July 10, 2009

Wordpress

I'm getting tired of MT and I'm considering changing the Swilling to Wordpress.

Anyone have any experience/comments on that?

Thanks

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 10:43 AM | Comments (15)

July 02, 2009

This Guy Defines "Pitiful"

...It’s not unusual to see a flag in liberal provinces, of course.

But in the Bush years of sanctioned torture and war built on deceit, many Americans withdrew from overt displays of patriotism.

Some said they were ashamed of their country.

News flash, idiot. Only you and your sensitive friends cowered from that hideous symbol of neo-conservatism and torturing war-mongers, that GARISH red, white and blue banner of shame.

The REST of us remember what that Manhattan hole in the ground looked like beFORE the airplanes hit, remember what the aging gentlemen with the VFW pisscutters did to be able to march in the parade, get a little teary eyed when we watch "Glory", "Saving Private Ryan", "Sgt York", "Patton"...and don't think Jeff Daniel was half as bad a George Washington as we thought he was going to be. Remember that, at the very moment your bemused piece appears in a safe and comfortable environ, that there are men and women in the service of that flag who don't get to choose there wars. Who die where they are sent by a freely elected government and ask only that we remember THEM. They do not ask us to cherish their sacrifice, but I do. MY friends do. And I set those little flags out every morning and hope in my heart that, somewhere in an Afghani goat cave, with the horrors that surround them...I hope they know.

And a fair amount of us sniffle like little girls when we hear the Star Spangled Banner, because there's so much wrapped up in that song, written in the heat of yet another battle defending our freedoms...thinking of family and friends in uniform and the flood of emotion can take our breath away at the very first "Oh, say can you see...?"

Yes. We can. And we have always proudly hailed it. Because it is a constant, like that "We the People" piece of paper. They stand firm always, ensuring that BOTH the torturing war-mongers and elite, ineffectual, guilt-ridden intellectuals will not perpetually lead us, should we choose to make the change. Your banner of shame is our symbol of RIGHT ~ not a political leaning, but a freedom ensured by the pursuit of a "more perfect union".

I am sorry your world is so small that something so wonderful has to creep back into it. How sad that someone can only raise those stars and stripes when his candidate wins, and now it's cool again. 'Safe', you mean. So you don't get picked on by those "urban Americans" ~ those sophisticated, embittered, twisted lip, sneering decriers of anything remotely red, white and blue. I'd tiptoe timidly through that bunch, too. "I support the troops, BUT..."...red, white and blue is neo-fascist. How things change! Writing for the New York Times, your target audience has grappled with the same roiling guilts and anguishes (Check the comments ~ you scored beaucoup "empathy" points!) and now your tormented, cowering collective all can fist bump virtually together. Krishna, krishna.

And safely wear your little flag pins.

But for your president, not your country.

I'll never get it.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 08:31 AM | Comments (14)

June 23, 2009

A Token Of My Extreme

The St. Petersburg Times unloads on the Appliantologists. The first of three articles.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 06:25 AM | Comments (5)

June 22, 2009

Standards At The NYT

When it's a NYT employee who's in danger, well, golly, they're just all mum and agonized and the very souls of discretion

NEW YORK (AP) - Deciding not to report initially on reporter David Rohde's capture by the Taliban for seven months was "an agonizing position that we revisited over and over again," New York Times executive editor Bill Keller said Sunday.

"All along, we were told by people that probably the wisest course for David's safety was to keep it quiet," Keller said in an interview on CNN.

The Times reported Saturday that Rohde escaped from seven months in captivity in Afghanistan and Pakistan by climbing over a wall on Friday.

Rohde was abducted Nov. 10 along with an Afghan reporter and a driver south of the Afghan capital of Kabul. The Times kept the kidnapping quiet out of concern for the men's safety, and other media outlets, including The Associated Press, followed suit at the Times' request.

"It was an agonizing position that we revisited over and over again," Keller said in the CNN interview with Washington Post media critic Howard Kurtz. "But I also have a responsibility for the people who work for me. I send a lot of people out into dangerous places and their security is also part of my job."

But when it's a Republican President's policy that is protecting 300 million people, well, heck, let the sun shine in and the People have a right to know

In a stunning break with her party, the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee said Sunday that the New York Times damaged national security by revealing the National Security Agency's top secret terrorist surveillance program authorized by President Bush.

"If the press was part of the process of delivering classified information, there have to be some limits on press immunity," Rep. Jane Harman told NBC's "Meet the Press."

But don't worry: Bill Keller still "agonized" before hitting the "publish" button

KELLER: One of the assumptions that was built into the "Journal's" editorial is that, you know, when the president tells you that there's a national security reason for not publishing something, you should take that at face value. And, you know, we certainly believe that presidents are entitled to respective, attentive hearings, particularly in matters of national security. And we gave the White House every opportunity to explain why they thought publishing this information would be harmful. We agonized over it. We, as you say, held the story, and we kept reporting.

Priorities, folks.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 06:25 AM

June 11, 2009

Yeah, Yeah, Yeah

Big deal.

Women's Advocacy Group Leader Blasts Letterman's Jokes About Palin, Calls for Apology

The president of a national women's public policy group on Thursday blasted David Letterman's "offensive" jokes about Sarah Palin and her daughter and called on the CBS late-night host to formally apologize.

"There's a saying that out of the heart, the mouth speaks, and Letterman's statement reveals a pretty ugly reflection of who Letterman may be," Wendy Wright, president of Concerned Women for America, told FOXNews.com.

They're a conservative, biblical values group, for crying out loud. What a surprise they're offended.

I want one of Hilary's big shot girlie groups to say something.

Anything.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 05:26 PM | Comments (5)

My Email to CBS, for What It's Worth

I've never watched the icky, gap-toothed pervert, but feel compelled to chastise the network. And the sponsors. I've added links for the post. (And the cheeseballs have a damn AOL email address! What up wit dat?)

Subject: David Letterman is a disgrace, as his advertisers will also learn

There's comedy and there's comedy, and his attempt at humor qualified as neither.

His attempt at a pseudo apology is pathetic and indicative of a complete lack of individual character.

Would CBS have been so accommodating if, instead of Willow Palin, the target had been, say, young Malia Obama?

But, then, it never would have been.

Because these stupid pseudo-intellectual f*ckers have been picking on Willow all along.

Picking on little girls when you don't agree with their mum is okay. It's clever and funny, doncha know?

Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:29 AM | Comments (7)

Thoughts On Shooting Reporting

The murder of the guard is horrible beyond a doubt, but I'm somewhat struck by the coverage

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A rifle-wielding white supremacist entered Washington's Holocaust museum on Wednesday afternoon, fatally shooting a security guard before being wounded himself by return fire from other guards, authorities said.

Stephen Tyrone Johns, a six-year veteran of the museum's security staff, later "died heroically in the line of duty," said Sara Bloomfield, museum director.

Law enforcement sources identified the suspect as James W. von Brunn, an 88-year-old white supremacist from Maryland.

Did you know the shooter was a white supremacist? I guess it's reasonable to prominently note in a report written just a few hours after the shooting some details that are in fact probably highly relevant to the crime, and here "prominently" means twice in the first three sentences of the story. To be clear: CNN feels that it is very important that the suspect's political/philosophical world view be stressed; that it was his belief system that led him to act this way. And frankly I think they're right. The guy is a wacko scumbag.

Meanwhile, last week

(CNN) -- An Arkansas man was arrested Monday in connection with a shooting at a Little Rock military recruiting center that killed one soldier and wounded another, authorities said.

Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad -- a 24-year-old Little Rock resident formerly known as Carlos Bledsoe -- faces a first-degree murder charge and 15 counts of engaging in a terrorist act, Little Rock Police Chief Stuart Thomas said. The terrorist counts stem from the shots fired at an occupied building.

While authorities continued to investigate a motive, Thomas said Muhammad is a Muslim convert and, based on preliminary interviews with him, investigators believe there were "political and religious motives" in the shooting.

CNN's being a little more coy here, aren't they? You know, "investigators believe" that this person's belief system "might" have played a part in what he did - but let's not get hasty! Perhaps this little nugget buried by the AP yesterday may help them make up their minds

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — A Muslim convert charged in the killing of a soldier at a recruiting center in Arkansas says he didn't consider it murder because U.S. military action in the Middle East made the killing justified.

Abdulhakim Muhammad told The Associated Press Tuesday in Little Rock that he confessed to police that he killed Pvt. William Long outside an Army-Navy recruiting center.

After this murder yesterday it took only a few hours for Obama to issue this statement

“I am shocked and saddened by today’s shooting at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. This outrageous act reminds us that we must remain vigilant against anti-Semitism and prejudice in all its forms. No American institution is more important to this effort than the Holocaust Museum, and no act of violence will diminish our determination to honor those who were lost by building a more peaceful and tolerant world.

“Today, we have lost a courageous security guard who stood watch at this place of solemn remembrance. My thoughts and prayers are with his family and friends in this painful time.”

I agree with every word.

Compare that to the nearly 5 days it took for him to issue this somewhat more tepid statement

"I am deeply saddened by this senseless act of violence against two brave young soldiers who were doing their part to strengthen our armed forces and keep our country safe," Obama said in a statement issued by the White House.

"I would like to wish Quinton Ezeagwula a speedy recovery and to offer my condolences and prayers to William Long's family as they mourn the loss of their son."

A bit of a difference, it seems to me.

Oh, and as a further point of comparison here's what Obama said, again within hours, not 5 days, of Dr. Tiller's murder

I am shocked and outraged by the murder of Dr. George Tiller as he attended church services this morning. However profound our differences as Americans over difficult issues such as abortion, they cannot be resolved by heinous acts of violence.

Priorities, my friends.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 08:55 AM | Comments (10)

May 01, 2009

Not That I Would Ever Even Consider That The MSM Might Have An Agenda

I mean, goodness! Perish The Thought. But I do find it...shall we say somewhat curious that there is something lacking from their diligent and impartial reporting now

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Three U.S. troops were killed in Iraq on Thursday, making April the deadliest month for U.S. servicemembers this year.

Two Marines and a sailor were killed during operations against militants, according to a U.S. military news release. The military did not release the names of the troops.

In April, 18 U.S. troops died in Iraq, according to a CNN count of reported troop fatalities. Sixteen of those troops died in combat.

March's nine fatalities was the lowest death toll for U.S. troops in Iraq since 2003.

April was also the deadliest month this year for Iraqi civilians. At least 290 Iraqi civilians died in April, compared to 185 in March, according to an Interior Ministry official. Nearly 80 Iranian pilgrims were killed in suicide bombings last week.

