Thursday, September 22, 2005

I'm a libertarian. Of course.

You are a

Social Liberal
(61% permissive)

and an...

Economic Conservative
(75% permissive)

You are best described as a:

Libertarian




Link: The Politics Test on Ok Cupid

Sunday, September 11, 2005

So much to catch up on.

This should be first. My father passed away on August 28th, 2005. He was a good man. He was the best man I ever knew, with a sense of nobility that most people can never attain.

He was sick for a couple of months, so I was given the gift of being able to say goodbye. Not everyone is given that gift. If you haven't done so already, make sure you let your loved ones know that you love them.

-John

Friday, September 02, 2005

About Katrina...

I just sent this in to the NYT, in reply to an editorial where they blamed Bush for a lack of response.

I'm not including the entire thing, but the bulk of it. I'm hoping that someone picks up on these ideas:

The New York Times addresses, briefly, the money that was “slashed” from the budget for New Orlean's levees. But the Times ommitted that the money was earmarked for a study on the levees- a typical government study- that wouldn't have been completed until 2006, and would not have changed a damn thing.


There are things that can be done, but those things will take fortitude and the backing of such institutions such as the New York Times.


  • The city needs to be completely evacuated, and martial law needs to be instituted today. Anyone found looting should be shot. Its that simple. We need to ensure that the residents of New Orleans have something to go back to, and that lawlessness is stopped overnight. Moreover, we need to make it possible for the rescue crews to do their job, without threat of harm from predators.


  • No one, except authorized rescue personel, should be allowed back into New Orleans. The perimiter should be patrolled by the National Guard.


  • Every available gas-powered water pump that can be donated should to be shipped to New Orleans, today. Ten pumps will not make a dent. A hundred pumps won't make a difference. But once the levees are repaired, a thousand pumps or five thousand pumps arrayed around the levee, and manned by volunteers, could speed up the rate at which the city would be emptied of water.


  • We need to move the population of New Orleans out of the New Orleans area. Those people who can visit relatives should be transported there immediately. We need to spread out the population of New Orleans to areas that can help them, insteead of trying to ship food and shelter to New Orleans. Names of residents should be taken, and each family assigned an e-mail address with the New Orleans domain, so that they can receive updates on the status of the city. Then we can resettle them if and when New Orleans is emptied of water.


  • A public works project should be instituted without the instrusion of unions into the process. Residents capable of work, should be put to work. Their first projects should be to clean and inspect those public buildings needed for basic services, like water and electricity. Then government buildings can be rebuilt and repaired, so they will be in place as the residents return. Schools can be repaired, so kids will be out of the way as their parents deal with rebuilding.


  • Finally, every effort should be made to build up the floor of New Orleans. Essential buildings should be raised far above sea level, and a few large shelters should be built for the next emergency that are independent of outside electrical and plumbing needs.


There is enough space to criticise a lot of people at the end of this tragedy, starting with those people who choose to live below sea level in an area smack dab in hurricane territory. But the New York Times should focus on helping people now, not the casual placing of blame on their least favorite politician.

Friday, August 19, 2005

Scott Randolph writes one heckuva post

If you read no other post this week, go to ScottRandolph.net. Scott explains what it is that soldiers do, and a little bit about the concept of what it means to dishonour the fallen.
Soldiers know, when they enlist, that it is entirely possible they will be shipped out and never come home. It’s part of the job. The fact that people still walk in to recruiters’ offices and sign that piece of paper make them heroes. To imply that they are simple kids who didn’t know what they were getting into, or even worse, that they died for no reason, or an immoral reason, does a horrible thing. It strips their sacrifice of the honor that it deserves. Even though those folks sitting out there in the Texas fields claim to honor and support the soldiers, they obviously have been blinded by their own selfishness as to the real way to support them.

Amen, Scott.
These brave souls volunteer for a job that involves walking into harms way. Some people get upset when their job involves repetitive tasks. But repetitive tasks are the easy part of being a soldier. The hard part involves running into an area where people are trying to kill you, and trying to make sure that they don't succeed by killing them first.
That's honour. That's bravery. That's being a U.S. soldier.

