Just before midnight with Noam Chomsky

Just before you go to bed tonight, click on The Chomsky Challenge by John Williamson. Trust me, it will work better than a cup of hot chocolate or two shots of tequila. F'rinstance;

I refer you to the latest (Winter 2004) issue of Linguistic Inquiry, which is a publication of the MIT department of linguistics, and which heavily promotes Chomskyan theory. (When he is not busy trashing his country, Chomsky is employed by MIT as a professor of linguistics.)

Sentence1: Who will be easy for us to get his mother to talk to?

This sentence, among others, has been studied for decades by the Chomskyans, in an attempt to formulate its grammatical structure which is, admittedly, somewhat complex. I list below just a few of the terms and concepts which are bandied about in this particular article which discusses this sentence, among others. Please do not trouble yourself to try to make sense of these terms. For now, just glance over them so that you will get a sense of the variety and extent of the terms employed in an attempt to solve this momentous problem:

linking theory...the anti-c-command requirement...A-positions...the Bijection Principle...weakest crossover configurations...bound variable anaphora...asymmetric linking...licensing conditions...the index of a pronoun...null operator analysis...variable binding...configurational conditions...inappropriate and appropriate antecedents...etc...etc...Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Hey! Wake up! I've got a litttle theoretical linguistics type challenge for you. Which of the following terms best describes the decades-long study of the aforementioned sentence?

It is stupid.
Stoopid it am. (from my 5 year-old)
Am shtupid it are. (from my 5 year-old's friend, Felix)
Would it be shtoopid is (or are). (from my 8 year-old)
Could are shchtupid it might were. (from my wife)
Ach shchtoopid est era sería. (from my neighbor, Wolfgang Marcellus Pérez)

Personally, I opt for this, which admittedly falls outside the realm of the options made available to you ordinary peons;

"A total and complete waste of our goddamned tax dollars."

Whaaaat? Who? Why?

"...Betty Boop drunk on gin Gibsons and humping a rubber nubbed Sybian."

Sometimes I think Jeff Goldstein is in serious need of medical attention. That or solitary confinement.


(Pssssst! What's a "Sybian"? I don't know and inasmuch as it is referenced to humping, rubber and nubbed, I do not wish to know.)

You can call me Ray...

You can call me Ray, you can call me Ray Jay, you can call me Ray J. Jay, just don't call me Johnson.

Brainbridge 3, Chait-Confessore-Farrell 0 (bluntly)

Professor Bainbridge is, ah, somewhat blunt in his riposts to Jonathan Chait, Nick Confessore, and Henry Farrell. To wit;

"Wrong."...and...
"Wrong again."...and...
"Huh."...and...
"In sum, Chait reveals himself to be woefully ignorant of both the academy and conservatives."...and...
"And all of Chait's obfuscation can't change that basic fact."...and...
"For Chait's tired rehash of long disproven stereotypes to qualify for Confessore's top spot, it must be the only thing Confessore's ever read on the subject."...and, finally...
"So spare me your stereotypes and generalizations. And stop using Karl Rove's (highly successful) campaign tactics as your spurious justification for discriminating against conservative academics. Just because your Democrat party can't beat Bush doesn't justify taking our your anger on right-of-center job applicants."

I might be so bold as to add that Farrell's whining about "...Republican attempts to appeal to voters (as, for example, the pillorying of Al Gore for using big numbers and complicated ideas)." is well-taken. The Republicans should have left this alone because Gore's use of big numbers and complicated ideas only served to prove what a total moron he really is.

(Psssst! You misspelled the good professor's name in the title block.) I know, but Brainbridge seems so much more, er, apropos, so...piss off.

Stop whining, Yushchenko

If you think this looks bad,  


just look what happened to Dubya.  

The Franco-American Alliance

The Franco-American alliance is quite robust and likely to last a long time. The French have always been there when they needed us.

Wretchard

The Stiletto, again.

Our good friend, James Lileks, wields the stiletto in justifying the ACLU's treatment of the Boy Scouts.

Best parts;

"Move over, OBL -- our new national threat comes from the BSA.

The people barging into the courts are the ones obsessed that Boy Scouts might be using public school rooms after hours to learn knot tying. And scouts drive on public roads to get there, too. They even breathe air whose quality is mandated by federal regulations that take public money to enforce. Theocratic parasites, that's what they are. What's next? A 900-foot statue of Jesus on the Mall in Washington?

And we're talking about the BOY SCOUTS, for heaven's sake, not some Junior Klan League noted for torchlight parades through Jewish neighborhoods. Who has the time to worry whether the scouts are meeting in the local library? Isn't there some real, actual evil handy you could sue?

Better yet: If you don't like the scouts' oath or rules, how about you drink a nice hot cup of LIVE AND LET LIVE and start your own group?

Throwing the scouts into an electrified pen that keeps them from contaminating government is not high on the list of your average Democratic concerns.

But you'll still vote Democratic? 'Count on it, friend.'

Then one day his kid's Wolf Pack gets denied a permit to hold a party in a public park.

And thus do blue folks see red."

More dangerous for whom, Jacquie-boi?

Reuters quotes Jacquie Chirac as saying that the world is a more dangerous place since our invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq. Well, not more dangerous for us, I would say. There haven't been anymore terrorist murders of Americans on U.S. soil since 9/11. Hence, I would submit that the world has, in fact, become a significantly less dangerous place for Americans. As for the French, Spanish, Germans, Dutch, etc., well, let's just say they have made their own beds and must now sleep in them. About their fates, I think that we should care not a whit.

Thomas Walkom. Who is this twit?

In Should Canada indict Bush?, an obviously deluded, or drunk, writer? named Thomas Walkom makes the case for indicting President Bush for war crimes. This lunatic, or stumbling drunk, lists the following examples of "war crimes"; Abu Ghraib (naturally), conveniently forgetting that prosecutions for that aberration are underway by U.S. authorities, Guantanamo, deportation of prisoners from Iraq to "shadowy" CIA run torture camps in Jordan (Jordan?) also conveniently forgetting that the deportees, if any, would be non-Iraqi and therefore not protected by the Geneva conventions, and in any case Canada would also have to indict King Abdullah for his part in this alledged nefarious plot to deprive those innocent peace-loving beheaders and followers of the religion of peace of their liberty and justice for all.

He concludes that the brave Canadian adherents to International Law, the same international law that is protecting Christian blacks in Darfur, and liberal students in Iran, and white farmers in Zaire, and Shia in the Sunni Triangle, and newborn baby girls in China, well, they'll just wait until Dubya goes up there fishin'.

Safer in Falluja

Vicki Woods, witing in The Notebook in The Daily Telegraph, is astounded by The New York Post's cover photo of the Marlboro smoking Marine. She says,

But it was the Fallujah front page that brought me to my knees. The other papers splashed on untidy pictures of gangs of soldiers leaping walls, aiming weapons and generally going gung-ho. The Post's front page showed only the hard, set face of a single US Marine.

The picture was cropped tight and wide, from the rim of his battered helmet down to his chin-strap. His face was streaked with sweat and filth, his nose gashed, his eyes narrowed, his jaw clenched, and he had a half-smoked cigarette dangling. It was a very Second World War image, like a still from The Battle of the Bulge. Brilliant job by the picture editor, frankly. Other papers had the same photograph of the same Marine, but ran it full-length instead of homing in on the fag-end and the thousand-yard stare.

Its headline was: "SMOKIN' MARLBORO MEN KICK BUTT IN FALLUJAH."

Then, the reaction of some Post readers astounds her still further.

The majority of letters were savagely critical and full of spleen.

But about the cigarette.

Only one reader picked up on my first thought - that the butt-kickin' leatherneck was a lot safer lighting up his Marlboro in Fallujah than in New York City.

Thrilled with his success at banning smoking in all public places - including greasy spoons and cigar bars - Mayor Bloomberg is now hoping to extirpate the weed in private apartments. Anybody moving into a Manhattan condominium will soon have to sign a legal agreement not to smoke inside the confines of their own flat.

Tell that to the Marines, somebody.

Canada welcomes liberals fleeing BushHitler and Jesusland...or not.

Stay home, you pathetic whining maggots, says Ian Robinson of the Calgary Sun.

"How anybody can be unhappy with the president's re-election is beyond me.

Bush has my admiration in no small part because he manages to simultaneously annoy France and Germany, not to mention those renowned deep, geopolitical thinkers, the Dixie Chicks, Bruce Springsteen, P-Diddy or whatever he's calling himself now, Gwynneth Paltrow and Ben Affleck."

"Before the election, some U.S. celebrities and numerous other Democrats vowed that they'd move to Canada if Bush were re-elected.

I hope I'm not alone in gently suggesting to those considering coming to Canada: Stay home, you pathetic whining maggots.

