August 11, 2006

Qana - The Director's Cut

Keep Filming..Better images can be shot....


Is there no depth of depravity that hezbollah is not willing to traverse? Can anyone doubt the stage handling of this incident at Qana? Will the media start asking pointed questions regarding the veracity of the stories being sold to them from Lebanon? Well, I think we all know the answer to question number 3...

This is absolutely despicable.

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BSG FRIDAY

Season 3.0 Promo Picture:

s640x4801.jpg

A few things come to mind when viewing this picture:

The Anders/Dualla faction is NOT present..YES!!!

Lee (Apollo) seems to have lost his beer gut and gained a tan...when you tan in space does anyone know?

Why is Kara (Starbuck) pictured sitting on the Cylon & Friends side?? She should be sitting in Lee's lap...

Is the former Madame President not wearing anything under her suit jacket?

I discovered an additional picture from the upcoming Season 3.0 and found it contained a shocking spoiler:

jsb_small.jpg

I have a nagging suspicion that Reuters might have had a hand in this...What do you think?

Is It October Yet?

The usual political undercurrents lacing the plotlines of BSG look as though they will be turned up a notch in Season 3.0 based on the recent interview given by Ron French, a BSG Line Producer:

KTW: I understand the show is pretty political. What's the most risque episode you've been involved with?

RF: "Well, it's on cable so there's quite a bit of risque stuff (laughs). The subject matter, actually, is very political and it's amazing how much, especially when the Americans attacked Iraq, how much our story line began to follow that, even to the point of suicide bombers. [Ron Moore] did an interesting thing. He reversed the roles. The heros were the insurgents fighting against the Cylon attackers, which were essentially the American side of the Iraq war. And it's interesting because, if anything else, it opened up a lot of eyes as far as I was concerned, of everyone has a point in what they're doing, whether they're the insurgents or whether they're the attackers in the first place. I thought that was really good."

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Skye...an Ex-Donkey?

More like a DINO (Democrat In Name Only), than an Ex-Donkey.

When Gary kindly extended an invitation to me to guest blog during his hiatus, I was thankful for his invitation, and honored be included among this exceptional group of bloggers. All of you inspire me as I work to find my voice in the blogosphere.

Greetings from sunny Philadelphia!

Let me take a moment to introduce myself: I'm Skye, blogmistress of MidnightBlue, probably the only conservative leaning Democrat blogging in The City of Brotherly Love. I am frequently asked if I am 'really' a Democrat? The answer is: Yes. I carry my DNC membership card right behind my Vast Right Wing Conspiracy membership card. more...

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Allow Myself To IntroduceÂ….Myself

Hello, this is me!

I’m GroovyVic and I’m usually found at my blog, Fiddle Dee Dee. Gary asked if I’d be interested in guest blogging, so I said “What the heck?” It’s because of Gary that I’m here in Munuviana, and he was one of the first blogs I found way back when I started blogging.

Like Gary, I’m also an “ex-donkey,” although from OH, a state beset by its own political hoo-ha. I’m ashamed to say I voted for BillyJeff back in ’92. But to defend myself, this was right after I’d graduated from a “hotbed of liberalism” state university, therefore I was still in that Lib mindset.

DonÂ’t worry, by the 1996 elections I had shifted to the Right and cast my vote for Bob Dole.

What brought about the change? Well, for one, I graduated from college and I had to get a job. Not in my field of study, I might add. (I’m an English teacher; at least that’s what it says on my degree.) But I had to get out there and be an “adult,” and in the course of working several jobs through a temp agency, I got to see a lot of, shall I say, abuses of the system.

I witnessed this in rather gross amounts when I worked for a credit union. Without going into detail, I saw enough to make me embrace self-accountability and small government. That, and I could take pride in earning my own money; when I saw my name on that paycheck, I knew I’d worked hard for what I got (after I paid for the “privilege” of working in a PA city).

To clarify, I was born and raised in PA, but moved to OH two years ago because of my husbandÂ’s job. HeÂ’s in the PA National Guard, and we moved so that he could be closer to work. For security reasons IÂ’m not allowed to say anything more than Husband is a Guardsman. I could tell you more, but then IÂ’d have to, you know, shoot you, and I donÂ’t want to be doing any more of that!

Posted by: Groovyvic at 09:20 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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A Little Premature

(First, an introduction: I'm Pam, guestblogging while Gary recharges over the next couple of weeks. Many thanks to Gary for asking me to join the Ex-Donkey brigade.)

Hezbollah is now declaring victory over Israel:

In the latest video aired on Al-Manar TV the terror group says it “defeated the invincible army” and “July-August 2006: Legend shattered.”

The new video clips show thousands of supporters waving Hizbullah and Lebanon flags.