Parents honour sacrifice of their fallen

Get a kleenex and read this editorial from Opinion Journal. Ronald Griffin lost Spc. Kyle Andrew Griffin, his son, in Iraq. After reading about Cindy, he contacted other parents who lost loved ones to guage their opinion. Here is one of the responses:
Karen Long is the mother of Spc. Zachariah Long, who died with my son Kyle on May 30, 2003. Zack and Kyle were inseparable friends as only soldiers can be, and Karen and I have become inseparable friends since their deaths. Karen's view is that what Mrs. Sheehan is doing she has every right to do, but she is dishonoring all soldiers, including Karen's son, Zack.

It amazes me how people who lost their loved ones can keep on giving.
That's the fabric of our country folks. Its how we value freedom above all else.

Mother supports war, and it was reported!

Somehow, a mother of a lost soldier actually supports the war. I know that sounds unbelievable, but she seems to know what it is that soldiers do for a living. CNN wrote:
At the funeral at Tri-County Baptist Church, Kathy Dyer delivered what she believed would have been her son's own message: "It has been with the greatest pride I have served ... fighting to preserve freedom."


Lance Corporal Christopher J. Dyer, you may rest in peace knowing that your mother is fighting to preserve your honor.
Matt Lauer was in Baghdad for the Today show, and asked a soldier for his thoughts on troop morale. After the soldier said that it was good, Matt doubted it, and asked for more. According to Newsbusters:

Asked Lauer: "What would you say to those people who are doubtful that morale could be that high?"

Captain Sherman Powell nailed Lauer, the MSM and the anti-war crowd with this beauty:

"Well sir, I'd tell you, if I got my news from the newspapers also I'd be pretty depressed as well!"

Yes, Captain Sherman Powell, you couldn't be more right. Matt has been interviewing the Hollywood and NY left for too long.

Wednesday, August 17, 2005

Okay, I promise... last one!

DS: What do you think true patriotism is?
CS: Seeing that there is something wrong in your country and in the world and trying to make the country a better place.

Later, she says, RE: Saddam:
CS: He was their brutal dictator. There are so many brutal dictators in the world and we are not removing them. We propped Saddam up and gave him weapons to gas his own people.
Besides, Bush gives the reason that we were attacked on 9/11 because 'they hate freedom and democracy', so why are we trying to force something on them that they hate? The country is demolished and so many people are dead for something they never asked for.


Okay, Cindy, which is it?
Are you for making the world a better place, or just letting dicatators be dictators?

Giving Cindy Sheehan the finger

One more post about Cindy, that kinda puts her all into perspective. This is a Daily Kos interview by someone who calls themselves Darksyde -insert joke here- with Cindy. Here is an excerpt:

DS: Well, some would say that removing a brutal dictator who tortured his opponents and their families, committed genocide, and giving the people of Iraq a shot at freedom and democracy has some value. How do you respond to those points?
CS: He was their brutal dictator. There are so many brutal dictators in the world and we are not removing them. We propped Saddam up and gave him weapons to gas his own people.
Besides, Bush gives the reason that we were attacked on 9/11 because 'they hate freedom and democracy', so why are we trying to force something on them that they hate? The country is demolished and so many people are dead for something they never asked for.

Cindy actually suggested that the majority of the people of Iraq were the people that Bush was talking about, when he said that they "hate freedom and democracy".
This is truly a "blond moment" on her part.

Cindy; Bush wasn't talking about the masses. He was talking about the Bathists, and the people that the MSM affectionately nicknamed "insurgents." They don't want freedom in Iraq, because if Iraq is free, they lose power.

Moreover, anyone who suggests that the people of Iraq didn't want democracy are outright racist.
The last time that argument was used, was prior to the Civil Rights Act... when Americans in the South tried to suggest that black Americans wouldn't know what to do with the right to vote, and did they really want it anyway?

And this is where irony comes in:
People like yourself accuse GWB of being a power-hungry facist. Yet, he's trying to spread democracy to a country in the Middle East, and you're attacking him for it. Moreover, you suggest (strongly) that the people of Iraq don't like democracy.