Particularly celebrities. Canada has suffered enough without having to put up with any of the Baldwin brothers or -- heaven forfend! -- Barbra Streisand.

And frankly, I don't know if we can afford to feed Michael Moore."

He makes the point that,

"We have immigrants coming to this country who have been hunted from the air by murderous Islamofascists in Sudan.

Some new Canadians survived the atrocities in Rwanda or old Europe's final convulsions of genocide in the former Yugoslavia.

We have physicians from some parts of the world who are willing to throw away their prestige and power in their homelands for the privilege of driving a cab in Moose Jaw.

As a nation, we ought to welcome our share of people fleeing genuine oppression, and those willing to gamble everything to secure a safe and decent future for their families."

So,

"But welcome a bunch of spoiled brats willing to abandon their very nation because they don't like the man elected to be their leader for the next four years?

Geez, in my entire lifetime, there was maybe one prime minister I'd trust to run a street-corner hot dog stand -- the rest of them weren't fit for much more than compost -- but it never occurred to me to emigrate.

If we close our borders to anybody, it should be these fools. They'll be easy to screen out.

They'll be the ones who are whining."

Bob Jones speaks, unfortunately.

Bob Jones III, president of the fundamentalist college that bears his name, has told President Bush he should use his electoral mandate to appoint conservative judges and approve legislation "defined by biblical norm."



"In your re-election, God has graciously granted America - though she doesn't deserve it - a reprieve from the agenda of paganism," Jones wrote Bush in a congratulatory letter posted on the university's Web site.


Say there, Bob ól buddy, FOAD! It is guys like this that give Republicans a bad name ( and me the willies). They operate on the very fringes of the Republican Party and, unfortunately, command a significant bloc of votes. Kind of like Jesse Jackson, Kos, Michael Moore and those of that ilk on the waaaaaaaay other side. I am sure the Pres will find an appropriately benign, meaningless response to thank Bob and assure him that the forces of hell, Satan, Beezelbub and Luis Cypher will not, at least for the next four years, penetrate the tower of power.

Don't believe me? Try substituting, in the above quotation, in the place of "defined by biblical norm" the phrase, "defined by Koranic law." See what I mean?

Arlen Specter

Let's face it, folks. Arlen Specter is a f**cking jerk. Now that we can all agree on that point, Hugh Hewitt is right. Even if Hugh is way off base, who wants to take a chance on losing 4, 5, 6, or 7 votes for future nominees. I like his choice of words, "prudent." We won the brawn in the past election, now let's exercise some brains, a la el Governator.

U.S. Forces Storm Into Fallujah

At dawn, armed rebels attacked three police stations in Haditha and Haqlaniyah, 140 miles northwest of Baghdad, killing 22 policemen. Some were lined up and shot execution-style, according to police and hospital officials.

Says Abu Musab al-Zarqawi,

"In the dawn of this blessed day, the lions of al-Qaida in Iraq faced up to a group of apostates in the proud city of Haditha," said the statement, which could not be authenticated. "The lions stormed the city's police directorate and killed everyone there...With this operation, the city has been completely liberated. The lions have been wandering in the city until late today."

I say,

"The warriors of The Lord God Almighty, Y_weh, are coming for the lions of Allah and we will kill them, kill them all."

*Oh, and pardon my French, but you have to be a really stupid fucker to surrender to these assholes. You may very well die, anyway, so make it as expensive as possible. In the words, paraphrased, of Josie Wales, "When it looks the darkest, when all looks lost, you gotta get plumb mean." and in the words, paraphrased, of Hunter S. Thompson, "The meanest of them were not the toughest of them. There was a difference."

The lions of Allah are about to find out the hard way, the lethal way, the terminal way, the difference between mean and tough.

Mark in Mexico presents yesterday's NHL results.

Pittsburgh Penguins 1 Florida Panthers 2

Vancouver 3 Dallas 4

Ottawa 2 Colorado Avalanche 3

Nashville 4 Anaheim 2

just kidding

U Pickém

Candidate #1:

Best poker player ever to come out of Yale. Strategy consisted of maximizing his opponents losses on what they thought was a winning hand.

Candidate #2:

Abu Ghraib! BushHitler! BushHitler! Chimp Chimp Chimp!

For whom will you vote??

A democrat tells the truth

This morning on The Don Imus Radio Show, Gov. Bill Richardson of New Mexico has the following exchange with host Don Imus;

Richardson: Well, Kerry has been on the Foreign Relations Committee for twenty years, he knows these foreign leaders, he will be able to get us international support in Iraq.

Imus: Yeah, those countries will be in a real hurry to send their people to Iraq so they can get beheaded. That's crazy talk, Governor.

Richardson: Well, it's election time, Don.



Thanks to JustOneMinute.

Andrew Sullivan meets his better.

In today's Bleat, James Lileks takes Andrew Sullivan apart, piece by piece, using the stiletto. Best parts;

Sullivan: "This is not, should not be, and one day cannot be, Bush's war. And the more it is, the more America loses, and our enemies gain."

Lileks: "And this argument is not, should not be, and one day cannot be, and dasn’t be, and at the end of the day might not be, convincing. This is like saying vote McClellan, lest the war against secession and slavery be seen as Lincon’s war."

and

Kerry wins. He’s having a summit with Tony Blair. In the middle of the conversation, Chirac calls up; Kerry excuses himself and has a brief chat about a new resolution to let French oil companies bid on reconstruction projects, and they have an amiable conversation in French. Kerry hangs up.

"Your predecessor," Blair says, "spoke to him in English."

"I know," says President Kerry. "He couldn’t speak French."

"He didn’t have to," Blair notes.

He gives a tight smile.

And sighs.

And gets down to explaining what now must be done.

Priceless.

A First for Minnesota!!

Powerline announces that St. Cloud State University has accomplished an all-time first in the history of College Homecoming Celebrations. The students of St. Cloud State have elected, for the first time in recorded history, a male Homecoming Queen. His name is Fue Khang and Mark in Mexico is proud to be the first in the blogosphere, and perhaps the world, to proudly publish his picture. Ain't he a peach?

Fue Khang, 2004 Homecoming Queen 

James Lileks wields his stiletto

Most of the bloggers out there, both on the left and on the right, come at you like Richard Couer de Lion with his 80 pound English broadsword. Hacking and whacking away at you. Kind of like this blog. But James Lileks wields a stiletto, delicately slicing and dicing his intended victim so quickly, quietly and efficiently that said victim usually never knows he's/she's been carved like the Thanksgiving turkey until James has left the building.

Case in point: In today's Bleat, fisking Teraysa's boorish and ignorant comments about Laura Bush never having a "real" job (only ten years as a teacher/librarian and 20 years give or take as a mother to twin daughters), James says the following concerning, "What do the Democrats think?"

Dubya and Laura in bed:

"What’re you reading, Laur."

"Oh, the Vagina Monologues."

"Don’t bother. We’re gonna win Vagina and West Vagina this year.. ZZZZZZ."

Or, in Monday's Bleat, fisking the ridiculous disaster movie "The Day After Tomorrow";

6. Early in the movie we infer that Dennis Quaid is no longer married to Sela Ward because his demanding job as a paleoclimatologist drove her away. Given that this means he preferred drilling ice to...well, Sela Ward, do you expect us to have any sympathy for this idiot at all?

Now, don't skip the Tuesday nor the Wednesday Bleats, but Monday's and Thursday's were special.

Can you help?

Operation Iraqi Children (OIC) is a volunteer organization that I just discovered, thanks to this Hollywood mystery novelist and screenwriter. Visit the site and read all about it, then register and see what you can do to help. Founded by Gary Sinise (Forest Gump, Apollo 13) and author Laura Hillenbrand (Seabiscuit, An American Legend), this outfit seems to be doing some great work. Pay them a visit and seee what you can do to help.

An endorsement, right from the top. 

That Howard feller is A-OK

Mark Steyn, writing in The Australian, reminds us of what true allies are all about. Actually, this is the first that I have heard this. While we were being fed a daily diet of "We are all Americans" by the lying, slimey, backstabbing, bribe-taking French and their true allies, the MSM, John Howard was saying the following in a 2001 ABC radio interview;

"There's no point in a situation like this being an 80 per cent ally."

And then this;

"I'm sure the Americans will behave in a targeted yet lethal fashion."

The Americans will behave in a targeted yet lethal fashion.

Perfectly understated.

President Bush sends Ramadan greetings to all of Islam

President Bush marked the start of Ramadan on Friday by offering his best wishes to the Muslim world, where he is highly unpopular.

"I send warm greetings to Muslims in the United States (who will be voting en masse for my opponent) and around the world as they begin observance of Ramadan, the holiest season in their faith.

By teaching the importance of compassion, justice, mercy, and peace, the Koran has guided many millions of believers across the centuries.

