Flight 93

I don't get to listen to Rush much anymore. But an online buddy (Cormac) sends me transcripts when he thinks something is interesting and I thought this was very interesting (but kind of long). So here is part of Rush from Friday April 14th:

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Yesterday afternoon at the conclusion of yesterday's program, I went over to a local theater to watch a private screening of United 93. I invited some people to go with me, and a number of them didn't want to go because they were just afraid it would knock 'em out, and you've heard some of the complaints from the theaters that have shown the trailer to this movie, the Upper West Side of New York and other places around the country. "No, no! It's too soon! It's too soon! I can't bear it!" It's not "too soon." If anything, it's too late. I wish this movie had been out two or three years ago. Now, I'm not a movie critic, and I have to be careful here that in describing it, I don't give it away. What can you give away? You all know what happens.

That's the thing. This movie is real. It portrays actual events and it tries to duplicate them as closely as possible. So when you watch this - it's about an hour-40 minutes, hour-45 - when you watch this you know what's going to happen at every stage. Well, you know what's going to happen at areas you know. Some of the behind the scenes things that are portrayed in the movie you'll see for the first time, and I don't know how accurate those are. For example, the North American Defense Command out of Rome, New York, the military up there that's designed to identify rogue aircraft entering our space is actually portrayed as bumbling incompetents, unable to keep track of domestic airliners when they've turned their transponders off. They're issuing orders all over the place, and nobody is getting anything done.

They scramble a couple of F-16s, but they don't have any weapons on them, and they send the F-16s out over the Atlantic Ocean thinking that more hijacked international airlines are coming in rather than chase the hijacked airlines westward, and the air traffic control people, they're portrayed... The whole movie is powerful. I think there's not that much gore in it. A lot of people that I invited didn't want to go because they're just afraid of the gore. There isn't that much. There's some, but there isn't that much. There's a piece of footage of the second plane hitting the World Trade Center that I had not seen before, and it looks like this footage was shot from across the river, like maybe the control tower at Newark International Airport.

This one shows the speed with which that second plane hit the tower, and it looks like it's barreling along. You don't see planes flying this fast this low normally, not civilian airliners. I guess the focus of the movie and the people on Flight 93, United Flight 93, and without giving too much away here, one of the things I told people who asked, "What did you think of it?" Well, it's tough today, in 2006, not to watch this movie within the prism of your own political opinions and attitudes about life in the country today. I think people will have a different perception of this if they had watched this movie, which would be impossible to do, but a couple or three days after it, or even six months after it had happened. But there's been a lot of years that have passed, and in that time a lot of events have happened regarding the war on terror that have shaped political opinion in this country in wide and diverse ways.

For example, it is my opinion that the kook-fringe left, after watching this movie, will come away blaming Bush all over again, despite the fact that the overwhelming emotion I had was sheer anger at the terrorists, bordering on hatred. I was gripping the arms of my seat, my chair. They are not portrayed sympathetically, and that's important. I have seen a lot of movies made in the last couple years. I forget the name of this movie, but Jodie Foster was in it, and her daughter was hijacked from her on board an airplane and there were four Arabs on board, and she was convinced they were the guilty ones, and they were holding her daughter hostage.

None of the crew would help her find her daughter. The Arab looking guys ended up being the angels. They were honest. They were the great ones and the conspirators and the bad guys were the pilot, copilot and a flight attendant. This movie is not that. This movie does not portray the hijackers sympathetically. You will not like these people, and that's important, and I think that's the reaction the vast majority of people who watch the movie are going to have. The reason I say the kook-fringe left will be able to blame Bush - "See? Bush is incompetent" - because of one passage in the movie.

The air traffic control people, or the national air - I'm not sure if was air traffic control or... it's something to do with the FAA. The head of this organization is trying to get hold of the president or vice president to authorize military jets to go up and shoot these hijacked planes down, and he comes in, his chief aide comes in, and says, "I can't find the president. We can't get hold of him. We don't know where the vice president is." So it appears that on the morning of these attacks the president and vice president are nowhere to be found. Well, we know the president was in Tampa, and he was in a classroom with some school kids, and we know that that has been lampooned by the left in Michael Moore's whatever you want to call that piece of propaganda.

So the left will say, shallow as they are, kooky as they are, and as off-the-deep-end as they are, this movie will, in that one little passage, probably confirm for them that they're right all along, that this is Bush's fault. But anybody with half a brain, with any rationality at all cannot help but just be angry at the terrorists - and this movie is going to refocus on the minds of those who see it, the exact reason we are in the war on terror. The footage of the Twin Towers being hit is there. One thing I think should have happened but didn't, the towers do not fall in this movie, and I don't know if they did that because they wanted to keep the chronology accurate, but I thought it would be impactful if the towers fell in this movie.

I'm not going to tell you how they portray the crash of United 93, it could go any number of ways on that and that was one of the things I was most curious about. But the passengers themselves are the focus of this, even though they start with everything in motion, all the four planes that were hijacked. They track that from the moment it happened. They show the terrorists getting up, praying the night before, getting on these airplanes, sitting there nervously waiting to make their moves and so forth. Once you get into the actual United 93 portion of this, these passengers are portrayed as heroes, gutsy. They are inspirational. This is a movie that's going to, I think for those who go to see it, are going to walk out of there with... Well, you're going to walk out in shock, because here's an attempt to accurately portray what goes on and went on on a doomed hijacked airliner where the good guys actually win. This is the only one of the four that did not reach its target, but these people are portrayed as inspirational heroes and gutsy. They learn the other three planes have hit their targets via phone calls that they're making. They make these phone calls in secret without the two terrorist watchdogs knowing that they're doing it, and after awhile they all decide, you know, Todd Beamer said, "Let's roll," and the sequence where they take down the two hijackers watching them and then literally... I almost don't want to describe this to you.

But the way they take over the cockpit and the raw emotion and anger that they are exuding, it's indescribable. You cannot help but think it's real. All of this in the airplane is shot with a hand-held campaigner so it's jerky, it moves around, and the music is powerful. I couldn't tell the melody of course, but it was a great production. Now, I don't know if I saw a prerelease print or if I saw the final version, but there was no cast. They roll the credits, but no cast is identified, and I didn't know if that was on purpose or if they just haven't gotten around to doing it. The movie opens on the 28th. If they don't have cast mentioned in it it's because they don't want to, you know, identify these heroes on this plane and actors playing them, but again, that could just be that this is a prerelease print that we saw yesterday.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Let me add a couple more things about the movie. One of the things... we all watched it, we walked out to the lobby in the theater and we were discussing it and one of the things somebody asked me was, "Do you think we've learned anything?"

I said, "You're talking about the way air defenses are portrayed?"

"Yeah, yeah."

I said, "Obviously half the country hasn't learned anything."

"You know, I see what you mean," and I'm not even talking about air defenses. I'm talking about the people of the country. Half - well, not half. I'm assigning a statistical half the of the country to the libs. It's not that large. Whatever the percentage, libs haven't learned anything. They still don't think this is worth it, they still don't think that this enemy is worth - and, I'll tell you what, these generals and everybody out there demanding that Rumsfeld retire or resign or be fired, you tell me who that's going to benefit. What difference is it going to make putting somebody new in with 32 months to go? What difference? This is all a plan designed to take down Bush. This is all a plan to take down this administration. Rumsfeld is just the latest target.

They may have genuine animosity for him. That probably means he's effective. Most of these ex-generals are ex-Clinton-era guys, Zinni and this stuff. We've got details on some of these people. I'll let you hear what they said about Iraq back when they were running the show. It sounds identical to what you hear Rumsfeld say about Iraq building up to this current war that we're having. I think that whatever percentage of the country is made up of kooks, fringe liberals and so forth, they have not learned the lesson of 9/11, and I have no clue if they venture into a theater to watch this, if they will learn anything from it other than stoking their irrational assessment that it's all Bush's fault, and they truly believe that, and they truly believe that Bush is creating more terrorists or Rumsfeld or whoever.

One of the things that amazed me was how gripped I was by this movie. There is not a moment I looked to my watch, "Okay, how long to go on this?" I usually do that during every movie I watch. At some point I look at the watch to see how long I've been watching. I didn't do that once, didn't do it till the movie was over. I had no idea how much time had passed. The way this was put together, it's suspenseful from the moment it opens, and I think that's incredible, given that everybody knows ultimately what's going to happen. You know at every stage of this movie what's going to happen when you're watching the radar of American Flight 11 leave Boston until it leaves the screen when they turn off the transponder in the cockpit.

