be outraged over someone crossing the line then I think we need to be consistent. Don't forget to be outraged just because the person making the joke is someone you like or a TV star.

The backlash regarding the Mohammad cartoons, whether the protests were organized or not, doesn't mean that people should not be allowed to make fun of what they wish. Freedom is freedom after all. But it also doesn't mean they have to either.

Here's an idea.

From John Kerry's letter regarding CPAC

"While they plot strategy, here’s what we’re going to do: raise the money we need to break their grip on power and drive them from office."

Sounds like a plan. Sounds like their only plan.

A reality show I really like.

Mary Katherine Ham at Hugh Hewitt talks about the Reality show "Beauty and the Geek." I've only been able to catch it twice, but I really liked it too. Here is what Mary Katherine had to say:
An actual piece of dating advice from "Beauty and the Geek" tonight:

"Whatever you do, don't talk about the monkeys with lasers."

I don't know if y'all are into the whole reality TV thing or not. I know a lot of the reality competition shows can get pretty catty and negative. "Beauty and the Geek" is actually pretty uplifting.

It's uplifting because everyone is actually NICE to one another. Even when the not so brilliant pretty girls get an obvious question wrong and lose the challenge for her and her brainy geek teammate, he doesn't get mad. He says, "that's ok" and gives her a hug.

The guys are totally adorable and endearing. They seem so happy to be around beautiful women they seem to melt in their presence. Maybe this show can show women that there are guys out there who would treat you as you really would like to be treated. Sure, they aren't be best looking guys, but looks fade any way, but kindness lasts.

I have always said that young women should be required to read Dr. Laura Schlessinger's "10 Stupid Things Women Do To Mess Up Their Lives." Because among the most stupid things they do is date and marry goodlooking, but horrible men. If you watch any dating show or even those challenge shows on MTV you know exactly what I mean.

Watch it next time and tell me what you think.

Orchestrated Protest?

NRO has this:

NTERESTING! [Jonah Goldberg]
An Egyptian newspaper ran the cartoons last October. Meanwhile, Amir Taheri sheds some light on the orchestration behind the cartoon protests.

John Bolton nominated for Nobel Peace Prize.

This should pretty much finally cause Howard Dean's head to explode.

Since President Carter brought it up....

It wasn't a terrorist that our Government wiretapped when it wiretapped Dr. King, and it wasn't a Republican administration doing it. As Hugh Hewitt points out: (emphasis mine)

But for the record, here's the opening of The Atlantic Monthly's 2002 article on the FBI and Dr. King:

On October 10, 1963, U.S. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy committed what is widely viewed as one of the most ignominious acts in modern American history: he authorized the Federal Bureau of Investigation to begin wiretapping the telephones of the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. Kennedy believed that one of King's closest advisers was a top-level member of the American Communist Party, and that King had repeatedly misled Administration officials about his ongoing close ties with the man. Kennedy acted reluctantly, and his order remained secret until May of 1968, just a few weeks after King's assassination and a few days before Kennedy's own. But the FBI onslaught against King that followed Kennedy's authorization remains notorious, and the stains on the reputations of everyone involved are indelible.
The left has been hijacked by its angriest elements, and whenever those elements are on display, the country gets another lesson on why the Democratic Party, controlled by this angry edge, simply cannot be allowed to govern unless and until it reforms itself.

Laura Ingraham blogging from Iraq.

She is no Michael Yon yet, but pretty good stuff.

A lesson learned?

This New York Time's piece may explain a bit of the desperation of the Democrats shown at Coretta Scott King's funeral, but I found this quote regarding the Abramoff scandal from Howard Dean interesting:

"We're going to keep hammering this," said Mr. Dean, the party chairman, referring to the scandals. "One thing the Republicans have taught us is that values and character matter."

Glad we could teach you something there Dean. Heh.

New political lows.

After the last post I didn't think I could get more disgusted, but this did it.

We cannot accept smearing candidate's or political pundit's children IN ANY WAY. I don't care if it's Democrat or Republican. I don't care what pictures he/she has up. NO!

The only way to stop this is for all of us, on the left and right, to make it clear that we will not vote or support any campaign that involves itself in this.

Deal?

No, no, no, no.

I can't tell you how WRONG it was for President Carter and Rev. Joseph Lowery to use the occasion of Coretta Scott King's funeral to score political points. It is beyond the pale. Incredibly rude and frankly, unforgivable. Here is what Carter said of the Kings:

"It was difficult for them then personally with the civil liberties of both husband and wife violated as they became the target of secret government wiretaps." Later, he said that Hurricane Katrina showed that all are not yet equal in America.

Then Lowery said this:

"We know there were no weapons of mass destruction over there, but Coretta knew and we knew there are weapons of misdirection right down here," Lowery said, complaining that were far too many in the U.S. are living in poverty and without health care insurance.
"For war, billions more, but no more for the poor," Lowery continued, a take-off of a lyric from the song "A Time to Love."

