A human waste of citizenship

Curt has a video up that has got to be seen to be believed, as well as some excremental garbage coming from the mouths of the DUmmies on the upcoming 9/11 anniversary. I don't normally call people on the Left whom I disagree with unpatriotic, and I'm very careful about making that charge. But I have no problem calling these idiots unpatriotic; and I would find it baffling if they disagreed and waxed indignant at the charge. If they have no shame in much of the filth they espouse to believe in, then they are what they are: unpatriotic and vile waste of citizenship status.

Curt's been updating his post. Apparently, Superman1969's video was flagged as inappropriate and it was removed. Go check out his reaction. I posted it in the comment section.

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Watch out for the killer flying headbutt!

Ok....I couldn't help but indulge myself with one more guilty pleasure post. But to make it all the more worthwhile, here's a political cartoon:

Which gives me the excuse I need to post this video, to give the cartoon a frame of reference to those unfamiliar with Monty Python and the Holy Grail (egad! if you've never seen it):

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Battlestar Python

Ok, I know I have a double post down below. I just can't fix it at the moment, as the post no longer even appears in my edit menu. *sigh* Gary's going to fire me....

Well, before he does, and before he returns to full-time blogging status soon, I thought I'd indulge myself in another non-political post. (Sorry skye, darlin'....no Lee Adama topless scene in this one).

Now imagine if.....Monty Python and the Holy Grail were filmed ala Battlestar Galactica....hmmm......

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When Global Warming was Cool (Or: "I'm too sexy for my MTV appearance")

When an AP reporter disses your pontification at the MTV Video Music Awards and refers to you as a "wooden politician", you know it had to have been a big mistake:

Fans watch for the FCC-flaunting skits, nearly naked starlets, foul-mouthed speeches and those embarrassingly bad dance numbers.

They do NOT watch for lectures from former Vice President Al Gore on global warming. When does the phrase "here's a photo of a glacier melting" ever fit into an awards show?

Gore did get a laugh, however, when he intoned, "I actually was not intending to be here tonight, but then MTV explained that Justin Timberlake was bringing sexy back."

*Blech!* Okay....we have Big Sexy in the house, dressed like the man in black, ultra hip, suave, and solid, giving the MTV audience (which his wife Tipper went on a jihad against years ago) the time of their life with................his inane slide show.

See it for yourself if you missed it (like I had when it aired Aug 31st):

And I never did blog on this, but here it is if you missed it...another example of liberal hypocrisy at its finest, from USA Today:

For someone who says the sky is falling, he does very little. He says he recycles and drives a hybrid. And he claims he uses renewable energy credits to offset the pollution he produces when using a private jet to promote his film. (In reality, Paramount Classics, the film's distributor, pays this.)

Public records reveal that as Gore lectures Americans on excessive consumption, he and his wife Tipper live in two properties: a 10,000-square-foot, 20-room, eight-bathroom home in Nashville, and a 4,000-square-foot home in Arlington, Va. (He also has a third home in Carthage, Tenn.) For someone rallying the planet to pursue a path of extreme personal sacrifice, Gore requires little from himself.

Then there is the troubling matter of his energy use. In the Washington, D.C., area, utility companies offer wind energy as an alternative to traditional energy. In Nashville, similar programs exist. Utility customers must simply pay a few extra pennies per kilowatt hour, and they can continue living their carbon-neutral lifestyles knowing that they are supporting wind energy. Plenty of businesses and institutions have signed up. Even the Bush administration is using green energy for some federal office buildings, as are thousands of area residents.

But according to public records, there is no evidence that Gore has signed up to use green energy in either of his large residences. When contacted Wednesday, Gore's office confirmed as much but said the Gores were looking into making the switch at both homes. Talk about inconvenient truths.

Gore is not alone. Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean has said, "Global warming is happening, and it threatens our very existence." The DNC website applauds the fact that Gore has "tried to move people to act." Yet, astoundingly, Gore's persuasive powers have failed to convince his own party: The DNC has not signed up to pay an additional two pennies a kilowatt hour to go green. For that matter, neither has the Republican National Committee.

Maybe our very existence isn't threatened.

Gore has held these apocalyptic views about the environment for some time. So why, then, didn't Gore dump his family's large stock holdings in Occidental (Oxy) Petroleum? As executor of his family's trust, over the years Gore has controlled hundreds of thousands of dollars in Oxy stock. Oxy has been mired in controversy over oil drilling in ecologically sensitive areas.

