UN URGED TO TAKE ACTION ON ASTEROID THAT MAY HIT EARTH IN 2036; WE ALL HAVE 30 YEARS TO LIVE…

An asteroid may hit us in the noggin in 2036, and a group of scientists want the UN to do something about it. Must be because they did such a great job in Darfur, Rwanda, Somalia…
The good news: we have 30 years to live it up.

 

DIVERSITY IN THE EARLY PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN: GUESS WHO HAS IT?

Not the Democrats, it seems:

‘08 race for president a winner on diversity,” declared the lead A1
headline in a Jan. 21 Detroit Free Press story about the Democratic
field. Let’s review the top three candidates:

• a lawyer now serving in the Senate;

• a lawyer now serving in the Senate;

• a lawyer who served in the Senate.

Now for the three Republican frontrunners:

• a naval officer, Vietnam veteran, and POW now serving in the Senate;

• a businessman who founded Bain Capital, one of the country’s most
successful investment firms; president of the 2002 Winter Olympic Games
in Salt Lake City; governor of Massachusetts, 2002-2006;

• a lawyer who served as associate attorney general, 1981-1983;
U.S. attorney for New York South District, 1983-1989, prosecuted major
organized crime and Wall Street insider trading; served as New York
City mayor, 1994-2001; named Time’s Man of the Year, 2001 for his
leadership in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attack on New York City;
founded an investment and consulting firm, 2004.

Clearly, the Republican candidates bring more diversity to the job
of president and commander-in-chief. But, in the media lexicon,
“diversity” only counts for race and gender. Thus, to quote CNN, the
Democrats boast the most “historically diverse field of contenders”
because it includes Clinton and Obama (the third is John Edwards). The
GOP candidates (McCain, Romney, Giuliani), by contrast, are dismissed
as “white men.”

The whole article is here.

Technorati Tags: elections, diversity, republicans, democrats

 

YOUR ARROGANT SCREED OF THE DAY

I have never been one to criticize an entire media organization for the opinion of one of their journalists, bloggers or writers. Free speech is indeed a wonderful thing, and one worth fighting for.

I do, however, take offense when some members of the media get a planet-sized brain fart and mistake free speech for offensive, driveling libel. One might say that the line between both is thin and tenuous, but it is one that William M. Arkin has managed to cross deftly in the columns of the Washington Post by committing a turd of a text titled “The Troops Also Need To Support The American People.”

Mr. Arkin obviously has a bone to pick with our men and women in uniform, particularly with their frustration at the lack of public support for their operations in Iraq:

I’m all for everyone expressing their opinion, even those who wear the
uniform of the United States Army. But I also hope that military
commanders took the soldiers aside after the story and explained to
them why it wasn’t for them to disapprove of the American people.

In other words, everyone has a right to their opinion, but if you’re in the military, you better just think it, not express it.

Arkin could have stopped right there and already raised eyebrows as to the Orwellian stupidity of that “all men are equal, but some are more equal than others” statement. But, as would be expected from most pontificating blowhards, he decides to continue digging his own grave.

These soldiers should be grateful that the American public, which by
all polls overwhelmingly disapproves of the Iraq war and the
President’s handling of it, do still offer their support to them, and
their respect.

Through every Abu Ghraib and Haditha, through every rape and murder,
the American public has indulged those in uniform, accepting that the
incidents were the product of bad apples or even of some administration
or command order.

Sure it is the junior enlisted men who go to jail, but even at
anti-war protests, the focus is firmly on the White House and the
policy. We just don’t see very man “baby killer” epithets being thrown
around these days, no one in uniform is being spit upon.

To be honest, it took me a while to be able to put the words together to respond to such a lowly insult. What can I say, it is really difficult for me to formulate an answer to a man (and in this case, I
use that word loosely) who would paint hundreds of thousands of members of the military with the brushes of rape, murder and torture. No, they do not owe anyone thanks for taking the risk of coming home with missing limbs; their families should not be begging for sympathy when their loved one comes back from a combat zone in a body bag, an no, a thousand times no, no Soldier, Airman, Marine or Sailor should be grateful for making it home without being spit on by some salivating worm because he or she has obeyed an order form their civilian leaders, an order which by the way has not been officially rescinded as of now.

Shame on you, sir, for daring to even think for one second, even less make public, the fact that service members should beg for what every civilian is entitled to not by law, but by human nature: respect.

So, we pay the soldiers a decent wage, take care of their families,
provide them with housing and medical care and vast social support
systems and ship obscene amenities into the war zone for them, we
support them in every possible way, and their attitude is that we
should in addition roll over and play dead, defer to the military and
the generals and let them fight their war, and give up our rights and
responsibilities to speak up because they are above society?

Amazing: military members should be paid peanuts, their families left to fend for themselves while they are deployed, and they should be denied basic social services for them to be allowed to practice their First Amendment rights? And what are those obscene amenities thjat are so flippantly mentioned? Forgive the folks in Iraq for having a DVD player and a TV to watch a movie after a day of risking their hides; thank you for tolerating the presence of a Burger King or a Pizza Hut on a base in Iraq so these worthless grunts can have a Whopper of a slice of stuffed crust pepperoni pizza after making alive through another day of IEDs and RPGs intended to keep them from one day hugging their kids who are thousands of miles away. How’s life in one of the most expensive cities in America, by the way? Is your Starbucks latte at the right temperature?