In fact, I am sending some gifts to you all to help in the teaching of compassion, justice, mercy, and peace."

Well, first of all, I'd like you to have some F15 Strike Eagles.


And you really can't do without a few of these, the A10 Thunderbolt Warthog (you know, heh heh, warthog, the other white meat).


And these will really help, 50 or so AH-64 Apache attack helicopters. Enjoy!



And last, but not least, for that little added personal touch, U.S. Marine snipers! Hundreds of'em!! Wheeee!


And don't forget, Ramadan occurs every year at this time when the Yankees are always number one!!!


(The president's statement was edited for maximum effect.)

The Mirror Test

No Illusions suggests the mirror test for Iraqi street thugs who claim not to be terrorists:

The Mirror Test

1. Look in mirror

2. If you have a beard and an AK-47, you are a terrorist.

3. If you have a beard, an AK, and it is pointing at a U.S. soldier, you are likely a dead terrorist.

Zell! Zell! Zell! Zell!

Zell Miller (yeah, this Zell Miller) strikes again in Iwo Jima, if covered by media today. He imagines the New York Times coverage of the Iwo Jima invasion if it were covered today by intrepid reporter Cutey Cudley along with political analyst James Crankville, Senator Blowhard, Senator Bombast, columnist Myscream Loud and the entire Senate Squeakers Group. It is amusing, but oh so close to the truth. It's obvious who he has in mind, with the exceptions of Senators Blowhard and Bombast. I'm a little confused as to their real identity, since there are about 50 candidates currently serving who would qualify.

He has a bit of fun with his story, but then he gets serious:

Historical note: In one of the bloodiest battles of World War II, when it was said "uncommon courage was a common virtue," 6,000 Marines were killed and 18,000 wounded. Some 21,000 Japanese were killed. The island itself is still barren and only a handful of people live on it. But after it was secured by the Marines, B-29s made over 2,200 emergency landings on it, saving the lives of more than 24,000 crewmen. AP photographer Joe Rosenthal won a Pulitzer Prize for the flag-raising photo. Of the six men in the photo, three were buried in that black volcanic ash, one came out on a stretcher. Only two walked off the island.

Think about these numbers for a sec, then revisit the photo of Col. Bud Day, below.

Just don't call me Johnson!

You can call me Ray, you can call me Ray Jay, you can call me Ray Jay Jay. Just don't call me Johnson.

Col. Bud Day

Go to INDC Journal to read a letter by Col. Bud Day and take a close look at his photo. No excerpts, you need to read the whole thing. I am awaiting permission from Bill at INDC to copy it all over here.

UPDATE: Bill at INDC Journal says that the photo and quote are, more or less, public property, so here you go.

Col. Bud Day


Letter from Col. Bud Day to Joe Scarborough regarding John Kerry:

Dear Joe:

The major issue in the Swiftboat stories is, and always has been, what John Kerry did in 1971 after he returned from Vietnam. Kerry cast a long dark shadow over all Vietnam Veterans with his outright perjury before the Senate concerning atrocities in Vietnam. His stories to the Senate committee were absolute lies..fabrications..perjury..fantasies, with NO substance. That dark shadow has defamed the entire Vietnam War veteran population, and gave "Aid and Comfort" to our enemies..the Vietnamese Communists. Kerry's stories were outright fabrications, and were intended for political gain with the radical left - McGovern, Teddy and Bobby Kennedy followers, Jane Fonda, Tom Hayden, and the radical left who fantasized that George McGovern was going to be elected in 1972.

Little wonder that returning soldiers from Vietnam were spit upon and castigated as "baby killers." A returned war hero said so. Kerry cut a dashing figure as a war hero, lots of medals, and returned home because of multiple war wounds, even a silver star. His Senate testimony confirmed what every hippie had been chanting on the streets - "Hey hey LBJ..How many kids did you kill today?" He obviously was running for political office in 1971. Until Lt. John O' Neil, himself a Swifboat commander, spoke out before the 1972 elections against Kerry's outright deceptions, there was no one from the Swiftboat scene that could contradict Kerry's self serving lies.

I was a POW of the Vietnamese in Hanoi in 1971, and I am aware that the testimony of John Kerry, the actions of Jane Fonda and Tom Hayden, and the radical left; all caused the commies to conclude that if they hung on, they would win. North Vietnamese General Bui Tin commented that every day the Communist leadership listened to world news over the radio to follow the growth of the anti-war movement. Visits to Hanoi by Jane Fonda and Ramsey Clark gave them confidence to hold in the face of battlefield reverses. The guts of it was that propaganda from the anti-war group was part of their combat strategy.

While the Commies were hanging on, innumerable U.S. Soldiers, Sailors, Marines and Air Force members were being killed in combat. Every battle wound to Americans after Kerry's misdirected testimony is related to Kerry's untruthfulness. John Kerry contributed to every one of these deaths with his lies about U.S. atrocities in Vietnam. He likewise defamed the U.S. with our allies and supporters. His conduct also extended the imprisonment of the Vietnam Prisoners of War, of which I was one. I am certain of at least one POW death after his testimony, which might have been prevented with an earlier release of the POWs.

My friend and room mate Senator John S. McCain denounced the Swiftboat video by John O'Neil. I have a different take on the Swiftboat tape and disagree with my good friend John. John Kerry opened up his character as a war hero reporting for duty to the country with a hand salute...and his band of brothers..of which he was the chief hero. Most of his convention speech was about John Kerry, Vietnam hero, and his band of brothers. John Kerry's character is not only fair game, it is the primary issue. He wants to use Bill Clinton's "is", as an answer to his lack of character. The issue is trust. Can anyone trust John Kerry?? "Never lie, cheat or steal" is the West Point motto. When a witness perjures himself at trial, the judge notes that his testimony lacks credibility. Should we elect a known proven liar to lead us in wartime??

I draw a direct comparison of General Benedict Arnold of the Revolutionary War, to Lieutenant John Kerry. Both went off to war, fought, and then turned against their country. General Arnold crossed over to the British for money and position. John Kerry crossed over to the Vietnamese with his assistance to the anti-war movement, and his direct liaison with the Vietnamese diplomats in Paris. His reward: political gain. Senator, United States. His record as a Senator for twenty years has been pitiful. Conjure up, if you will, one major bill that he has sponsored. John Kerry for President? Ridiculous. Unthinkable. Unbelievable. Outrageous.

Col. Geo. "Bud" Day, Medal of Honor, Vietnam POW 1967- 1973, USMC- USA- USAF-Attorney 1949-2004

That's right folks. That is a Congressional Medal of Honor. The HIGHEST military award that can be earned (usually awarded posthumously, which means that you have to get your ass shot off...dead...to receive one).

Read the letter carefully, several times if necessary. This is a fellow who knows of what he speaks. "John Kerry for President? Ridiculous. Unthinkable. Unbelievable. Outrageous."

Mil gracias a Bill at INDC Journal.

Rocky II

Dubya wins in St. Louis, the Yankees win in Minnesota and the Afghans vote for the first time in their history.

All is right with the world tonight.

Update: Our friend John Howard wins in Australia.

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

For the young beer drinker who can't make up his mind, Budweiser thinks it has the answer. Budweiser's new brew, Be, pronounced "B-to-the-e," is a cross between an energy drink and a beer.

Eric Shepard, executive editor of Beer Marketer's Insights, a trade publication, said,

"You'll be able to wake up and dull the senses at the same time,"

Say what?

That might be of some benefit if one woke up in the hospital...or jail...or the morgue. Personally, when I want to wake up, I want to wake up, and when I want the senses dulled, I want the senses dulled and never the twain shall meet.

George Soros Truth Squad

Well that was fast. I sent an email to Jeff Goldstein last night to ask if he had the time and/or interest to start a blogger's pursuit of George Soros. He replied that he had to leave on a 5 day east coast jaunt and would see if anyone else wanted to get involved. Voila!

Very impressive, Jeff.

Remember: The National Legal and Policy Center (NLPC), John Carlisle, Policy Director. I'll provide links and email when I have them.

We need to get this guy before he does more 527 damage than he already has.

George Soros...more thoughts

This guy is more dangerous than bin Laden. Bin Laden we can fight, be it with helicopter gunships or by digging wells and laying sewer pipe in isolated villages. But how does one fight an entity like Soros? And anyone with 16 million dollars to blow on George Bush's defeat, to influence the election of the commander-in-chief of the most powerful nation in the history of the planet, is not a him, he's an it.

Why?

Is there an echo in here?

Kerry staked out a strong plan to bring peace to Iraq and to refocus our efforts to fight terrorists around the world.

Democratic National Committee website

Kerry staked out a strong plan to bring peace to Iraq and to refocus our efforts to fight terrorists around the world.