You know what's going to happen, and yet there's a part of me, there was one little moment where I said, "Gosh, I hope what I know is going to happen doesn't happen." Just one fleeting moment, because now when you're watching. We see it. We know the past. "Can we stop it from happening again?" and that was the question I was asked. "Have we learned anything?" and I think based on the Moussaoui trial, "Yeah, we're trying to fix a lot of things." The Patriot Act. You look at this boondoggle. I mentioned this a little bit yesterday. The Moussaoui trial, his death penalty phase, the government is seeking death on the basis that Moussaoui could have stopped 9/11 but he didn't tell anybody.

That may be, you know, legally, factually true, but I'm still amazed that here's the big, bad US government depending on a conspirator to admit it or we have no chance? The government's running around saying (whining), "Well, well, he didn't tell us! Don't blame us, he didn't tell us. He's gotta die!" Fine, put him to death. He deserves it. But you find out why we couldn't ask him. We couldn't ask him! We couldn't look at his computer because of the wall that Jamie Gorelick and the Clinton administration had built. We couldn't share information. The FBI couldn't share information with the CIA and any of this because of the Clinton era wall on fighting these terrorists in legal proceedings using grand jury testimony. That's secret, and there were a lot of other reasons for the wall as well.

So Bush comes in, has to clean up the mess left by the Clinton people who were inattentive to real problems. We got the Patriot Act. We've got the NSA foreign surveillance program. The Democrats are trying to kill it. They tried to kill the Patriot Act the second time around, applauded when they thought they had. So you ask, "Have we learned anything?" I'm not sure. In fact, I'm damn sure that a significant portion of the country hasn't learned diddly-squat because they're so poisoned with partisan rage that they haven't the guts to face up to the fact that we have an enemy. Their enemy is George W. Bush.

If we try to push Rumsfeld out, if you people join me - not you, but if people join this effort of these ex-generals, which is the latest drive-by media hit to get rid of Rumsfeld, it's only going to benefit the enemy. They're going to be laughing themselves silly in the caves on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border and over in Tehran and some of the mosques in Iraq, they're just going to be rubbing their hands in glee - and they're going to be thanking their allies, the ex-generals of the past Clinton administration and the Democratic Party in this country. For some reason there seems to be an ongoing effort to try to sabotage any effort we make to defeat this particular enemy.

This attack on Rumsfeld is an attack on Bush and the war effort. It would be a huge victory for the enemy, and who are they going to confirm in his place? Well, send Cheney over there? That would really go great. Can you imagine confirmation hearings for a new secretary of defense? It would be all about torture and so forth. They're reviving today in certain places on the Internet, they're reviving all of these incidents where Rumsfeld was personally involved in torture. Well, hell's bells! Go see this movie and tell me if you wouldn't want to do something to these creeps that did this to us.

This movie will revive this kind of emotion in you. It's just frustrating as hell, especially having seen the movie, to come out and understand that there's a significant portion of this country and the drive-by media who wants to treat these people that hijacked these airplanes and want to do it again and want to do it with even greater impact and in greater numbers, treat them like just innocent little kids, we shouldn't be tough - it just boggles the mind. So I don't know if we've learned anything as a full nation. No, we haven't. I hold out hope, and I pray that the majority of the country has learned a lesson. You think the Dubai port deal would indicate that they have, and some of the opposition to immigration.

END TRANSCRIPT

A Moonbat Storm.

Everyone needs to look at this at Michelle's.

Lefties don't like to be called out, do they?

Academia and Wimpy Professors.

Book recommendations made by a reference librarian at OSU Mansfield and a member of the school’s First Year Reading Experience Committee like “The Marketing of Evil” by David Kupelian, “The Professors” by David Horowitz, “Eurabia: The Euro-Arab Axis” by Bat Ye’or, and “It Takes a Family” by Sen. Rick Santorum, made 3 professors (female I presume) feel "unsafe."

So the librarian was put under investigation and has been slapped with a “sexual harassment” charge

They. Felt. Unsafe.

Can anyone here say "Wussy?"

What ever happened to strong feminists? You can't even stand up to a librarian and speak your piece without going to court because these books are so "scary?"

There are many many books on the left that make me angry or depressed, but unsafe?

Who ARE these people???

h/t BigDog

UPDATE:

"Ohio State University officials on Friday cleared Scott Savage, a librarian at the Mansfield campus, of harassment charges filed against him based on his recommendation of an anti-gay book for a freshman reading assignment. A conservative group had threatened to sue the university if the charges were not dropped. They were dropped the same day that the group went public with its complaints about the way the librarian was being treated."

A commenter tells me the professors were men, which makes the whole thing even more wussy.

Sometimes you gotta love the irony....

Hugh Hewitt pointed out that Cheney gave $6.87 million to charity this past year and wondered if any one came across that number anywhere in press accounts of the Cheneys' taxes.

But it reminded me of 1998 when Vice President Al Gore's charitable giving for the year came out and it was .....are you ready? $353.00.

Let's contrast and compare. $6.87 million to....$353.

But we Republicans don't care about the poor, right? Cheney eats babies, right? Al Gore loves the poor AND the earth. He hardly uses his private jet.

The reason I remembered what Al Gore gave that year was because I couldn't believe that we had given about 5 times what the Vice President of the United States had.

Selfish greedy rightwingers. Yeah

Tax Day.

via Cormac

The Tolerant Left.

Story here:

"After nearly five years of dealing with all the terrible and often absurd abuses of free speech in higher education, I am a hard person to shock, but hats off to professor Sally Jacobsen of Northern Kentucky University (NKU) for showing me the most perverted inversion of the concept of free speech I have seen in a long time.

Jacobsen, a professor at NKU, invited students in one of her classes to “to express their freedom-of-speech rights to destroy [an anti-abortion] display if they wished to.” The anti-abortion display had been erected by an NKU student group with permission from university officials. You can see a picture of her apparently actually helping destroy the display (which was a field of approximately 400 tiny crosses) in The Northerner On Line. George Orwell’s name is bandied about a lot these days, but cases like this demonstrate why: a university professor is trying to claim destruction of others’ property and expression equals free speech? That’s madness.

When asked about the incident, Jacobsen said “Any violence perpetrated against that silly display was minor compared to how I felt when I saw it. Some of my students felt the same way, just outraged."

Jeff at PW sums it up perfectly:

"And there it is—the new “tolerance” expressed in neat and concise fashion: anything that offends me (the argument goes) is by its very nature intolerant and can be—nay, must be—squelched, through violence if necessary. And in fact, the very act of squelching such “intolerance” is, conveniently, the apotheosis of tolerance!"

Up is down. Black is white. Penn is Teller.

Blogger arrested for murder.

Disturbing.

Meet...

my evil twin.

Heh.

Good News From Iraq

Because God knows you won't read about in the MSM.

This from General William Grimsley:

"Grimsley, commander of the 3rd Infantry Division's 1st Combat Brigade Team during the opening days of Operation Iraqi Freedom, said history — not current events — will tell the true story of Iraq's metamorphosis.
And that story will show how Iraq ultimately emerged from almost 40 years of a regime that ignored the people's needs and undermined its potential, Grimsley, now a military assistant to Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, said during an interview with American Forces Press Service and the Pentagon Channel."

From Major Kevin Carter:

"Charter believes not enough attention is being paid to the progress being made by Iraqis in taking control of their country. He said the people of Iraq are grateful Saddam Hussein has been overthrown.
"I was told by an Iraqi that only two things could get rid of Saddam, the United States or Allah. I will never forget that," Charter said. "An Iraqi officer told me that if we just up and left the country would implode. They are so grateful for us being there and toppling Saddam. Even the Sunnis, who benefited under Saddam, thanked us."

This is just THIS WEEK'S construction update in Iraq:

* A water system is under construction in Fallujah. When completed it will provide 200,000 residents with clean water.
* A firing range is under construction at the police academy in Hillah.
* Renovations are complete on the police station in Kadhimiya.
* The rehabilitation of a sewer pump station is complete in Mansour.
* In Baghdad, construction is complete on three solid waste transfer stations.
* A project to provide 10,000 residents in Basrah is complete.
* Construction of two power stations in Erbil Province is complete.
* Reconstruction is complete on two fire stations in Karbala.
* 13 of 15 school projects are complete in Karbala.
* Construction of new classrooms is now complete in Mosul.

There are tons more. Read it all.

In related good news. Let's hope this is true.

Academia: The Left vs. The Right.

I got to catch David Horowitz debate Professor Ward Churchill on C-span at George Washington University last night. It was a re-run from April 6th. It was truly entertaining and enlightening. I also really enjoyed the fact that it was not made personal in any way and was civil and on point. (transcript here)

I have to say that I love David Horowitz and I found Professor Ward Churchill's controversial paper where he questioned the innocence of many of the people killed on 9-11 as "little Eichmanns" disgusting. So I am absolutely biased here. But for the life of me I cannot understand how anyone could argue with Horowitz's main point, which is that the classroom should be free of political bias and that teachers should teach what the class is "about," not what the Professor's ideology is.