The Bush family, of course, handled it with their usual class and dignity. Bush senior simply joking about it:

"Bush's father tried to defuse any political tension by joking that Lowery used to challenge him when he was president, too.

"I kept score in the Oval Office desk — Lowery 21, Bush 3," former President George H.W. Bush said. "It wasn't a fair fight."

There is a time and place for political jabs and smears, but a funeral IS NOT ONE OF THEM. Especially a funeral for a woman who epitomized grace and class and never used her stature or fame for political points or gains when it would have been easy to do so. I am sure they both felt smugly that they were really "giving it to Bush," but perhaps they should have considered the King family first.

Carter and Lowery should be ASHAMED of themselves and should apologize for such a rude and unacceptable display at a time that should have been reserved for honoring a great lady.

A Caption Contest!

Long overdue. Caption This! provided the pic and these captions:

"These books got a lot easier after Waldo converted to Satanism."

"Phil, Prince of Insufficient Light, parties down on Spring Break."

"Only known photograph of the 'Black Devil' that haunts Senator Byrd's dreams."

Back to the basics.

If there is one thing that ties all Republicans (libertarian, gay, moderate, conservative, atheist, religious) together other than the war on terror, it's the belief that the government is too big. If we could point to one thing that Bush has disappointed us the most with, it would be the budget. The Captain breaks it down referring to Federal Spending - By The Numbers:

......Federal spending has kept the pace of the expansion in revenues. Last year's budget came in at $2.472T, and this year we expect to spend $2.77T, according to estimates released this week. Of that money, $969B comes in so-called discretionary spending, up $300B since 2001. But by far and away the worst of the bill comes in entitlement spending, which went to $1.32T last year, up from $1.009 in 2001. As a measure of the rate of increase in both areas, discretionary spending has increased 93% since 1990, but entitlements have gone up 132%, while revenues have increased by 109%.

Where has the increase come? Some of it has gone to national defense, but not all of it. In fact, the federal budget has grown across the board since 2001, outstripping inflation (12% overall) in several categories, such as Education (137%), Community and Regional Development (342%), Medicare (58%), Housing and Commerce (58%), Medicaid (49%), and Water Transportation (46%). Do you like the idea of nationalized health care? We may be heading there by default, as the federal budget for Health Research and Regulation has grown by 78% since 2001 and now consumes $76B of our budget.

And here is the money quote:

Federal programs have become an addiction, not just to politicians looking to pork up home districts to guarantee re-election, but to all of us. What started as noble programs to assist the truly disadvantaged have now become bloated socialist nanny-care programs, floating everyone and relying on a decreasing work force to prop up the Ponzi scheme for just one more generation before the collapse comes.

I think we conservatives have given Bush and congress a pass because of our support on the war on terror, but it is time to put our foot down. Being a compassionate conservative does not mean throwing out money to every program in the government. The above increases are unacceptable. It's time to make the hard choices. People have got to be more responsible for themselves and their own lives.

Let me give you a small example. A few years ago I had a family member (on my husband's side) tell me how she got free cheese and milk and shots for her kids from government programs. This was a married working middle class college educated family. When I expressed my dismay that these programs were meant for the very poor and it was things like this that made them not work, she justified it by saying that they paid so much in taxes that they deserved to get some of it back that way.

When I was volunteering for Health and Human Services many years back I saw this over and over. People who actually went agency to agency to get as much as possible while they spent their own money on booze and cigarettes. I remember once talking to a woman that was having surgery (on us the taxpayer) and because I was taking care of her kids during the surgery she told me I could reach her on her cell phone. This was even before everyone and their dog had a cell phone. I asked her how much she paid for the cell phone a month. She said about $50. I thought well, if she paid for her surgery at $50 a month for a few years then the taxpayer wouldn't have to. But that thought probably never crossed her mind.

This is why programs don't' work. People who shouldn't be getting the benefits do. Period. We have got to cut these people out of the picture and make them fly on their own. We all believe in a safety net for the poor, but that net is being weighed down by people taking advantage of the system. If we don't do something, that net will break and no one will benefit.

A McCain smackdown.

My friend BigDog showed me this letter yesterday from McCain to Obama, but I wasn't sure it was real. Now that everyone is publishing it, I guess it is. I know McCain makes people mad, but if he keeps doing stuff like this I think he could win you guys over.

Well this is mature.

"IRAN'S largest selling newspaper announced today it was holding a contest on cartoons of the Holocaust in response to the publishing in European papers of caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed."

via NRO

This is priceless!

Baldilocks has this:

Pajamas Media is covering the hearings on the legality of the NSA's Terrorist Surveillance Program. Be sure to check out the 'NSA Files.' meanwhile it appears that Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) has been introduced to us.

Durbin: What outfit are you with?

[Paul] Mirengoff [of Power Line]: Power Line and Pajamas Media.

Durbin: 'Jamas Media?

Mirengoff: No. Pajamas Media.

Durbin: Oh, Pajamas Media. I'm not familiar with that publication.