Letter to the Bergen (N.J.) Record from Kate Swan of Teaneck

Kerry staked out a strong plan to bring peace to Iraq and to refocus our efforts to fight terrorists around the world.

Letter to the Bergen (N.J.) Record from Norman Kailo of Wayne

Kerry staked out a strong plan to bring peace to Iraq and to refocus our efforts to fight terrorists around the world.

Letter to the Boston Globe from Mindy Mazur of Milton, Mass.

Kerry staked out a strong plan to bring peace to Iraq and to refocus our efforts to fight terrorists around the world.

Letter to the Honolulu Advertiser from Dick R. Trahan of Kaimuki, Hawaii

Kerry staked out a strong plan to bring peace to Iraq and to refocus our efforts to fight terrorists around the world.

Letter to the Ventura County (Calif.) Star from Faith Morres of Oxnard, Calif.

Kerry staked out a strong plan to bring peace to Iraq and to refocus our efforts to fight terrorists around the world.

Letter to KTVO of Kirksville, Mo. from Richard Damm of Ottumwa, Iowa

Only the good folks at the Bergen (N.J.) Record were stupid enough to print the same DNC form letter twice in the same issue.

The guy who really really wants George Bush's head on a platter.

bin Laden? Zarqawi? Arafat? Hussein? Chirac?

"Next to my fantasies about being God, I also have very strong fantasies of being mad. In fact, my grandfather was actually paranoid. I have a lot of madness in my family. So far I have escaped it."

"If I spend enough, I will make it right."

"I fancied myself as some kind of god..."

"It is a sort of disease when you consider yourself some kind of god, the creator of everything, but I feel comfortable about it now since I began to live it out."

"If President Bush is reelected, we must ask the question, 'What is wrong with us?' "

"When President Bush says, as he does frequently, that freedom will prevail, in fact he means that America will prevail."

That's George Soros, folks.

To this last, the authors Rachel Ehrenfeld and Shawn Macomber, writing in The LA Times, ask, "Who would Soros prefer to see "prevail"? Saddam Hussein? Osama bin Laden?"

I don't think that the American people know just how dangerous this foreign born megalomaniac truly is. And he has now invested some 16 million dollars in George Bush's defeat.

Why?

I'm Baaaaaack.

I have been spending all of what few hours I have each day for the past week-and-a-half watching the disassembly of the CBS/Dan Rather/DNC/John Kerry cabal by the blogosphere. I have not had time to post any original thoughts, mainly because I have not had any original thoughts. Oh, and I also took five days off to visit Oaxaca to soak up some sun, only to discover upon my arrival that the hurricane sandwich job (Ivan moving through the gulf and I-don't-know-who in the Pacific) brought daily clouds and rain to Oaxaca. Well, at least it was warmer than Puebla.

So, I'm off to see what words of wisdom the vampiress Tina Brown has for us today.

How to admit one's error(s)

That nice fellow, what's-his-name, over there at Instapundit has this to say about one of the intrinsic traits of the blogosphere and how it differs from MSM (mainstream media),

"This also means admitting when you're wrong. And that's another difference. When you're a blogger, you present ideas and arguments, and see how they do. You have a reputation, and it matters, but the reputation is for playing it straight with the facts you present, not necessarily the conclusions you reach. And a big part of the reputation's component involves being willing to admit you're wrong when you present wrong facts, and to make a quick and prominent correction."

Well now, I certainly feel a lot better having seen this expounded in writing, for I have on several occasions found it necessary to report the following;

"Yup, y'all's raht, ah'm jist a stoopid sumbitch, har, har."

I await Dan Rather's like-worded admission. Perhaps I should send him a script. I know. I'll check with a well known mystery novelist and screenwriter. He'll be sending a similar script to the Cincinnati Post.

Update: Hugh Hewitt disagrees a bit with Glenn (the what's-his-name from above). Hugh says that small bloggers, and Mark in Mexico would qualify as one of the teeny weeniest, actually operate in a high-trust environment because their friends read the blogs and expect to be told the truth. Well, that's certainly true because all of my friends who slavishly visit Mark in Mexico daily already know that Ah'm a stoopid sumbich, har, har.

Einstein, Machiavelli, Rove, Fischer, Galileo, Ponzi

If the following quotation proves, in fact, to be correct, then Karl Rove is, currently, the smartest human on the planet.

According to one ABC News employee, some reporters believe that the Kerry campaign as well as the DNC were parties in duping CBS, but a smaller segment believe that both the DNC and the Kerry campaign were duped by Karl Rove, who would have engineered the flap to embarrass the opposition.

If not true, then Karl Rove has a reputation rivaling that of James Butler Hickok.

Red Sox, Cards, Braves, LA, it's all over for you.

This intrepid blogger has just learned that I can buy a FATWA for 15 bucks from Imam AMR-KHALID. What a deal! My papal blessing signed by Pope John Paul II cost me $150 in Rome at the Vatican in 1995. Disinflation rocks! Heh, heh. See-ya Pedro! If this deal-of-the-century still exists in the late fall, the Red Wings are assured of another Stanley Cup, Bobby Knight will bring home the bacon, er, the mutton to Lubbock, Tiger grand slams it in 2005 and Jeff Gordon wins 20, beginning with Daytona.

This is tooo easy.

What is is, is.

Just thought I would mention that.

Ahead by a neck

Jeff Goldstein, up and around early on a Sunday morning. Follow his link on the LAT onefer of the twofer. Hilarious. Maybe brontysauri?

Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice

Newsweek says that Colin Powell may well stay on for another term as Secretary of State. I think this should be a really good thing for Mr. Bush and for the country. I have my doubts about Mr. Powell's nuanced views of diplomacy, but he is still highly respected around the world. If (probably, it would now seem) Mr. Bush wins another term, there are going to be a lot of foreign leaders who will have to suck it up and deal with him. Mr. Powell will make that a little easier, I think.

Now, to Ms. Rice. Rumor around the MSM is that she will not stay on another term as National Security Advisor. That would be a real shame, a real loss to the president's team. She has taken a lot of crap the last four years, probably only slightly less crap than Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld. That would rank her number four on the left's dartboard cover list. I hope that she stays, if for no other reason than she deserves to be there, taking her rightfully deserved bows, when Iraq and Afghanistan both elect representative governments.

I have met the I and he is me.

In The Calgary Sun, columnist Paul Jackson writes an article titled "Let's Wing It", in which he compares the "left" and it's intolerance for dissent against the "right" and it's thoughtful consideration of all viewpoints. Well, heh heh, I don't know about all that. Somehow, the names Neil Boortz, Rush Limbaugh, and a few others are not exactly, at least to my mind, synonymous with "thoughtful consideration of all viewpoints". Nevertheless, he made a statement that pricked my interest. He says that John Kerry seemed to use the pronoun "I" in every other sentence of his nomination acceptance speech at the Democratic convention. Really? Hmmm. Off to compare acceptance speeches (you're right, I have no life).

You know, he has a point. I reviewed the acceptance speeches of both Kerry and President Bush and found the following. "I" totaled 71 in Bush's speech, plus two more times when he quoted John Kerry. "I" appeared 106 times in John Kerry's acceptance speech, or 47% more than that of the president. Now, one could be unkind and add the two "I's" from Mr. Bush's speech to John Kerry's total, after all, he was quoting John Kerry, but remember that the "right" is thoughtfully considerate of all viewpoints as well as patiently condescending towards French-coiffed Massachusetts blowhards.

Well, I cleverly thought, maybe it's a challenger's thing against an incumbent or incumbent party. "Let's check the 2000 acceptance speeches," said I, er, that is... was spoken to myself by myself. I found, er, it was discovered by yours truly that in 2000, George Bush used "I", incredibly, almost exactly the same number of times as he did in 2004, 72 times plus once more quoting someone else (a juvenile delinquent he met during a Texas detention center visit). How about Al Gore, the "incumbent"? Holy bejeezus! Albert used the fateful subjective personal pronoun in the 1st person a whopping 154 times in his 2000 acceptance speech. That is more times in one soon-to-be-loser's acceptance speech than did Mr. Bush in two speeches.

Now I, uh, that is to say, the author of this fact-filled, hard-hitting essay upon which you feast your eyes admits that he zipped through all four speeches very quickly. In the case of Mr. Bush and even Mr. Kerry, I, ah..er, this human calculator might have missed 1 or 2, but in the case of Al Gore, I...umm...ummm, the administrator of this blog could have missed 20 or 30 "I's".