Living carbon-neutral apparently doesn't mean living oil-stock free. Nor does it necessarily mean giving up a mining royalty either.

Humanity might be "sitting on a ticking time bomb," but Gore's home in Carthage is sitting on a zinc mine. Gore receives $20,000 a year in royalties from Pasminco Zinc, which operates a zinc concession on his property. Tennessee has cited the company for adding large quantities of barium, iron and zinc to the nearby Caney Fork River.

The issue here is not simply Gore's hypocrisy; it's a question of credibility. If he genuinely believes the apocalyptic vision he has put forth and calls for radical changes in the way other people live, why hasn't he made any radical change in his life? Giving up the zinc mine or one of his homes is not asking much, given that he wants the rest of us to radically change our lives.

The writer is Peter Schweizer, author of Do As I Say (Not As I Do): Profiles in Liberal Hypocrisy.

It's high time Al Gore cooled it with his excessive CO₂ emissions. Maybe he could hold his breath, once in a while?

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That's supposed to be an improvement?!

THE EYE LIES: CBS anchor gal Katie Couric as she looked for real at Carnegie Hall in May, and about 20 pounds lighter in a Photoshopped portrait that appeared in the network's in-house mag.

Read the story.

Hmm....neither is still an accurate representation. I think this cartoonist got it right:

Hat tip to: The Educated Shoprat

BREAKING NEWS UPDATE! This just in:

Seeing as how I am as big a fan of Battlestar Galactica as skye and Gary are, I was shocked....shocked I tell you, to discover that skye's beloved photo of Lee Adama was photoshopped. *Gasp!*

The question is: Which is the before...and which is the after? The quality of photoshopping is so advanced now, it's soooo hard to tell the real photo from the phake...-er, fake.

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Misremembering Beslan

BESLAN, North Ossetia -- School No. 1 stands in ruins. People still come from around the world to place fresh flowers and bottles and jars full of water on the school grounds.

Two years ago Friday, terrorists seized School No. 1 and held more than 1,100 children, parents and grandparents hostage for three days in sweltering heat. Deprived of food and water, the hostages were reduced to chewing on leaves and sucking wet rags for moisture.

On the third day of the crisis, federal troops stormed the school in a hail of gunfire -- the school was destroyed by explosions and fire. To date, 332 people have died as a result of the siege.

Outside of bloggers, the rest of the mainstream media fails to identify the Islamic origin of the terrorists who committed this vile crime against humanity.

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Saturday Morning ABC Schoolhouse Rock "The Great American Melting Pot"

I have a post with this...it's just not done yet. I ended up writing more than I had planned. But enjoy this sweet memory of "happier days", when the concept of a "melting pot" meant assimilation was good and the right thing for immigrants to do.

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Mexican Standoff

Mexican Lawmakers Block Fox's Speech

MEXICO CITY (AP) -- Vicente Fox was forced to forego the last state-of-the-nation address of his presidency Friday after leftist lawmakers stormed the stage of Congress to protest disputed July 2 elections.

It was the first time in modern Mexican history a president hasn't given the annual address to Congress. Instead, Fox handed in a written copy of his report, and his office said he would address the nation in a televised speech later Friday.

Lawmakers breaking the law...well..isn't THAT ironic?

The standoff came six days before the top electoral court must declare a president-elect or annul the July 2 vote and order a new election. So far, rulings have favored ruling party candidate Felipe Calderon, who was ahead by about 240,000 votes in the official count.

Lopez Obrador has already said he won't recognize the electoral court's decision, and he plans to create a parallel government and rule from the streets.

It really is time to start building that border!

Protesters occupying Mexico City's center said they were ready to do whatever it takes to support Lopez Obrador. Fernando Calles, a 26-year-old university professor, said he was ready to fight for the former Mexico City mayor "until the death, until the final consequences."

"We lived 500 years of repression, and now we represent the new face of Mexico," he said.

A 26 year old Uni Professor is the face of Mexico - just like Moveon.org is the face of the DNC. Let me repeat...we really need to seal the border...NOW!

Fox, a former Coca-Cola executive, ushered in economic stability and brought inflation to record lows, but he has been unable to secure a migration accord with the U.S. or significantly reduce poverty.

I would imagine President Fox will soon be consulting The Guide for the Mexican Migrant

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BSG Friday

BSG Season 3 premiers October 6th.