And yes, you’re right. Shut up and let those who know – and who, by the way are those putting their lives on the line – take care of business. The blabber out of Washington these days is not really about the “surge”, it’s about basely crass politics. While you sit in your chair huffing and puffing about how your opinion on the war and how it should be conducted (if it should be conducted at all, in your eyes), what the boys and girls in the field demand and deserve are the means to come back alive and in one piece. They certainly have no lessons to receive from someone whose closest proximity to combat is most probably watching the aftermath of a bombing attack on the evening news.

I can imagine some post-9/11 moment, when the American people say
enough already with the wars against terrorism and those in the
national security establishment feel these same frustrations. In my
little parable, those in leadership positions shake their heads that
the people don’t get it, that they don’t understand that the threat
from terrorism, while difficult to defeat, demands commitment and
sacrifice and is very real because it is so shadowy, that the very
survival of the United States is at stake. Those Hoover’s and Nixon’s
will use these kids in uniform as their soldiers. If I weren’t the
United States, I’d say the story end with a military coup where those
in the know, and those with fire in their bellies, save the nation from
the people.

But it is the United States and instead this NBC report is just an
ugly reminder of the price we pay for a mercenary – oops sorry,
volunteer – force that thinks it is doing the dirty work.

The notion of dirty work is that, like laundry, it is something that
has to be done but no one else wants to do it. But Iraq is not dirty
work: it is not some necessary endeavor; the people just don’t believe
that anymore.

I’ll accept that the soldiers, in order to soldier on, have to
believe that they are manning the parapet, and that’s where their
frustrations come in. I’ll accept as well that they are young and naïve
and are frustrated with their own lack of progress and the never
changing situation in Iraq. Cut off from society and constantly told
that everyone supports them, no wonder the debate back home confuses
them.

America needs to ponder what it is we really owe those in uniform. I
don’t believe America needs a draft though I imagine we’d be having a
different discussion if we had one.

You owe them nothing over the top really, even though you’re not capable of even giving them what they deserve. You owe them the respect of not calling them mercenaries; you owe them the dignity that you yourself seem to be lacking if you cannot pound someone else into the ground; you owe them recognition that their career hazards are more than missing a newspaper deadline; you owe them a certain amount of recognition for the risks they are voluntarily taking, beyond the contemptuous belief that a kid would volunteer to get killed overseas because is the only way for him to get out of a life of racial oppression and social injustice; you owe them the openness of mind to accept that some choose a career based on the “greater than self” ideal even though you don’t seem to grasp it yourself.

In a nutshell, you owe them your silence in a debate of which you have understood nothing, and in which you only have succeeded in making a fool of yourself.

One last thing: thank you, Mr. Arkin. I have served 8 years in the Army as a paratrooper, and now I know why I miss it so much: it was my sworn duty, as it is for those who serve today, to step up to the plate to protect even people like you. It was indeed an honor to keep even people like you free to spew their filth. We dind’t, and still do not today, make the difference between those who are deserving or not.

Lucky for you. And you’re welcome.

UPDATE:

Sensible Mom has some more info on how this dickless wonder is trying to come up with a fart of a justification. Read his whole reasoning here, if you can call it that, and have the stomach for it…

Michelle Malkin exposes the comfort in which the troops live day after day in Iraq.

Blackfive, a vet himself, has some choice words for Arkin.

Strata-sphere has a brilliant idea: boycott the Wapo until Arkin is fired.

Hot Air has audio of the moron of the hour being treated like fragile porcelain by Alan Colmes.

 

CBS: LOGANGATE AFTER RATHERGATE?

Lara Logan, CBS chief foreign correspondent, has claimed for a few days now that one of her reporting pieces (dubbed “the battle for Haifa Street”) was being quashed by her bosses, an accusation that has received some supportive dissemination.

The wind is turning for Logan, however. The blogosphere has picked up on the story, and added an interesting, yet disturbing twist: some of the footage in her piece showing the dead bodies if Iraqi soldiers, seems to have been culled from an Al-Qaeda propaganda video shot with a cell phone camera.

CBS, who first responded to Logan’s accusations by explaining that while the footage was too upsetting to be broadcast on their evening news show,it was still made available on their website, is now claiming on their blog that the incriminating footage was not taken or obtained from Al-Qaeda. In other words, don’t worry about the identical footage, and fret not about the little Al-qaeda logo in the upper left corner.

Has CBS learned anything from their little Rathergate episode (you know, the whole “fake but accurate” farce?) As the guys at the Pravda would say… Nyet!

 

LOVE THE MAN, HATE THE MISSION?????

So says Reuters:

The U.S. Senate on Friday confirmed Army Gen. David Petraeus as the next commander of U.S. forces in Iraq even though he supports a boost in American troops that many senators oppose.

Widely regarded as one the army’s brightest commanders, Petraeus, who was confirmed on a vote of 81-0, told senators earlier this week that the situation in Iraq was “dire” but not hopeless.