These clips, which are aired between regularly-scheduled programs, include excerpts from Hassan Nasrallah speeches in which he had promised victory; similar videos were aired during the IDFÂ’s withdrawal from Lebanon in May 2000.

It seems that much like the PR machines of Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan, the Hezbollah PR machine never stops. (Of course, Paris and Lindsay don't have Reuters and other MSM bigwigs in their pockets.) I wonder how many flag wavers in the videos are there voluntarily?

There is the fact that a cease-fire has not been declared or agreed to by anyone yet. But Hezbollah isn't in the habit of letting little inconveniences like the truth get in the way. And if Israel is smart, it won't listen to the "international community" and will continue to pound upon Hezbollah until it is as ineffectual as a bowl of pudding.

Cease-fires in the past have been nothing but a pause on the march to the inevitiable. Hezbollah wants nothing but a wiping of Israel off the map. Israel needs to stand strong. Shame on those who stand by and wave their fingers at Israel like parents tsk-tsking an errant child.

Posted by: Pam Meister at 09:10 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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This Got My Goat!

Ace of Spades HQ brought this to the attention of the blogosphere a few days ago:


;font-family:sans-serif;">Iraq Still Manages to Shock

Listen to this story... by John Hendren

Morning Edition, August 7, 2006 · Sectarian strife continues to worsen in the Iraqi capital of Baghdad.

...the killing in Iraq is getting: shepherds in the rural western Baghdad neighborhood of Gazalea have recently been murdered, according to locals, for failing to diaper their goats....

Yes, you read that right. According to the audio:

The sexual tension is apparently so high in regions where sheiks take a draconian view of Sharia Law, that they feel the sight of naked goats poses an unacceptable temptation. They blame the goats.
Not only that, but at a grocery store in east Baghdad, the grocer and 3 others were shot to death and the grocery store firebombed because the grocer had "suggestively arranged his vegetables".

Have I mentioned how much I love my country, lately? Not that we don't get our own "news of the weird" over here...but, God bless America and our *ahem* liberal attitudes and acceptance of naked goats and erotic vegetables!


viagraveggiesd.jpg


Posted by: Wordsmith at 03:00 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Ex-Donkey is Wordsmith!

Well...no, not really.

I thought I should introduce myself, before I start posting my droppings here. I run a very low-key blog called Sparks from the Anvil, started in June of 2005.

I am quite honored to have been invited to guest-blog here. You see, Gary is my "blogfather". A term he coined when I let it be known that stumbling upon his blog sometime in early 2005 is what helped inspire me into the notion of blogging.

Blogs were fairly new to me, and I only began hearing about them in 2004. I considered myself an idiot with opinions that no one would care to read about. Then, when I read Gary's "FAQ about me" on his old blogsnot, and read his posts, I thought, "Hey! That's just like me....I can do this!" Of course, I may consider myself an idiot, but I certainly don't think of Gary as one.

One of the things I love about Gary's posts is that he is rarely longwinded. So I can pop on by, read his new posts in less than a minute, and feel like he just crammed an undigestable full course meal into a concise, luncheable.

The other thing that has always stood out is his humor.

I never quite knew what Gary thought of me. He rarely seems to respond to comments in his comment sections, and I don't believe he's ever commented over at my place; for all I knew, he probably thought I was some silly fanboy, stalking him.

So him contacting me to guest-blog is like George Bush asking me to sit-in at the Oval Office....and take care of his dog, Barney.

Gary, have fun relaxing! And thanks for letting us blog-sit for you. I promise not to break anything or steal any oval office pens.

Posted by: Wordsmith at 02:19 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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August 10, 2006

The Ex-Donkey "Goes Dark"

Eighteen months ago, I started a little site on Blogger that became a daily distraction from the routine and the mundane. Almost one year ago, I moved the blog over to the world of MuNu and the site got a much-needed makeover.

Maintaining this blog has become a labor of love but in order to continue it with the same level of vigor and enthusiasm I need a much-deserved vacation. More than a vacation, I need a break. So I'm taking one. As they say on my favorite show, "24", I am "going dark" - severing all communication for several weeks.

To be clear (to those who like to speculate about such things) I am NOT entering a rehab program, checking myself into a mental health clinic, going under the knife for plastic surgery, being given a new identity through the witness relocation program or any such other odd venture. I'm just taking some time off to recharge my batteries and maybe do a few things that I've been meaning to do for some time.

Fortunately, however, I have five guest bloggers who have graciously agreed to jointly take the conn in my absence (and help keep the site from plummeting to the bowels of the TTLB Ecosystem). Enjoy their stuff.

Everyone have a great August, and I'll see you all again on the other side of Labor Day! Ciao!

Posted by: Gary at 12:00 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Thankfully, The People In Charge Do "Get It"

By now, everybody has heard about the twarted terrorist plot to blow up as many as twenty airliners bound for the U.S.