The hotly anticipated third season of Battlestar Galactica will premiere on Friday, October 6, SCI FI Channel has announced.

According to previous reports, the new season will kick off with a 2-hour episode, made up of two formerly stand-alone episodes: "Occupation" and "Precipice."

The story picks up several months after the conclusion of Season Two, revealing that the Cylons have occupied the rough Colonial settlement on New Caprica. While some live with and even cooperate with the Cylons, others have started an insurgency against them.

Meanwhile, having fled the planet when the Cylons arrived, the Battlestars Galactica and Pegasus plan to return and rescue the last remnants of their civilization.

As Wordsmith so aptly pointed out, no BSG Friday posting would be complete without an obligatory Lee Adama picture.

ENJOY!

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"The Big Myth"

No...not the Plamegate Affair, but another "Big Lie":

A week ago, last Tuesday, I happened to catch Michael Medved in a debate with guest Ruth Rosen. Here are her credentials:

Historian and journalist Ruth Rosen, a former columnist for the Los Angeles Times and the San Francisco Chronicle, teaches at the University of California, Berkeley, and is a senior fellow at the Longview Institute. A new edition of her most recent book, The World Split Open: How the Modern Women's Movement Changed America (Penguin, 2001), will be published with an updated epilogue in 2007.

She wrote the following article, which Medved took her to task on. Actually, he raked her over the coals and made her look intellectually foolish. Well...at least she was polite. You can listen to his interview here. Thank goodness for Townhall.com. I miss a lot of programs and it is nice to be able to re-listen to some of the best in talk radio. I implore people to go listen to the interview. Aside from him getting a bit excitable (Rosen took his exasperation as his shouting at her- he was not; I think she was just looking for an easy exit), it shows Medved at his best; and a university professor who clearly wrote an influential piece on a matter in which she is pathetically ill-informed.

Published on Wednesday, August 16, 2006

Oliver Stone, 9/11, and the Big Lie
by Ruth Rosen

When World Trade Center ended, I left the theater tense, my muscles aching. The superb directing and acting, coupled with still hardly imaginable scenes of death and destruction, had sent painful muscle spasms up my back, evoked tears, and left me, yet again, with searing and indelible images of that hellish morning.

I felt disoriented in the bright sunlight of a Northern Californian afternoon. As my mind regained its critical faculties, however, another kind of shock set in. I suddenly realized that Oliver Stone's movie reinforces the Big Lie -- endlessly repeated by Dick Cheney, echoed and amplified by the right-wing media -- that 9/11 was somehow linked to Iraq or supported by Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.

Ok...now this is one of those "big lies" that the mainstream media pushes....kind of like the 16 words in the President's State of the Union Address. I have never been led to believe that Iraq/Saddam attacked us on 9/11 by the Bush Administration. And yet, this is what many of the critics keep telling us.

With a subtle touch, Stone shows us people all over the planet horrified by television images of the airplanes crashing into the towers. He reminds us that the people of the world expressed an outpouring of sympathy (since been squandered by the Bush administration).

Hmm....I also recall the cheering in the streets and the Osama T-shirts; and people who were sympathetic on the surface, but underneath, snickering that America finally received a "bloodied nose" in experiencing some of the harsh violence that happens in other parts of the world. Michael Medved also recently wrote a column on "Anti-Americanism", which has been around long before the Bush Administration took office, and touches upon the envy felt by others in the world.

Meanwhile, Stone introduces us to one ex-Marine who feels called by God to help rescue those buried alive. He gets his hair cut short, puts on his old uniform, and with all the authority of a former staff sergeant, does what he knows best -- uses his military skills to save people's lives. Determined and angry, he insists that we must avenge this horrendous attack.

We also watch a group of Wisconsin policemen viewing the terrorist attacks on television. One screams out, "The bastards!" Stone, in other words, captures the desire for revenge already in the air.

And yet, in none of these profoundly moving scenes is there even a mention of who might have committed this atrocity. Neither the name al-Qaeda, nor Osama Bin Laden, is so much as whispered.

You might say, "But everyone knows it was al-Qaeda."

The problem here, is that Rosen jumps ahead of herself to her own agenda and pet peeve. The movie is recreating history unfolding, and at the point in time, after the 2nd plane hit, we knew we were under attack, and we wanted to pay back those responsible for it.