Frequency chart of the I-word useage in nomination acceptance speeches.
Bush - 2004 - 71 - +/-0
Kerry- 2004 - 106- +2/-0

Bush - 2000 - 72 - +/-0
Gore - 2000 - 154- +20, or maybe +30/-0

TOTAL - Bush/Bush - 143 - dif = +0%
TOTAL- Kerry/Gore - 260 - dif = +82%

I think, uh...uh...umm, it is thought by this Pulitzer-challenged scribe that one of two possibilities may be at play here. Either the difference between the two candidates' use of the subjective personal pronoun "I" is meaningful, in the long run, or it isn't. I, that is to say, this thoughtful considerer of all viewpoints tends to think that both and neither is the case.

Know what I mean?

Al-Jazeera from the Republican convention

USA TODAY told us a few days ago that Al-Jazeera, the Arabic language cable news channel of truth and light would be covering the Republican National Convention. Mark in Mexico is proud to announce that we have acquired copies of the first photographs sent by satellite by Al-jazeera back to the Middle East and the Arabian Peninsula. We must remind our readers that all of the original photo captions are in Arabic and had to be translated to English by our in-house translator, Muhammed Ali Baba ibn Raaghhed al-Caamel. As further Al-jazeera transmissions become available, we will get them translated and posted as soon as we possibly can.



Senator Zell Miller (D), Georgia (above), addresses the Republican National Convention. In his efforts to reach out to all of America, and indeed to all the world on behalf of his Republican hosts, he included in his stirring speech the terms "kikes, spics, wops, pollocks, japs, chinks, gooks, slants, spooks, ragheads, camel-jockies and sand ni**ers". All of Al-jazeera's fellow members of the religion of peace will be glad to see that we were mentioned prominantly in his speech (that would be the ragheads, camel-jockies and sand ni**ers).

Kerry trails by 11 pts., Washington Post gets into gear.

In a series of articles this morning, The Washington Post enters the fight with all guns blazing in a desperate attempt to salvage John Kerry's presidential campaign, last seen listing heavily to port.

In this article, someone named Jeffrey H. Smith, identified by The Post as a former general counsel for the CIA (boy, now that fills one with confidence, doesn't it?) has the following to say regarding the Swift Boat Veterans;

But the central charges have largely been discredited by the Navy's records and by serious reporting in the mainstream media. (me: Beldar is going to be pissed to realize he has been wasting all this time.)

I did not serve in Vietnam, but...
We have gotten rid of Saddam Hussein, which is a great achievement, but...

In 1971 Kerry recognized that we needed to change our policy. In 2004 he recognizes the need to change our policy. That is the issue. Who is better equipped to lead us: Bush, who rigidly insists that he is right, or Kerry, who has charted a new direction? (me: towards Paris, right? Oh, and what should Bush be doing, rigidly insisting that he is wrong?)

Then there is this;

President Bush opened the Labor Day weekend with a bus cavalcade through Ohio for the second Saturday in a row, and said that peace and prosperity -- which largely eluded him in the first term -- would be his mission in a second.

But this one is the topper. In It's Still Nixon's Party, a weepy, sputtering Harold Myerson offers these tired old spitballs;

...public mugging of John Kerry.
and
...Zell Miller's ferocious and largely fictitious diatribe...
and
...after whom he modeled himself was Sen. Joseph McCarthy.
and
...Dick Cheney's more low-key falsifications of Kerry's record...
and
...Miller's crazed sermon...
and
...would be hard to construe as decency...
and
...the hallmarks of their campaigns against Michael Dukakis, John McCain and now John Kerry have been slander and lies.
and ...Bob Dole, old hatchet-man...
and ...

well, you get the idea, right? (All emphases mine, because...well..it's my blog.)

Why Bush is America's natural leader, stupid

Writing in The Telegraph, Charles Moore takes an interesting look at George Bush and America. My favorite parts;

You could scarcely be more New England Anglican (or, as they call it, Episcopalian) posh than the Bush family. The reason the President is called George is that one of his great-grandfathers, George Herbert Walker, was named after George Herbert, perhaps the greatest poetic voice of Anglicanism ("Teach me, my God and King…" etc).

Methodism was a purifying movement within Anglicanism. Eventually, it broke with its mother Church and claimed an independent existence as a cleaner, simpler, more personal faith, one that rejected worldly status. Bush junior's conversion follows that path - a turning away from personal failure (in his case drinking and getting nowhere) through a direct experience of God, a journey away from social grandeur to something that seemed more rugged, a journey from Connecticut to Texas.

If he hadn't put down roots in somewhere like Texas (silly phrase, sorry: there's nowhere like Texas), he would for ever have been vulnerable to the jibes about being an effete East Coaster. Now he can make a good joke about his "swagger" being what, in Texas, they call "walking".

Once one understands how this works, the suggestion that Mr Bush is stupid looks, well, stupid.

The Democrat candidate has to prove something to conservative America, whereas the Republican has to prove nothing to the liberals.

Looked at in this way, I find the Bush story reassuring. It shows that Mr Bush is not the half-witted fanatic of the BBC's imagination. He is an absolutely mainstream figure in a country that has always gone very big on God and Mammon and does its best to see if the two can't achieve peaceful coexistence. It is a country that believes very deeply in freedom, but its idea of freedom is so strongly related to its sense of itself that, when it feels external threat, it reacts with unified fury.

(emphasis mine)

Read the whole thing. It is an interesting read although I don't know about the "unified" part (see Kerry, Kennedy, Laufenberg, Michael Moore, et al).

Bad, bad, bad. Children, for God's sake.

100 Die in Russian School Siege Shootout

Sept. 3, 2004 — By Richard Ayton and Oliver Bullough

BESLAN, Russia (Reuters)

One hundred or more people were killed when Russian troops stormed a school Friday in a chaotic battle to free parents, teachers and children who had been held hostage for 53 hours by Chechen separatists.

Naked children ran for safety, screaming amid machinegun fire and explosions while attack helicopters clattered overhead.

Julian Manyon, a reporter for Britain's ITV television news, said his cameraman had seen into the gutted gymnasium of the school in Beslan, in the North Ossetia region adjoining Chechnya, after the hostage-takers left.

"Our cameraman ... told me that in his estimation there are as many as 100 dead bodies, I am afraid, lying on the smoldering floor of the gymnasium where we know that a large number of the hostages were being held," he said. The Russian Interfax news agency reported a similar number.

Tass news agency said there were more than 400 wounded, and agencies said at least seven people had been dead on arrival at hospital.

Rebels fled with soldiers in pursuit.

The authorities said events forced their hand after insisting from the outset they would not resort to violence.

Manyon said police had told him some children had tried to escape, and that when the captors fired and chased them, the troops opened fire and the battle began. Moments earlier, authorities said they had sent a vehicle to fetch the bodies of people killed in Wednesday's seizure of the school.

"No military action was planned. We were planning further talks," the regional head of the FSB security service, Valery Andreyev, told RTR television.

CHAOTIC SCENES

In the ensuing chaos, children ran from the building or were carried by soldiers. Stripped to their underwear after two days without food or drink in a stiflingly hot and crowded school, they gulped bottles of water and waited in a daze for relatives as gunfire crackled around them.

"I smashed the window to get out," one boy with a bandaged hand told Russian television. "People were running in all directions ... They (the rebels) were shooting from the roof."

The outcome of the siege may have repercussions for Russian President Vladimir Putin, who came to power in 2000 on a promise to restore order in Chechnya after years of violent rebellion and hostage-takings similar to the one in Beslan.

Some 129 hostages and 41 rebels died when Putin sent troops to overpower Chechen rebels who had seized a Moscow theater in 2002. But the violence in the region and elsewhere in Russia has continued.

A North Ossetian Interior Ministry source told Interfax the guerrillas, believed to number about 40, had split into three groups. About five had remained in the school while a larger group had tried to break out of the city, and others tried to flee by merging with the hostages.

Interfax said more than 10 of the captors were killed.

Officials had said some 500 people were being held in the school in North Ossetia, but released hostages said the number could be nearer to 1,500 people lying on top of one another in increasingly desperate conditions.

Izvestia said 860 pupils attended School No.1. But the number of people on the campus would have been swollen by parents and relatives attending the first-day ceremony traditional in Russian schools.

INDEPENDENCE DEMAND

Alexander Dzasokhov, president of the province of North Ossetia, said earlier the masked gunmen had demanded an independent Chechnya, the first clear link between them and the decade-long separatist rebellion in the neighboring province.

One unidentified woman freed Thursday told Izvestia that during the night children occasionally began to cry:

"Then the fighters would fire in the air to restore quiet. In the morning they told us they would not give us anything more to drink because the authorities were not ready to negotiate."

Attacks linked to Chechen separatists have surged in recent weeks as Chechnya elected a head for its pro-Moscow administration to replace an assassinated predecessor.

Last week, suicide bombers were blamed for the near-simultaneous crash of two passenger planes in which 90 people died. This week, in central Moscow, a suicide bomber blew herself up, killing nine people.