April has seen a rise in attacks, most of them targeting Shiites. A series of suicide bombings last week killed almost 160 people and left almost 300 wounded.

Six car bombings struck Shiite areas of Baghdad in the span of four hours on Wednesday, killing dozens of people and wounding more than 100 people.

Notice what's missing? What has been included in every, and I do mean every, single story from Iraq by the MSM from moment one until, oh, say early November last year?

The Grim Milestone-O-Meter, that running tally of US deaths.

Gee, what could have possibly changed that the Fourth Estate feels it can move on to its next project?

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 06:21 AM | Comments (1)

April 25, 2009

Man, The Print Media Is Really Dying

I just got a mailing from the Financial Times offering me, as an "executive courtesy" mind you, a half-year's subscription for $49...instead of the cover price rate of $380.

Now I know that subscriptions always run at a good discount to the cover price, but geesh louise.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 05:08 PM

April 24, 2009

Kudos Again to ABC News

As if the magnificent Jake Tapper wasn't enough, on last night's broadcast, Jonathon Karl took a trip...to a certain (Shall we say "sparsely"?) populated airport terminal. That just happened to have Murtha's name all over it.

Welcome to the Airport for Nobody

Rep. John Murtha Steered $150 Million in Taxpayer Funds to Airport Over Last Decade

Honestly, it was so astonishing, I had to look at major dad and ask, "Did they just really do that?"

Posted by tree hugging sister at 08:01 AM | Comments (3)

April 23, 2009

A Short in the System

GE poobah Jeff Immelt needs to work on keeping his stories straight. One of these things is NOT like the other. For all the attention on the MSNBC brouhaha during the shareholders' meeting, the CNBC "make nice" meeting actually got some airtime.

...Attendees who spoke to THR said shareholders asked about 10 politically charged questions concerning MSNBC as well as one about CNBC.

First up was a woman asking about a reported meeting in which Immelt and NBC Uni CEO Jeff Zucker supposedly told top CNBC executives and talent to be less critical of President Obama and his policies.

Immelt acknowledged a meeting took place but said no one at CNBC was told what to say or not to say about politics.

Why have a meeting at all then, one wonders, considering...

...Immelt told the assembled he takes a hands-off approach to what is reported on the company's news networks...

Hands off? That must only be applicable to the left hand. As for my rowdy CNBC bunch, I haven't noticed any appreciable softening of sentiment in their marquee players. (As if someone could force, say, Kudlow to "tone it down".) Calling it as they see it is one of the most refreshing aspects of watching CNBC.

But it's nice to know that someone has noticed the differential treatment 'twixt siblings.

..."My biggest surprise was the open hostility to MSNBC," said Tom Borelli of the Free Enterprise Action Fund and a four-year critic of Immelt. "It was noticeable and loud. I don't remember any of this going on last year."

"Any time MSNBC was mentioned, there was a rumbling in the crowd of 400 people," he added.

More please.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 07:28 AM | Comments (5)

April 22, 2009

Oh, Save the BullSh*t Beauty Pageant Outrage, For God's Sake

You know, I don't agree with her one iota, BUT. She gets FULL marks in my book for being true to her beliefs, when it most certainly would have been both lucrative and expedient to throw them under the bus.

Miss California Feels Backlash From Former Hollywood Friends and Colleagues

Former Miss USA Shanna Moakler, who is now the director of the Miss California USA pageant, spent the last few weeks in Las Vegas actively promoting her pageant princess, Carrie Prejean.

But Moakler and her business partner, Keith Lewis, a strong activist against Proposition 8, were so infuriated over Prejean’s answer to Perez Hilton’s gay marriage question during Sunday’s crowning, they refused to make contact with the San Diego native after the show.

...Prejean, a student at San Diego Christian College, is studying to become a special education teacher and spends her spare time volunteering for the Best Buddies non profit organization, a program that helps people with disabilities. Prejean is also a volunteer for the Special Olympics.

But according to Equality California, a statewide advocacy group dedicated to winning equal rights for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people, Prejean’s views on gay marriage don't fit with those of her generation.

And that means...what? She's a beauty queen, for crying out loud, not ambassador to the Netherlands. As for her "handlers", what did they expect, knowing she went to a Christian college? HOW could this be a surprise? HOW? Well, then again, being from California/"Hollywood", they probably expected her to do the...lucrative and expedient thing. It's a business after all.

And Perez Hilton ALSO knew she went to a Christian college, so, being from California, he did the complete gay d*ckhead thing and put her on the spot for her religion. Not the other pertinent...attributes...that comprise winning such a completely vacuous exercise. Her religion. If it was so all fired important to know where she stood on the matter, schmaybe someone in California's pageant hierarchy could have asked the same question a little earlier in the process. But no one DID, because...I would have to guess it didn't matter as far as beauty pageant qualifications.

I'll bet you that whole "Christian" college thing caused Perez's purple pointy head to explode the second he saw it and he went gunning for her. Which would be perfectly acceptable had everyone else had been asked a question regarding the aspect of their personal beliefs which might be outside "generational" norms. Level the playing field, as it were. Wanna take a wager she's pro-life, too? (You're asking yourself, "How can she be so sure...?") Almost an intellectual exercise, right? But they didn't because, it's...well...a "beauty" pageant, not the National Religious Leadership Roundtable. Can she smile, is she pretty, does she fall when she walks, can she speak pleasantly? Yes, yes, no, yes ~ she wins.

Simple, simple formula for a reason ~ there's just not much more to the job than that.

Good for her.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 08:06 AM | Comments (5)

February 09, 2009

The Headline Reads

Newsweek Plans Makeover to Fit a Smaller Audience

I've got a suggestion! How 'bout a Newsweek cover (for the first time in what seems like six months) that DOESN'T have Obama's mug on it? The WOULD be a refreshing change! Like, schmaybe, NEWSweek had finally moved on to NEWS vice IDOL WORSHIP. They've come completely unhinged and it's disturbing in the extreme. HOW extreme?

Put bug-eyed Nance hugging Harry the Cadaver on it and I WOULDN'T CARE.

...In the first half of 2008, the average Newsweek subscriber paid less than $25 a year, or 47 cents for each copy — less than one-tenth the $4.95 newsstand price. Newsweek wants to raise that average to $50 a year, Mr. Ascheim said, adding, “If you can’t get people to pay for what they love, we’re all out of business.”

FIFTY BUCKS??

Wave bye-bye, Mr. A$$cheim.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 08:32 AM | Comments (8)

February 02, 2009

But Isn't That Kinda What "Live" Means?

You know ~ you put it out there knowing the risks?

...Minor said Hudson was very calm and prepared, and he counseled her to take the deep breath before she began so she could put herself in the moment. Although entertainers can perform live, Minor insisted that Hudson and Faith Hill, who sang "America the Beautiful" before the national anthem, use the tracks the NFL requires them to submit a week before the game.

"That's the right way to do it," Minor said. "There's too many variables to go live. I would never recommend any artist go live because the slightest glitch would devastate the performance."

How could it possibly be a "great", "TOUCHDOWN", "AMAZING" performance if she just stood there and used the singing accomplished safely in her own studio weeks before?

Fakey, fakey. I'm sick of it.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:18 AM | Comments (5)

But Isn't That Kinda What "Live" Means?

You know ~ you put it out there knowing the risks?

...Minor said Hudson was very calm and prepared, and he counseled her to take the deep breath before she began so she could put herself in the moment. Although entertainers can perform live, Minor insisted that Hudson and Faith Hill, who sang "America the Beautiful" before the national anthem, use the tracks the NFL requires them to submit a week before the game.

"That's the right way to do it," Minor said. "There's too many variables to go live. I would never recommend any artist go live because the slightest glitch would devastate the performance."

How could it possibly be a "great", "TOUCHDOWN", "AMAZING" performance if she just stood there and used the singing accomplished safely in her own studio weeks before?

Fakey, fakey. I'm sick of it.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:18 AM | Comments (5)

January 14, 2009

Interesting CNN Headline

"Blagojevich swearing in Illinois state Senate. See it right now."

Not really sure I want to.

Update: Now they've changed it to "Blagojevich oversees swearing-in for Illinois state Senate"

Hahahaha. Remember, they're the professionals, folks.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 01:15 PM | Comments (7)

January 05, 2009

I Don't Know About You All

...but, right now, THIS on the MSNBC home page?

All it says to me is:

Israel Kills the Little Babies of Very Nice Looking People For No Good Reason

No wonder these guys kicked Coulter off for good. I'd say "damage the brand", but hey!

Posted by tree hugging sister at 06:28 PM | Comments (4)

January 02, 2009

I, for One, HOPE Sh*t Like This CHANGEs

...after the annointment installation inauguration, 'cause I'm 'bout sick of it.

If you ask citizens of other countries to paint a portrait of the average American tourist, it would look something like this: a loud, chubby sight-seer wearing a fanny pack, baseball cap, printed T shirt, jean shorts and sneakers.

Not that part, 'cause that part's TRUE. This is the next sentence and PRECISELY what I'm talking about.

...It may seem like a funny, if harmless, image, but combined with the imprint of the outgoing president, the fashion-challenged cowboy in chief, the stereotype of the ugly American has become intractable.

WHAT the Kathie Griffin f*ckedy f*ck F*CK?!?!?!? Bush is fashion-challenged?? He wears a very nice suit 23/7, for Chrissakes and, to my limited knowledge, has never sartorially embarrassed the U.S. on an international stage. WHERE do they GET this shit? Actually, get the nerve to PRINT this shit, since it's a class in The Art of Outyoass 101. It's like everybody has to get that last slap at him in, even if it's the most ridiculous, petty, unanswerable, headscratching childishness imaginable. Gott im Himmel.

But sneaky bastards Newsweek DOES get to say ONE thing not even the incoming Vice-elect was allowed to:

...The United States has a serious public-relations problem, but the election of President Obama—with his youthful, clean-cut good looks—offers a valuable opportunity for a national top-to-toe makeover.

"Fawn" ain't just a LtCol's secretary or baby deer any more.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 03:27 PM | Comments (6)

I, for One, HOPE Sh*t Like This CHANGEs

...after the annointment installation inauguration, 'cause I'm 'bout sick of it.

If you ask citizens of other countries to paint a portrait of the average American tourist, it would look something like this: a loud, chubby sight-seer wearing a fanny pack, baseball cap, printed T shirt, jean shorts and sneakers.

Not that part, 'cause that part's TRUE. This is the next sentence and PRECISELY what I'm talking about.

...It may seem like a funny, if harmless, image, but combined with the imprint of the outgoing president, the fashion-challenged cowboy in chief, the stereotype of the ugly American has become intractable.