And you'd be right, but do most Americans really know just who those terrorists were or that they had no connection to Iraq -- that not a single one of them even came from that country?

Okay...15 out of the 19 villains on 9/11 came from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. What's her point? Abdul Rahman Yasin, involved in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, is Iraqi. Al Qaeda operatives come from many nationalities, training outside of their native countries.

It doesn't sound very important until you realize that various polls over the last five years have reported from 20% to 50% of Americans still believe Iraqis were on those planes. (They were not.) As of early 2005, according to a Harris poll, 47% of Americans were convinced that Saddam Hussein actually helped plan the attack and supported the hijackers. And in February, 2006, according to a unique Zogby poll of American troops serving in Iraq, "85% said the U.S. mission is mainly ‘to retaliate for Saddam's role in the 9-11 attacks'; 77% said they also believe the main or a major reason for the war was ‘to stop Saddam from protecting al Qaeda in Iraq.'"

Many of these pollings are bogus; and Zogby has become rather partisan in recent times (remember his polling during Election 2004?)- something that Michael Medved also points out. I'm too lazy to dig up old links; but remember: Google is your best friend (well....sorta).

The Big Lie, first coined by Adolf Hitler in his 1925 autobiography Mein Kampf,was made famous by Joseph Goebbels, propaganda minister for the Third Reich. The idea was simple enough: Tell a whopper (the larger the better) often enough and most people will come to accept it as the truth.

Uh yeah...kinda like how the Left has repeated the mantra-phrase "Iraq and Saddam had nothing to do with 9/11" so often enough, that it's misled the general public into the false belief that this Administration has ever claimed that Saddam was responsible for 9/11. This is one of those insidious lies.

During World War II, the predecessor of the CIA, the Office of Strategic Services, described how the Germans used the Big Lie: "[They] never allow the public to cool off; never admit a fault or wrong; never concede that there may be some good in your enemy; never leave room for alternatives; never accept blame; concentrate on one enemy at a time and blame him for everything that goes wrong; people will believe a big lie sooner than a little one; and if you repeat it frequently enough people will sooner or later believe it."

Yup. That pretty well sums up the liberal lamestream and agenda-driven, Bush-hating propagandistic media. Whatever happens in the world- must be Bush's fault.

This is, in fact, just what the Bush administration has been doing ever since 9/11. As a result, in 2005, an ABC/Washington Post poll found that 56% of Americans still thought Iraq had possessed weapons of mass destruction "shortly before the war," and 60% still believed Iraq had provided "direct support" to al-Qaeda prior to the war.

I see part of the problem as being the mainstream media misreporting and misrepresenting what the Bush Administration's statements and positions are. The other part may be that those being polled are actually a bit better informed than the dinosaur media and liberal professors who read from it. Intellectuals such as Professor Rosen have never heard of such things as the "Saddam documents", or read Stephen Hayes pieces, to know that some of us are several steps ahead of them.

In June 2006, Fox News ran a story once again dramatizing the supposed links between 9/11 and Iraq. And, as recently as July, 2006, a Harris poll found that 64% of those polled "say it is true that Saddam Hussein had strong links to Al Qaeda."

*Yawn*

The Bush administration's Big Lie has worked very well. Dick Cheney, the point man on this particular lie, has repeated it year after year. In a similar way, George Bush has repeatedly explained his 2003 invasion of Iraq, which had nothing whatsoever to do with 9/11, by insisting that we must fight terrorists in that country so that we don't have to fight them here. (It turned out to be something of a self-fulfilling prophesy.)

One of the things that Michael Medved did on-air, was corner Rosen to cite him specific examples rather than vague references and innuendos. She could not. She knew she was coming on a right-wing talk show to defend her article, and she did not have one specific example of where Vice President Cheney mispoke or told a lie. A caller brought up Cheney appearances on Meet the Press; often cited by those on the Left. What was brilliant, was during the commercial breaks, Medved dug up transcripts of the interviews Cheney gave in 2001 and 2003 with Tim Russert, and just like President Bush's 2003 SotU Address, what was actually said, and what the Bush-haters want to believe was said, are two different things.

What is so remarkably insidious, is the NYTimes will misrepresent what President Bush said; then others will pick up on it; and pretty soon a whole mythology is developed around something that never took place; but everyone believes it did, because they all end up citing from each other, never examining the actual source. The perception, however far from the truth, becomes "Bush lied". Or, for those on the Left who do examine and probe deeper, the excuse becomes, "It's cleverly worded, so as to cover themselves." Why can't they just flat-out admit, that something alleged to have been said, never was said?