Well, that's not true. And at least one woman would like to give you the finger.
(photo by Andrew Parson)

-John

But he agrees with her. Really.

To everyone who insists that the great majority of Cindy Sheehan's friends& family support her, this article on Daily Kos:
I have lost almost every friend that I had before Casey died. My husband and I are separated, because he doesn't support my activities, although he knows the war is a lie.
To everyone who insists that we should listen to the troops, and their families:
We live near an Air Force base and our economy depends on war. It is a very conservative, republican community. White upper-middle class.
They believe that Bush is keeping our country safe and that I am a traitor for speaking out against a President during time of war.


Just keep this in the back of your mind, folks... this is what she actually thinks.

-John

Thursday, August 11, 2005

On Cindy Sheehan

In case you don't know who she is, Cindy Sheehan is the mother of Casey Sheehan, one of our brave soldiers who lost his life in Iraq on April 4, 2004.

President Bush visited with her shortly after her loss. Back then, Cindy said:
I now know he's sincere about wanting freedom for the Iraqis,' Cindy said after their meeting. 'I know he's sorry and feels some pain for our loss. And I know he's a man of faith.
Now Cindy hates GWB, and she's literally camping out in a ditch outside of his ranch in Crawford, Texas, asking to meet with him again. She has become a liberal cause celeb, and she has a website www.meetwithcindy.org
How does someone change their opinion of GWB by 180 degrees within a year?
I decided to do a little web research.

First of all, I wanted to find out where Meetwithcindy.org originated. It looked like someone had created it overnight, and I was right. When I did a whois, I found out that it was born on August 8th, 2005.
So then I traced the name of the person that it is registered to: David Swanson, of Maryland.
The great thing about the progressive left is that they are all about touting their achivements. It makes their movements easier to trace on the web.

David Swanson has a few other websites, including:
afterdowningstreet.org Where you'll find a link to meetwithcindy.org
Lets Try Democracy (also known as davidswanson.org)

Who is David Swanson? If I have the same Maryland David Swanson, he was the communications director of ACORN from 2000 to 2003, and is the media coordinator for the International Labor Communications Association.

According to the Radio Left website, he is the media person for the Progressive democrats of America. And surprise, that website also has an article about Cindy Sheehan.

Now I'd like to give Cindy a little bit a leeway on her loss. I really would.
But she's a little nuts.
I'm not just saying this because of her 180 degree turn on GWB, or the fact that she doesn't want to try to explain it, every time someone in the media asks her about it. And I'm not just saying this because, you know, she's camping out in a ditch outside of someone's home demanding to speak to them.
Although that is kinda nutty.
I'm saying this because when you see her and hear her, you just instinctively know that she's a nut.

But now (from Drudge Report) comes a subtle confirmation from her family, who have obviously been trying to give her some room to live with her sorrow:
The Sheehan Family lost our beloved Casey in the Iraq War and we have been silently, respectfully grieving. We do not agree with the political motivations and publicity tactics of Cindy Sheehan. She now appears to be promoting her own personal agenda and notoriety at the the expense of her son's good name and reputation. The rest of the Sheehan Family supports the troops, our country, and our President, silently, with prayer and respect.
Sincerely,
Casey Sheehan's grandparents, aunts, uncles and numerous cousins.

I love that phrase: "silently, with prayer and respect." Man, that says it all. How many people out there are silently supporting GWB, with prayer and respect?

Anyway, now you know a little bit about the background of meetwithcindy.org, and why she's suddenly interested in the Downing Street memos, and why her newest, bestest friend is a guy named David Swanson. Who, as far as I can tell, is just a little bit to the left of Eleanor Clift.

Don't like GWB? Spray paint their car!

And now, for someone who is completely idiotic...
We've all seen the bumper stickers by those who hate GWB.

Now there are the people who are so insane, that they feel the need to deface people's cars who have a GWB bumper sticker on them. According to Reuters, after several cars were defaced in a parking lot, the police set up a sting:

Police set up a bait car with a pro-Bush bumper sticker, parked it at the airport with a surveillance camera, and waited. On July 1, the camera recorded a man spray-painting over the bumper sticker with an expletive.