WHAT the Kathie Griffin f*ckedy f*ck F*CK?!?!?!? Bush is fashion-challenged?? He wears a very nice suit 23/7, for Chrissakes and, to my limited knowledge, has never sartorially embarrassed the U.S. on an international stage. WHERE do they GET this shit? Actually, get the nerve to PRINT this shit, since it's a class in The Art of Outyoass 101. It's like everybody has to get that last slap at him in, even if it's the most ridiculous, petty, unanswerable, headscratching childishness imaginable. Gott im Himmel.

But sneaky bastards Newsweek DOES get to say ONE thing not even the incoming Vice-elect was allowed to:

...The United States has a serious public-relations problem, but the election of President Obama—with his youthful, clean-cut good looks—offers a valuable opportunity for a national top-to-toe makeover.

"Fawn" ain't just a LtCol's secretary or baby deer any more.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 03:27 PM | Comments (6)

October 23, 2008

Indeed, Sir

...These are facts. This financial crisis was completely preventable. The party that blocked any attempt to prevent it was ... the Democratic Party. The party that tried to prevent it was ... the Republican Party.

Yet when Nancy Pelosi accused the Bush administration and Republican deregulation of causing the crisis, you in the press did not hold her to account for her lie. Instead, you criticized Republicans who took offense at this lie and refused to vote for the bailout!

What? It's not the liar, but the victims of the lie who are to blame?

If only national journalists had the conscience he's appealing to.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 02:58 AM

August 01, 2008

I Don't Know Anything About Canadian Press Standards

But something about this National Post story was very...odd. I mean, obviously the subject matter was the horrific slaying on the Greyhound bus. But subject matter aside what is somewhat glaring is the way Mr. McLean is referred to.

At the top of the article is a picture of him and a caption with his name, so obviously they knew his name when the story was published. But in the body of the article his name is never mentioned; he is only referred to by his race or as "the victim."

...Among them was an aboriginal man in his early twenties, listening to headphones and headed home to Winnipeg.

...When the bald man returned to the bus, he moved to the back, tossed his bags in an overhead bin and sat down beside the aboriginal man with the headphones, who had fallen asleep with his head against the window.

It's as if you wrote a story about Obama and McCain but only talked about the "black guy" and the "white guy."

I find it very strange; of what possible relevance is Mr. McLean's race?

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 10:11 PM | Comments (5)

July 22, 2008

You Know...

I may have to start watching Philly TV

PHILADELPHIA - A fired TV newscaster was charged Monday with hacking into the e-mail of his glamorous younger co-anchor hundreds of times for more than two years, as leaked information about her personal life helped lead to her own downfall.

Federal prosecutors say former KYW-TV anchor Larry Mendte gained access to Alycia Lane's accounts from home and at work — about 537 times between January and May alone — and shared some of the information he found with a reporter. Lane's attorney said the motive was jealousy, but authorities were silent on Mendte's motive and his method.

...The allegations are the latest in what is playing out as a titillating local news rivalry that has already ended Lane's career at KYW-TV, the CBS affiliate in Philadelphia. She was fired in January after a series of embarrassing off-camera incidents, including a scuffle with a New York City police officer.

Juicy juicy!

I have to say I just don't understand why you'd do a lot of this type of stuff. The egos of these people must be insanely, insanely large; I mean, look at what they were getting paid for basically being a pretty face who reads off of a teleprompter

Rosen alleged that Mendte acted out of jealousy, starting when Lane was offered a new contract in February 2005. Lane was making $780,000, or about $100,000 more than her co-anchor, he said.

She was making $780,000 and he was making $680,000.

I'm sending KYW my resume.

And as Cronkite had his "And that's the way it is.." sign off and Rather had his "Courage, Merry", so too will I have my trademark phrase:

"And thanks for letting us at KY share your night."

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 07:00 AM | Comments (4)

June 17, 2008

It's Pretty Sad When Sport's Illustrated

...makes an error this obvious

Georgia's David Thoms (7), is tagged out stealing second base by Stanford shortstop Jake Schlander in the fifth inning of an NCAA College World Series game in Omaha, Nebraska. (AP Photo)

First, the guy sliding is from the University of Miami, not Georgia.

And how often does a shortstop wear full catcher's gear to tag someone out at second base (or any place)?

Remember, folks, AP and SI are the professionals.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 12:08 PM | Comments (7)

June 10, 2008

BBC Puts Their Money Where Their Hearts Are

Well, actually, it's taxpayers' money

The BBC paid expenses to a disgraced academic who has pestered families bereaved by the 7/7 bombs, claiming the attacks were an intelligence agency plot.

Nicholas Kollerstrom was recompensed by the corporation for his part in Conspiracy Files, a documentary about theories surrounding the terrorist outrage.

He has admitted he phoned the father of one victim to tell him how he believed the man's daughter's body had been planted at the site of the Tavistock Square bus bombing.

What a goddamned scumbag.

Dr Kollerstrom believes the four bombers who murdered 52 people almost three years ago were 'innocent patsies', set up by a combination of the British, US and Israeli secret services.

Ah yes, those darn jooooos and their cabals.

Obviously he was carefully vetted by the BBC's crack research staff, who were most impressed by this bit of his resume:

Dr Kollerstrom was last month stripped of an honorary research fellowship at University College London after it emerged he had written a paper entitled The Auschwitz "Gas Chamber" Illusion on a far-Right website - claiming it was like a holiday camp where inmates sunned themselves by an 'elegant' swimming pool and listened to orchestras.

What a vile piece of excrement. I am so disgusted by this "Oh I'm not agreeing with the terrorists but I'm only raising questions because we just don't know.

Dr Kollerstrom denied he was harassing the bombers' victims but admitted he was wrong to phone the father of one victim who died at Tavistock Square, to explore his theory that the victim may not have been on the No 30 bus at all.

The ex-academic said: 'It was wrong to do that but somebody urged me to do it because they said it was vital information. I raised the question '"was she on the bus?" and the family were very upset because they are convinced she was on the bus... I just don't know.

'It is a possibility this victim was not on the bus and her body was placed besides the wreckage at a later time.'

What weasel crap. Pure and unfiltered.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 10:00 AM | Comments (1)

June 02, 2008

No Child Left Behind

Or major media website either, for that matter.

Click through my screen cap and see if you see what I see ~ the section's called "SMART Living", by-the-by. Chingao.

I mean DAMN. That's freakin' embarrassing.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 12:05 AM | Comments (12)

April 25, 2008

The Sean Bell Verdict

I freely admit that I have not paid enough attention to the details of this case to form an opinion about the officers' guilt or innocence. I certainly can understand the cops' feeling threatened, but 50 shots seems a bit...much. But what is getting my goat at the moment is how the media is reporting the verdict; specifically how Reuters is. Here's the opening para

NEW YORK, April 25 (Reuters) - Three New York City detectives were found not guilty of all charges on Friday in the shooting death of an unarmed black man killed in a hail of 50 bullets on his wedding day, sparking an angry demonstration outside the courthouse.

Which instantly plays to the theme that it's a racially charged incident, doesn't it? As does this a little later:

The case had generated outrage in New York's black community, though police said they did not expect violence because numerous demonstrations against the perceived police brutality had remained peaceful.

"It shows that there is no justice in America for the black man. This is telling us the cops can do whatever they want and get away with it," said B.M. Marcus, a community organizer.

Civil rights leader Al Sharpton, who has been highly critical of police and is influential in New York's black community, left the courthouse without making a comment.

So, it seems like another example of racist America, doesn't it? No wonder Obama is on the ropes, right?

Well, what Reuters chooses to ignore while playing up the race of Sean Bell is this

Two of the cops are 'black'. Where's your racial theme now?

CNN, to their credit, reports just pretty much the facts in the case as we know them.

Police misconduct is enough of a concern without spurious racial charges and innuendos being thrown about.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 11:53 AM | Comments (29)

April 04, 2008

"Oh, And He's Completely Alone At 3 PM Today"

I don't know. Maybe it's me, but is this something that needs to be broadcast in the media?

Secret Service: McCain Is Not Protected

WASHINGTON (AP) - Sen. John McCain travels the campaign trail without Secret Service protection although he is the Republican Party's likely presidential nominee, the agency's director told Congress on Thursday.

Obviously I'm doing something to spread this information, but it seems to me the cat's a bit out of the bag at this point.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 09:36 AM | Comments (4)

March 25, 2008

Round Number Reached; Media Inserts Tired Phrase

They really do seem to relish this stuff. Don't they have a clue how hamfisted this sounds?

Meanwhile, four U.S. soldiers died Sunday night in a roadside bombing in Iraq, military officials reported, bringing the American toll in the 5-year-old war to 4,000 deaths.

...The grim milestone comes less than a week after the fifth anniversary of the start of the war.

We should start playing "Media Buzzword Bingo" like they do in that brilliant IBM ad.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 07:38 AM | Comments (1)

March 18, 2008

Silly CNN Headline/Newsflash

"Barack Obama gives speech on race, any minute"

Not sure I've ever heard a speech about "any minute," but I guess this year anything goes.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 10:28 AM | Comments (3)

December 11, 2007

The Truth Comes Out

Mr. Big Tough On Religion Media Stud is, in fact, a coward

HH: Would you say the same things about Mohammed as you just said about Joseph Smith?

LO’D: Oh, well, I’m afraid of what the…that’s where I’m really afraid. I would like to criticize Islam much more than I do publicly, but I’m afraid for my life if I do.

HH: Well, that’s candid.

LO’D: Mormons are the nicest people in the world. They’re not going to ever…

HH: So you can be bigoted towards Mormons, because they’ll just send you a strudel.

LO’D: They’ll never take a shot at me. Those other people, I’m not going to say a word about them.

HH: They’ll send you a strudel. The Mormons will bake you a cake and be nice to you.

LO’D: I agree.

HH: Lawrence O’Donnell, I appreciate your candor.

And thanks, Hugh, for getting him to fess up.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 02:27 PM | Comments (12)

November 21, 2007

On World News Last Night

...Charlie Gibson surprised us.

...CHARLES GIBSON: Let me turn to Iraq.

PRESIDENT GEORGE BUSH: Yes, sir.

CHARLES GIBSON: You took a lot of doubting and rather skeptical questions about the surge. I'll give you a chance to crow.

Do you want to say, I told you so?

Rather a nice acknowledgment of the state of current affairs in a back handed sort of way, n'est pas?

Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:29 AM | Comments (4)

October 31, 2007

Not Being an Economist, STILL

...I don't think this is exactly a recessionary number.

U.S. economy grows at 3.9% pace in third quarter

The U.S. economy shook off the worst housing downturn in a generation to grow at a 3.9% annual pace in third quarter, the best performance in six quarters, the Commerce Department estimated Wednesday.