[More exchange about Mirengoff's question. Apparently Durbin didn't want to answer]

Durbin: I don't know who you are.

Mirengoff: Well, Dan Rather knows who we are.

[LAUGHTER from the crowd.](Thanks to Roger L. Simon)

UPDATE: Watch the video.

Moderate Muslims say they are sorry.

Here.

Alberto Gonzales on the NSA's terrorist surveillance program.

Here. Here is an excerpt:

The president, as commander in chief, has asserted his authority to use sophisticated military drones to search for Osama bin Laden, to deploy our armed forces in combat zones, and to kill or capture al Qaeda operatives around the world. No one would dispute that the AUMF supports the president in each of these actions.

It is, therefore, inconceivable that the AUMF does not also support the president's efforts to intercept the communications of our enemies. Any future al Qaeda attacks on the homeland are likely to be carried out, like Sept. 11, by operatives hiding among us. The NSA terrorist surveillance program is a military operation designed to detect them quickly. Efforts to identify the terrorists and their plans expeditiously while ensuring faithful adherence to the Constitution and our existing laws is precisely what America expects from the president.

You can access the committee's webcast from the hearing page here, and you can obtain hearing documents from that site during and after the hearing. You can also watch C-SPAN's webcast from its site, and here is the latest Associated Press story on the hearing (updated 3:10 pm ET.).

via The Counterterrorism Blog

"I Am Al Qaeda"

NRO:

As Alberto Gonzales tries to explain to the Senate Judiciary Committee why it might be necessary to take extraordinary measures to subdue Al Qaeda, the "20th hijacker," Zacarias Moussaoui, appeared in court for jury selection in his trial. He stood up, said, "I am Al Qaeda," announced he didn't want his lawyers to represent him because they were Americans, and had to be escorted from the courtroom. Draw your own conclusions.

Disturbing.

I was checking my recent keyword activity, where you can see what someone has typed in the search engine to have landed on your webpage. We all know that some crazy stuff comes up and you have to wonder what the person was looking for, but in this search, I don't think there is any doubt about the information he wanted. Here is what he typed:

"ru286 spike food drink kill baby"

You know, it never occurred to me that a man could maybe spike a drink or food to a pregnant woman to try and have her abort the baby (with her believing it was a miscarriage, I suppose) But then I got to thinking how easy that would be.

Then I thought, well, a man could not get ru286 anyway. But I was wrong.

I hope the guy who typed that didn't find that webpage. But it only took me about 2 minutes.

Hypocrisy of the Left.

Just as I finished writing in the comments in the post below about the irony of the left insisting on tolerance for the Muslim religion when they have none for the Christian one here, I hop over to Protein Wisdom and Jeff says it much better than I could.

"I’m not the most religious person in the world, but even I recognize that, to many devout Christians, abortion, say, is an unpardonable sin—a social / physical act that though sanctioned by the laws of the state and therefore legal, is nevertheless irreconciliable with the basic foundational tenets of their fundamental Christian faith.

And yet somehow I can’t for a second imagine that Steve Gilliard would spend as much time explaining to “intolerant” feminists and “extremist” womens’ reproductive rights advocates why the deeply-held beliefs of fundamentalist Christians must be respected (read: obeyed)—even by those who don’t hold with them—as he does this morning explaining to intolerant westerners how the deeply-held religious beliefs of Muslims must be respected (read: obeyed), even by those who don’t hold with them—and even if doing so means that free speech is sacrificed is sacrificed in the process to the theocratic dictates of a minority tribalist religion whose demands require a rewriting of the social contract that gives them de facto control of the host country. Sorry, Gilliard seems to say, but the west started all this by letting Muslims in—so they’re just going to have to learn to deal with all this Otherness. Or else, y’know, rocks will be thrown, flags burned, embassies firebombed, etc., etc.

Now sure, in one example, the offense in question is cartooning(the critique of policy, ideology, or action via pointed satire)—while in the other instance, the offense is the termination of a life. But that’s really just nitpicking, isn’t it—because what remains constant is the call for a social “tolerance” that respects the doctrinal dictates of a particular religious group.

Or maybe Gilliard has decided that being intellectually consistent is secondary to the fact that he believes he’d look better in sandals and a flowing silken headscarf than he would in Amish highwaters and one of those big, buckle-heavy hats."

Understanding.

If you read the comment thread in the post below you read a Muslim from the Middle East comment there. I asked if I could e-mail her some questions and she agreed. I realize that this is but one Muslim, but she absolutely reaffirms to me what I believe to be the feelings of most Muslims. Hind is a devout Muslim from Muscat - Oman (but she is from the kingdom of Bahrain). She has never lived in the United States.

My commentary about the answers are in red.

RWsparkle-How do you feel about the clerics who preach so much hate for America?

Hind-I think they are damaging the way Islam looks.. & we Muslims dislike those people's actions more than any other person from any other Religion!

RWsparkle-Do you think most Muslims are afraid to speak out against the radical ones?