Horowitz made it clear that he believes deeply in academic freedom and even wrote a Op-Ed piece after the stir up with Professor Churchill saying that Churchill should not be fired because of his writings on the internet, because that was not in connection with his class and is free speech. I agree. But alumni have a right to retain money they would have given to the University of Colorado as well if they are offended. That is free expression.

Churchill even referred to "patriotism history" that was written in the 1950's that colored history with only a pro-American view. Horowitz agreed with him that that was totally wrong and at that moment gave the intellectual smackdown of the evening. Horowitz said that that is why it is ironic that people such as Churchill would want to do the exact same thing, only with leftwing ideology.

Churchill reminded me of every verbose professor I ever had that just droned on and on with convoluted speech, using the most words when a few would do. I tried very hard to view his points objectively. Churchill said it was impossible for a professor's political ideology not to be put forward in a classroom. That it was a professor's job to "profess." That it was the nature of the learning process. Horowitz gave example after example of leftwing politics being injected into courses that had nothing to do with politics and students harassed when they were known to be Republicans. Horowitz said that neither rightwing or leftwing ideology should be indoctrinated into students, a captive audience, but rather both sided presented fairly and the student comes to his or her own conclusion.

Who could seriously argue against that???

Well, Churchill tried, but he didn't do very well.

Movie stuff.

This weekend I got to see what is sure to be a classic, "Benchwarmers." Probably the stupidest movie ever. But it did have some funny moments. It is "the bully vs. the nerd" kind of thing. If you were a nerd in school, I wouldn't recommend you seeing the movie sober.

I also saw King Kong and I thought it was pretty good despite being too long. The difference inbred between male and females became apparent as I watched it with my sons and one of their friends.

In the final scene where King Kong is about to die and fall off the empire state building and the girl cries, the conversation between us goes like this:

Son 1: "Why do they keep looking and looking at each other! It's stupid!"

Mom: "It's the chick part. It's to show how much they care for each other."

Son's friend: "Oh great! First they give us manlove in "Brokeback Mountain" and now they give us "monkeylove" with King Kong."

Mom: "Ahem.. this has nothing to do with sexuality, it's about love though."

Son2: "oh good, here comes the guy part."

Mom: (eyes filling with tears as King Kong dies) "What's the guy part?"

Son2: (voice filled with anticipation) "When the monkey goes splat."

*sigh*

What Does Jesus Look Like?

My parents gave me this portrait of Jesus when I was baptized. It hangs in my bedroom. Yesterday my youngest son asked me if this is what Jesus looked like. I told him no, that this was just an artist's rendering of Jesus. "What does Jesus look like?" he asked. And this is what I told him.

"When you bring dinner for a family who just had baby. That is what Jesus looks like. When you serve food at a soup kitchen. That is what Jesus looks like. When you stop and change a stranger's tire even when it makes you late for work. That is what Jesus looks like. When you hold a friend's hand who is sick from Chemo and visit her in the hospital every day. That is what Jesus looks like. When you help a scared young girl to have her baby. That is what Jesus looks like. When you forgive a relative who has hurt you. That is what Jesus looks like. When you love someone even when they aren't the person you want them to be. That is what Jesus looks like.

Never let anyone tell you who Jesus was. He told us who he was. But he didn't tell us what he looked like because he knew that we would know what he looked like......

through us."

Easter!

Is that not adorable? I couldn't resist.

On a more serious note. I am re-posting one of my essays "Why I am Catholic" from last year. I probably won't be posting again until Monday. I also hope and pray that each of you have a blessed and wonderful Easter Weekend.

Why I am Catholic.

Two years I ago I stood in Saint Peter's Square in awe of it's beauty and majesty that pictures do not do justice. I walked through the Sistine Chapel and attended Mass at Saint Peter's Basilica. I stood a few feet from Saint Peter's Bones under the Basilica. The history of our Church became very real to me then. But my journey to Rome began long ago.

Many have asked me about my conversion story from Baptist to Catholic. But I don't look at it that way. I look at my whole life as a spiritual journey to a place where I could be as close to God as possible.

I was not raised in a very religious home. My parents were Methodist and took us to Church once and awhile. As you may have read in my post about my father, they were Christians, but just didn't love organized religion too much.

I'm not sure I know why my desire to follow God came so strongly around 14 years old. Sitting in the front yard of my Grandma's house in the country, looking at the stars and praying , I was overcome with the spirit of God. I really don't know how to say it any other way. It is a feeling of pure joy. Indescribable really.

From that moment on there has never been a doubt in my mind or soul that God existed and is real. Even in times of deep darkness I have felt His comfort. I have experienced miracles and have come to believe that there is no way to understand or realize how much God loves us, how much He wants our happiness, and how much He suffers with us.

As I have also said before in another post, God and I always had different ideas on how I should live my life. I have argued with him like a daughter argues with her mother. I have been stubborn and stupid, but He has been faithful.

The Catholic Church teaches that we are all united in God, although imperfectly so. The more I learned about the history of Christianity the more I was drawn to Catholism. There was no doubt that man had messed up many times, as Christ knew that we would. But "the gates of hell did prevail against thee." And even now in the year 2005, the Church thrives with more than a billion followers. God's teachings are argued and distorted, but it is quite simply based on love. Such love.

I have a great love for the Protestant Church. I found Christ there, and for that I will always be grateful. But the more I learned about Catholism, the more I realized that this was what I needed to climb the mountain.

We all climb that mountain of faith, whether we realize it or not. Many of us fall and get bruised and hurt, many are lost on the mountain and cannot find their way. I chose the Catholic Church because I felt it gave me a map of that mountain. I climb and I suffer, but I hold fast to that map and I look at it every day to make sure I am on the right path.

My map is worn and torn and tattered but I shall never let it go, for it has brought me up the mountain this far and I have far to go.

Another Day, another try...

to make sure everyone understands...BUSH LIES!

Jeff at Protein Wisdom puts it all together as usual with all the links you need to understand the full story, but let me give you the readers digest version.

Media discovers a tidbit that makes Bush look bad. "BUSH BAD HERE."

Media throws it all over the news hoping for it to stick.

New Alternative Media (blogs and cable) look a bit more closely and discover that it isn't true at all.

Story dies a slow, well deserved death.

Lefties continue ad nauseam to repeat the story as true over and over. "BUSH BAD HERE." No matter what evidence is to the contrary.

You know, this is kind of like the little boy who cried wolf. Bush could actually do something awful and illegal and no one would believe the media anyway.

Update: Deception.and more deception.*sigh*

Just a Bit More On Immigration.

I listened to an immigrant from Laos who immigrated here in 1978 on the radio this morning. Her anger at the illegal immigrants and what she saw as disrespect for America after all she went through to come here, including learning English and going through the legal avenues and not expecting any handouts, was a compelling argument.

I totally understand everyone's anger, but then there is the personal. In the late 80's I had a 2 yr old and a newborn. We had just moved to a new city and I had no friends or relatives in town. I was exhausted. I had been reading some of Dr. James Dobson's child rearing books and he had encouraged young mothers to budget in cleaning or babysitting help. He said it was more important than having a newer car ect. He was right.

We had a small 3 bedroom house that I kept straight, I just wanted help with the deep cleaning. I put an ad in the local paper for a housekeeper once a week for $35. It was all I could afford. I actually had white and black women call me and ask if that was a typo. Not one Hispanic woman asked that. Anyway, that is how I found Pat. She worked for me for 11 years. When I moved to a new house, she came with me. When I had two more children she was there. I helped her get her citizenship and I helped her to convince her daughters to go to college and helped with the applications. I went to her daughter's confirmations. She was a God send. When we moved 7 yrs ago and I had to say goodbye to her we both cried like babies.

I remarked to her that she seemed to enjoy cleaning (something I could not fathom) She said to me, "When I was growing up in Mexico I had to be in the fields to pick beans before the sun rose and we picked all day until our fingers bled and the pain in our backs felt like fire. Now I clean beautiful houses in air conditioning. I love this job."

Pat took WIC until she overheard me discussing WIC with a young mother I was helping through my crisis pregnancy work. She hadn't understood that it was for the very poor. She immediately stopped getting food stamps. She didn't' want to be viewed that way.

Yesterday I stopped to ask some Mexican yard workers I knew around the neighborhood what they thought about all this immigration bill. They didn't know anything about it other than there were some marches. They didn't even know what the marches were for and they didn't care. They just wanted to work, get paid, and go home to their families.