Investigators traced the license plate of the suspected vandal to Fecteau, 42, who turned himself into police last week and was released after posting a $5,000 bond.


Fecteau is Lt. Col. Alexis Fecteau. No doubt, he will soon become the liberal darling as another (rare) example of a member of the military who hates Bush.

Tuesday, August 09, 2005

Air America is taking money from Boys & Girls???

Its too bizarre to be true. Yet, it seems like it is.

Air America is known for its cash flow problems. So if this story is right, they took a loan from a Boys and Girls club.
In early 2004, the directors of the nascent Air America network were scouring the nation for potential contributors to its start-up. One of the network's directors, Evan Montvel Cohen, appears to have partially solved the problem by arranging loans from the Gloria Wise Boys & Girls Club that eventually totaled at least $480,000, and possibly more.


Cohen was also on the board of Gloria Wise, so he arranged for the loan.
Only the rest of the B&G club didn't seem to know about it. So now the feds have become involved, and they've suspended the $10 million of grants that the B&G club normally gets, because of bad use of their finances.

Wierd... huh?

Friday, July 29, 2005

The left is finding new ways to be petty

Why is Bush bad for America?
Because he is obsessed with excercise. No, I'm not kidding.
The LA Times own Jonathan Chait is in a huff:
Earlier this year, an airplane wandered into restricted Washington air space. Bush, we learned, was bicycling in Maryland. In 2001, a gunman fired shots at the White House. Bush was inside exercising. When planes struck the World Trade Center in 2001, Bush was reading to schoolchildren, but that morning he had gone for a long run with a reporter. Either this is a series of coincidences or Bush spends an enormous amount of time working out.
Uh huh. And he always smells good. What's that about?

Thursday, July 21, 2005

American press reminded of how a totalitarian government works

Andrea Mitchell of NBC is in a huff today.
She was treated rudely by the government of Sudan.

Now before this gets misinterpreted, I'm not saying that Sudan was right for treating her bad. It just amazes me how our journalists think that they are protected by the first amendment, even when in Sudan. Andrea said, according to Yahoo:
"I would rather see them live up to their promises," she said. "What they did to me is not important. They can't control my life."
Andrea... you were not in the U.S.. You can't claim that our government should protect you, all while criticizing the way the government goes about taking down dictatorships. When you are in Sudan, they can control your life. It was only the incredible power of the US defense industry that kept you from becoming a sex slave in a Sudanese prison, today.
Please sleep on that.

Sunday, July 17, 2005

Writing an Op-Ed, NY Times style

Whenever I talk to people about the NY Times, I focus on what they read in on the editorial page. Not the page that is written by guests, but the one that is written by the actual editors, containing the opinion of "the paper." As I've pointed out to many people, you can find out just how liberal the NY Times is by reading their editorials.

But sometimes, you can get how liberal the NY Times is by reading their Op-Ed pieces too. Particularly when the NYT re-writes the Op-Eds to change the tone.

In this case, the following correction appeared in the NY Times
The Op-Ed page in some copies yesterday carried an incorrect version of an article about military recruitment. The writer, an Army reserve officer, did not say, 'Imagine my surprise the other day when I received orders to report to Fort Campbell, Ky., next Sunday,' nor did he characterize his recent call-up to active duty as the precursor to a 'surprise tour of Iraq.' That language was added by an editor and was to have been removed before the article was published. Because of a production error, it was not. The Times regrets the error.
Curious?
Sure, you would be. I mean, how would they incorrectly get the impression that Phillip Carter, the person writing the article wrote: "Imagine my surprise the other day when I received orders..."
Or the phrase "surprise tour of Iraq"
See, this is the thing. The NY Times called him up and suggested those phrases. Let me repeat. The NY Times called him up and suggested those phrases.
Its pretty clear to me that they wanted to make him sound bitter about being called up on reserve. This is how the NY Times defended themselves against such a charge:
"We try to clarify and improve copy," said Mr. Shipley. "We do this for the benefit of our contributors, many of whom are not professional writers. We do not impose language on them - if they want something out or something in, we accede to their wishes. They have final sign-off"

They don't ty to impose language on them? They clarify copy? Bullshit. Adding in the phrase "Imagine my surprise" is not "clarifying," and the editors at the NY Times know it.
But Carter didn't bite. He said "no" and the NY Times meant to change it back to his original wording. Only they forgot to, and the article went up online. Carter caught it, and told them to kill it before it went to print.