Hind-I don't think people are afraid simply not bothered or don't have enough knowledge to argue and that's why they stay quiet.

This has been what I thought as well. I don't think most Americans realize how most in the Middle East live. There is simply not the education and knowledge that is available here to understand what is going on in the world. They are busy living day to day. They wake up thinking about how to provide food for their family that day, not wondering how the world is judging Islam or even knowing how the world judges it. Most of us in the U.S. have the luxury to contemplate and argue about the world, they do not. (Hind, feel free to correct me if I am wrong) I would still imagine that in places like Iran, there is great fear in speaking out.

RWsparkle-Do you feel that the U.S. is a threat to the Muslim religion?

Hind-Why would it be a threat? Would the U.S. stop us from believing what we believe in?

RWsparkle- How do you see the West and the Middle East coming to terms with each other's differences?

Hind-I think they have to learn to tolerate eachother..why do they change us? And why do we have to convert them to Muslims?To each his own! But I personally don't know how it is over there, but what I know is that I bump into ALOT of Christians & to be more specific I bump into Americans everyday & they don't look away or even look at us as terrorists, & WE don't pull out our weapons or think of ways to kill them .. They live among us and I don't think they're facing any problems from us .. & neither do we!

RWsparkle-Would you rather live under Democracy or under Muslim Law? In other words, would you rather religion be a private thing instead of a governmental thing?

Hind-I think they should be balanced out & that we should be able to combine them for the good of the people.

RWsparkle- What do you see as the biggest misconceptions about Muslims?

Hind-Some people believe that all we Muslims do is think of ways to destroy non-Muslims, & that's really not close to being true!We live our lives just like any other person from any other religion.. We respect others and HATE the acts of those terrorists who speak by our name! And also one thing.. The fact that Islam is shown as a vulgar, and a disrespectful religion I think is the greatest misconception of all .. This image those Muslim terrorists have created DOESN'T & SHOULDN'T represent Islam in any way! And I do agree with the non-Muslims when they say that they're ignorant & shouldn't be given a chance, but I say it again "THEY" not "US" !

You see? I don't see this kind of person as someone we can't possible live with in this world. I have to believe that Hind is more the face of Islam than the hate preaching clerics and the violent crowds they show on TV. Think about the things that Muslims could see on TV about Americans. "The Jerry Springer Show" or "College Girls Gone Wild" or "Cops." They would see a sick drunken slutty ignorant redneck kind of America. And, sad to say, that is a part of America, but it isn't the majority of us (Thank God) So impressions from TV, even news, can be SO wrong. I think this is what has happened with our impressions of Muslims.

RWsparkle-What was your first thoughts on 9-11? Did you worry that Islam would be equated with the highjackers?

Hind-What happened in America that day was certainly a tragedy..Not only for Americans but for me too & for many Muslims that I know. Innocent people were killed there, so any person with a heart would've felt upset and angry that day. Especially us, because the moment we heard about it we knew that Muslims would be to blame..And it happened that the highjackers WERE Muslims .. So I have nothing to say to defend them but again I defend Islam .. Islam is being used in a horrible way by the people who call themselves "faithful" to Allah and Islam.. And as I heared someone once say "instead of using Islam as a tool to gain people's trust and friendship... They're using it as a weapon".

RWsparkle-How do you think most Muslims see America and it's people? (in general)

Hind-Well in general (as in what I see in my daily life) is that we get along so well, where I am at at least. And those who put that barrier between us are only those closed minded ones, which I personally haven't met any in my life yet! It may differ from a country to another... But I assure you that here it's not like most of the people over there think! ....

RWsparkle-How do you feel about the U.S in Iraq?

Hind-I think the US started something they cant finish.Because at the beginning I thought that their mission was to get rid of Saddam & let the Iraqis live at peace ....Well Saddam is gone but I still hear about people dying in Iraq.

I have to point out to Hind that if we had just left when Saddam was gone the insurgents/terrorists would have taken over and Iraq would be even worse off. We had to and have to stay long enough to train forces and make sure the Democratic process moved forward. This was not something Iraqis could have done on their own. It was also critical to the future. Remember who is doing the killing there. It is not us. It is the insurgents and terrorists. They have no regard for the life of even their own people. Would you really wanted the U.S. to leave the Iraqis at their hands????


RWsparkle-Can you understand how the Muslim religion might look oppressive to the U.S.?

Hind-Yes I do .. Because I KNOW that all America know about Muslims is what they see on news.. And news never talks about Islam.. But talks about racist religious Muslims & their attacks on innocent people..And about that, I want to mention a little story of my own that happened few years back. I was watching TV one morning,& as I was flipping through the channels, a crying man caught my attention on TV. I didn't know what it was about at the beginning, but later I realized it was about the terrorists in Iraq who threatened to behead their innocent hostages. This time their hostage was an American man, & that man crying was his son & his wife also was on, they were both pleading & begging to have the father and husband back home!! I was watching both of them crying & at the same time I watch the terrorists holding him hostage.. I NEVER in my life shed as much tears as I did that day!!! & after few days I heared that the terrorists have killed the man.. that father,that husband! That has hurt me so much.. I dunno if I cried out of sadness or out of anger!!!! But my whole point is that I felt angry and enraged, and I'm sure that for the Americans to see that they absolutely had a reason to hate Muslims and have the wrong idea about Islam..BUT I don't just say that those people don't deserve to be called "Muslims"..They don't deserve to be called "human beings"!!!! And I'm sorry they use our religion in that way..