Many complain about things being translated into Spanish everywhere, but it wasn't the Hispanics who demanded that. It was the liberals, of course, who feel they speak for the "little people."

It is our government's fault that we haven't done what needed to be done with these immigrants. The borders, the proper teaching of respect for our country, who and what welfare is for ect.

Our anger is directed at the wrong people. Mexicans only want a better life. I can guarantee you that most that were protesting were only out there a the bidding of some political group. We know that Democrats were handing out flyers about voting Democrat with the Mexican and American flag together.

Finally, the one thing I cannot understand is why can't we focus on sealing the border FIRST. I read the minutemen in Arizona have almost eliminated illegal crossings at the borders they monitor. Which is proof that we CAN do this. Why aren't we working more on this???

Republicans mull changes in immigration bill.

well, hell yeah. You better "mull" some more until you get something decent done!

"The changes involve the two most controversial parts of the House effort, making "illegal presence" a felony and broadening the notion of accessory to potentially include religious outreach and charity workers:

Following huge nationwide protests, Republicans on Tuesday moved to possibly change two key provisions in a get-tough immigration bill passed by the U.S. House of Representatives.

One would turn millions of illegal immigrants into felons and the other has raised concerns that people who provide them humanitarian relief would be punished. Top Republicans insisted that neither is their intent.

Their verbal commitments to revisit those provisions came a day after hundreds of thousands of people held demonstrations nationwide, provoked by the bill that would also erect a fence along much of the U.S.-Mexican border."

One has to shake one's head at Kennedy's ranting:

"Sen. Edward Kennedy, a Massachusetts Democrat, said, "Actions speak louder than words, and there's no running away from the fact that the Republican House passed a bill and Senator Frist offered one that criminalizes immigrants."

Criminalizes? Uhh... they're illegal.

It is to laugh.

Now I don't agree with the felon part either. It's just stupid. As is trying to make any charities liable for helping people.

via The Captain

Some more caption fun!

Cuz life is just too short to be serious all the time.

The Immigration March.

Michelle went to the immigration march in D.C. yesterday and has all kinds of pictures.

Here is what it was like in Houston.

"One counterprotester, a woman who asked to be identified only as Linda, joined the crowd at Allen's Landing with a sign that said laws must be enforced and that illegal immigration was a crime. There was little other evidence of opposition to the protesters."

Could this by my Linda??? Heh.

"While addressing the perceived conflict between blacks and Latinos, Toni McElroy, head of Texas ACORN, summoned cheers when she said: "You didn't cross the border, the border crossed you." (Say what??)

"We as black and brown have more in common than the oppressors would have us believe," said McElroy, who is black. When asked why more blacks were not at the protest, McElroy said: "We have to do a better job of educating our community to see the similarities we share. Traditionally, the Man has played one community against the other." (oppressors??? Who are these oppressors??? You mean the ones who give Hispanics free medical care? The ones who make sure the forms are printed in Spanish? The ones who give Hispanic's children a free education with breakfast and lunch included? I think "the Man" has been pretty dang generous)

I think we are letting the Democrats get away with painting Republicans with a broad brush here. We need to speak up. Those like me who feel that the guest worker program is the way to go and I also believe that most Hispanics DO NOT believe as this Ms. Elroy blathers about, and those who feel the opposite about the guest worker program. Those in the latter camp need to make it clear that this is about illegal, not legal immigrants. Because the Democrats are trying to confuse those who don't know better.

Stop Torturing Me.....

so good!

via LST

On the front cover of this month's Vanity Fair magazine.

"A THREAT GRAVER THAN TERRORISM:

GLOBAL WARMING"

Also:

"A THREAT GRAVER THAN CANCER:

CHICKEN POX"

And:

"A THREAT GRAVER THAN AIDS:

ACNE"

Ok, I'm kidding about all but the first one. But who can tell with these guys?

Al Gore writes in Vanity Fair "A Moment of Truth" where he screeches that we are in a "true planetary emergency." Basically he says we are melting, melting and then goes on to compare our ignoring global warming with how people ignored ...you guessed it....Nazism. The standard by which everything is measured these days. "Katrina," he warns, " may be the first sip of a bitter cup which will be proffered to us over and over again until we act on the truth we have wished would go away."

Poetic?? Oh, he is just getting started.

"This crisis is bringing us an opportunity to experience what few generations in history ever have the privilege of knowing: a generational mission; the exhilaration of a compelling moral purpose; a shared and unifying cause; the thrill of being forced by circumtances to put aside pettiness and conflict that so often stifle the restless human need for trancendence; the opportunity to rise."

Oh, I am just getting goosebumps, aren't you??????? He continues breathlessly:

"When we do rise. It will fill our spirits and bind us together. Those who are now suffocating in cynicism and despair will be able to breathe freely. Those who are now suffering from a loss of meaning in their lives with find hope."

I hope you all are GETTING THIS:

"What is at stake is the survival of our civilization and the habitability of the Earth."

Verbose and dramatic as Al Gore is, The facts don't support it.

Myth #1: Scientists Agree the Earth Is Warming. While ground-level temperature measurements suggest the earth has warmed between 0.3 and 0.6 degrees Celsius since 1850, global satellite data, the most reliable of climate measure-
ments, show no evidence of warming during the past 18 years. [See Figure I.] Even if the earth's temperature has increased slightly, the increase is well within the natural range of known temperature variation over the last 15,000 years. Indeed, the earth experienced greater warming between the 10th and 15th centuries - a time when vineyards thrived in England and Vikings colonized Greenland and built settlements in Canada.

Myth #2: Humans Are Causing Global Warming. Scientists do not agree that humans discernibly influence global climate because the evidence supporting that theory is weak. The scientific experts most directly concerned with climate conditions reject the theory by a wide margin.

• A Gallup poll found that only 17 percent of the members of the Meteorological Society and the American Geophysical Society think that the warming of the 20th century has been a result of greenhouse gas emissions - principally CO₂ from burning fossil fuels. [See Figure II.]

• Only 13 percent of the scientists responding to a survey conducted by the environmental organization Greenpeace believe catastrophic climate change will result from continuing current patterns of energy use.

• More than 100 noted scientists, including the former president of the National Academy of Sciences, signed a letter declaring that costly actions to reduce greenhouse gases are not justified by the best available evidence.

While atmospheric carbon dioxide has increased by 28 percent over the past 150 years, human-generated carbon dioxide could have played only a small part in any warming, since most of the warming occurred prior to 1940 - before most human-caused carbon dioxide emissions.

Myth #3: The Government Must Act Now to Halt Global Warming. The belief underlying this myth is that the consequences of near-term inaction could be catastrophic and, thus, prudence supports immediate government action.

However, a 1995 analysis by proponents of global warming theory concluded that the world's governments can wait up to 25 years to take action with no appreciable negative effect on the environment. T.M.L. Wigley, R. Richels and J.A. Edmonds followed the common scientific assumption that a realistic goal of global warming policy would be to stabilize the concentration of atmospheric CO₂ at approximately twice preindustrial levels, or 550 parts per million by volume. Given that economic growth will continue with a concomitant rise in greenhouse gas emissions, the scientists agreed that stabilization at this level is environmentally sound as well as politically and economically feasible. They also concluded that:

• Governments can cut emissions now to approximately 9 billion tons per year or wait until 2020 and cut emissions by 12 billion tons per year.

• Either scenario would result in the desired CO₂ concentration of 550 parts per million.

• Delaying action until 2020 would yield an insignificant temperature rise of 0.2 degrees Celsius by 2100.

In short, our policymakers need not act in haste and ignorance. The government has time to gather more data, and industry has time to devise new ways of reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Myth # 4: Human-Caused Global Warming Will Cause Cataclysmic Environmental Problems. Proponents of the theory of human-caused global warming argue that it is causing and will continue to cause all manner of environmental catastrophes, including higher ocean levels and increased hurricane activity. Reputable scientists, including those working on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the United Nations organization created to study the causes and effects of global climate warming, reject these beliefs.

Sea levels are rising around the globe, though not uniformly. In fact, sea levels have risen more than 300 feet over the last 18,000 years - far predating any possible human impact. Rising sea levels are natural in between ice ages. Contrary to the predictions of global warming theorists, the current rate of increase is slower than the average rate over the 18,000-year period.

Periodic media reports link human-caused climate changes to more frequent tropical cyclones or more intense hurricanes. Tropical storms depend on warm ocean surface temperatures (at least 26 degrees Celsius) and an unlimited supply of moisture. Therefore, the reasoning goes, global warming leads to increased ocean surface temperatures, a greater uptake of moisture and destructive hurricanes. But recent data show no increase in the number or severity of tropical storms, and the latest climate models suggest that earlier models making such connections were simplistic and thus inaccurate.