Neither these, nor so many other administration statements had a shred of truth to them.

"not a shred" is pretty bold and sweeping. It would be nice to be given specific citations- and not "gotcha" moments of mistatements, but real, honest-to-goodness deliberate bold-faced lies!

Even the President, who repeatedly linked Saddam Hussein to the terrorist organization behind the September 11th attacks, admitted on September 18, 2003 that there was no evidence the deposed Iraqi dictator had had a hand in them.

One of the most frustrating things when arguing with those on the Left of this argument, is that so many of them can't seem to distinguish the difference between "Saddam and 9/11= no direct causal link" and "Iraq and al Qaeda= evidence of links". To what degree of operational links is not fully known. But believing there are links between al Qaeda and Iraq does not mean the same thing as Saddam masterminded or had a hand in bringing about 9/11. If liberals are such airheads as to confuse and conflate the two, that's their problem. I just don't get what is so hard to understand. I have never once felt misled about this war and the several cases made for going to war- which was more than just the w(s)md (weapons of mass destruction).

One of the dishonest arguments from some on the Left who believed along with the many of us that Saddam had wmd capabilities; and yet were still strongly against The War. And now they use the argument "no wmds" as a justification that they were right in opposing the war. That's dishonest since even if the mass stockpiles were there and Saddam unleashed chemical and biological weapons on our troops during the War, these peace fascists still would not have endorsed justification for war.

But that didn't stopped the Vice President from endlessly repeating the Big Lie that justifies this country's invasion and occupation of Iraq.

Again, Medved handled this beautifully by going through the transcripts. Here is an excerpt of what he wrote on his blog at Townhall.com:

I played her an excerpt of the President's Monday press conference in which he specifically, unequivocally acknowledged that Sadam had nothing to do with the 9/11 attacks so she quickly retreated to claiming that it was Cheney, not Bush, who promoted this "Big Lie" (which she explicitly compared to the techniques of Goebbels and Hitler). Amazingly, this "distinguished academic" provided not a single citation -- not one! -- for her insistence that Cheney "often" misled people about Iraq's involvement in attacking the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. A caller, hoping to rescue Professor Rosen, mentioned a 2005 appearance by Cheney on "Meet the Press." While the Vice President certainly discussed Iraq's long-standing support for terrorism, and many contacts with Al Qaeda (also cited by the bi-partisan 9/11 Commission) he never came close to claiming Saddam's direct involvement in 9/11--- saying twice, "We just don't know."

I'm cutting down some of the other whiny drivel in Ruthen's article. Here's the conclusion:

That evening, I wrote the words that should have appeared in the postscript: "Government officials later confirmed that the organization which plotted the destruction of the World Trade Center was al-Qaeda, led by Osama Bin Laden, a Saudi Arabian, and Ayman al-Zawahiri, an Egyptian. Nineteen men executed the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Fifteen of them came from Saudi Arabia; the remaining four from Egypt, The United Arab Emirates, and Lebanon. None of them came from Iraq."

What happened to Oliver Stone, the filmmaker who gave us Platoon, Born on the Fourth of July, Wall Street, and Nixon? Despite his conspiratorial foibles in JFK, he has long been a movie-maker dedicated to raising tough questions about our American past. Where did his commitment to opening historical subjects for debate go?

You mean: "Why isn't this film laced with his Leftist viewpoints", don't you?

He was right not to politicize this film, but truth-telling required that he identify the terrorists. Truth-telling would have resulted in his helping to dismantle the Big Lie that has resulted in the deaths of so many American soldiers and Iraqi civilians, and has plunged Iraq into chaos and civil war.

In other words, "Why didn't he politicize the hell out of it?", is what you'd really like to ask.

How could Oliver Stone leave it up to viewers to discover for themselves who committed this crime? And how could he leave the audience with the impression that there was a connection, as Dick Cheney has never stopped saying, between 9/11 and Iraq?

This is the tragic failure of Stone's World Trade Center. It undercuts the historical value of the film and reinforces the Biggest Lie of the last five years, still believed by far too many Americans -- that in Iraq, we are fighting those who attacked our country.