I think one point Hind missed here was that the question was about the repressiveness of the Muslim religion in the eyes of the United States. The burkas, the role of women, the role of the government in regards to religion. It is our belief that it is never for the good of society for religion to govern us because of the simple fact that we are of all different religions or no religion. Religion can and should have a say, just as the non-religious voice does. But it should be the voices together that decide. This is what we do here in America. Sometimes it is messy, loud, and angry. But it is wonderful because it is free. Theocracy doesn't work, in our opinion, because faith should never be forced on anyone. It has to be freely chosen.

Regarding Hind's reaction to the killing of the hostage. It is my belief that good people are all the same under the skin they are in. We all feel compassion for those hurting, no matter how different they are from us.

This is the commonality that we need to work with and hold on to.

Mohammad Cartoon Crudeness.

I have to disagree with so many blogs who seem determined to show as much disrespect for Muslims as possible with not only reprinting the offending Danish cartoons, but making up their own. I realize that many feel they are throwing it back into the face of fanatical Muslims who threaten us, but they seem to forget peaceful Muslims are offended too.

I also think it is a bit hypocritical for us to get all angry at crude depictions of Christ, yet feel that it is somehow ok to depict Mohammad in the same way. Yes, I understand that we don't believe in Mohammad, but the people that depict Christ that way don't believe him either.

It's really about common courtesy. Why do we seem to think that the only Muslims we offend by this are the ones who are terrorists? There are over a billion Muslims in this world and most of them are not terrorists. We have to learn to live together on this planet in peace. I don't think offending their faith will bring them any closer to democracy and it especially won't bring them any closer to understanding our faith and freedoms.

I've been getting a lot of heat on other blogs for saying this. One other commenter at LGF asked me, "Why should we try and understand them?" Because if we don't try and understand them and their culture, I can guarantee you they will never try and understand ours. By doing things such as this we look like the hedonistic "infidels" that people like Osama want the Middle East to think that we are. We are not that. It is the kind face of this nation that they need to see.

We have got stop looking at the Muslim world through the prism of our culture and start looking at it through the prism of theirs. Do you think that by showing them what freedom of speech looks like in this way, that they are going to think it is a good thing??? Getting along in this world starts with respect for each other's differences. We don't have to agree with them. We don't have to live by their rules. But if we want to show others the greatness of freedom, we can do a lot better than this.

Good Grief!

Talk about offensive! (be sure and click on the 'read more' link under the pictures. It gets better)

I Love This Blog.

Dedicated to all the blogs I love (and you know who you are)

Lyrics to "I Love This Blog" (sung to lyrics by Toby Keith’s "I Love This Bar.")

I LOVE THIS BLOG

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they really are

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Hmm, hmm,hmm I love this blog

(Chorus)

I love this blog
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It lifts you up more than your dog

Hmm, hmm, hmm I love this blog

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And we got lovers, lots of lookers
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we like our politics like fat on a hog

Hmm, hmm, hmm I love this blog

Yes I do

I like my truck (I like my truck)
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I like to take her out to dinner
I like a movie now and then

But I love this blog
It’s my kind of place
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No cover charge, just log on

Hmm, hmm, hmm, I love this blog
Hmm, hmm, hmm, I love this blog

We got divorcess and a big insty man
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We got loons and we got those with no sense
Who write too much in the comments

If you read enough you’ll sleep like a log

Reason number 672 why

Hmm, hmm, hmm, I love this blog
blog it on out boys
Old Media’s over
Got to take it to the people

Hmm, hmm, hmm, I love this blog

I just love it

I call for a "international day of anger" over this....

Bin Laden as "Christ." On second thought....nah. Life is too short to get angry at guys who think controversy equals art.

It's 72 degrees here and sunny. My family is healthy and happy. I live in freedom. I think I will call for an "international day of smiling."

It's all about the money.

90 planned parenthood clinics get caught in dishonesty. Again. Big surprise. As you read this, think about this being YOUR 13 year old daughter.

via La Shawn

"International Day of Anger" over Mohammed cartoons.

Something tells me that this won't be just a simple protest.

Here is a slideshow of the Mohammed cartoons that are causing such an uproar.


The Telegraph has this:

Day of anger threatened over cartoons of ProphetBy David Rennie, Europe Correspondent and Tim Butcher in Jerusalem(Filed: 03/02/2006)
David Rennie: Full text of interview with Danish Muslim activist
A leading Islamic cleric called for an "international day of anger" today over publication of caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed, and a Danish activist predicted that deadly violence could break out in Europe "at any minute".