• Since the 1940s the National Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory has documented a decrease in both the intensity and number of hurricanes.

• From 1991 through 1995, relatively few hurricanes occurred, and even the unusually intense 1995 hurricane season did not reverse the downward trend.

• The 1996 IPCC report on climate change found a worldwide significant increase in tropical storms unlikely; some regions may experience increased activity while others will see fewer, less severe storms.

Since factors other than ocean temperature such as wind speeds at various altitudes seem to play a larger role than scientists previously understood, most agree that any regional changes in hurricane activity will continue to occur against a backdrop of large yearly natural variations.

What about other effects of warming? If a slight atmospheric warming occurred, it would primarily affect nighttime temperatures, lessening the number of frosty nights and extending the growing season. Thus some scientists think a global warming trend would be an agricultural boon. Moreover, historically warm periods have been the most conducive to life. Most of the earth's plant life evolved in a much warmer, carbon dioxide-filled atmosphere.

Conclusion. As scientists expose the myths concerning global warming, the fears of an apocalypse should subside. So rather than legislating in haste and ignorance and repenting at leisure, our government should maintain rational policies, based on science and adaptable to future discoveries.

This Brief Analysis was prepared by H. Sterling Burnett, environmental policy analyst

with the

National Center for Policy Analysis

*Forgot to add this. The articles in the magazine gush over Robert F. Kennedy, Julia Roberts, and George Clooney's environmentalism. You see, recently Clooney bought a Tango, an ultra narrow, fully electric, zero emission, two seater that goes from 0-60 m.p.h. in four seconds and has the ability to go 150. Because as Clooney says, "If you're doing a movie about oil consumption and corruption, you can't just talk the talk, you have to walk the walk."

No word yet on whether Clooney will be giving up air conditioning and heating and flying on private jets to his many homes. Oh, yes. The price of this oh so environmental car??? $108,000.

Walk the walk indeed.

Michael Yon.

He gives us what we need to read.

____Michael Yon's_____

FRONTLINE FORUM

No Filters. Just Real Soldiers with Real Stories.

For my lefties, Michael has never endorsed Bush that I know of, so go read...don't be afraid.

h/t BigDog

Did you know Friday was National Cleavage Day?

Because heaven knows we don't obsess enough in this country about breasts.

Here are some fun facts!

"In 1943, aviation technology-inspired film director Howard Hughes to invent a cantilevered, steel-boned bra to hold up Jane Russell's bosom.
It was a man called Otto Titzling, however, who claimed to have invented the modern brassiere in 1912.
Ninety years later, technology has come a long way.
The Ultrabra Airotic can apparently inflate a woman's bust size by up to two cup sizes through the use of airbags.
The Playtex Wonderbra, meanwhile, has received a 21st century update, with the addition of the Variable Cleavage and the Pump Action models to the range.
"For maximum cleavage, just pull the strings together on Variable Cleavage to draw your bust together, said a spokesman.
Or for cleavage that will blow your mind, pump up the impact with Pump Action, the revolutionary new air bra that is simply too good to keep hidden.
Even Marks & Spencer has got in on the act, with their "revolutionary new Bioform bra, which is available in the Worcester store.
The Bioform boasts a special `boomerang' component that creates a superb shape with a three dimensional under-cup, guaranteed to give the most flattering line to the bust, said a spokesman.
We sure have come a long way since 16th and 17th Century upper class French women rubbed pigeon droppings and toads eyes into their breasts."

Leave it to the French to think crap works...Heh.

Isn't all that pump up, inflate, and airbag stuff false advertising??? And btw, is it even necessary to advertise???? You never see sugar advertised, do you? Everyone loves sugar.

I mean, think about it.

via Instapundit

Because life is not a "24" TV show.

Some things take time to get out. If you weren't convinced before that this war had to be fought. Maybe you will be now:

"These documents add to the growing body of evidence confirming the Iraqi regime's longtime support for terrorism abroad. The first of them, a series of memos from the spring of 2001, shows that the Iraqi Intelligence Service funded Abu Sayyaf, despite the reservations of some IIS officials. The second, an internal Iraqi Intelligence memo on the relationships between the IIS and Saudi opposition groups, records that Osama bin Laden requested Iraqi cooperation on terrorism and propaganda and that in January 1997 the Iraqi regime was eager to continue its relationship with bin Laden. The third, a September 15, 2001, report from an Iraqi Intelligence source in Afghanistan, contains speculation about the relationship between Iraq and al Qaeda and the likely U.S. response to it."

h/t BigDog

Just In Time For Passover...

What fun for the kids!

"Ages 3 & up Keeps the kids entertained during Passover. This plush yellow plagues bag contains representations for all of the plagues (not necessarily in the correct order):

A spooky eyed drop of blood
A Frog for frogs—of course
A Giant Lice for lice.
Cow for cattle disease
Black Locust for locusts
A white satin lump of hail
A black cube of darkness
An icky boil on a piece of flesh!
A snarling lion's head for wild beasts

The frog, lice, cow and locust wriggle and roll their eyes, quiver, buzz and move when you pull their string and are apx 4.5" long.
and last of all a very sad head - for death of the first born."

My favorite is an icky boil on a piece of flesh! I mean what kid doesn't love playing with that? And have you ever seen lice? Now that's a cuddly stuffed animal everyone should have.

I can't believe this is real. But it looks legit.

via boing boing

A Good Leak.

President Bush is defended and Joe Wilson is a liar. And we read all about it in the......are you ready???.....drumroll............The Washington Post.

Wonders never cease.

via Ace

Let's talk McCain.

Because I know ya'll love it so much!

The Captain has an excellent post on McCain's ever evolving political moves. I have to disagree a bit with him though. All my libertarian/conservative friends HATE McCain for pushing through the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act, which restricts political speech based on proximity to the election. I totally understand it. But did it ever occur to anyone that maybe, just maybe, it might help in all the vile evil last minute personal attacks that might be avoided here? (The last minute revelation of the DWI Bush received when he was young comes to mind) The Democrats waited until the last minute for a reason you know!

I mean, it does have some substance to it. You may disagree, but you have to admit that. It is bad to want to restrict political speech, but given what political speech has become you can hardly blame someone for wanting to do so. Having said that, I DO disagree with it.

The Captain goes on to bash McCain over the immigration compromise. You all know my feelings on this. Compromise is the ONLY solution. It's time for us to all realize this or NOTHING will get done.

It is not hypocritical to reach out to the far right closer to election time. Every Republican candidate does it.

Look. I know McCain isn't perfect, but in the next year I will try to convince you of why he is our best chance to keep the Republicans in power.

Have I mentioned lately that....

Greyhawk from Mudville rocks? Seriously. If you aren't reading this American Warrior, then you don't squat about what is going on in Iraq. It's not just what he writes either. It's about all the warrior blogs he links. They tell a story that all of us who care about this war need to be reading.

Today, Greyhawk takes us down memory lane with pundits who were wrong, stupid, and otherwise just jackasses. But this is the line that does it for me:

"I think when it comes to nations with children's prisons that's all the reason we need for a war.

Which is not to say we can cure all the world's ills - just that I don't mind trying."

I couldn't have said it better myself.

From Powerline:

"This is Iraqi Liberation Day, the third anniversary of the liberation of Iraq. Casualties are declining, and, if Iraq's politicians don't fumble the ball completely, that country should be on the brink of becoming the world's first Arab democracy. Pretty much all the credit goes to our superb armed forces. Check out Families United for Our Troops and Their Mission for more information, and consider lending your support."

Young Love...

or lust.

We are all familiar with the "hot teacher/student" sex scandals of late. I never posted on it because everyone knows what my take on it would be and what could be said that hasn't been said? There are basically two camps. The "OMG! She is perverted and should go to jail" crowd. And the "OMG! That kid is so freakin lucky" crowd.

So let me offer a bit of a different perspective. Recently I made the horrific mistake of creating a Myspace.com site. I did this mainly so I could comment on other Myspace sites. You must have one to do that. In the last few days I have received several e-mails from swingers and single and married men alike even though it says clearly on my site that I am married and not looking. But the most interesting e-mail came from a 17 yr old high school baseball player from Houston (pictured here) . The following are the e-mails between us: (names have been changed to protect the....ummm....not so innocent)

From: Stephen

Date: Apr 7, 2006 9:11 PM

milf

message me back ok

u r fine
_______________________________________

From: Kathy Date: Apr 7, 2006 9:39 PM

u r insane

I should tell your mom.

17 and already a bad boy. Geeze.

It's your bedtime isn't it?

And stop watching all those American Pie movies!