Make that 'numberS'.

...Despite rising worries about commodity prices, the GDP price index, the broadest measure of price changes in the economy, rose just 0.8% annualized, matching a nine-year low.

So whence the continual drumbeat of doom?

...A total of 8% of Americans say that the national economy is getting better, 18% say it is staying the same, and 69% say the national economy is getting worse.

I don't get it. More...

...Consumers, whose spending is an important ingredient for the economy’s good health, actually rediscovered their appetite to spend in the third quarter. Their spending rose at a 3 percent pace, a considerable improvement from the second quarter’s rather weak 1.4 percent growth rate.

One of the reasons why people are continuing to spend is because the nation’s employment climate has managed to stay fairly sturdy despite all the problems facing the economy. Job creation perked up in September and wages grew solidly. The unemployment rate crept up to 4.7 percent but that is still low by historical standards.

Wage and job gains have served as shock absorbers for some of the negative forces of an ailing housing market, weaker home prices and more restrictive credit.

We're doomed. Has no one asked a Democrat to explain the numbers? I haven't heard anyone yet. They just prattle on and on and the media buys it, if not out and out does their own spinning, while guys like Larry Kudlow are called cranks/Bush apologists. Or worse.

Thanks to this, Charlie Rangel will get handed the chance to screw Joe Taxpayer in a year and won't, as Gunnery Sergeant Hartman says,

"....even have the goddam common courtesy to give him a reach-around."

Posted by tree hugging sister at 08:43 AM | Comments (4)

October 24, 2007

Beside Myself With Glee Upon Reading This

...At one point, Governor Schwarzenegger cut off Shipman's pleas for negative assessments of the effort by grabbing her arm. He bluntly scolded,

"Trust me when I tell you, you're looking for a mistake and you won't find it because it's all good news, as much as you maybe hate it, but it's good news."

Oh, yes.

More, please.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 01:08 PM | Comments (7)

October 23, 2007

The Newsweek Cover

Students Rioting in Pakistan

...With ISLAMIC RAGE BOY front and center?

major dad saw him first.

UPDATE: Hmmm...

Posted by tree hugging sister at 07:55 PM | Comments (10)

September 24, 2007

As Kcruella and I Always Say: "If You Believe THAT..."

"...you'll buy [hold up empty wrist] THIS watch!"

N.Y. Times Calls MoveOn Ad a Mistake

Posted by tree hugging sister at 01:44 PM | Comments (3)

August 06, 2007

In A Bold Move To Keep Pace With Their Shrinking Relevance And Worth...

Pravda is now using smaller paper

NEW YORK Over the years, The New York Times has tended to think big, but tomorrow it will have to adapt to a new smaller-is- beautiful era.

In a front page note to readers this morning, the paper stated that the print edition they will hold tomorrow will be decidedly more compact.

Beginning Monday, the Times "will reduce the width of its pages by an inch and a half," to a 12-inch standard, the paper declared.

"The move will cut newsprint expenses and, in some printing press locations, will make special configurations unnecessary. Slight modifications in design will preserve the look and texture of The Times, with all existing features and sections, and" -- it admitted at the end -- "somewhat fewer words per page."

"somewhat fewer words per page."

One can only dream.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 07:28 AM | Comments (4)

July 30, 2007

Walking the Walk

...combined with talking the talk. Amazing concept, n'est pas? As the Blogfaddah noted, Michael O'Hanlon of the Brookings Institute had a joint NYT Op-Ed piece this morning, with a pretty astounding headline:

A War We Just Might Win

But major dad and I already knew his opinions had taken a remarkable turn because of his appearance this weekend on CNN's This Week at War. My immediate reaction was, "Has CNN lost their collective minds broadcasting something this positive?"

...FOREMAN: So what's the real situation on the ground? Arwa Damon is in our Baghdad bureau. CNN military analyst Brigadier David Grange, U.S. Army retired joins us from Chicago and here in Washington Michael O'Hanlon, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, just back from Iraq. Michael, let me start with you. The basic question, is the surge working?

MICHAEL O'HANLON, BROOKINGS INSTITUTION: In military terms, yes. Two big reasons, one, we are doing very well against al Qaeda in Iraq. I don't want to jump into this whole debate about whether they're taking orders from Osama bin Laden or not, but they have an extreme ideology and they have gone so far that the Sunni-Arab tribes are now fighting against them. I walked through the streets of Ramadi a couple of days ago without body armor. That city is turned around, 95 percent reduction of violence because the Sunni sheikhs and tribes are with us now against al Qaeda. That's going great. The sectarian violence much less well resolved so far, but at least we've put a bit of a cap or a lid on it with our greater troop strength. So that's the more long-term problem.

But the fight against al Qaeda is going brilliantly at the moment.

Wow and I mean WOW. We guessed CNN had not completely given up their agenda, as the actual CNN Baghdad correspondent (ARWA DAMON) was trying mightily to throw cold water on everything O'Hanlon said.

...FOREMAN: Arwa, is there a sense in Baghdad on the ground that that's exactly what's happening?

ARWA DAMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Tom, actually not when you speak to the Iraqi people. In fact, most of those that I've spoken to will not really say that they feel that the situation is getting better. Remember, they're not measuring their own security in terms of numbers of U.S. casualties or numbers of bodies that were found unidentified throughout the entire capital. They are measuring their sense of whether or not things are getting better by the level of comfort with which they can leave their homes. For most Iraqis, they are still just as petrified of falling victim of sectarian violence or any other sort of attack that could take place in the capital today as they were before the surge began.

Her negativity was surprisingly countered repeatedly by the strength of O'Hanlon's statements (bolstered, of course, by the fact that he has been on the ground there) and the show's military consultant's pointing out of the obvious ~ that you can't change the fundamental public viewpoint until you prove you mean what you're about. Trust takes time.

...FOREMAN: General Grange, militarily why is this working now? Is it a different approach or is it just the sheer numbers of the surge?

BRIG. GEN. DAVID GRANGE (RET), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Well, I think it's something to do with numbers, but it's really the new strategy. And it's funny you hear the debates going on politically about we need a new strategy. We need a new strategy. In fact, there is a new strategy. It was just really implemented full force mid June. So it has to have a little bit of time to work, and I think the new strategy of clear, hold and build - in other words, once you go in the area and you do what you have to do against any adversaries, you start to give people some confidence in the security forces whether it be U.S. or Iraqi and then you actually show you're going to improve the lifestyle of the area, the quality of life. You start to get in locales, these different locales, a sense of achievement and improvement. I think that's what's happening.

Tangible improvements already and all the 'surge' elements have only been in place and implemented in full for a little under two months.

On the whole, it was remarkable media exercise, even buried on the weekend as it was. I'm glad O'Hanlon puts his name to it on paper.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 12:48 PM | Comments (2)

July 09, 2007

Oh, I Am a Happy, HAPPY Girl Tonight!

My favoritest magazine in the whole, wide world is coming back.
Hoffman Media has taken over publishing it (they do Southern Lady, etc.) and I have great hopes. The typeface is back, the photography looks like it will be just as voluptuous...oh, DANG! This is COOL.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 06:31 PM | Comments (5)

So Is 'IMMIGRANT' the New

...'French Youth'?

3 Immigrants Killed in Texas SUV Crash

SAN ANTONIO (AP) - A sport utility vehicle packed with at least 19 suspected illegal immigrants crashed after a high-speed chase with authorities, killing three immigrants and sending 12 others to hospitals.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 01:00 PM | Comments (2)

June 29, 2007

Oh, PLEEEZZZ

Homicides soar in second-tier East Coast cities
Lack of immigrants, shift to anti-terrorism cited as possible explanations

Baltimore, Philadelphia and other cities in a bloodstained corridor along the East Coast are seeing a surge in killings, and one of the most provocative explanations offered by criminal-justice experts is this: not enough new immigrants.

The theory holds that waves of hardworking, ambitious immigrants reinvigorate desperately poor black and Hispanic neighborhoods and help keep crime down.

Well, I can see no one's asking LA about their perpetual wave of wonderful new immigrants helping keep crime down in Hispanic neighborhoods and why might that be, hmmm? And as far a Jacksonville's statistics go, lemme share what an Orlando police officer told us last year when they were the 'murder capital 'of Florida.

"If you're not buying drugs, chances are you'll never get killed."

Which, coincidentally, happens to be the same thing I heard in Jacksonville this April. Doesn't have a thing to do with immigrants keeping the peace. Has to do with the already criminal element getting pissed and using a piece when they don't ~ or can't ~ get a piece or somebody owes someone for a piece.

Immigrants my patootie.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:04 PM | Comments (10)

June 21, 2007

Anybody Wanna Tell Me WHY

...this...

Police on Wednesday were pleading for witnesses to help them track down members of an angry mob that beat a man to death after the car he was riding in apparently struck and injured a child.

Investigators were struggling to piece together what happened Tuesday when David Rivas Morales died defending the driver from members of a crowd. There could have been anywhere from two to 20 attackers, Austin Police Commander Harold Piatt said.

The car in which Morales, 40, was a passenger had entered an apartment complex's parking lot when it struck a 2-year-old boy, Piatt said. The boy was taken to a hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

The driver got out of the car to check on the child and was confronted by several people, Piatt said. When they attacked the driver, Morales got out of the car to protect the driver and was attacked as well. Police said no guns or knives were used.

...didn't make either ABC's World News Tonight or NewsHour last night?

I can guess why, but, being blonde and all, I need positive reinforcement.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:16 AM | Comments (24)

June 13, 2007

The Best Line of Last Evening's World News Tonight

...went to Charlie Gibson, hands down. In the lead-in for this story...

D.C. law judge broke down in tears and had to take a break from his testimony because he became too emotional while questioning himself about his experience with a missing pair of pants.

...(a $54 MILLION dollar pair of pants), he explained the lost pants and that the dry cleaners eventually found the pants, offering them plus $12,000 to this emotional, pantless person to settle things. But all for naught, Charlie intoned, as said plaintiff was still intent on...

"...pressing his suit."

major dad groaned audibly. Huzzah, Charlie!

Posted by tree hugging sister at 04:50 PM | Comments (13)

June 12, 2007

How

...inconvenient.

(Oh, God, beat me with a wet noodle. That was soo easy cheezey to do, it's ashamed I should be.)

Study: Kilimanjaro's shrinking snow not sign of warming

The snows of Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania have been diminishing for more than a century but probably not due to global warming, researchers report.

While the retreat of glaciers and mountaintop ice in the mid-latitudes -- where much of the world's human population lives -- is definitely linked to global climate change, the same cannot be said of Kilimanjaro, the researchers wrote in the July-August edition of American Scientist magazine.