*Groan*....please go listen to Michael Medved's interview and his reading of the Meet the Press transcripts. It is quite entertaining. Unless, that is, if you are a liberal moonbat kool-aid-drinker.

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Plame-out!

(Psst...click here to out the source)

Also check out Flopping Aces' inditement.

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Johnny Depp = Captain HighPants?

That sick freak, Captain HighPants (yes, I've been paying attention to Glenn Beck) described himself as a "dashing prince" and thought that Johnny Depp should play him in a film about JonBenet Ramsey's murder.

First of all, dashing prince? I think not. Have you seen the picture on one of the scandal rags of Captain HighPants in the '80's? Waaaaay too much black eyeliner. Startling, to say the least.

And I really don't think Depp would go from being known as Captain Jack Sparrow to Captain HighPants.

The DNA didn't match, this guy got a free ride over from Thailand, he still faces child pern charges in CA...and he was teaching children?

Lock this freak up...in Neverland for crying out loud, but get him out of society!

(Cross posted at Fiddle Dee Dee)

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Hit and Run in San Fran

First there were Asians on the Plane...now watch as "Asians" run over San Francisco...

SAN FRANCISCO -- As many as 14 people were injured this afternoon by a motorist who drove around San Francisco running them down before he was arrested, authorities said.

Seven of those injured were in critical condition, police and firefighters said.

Authorities have identified the man who was arrested as Omeed Aziz Popal, who has addresses in Ceres (Stanislaus County) and Fremont.

Authorities said they believe Popal was the same driver who ran over and killed a 55-year-old man walking in a bicycle lane in Fremont, at Fremont Boulevard near Ferry Lane, just after noon. That crash scene is just blocks from Popal's Fremont address, where he had most recently been living.

Popal was arrested at a Walgreens at Spruce and California streets.

Read the rest of the story HERE

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Today's Vent...

Michelle Malkin takes on the MSN's non-response to controversy arising from the use ambulances by terrorist oganizations.

Enjoy!

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Nasrallah says, "Oops...did we do that?"

In wake of the cease-fire between Israel and Hezbollah, there have been many who have perceived agreement to the cease-fire as a kind of defeat for Israel. Certainly, my own concern is that a cease-fire only returns us back to the status-quo, giving Hezbollah time to regroup and reinvigorate itself, for the next battle.

One thing that drives me ill, is how Israel was accused of reacting with a "disproportionate response"; how popular "world" opinion that might have been sympathetic at first, turned against them, and pressured Israel into this cease-fire. And when Israel apparently caved to the political will of the world, the world declares it a victory for Hezbollah.

At least that's my perception, if not the actual reality. I admit I haven't followed every single news and blog story on the conflict. (What do y'all make of the Palestinian boy band (s)hit single, "Hawk of Lebanon"? Go to Newsbusters for the MP3 of the smash anti-semitic single, praising Hezbollah, Nasrallah, and Allah).

Not everyone has seen this month-long war as a defeat for Israel. But the last person I expected to hear label the abduction of 2 Israeli soldiers as "a mistake" even as he declares victory, is ol' Nasrallah himself.

BEIRUT, Lebanon (CNN) -- Had Hezbollah known how Israel was going to respond, the group would not have captured two Israeli soldiers last month in northern Israel, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said Sunday.

I've often wondered, even knowing that bin Laden wanted this war with the West, if he has ever thought, "Maybe the U.S. isn't such a paper tiger after all...perhaps bringing down the Towers wasn't such a great idea." After all, he cannot possibly be living up the high life in a cave...nor is he enjoying the 72 virgins promised for martyrdom.

If someone had said July 11 that there was "a one percent possibility" Israel's military response would be as extensive as it turned out to be, "I would say no, I would not have entered this for many reasons -- military, social, political, economic," said Nasrallah, speaking in Arabic.

Not even the families of Lebanese prisoners held by Israel would have wanted to bring on such action, he said.

"If there was a one percent possibility, we would not have done that. We would not have done any capturing."

"One percent" probability?! Did the possibility not even come close to entering their "sheet-for-brains" turban-wearing heads? The blood of innocents is on their hands.

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Another 'story' from Reuters

GAZA (Reuters) - The missile struck the "P" of the bright red "PRESS" sign on the roof of the armor-plated Reuters car as Gaza cameraman Fadel Shana hurried to film an Israeli raid.

Shana saw only a sheet of flame and the doors of the vehicle fly open.