Kathy
________________________________________


From: Stephen Apr 7, 2006 10:45 PM

RE: RE: No Subject

Body:

baby you are just fine as hell

be my mentor

im naughty
_________________________________________

From Stephen Apr 8, 2006 7:30 AM

Subject:
RE: RE: No Subject

Body:

babe i cant help it that im insane

i love older women and i know you have a naughty side too

don't you

i think it is sexy

so come on babe message me back do you have aim messenger? respond back

__________________________________________


From Kathy Apr 8, 2006 9:16 AM
Subject:
RE: No Subject
Body:

It's not good to go through life drunk.

Or perverted for that matter.

There are many many churches around here. Go find one.

Kathy
___________________________________________________

Now, there are several pics on "Stephen's" site. I chose the one that didn't really show his face, but he is a goodlooking kid. He had homecoming pictures with a beautiful date. What would cause a handsome athlete to lust over a middle age mother of four when he could easily date beautiful young girls? It's not like 17 yr old girls today are all innocent and don't know their way around a boy. Who do you think are in those "Girls Gone Wild" videos?

Let's face it. "Stephen" is no kid. He is a 50 year old pot bellied lech in a leisure suit reeking of Aqua Velva walking around in a 17 yr old body. He has no shame. I know where he goes to school and it's near here. I could easily find his parents. He doesn't care. This isn't the first time I have had this kind of thing happen to me. I had trouble with some of my son's friends saying inappropriate things, although not quite as overtly as Stephen. Look, I know I am not ugly, but I aint nothing super special either. What the hell is going on here? I couldn't have imagined in a million years my friends as teens flirting with my mother.

So imagine that "Stephen" decides to hit on one of his teachers. She is lonely, bored, unhappy and perhaps even bi-polar? He is a great looking athlete. He makes her feel young again. It's exciting. The forbidden fruit thing. There was a time when Stephen would have kept his lustful feeling to himself. Because society demanded it. Society demands nothing anymore. You say there are laws? Guess what? Kids don't know law. But they do know what society teaches them is right and wrong.

I'm not trying to defend the teachers. They are the adults and should act like it, but let's face it. Kids don't act like kids anymore and this is a problem that isn't going away. And we need to ask ourselves why.

Let's see. Let me speculate. Could it be exposing our children to sexuality way before they are mentally ready to handle it? Could it be the last 20 yrs of soft porn movies masquerading as "R" rated films that movie theatres seem to have no problem letting underage children into? Could it be the mainstreaming of porn? Could it be TV shows on basic cable like "Nip and Tuck" and "The Shield" and even "CSI" that have soft porn scenes in them that any 9 yr old can turn to while the grownups are outside grilling steaks? Could it be the internet that no one seems to want to monitor to protect young children? Where no firewall or filter works and even hard core porn is but a click away? And the naive belief that responsible parents can monitor their kids on computers 24/7? Could it be the movies like "American Pie" that made the term 'MILF" seem oh so funny and acceptable?

I'm not a prude. Who could enjoy reading Ace and Protein Wisdom and Beautiful Atrocities and be a prude? But I am adult. The line between the adult world and the kid's world has been blurred badly and we all need to take a good look at that.

"Stephen" is the poster boy for all that we are doing wrong to protect our children in this society. We might all do well to try to figure a way out of this mess before it just gets worse.

Caption Contest!

This is for my leftie sweeties, cuz I have been so making lefty nice in the last few posts I thought I'd end the week with this and come out "gunning" next week my same of bigoted homophope capitalist pig self....;-) I mean that is how you would describe me, right???

But I have faith that my conservative sweeties will come up with even better captions!

On a completely off topic side note, you know what I love? Coffee. Yes. I do love coffee.

Oh yeah, and this can be an open thread too cuz it's sunny and 70 degrees here and I got some sunshine calling my name.

A Leak By Any Other Name...

well.... wouldn't be a leak. Cuz, ya know, a leak isn't "authorized."

h/t BigDog

Compassion.

BareKnuckle politics has a post about Cindy Sheehan still not having a grave marker for her son's grave which Ace and many others have linked.

Let me give you some thoughts on Cindy Sheehan. Sheehan is a grieving mother. Period. She is not unlike many of those who grieve and lash out at someone, anyone for the loss they have experienced. Her grief is just much more public because of her being used by the left in such a grand fashion to make news all the time.

I had a relative that lashed out for years at another relative regarding the death of a loved one. It wasn't this relative's fault nor did he do anything wrong in the matter. But that was where my relative sought to vent her anger. This is what Cindy Sheehan is doing. My problem is with the people who use her and her grief for their political agenda. It is CLEAR from Sheehan's meeting with President Bush that she didn't have the feelings she portrays now about him. Someone changed her mind. Someone got her to focus her grief and anger on Bush and this administration.

Bareknuckles links the interview on the street with Cindy Sheehan and Michelle Malkin. Let me say this about Michelle. She is a great writer, pundit, and a driven hard worker. I don't know her personally, but I'm betting she is a wonderful wife and mother as well. But she is young.

Sometimes life teaches us compassion by our experiences. You notice in the interview that Michelle asks the questions, but never looks at Cindy. Not even a glance that I saw. I think this is because Michelle is a good person and is uncomfortable with asking such a personal hurtful question to a mother who has lost her son. There are many reporters who would have no problem with looking Sheehan in the eye and asking anything. Their work is more important than their humanity. Life will teach Michelle that there are many things in this world that hurt us and change us. Michelle will learn that even in the pursuit of goodness and doing what it is right, we must also try and show some understanding in the face of those we disagree with.

I know Cindy's "opinions" make many angry, and rightfully so. But Cindy Sheehan is about many things. The left has made her about their agenda, but she is still a mother who walks this earth knowing that this child, her child, who she loved above all else, will never be there to hold, or to touch, or to talk to again.

And if we, who claim compassion, cannot see that and step back from our anger at her and try to understand her, then our compassion means nothing.

My Last Post on Kos, I promise!!!

I saw him on the Stephen Colbert show this morning (missed it last night). I have read transcripts from debates that Kos participated in, but I haven't seen him in person. First let me say that he is NOTHING like I imagined. (which could be said for many bloggers I suppose) I thought he would be brash and arrogant and he was not. He seemed very sweet and had a very nice smile. Not exactly macho, but there's nothing wrong with that.

I expected a lot of moonbattery but he stayed pretty focused on normal political stuff. He did seem a bit nervous, which I totally understand. I would be shaking probably. I feel sorry for most guests with Colbert because he is such a quick wit and always gets the laugh, but Kos did manage a couple of funny lines regarding taking notes from Stephen.

Kos has written a book about why the Democrats lose. I don't think a book needs to be written. It's quite simple. Democrats lose because they are wrong on most issues.

Open Thread Friday.

What cha wanna talk about???

More On Immigration.

Here is the gist of the bill in the Senate:

— Illegals in the United States less than two years would be required to leave immediately. If caught once, they would be subject to a misdemeanor, and if caught twice they would be charged with a felony. About 2 million to 3 million people fall into this category.

— Illegals in the United States between two and five years would have go to one of 16 ports of entry in the United States, determined by the U.S. Visit program, and declare themselves. They would be given a temporary visa and allowed back to their U.S. residences immediately. Once in the United States, they could apply for the citizenship path spelled out in the McCain-Kennedy bill. About 3 million to 4 million people fall into this category.

— Illegals who could prove they have been in the United States for more than five years would immediately be given guest worker status and would get on the 11-year path to citizenship. They would not have to declare themselves as guest workers. This path would be open to about 5 million illegals living in the United States.

But actually passing something doesn't look promising:

"A U.S. Senate compromise on an overhaul of immigration law appeared to get bogged down late on Thursday in the face of opposition by some Republicans who say it would give amnesty to lawbreakers.

It appeared unlikely the Senate would approve before a two-week congressional break on Friday the radical immigration reform that would give millions of illegal immigrants a chance to earn U.S. citizenship."

This is certainly a divisive issue for Republicans. It seems like a lose/lose. If passed many Republicans will be very angry, if not passed many Hispanics, who we need to win, will be very angry.

It seems to me that those on the side of compromise have not done a very good job at convincing many onthe right of how necessary it is to do something.

Guys, we are NOT going to deport or throw into jail 11 million people. It just isn't going to happen. While hoping for things that are politically impossible to pass, we are missing an opportunity to make a real change here that is very necessary.

The one thing that bothers me is why aren't they working just as hard at sealing our borders?? That is a win/win for everyone. I don't get it.

via IowaVoice

More Documents Released.