This, the NY Times did, and much to their credit.
What isn't to their credit is that they are suggesting wording in a piece that clearly changes its meaning. If you never believed that they were liberal before, this should at least give you pause.

By the way...

...has anyone noticed that since Rove was named in the investigation, there's been no push for a shield law?
Is anyone surprised?

Hillary worried about hidden sex...

...And this time, it has nothing to do with her husband.
According to the NY Times, in an article called,
Clinton Urges Inquiry Into Hidden Sex in Grand Theft Auto Game :
Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton is calling on federal regulators to investigate the latest version of Grand Theft Auto, a popular video game series that allows players to go on simulated crime sprees.
And...
...Mrs. Clinton expressed concern over reports that anyone who used a free code downloaded over the Internet could unlock sexually graphic images hidden inside the game...
I love how the left always accuses Republicans of being uptight about sex, but when the left wants to run for office, suddenly they have a moral compass on such things.
Remember when Gore's wife Tipper wanted to get rid of music with dirty lyrics? I do.
I guess that's what Democratic wives do. They get upset about all of that nasty stuff (that their hubbies are engaging in.)
Anyway, as we all know Miss Hillary Rodham, its "just about sex." Sound like a familiar phrase?

Saturday, July 16, 2005

Things that make you say, WHAT???

Apparently, there is a group planning to march on Washington August 13th, regarding prisoners. Not prisoners in Gitmo, mind you. Although I'm sure they got their inspiration from the "Close Gitmo!" crowd. These people want prisoners released from jail.
"What?", you say.
They want prisoners released from jail. Here is the best line from their statement:

This is a day for us to meet each other, and show our leaders that we demand justice.

They want justice. This isn't sarcasm, folks. Its not my idea of a bad web joke. They are going to Lafayette Park and they are going to march. Felons, and friends of felons. It should be a great time. Who wants to go? I do! I do!
But wait. ... There's more:
On July 12, 2005, David Losa of FACTS (Families to Amend California's Three Strikes) will embark on an epic Bicycle Journey for Justice, a 3,000 mile ride from his home in Santa Barbara, CA, arriving in Washington D.C. just in time for the FMI March on Washington.

I sincerely hope it doesn't happen. But wouldn't it be funny if his bike was stolen on his way to this event?
Normally, I think its a blast to go to these types of events, and take photos of the nuttier people in this world. But I will not be attending this one. I... uh... have laundry to do.

Yet more evidence clearing Rove

After Rove spoke to Matt Cooper, the journalist from Time magazine, he zipped off an e-mail to Stephen Hadley, a deputy national security advisor. According to My way news:

"Matt Cooper called to give me a heads-up that he's got a welfare reform story coming," Rove wrote in the e-mail to Hadley.

Note: Cooper called Rove. Just as Novak called Rove.
Already, this makes it harder to argue that Rove was calling around to reporters and telling them that there was a spy they needed to report on.
But wait. There's more.
"When he finished his brief heads-up he immediately launched into Niger. Isn't this damaging? Hasn't the president been hurt? I didn't take the bait, but I said if I were him I wouldn't get Time far out in front on this."

Meaning, its exactly what Rove has said; that he was correcting the lie that Wilson was propagating about Niger. Wilson said that Iraq wasn't trying to get uranium from Niger in an editorial. Rove told the reporter that he was wrong.

This whole story is completely collapsing in on the left, and its pretty funny to watch. As more and more evidence escapes that Rove is innocent, the left has changed their strategy to adapt.

Now the argument is that it wasn't Rove, but the "Bigger Picture" of our involvement in Iraq, etc. Etc. Etc.

Another words, how were they to know that they were going off the deep end? Again?