(…)

Petraeus, who has already completed two Iraq tours, will be charged with implementing
President George W. Bush’s plan to send 21,500 more U.S. troops to Iraq in an effort to halt spiraling insurgent attacks and sectarian violence.

(…)

A key Senate committee has approved a nonbinding resolution opposing Bush’s strategy. A full Senate vote on that measure and another proposal criticizing the plan could come as soon as next week.

Let’s get this straight: Bush nominates, and gets Senate approval for, a general “widely regarded as one of the Army’s brightest commanders” (namely Petraeus), but the same party (namely the Dumbocrats) in the same Senate pases a non-binding resolution against the new Iraq policy that Gen. Petraeus is supposed to implement (you know, the guy who was unanimously confirmed?)…

Have we as a country sunken so low that we are basically sending our best military minds as sacrificial lambs into a military situation that our political leadership does not want to win?

 

EUROPE: “HURRAY, WE’RE CAPITULATING!”

Author Henryk M. Broder has written a great piece about European capitulation in the face of a creeping and creepy Islamist movement. what is really surprising is that a German newspaper, Der Speigel, actually posted it on their international edition website.

The controversy over the 12 Muhammad cartoons that were published in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten in September 2005 and led to worldwide protests and unrest among Muslims was merely a taste of what is to come, a dress rehearsal for the kinds of disputes Europe can expect to face in the future if it does not rethink its current policy of appeasement. As was the case in the 1930s, when Czechoslovakia was sacrificed in the interest of peace under the Munich Agreement — a move that ultimately did nothing to prevent World War II — Europeans today also believe that an adversary, seemingly invincible due to a preference for death over life, can be mollified by good behavior, concessions and submission. All the Europeans can hope to gain in this asymmetric conflict is a temporary reprieve, a honeymoon period that could last 10, 20, or maybe even 50 years. Anyone on death row breathes a sigh of relief when his execution is postponed to some indefinite time in the future.

(…)

Those who react to kidnappings and beheadings, to massacres of people of other faiths, and to eruptions of collective hysteria with a call for “cultural dialogue” don’t deserve any better.

“The West should desist from engaging in all provocations that produce feelings of debasement and humiliation,” says psychoanalyst Horst-Eberhard Richter. “We should show greater respect for the cultural identity of Muslim countries. … For Muslims, it is important to be recognized and respected as equals.” In Richter’s view, what the Muslims need is “a partnership of equals.”

But Richter neglects to describe what this partnership might look like. Does achieving such equality mean that we should set up separate sections for women on buses, as is the custom in Saudi Arabia? Should the marrying age for girls be reduced to 12, as is the case in Iran? And should death by stoning be our punishment for adultery, as Shariah law demands? What else could the West do to show its respect for the cultural identity of Islamic countries? Would it be sufficient to allow Horst-Eberhard Richter to decide whether, for example, a wet T-shirt contest in a German city rises to a level of criminal provocation that could cause the Muslim faithful in Hyderabad to feel debased and humiliated?

(…)

In 1972, more than three decades ago, Danish lawyer and part-time politician Mogens Glistrup had an idea that brought him instant fame. To save taxes, he proposed that the Danish army be disbanded and an answering machine be set up in the defense ministry that would play the following message: “We capitulate!” Not only would it save money, Glistrup argued, but it would also save lives in an emergency. On the strength of this “program,” Glistrup’s Progress Party managed to become the second-most powerful political party in the Danish parliament in the 1973 elections.

Glistrup had the right idea, but he was a number of years premature. Now would be the right time to set up his answering machine.

Read the whole thing here, and then print it out and keep it. Who knows when this kind of thinking will be greeted by public floggings or hangings in Europe’s public squares.

 

‘08 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS: SOME BAD NEWS…

Yup, Kerry will not be running. Shame, it would have been nice to see the Dems implode under the weight of his ineptitude…

 

WHEN PROPAGANDA POSTURES AS HONEST JOURNALISM

Sarah Olson calls herself an independent journalist. Ehren Watada is a U.S. Army Officer who refuses to deploy to Iraq, for which the Army has proffered charges against him. In August of last year, Sarah Olson conducted an interview with 1LT Watada. She was then subpoenaed by LT Watada’s military prosecutors to testify as one of their witnesses. Sarah Olson, however, is acting like a kid who doesn’t want to go to the doctor’s because she’s afraid of needles.

In her own words:

As an element of their prosecution, the U.S. Army has cobbled together portions of my interview with Lieutenant Watada and, together, these statements comprise the foundation of one charge of conduct unbecoming an officer. To substantiate this alleged crime, the U.S. Army has subpoenaed me to testify on behalf of the prosecution against my source. The dynamics of the situation are clear. When the military chooses to prosecute a soldier for expressing dissenting political positions to a member of the press, that journalist is unwittingly and inevitably forced into the middle of the conflict.