I can totally relate to being angry over something like this that demeans one's faith. It happens to Christians all the time. But my first thought is never to censor because I live in a land of freedom. If you get angry, you let them know and they can (and usually do) apologize and try and make it right (the Tole cartoon nonwithstanding).

Welcome to the world of radical Islam, where you cannot speak your mind if it disagrees with their belief. They don't predict protest or boycott like we would here. No, it's "deadly violence."

"A day of anger" might be a lesson to all of us about the level of tolerance there.

The Washington Post Defends Toles Cartoon That Drew Angry Protest Letter from Joint Chiefs....

and Tom Doles doesn't "regret what he drew." Big surprise. There simply is no shame.

Warning! Religious Alert!

I found this beautiful quote surfing around the blogs. I wanted to share it because I truly believe it too.

God's grace and desire for us is like sunlight -- it falls on everything and everyone equally. We are all people who live in a deep wood, building our houses and keeping close to ourselves, protecting ourselves from all interference. Some few of us tire of this protected living, tire of the darkness of the self-contained gloominess of our own fabricated identities. We wander abroad far from the things that own us -- mostly in shadow but occasionally in the dappled light of a thinner part of the wood. And then, all of a sudden, we stumble into a wide open green, no trees, no houses, no barriers, no protection. We are immersed in sunlight, completely enveloped in light. For some the experience is too intense and there is a retreat to the cool darkness of the wood. But for others, the light is the source of endless delight and a sort of rueful torment -- that it had taken so long to emerge into the light.

God's grace bathes us all. It provides whatever light there is in the dark wood. And when we give up our love of darkness and seek to emerge, we will suddenly discover ourselves whole and entire in the midst of Him.

Steven Riddle

via Happy Catholic

I do love Peggy Noonan.

Because we think alike. Democrats should heed this:

"But the Democratic Party seems to be near imploding, and for that most humiliating of reasons: its meaninglessness. Republicans are at least arguing over their meaning.

The venom is bubbling on websites like Kos, where Tuesday afternoon, after the Alito vote, various leftists wrote in such comments as "F--- our democratic leaders," "Vichy Democrats" and "F--- Mary Landrieu, I hope she drowns." The old union lunch-pail Democrats are dead, the intellects of the Kennedy and Johnson era retired or gone, and this--I hope she drowns--seems, increasingly, to be the authentic voice of the Democratic base.

How will a sane, stable, serious Democrat get the nomination in 2008 when these are the activists to whom the appeal must be made?

Republicans have crazies. All parties do. But in the case of the Democrats--the leader of their party, after all, is the unhinged Howard Dean--the lunatics seem increasingly to be taking over the long-term health-care facility. Great parties die this way, or show that they are dying."

To my fellow Democrats. I don't think this is the way you want your party to be. Can you not see it??? Just as in the Pro-life/Pro-choice march the difference in the activists were stark. You may not be like them, but you are letting them take over your party.

via Kobayashi Maru

If I were Saddam I would be ashamed to show my face too.

San Francisco Chronicle has this:

Baghdad -- A woman described being stripped naked and hanged by her feet, while Saddam Hussein's half brother kicked her in the chest until her ribs cracked.

A former Baath Party guard said he saw documents signed by the ousted president ordering security forces to destroy farms and orchards near the town of Dujail, north of Baghdad.

It continues:

Testimony from witnesses included graphic descriptions of torture and killings, tales similar to earlier testimony...

Several of the defendants, though not Hussein, were fingered by witnesses as having been present or having participated at various points during the Dujail crackdown, which allegedly included mass killings and the round-up of hundreds of residents suspected of involvement in the attempt on Hussein's life.

via Kobayashi Maru

Every soldier involved in bringing Saddam down should be proud.

I know I am proud of them.

Love Golf?

Looks like Tiger Woods kinda likes Navy Seals.

I'm not into golf, but I have always liked Tiger Woods.

via froggy

The difference between Democrats and Republicans...

explained. Very insightful.

H/T Jeff at BA

Boehner's the one.

Oh Well. Not as bad as Blunt, not as good as Shadegg.

A Jimmy Carter/Hamas Smackdown.

The Captain gives one to Carter, but good.

The key to coming home.

Co. Mike Beech, commander of the 4th Brigade Combat Team, 4 Infantry Division, hands the ceremonial "key" to Forward operating Base Camp Honor to Col. Mohammed Wasif, commander of the Iraqi's Army 5th Brigade during a transition of authority ceremony. The handover marks another step toward the goal of putting Iraq troops in charge of their nation's security.

via SondraK

As long as I live...

I will never understand this. Ugh.

The "Walk for Life" March and Counter-Demonstration

From Jan. 21st in San Francisco. Dean has some interesting photos of both sides. (one pro-choicer pictured here) Check it out. The 2nd page is more interesting than the first. Compare the sides and let me know what you think.