It just keeps getting more interesting:

"First, a recap of what was learned before the big document dump:

April, 2003: Toronto Star reporter Mitch Potter discovers a memo in the bombed-out wreckage of Mukhabarat headquarters. The memo discussed bringing an envoy from Osama bin Laden to Baghdad for the purpose of "discussing the future of our relationship with him."

May, 2004: Three Fedayeen rosters are leaked to the Wall Street Journal's editorial page, which apparently showed that Ahmed Hikmat Shakir, the Iraqi who attended the January 2000 al-Qaeda summit in Kuala Lampur, Malaysia, was a lieutenant colonel in that organization.

October, 2004: A number of documents were leaked to CNSNews.com. These show Iraq not only having terrorist connections (English translation here), but attempting to acquire mustard gas and anthrax, and seeking a means to attack American forces in Somalia.

Also, Czech counter-intelligence recovered an appointment book belonging to Ahmed al-Ani, the Iraqi intelligence officer who apparently met Mohammed Atta in Prague in April, 2001, which stated that he had a meeting with a "Hamburg student" (which Atta identified himself as on a Czech entry visa application). This report backs up an eyewitness account via that service of the meeting that has been hotly disputed.

This is what was known for sure. Now, for a rundown of what has now been learned.

Perhaps the most incriminating is a letter detailing a meeting with a Taliban consul (Document CMPC-2003-001488, possibly changed to ISGP-2003-00014127). This indicates that Saddam's regime had a relationship with the Taliban and al-Qaeda.

Another pair of documents, CMPC-2003-001950 and CMPC-2004-001117, indicated that Saddam's regime paid off the Russian ambassador to provide intelligence data. The ambassador is suspected of having received $1.5 million worth of bribes from the Oil-for-Food program. There is no evidence that his actions were sanctioned by President Putin or the Russian government.

Another document, CMPC-2003-0014647, shows that Saddam Hussein ordered payments to the families of Palestinians who carried out murder-suicide bombings against Israel.
Document number CMPC-2004-000404 is from an Iraqi chemical platoon. This could back up the earlier leak to CNSNews.com that indicated Iraq was attempting to acquire mustard gas and anthrax.

Document IISP-2003-00038100 reports that Iraq was training the PLO in Iraq. It also reports that Saddam was using ambulances to deliver weapons and explosives to the Palestinians -- a violation of the Geneva Conventions.

The documents released so far suggest that those who assert Saddam Hussein had no connection to terrorism are wrong in making that assertion. These documents are being translated by many, and the information is slowly petering out through the Internet. The decision to topple Saddam's regime is being justified with the regime's own documents."

H/T BigDog

More Kos.

Kos will be on The Stephen Colbert Report Tonight. Should be fun to watch. I found this article on Kos from a commenter at Ace's. I found out a lot about this icon of the left I didn't know beyond the fact that he was beat up all the time in high school:

"Markos Moulitsas is hard at work stoking the Vast Left-Wing Conspiracy. He is doing this while curled up on his sofa, tapping away at a battered silver PowerBook held together with electrical tape and covered in bumper stickers of the "F*ck the Republican Party" variety. It's a few days after the election so, like most Democrats, he is tired and depressed. But he's also vibrating like a high-tension wire. In a weird way, he admits, he's kind of glad that John Kerry lost. It has given him so much more to do."

Such class.

But Kos is having an impact! Regarding his support and push for the 15 Democratic candidates last time around:

"..But even with the help of the Daily Kos community, Seemann did little better than his forebears, garnering only about 33 percent of the vote. In fact, the entire Kos Dozen lost -- all fifteen of them. So did Dean. So did Clark. So, of course, did Kerry."

People have wondered why Kos went into the military when he clearly has no love for it. Maybe this part of the article will explain that:

"Moulitsas was indeed an unlikely candidate for military service, entering at age seventeen and all of 118 pounds. He'd figured that if he ever ran for elected office and had to vote for war, he should have done time in the military."

I know before I do any public service, I always think about how it's going to look LATER.

But, what can you expect? Maybe his candidates lost because it wasn't about them to Kos, it was all about HIM:

"He was primed for a reporting career, but his emergent blogger tendencies rebelled at the last moment. "The thing about journalism that kind of annoyed me was that I'm always writing about other people," he says. "Maybe I just want to set too many trends, I don't know. But it was fun for a couple of years and then suddenly it just started grating on me that it was always about somebody else. I got a little selfish -- I was like, 'What about me?'"

All about you indeed.

Caption Contest.

Don't be shy! They aren't!

Immigration. My take.

It seems Americans are split on immigration. Meanwhile the Senate tries to work something out:

"The Senate bill is modeled largely on a bipartisan effort by Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., that would provide a chance for permanent residence after about 11 years for the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants if they learn English, pass background checks, remain employed, take civics courses, pay hefty fines and pay back taxes.

The bill was cobbled together under a crushing deadline from several conflicting pieces of legislation. Roughly 300 pages long, it is a complex and far-reaching amalgam that includes everything from a farmworker program to a border crackdown."

The compromises in the Senate are a mess. They are trying to please too many people and are making it too complicated. What a surprise.

Maybe we should just be grateful that something is being done. Meanwhile illegal immigrants just get up every morning and go to work.

Almost every day I drive down a busy street near my house and see hundreds of Hispanic men standing in front of convience stores by the street or by the ditches close to the street. If I turn into one of the businesses and get out, they stare. If I wave and smile, they wave and smile back. Not once have they ever said anything inappropriate.

Driving through my neighborhood this morning Hispanics (and it was 100% Hispanics) were already busy working in the yards at 7am. It looked like they had been there a while. The summer my son was 15 he couldn't find a job. Not because Hispanics took the low skilled jobs, but because no place would hire someone that young. A friend of mine owned a wholesale garden nursery and hired him. He was the only white face out there. The other men chose
to get there at 6am to get most of the brutal work over before the heat set in. One of my son's jobs was to wade in a swamp and net up the algae. Not fun. My son said the men where always very nice, trying to teach him Spanish. My son was amazed at their work ethic. He said they just never stopped.

This is the reality of illegal immigration. We can get angry, but I don't think we should blame those just trying to better their life and do back breaking work that no one else will do. People try to tell me that Americans will do that kind of work, but I have seen no evidence of it. I had a friend in Dallas who managed a McDonalds. McDonalds was very strict about not hiring illegals. My friend could not keep workers. The only people who even wanted the jobs were young white kids and they rarely showed up for work or lasted long. He about wore himself out working the shifts where someone didn't show up.

I doubt illegals know much about what the Senate is doing. They just wait for that truck to pick them up and take them to a crummy job so they can make some money for their family. They are taken advantage of and they don't care.

The way things are now is wrong on so many levels. The Senate needs to stop trying to please everyone and just get the job done. EVERYONE agrees that the borders need to be sealed quickly and well. And I don't think most Americans mind paying for that. The Senate needs to stop being pansys and step up top the plate and get this done.

Now.

The Dixie Chicks are clearly....

still ticked off.

No.

Just no.

And this is just too funny. NO DRINKING WHEN HITTING LINK! Trust me!

via File It Under

Don't mess with Nascar.

The looney leftwing media trying to prove how racist "a certain portion" of America is.

Looks like they struck out.

This is one of the reasons I like McCain.

He doesn't take crap from anyone:

Sen. John McCain threatened on Tuesday to cut short a speech to union leaders who booed his immigration views and later challenged his statements on organized labor and the Iraq war.

"If you like, I will leave," McCain told the AFL-CIO's Building and Construction Trades Department, pivoting briefly from the lectern. He returned to the microphone after the crowd quieted. "OK, then please give me the courtesy I would give you."

I saw some of this on TV where McCain said that he would challenge anyone in the audience to go work as a farm worker picking lettuce for a whole season even at $50 an hour. He said "you won't do it." And he is right. I am sorry but that is just the dang truth.

I was watching this on Lou Dobbs and Dobbs said something to the effect that people keep saying things like McCain was saying and that paying a decent wage would drive up our grocery prices too much. Dobbs said " The facts tell us something different." And the story went on to show how paying decent wages would only drive prices up about $10 a year per family. Well paying a decent wage is a whole different argument than saying that Americans won't do this back breaking work. Even if you paid a decent wage (and I think they should) Americans still wouldn't do this work. That is why a guest worker program is the best solution for now. It would keep businesses from exploiting these people and we could get a handle on the 11 million illegal aliens that work in this country.

When he finished the speech and asked whether anybody had "questions, comments or insults."

The guy has star power people.

Poor baby....

SGFGate has this on Kos:

"As a high school kid, Markos Moulitsas Zuniga, of Berkeley, was regularly beaten up. But as an adult, he's found success with the Daily Kos, the powerful liberal blog that's caught the attention of big pols and has helped Zuniga land a sweet book deal."