...Most of the retreat occurred before 1953, nearly two decades before any conclusive evidence of atmospheric warming was available, they wrote.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 04:09 PM | Comments (5)

June 11, 2007

"Missile Is Launched By An Enemy Of The US"

Because, as everyone at the BBC knows, Europeasers have no enemies, and so this defense system does nothing for Europe.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 09:31 AM

Sometimes Headline Editors Need To Look Around

...and see what other headlines are on the front page. Case in point: NewsRadio 88's (CBS 880 AM) homepage right now, which has a story titled "Black Tie Boxing Coming to Wall Street" right above a story titled "Young Women Take Action Against Abusive Relationships"...

Hehehe.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 07:23 AM | Comments (1)

June 10, 2007

It As If Millions of Voices Suddenly Cried Out in Terror

...and were suddenly silenced.

Until they suddenly showed up on millions of boards, bitching about the Sopranos series finale. Snap to black.

I loved it.

major dad is bitching.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:08 PM | Comments (6)

June 03, 2007

Apparently, Word of the Body Count Dispute

They call this a consensus?

...Today, Al Gore is making the same claims of a scientific consensus, as do the United Nation's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and hundreds of government agencies and environmental groups around the world. But the claims of a scientific consensus remain unsubstantiated. They have only become louder and more frequent.

...What of the one claim that we hear over and over again, that 2,000 or 2,500 of the world's top scientists endorse the IPCC position? I asked the IPCC for their names, to gauge their views. "The 2,500 or so scientists you are referring to are reviewers from countries all over the world," the IPCC Secretariat responded. "The list with their names and contacts will be attached to future IPCC publications, which will hopefully be on-line in the second half of 2007."

...hasn't made it to ABC News. It seemed poetic that the article excerpted above made it's Drudge front page debut the morning after I heard the sly line quoted below. It was tucked into a World News Tonight report on the NASA ignorance/arrogance contretemps.

"...There are still a tiny number of scientists who agree with Griffin that humanity doesn't necessarily have to do anything about a warming climate. Most scientists, however, strongly disagree." ~ Bill Blakemore/ABCNews

I love the tone. "'TINY' numbers of arrogant ignorants out there in the wilderness, skulking in cool caves, still questioning, still pooh-poohing. They're crazy people who say the damndest things, but it makes us feel vastly superior. No wonder the cavemen are getting their own series ~ we love to indulge neanderthals." (major dad loves the chart Blakemore uses at the end of the piece to put paid to those tiny scientists' evil and ignorant pretensions.)(Oh, wait. Not tiny scientists ~ my bad. I meant 'TINY groups of scientists with tiny brains'.)

But then, along about Saturday afternoon, we were watching the Travel Channel and we suffered an environmental epiphany. The both of us. The answer to the CO2 emission/green house gas reduction is simple, but painful...painful.

Stop brewing beer and wine.

Fermentation: Conversion of sugars into ethyl alcohol and carbon dioxide, through the action of yeast.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 12:35 AM | Comments (25)

May 27, 2007

The Only Sunday Cartoon to Mention Memorial Day Besides Mallard Filmore

...was Doonesbury, where Trudeau posted half the names of those we've lost in Iraq since April 2006. (Second half of his memoriam next week.)

Good for him.

And shame on everyone else.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:05 AM | Comments (6)

May 14, 2007

Am I the Only One Who's Worried

...that this kid is now in mortal danger?

Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:00 AM | Comments (9)

May 10, 2007

The BBC Is...Kind To Bush

I think this fellow has it exactly right

The endearing thing about George Bush is that his body language and the spoken variety both betray his true emotions at every turn.

...The most memorable gaffe had been committed earlier that day, when the president almost implied that the Queen was 200 years older than her current age by thanking her for attending America's bicentennial celebrations in 1776.

He corrected himself mid-date, then did what he often does in sticky circumstances. He winked, smiled and lunged for recovery.

The Queen was heard to mutter: "Wrong year!"

The president responded with disarming honesty. The Queen had given him "a look that only a mother could give a child" he told his guests and the world, under a glorious Washington May sky.

Call me churlish, but I thought this was a charming escape from Royal Protocol Armageddon.

To my knowledge no reigning Queen of England had ever been winked at.

That's exactly how I thought of this event. I wonder how long before this correspondent is Lileksed?

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 07:04 AM | Comments (24)

May 04, 2007

I'm Confused ~ Whose Side

...is al-Reuter's rooting for?

Last campaign day for French presidential candidates

France's presidential candidates prepared for a final day of campaigning ahead of Sunday's vote with all opinion polls pointing to a victory for right-winger Nicolas Sarkozy over Socialist Segolene Royal.

Alrighty, then. After one gets through the intricacies of French campaign laws, they describe one candidate thusly:

...Sarkozy, a right-wing former interior minister and the favorite of financial markets, has hammered young hoodlums, illegal immigrants and enthused supporters with his attacks on the left wing protesters of May 1968.

Hated and feared as a dangerous authoritarian by many on the left, he has nonetheless been consistently rated the more "presidential" of the two candidates by most voters.

Ms. Royal, on the other hand?

...has struggled to shed an image of fuzzy inconsistency...

She's merely 'fuzzy'. Reuters has it down to Darth Vader...

...vs. a Teletubbie.

The choice is clear, for those who didn't know.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:51 AM | Comments (1)

May 02, 2007

Yo, Ho !

The counter argument sounds spurious to me.

Imus won't go quietly

...But Imus has hired one of the nation's premiere First Amendment attorneys, and the two sides are gearing up for a legal showdown that could turn on how language in his contract that encouraged the radio host to be irreverent and engage in character attacks is interpreted, according to one person who has read the contract.

The language, according to this source, was part of a five-year contract that went into effect in 2006 and that paid Imus close to $10 million a year. It stipulates that Imus be given a warning before being fired for doing what he made a career out of - making off-color jokes. The source described it as a "dog has one- bite clause." A lawsuit could be filed within a month, this person predicted.

...But in Imus' case, his free speech rights are tempered by the fact that he said what he said on the public airwaves - which are subject to Federal Communications Commission regulations about what is appropriate content.

"[Garbus is] a First Amendment lawyer who's argued many important cases," said Washington, D.C.-based attorney Lynne Bernabei, who has often represented plaintiffs in employment disputes. "I'm sure they're trying to make this a First Amendment case. But the airwaves are heavily regulated by the FCC.

"In my mind there is a big difference between someone who is under contract and is under FCC regulations and someone who speaks out in town hall. This is someone in a heavily regulated industry and who used the public airwaves."

"Used public airwaves"? The same public airways inhabited by "fuck the police", "bitches", "niggers" and "hos" ad nauseum, but set to "music"?

However revolting Imus is personally, your average hour of hip-hop/alternative/etc. programming has him beat to pieces for socially unacceptable airwaves anti-matter.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 12:53 PM | Comments (2)

May 01, 2007

The Facts of Life inTwo Words

...dude.

Macaulay.

Culkin.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 02:53 PM | Comments (2)

April 29, 2007

A Hot Flash for Rosie

Gasoline can do a number on steel.

A stretch of highway near the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge collapsed Sunday after a gasoline tanker crashed and burst into flames, leaving one of the nation’s busiest spans in a state of near paralysis. Officials said traffic could be disrupted for months.

Flames shot 200 feet in the air and the heat was intense enough to melt part of the freeway and cause the collapse, but the truck’s driver walked away from the scene with second-degree burns. No other injuries were reported.

And that wasn't even in a contained structure, with all the weight of tens of floors collapsing.

You need to pick a new science project, I guess. But I know you've got some time on your hands now, so all the in-depth research you do before you shoot your yap off shouldn't be a problem.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 06:52 PM | Comments (10)

April 26, 2007

April Fool's

...isn't plural, is it? Look-a here what I just found on Fox. It's linked on their 'Most Read' section all over the website. With all there is in the world to read about, they really can't be serious...?

I'm agog at the thought.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 05:08 PM | Comments (1)

April 13, 2007

Because They're White and Have Money

...don't waste your sympathy. Or your outrage. Because they were piggish college and had rented the strippers to begin with.

(At least I have a feeling Terry Moran wrote this on his own. If it's been Katie Couric...)

Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:37 AM | Comments (8)

April 10, 2007

That's How Bingley and I Work, Too

A CBS News producer was fired and the network apologized after a Katie Couric video essay on libraries was found to be plagiarized from The Wall Street Journal.

...The essays are carried regularly on “Couric & Co.,” the anchor’s blog on the CBS News Web site. Couric and producers meet once a week to decide on topics and the producers write them for Couric to read on camera.

I'm the socially inept heavy lifter slogging behind the scenes, while he's he's the big money, debonair "personality". I've learned to deal with it. Therapy helps. But we do actually try to WRITE most of our stuff, which leads to the next embarrassing question. How can it be her 'blog' if some pinhead...

Never mind. I just hope some granny in Poughkeepsie who just got 'the internet' and thinks Katie agonizes over her blog entries ~ writing from the heart once a week ~ never sees this. It's too cruel.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:13 PM | Comments (4)

Live On the Telly Right Now

...Rutgers is eating Imus alive at a school press conference. It's delightful.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:24 AM | Comments (2)

April 06, 2007

I Think a Rutgers Daddy

...needs to kick him some Imus ass. I can guarantee major dad'd already have a Bangla-cola/New York ticket.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:03 PM | Comments (6)

April 03, 2007

There Are Times When I Feel

...like retching.

ABC News Exclusive: The Secret War Against Iran

A Pakistani tribal militant group responsible for a series of deadly guerrilla raids inside Iran has been secretly encouraged and advised by American officials since 2005, U.S. and Pakistani intelligence sources tell ABC News.

...A CIA spokesperson said "the account of alleged CIA action is false" and reiterated that the U.S. provides no funding of the Jundullah group.

Pakistani government sources say the secret campaign against Iran by Jundullah was on the agenda when Vice President Dick Cheney met with Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf in February.

A senior U.S. government official said groups such as Jundullah have been helpful in tracking al Qaeda figures and that it was appropriate for the U.S. to deal with such groups in that context.

Some former CIA officers say the arrangement is reminiscent of how the U.S. government used proxy armies, funded by other countries including Saudi Arabia, to destabilize the government of Nicaragua in the 1980s.

The 'secret campaign against Iran'? (The 'by Jundullah' is almost an afterthought.) Talk about timing! Whose side is ABC on? Couldn't this wait until, like, maybe it was confirmed/authenticated? And, while we're at it, let's just wave the 'destabilize the regime' flag with all it's implications, vice emphasize the fact that they've got gobs of these wahoos looking for al-Qaeda types and we all know it. What's new here?