Russian media have speculated that the gunmen could belong to separatist forces under Magomed Yevloyev, an Ingush who is believed to have led a mass assault on Ingushetia in June.

A representative of Chechen rebel leader Aslan Maskhadov in London repeated denials of involvement by forces loyal to him and condemned the hostage-takers.

"This is a monstrous act ... There is no way to justify what they have done," Akhmed Zakayev, the representative, told Channel 4 news.

Up to 16 people were believed to have been killed in the early stages of the assault.

Update: I don't know what happened to this post. It should have appeared here early this morning. When I returned home and checked the blog, it was not here. If it had been one of my usual dopey half-wit posts, I wouldn't have minded, but this is serious as hell.


Update 2: The Russians are saying that among the dead terrorists (if anyone calls them "militants", they are misinformed, stupid assholes) are 10 bodies identified as Arab. What a shock is that?

Mozol tov!

Congratulations to Daniel W. Drezner:
Lauren C. Drezner
seven lbs., zero oz.

Not being a Zionist, I hope Mozol tov! is more or less correct.

Arnold's Speech - Excerpts

Because I actually have to work for a living and am all the way down here in old Mexico, I am happy to report that Jeff Goldstein at Protein Wisdom provided these interesting excerpts from The Governator's speech tonight in New York City before the Republican National Convention:

A Protein Wisdom exclusive! 9 lines / phrases cut from the final draft of tonight's Arnold Schwarzenegger address to the RNC:

1. [...] unlike John Kerry, who couldn't lift one of Michael Moore's man boobies.
2. Am I the only one who thinks John Edwards looks like a woman?
3. Then Nancy Pelosi got drunk and tried to grab my enormous package.
4. How about those Bush twins in their little party dresses, eh? Does anybody else have a chubby?
5. And then there's Cruz Bustamante, who I pounded into paper and used to wipe my ass.
6. Because were Teresa my wife I would have given her a smack a long time ago. But then, I'm not a Massachusetts pussy, either.
7. I pick scabs with bigger balls than Terry Mcauliffe's.
8. [...] or as Adolph Hitler might say, "mein kampf."
9. I'll be back. and Hasta la vista, baby.

Interesting speech, I'd say.

Burrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrp!


No further comment needed.

OK, a-one and-a-two and Commence Whining!

From PoliPundit: "I expect they will be accusing the GOP of being behind the Swiftie ads, although I would think they would want to take advantage of the GOP convention to change the subject, however, Susan Estrich already brought this up on Brit Hume's show last night. She said that if Bush wins it will be an 'illegitimate victory' due to the Swift Boat Vet ads. "

Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaah! Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah! Wah.

(All new parents will recognize the aforementioned.)

And it's only August, and they haven't even lost the election...yet.

A Sailor Under Fire

This letter written in February, 1968 from John Kerry to his girlfriend puts into words all of the anguish and fear felt by a young naval officer under constant threat of death from enemy fire:

Judy Darling, There are so many ways this letter could become a bitter diatribe and go rumbling off into irrational nothings.... I feel so bitter and angry and everywhere around me there is nothing but violence and war and gross insensitivity. I am really very frightened to be honest because when the news [of the combat death of his college friend, Dick Pershing] sunk in I had no alternatives but to carry on in the face of trivia that forced me to build a horrible protective screen around myself....

The world I'm a part of out there is so very different from anything you, I, or our close friends can imagine. It's fitted with primitive survial, with destruction of an endless dying seemingly pointless nature and forces one to grow up in a fast - no holds barred fashion. In the small time I have been gone, does it seem strange to say that I feel as though I have seen several years experience go by.... No matter [where] one is - no matter what job - you do not and cannot forget that you are at war and that the enemy is ever present - that anyone could at some time for the same stupid irrational something that stole Persh be gone tomorrow.

In February, 1968, John Kerry was an Ensign aboard the missile frigate U.S.S. Gridley, at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, 6000 miles from Vietnam.I have always thought that the "whose turn is it in the barrel" thing was a joke. Apparently not. It was "whose turn is it behind the protective screen?" Some vicious sailors aboard the Gridley, no? And that downtown Honolulu? Hoooo boy! Duck and cover! Duck and cover!

No Illusions about why the French are so easy to hate

All one has to do is read this and one will understand why the French are beneath contempt. The best part;

June, 2004:

...Mr. Chirac described Iraq as a place where "disorder prevails," adding that he did not share Mr. Bush’s view that the liberation of Iraq from Mr. Hussein was comparable to the liberation of Europe from the Nazis. "History does not repeat itself," he sniffed.

August 28, 2004:

Mr. Chirac said nothing about the violence and terror in Iraq, except to say that the restoration of sovereignty was "merely the start of a long and what is proving to be an arduous and hazardous process. But at least we have embarked on it."

We? We? This reminds me of the old joke about the Lone Ranger and Tonto finding themselves surrounded by 1000 hostile Indians. The Lone Ranger turns to his faithful companion and says, "Well I guess we are finished, old friend." To which Tonto replies, "What you mean we, white man?"

That's right, what you mean we, Chirac, you pompous gasbag? We have a 1000 dead heroes (real heroes, Mr. Kerry) and you have none, because you, A. have no guts, B. have no moral compass, and C. have no real influence on day-to-day events in a world which long ago left you behind.

The more that I think about this, the more it pisses me off. With a few hardy exceptions, the cowards of the world are happy for Americans to shed blood to defend them. Like the old radio show, "Gunsmoke", we're the first they run to, but the last they want to meet. When they are in trouble, whom do they call? To whom do they run weeping for rescue? Whose money and blood are they willing to expend to extricate themselves from one self-inflicted disaster after another? And then, whom do they band against, call war mongers, call cowboys, call irresponsible, call Ugly Americans? Why, WE, of course.

Want more? Here's more.

The Victory of the French People : In celebration of the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Paris, Le Monde has a special 8-page insert on Paris the Insurgent, the main article of which is called The Victory of the People and of the Tanks ("the people", as in "the people of France" or "the French people", not as in "person" in the plural).

In those eight pages, replete with photographs, there is not a single picture of an American (or a British) soldier (although one can spot American or British flags in a picture or two...

In the article The Men of August 25, there is not a single non-French allied leader mentioned (the four main "actors" being Charles de Gaulle, Philippe Leclerc, Rol-Tanguy, and Germany's Dietrich von Choltitz)

Of nine titles proposed in the suggested reading section, only two books concern the Allies as main characters, and one of those is in effect a book about the story of Robert Capa's D-Day pictures.

Not until the eighth and final page do we see articles concerning the United States, and they are ambivalent at best. The first concerns the common interests and the ambiguous relations between Paris and Washington, the second is an interview of historian Denis Peschanski, a research director at the CNRS, concerning the fact that "the way it was carried out, the liberation of Paris was not in the plans of General Eisenhower". Charles de Gaulle managed to change that, Dieu merci!

How many Americans, British, Australians and others died on French soil during WWII? WWI? Combined? And WE don't even get a mention from the sissified, pompous, self-rightous, sniffing French. They did not deserve our help then, now or in the future. But when they have again mired themselves in another scummy pukey cesspool of their own making, to whom will they run, shrieking for rescue? Why, to WE, of course. And will We ignore them and leave them to the fate which they deserve? No, WE won't. WE never have, WE don't, and WE won't. It wouldn't be...Christian.

Wow, that really jerked my chain, didn't it?

Not enough? OK, how about this?

June 5, 2004 (60th D-Day commemoration:

There is not a single American flag in Paris.

Not on the Champs-Élysées, not anywhere.

I don't care what the French think of Bush's policies. The minimum of respect would have been to put out the Stars and Stripes for the US president's arrival. It is not Bush who is arriving, it is the president of the United States.

The Champs-Élysées are filled with flags when any other leader arrives, no matter what their régimes' policies or what their leaders have done. They even turned the Eiffel Tower red...

Or this.The CSA polling company has released the results of a survey which found;
50% of the French public feel that France has no moral debt to the United States.
This opinion is shared by;
63% of those aged 18 to 24 years
58% of those 25 to 34
54% of those 35 to 49
48% of those 50 to 64
32% of those 65 and older.

Among the professions, farmers thought this in the greatest majority (62%) while retirees and the self-employed were the least likely to share this view (39%). The study also found that 82% of the French felt that France was sufficiently grateful to the US and that as little as 3% admire the US.

Worse yet, the Figaro reports in a survey it commissioned which finds that 82% of French feel that Germany is France's strongest ally while only 55% feel that the US is a trustworthy ally. Thirty-seven percent (and 61% of National Front, i.e. fascist, voters) now feel that Iraq is the country that threatens them most (a head of Iran and North Korea.)

I'm off, now, to strangle my cats.

Enter Contest - Win Millions!