Beat up regularly, huh? Why does this not surprise me?

Some people.

Protein Wisdom brought this to my attention. It seems a law professor is obsessed with the fact that Michelle Malkin might not be doing all her own blogging. I guess that is a conspiracy theory floating around along with the thousands of conspiracy theories on the left side of the web, because I have even had one of my commenters say something to that effect about Michelle.

But this guy actually goes to the trouble to document the timings of her posts with the times of her flights and the speeches she gives.

I'm with Michelle. Get a life. Maybe he could think about...I don't know.......being a better teacher?

By request....

I'm going to try and have more caption contests, especially since I have so many talented commenters in that regard. Have fun!

Is It Too Soon?

Universal's 9-11 movie "United 93" is opening. I've heard the trailers are even upsetting. But it does give me a comfortable feeling about it when I read that Universal secured the blessing of all the families of Flight 93 victims.

A commenter sent me a transcript of one of Rush's show where he spoke with one of the family members who felt like it was so important to see this movie and remember what was done to us and to never forget it. I think so too. As long as it is done well and with dignity.

We may disagree with how President Bush is fighting the war on terror, but I think at least we all agree that it is a war that needs to be fought.

I'm not sure if I will see this film though. I am an emotional person and I think it would upset me greatly. I don't need to be reminded. It was like it happened yesterday to me. But there are many people who do need to see it and then they need to ask themselves what should have been done if they don't agree with what has been done.

Media Bias part 987

Michael Barone lays it out nicely.

A Former President Blogs.

It's worse than you think. He blogged at Kos.

It's embarassing. Really.

via LGF

This is completely bizarre.

I was clicking through some of my technorati links and I found this. It is a translation of my site in what appears to be......ebonics.

It's actually pretty funny. Anyone know how this happened?

You know....

One day guys like this will no longer be teenagers and they will grow up and be Dads. And videos like these are going to follow them into that grownup world and their kids will NEVER let them forget it. And the future Moms? Good grief. I can't and won't link some of the pictures I have seen of drunk college girls. Can you say completely stupid? One day they will look at some of those pictures and videos and want to die.

The internet age is going to come back and bite so many young people in the a**.

Seriously.

Listen Up!

I called in to Rightalk radio and got to talk to my two favorite bloggers, Ace and Jeff, who were hosting "Hoist The Black Flag." About halfway in I talk to them about McCain and some other silly stuff.

Go here. Click on Channel 3 and listen up! ( I think the channels change, just go to the "Hoist The Black Flag" icon)

Cosby tells it like it is...

again:

"Cosby, whose criticism of some aspects of modern African-American culture has stirred controversy in recent years, told a rally headed by black leaders that the city needed to look at the "wound" it had before Katrina struck."

It's painful, but we can't cleanse ourselves unless we look at the wound," Cosby told the rally of about 2,000 people in front of the city's convention center.

"Ladies and gentlemen, you had the highest murder rate, unto each other. You were dealing drugs to each other. You were impregnating our 13-, 12-, 11-year-old children," he said."

What kind of a village is that?"

Standing next to him were Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson. I think that is called speaking truth to those who would rather make excuses.

via Instapundit

Hollyweird again.

Susan Sarandon wants wants the U.S. presidential elections to be monitored by international entities, like elections in Haiti and Iraq. These people will never get over the re-election of George Bush. Also, it looks like Hillary isn't liberal enough for her.

Good Grief.

Tom Delay will resign.

Story here. Certainly a win for the left. There was a witch hunt out to get him and they got him. But even a witch hunt can't defeat you if you have done nothing wrong. Kay Bailey Hutchinson knows that.

I never liked Delay. I can't really say why. God knows he isn't as bad as many in Congress and he was right on most of the issues, but there was just something that didn't seem right with him. He was just a bit too slick for me. I never liked Newt Gingrich either. I get my vibes about people and I stay with them. I always seem to be right.

Here's hoping for better leadership. Delay was good at power grabbing, but I want someone who is just good.

Take me out to the ballgame.

I just got back from Minute Maid Park for the opening game for the Astros. It was the 2 largest crowd in the history of the park. I have never heard the crowd so loud. After the Star Spangled Banner was sung 2 F-16's flew over real low. They were freakin awesome.

Anyway, the Astros beat the Marlins 1-0 and I ate too much.

Music recommendation.

My daughter's friend has turned me on to Dave Barnes. So awesome. Check him out. My favorite is "Someday Sarah" and "Butterflies" from his "Chasing Mississippi" Album. I really like his website too.

When I was in college I dated a musician that played and sang like Barnes. I think I dated him for his music alone. Was that wrong?

Yale and the Taliban.

Update. Yale seems to be hoping this thing will blow over. No such luck if Clint Taylor has anything to say about it. He isn't the only one who is outraged either.

Go to townhall.com for the contact information and let Yale know how you feel about this.

I, for one, just don't get it. Isn't the fact that the Taliban is evil something we can all pretty much agree on?

Correction!!!

NY Times headline, March 27: 30 Beheaded Bodies Found; Iraqi Death Squads Blamed

Fast forward to March 29th: Ok, well maybe not 30 bodies, and maybe not beheaded, and maybe no one knows who shot them, but hey, it's the headline that counts right? Since this correction goes in at the 17th paragraph of the follow up story. I mean we made the point with the headline, which was that things are going so wrong in Iraq. I'm sure something like this is going on anyway. Geeze, what do you want here? Accurate reporting or something?

You gotta have to love the integrity of the New York Times, don't cha?

via Mudville

Well, this explains a lot....

about andy. It's frustrating not to be liked.

I just want you to know that I am fond of you and all my other atheists commenters (and you know who you are)

When it comes to immigration....

What he said. I mean, I said it too, but he says it better.

The Sadness We Ignore.

I came of age in the wake of Roe v. Wade. I entered high school in 1976. I'd say it was a pretty crazy time. The "if it feels good do it" attitude was still going strong from the 60's and we didn't have AIDS yet. It would be 4 years before Reagan reminded us of what it means to be an American and that maybe an unborn child deserved a right to live. The sonogram, the window to the womb, came about a decade too late.

I remember high school and college as a time where I had one foot in the world and one in heaven. My parents were not religious, although they were very moral. I had to find my own way. I loved having fun and I loved the boys. Luckily for me I was already charting my spiritual journey and had a pretty good prayer life going. I was no saint, nor a nun, but I stayed away from the "deadly sins" including sleeping with anyone. A good girl in a crazy world. Thank God for that. Because any woman who grew up when I did knows that the phrase "except for the grace of God go I" can be attributed to any of us who had friends who had abortions.

Sonograms weren't widely in use at the time. The womb was a mystery and the pro abortion crowd took full advantage of that. Jenny was a girl at my high school. Pretty, but wild. We weren't close friends, but I was friendly with everyone and I knew her pretty well. Gossip flew that she was pregnant and we all wondered what would happen. A week later I was at a concert. I happen to be passing by the boy's restroom and one guy stopped me and said, "There's a girl in there, you might want to help her out." I rushed in and saw Jenny leaning against the wall. She was very drunk. I helped her out and took her to a corner. she sat on the floor while tears flowed silently down her face.

"Jenny, what's wrong?" I asked.

"It's gone." She mumbled. "My baby is gone. I killed it."

I knew exactly what she was talking about. She wasn't the first at my school to have an abortion. I assured her that it wasn't a baby yet. (I was a good Democrat) I tried to comfort her, but it was no use. I sat with her until her boyfriend found us.

The following year I watched as Jenny spiraled down into promiscuous behavior, drugs, and eventually dropped out of school. A few years later when God was bugging me about the abortion issue I looked up fetal development at the college library. Jenny had told me that she was 4 months along. I stared at the 16 week old fetus and realized that I had been so wrong. It was a baby. Of that, there is no doubt.

I could tell you many stories like Jenny's. Over the years I have heard more than I ever imagined I would. For a few years I helped at my Church with The Rachel project, which helped women and girls who were dealing with their abortions. During group sessions the grief would become so palpable that it was emotionally draining to listen.

Such grief. Such loss.

Recently a study in New Zealand came out linking mental illness and depression with having had an abortion. It was based on data from a 25 year longitudinal survey that followed more than 500 girls from birth to age 25. The National Institutes of Health here in the United States admitted that there were "no studies of comparable methodological rigor published." "It seems that on the single biggest social change in this country's history the government research bodies and their social science agendas have studiously avoided studying its effects."

I think it's about time we did. Pro-life or pro-choice, we should all be interested in what this has done to our society and how it has affected women in the long term.

I think women like Jenny at least deserve that. Don't you?

This will make you smile...if you're conservative.

ROCK ON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

h/t david hagen