When a journalist records and publicizes the views of a certain individual within the framework of an interview, even when those views and opinions can be prosecutable, then said journalist has the professional and moral duty to vouch for the veracity of the contents of said interview. Such a truth can not be covered by the screeching and unjustified use of words such as “unwittingly and inevitably forced into the middle of the conflict.” Dissent is not a specific form of particularly protected speech, as opposed to speech that opposes the dissenting point of view, and that would therefore benefit from less protection. Furthermore, Sarah Olson conveniently fails to acknowledge one painfully obvious point: she made herself a part of what she disingenuously calls “the conflict” when she conducted LT Watada’s interview, and then made it available to be read by anyone interested.

Doesn’t it fly in the face of the First Amendment to compel a journalist to participate in a government prosecution against a source, particularly in matters related to personal political speech?

Actually, no, it doesn’t. Again, Sarah Olson does not, in her own article, point to any circumstance that would lead anyone to believe that she is being subpoenaed to reveal either a confidential source or confidential information. It does, however, fly in the face of the fair and equitable exercise of military justice to refuse to testify for no good reason.

What could be more hostile to the idea of a free press than a journalist participating in the suppression of newsworthy speech?

Unless the statements made by LT Watada during the course of his interview were edited, modified or changed in any way, shape or form, the question is 100% irrelevant. What is relevant is that Sarah Olson’s subpoena for testimony actually protects her right to propagate what she calls “newsworthy speech” by giving her a chance to confirm that the publicized text of the interview is true to 1LT Watada’s original statements.

As a journalist, if the government has a free hand to destroy my credibility and prevent me from doing my job, what incentive do I have to cover unpopular topics?

“Ms. Olson, did LT Watada make the statements that are related in your interview transcript?” How on God’s green earth is such a question a destruction of her credibility or an obstacle to her doing her job? Her job was already done, for crying out loud!

So what is wrong with this woman? Just one thing. She isn’t really a journalist. She is a propagandist. She doesn’t want to go testify because she agrees with LT Watada, and those common beliefs are more important to her than what she sees as feeding ammo to the “evil-baby-killers-who-are-going-to-throw-this-beautiful-man-of-conscience-in jail”. She is just running around, projecting the image of a lone woman fighting for the truth and the soul of this country while being held in the clutches of the maniacal military-industrial complex. She’s a left-wing politically biased advocate hiding behind a grotesquely built shield of pseudo-journalism; for proof, just look at the titles of some articles she wrote in the past. She has only 2 choices: obey the law or go to jail. Personally, if she took option 2, I wouldn’t shed a tear.

 

IRAQ: THE DEMOCRATS HAVE A PLAN! RUN FOR THE HILLS!

Many of those who are reading this have probably never traveled to Marin County and Sonoma Valley, north of San Francisco. To give you an idea, it’s beautiful, rich, and very much to the left. Picture Berkeley hippies driving around in BMWs.

Now, meet Lynn Woolsey, the “unapologetically progressive” congresswoman who represents that little slice of leftist heaven. I want you to meet her because she has a plan for Iraq. Start shaking in your boots, shoes, or whatever footwear you might be donning while reading this post (if you’re barefoot, wear something or else your toes might just curl).

Anywho, here is the gist of her “Bring Our Troops Home and Sovereignty of Iraq Restoration Act”, in her own words (comments in italic are mine):

• Withdraw all U.S. troops and military contractors from Iraq within six months from the date of enactment.

In other words, let the Iraqis drown in their own blood and gore. Let’s do a Somalia redux; you know, get scared, cut and run, and then have to be involved in that cesspool 13 years later, in a grim ground hog day scenario…

• Accelerate, during the six-month transition, training of a permanent Iraqi police force.

This one would be funny if it weren’t so pathetic. Here we have Iraqi police and military forces who, by the Left’s own claims throughout our years of presence in their country, are undertrained, unmotivated, and riddled with corruption (can we say death squads roaming the streets, sometimes in their duty uniforms?). Unless they squeeze 48 hours of Navy SEAL quality training in a 24 hour day, this proposition is nothing more than a pathetic cover for “cut and run”.

• Prohibit the continued funding, except for the redeployment of troops currently in Iraq, of combat troops to Iraq.

See the first item. Enough said…

• Prohibit any permanent U.S. military bases in Iraq. (Despite official denials, bases are under construction, including one that includes a miniature golf course and a Pizza Hut).

The building of “hard site” bases is not an indicator of the permanence of said installations. Newsflash: morale and safety are greatly improved by building something with substance (go get shot at for a year and see how peachy you would feel if your digs amounted to a dusty tent vulnerable to mortar attacks). And stop crying me a river about miniature golf courses and Pizza Huts; would the woman have those who are putting their lives at risk every day sit on a cot and spend their off time sucking on a bowel clogging MRE?

• Authorize, if requested by the Iraqi government, U.S. support for an international stabilization force, which would stay no longer than two years.

Confucius say: how the hell do you figure that the Iraqi government will ask us for our help after we’ve told them to essentially go fly a kite? How do you think that a fancy-shmancy “international stabilization force”, which reeks of UN “don’t shoot until you have lost 3 of your buddies, taken 2 AK rounds in the gut, and have had a translator verify that your attackers verbally stated that they want to kill you in words understandable by an autistic child” rules of engagement would fare? And since when do you send any kind of interposition force (puke, gag, cough) with a mandate that says “go put your life of the line for exactly 2 years, after which you go home, come hell or high water?” Is the woman TRYING to get people killed for nothing? And last but not least, how does the ditz even know that the future Iraqi government will be one who will request such a stupidly criminal intervention?