I have a commenter here, Martha who went. If your reading this shoot me an e-mail with your impressions and what happened. Rightwingsparkle@hotmail.com

Update: Martha says there were "15,000 pro lifers to 150 pro death fanatics."

Boy, you sure couldn't tell that from the media coverage (what there was of it)

The end of collateral damage?

So very cool.

via Ace.

Flight 93

I watched Flight 93 on A&E night before last. To say it was heart wrenching would be an understatement. They did an excellent job on the film of portraying the fear, the horror, and the bravery that day.

My 13 yr old kept asking questions. We forget that our children who were so much younger on 9-11 don't remember the details or what exactly happened. This is important to explain to them so that we NEVER forget what happened that day.

When I think of that day, it is the ones who jumped from the towers that I think of the most. But the phone calls from the plane and the towers also haunt me. When the daughter on flight 93 finally hangs up and the mother is left holding the phone at home knowing that she will never speak to her daughter again, I thought I could barely stand it. I imagined for a moment what I would have felt if my daughter called me like that. Just in the imagining of it, I felt a pain so deep and cruel I could barely stand it. I shook my head of the image.

I thought of how I would have felt if I had been on that plane. If I knew I would never see my children grow up. Again, it was too much, too painful to imagine.

This didn't just happen to us though. Remember the cell phones that rang on the bombed train in Madrid? Imagine calling and calling your loved one. Praying they would answer. The voice saying to leave a message, the voice you will never hear again.

People die every day. War, accidents, disease. But what makes these deaths so awful is that there IS NO REASON and it was deliberate. The terrorists kill innocent people just doing every day things. These aren't people who have ever done anything to the terrorists. It's like a serial killer who kills at random. And we all know that if we don't catch a serial killer he will kill again and again.

For those mad about the war. For those who count the deaths. Don't blame America for a fight we did not start. Blame the ones who TARGET innocent people. Blame those who warned us with the first trade center bombing, the embassy bombings, the U.S.S. Cole bombing. Ignoring them didn't work, did it?

Fighting them and defeating will.

A Lesson Not Learned.

John Tabin from The American Spectator absolutely nailed why the Democrats looked so stupid last night clapping and standing at Bush saying that Congress did not act on his proposal to save Social Security and Powerline summed it up nicely:

"Bush laid the groundwork early in his speech by criticizing excessive partisanship. The Dems did the rest. In addition to remaining seated at "inopportune times," they played into the president's hands through their bizarre partisan display of ecstasy when the subject of failed social security reform came up. As Tabin puts it, "it was as if Bush said 'we mustn't act like clowns,' and the entire Democratic caucus had shown up in multicolor wigs and greasepaint."

Al Gore might well be president today if he had met the American public's expectations for decorum. And all he did was sigh a few times. There's a lesson there, but the Democrats haven't learned it."

When Defending Saddam is not enough.

Ramesy Clark will now be head of the prosecution at a "mock trial" of George Bush, the US president, and the British and Israeli prime ministers for alleged war crimes committed in Iraq and the Palestinian territories.

"The two-day event, set to open on Friday in the Egyptian capital, will be sponsored by the Cairo-based Federation of Arab Lawyers."

Could the left get any nuttier? Seriously. It gets better:

"It will bring together international lawyers and human rights activists including Ahmed Ben Bella, the former Algerian president, and ex-Malaysian leader Mahathir Mohamad.

Ziad Khasawna, the federation's assistant secretary-general and once Saddam Hussein's chief lawyer, said Nelson Mandela, the former South African leader and anti-apartheid icon, had accepted an invitation to be the chief judge if his health allows him to travel.

Ben Bella and Mohamad are also part of a committee to ensure Saddam's trial is fair."

Nelson. Mandela. I may puke. The same people defending a sick and brutal dictator want to prosecute Bush, the one who took him down. And to top it off a former attorney general of the U.S. will head the prosecution!

Have these people walked through the looking glass?

via Harry's Place

Do Conservatives owe McCain an apology?

Tom at Real Clear Politics wants to know. I think maybe we do.

MCain to endorse Shadegg.

So says NRO. Interesting.

Go Shadegg!!

Imagine being the editor of the Washington Post....

and reading this letter from all 6 of the Joints Chiefs of Staff.

Shadegg!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Tomorrow is the day the House GOP will meet to elect their next majority leader. So please! If you are concerned with the need for reform in Congress, or with the success of the Republican party, contact your Representative and urge them to support John Shadegg, who will commit to real reforms. (The House switchboard is (202) 224-3121 ).

Call now. Yes. Right now. Go. Git. CALL!!!! John Shadegg!!!

Who said this?

"I'm still trying to find out why the president's Gestapo had to arrest Cindy Sheehan in the gallery. ... It shows he still has a thin skin,''

Who would use the word "Gestapo?" Surely some radical left wing anti-war activist, right? Wrong.

It was Rep. Pete Stark, D-Fremont. Guess there isn't a difference anymore.

The Democrat's response.