He regained consciousness in hospital on Sunday, hours after the missile strike, with shrapnel wounds in his right hand and leg. He could not hear in one ear because of the explosion. His eyes were swollen and red.

Let's look at some of the pictures that accompanied this story. Here is an AP photo of Fadel Shana/Shama'a arriving at the hospital.

I'm curious about the rather unaffected appearance of this individual who claims to have been a victim of this alleged attack. Not one inch of him or his clothing looks singed from the sheet of flames he described. Looking more closely, his eyes and the area around his eyes do not appear to show any type of burn or laceration that would cause the swelling described in the Reuters dispatch. Another detail that caught my attention: This cameraman, who has been bloodied and exposed to a sheet of flames from a missle attack, has remarkably managed to keep his t-shirt an immaculate shade of pure white.

Another picture of the Fadel Shana/Shama'a in the emergency room:

Notice the copious amount of blood on his right hand and the pristine white t-shirt. Now look again at the above picture of Fadel.......the bloody limb seems quite clean. Hmmm..shades of Pallywood?

Here is a photo of the Press vehicle after sustaining two missle strikes according to the caption provided by Reuters:

Residents look at a press armored jeep after it was hit, according to witnesses, by an Israeli missile strike in Gaza City early Sunday Aug. 27, 2006. Two missiles fired by Israeli aircraft early Sunday morning hit an armored car belonging to the Reuters news agency, injuring two television cameramen and three bystanders, Palestinian witnesses and hospital officials said. According to witnesses, the crew arrived to the Shajaiyeh neighborhood of Gaza cover a nearby Israeli raid when the missiles hit the car. The Israeli army said it was checking the report.(AP Photo/Hatem Moussa)

Here is another view of the damage to the same press vehicle:

Compare the above pictures to this picture, curtesy of Zombie, depicting the remains a of car after a missle strike in Gaza:

Hmmm..I'm no ordinance expert by any means, but one can't help to notice the startling difference in amount of damage sustained between the two vehicles, both of which were allegedly struck by missles.

Naturally, Reuters is demanding a full investigation of what they label an "outrageous targeting" of their vehicle.

Michael Lawrence, Reuters Managing Editor for Europe, Middle East and Africa, said: "We are deeply concerned at this attack on a clearly marked press vehicle as journalists were doing their job to report the story from Gaza.

"We understand that the army says it had no intention of targeting the media, but this incident is totally unacceptable and we urge a careful examination of how this happened to ensure there is no repeat."

The Foreign Press Association described the attack as "outrageous targeting" of the vehicle and rejected the army's "excuses." It also demanded a full and transparent investigation.

I'm not sure the truth Reuters is looking for will be to their liking regarding this incident.

The following bloggers are weighing in on this latest 'story' from Reuters:

LGF
Snapped Shot
My Pet Jawa
Powerline
Riehl Worldview

Comments? Questions? Leave me a message at MidnightBlue

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Connecticut Senate Seat a Four Way Race

The two best-known names in the race for one of Connecticut's Senate seats this year are Ned Lamont and Joe Lieberman. Lamont, of course, ousted Lieberman in this month's Democratic primary, and Dems are now crying foul because Lieberman is running as an independent.

The two lesser-known names are Republican Alan Schlesinger (whose much-improved website is here), and Green Party candidate Ralph Ferrucci (website here).

If you thought Lamont leaned further to the left than Lieberman, wait until you meet Ferrucci.

Ferrucci, a 34-year-old independent delivery truck driver who qualified last week to appear on the November ballot, said United Nations peacekeepers should immediately replace U.S. troops in Iraq.

Lamont, he said, only wants to pull front-line troops to the periphery.

"He supports a one-year leave date, send troops to Kuwait," Ferrucci said in a recent interview with The Associated Press. "Basically his plan is more redeployment and then bring them home."

Here's more on his platform:

Ferrucci said he believes voters will relate to his proposal for a single-payer, universal health care system. Since he is an independent driver for Pepperidge Farms, he has to buy his own health insurance. He currently has none.

Asked how much it will cost, he said, "I don't even know. I don't want to know."

Ferrucci's proposal calls for setting up a nonprofit agency to run a universal health system instead of the federal government. The program would be funded mostly by business taxes.

Ferrucci also wants a per-gallon cap on the profits oil companies receive from gasoline and home-heating oil sales. He said voters he has spoken with are very concerned about the economy and issues like fuel prices that make it difficult to make ends meet.