• Prohibit U.S. participation in any long-term Iraqi oil production sharing agreements before the enactment by the Iraqi government of new regulations governing the industry.

Frickin’ great. Now fuel prices are going to go zipping through the roof because it’s Iraq best way to give us the bird for abandoning them, unless of course some unfriendly government comes to power, and decides to pull a “let’s milk the infidels to fund our violent hate of them” thing. Brilliant!

• Authorize an array of non-military assistance in Iraq, including reconstruction of a public-health system; destruction of land mines, recovery of ancient relics; and distribution of compensatory damages for civilian casualties.

Translation: let’s send civilians into a country that our troops were not allowed to pacify; oh, and let’s require them to all get a dotted line tattoed on their throats, right where the terrorists need to make the incision, as well as sign a waiver stating that the “international stabilization force” (gag, puke, barf) will do nothing for them because their intelligence system will be so truncated by political considerations that they are only authorized to take possession of the dead body to fly it home to grieving parents.

• Honor the sacrifice of our servicemen and women by providing full funding for every health-care treatment, and benefit that they are entitled to under current law.

Wooohoooo! Break out the champagne! Let all the troops worship at the feet of Lynn Wolsey, the fearless leader who fought to give them benefits they are ALREADY ENTITLED TO! What a risk taking, tireless fighter for the voiceless she is indeed!

Conclusion: OJ Simpson is a Democrat, and Lynn Woolsey is a fan of his. Don’t believe me? Hey, he could cut and run with the best of them, and she seems eager to learn.

 

SUPPORT PINUPS FOR VETS!

Thank you to Iowahawk for making me aware that this even existed. She’s hot, it’s tax deductible, and for crying out loud, it helps out wounded vets! If you wonder what the hell I’m talking about, click here… Oh, and check out the clue below…

 

BIG GIRLS DON’T (CAT)FIGHT…

SusanG, one of the Daily Kos contributors, seems to be deeply peeved at the way the media is dealing with Nancy “Brass Knuckles” Pelosi’s ascent to power, as well as her recent catfight power struggle strategic disagreement with Jane Harman.

As mcjoan pointed out last night, as the first woman Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi – and the American voting public – has come a long way, fellow babies.

Perhaps it’s time for the press corps to catch up.

From the Washington Post this morning:

Catfight aftermath: Rep. Jane Harman is still quite irked that House Speaker-designee Nancy Pelosi nixed her for chairman of the House intelligence committee – and she’s not exactly being stoic about it.

“Catfight?” “Quite irked?” “Not exactly being stoic?”

Arrrgh. This kind of language reduces the serious tactical political differences between the two reps to the level of a couple of women who purchased the same dress slapping each other silly in a back room over who gets to wear it to the swearing-in.

Hmmmm … remind me again: What was Pelosi’s objection to Harman anyway? Oh, yeah (insert head slap here), it was this:

Pelosi and other liberal Democrats believed that Harman, a moderate, failed to challenge the administration’s alleged abuses of intelligence.

The matter of holding the president accountable for his actions is one of the foremost – if not the foremost – issues facing the 110th Congress. To frame the Pelosi/Harman dispute as a “catfight” trivializes both the leaders involved and the underlying importance of Congress’ duty to challenge the president. See, it’s a two-fer: Belittle the players, belittle the issue.

Try this thought experiment: The next time Harry Reid puts the power squeeze on a male colleague, will it be characterized as a “catfight?” Will the squeezed senator be described as “quite irked” or “not exactly being stoic” if he fights back? I’m guessing … um … no.

And before everyone goes all “male chauvinist pigs!” on the Washington Post, take a deep breath and click through to the link. The columnist is a woman.

We expected as much from Fox, of course, and Fox delivered. Newshounds has a terrific blow-by-blow analysis of two hours of catty, petty Pelosi coverage, complete with one segment sporting a “Congress Catfight” banner.

Lest anyone worry that our new leadership is all about hissing and scratching in the back alleys over petty scraps of Constitutional import, BarbinMD sent me the following link this morning to reassure us that the press hasn’t completely overlooked the benefits of having a woman in power. Barb wondered if the Nevada newspapers were running similar articles about the new Senate majority leader. Really, people. You must click on the link to get the full … how shall I say this? … suitability of this story for this historic present moment.

Then let out a yowl or two.

Ok, SusanG… Here are my 2 cents.

Item 1: . I’m not going to fall to my knees in a fit of worshipping swoon just because the Speaker of The House wears a bra. Pelosi should be judged on her actions, not on how much lipstick she puts on her face before she does whatever she intends to do. Stop brandishing gender as a weapon. Pelosi is not some political non entity who broke the glass (or marble, or whatever hard surface is is style these days) ceiling; she is a skilled political operative, the daughter and sister of Democrat politicians, who has wielded enormous power within one of the only 2 significant political parties in the country way before today. That is what earned her her seat as Speaker of the House. I say earned, because the election process through which the Speaker of the House obtains his or her position is an election only in name; it’s more about inner party lobbying.