Mark Steyn summed it up pretty good:

"There's A Better Way"? Isn't there a better slogan? I kept wondering whether Governor Kaine's dreary generic reprise applied only to health care for pre-kindergarten or whatever he was talking about, or whether he'd also use it for Iran's nukes. But in the end - as Democrats always do these days - he talked about the war only in terms of Bush's errors. Won't do. When they come up with a "better way" on that, let me know."

I guess I hope the Democrats never get it. It's just sorta painful to watch. (I'm not gonna say a thing about the eyebrow)

I'm hearing..

that Cindy Sheehan got arrested for trying to bring in an anti-war banner into the gallery. But I can't find a link yet.

Here is the link. It wasn't a banner, it was a t-shirt with an anti-war message on it. She was told that that wasn't allowed.

How does one not see that before she went it? Wasn't she searched, as I hope all were???

The SOTU drinking game!

via NRO. Go for it! Pretty funny.

Cindy Sheehan will be in audience at Bush's SOTU speech.

Oh dear. My first thought was "oh no, she is going to make a fool out of herself." Then my second thought was "oh goody, she is going to make a fool out of herself."

Seriously, if she doesn't want to do even further damage to her cause, she will sit politely with no dramatic facial expressions, because the cameras will be trained on her waiting for at least one.

Iranian bloggers.

They don't sound that much different from us. They even care just a bit too much about sports like we do. Here are some excerpts: (you'll have to go to the link for the sports talk)

"I wish God would take this sense of national honour away from us; no, I wish He wouldn't but I wish we'd use it at appropriate times...
Why is it that our planes crash, our buildings collapse at the slightest tremor, our cars burst into flames, we don't have even a half-standard football stadium in the entire country, but when it comes to nuclear energy, it's a national issue?!... Anyway, it smells of war. God help us. Our people have suffered a lot over these past 100 years."

"Mr Ahmadinejad didn't mention in any of his campaign slogans that, if he became president, he intended to remove Israel from the map...
I also don't recall him promising that he'd take the nuclear file to the point of having international sanctions imposed on the country, having the file referred to the Security Council, sacrificing the country's economic interests and war...
What has brought the government to this point today is that it's realised that it's not capable of fulfilling even 55% of its campaign slogans... so it wants to deflect domestic public opinion by creating constant international crises in order to pretend that it's foreigners who are preventing the government from fulfilling its promises."

"Greetings Mr President! I wanted to congratulate you. God willing, you're on a roll, taking our dear country towards ruin... I won't allow the flames of war, ruin, famine and wretchedness to be lit in my country. I don't want to be shamed any further before the world. I don't want war! I don't want nuclear energy. This oil is more than enough for me."

ht/ Simone

The Cotillion is up!

If you would like some more conservative women's opinions Check out my girls!!

Chris Matthews, a wingnut.

That's right. Chris. Matthews. You have to know when they are calling on Matthews to cool it with rightwing bias, they have completely lost it.

Ugh.

Did you guys see this at NRO? A Gay blog is threatening to out a Republican Senator if he doesn't vote their way today. Disgusting. And I would feel the same way if it were a Democrat Senator. Should blackmail really be a part of our political discourse?

Coretta Scott King R.I.P.

A lovely and gracious lady who never let politics interfere in the great legacy of her husband.

How Will You Remember Ted Kennedy?

Ted Kennedy rants on the floor about Alito. DOWNLOAD - .WMV via Expose The Left

There is something so ridiculous about Kennedy shouting indignation regarding women's rights. He has shown a lifetime of disrespect for women.

That being said, I will tell you a secret, and I will probably get hell for it. I have always felt sorry for Ted Kennedy. Yes, I know that much of the grief in his life has been self-inflicted. His womanizing, his cheating, his drinking, and the death of a young woman. People act out in all kinds of ways against their life. I think this is what he has done his whole life.

First he has heros for brothers. Forever immortalized by assassin's bullets and a war hero's death. A brilliant future for all them taken away and never to be diminished. For in death we cannot make mistakes.

He had a horrible power hungry father who worshiped power and money and never taught his boys to worship anything else. In the wake of his brother's death he experienced one failure after another. His marriage, his chance at the Presidency, his drinking, his women. He watched so many people that he loved die around him. With no faith to hold on to, that can be a burden that I would not wish upon anyone. He has had a dozen lifetimes of sorrow. His tribute at JFK Jr.'s funeral was one of the most touching and profoundly sad speeches I have ever heard.

Now that he has stopped drinking, settled into a decent marriage, I am sure he sees only one chance at respect. He sees himself as the great defender of "the march of progress." He believes it. With every fiber of his being, he believes what he says. Of that I have no doubt. He doesn't do this as Kerry did, for the NOW and NARAL support. He does it so that he can have a legacy as well. He clings to the hope that people will remember him as one who fought the dragons of the right. Who stood up to evil of the Republican party. At least, he tells himself, I did this.

It can be his only legacy after a lifetime of mistakes his brothers never made.