These are serious times. We need serious people protecting this country's citizens. We need people who grasp what it is that we are fighting. Pam at Blogmeister USA spells it out for Left-wing fruitcakes who still don't get it:

"For those of you who have difficulty in understanding what's going on, let's make it clear: Hardline Muslims want to kill us. They don't care if you voted for Al Gore in 2000 or John Kerry in 2004. They don't care if you live in a blue state instead of a red state. They don't care if you want Joe Lieberman to lose his independent run for the senate in November. They want to kill so many Americans that we will give up fighting in the Middle East. Their ultimate goal is to spread radical Islam to all four corners of the Earth. And if you don't end up converting to Islam, you are to understand that you will be less than a second-class citizen." [emphasis Pam's]
I wonder how many people are sitting in front of the TV or their computers this morning, taking in this news and thinking "Geez, I'd feel a whole lot better if the Democrats were in charge"?

Posted by: Gary at 10:23 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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August 09, 2006

Joe And Me

I'd like to step back a bit with some personal reflections about Joe Lieberman. Joe and I go way back. No, we've never actually met. But my own political history is very much tied to his career as CT's Senator over the last 18 years. more...

Posted by: Gary at 03:00 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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McGovern II: Democrats Misread The Political Landscape

In 2002, Democrats lost the Senate because they were weak on national security. In 2004, Democrats lost more seats and President Bush was re-elected because they were weak on national security. Third time's the charm, right?

The Left-roots that have begun to assert greater control over the party's direction now think they have Republicans right where they want them. They're flexing their muscles this morning as they pursue a path that the GOP should be thanking its lucky stars over. John McIntyre at RealClearPolitics explains:

Anti-war Democrats and much of the mainstream media continue to confuse anti-war with anti-lose. The incessant commentary that 2/3rd of the country is against the war completely misreads the American public, as much of the negativity towards the war isn't because we are fighting, but rather a growing feeling that we are not fighting to win or not fighting smart.

Democrats went down this road in the late 1960's with Vietnam and they are still carrying the baggage from that leftward turn. Lamont's win is a big step back to that losing formula. During the height of the "progressive" revolt against the war in Vietnam, Americans voted 57% for Nixon and Wallace in 1968, followed by a whopping 60% for Nixon in 1972 against the avowededly anti-war McGovern.

These Democratic wipeouts in '68 and '72 occurred while tens of thousands of Americans were dying in Southeast Asia. Today, as much as our media and the left want to make Iraq a Vietnam-like quagmire, casualties are running at a tenth of what they were in Vietnam. The other big difference from Vietnam is 9/11. America was attacked 5 years ago, something many on the left seem to forget, but the voters have not. The comments that Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11 are irrelevant as Americans understand, rightly or wrongly, that we are in Iraq because of what happened on September 11. Only conspiracy-minded leftists believe otherwise. Just ask yourself if the U.S. would have invaded Iraq had 9/11 not happened.

The "Bring Them Home, Bring Them Home" chant may win congressional districts in San Francisco and Seattle as well as Democratic primaries in solidly blue states, but it is not a serious policy. Just what does "Bring Them Home" really mean? Bring them home and Ahmadinejad suddenly gives up his pursuit of nukes, Al-Qaeda and Hezbollah domesticate and forego terror? Leftists, pacifists and Pat Buchanan isolationists may be that naïve, but the majority of Americans are not.

The civilized world is at a very dangerous moment. There is no question that the Bush administration has made a bucket load of mistakes in fighting this war, but they (and thus America) are fighting. Bring them home is the equivalent of "we quit, we give up." Americans aren't quitters and the majority of Connecticut's citizens aren't quitters, as Lieberman's likely win in November will prove.

A couple of months ago, I guesstimated that this fall the Republicans - while maintaining control of Congress - would probably lose a handful of Congressional seats and incur a net loss of as many as three Senate seats. After the events of last evening, I'm starting to revise those estimations.

If the focus of this election hinges on national security, than the House is likely to maintain its status quo and the GOP could be on their way to a bullet-proof majority in the Senate.

Posted by: Gary at 01:45 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Lieberman Submits More Than Twice As Many Signatures As Needed

To get your name on the November ballot, a candidate needs 7,500 signatures on a petition. Lieberman has 18,000. Even if you were able to somehow disqualify half of them, he still has what he needs to run as the candidate for "Connecticut For Lieberman":

The new party allows him to secure a position higher on the ballot than he would have if he petitioned as an individual. If enough signatures are approved, as expected, it set up a three-way race with Greenwich businessman Ned Lamont, who won the Democratic primary with about 52 percent of the vote to Lieberman's 48 percent, and Republican Alan Schlesinger.

He will be fifth on the ballot under the new party, rather than eighth or ninth.

Here we go.