And damn! If I was the parents of one of those fifteen British troops, I sure wouldn't be thinking "thanks for letting us know" right about now. Put another unconfirmed 'intelligence sources tell ABC News' log on the Iranian fire, why doncha?

Posted by tree hugging sister at 08:08 PM | Comments (4)

March 27, 2007

I Guess This Means Moqtada al-Chubster's Okay After All

...and not the murdering, conniving son-of-bitch Bush and the rest have painted him to be. A regular humanitarian who just wants to hug the world: philanthropy with no ulterior motives.

Enclave of normalcy in fearful Baghdad
In Sadr City, radical cleric offers hope and aid

In front of a blue metal gate, women in black abayas clutch food ration cards and exhibit a confidence rarely felt in the Iraqi capital. They will feed their families tonight. Several yards away, men sit behind wooden desks poring over hundreds of colorful folders, one each for Shiite families forced to flee their homes. Every family will be given a new life.

This busy office in the heart of the vast Shiite slum of Sadr City is not an arm of the government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. Nor is it a relief agency. It is the domain of the 33-year-old Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr. Here, Sadr doles out aid to his neediest followers, from cradle to grave, filling a void in a desperately uncertain country.

All that trouble musta been caused by some other guy. It's the whole robe/beard/turban thing. I can't tell 'em apart.

My bad. Thanks, WaPo.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:27 AM | Comments (4)

March 26, 2007

As to My Opinion on the NYT's 'Veteran Rape' Article

...when I saw the magazine headline article and cover photo, all I could do was roll my eyes, snort in disgust and look away. I never read it. Now that at least one story was proven to be bullshit 6 days prior to release, I am vindicated in my display of non-compassionate-ism. But the question lingers in our sultry air..."yet the Times let it fly anyway?" It gets worse. The kicker is at the end of their correction. Then you have to look at when the correction...never mind.

The cover article in The Times Magazine on March 18 reported on women who served in Iraq, the sexual abuse that some of them endured and the struggle for all of them to reclaim their prewar lives. One of the servicewomen, Amorita Randall, a former naval construction worker, told The Times that she was in combat in Iraq in 2004 and that in one incident an explosive device blew up a Humvee she was riding in, killing the driver and leaving her with a brain injury. She also said she was raped twice while she was in the Navy.

On March 6, three days before the article went to press, a Times researcher contacted the Navy to confirm Ms. Randall’s account...

...On March 12, three days after the article had gone to press, the Navy called The Times to say that it had found that Ms. Randall had never received imminent-danger pay or a combat-zone tax exemption, indicating that she was never in Iraq....

...it is now clear that Ms. Randall did not serve in Iraq, but may have become convinced that she did....If The Times had learned these facts before publication, it would not have included Ms. Randall in the article.

So, since the bogus story had already been PRINTED in the magazine, rather than correct it immediately or ~ GOD FORBID ~ REPRINT the magazine, they ran the erroneous article anyway on March 18th. The mea culpa appears seven days later, on March 25th.

It is now clear that those at the New York Times did not serve with 'journalistic integrity', but may have become convinced that they did.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 01:59 PM | Comments (10)

What's Missing From The Front Page Of The BBC?

You'd think they might mention the 15 British soldiers kidnapped by Iran and threatened with an espionage show trial in complete and total disregard for the Geneva Convention.

But you'd be wrong.

Whose side are they on again?

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 07:12 AM | Comments (9)

March 22, 2007

It's a Great Political Cartoon

The French Paper Charlie-Hebdo bears the headline "Mohammed stressed out by the fundamentalists" and a cartoon of the prophet in tears uttering the words "It's hard to be loved by fools" back in February of 2006. (AFP)

Thanks to a French court decision just announced, it's also legal.

The editor of a satirical French magazine accused of insulting Muslims by reprinting cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad has been acquitted.

A French court has ruled in favour of weekly Charlie Hebdo, rejecting accusations by Islamic groups who said it incited hatred against Muslims.

The cartoons were covered by freedom of expression laws and were not an attack on Islam, but fundamentalists, it said.

The case was seen as an important test for freedom of expression in France.

Thanks to our friend the Gateway Pundit for the breath of fresh Euro air.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:06 AM | Comments (4)

March 08, 2007

CNBC's Market Watch

...notes something you don't see everywhere.

...Further underscoring the improved tone was the market's resilience in the face of weak February same-store sales. According to RetailMetrics, nearly two-thirds of retailers missed forecasts while the International Council of Shopping Centers-UBS sales tally rose a modest 2.4%, the smallest gain since last March and below the projected range of 2.5-3.0%. The coldest February since 1979 sidelined shoppers searching for spring fashions.

How inconvenient.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 05:37 PM | Comments (1)

February 22, 2007

CNN BREAKING NEWS!!!!!!!!!!!

"Lawyer nearly faints at the hearing on the fate of Anna Nicole Smith's body. Witness offers protein bar. "

This is CNN.

What a joke.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 01:17 PM | Comments (3)

January 29, 2007

Presented Without Further Comment

My vote for headline of the day:

Cats lose visiting privileges at women's prison

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 02:52 PM | Comments (1)

Quote of the Day

"How in the world is cold air blowing on an out-of-shape sweaty dude’s genitals supposed to make you feel like drinking a lemon-lime beverage?"

I give up. Ask Bingley.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:59 AM | Comments (2)

January 28, 2007

I Guess If I Were the New York Times

...and someone who worked for me had the nerve to appear on TV and say something like THIS...

Times editors have carefully made clear their disapproval of the expression of a personal opinion about Iraq on national television by the paper’s chief military correspondent, Michael Gordon.

The rumored military buildup in Iraq was a hot topic on the Jan. 8 “Charlie Rose” show, and the host asked Mr. Gordon if he believed “victory is within our grasp.” The transcript of Mr. Gordon’s response, which he stressed was “purely personal,” includes these comments:

“So I think, you know, as a purely personal view, I think it’s worth it [sic] one last effort for sure to try to get this right, because my personal view is we’ve never really tried to win. We’ve simply been managing our way to defeat. And I think that if it’s done right, I think that there is the chance to accomplish something.”

...I'd be compelled to whack his peepee, too.

...I raised reader concerns about Mr. Gordon’s voicing of personal opinions with top editors, and received a response from Philip Taubman, the Washington bureau chief. After noting that Mr. Gordon has “long been mindful and respectful of the line between analysis and opinion in his television appearances,” Mr. Taubman went on to draw the line in this case.

“I would agree with you that he stepped over the line on the ‘Charlie Rose’ show. I have discussed the appearances with Michael and I am satisfied that the comments on the Rose show were an aberration. They were a poorly worded shorthand for some analytical points about the military and political situation in Baghdad that Michael has made in the newspaper in a more nuanced and unopinionated way. He agrees his comments on the show went too far.”

It is pretty diametrically opposed to what I'm assuming the NYT editorial staff is used to getting from him. And how dare he offer his personal opinion when asked for his...personal opinion.

What I want to know is, since his personal opinion is also based on his experience but is an anathema to the NYT and (apparently) their readers...what does that say about his reporting? Is that fashioned to suit his employers then and not a reflection of what he actually sees?

Posted by tree hugging sister at 08:07 PM | Comments (1)

January 19, 2007

Searching for Answers Friday

If, God forbid, we'd lost Ebola when he was 11 ~ had years on end to torture ourselves with what might or might not have befallen him, and what we might or might not have done to prevent it all ~ and then had our baby boy returned to us in a miracle moment...would we have spiffed ourselves up shortly thereafter to go on Oprah? To put aside the damage and hurt that has to be festering to answer questions best asked by investigators and mental health experts vice an empathetic, concerned-head-tilting, multigazillionaire TV talk show host? (Because no matter how she was abused as a child, how many books she's written on weight loss or how she bought herself a whole Third World country full of uneducated little girls, she's STILL...just a talk show host.)

And as you bare your family's soul on that foreign stage in your new suit, clean hair and fresh shaven face, what makes you think that it's okay to throw in that you think your son has been sexually abused?

The parents of a Missouri teen told Oprah Winfrey in a show airing Thursday that their son hasn't told them directly but they believe he was sexually abused during the more than four years he was missing.

"OK, I'm going to go there and ask you, what do you think happened? Do you think he was sexually abused?" Winfrey asked Craig and Pam Akers, parents of 15-year-old Shawn Hornbeck.

Both nodded and said, "Yes."

She can ask you, but you don't have to answer. Or don't you think you should wait to answer because YOU DON'T KNOW FOR SURE? Or maybe, just MAYBE, it's nobody's business but the family's and law enforcement's? That maybe your kid has enough to handle in his life without 60 million viewers listening to his parents speculate on something so horrible and so very, very personal?

Pam Akers said she did not know when Winfrey asked if her son was tortured, but her husband, Shawn's stepfather, stressed that something happened to dramatically change the boy.

"I have no doubt that mentally he's not the same boy he was," he said.

Ergo, you're supposed to protect him, protect that fragile shell, give him a chance to recover. Not trot him out like a science experiment. Not like a limited installation at the freak museum, where you can talk about any aspect of his life in front of him for millions of TV voyeurs, because he really doesn't understand anyway.

Besides, who in their right mind would blow a shot at being on Oprah.

The kid'll get over it.

ths note: Hmmm...strange how some great Florida minds think alike.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 12:55 AM | Comments (1)

January 10, 2007

Quote of the Day

Although contained in George Will's excellent "The Last Word" column this week, it's NOT the MacArthur quote:

...And if it is judged a disaster, that will be because the responsible officials were too late in remembering what Gen. Douglas MacArthur said. He said that in war, all disasters can be explained by two words: "too late."

No, the QOD contained in the article is from a far less grandiose source, but is no less affecting, incomprehensible or chilling.

...Exchanging anecdotes with an Iraqi friend, Anthony Shadid of The Washington Post recounted this one: "Insurgents stopped a driver at a checkpoint. They opened his trunk.

'Why do you have a spare tire?' the insurgent asked solemnly.
'You don't have trust in God?' "

Can't wait to hear what the President has planned.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 05:11 PM | Comments (1)

January 04, 2007

I Love This

It's like he's an NBC consultant or something.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 01:35 PM | Comments (1)

December 18, 2006

What's Opera, Doc?

Head on over to the Deutsche Oper

Airport-style scanners will be used to search people attending a production of a Mozart opera in Berlin featuring the severed head of the Prophet Muhammad. Security has been tightened because of fears of a Muslim backlash against Deutsche Oper's version of Idomeneo.