Enter Mark in Mexico's "Find Jeff Goldstein" Contest

All you have to do is correctly identify the real Jeff Goldstein in the photograph below and you might win an I.O.U from Mark in Mexico for several million dollars. All entries must be accompanied by certified check or money order for, say, $1000.00 US, each, and we'll notify when we have determined a winner. Feel free to send as many entries as you like! All proceeds will go to Mark in Mexico's favorite charity.

Family members and employees of Mark in Mexico, Celluloid
Wisdom, any and all bloggers, and big-mouthed fat-asses
such as Oliver Willis, Michael Moore and Al Sharpton are
inelligible. The aforementioned may seem redundant, as most of those
mentioned couldn't find their asses in the dark with both hands, but local
social mores require said caveat.

Kerry's magic flying dog - VC - found by Mark in Mexico

The Washington Times reported:

In a 2004 presidential candidate questionnaire for Humane USA, Mr. Kerry was asked whether any pets have had an impact on his life.
"I have always had pets in my life, and there are a few that I remember very fondly," Mr. Kerry replied. "When I was serving on a Swift Boat in Vietnam, my crewmates and I had a dog we called VC. One day as our Swift Boat was heading up a river, a mine exploded hard under our boat," he continued. "After picking ourselves up, we discovered VC was MIA (missing in action). Several minutes of frantic search followed, after which we thought we'd lost him. We were relieved when another boat called asking if we were missing a dog." Said Mr. Kerry: "It turns out VC was catapulted from the deck of our boat and landed, confused but unhurt, on the deck of another boat in our patrol."

No military records on Mr. Kerry's Web site, which aides say is a complete accounting, mention a mine exploding under his boat or any dog. The only report of a mine detonating "near" Mr. Kerry's PCF 94 was March 13, 1969, when Mr. Kerry says he was injured and a man knocked overboard.

Lucianne asks,"What, did this guy even lie about being a member of Triple A?

Lucianne, he most assuredly did not lie about VC, the magic flying dog. I know this because, after an exhaustive search of some 20 minutes duration, I have found the dog. See his photo below. I know it is VC, because the photo caption says so.

We have met the VC, and he is I. 

Steyn ON-LINE!

Mark Steyn, writing in The Telegraph, in Kerry: strange, stuck-up... and
stupid, says the following;

Switch on the TV these days and you'll see John O'Neill, principal spokesman for the hundreds of Swift boat veterans who oppose their old comrade Kerry, talking calmly and patiently about the facts, citing chapter and verse and relevant footnotes, while some deranged interviewer is going berserk.

The other day it was CNN host James Carville, former skinhead-in-chief to Bill Clinton, yelling and howling all over O'Neill's answers before brushing him aside with, "I've got no use for this man."

And, in reference to Pat Oliphant's cartoon depicting Swiftboat vets spending their Viet Nam tours in latrine maintenance, he says;

Maybe he's got in mind fellows like Paul Galanti, who appears in the latest anti-Kerry ad and whose plane went down over North Vietnam in 1966. He was held in the "Hanoi Hilton" Viet Cong POW camp until 1973. That's seven years getting tortured by the gooks, only to be mocked by some lame-o cartoonist as a redneck latrine operator.

Commenting on Kerry's overall campaign stategy, he says;

Since I'm on an alliterative roll, let me add that he's too stupid to be President. What sort of idiot would make the centrepiece of his presidential campaign four months of proud service in a war he's best known for opposing?

and

And even if he'd never slimed his comrades, there's something ridiculous about a fellow with four months in Vietnam running as Ike, the Duke of Wellington and Alexander the Great rolled into one.

and

If this campaign were any more inept, Michael Moore would be making a documentary claiming Kerry's a Republican plant secretly controlled by Karl Rove and the House of Saud.

And beeeeeeeeg oil and ZionistIsraeliJewProtocols and Texasfundamentalists and fascistnaziBushhitlerbrownshirts,and per Goldstein, Abu Ghraib.

HMMM...This is very interesting

The Command Post says that Kerry's website has been revised this morning.

From the Boston Globe :

The Kerry campaign removed a 20-page batch of documents yesterday from its website after The Boston Globe quoted a Navy officer who said the documents wrongly portrayed Kerry’s service. Edward Peck had said he — not Kerry — was the skipper of Navy boat No. 94 at a time when the Kerry campaign website credited the senator with serving on the boat. The website had described Kerry’s boat as being hit by rockets and said a crewmate was injured in an attack. But Peck said those events happened when he was the skipper. The campaign did not respond to a request to explain why the records were removed.

Are someone's presidential aspirations beginning to crumble?

Who declared this "Jackson Family Day"? I thought I was in charge of this blog.

Surgeon used Jacko's ear to fix nose

Professor Werner Mang told how the superstar's nose was falling apart so badly by 1998 that he was called in to rebuild it with a piece of his ear.

'We decided that Michael Jackson, in reconstructive surgery of the nose, should get ear cartilage,' Professor Mang told American TV documentary-maker Daphne Barak.

'You make a cut on the skin of the ear and then you take out a big piece of the cartilage on the side. Then you make a cut on the nose and put the cartilage there. It's a wonderful material to reconstruct noses and repair them.'

Yeah, but you should see how his ears flap on a windy day.

BUSH WHITE HOUSE USED MY BOOB TO DISTRACT FROM IRAQ

DRUDGE REPORT says Janet Jackson now claims that her "Nipplegate" Super Bowl incident was used by the Bush administration to distract people from the war in Iraq!

Well, I was distracted....weren't you? Ann Althouse, you need not reply.

I am further enraged by his use of last year's World Series, the Stanley Cup Finals, The Laker's meltdown, the Enron investigation, Tiger Wood's slump, and his own daughters' graduation exercises to distract us. Tiger Wood's slump, too? Bushitler has no shame.

Kerry Reacts To Swiftboat Vets Accusations



When in deep shit, send in the lawyers. In a statement released to reporters, Kerry's campaign announced it had "filed a legal complaint against Swift Boat Veterans for Truth (SBVT) before the Federal Election Commission (FEC) for violating the law with inaccurate ads that are illegally coordinated with the Bush-Cheney presidential campaign."

This is, of course, hilarious.

(Photo borrowed from Charles Johnson at LGF. Don't tell him I took it.)

From the Newsmax Subgroup, Today's News Group, News of the Day Division, Underdepartment of Hilarity, Department of Where the hell is our money going?

Federal Bureaucracy Creep

The Washington Post notes one way that federal bureaucrats have been able to grow their numbers -- they simply create more titles.

In the past few decades, Uncle Sam has accumulated untold numbers of these: "deputy associate deputy secretary," "deputy assistant assistant secretary" and "principal deputy deputy assistant secretary."


from Newsmax

From the "Why didn't I think of that" Department

or

the "I would have-could have-should have said that" Department

"And to you sir, may I ask, don't you see the irony of the Democrats using 'restore trust' as their slogan. Did you not see their lineup of speakers?

"Let's count: we had Ted Kennedy, who lied about trying to save Mary Jo Kopechne. We had Hillary Clinton, who lied about her billing records, about her commodities trading prowess, about kissing Arafat's wife right after Arafat accused the Israelis of poisoning Palestinian children. We had Al Sharpton, of Tawana Brawley fame, who later incited an anti-Semitic riot in Harlem with fatal consequences--funny how you blindly embrace these leaders of liberty, isn't it?

"And then we had your sweetheart, President Clinton, who never saw a big hairdo or a little lie he couldn't resist. We had John Edwards, who made his fortune convincing juries of the evils of doctors, and finally, Kerry himself, who is living the biggest lie of all--marrying rich, then richer, and feigning empathy for the downtrodden as he jets from home to home to home. Are those the men and women in who's hands and hearts you want to place, if not restore, trust?"

Read all of it. It's good, trust me. But he left out the Hildabeast's most hilarious lie of all, how she got her name (she claimed that her mother named her after the famous Sir Edmund Hillary, the first man to scale Mount Everest, when, in fact, she was born several years before his feat, when he was still an anonymous beekeeper in New Zealand).

More potato chips, honey?
No thanks, I'll pass.

600 pound woman in Florida dies after being surgically removed from her couch wher she had been lying, it is estimated, 2 to 5 years.

Yeccccch!

MY MAGIC HAT




The Story of the Hat

I never go anywhere without my magic hat, just like John Kerry. However, my magic hat is much too large to fit in a secret compartment in my black valise, or any compartment, for that matter. Therefore, I must carry it secretly hidden away in a Maytag side-by-side refrigerator shipping box, which I am never without.

This hat was a gift given to me by Pancho Villa himself, during a top secret "black ops" dropoff up the Blue Nile. This type of dangerous secret mission is usually not referred to as "drop off", but Pancho objected to using the word "insertion", especially when it was just he and I alone on the river.