Posted by: Gary at 12:01 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Full Moon Madness

CURRENT MOON

moon phase info

The current phase of the moon in CT today is FULL. Coincidence? I think not.

This helps explain a lot about last night's election results. ;-)

Posted by: Gary at 09:40 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Kos To Senate Dems: Kneel Before Zod!

Markos Moulitsas Zuniga (aka "Kos"), the Grand Poobah of the nutroots, has issued his latest decree to Joe Lieberman's Democrat colleagues:

Here's what we all need to do the next few days:

1. Push Harry Reid to strip Lieberman of all committee assignments.

2. Let people know what a sore loser Lieberman is.

3. Get all Democrats -- including Bill Clinton -- to publicly back Ned Lamont.

4. Get the Democratic interest groups who backed Lieberman to switch allegiances in the general.

The DSCC and the DCCC will have to deal with the fact that this race will continue to suck oxygen from great pickup opportunities. And I won't apologize for that, because as a proud Democrat, I will help in whatever way I can the Democratic nominee from the Great State of Connecticut.

Translation: You have your marching orders! You will all help me squander any and all electoral opportunities for this November or be destroyed.

Can this get any better? The DSCC and DCCC must kiss Kos' ring and pay homage to the new king? Watching who among the party leadership will submit will be more fun than any Republican could have hoped for this fall.

Posted by: Gary at 09:21 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Wasting No Time...

The RNC has been just itching to begin it's national fall campaign, on the theme that today's Democrats are weak. Weak and wrong. Defeatocrats, pure and simple. In sixty years they go from FDR to...Ned Lamont?

The confetti hasn't even been swept up at Lamont's campaign headquarters yet and the GOP has already turned up the heat. This theme is not aimed at Republicans. No Republican believes for a minute that Democrats can be trusted with national security. No, this campaign will be aimed at Democrat-leaning independents and the "Lieberman Democrats" who are dismayed at the direction their party has taken.

The folks at the RNC haven't been sitting idly by wondering what would happen last night. They knew. They could feel it coming. And they're prepared. This election isn't going to be a referendum on President Bush. He's not on the ballot. He never will be again.

It will be a referendum on the state of the Democrat party. Leftist Democrats won't flinch. They'll wear it as a badge of honor. Playing right into the strategy.

Posted by: Gary at 08:45 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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August 08, 2006

Joe Lieberman - Ex-Donkey

Well, I can't say as I'm surprised. The armies of the Left have - as Kos would say - crashed the gates and siezed control (after twenty previous tries, not bad). The only group who will be happier with tonight's result will be Republicans.

I wouldn't give a squirt of piss to be a Democrat Presidential aspirant now. They have some hard choices to make. The line has been drawn. Well, Sen. Clinton? What say you? How about you Sen. Biden? Gov. Richardson? Umm, How about you Sen. Kerry? Oh never mind.

The DNC was hoping for a close Lieberman victory. They got a close Lamont victory. And Senator Lieberman will now go the independent route. What choice does he have? Retire after having been pushed aside? He wasn't welcome as a Senator. Do think he'd be any more welcome in that party as a private citizen, even if he were to back Lamont? Fat chance.

The Left finally has their pound of flesh. And they'll feast on it for the next three months. They'll get confident, even cocky. And in the end, they'll overplay their hands (as they always do) and drag their party over the cliff.

And when all is said and done, Lieberman will still be a U.S. Senator from CT and the Democrats will have blown an opportunity to keep a safe seat in the (D) column.

Had Lieberman won, it would only have prolonged the inevitable. The inevitable is now here. And the speed at which we are witnessing the disintegration of a once great party has just slammed into fourth gear. How this plays out will be both sad and entertaining.

So, Joe. From one ex-donkey to another, allow me to say "welcome aboard".

Posted by: Gary at 10:28 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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POLL UPDATE

I've update the Lieberman-Lamont race poll in the sidebar to account for how close this will or won't be. Go vote now!

This stays on top all day - scroll for updates.

Posted by: Gary at 05:00 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Heading Out...

...to see "Clerks 2" before it leaves the theaters.

clerks2.bmp

Gonna check back on election results later tonight.

I'll leave you with this funny bit - when politics gets ugly. Enjoy!

h/t: HotAir.com

Posted by: Gary at 04:56 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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A Photo To Consider

seniority Lieberman.jpg

A valid point, indeed.

Posted by: Gary at 03:50 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Lieberman's Campaign Site Hacked

By whom? Who knows? But the fact that their email system is tied to the server (and emails are a big part of the GOTV process) makes it a bigger deal than you'd think.

Lamont supporters, of course, are screaming that it's a Rovian-esque deception on Lieberman's part. But, honestly, is there anyone who can deny that the Nedheads aren't capable of this themselves?

Whatever. Just another goofy part of this whole election.

Popcorn, please.

Posted by: Gary at 03:21 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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