Jesus, Buddha and Greek god Poseidon are also decapitated in the show.

I wonder if they will be serving ham sandwiches and danish blue cheese during the intermission?

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 07:14 AM | Comments (4)

December 13, 2006

Lou Dobbs

...made me laugh.

Merry Christmas! That's right, Merry Christmas. Whether you're Christian, Jewish, Muslim, agnostic, pagan, barbarian or whatever, Merry Christmas!

It's what most of us say in this country come this time of year. It's about who we are, where we are and where we've been. And all the namby-pamby, little sensitive darlings among us who can't handle this verbal assault on their delicate senses should immediately begin seeking emergency psychiatric care.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:19 AM

December 11, 2006

MUST See

TV
Let the little video player pop up and just nod your head in time to the common sense.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:06 AM | Comments (6)

November 20, 2006

Well, I Guess They're Not...

NOW, thanks for nothing.

MSNBC.com has just this second changed their home page.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 07:51 AM

November 02, 2006

ABC News Sure Knows How to Motivate the Base

Yup.
UPDATE: Wow. This shot as of 7:50 a.m.CST. They've dropped the "look at all sides" line.

EDITOR'S NOTE: A warm Swill Welcome to Gateway Pundit and Hot Air readers. Thanks for stopping by. A note concerning our post:

I’d like to add that I linked to the Air America Op-Ed piece when I first found this at about 4:45 a.m.CST. From the verbiage, you weren’t quite as surprised when you wound up on an Op-Ed, because it DOES say “all sides blahblahblah look”.

But by the second screenshot (three hours later), THAT LINE IS GONE, as well as the question changed ~ from "MAYBE He Was Right?" to "Could He Have Been Right?". That first sentence had also been rephrased and made an interrogative.

My jaded eyes tell me ABC is shilling for Air America (you'll notice the "Townhall" link is labeled "OPINION") ~ using the Op-Ed subterfuge for a "news" headline they intend to be read EXACTLY as it does.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 05:46 AM | Comments (15)

October 31, 2006

Tonight's Sound Bite

On ABC World News Tonight, the very first story was the horse's ass and the very last quote was a Democratic congressman*:

"I guess Kerry wasn't content blowing 2004, now he wants to blow 2006, too."

Now, commenters on Jake Tapper's blog are thanking him for "helping Republicans make this incredible non-story into one", so I guess it's stinging.

UPDATE: Whoopee! THE link. (*And I updated the quote to reflect it precisely.)

Posted by tree hugging sister at 08:21 PM

October 27, 2006

Oh, That Camille Paglia

She's a pistol. Selected gems...

...Since when does the Democratic Party use any gay issue in this coldblooded way as a token on the chessboard? You'd expect this stuff from right-wing ideologues, not progressives.

...I kept hearing on the radio the stentorian voices of Democratic women politicians saying that Foley was "preying on children." When will this stop? This blurring of the line between teenagers and children -- who should be vigilantly protected by any society....The Foley scandal exploded without any proof of a documented sex act -- unlike the case of the late congressman Gerry Studds, who had sex with a page and who was literally applauded by fellow Democrats when they refused to vote for his censure.

...And with the Democrats' record of sex scandals, what the hell were they thinking of?

Put your feet up and set a spell.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:57 AM | Comments (2)

October 26, 2006

I Think Maybe the Michael J. Fox Campaign Spots

...weren't such a great idea. She was up in the polls by 9 points a week ago.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 02:15 PM

October 24, 2006

Thank You, Robert Fisk

Never thought I'd say that, but thanks to the Fiskmeister I now know the next movie for the Netflix queue.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 06:49 AM

October 23, 2006

Question of the Day

...on Fox and Friends. A congressman asked :

"Why should American troops risk their lives to protect embedded CNN reporters?"

Well, that's a toughie, by George. I think the answer is always simply:

"Because they would. That's the kinda kids they are."

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:12 AM

October 22, 2006

George Bush Made Me Do It

Even thought it WAS legal...and NO ONE's personal data was compromised...and maybe terrorists really DIDN'T already know about it...I was just so durned mad at the mean way Bush and his guys talk about my newspaper. So in an emotional, proactive, "gotcha" fit of pique, I printed it anyway. 'Cause I can.

Since the job of public editor requires me to probe and question the published work and wisdom of Times journalists, there’s a special responsibility for me to acknowledge my own flawed assessments.

My July 2 column strongly supported The Times’s decision to publish its June 23 article on a once-secret banking-data surveillance program. After pondering for several months, I have decided I was off base. There were reasons to publish the controversial article, but they were slightly outweighed by two factors to which I gave too little emphasis. While it’s a close call now, as it was then, I don’t think the article should have been published.

Those two factors are really what bring me to this corrective commentary: the apparent legality of the program in the United States, and the absence of any evidence that anyone’s private data had actually been misused. I had mentioned both as being part of “the most substantial argument against running the story,” but that reference was relegated to the bottom of my column.

...What kept me from seeing these matters more clearly earlier in what admittedly was a close call? I fear I allowed the vicious criticism of The Times by the Bush administration to trigger my instinctive affinity for the underdog and enduring faith in a free press — two traits that I warned readers about in my first column.

So...sorry. My bad. I said I was flawed in my judgement, blahblahblah. You can read all about it if you can find the thing buried at the end of an article on the Op-Ed page.

And I forgot to tell the nimrods who send out our daily email edition to put a link to it on there, too.

But, like I said, sorry.

(And all those cranky Minnesotans can just quit being mean, too. And Malkin's just a poopoo-head.)

Posted by tree hugging sister at 03:48 PM | Comments (1)

October 19, 2006

Joke Of The Day, Part 2

CNN has responded to critics of their latest jihadi propaganda

Whether or not you agree with us in this case, our goal, as always, is to present the unvarnished truth as best we can.

Just like they did when they covered up for Saddam so they could keep their 'access'.

Their pompous self-importance makes me sick.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 02:02 PM | Comments (8)

CNN Shills For The Jihadis

I'm not even going to link to it, but here is what the bastards at CNN say as their top story:

Almost 2,800 Americans have been killed so far in Iraq and one of the most dangerous insurgent opponents is the sniper. CNN has obtained graphic video from the Islamic Army of Iraq, one of the most active insurgent organizations in Iraq, showing its sniper teams targeting U.S. troops. The Islamist Army says it wants talks with the United States and some Islamist Internet postings call for a P.R. campaign aimed at influencing the American public. The video is disturbing to watch but CNN believes the story, shocking as it is, needs to be told.

You disgusting bastards.

What "story needs to be told", you pusillanimous turds? The story of how murdering islamists can sneak up and take potshots at US soldiers because the soldiers are decent kids operating under civilized rules of engagement and the islamists live only to kill? The 'story' of how you will show US soldiers getting shot but not mention the ethnicity or religion of terror suspects and rioters?

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 06:50 AM | Comments (9)

October 18, 2006

And a Quick Market Update

DOW's at TWELVE THOUSAND and change

So far today's 'crippled economy' news?

Core CPI rose just 0.2% for third straight month, lending further support for the Fed to again forgo a rate hike at next week's two-day FOMC meeting

Housing Starts unexpectedly rose 6% to highest level since June but Building Permits fell 6% to five-year low

JP Morgan, IBM, Intel top expectations, Yahoo! matches forecasts, Motorola misses by a penny

Oil prices down 0.4% at $58.70/bbl ahead of weekly inventories report

Now back to Mark Foley.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:39 AM

October 16, 2006

There Was a Hurricane Blowing During "The Brawl" This Weekend

Blustering hot air and typical classless Miami bullsh*t.
From the BROADCAST booth.

Comments made by TV analyst and former Miami player Lamar Thomas during a sideline-clearing brawl involving the Hurricanes and Florida International will be edited out before the game is replayed later this week.

Thomas may also lose his job with Comcast Sports SouthEast, a regional cable network available in 5.5 million homes.

...“Now, that’s what I’m talking about,” Thomas said as the brawl raged out of control. “You come into our house, you should get your behind kicked. You don’t come into the OB playing that stuff. You’re across the ocean over there. You’re across the city. You can’t come over to our place talking noise like that. You’ll get your butt beat. I was about to go down the elevator to get in that thing.”

Miami and Florida International have campuses 9 miles apart in Miami-Dade County. It was the first meeting between the two programs, and the Hurricanes went on to win 35-0.

As the fight slowed, Thomas’ comments continued.

“I say, why don’t they just meet outside in the tunnel after the ball game and get it on some more? You don’t come into the OB, baby,” Thomas said. “We’ve had a down couple years but you don’t come in here talking smack. Not in our house.”

major dad said "it's astonishing!" I said no, it's not. "It's Miami." And he agreed. There weren't t-shirts in the 80's for the Notre Dame-Miami game that said...

Catholics versus the Convicts

...for nothing. And Donna Shalala says Coker's job is safe.
THAT'S astonishing.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 05:42 PM | Comments (2)

JEEZ!! Who DID Dirty Harry Reid Piss Off

...at the AP?!

Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid has been using campaign donations instead of his personal money to pay Christmas bonuses for the support staff at the Ritz-Carlton where he lives in an upscale condominium. Federal election law bars candidates from converting political donations for personal use.

Questioned about the campaign expenditures by The Associated Press, Reid's office said Monday he was personally reimbursing his campaign for $3,300 in donations he had directed to the staff holiday fund at his residence.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 05:05 PM | Comments (1)

October 15, 2006

"60 Minutes" Tonight?

They did a fantastic job. Kudos to Ed Bradley and the crew. As much for their report as for the people they interviewed. The 'second stripper' was a revelation. Well spoken, completely together ~ wow. I hadn't visualized that. (I had the strippers I've met through the years who've been married to Marines I worked with in my head. As in "stripper" ~ BINGO! "Candy" comes to mind.)

Nifong needs to go down like a BIG DOG and those three kids need to file a wrongful prosecution lawsuit of biblical proportions.

Like I said in my earlier post ~ Nifong is toast if Ed Bradley and co. are working for the defense. The tragedy of it all is the three young lives ruined needlessly.
UPDATE: A link is available now.

"This woman has destroyed everything I worked for in my life. She's put it on hold. She's destroyed two other families and she's brought shame on a great university. And, worst of all she's split apart a community and a nation on facts that just didn't happen and a lie that should have never been told," says David Evans.

You know, whatever her motivations, I wouldn't put it all on the accuser. She can shriek herself blue in the face from the Duke Bell Tower and that's her right, lies or not. No. It's up to the District Attorney whether the case goes forward on the evidence. When there IS no evidence, there is no case. "60 Minutes" shouldn't have to come to Durham to make a case that's been made in the press (and blogs) almost since the very beginning. Every revelation has been one more confirmation of exoneration. And yet it continues. The astonishing thing in the interviews was the fact that at least one of the young men had NEVER been questioned by either the Durham police or a representative of the DA's office. NO. ONE. Hey! I watch "The Closer" ~ the cops crawl all over you like a fly on roadkill.