This operation took place in 1942, on direct orders of then president Andrew Johnson, and we had been given this assignment in spite of the constant threat of hostile fire from members of the American Expeditionary force, under the command of Gen. Anthony Wayne, who had been sent there by President Andrew Jackson. Complicating matters more was the neverending danger of wounds by the ever present rose thorns, which had also been sent by President Jefferson.

I must warn you that all parties "in the know" about this assignment will deny all knowledge of it, including President Hayes, Gen. Xerxes, Col. Doolittle, King Herod, Col. Custer (deceased), Peter Pan as well as Zapata himself, who, as I mentioned above, gave me the hat.

In fact, if you are reading this, I'll have to kill you. POW!

Update: This memory is, of course, seared, seared into my memory.

It's The Movie, Stupid!

Rent, if you don't have a copy, "Apocolypse Now" or "Apololypse Now, Redux". Now, before viewing it, make the following list.
1. Shooting up a sampan on the river.
2. Minor shrapnel wounds to various crewmembers
3. USO show in the middle of nowhere.
4. Illegal crossing of Cambodia border by boat.
5. Black Op insertion of a CIA agent
6. General mayhem at night at the border (Christmas Eve Shoot'em up)

Now, pop in the movie and place a check mark beside each item on the list as you see it occur in the movie. Notice when the movie concludes that all 6 items on your list are checked.

What an incredible coincidence that John Kerry's remembrances of his four (4) months' service in Viet Nam so closely parallel the movie.

What's next, dinner with Kurtz?

On Krugman:

Now Paul Krugman is smarter than Alan Greenspan!

What a truly rat-faced little weasel he is.

O'Reilly (the quasi-murderer) put him in his place. I seriously doubt that Mr. Krugman will be appearing in any more debates soon with Kill Bill.

Another one, albeit easier to pronounce.

Blorg chulavista spaz mocha:

READY FOR A LITTLE GIGGLE?

lgf: CLICK HERE and scroll down to comment #8. Put down your hot cup of coffee, first, and you don't want to have a mouthful of anything.

About comment #8, I have no comment.

SWIFTBOAT VETERANS RETURN FIRE, FOR EFFECT

Captain's Quarters has a complete copy of Swiftboat vet's legal answer to the threatening letter sent out to radio and TV stations by Kerry's attorneys. Note that the letter addresses each claim made in the commercial, point-by-point, followed by sworn affidavits and other evidence, names, dates, congressional records, Kerry's own words, etc.. This is as opposed to the Kerry lawyers' letter, which simply stated "pack of lies".

One of the Captain's commenters, who says he is an attorney, notes that the exhaustive detail of the Swiftboat vet's response indicates that they anticipated and were well prepared for the Kerry legal gambit and are, no doubt, several steps ahead of Kerry's legal team on this.

Another commenter asks the simple question, "Why not simply release his service records to clear all this up?"

Indeed. We'll wait.

JOHN KERRY'S MESSAGE FOUND

Dave Barry finds Kerry's message.

"Making America Stronger through the Strength of Strongness."

And while he was at it, he discovered the Democrat's message, also.

SPEAKER: . . . and THAT, my fellow Democrats, is why we must defeat this lying fascist criminal war-mongering scum-sucking vermin toad, who, in the interest of remaining positive, I am not going to mention by name.

Ponce de Leon was right!

The Quixotic search for the mythical Fountain of Youth by Ponce de Leon ended in failure. However, its existence has now been proven beyond a shadow of a doubt by El Duque, Orlando Hernandez of the New York Yankees. Given up for dead just two years ago by the Montreal Expos, El Duque underwent rotator cuff surgery, then went to Florida where he found the Fountain of Youth so desperately sought by de Leon.

El Duque just shut out, that's right, shut out the Toronto Bluejays to hike his record to 4-0, with the Bombers winning all six of his starts. His ERA, which was hovering around 3.00, will surely dip below that into the rarified atmosphere (for a 95-year old starting pitcher) of 2.90+/-.

His age is reportedly either 45 or 55 or 95, depending on which forged immigration document you wish to quote. Two years ago, he couldn't bend over to pick up his morning newspaper without requiring physical therapy to be able to straighten back up by noon. Now, he mows'em down like Randy Johnson, or Walter Johnson, or maybe Charles Johnson (the LGF CJ, not the catcher CJ). Roger who? Never heard of'im. Expect to see Ernie Banks return at any time.

Kerry's Secret Plan Exposed

Allah asks, "Is Kerry a moron? Or is he an evil genius chimp moron who wants to turn our soldiers into terrorists?"

We will add 40,000 active duty troops – not in Iraq, but to strengthen American forces that are now overstretched, overextended, and under pressure. We will double our special forces to conduct terrorist operations.

Hell of an idea. Send the Special Forces to start blowing up mosques, tombs, Muslims! That does it. I'm votin' for'im!

Hit them first, or wait to be hit?

9/11 Commission Report: "Once the danger has fully materialized, evident to all, mobilizing action is easier--but then it may be too late."

Kerry-Edwards book, "Our Plan for America: Stronger at Home, Respected in the World": The book's main text has one reference to pre-emption: "And his (Bush) doctrine of unilateral pre-emption has driven away our allies and cost us the support of other nations."

Driven away what allies and cost us the support of whom? No one about whom we should give a damn. We are supported in Iraq and Afghanistan by the likes of Australia, Japan, South Korea, Great Britain, Italy, Poland, Russia and many, many others.

As for those who do not support us, so what? Is France our ally, or is France our rival? France ceased to be our ally when DeGaulle marched into liberated Paris at the head of Free French forces (who did little to liberate it). France became our dependent, just as the rest of whimpering Europe did, protecting them from the Soviet bear. France ceased to be our dependent when the bear crashed and became our rival. Who cares? France was a useless ally in WWI, WWII and during the Cold War, effective only at blowing up isolated Pacific atolls and the occasional Greenpeace boat.

Gawd! Would I like to see someone with real international stature stand up and repeat what I just wrote. Rudy? Rummy? Slick Willy? (heh heh, just kidding, might hurt book sales). Joe Lieberman? John McCain? (naw, he's too busy trying to defend Kerry from a gathering avalanche). Who? Well, there is no one, I guess. Maybe Dennis Miller? Oops, he already has, repeatedly. It needs to be done, even if privately, by Colin Powell.

"Look, you guys (France, Germany, Belgium, Saudi Arabia, et al), we know and you know and we know that you know and you know that we know that you know that, in the end, you are irrelevant. We strike when we strike, where we strike and at whom we strike. Do not interfere in any way. Got it? Have a nice day."

This is starting to heat up, folks.

This from The Drudge Report:

The following statement from Swift Boat Veterans for Truth concerns an article appearing in morning edition of the BOSTON GLOBE, written by GLOBE reporter and author of the official Kerry-Edwards campaign book, Mike Kranish.

"Captain George Elliott describes an article appearing in today’s edition of the BOSTON GLOBE by Mike Kranish as extremely inaccurate and highly misstating his actual views. He reaffirms his statement in the current advertisement paid for by the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, Captain Elliott reaffirms his affidavit in support of that advertisement, and he reaffirms his request that the ad be played.

“Additional documentation will follow.

"The article by Mr. Kranish is particularly surprising given page 102 of Mr. Kranish’s own book quoting John Kerry as acknowledging that he killed a single, wounded, fleeing Viet Cong soldier whom he was afraid would turn around.

"Swift Boat Veterans for Truth has more than 250 supporters who are revealing first hand, eyewitness accounts of numerous incidents concerning John Kerry’s military service record. The organization will continue to discuss much of what John Kerry has reported as fact concerning his four-month tour of duty in Vietnam."

Current status: The Swift Boat vets have released an ad for their book which sounds devastating. The DNC and Kerry '04 lawyers have sent out a fax to hundreds of TV and radio stations which, in effect, threatens legal action against any station that airs or continues to air the ad for the book. The book is #1 on Amazon and has not yet been released. The Boston Globe reported this morning that George Elliott, one of the Swift Boat vets has retracted his story. The Swift Boat vets respond (above).

This is going to be as nasty as it gets. The story is all over the blogoshere and, I believe will destroy Kerry. Keep in mind the following; Richard Clarke, Joe Wilson, Valerie Plame and Michael Moore have all been shown to be liars (with documented proof, eyewitness accounts and even in their own words). The Bush-lied gambit has been shown to be patently false. The Bush-AWOL gambit cannot be proven, either by available documents nor by one single eyewitness (in fact, all eyewitnesses, including an ex-girlfiend, all pretty much agree that he was there and active): The economy is roaring, Iraq is democratizing itself, Afghanistan is democratizing itself, the murdering Islamists have not been able to strike us again, and a poll released today shows that 90% of Vietnamese-Americans support GW.