Also, don’t use sexist wording such as “…the benefits of having a woman in power.” I bet you weren’t jumping up and down for joy when Margaret Thatcher made it to 10 Downing Street, and that it had more to do with her being a staunch conservative than being a woman. You’re happy because a Democrat is in power, not because she’s wears a skirt.

Item 2: Claiming that the catfight issue between Pelosi and Harman is some kind of media fairy dust designed to blind us to the reality of important issues facing the country is the view of an ideological follower oblivious to the reality of dirty politics. Unless it’s just another brand of blinding political fairy dust… The cold hard truth is that Pelosi rules with an iron fist, which is something that she has never denied ever since the media began talking about her “my way or the highway” type of leadership. Harman has sampled it, and so has Jack Murtha. The post itself is contradictory: when Nancy does it, it’s an objection based on reasons involving the “new way” promised by the Democrats; were Harry Reid to do the same, it’s called a “power squeeze”, i.e. base and crass politicking.

All being said and done, Pelosi is not the feminist symbol of a new era of wise rule. She is a politician like her male counterparts, and like them, the bottom line is that she will have to prove herself beyond the fact that she is a woman. Such is the lot of any high powered player in the stratosphere of modern politics. Her gender is not an issue, and definitely nothing more than a distraction from what the real issues are.

 

WHERE IS A PATTON WHEN WE NEED ONE?

With a war in Iraq that still needs to be won, with the Democrats now in power in Congress, and with the Republican party seemingly gasping for air, I thought that a few words from a certain General George S. Patton might be in order to get the pepole who need it to grow some hair where hair needs to be grown. Enjoy, and never think that this is outdated stuff.

“Men, this stuff that some sources sling around about America wanting out of this war, not wanting to fight, is a crock of bullshit. Americans love to fight, traditionally. All real Americans love the sting and clash of battle. You are here today for three reasons. First, because you are here to defend your homes and your loved ones. Second, you are here for your own self respect, because you would not want to be anywhere else. Third, you are here because you are real men and all real men like to fight. When you, here, everyone of you, were kids, you all admired the champion marble player, the fastest runner, the toughest boxer, the big league ball players, and the All-American football players. Americans love a winner. Americans will not tolerate a loser. Americans despise cowards. Americans play to win all of the time. I wouldn’t give a hoot in hell for a man who lost and laughed. That’s why Americans have never lost nor will ever lose a war; for the very idea of losing is hateful to an American.

You are not all going to die. Only two percent of you right here today would die in a major battle. Death must not be feared. Death, in time, comes to all men. Yes, every man is scared in his first battle. If he says he’s not, he’s a liar. Some men are cowards but they fight the same as the brave men or they get the hell slammed out of them watching men fight who are just as scared as they are. The real hero is the man who fights even though he is scared. Some men get over their fright in a minute under fire. For some, it takes an hour. For some, it takes days. But a real man will never let his fear of death overpower his honor, his sense of duty to his country, and his innate manhood. Battle is the most magnificent competition in which a human being can indulge. It brings out all that is best and it removes all that is base. Americans pride themselves on being He Men and they ARE He Men. Remember that the enemy is just as frightened as you are, and probably more so. They are not supermen. All through your Army careers, you men have bitched about what you call “chicken shit drilling”. That, like everything else in this Army, has a definite purpose. That purpose is alertness. Alertness must be bred into every soldier. I don’t give a fuck for a man who’s not always on his toes. You men are veterans or you wouldn’t be here. You are ready for what’s to come. A man must be alert at all times if he expects to stay alive. If you’re not alert, sometime, a German son-of-an-asshole-bitch is going to sneak up behind you and beat you to death with a sockful of shit!”

There are four hundred neatly marked graves somewhere in Sicily, all because one man went to sleep on the job. But they are German graves, because we caught the bastard asleep before they did. An Army is a team. It lives, sleeps, eats, and fights as a team. This individual heroic stuff is pure horse shit. The bilious bastards who write that kind of stuff for the Saturday Evening Post don’t know any more about real fighting under fire than they know about fucking!

We have the finest food, the finest equipment, the best spirit, and the best men in the world. Why, by God, I actually pity those poor sons-of-bitches we’re going up against. By God, I do.

“My men don’t surrender. I don’t want to hear of any soldier under my command being captured unless he has been hit. Even if you are hit, you can still fight back. That’s not just bull shit either. The kind of man that I want in my command is just like the lieutenant in Libya, who, with a Luger against his chest, jerked off his helmet, swept the gun aside with one hand, and busted the hell out of the Kraut with his helmet. Then he jumped on the gun and went out and killed another German before they knew what the hell was coming off. And, all of that time, this man had a bullet through a lung. There was a real man!