Frankly, I'm surprised Kos and his pals supported Lamont. Ferrucci sounds more like their cup of tea. But then, for all the nonsense you hear from the left about being against individuals with lots of money, it seems that only pols with wads of cash in their pockets are the ones who get the attention.

In my opinion, the few votes Ferrucci gets will siphon off those that might vote for Lamont, leaving the field more open for a win by Lieberman. I don't think Schlesinger has much of a chance...while Connecticut has a few Republican representatives in the House and a Republican governor, there has not been a Republican senator in years. I don't foresee that changing during this election; especially since the Connecticut Republicans can't seem to find a red-hot candidate.

Crossposted to Blogmeister USA

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Reason Number 4,586,801 why I'm not voting for ANY democrat candidate this Fall....

Pic Curtesy of Zombie

Russell Shaw over at Hufflepuff daydreams of a Democratic victory on election day brought to them by the mass murder expertise of a terrorist organization.

What if another terror attack just before this fall's elections could save many thousand-times the lives lost?

I start from the premise that there is already a substantial portion of the electorate that tends to vote GOP because they feel that Bush has "kept us safe," and that the Republicans do a better job combating terrorism.

If an attack occurred just before the elections, I have to think that at least a few of the voters who persist in this "Bush has kept us safe" thinking would realize the fallacy they have been under.

I am not proud of myself for even considering the notion that another terror attack that costs even one American life could ever be considered anything else but evil and hurtful. And I know that when I weigh the possibility that such an attack- that might, say, kill 100- would prevent hundreds of thousands of Americans from dying who otherwise would- I am exhibiting a calculating cold heart diametrically opposed to everything I stand for as a human being. A human being, who, just so you know, is opposed to most wars and to capital punishment.

But in light of the very real potential of the next two American elections to solidify our growing American persona as a warlike, polluter-friendly nation with repressive domestic tendencies and inadequate health care for so many tens of millions, let me ask you this. Even if only from the standpoint of a purely intellectual exercise in alternative future history:

If you knew us getting hit again would launch a chain of transformative, cascading events that would enable a better nation where millions who would have died will live longer, would such a calculus have any moral validity?

Why do I believe that most Democrats on the Hill and those around the nation believe this philosophy? To read it in a public forum says much about the author - he has the guts to speak the truth about Democratic philosophy without hiding behind a false sense of patriotism. Democrats and Liberals hate America as it is and would welcome, if not encourage, a violent event to be the catalyst of change - hoping it would be in their favor.

Posted by: Skye at 10:59 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Fox News Journalists Freed

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - Militants freed two Fox News journalists on Sunday in theGaza Strip, ending a nearly two week hostage drama in which one of the former captives said they were forced at gunpoint to make statements, including that they had converted to Islam.

Correspondent Steve Centanni, 60, of Washington, D.C., and cameraman Olaf Wiig, 36, of New Zealand, were dropped off at Gaza City's Beach Hotel by Palestinian security officials. A tearful Centanni briefly embraced a Palestinian journalist in the lobby, then rushed upstairs with Wiig behind him.

So, these victims were forced to convert to Islam - a foreshadow for the rest of us?

The Palestinian government said they knew who kidnapped these Fox journalists before stating that they did not know the identity of the kidnappers.

Of course, the obligatory coerced anti-western statements made by Wiig were video taped by the kidnappers. I wonder how closely the statements match DNC talking points?

Read the rest of this bewildering story HERE

UPDATE
This didn't take long - Kidnapped Fox Journalists Convert to Islam on Video brought to you from the vaults of the DU. It's all a conspiracy by the neocons and their Zionist masters - Doh!

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2 Fine Young Bloggers You Should Know About (a 9/11 Tribute Alert)

A Soldier's Perspective reported on two fine bloggers who are participating in the 9/11 Tribute. They are 5 and 6 years old! Noah and Ben. Read their entry, here.

As the 5th anniversary of 9/11 looms on the horizon, we are approaching the goal of achieving 2,296 blogposts per each victim of that terrible day.

For those unaware, I will be posting at Sparks from the Anvil, about David Gamboa-Brandhorst, the 3 year old son of a man who was my boss. David and his two fathers were aboard the 2nd airliner that was crashed into the World Trade Center.

If you have not yet signed up, you are needed.

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