All of the real heroes are not storybook combat fighters, either. Every single man in this Army plays a vital role. Don’t ever let up. Don’t ever think that your job is unimportant. Every man has a job to do and he must do it. Every man is a vital link in the great chain. What if every truck driver suddenly decided that he didn’t like the whine of those shells overhead, turned yellow, and jumped headlong into a ditch? The cowardly bastard could say, “Hell, they won’t miss me, just one man in thousands”. But, what if every man thought that way? Where in the hell would we be now? What would our country, our loved ones, our homes, even the world, be like? No, Goddamnit, Americans don’t think like that. Every man does his job. Every man serves the whole. Every department, every unit, is important in the vast scheme of this war. The ordnance men are needed to supply the guns and machinery of war to keep us rolling. The Quartermaster is needed to bring up food and clothes because where we are going there isn’t a hell of a lot to steal. Every last man on K.P. has a job to do, even the one who heats our water to keep us from getting the ‘G.I. Shits’.

Each man must not think only of himself, but also of his buddy fighting beside him. We don’t want yellow cowards in this Army. They should be killed off like rats. If not, they will go home after this war and breed more cowards. The brave men will breed more brave men. Kill off the Goddamned cowards and we will have a nation of brave men. One of the bravest men that I ever saw was a fellow on top of a telegraph pole in the midst of a furious fire fight in Tunisia. I stopped and asked what the hell he was doing up there at a time like that. He answered, “Fixing the wire, Sir”. I asked, “Isn’t that a little unhealthy right about now?” He answered, “Yes Sir, but the Goddamned wire has to be fixed”. I asked, “Don’t those planes strafing the road bother you?” And he answered, “No, Sir, but you sure as hell do!” Now, there was a real man. A real soldier. There was a man who devoted all he had to his duty, no matter how seemingly insignificant his duty might appear at the time, no matter how great the odds. And you should have seen those trucks on the rode to Tunisia. Those drivers were magnificent. All day and all night they rolled over those son-of-a-bitching roads, never stopping, never faltering from their course, with shells bursting all around them all of the time. We got through on good old American guts. Many of those men drove for over forty consecutive hours. These men weren’t combat men, but they were soldiers with a job to do. They did it, and in one hell of a way they did it. They were part of a team. Without team effort, without them, the fight would have been lost. All of the links in the chain pulled together and the chain became unbreakable.

Don’t forget, you men don’t know that I’m here. No mention of that fact is to be made in any letters. The world is not supposed to know what the hell happened to me. I’m not supposed to be commanding this Army. I’m not even supposed to be here in England. Let the first bastards to find out be the Goddamned Germans. Some day I want to see them raise up on their piss-soaked hind legs and howl, ‘Jesus Christ, it’s the Goddamned Third Army again and that son-of-a-fucking-bitch Patton’.”

We want to get the hell over there. The quicker we clean up this Goddamned mess, the quicker we can take a little jaunt against the purple pissing Japs and clean out their nest, too. Before the Goddamned Marines get all of the credit.

Sure, we want to go home. We want this war over with. The quickest way to get it over with is to go get the bastards who started it. The quicker they are whipped, the quicker we can go home. The shortest way home is through Berlin and Tokyo. And when we get to Berlin, I am personally going to shoot that paper hanging son-of-a-bitch Hitler. Just like I’d shoot a snake!

When a man is lying in a shell hole, if he just stays there all day, a German will get to him eventually. The hell with that idea. The hell with taking it. My men don’t dig foxholes. I don’t want them to. Foxholes only slow up an offensive. Keep moving. And don’t give the enemy time to dig one either. We’ll win this war, but we’ll win it only by fighting and by showing the Germans that we’ve got more guts than they have; or ever will have. We’re not going to just shoot the sons-of-bitches, we’re going to rip out their living Goddamned guts and use them to grease the treads of our tanks. We’re going to murder those lousy Hun cocksuckers by the bushel-fucking-basket. War is a bloody, killing business. You’ve got to spill their blood, or they will spill yours. Rip them up the belly. Shoot them in the guts. When shells are hitting all around you and you wipe the dirt off your face and realize that instead of dirt it’s the blood and guts of what once was your best friend beside you, you’ll know what to do!

I don’t want to get any messages saying, “I am holding my position.” We are not holding a Goddamned thing. Let the Germans do that. We are advancing constantly and we are not interested in holding onto anything, except the enemy’s balls. We are going to twist his balls and kick the living shit out of him all of the time. Our basic plan of operation is to advance and to keep on advancing regardless of whether we have to go over, under, or through the enemy. We are going to go through him like crap through a goose; like shit through a tin horn!

From time to time there will be some complaints that we are pushing our people too hard. I don’t give a good Goddamn about such complaints. I believe in the old and sound rule that an ounce of sweat will save a gallon of blood. The harder WE push, the more Germans we will kill. The more Germans we kill, the fewer of our men will be killed. Pushing means fewer casualties. I want you all to remember that.

There is one great thing that you men will all be able to say after this war is over and you are home once again. You may be thankful that twenty years from now when you are sitting by the fireplace with your grandson on your knee and he asks you what you did in the great World War II, you WON’T have to cough, shift him to the other knee and say, “Well, your Granddaddy shoveled shit in Louisiana.” No, Sir, you can look him straight in the eye and say, “Son, your Granddaddy rode with the Great Third Army and a Son-of-a-Goddamned-Bitch named Georgie Patton!”

 

THE KERRYS: DIGGING DEEPER EVEN WHEN NO ONE IS REALLY LOOKING

From the Washington Post, dated 4 January 2007:

Nothing is ever simple when it comes to John Kerry.

The senator from Massachusetts and his wife, Teresa Heinz Kerry, sent out 75,000 Christmas cards with pictures of trees at each season. The Kerrys gushed over their “gratitude for the beauty of these trees and the life they represent.”

But it didn’t end there.

The card came in an odd-looking envelope, one of those with a return-mail flap and instructions to send it to . . . well, to a recycling company, so “it can be made into new carpet tile.”

Carpet tile?

We want a “world without waste . . . where every product either returns safely to the soil or becomes a new product.”

So the card instructs: “1. Remove this panel and insert it along with the card into the envelope. 2. Expose adhesive strip and fold the flap over to seal the envelope. 3. Drop this mailer into any U.S. mailbox.”

Who else would send a Christmas card with a to-do list?

This was your no comment post of the day.

 

DEBUNKING THE LIES: HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH AND THE QUANA AMBULANCE “INCIDENT”

For those of you who don’t remember this episode of the Israel/Hezbollah war last summer, Israel stood accused of firing missiles at 2 Red Cross ambulances in the town of Quana, Lebanon. Amongst many others, San Francisco blogger Zombietime wrote extensively about what turned out to be a calculated hoax perpetrated by parties still unknown, and gleefully amplified by the mainstream media, who had no qualms pointing their filthy little biased and whiny fingers at Israel. The result of the investigation: the accusations were nothing more than 10 pounds of bovine feces hastily stuffed into a 5 pound (leaky) bag.

However, in a striking example of not knowing when to stop throwing rocks when you’re in a glass house, the activist, George Soros funded (to the tune of about $30 million, if I am not mistaken) Human Rights Watch has come up with a report on that very Quana incident that makes a Kofi Annan speech look fair, balanced, and actually intelligent. I won’t even waste your time keeping you guessing: yup, those evil Jews did it. A surprise it is not. Furthermore, the report mentioned Zombietime by name,  in fact accusing him  of propagating the lie that the incident was a hoax.

What Human Rights Watch seemingly did not anticipate was that Zombietime was not going to take that crap lying down. Bad move. He has, as a matter of fact, written another extensive piece of magistral blogging, in which he totally and utterly debunks every claim in the Human Rights Watch report (it’s actually as much as report as Rosie is good looking, but don’t think about that one over a meal unless you’re prepared to upchuck faster than Kate Moss at an all you can eat buffet.)

Click here for Zombietime’s eloquent rebuttal (which includes links to his original piece and to the Human Rights Watch report). It may take a while to read it all, but it’s definitely time better used than watching that has-been Larry King.

 

I CAN’T BELIEVE I MISSED THIS ONE

Now I know why people are dying all around the world: I didn’t have an orgasm for peace on December 22nd!

I’m just trying to picture the UN General Assembly in plenary session participating in this event…

Oh, heck, I have to stop writing about this, because never has a post made me laugh to tears for so long, and honestly, my sides are starting to hurt…

Where is that damn mop?

 

TRY THIS IN A MOSQUE AND SEE WHAT HAPPENS

How fast do you think every Muslim leader is gonna come crawling out of the woodwork howling bloody murder if we tried to do this in a mosque?

Then again, we might reconsider if some imam gave up this bad boy, which was already a church when the Muslims turned it into a mosque.

You know, a little one-for-one action. Until then, go fly a lard-smeared kite, you whiny bastards!

 

THANKS FOR THE GOOD TIMES, JAMES BROWN

1933-2006

 

GOOD NEWS AND SMOKING MIRRORS

Let’s start with the good news: Saddam’s death sentence has been upheld. As Monty Python would say, he’s not “dead yet”, but I’d say he has one foot in the grave and the other oneis slipping fast.

Now, to the smoking mirrors: Pakistan will fence and put landmines at its border with Afghanistan, ostensibly to at least slow down the movement of Jihadi swine-cursed punks in the Waziristan area. Why smoking mirrors? Because only portions of the border will be mined and fenced, because Pervez Musharraf has enough Islamofascists gunning for him in his own country for the meager collaboration he is already giving the West, (and no one will tell me that survival instinct does not trump international policy making), and because neither Pakistan nor Afghanistan have any control whatsoever on the tribal areas at their common border. My big question: how much of this useless project is going to be paid for by U.S. aid?

 

CARTER: I’LL HATE ISRAEL AS LONG AS THE ARABS CAN PAY FOR IT

So it’s true: Jimmy Carter is not an anti-semite. It’s just that the Arabs seem to pay well, according to the Washington Times. After all, why should he care that the whole Arab row about Palestine is just a way for them to psychotically ignore what they have done to themselves?

 

BLOATED, BIASED, AND EMOTIONAL… WILL AIR AMERICA FINALLY DIE?

They wanted to be the hammer that would put conservative talk-radio back in its place. They bickered and whined themselves into bankruptcy.

The New York Times has an article on the fat lady that could not sing.