Or they're supposed to.

La Shawn Barber's on the story, as ever. And WOW is all I can say about this dissection of the case.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 08:05 PM | Comments (6)

October 13, 2006

Kolbe Canyon

Round 2.

Feds probe trip that Kolbe made with pages
NBC exclusive: Congressman alleged to have been inappropriate in '96

Federal prosecutors in Arizona have opened a preliminary investigation of a camping trip Congressman Jim Kolbe, R-Ariz., took 10 years ago that included two teenage congressional pages, a Justice Department spokesman told NBC News.

...NBC also interviewed the two former pages, who are now in their late 20s. One of them said that Kolbe was a gentleman and never acted in an improper fashion. He recalled that the pair spent time in Kolbe's house at one point — and briefly were alone with him on the trip — and that Kolbe always acted professionally and decently.

The other would not comment on Kolbe's behavior during the trip or characterize it in any way.

"I don't want to get into the details," he said. "I just don't want to get into this... because I might possibly be considered for a job in the administration."

However, the former page — who is the one to whom Kolbe allegedly paid special attention — said he had a "blast" on the trip and did not report anything improper to his parents or any House officials after the trip. He said he has a favorable impression of the page program to this day and likes Kolbe.

Round One.

Now, there's no sign of Foley or Dirty Harry on MSNBC.com's home page, so I'm wondering how long before this makes front and center. ( World News Tonight had a piece on how conservative Christians are leaving the GOP in droves because they're "too close to homosexuals". )
UPDATE: Got the link.

Arguments among Christian conservatives — primarily that many of the gay men caught up in the Mark Foley scandal prove that Republicans have been too tolerant — threaten to tear the party apart.

"It's time for what we call a 'Come to Jesus Meeting,'" said Rev. Lou Sheldon of the Traditional Values Coalition. "Homosexuality is a dysfunctional lifestyle, and it must be addressed."

"Has the social agenda of the GOP been stalled by homosexual members and/or staffers?" Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council wrote in an e-mail to activists. "Does the party want to represent values voters or Mark Foley and friends?"

Synchronize your watches...6:22 p.m. CST in 3...2...now.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 07:22 PM

October 12, 2006

Since I Was Up Anyway

...being completely unbiased (and considering my earlier excoriation of Newsweek today) I thought I'd give the MSM ~ ohhhhh, let's say MSNBC.com ~ one last chance to put "Harry" instead of "Foley" somewhere ~ anywhere ~ on their home page. (And I will admit to monitoring the situation the whole live-long day. In the interest of fairness. And the fact that I don't want to be accused of being a stalker. Or text messenger. Or anything unseemly. Ick.)

Okay. So. There I was, after reading Hugh Hewitt's incredible round-up, but thinking his tagline ~ "The Harry Reid story looks very, very bad for the Democrats' number one senator." ~ was only wishful thinking, because you can't LOOK "bad" if no one's "LOOKING". Bravo for Mr. Hewitt that he found CNN on the story because my favorite fishin' hole had nuffin' on Reid (Screen shot of the MSNBC home page at 2137 CST.) but had at least four Foley related links, along with the obligatory "the economy SUCKS" headlines.

As much as I'd like to believe that this is a well informed electorate and that if there's any dirt in Washington, we'll see it fly by in our media...::sigh::... I don't listen to conservative talk radio, we've been watching World News Tonight since 1981 (Fox News makes my teeth gnash), I get the NYT every Sunday, our local fishwrap every day and NPR is the only station programmed in that very fancy car stereo. But I have my online rounds to make and flags go up when something's one place...and not in another. An agenda, perhaps? I start to wonder and I pick it apart ~ go looking for more. Sometimes finding less and THAT'S a story, too. But your average Joe just knows what he's fed from the MSM trough ~ "If something was happening, we woulda heard about it..." No, Joe. Not anymore you wouldn't.

When Newsweek sounds like Paul Begala on Crossfire or Kos on any given day, hey! Whaddaya do?

No, seriously! Whaddaya do? We're all singing to the choir here, pretty much.

So how do you/we/us get Harry Reid...to Joe?

UPDATE: Joe won't be reading about Reid on MSNBC so far this morning. 0740 CST 13 Oct ~ one Foley, one Abramoff, one Overseer of Pages and no Harry. At all.

More Dirty Harry Ditties at Michelle Malkin's.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:02 PM

Not Only is God Green

...he HATES George Bush and will direct his people to vote him and his silly a$$ed Rethuglicans O.U.T. OUT. (And then make them roast in the burny fires of hell, blahblahblah, but that's later.)

Jesus loves green, this I know!
'Cause Bill Moyers told me so.

A new holy war is growing within the conservative evangelical community, with implications for both the global environment and American politics. For years liberal Christians and others have made protection of the environment a moral commitment. Now a number of conservative evangelicals are joining the fight, arguing that man's stewardship of the planet is a biblical imperative and calling for action to stop global warming.

But they are being met head-on by opposition from their traditional evangelical brethren who adamantly support the Bush administration in downplaying the threat of global warming and other environmental perils. The political stakes are high: Three out of every four white evangelical voters chose George W. Bush in 2004. "Is God Green?" explores how a serious split among conservative evangelicals over the environment and global warming could reshape American politics.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 06:18 PM | Comments (3)

DA Nifong Has Himself Some BIG Problems

...if Ed Bradley and "60 Minutes" are working for the defense.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 02:51 PM

Check Out Newsweek's "Gaggle"

(I think they should name it 'GARgle', since that's what they need after writing these DNC love letters)

It's their 'political blog', as they call it. There's this big long list o' whoo-ya contributors down the left hand (how appropriate) side. Impressive but they coulda just put Kos's name there and saved space.

Like, here we are on October 12th and, outside of a sh*tty little note about the Army paying enlistment bonuses, it's all Foley/Rove/Hastert/Rove/Reynolds/Rove/Abramoff/Rove/blahblahblah, all the time.

Harry Reid, anybody? That's so THIS week. But, as a wise sage noted...

"Unless we can work a child-predator angle in, I think we’re pumping a dry well. Did Reid sign the deed at a coke party in the page dormitory in DC? No? Then we’re SOL."

With Newsweek's 'bloggers', I think we'd be SOL even if he had.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 01:15 PM | Comments (1)

October 11, 2006

Lending Credence to My 'Homo Hunt' Post

...the Kolbe Grand Canyon story link is off MSNBC.com's home page, but lookee how it pops up on their Politics page ~

with a RED exclamation mark for IMPORTANT !!

WHY would it be marked "IMPORTANT"? (And WHO decides/marks it as such?)
If nothing happened, WHY would it even be there?

Are they fishing? Are they schmearing under the guise of reporting?
Has a Democrat EVER taken pages along on a junket? We know how they treat interns...so it's a legitimate question, n'est pas?

If it was Barney Frank, it wouldn't have made the toilet paper, less mind MSNBC.
UPDATE: Since no one's blogging this (per a Technorati search) but moi, I thought I'd check another news site. You know ~ see if it'd made an appearance. Not on CNN ( 11:30 CST screenshot of my search ) it hasn't. If it's sooo "IMPORTANT!", shouldn't they be on it too?
Hmmmm....

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:10 AM | Comments (3)

October 10, 2006

And Are We On a Homo Hunt Here?

No sooner does openly gay REPUBLICAN Rep. Kolbe offer his official version of what prompted him to alert the Clerk of the page program, then this little number appears on MSNBC:

Rep. Kolbe visited Grand Canyon with pages
Park Service workers accompanied group during 1996 trip

Rep. Jim Kolbe (R-Ariz.) took two male pages with him on a three-day camping trip in 1996, former congressional pages and National Park Service officials tell NBC News. The pages, who were 17 at the time, went rafting and camping with Kolbe in the Grand Canyon over the July 4th holiday that year.

So, I guess no pages have ever gone anywhere with anyone else ~ gay OR straight ~ EVER? I mean, what's the point of the story if not to stick it to Kolbe ~ sprinkle some suspicion on him? Especially if they went as "part of a larger group" as the piece mentions later on?

If they weren't sharing his tent and canteen sippy straw, is there any reason to print this other than innuendo? (Which could be an unfortunate word choice, granted...)

I don't see anything yet from the Kossites, but they're not the only rotten eggs devil's flying monkeys ~ just the loudest.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:45 PM

There're Some Interesting Contradictions

...in this CBS/NYT poll for 6 Oct. Bush gets HAMMERED when people are asked about his handling of the economy, 34% approval to 57% disapproval, fails MISERABLY when asked about Iraq ( 30% to 66% ) but comes out a just squeak behind when asked their opinion of his handling of 'the war on terrorism' ~ 46% thumbs up to 48% in the 'he sucks' column. In what might be good news for Congress in a twisted fashion, they get drubbed in a 'how Congress is handling their job' question by a 27% approval to 64% 'throw the bums OUT' margin. BUT, when asked how their LOCAL representative was doing, everybody ( 56% to 27% ! ) loves their own guy! So is "Congress" an abstract for most voters? That would work in the Republicans favor I'd think. That's until schizophrenia hits again (in question 26) where those same voters, asked if they think their 56% beloved rep has earned re-election 'doing a good job' back in question 8, 43% say "no". ¿Que?

Now, back to the economy. Bush takes a whoopin' on his handling of it, but when asked on a five point scale HOW the economy ITSELF is doing, 60% of the respondants rate it in the VERY GOOD/FAIRLY GOOD categories! ¿Que? (How do they think "good" happens when a guy's been president for the past 6 years? At some point or another, he or Karl Rove had to have done something right. Mah-roons.)

There's also a 'favorable/not' list of questions which includes Cheney, Hastert, Condi but no Democratic leadership. I thought that odd.

Of course, there's 34 pages of this drivel and 87 freakin' questions before they get to the demographic ones signaling the end, so I guess you might be a little brain dead when it's done.

Provided you weren't already when it started.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 02:21 PM | Comments (2)

October 09, 2006

Well, Imagine

...that

“This is Foley’s lifestyle,” said Ron Gwaltney, a home builder, as he waited with his family outside a Christian rock concert last Thursday in Norfolk. “He tried to keep it quiet from his family and his voters. He is responsible for what he did. He is paying a price for what he did. I am not sure how much farther it needs to go.”

I was wondering why they thought the Christian Right would leave the GOP in droves over this, when it seems so painfully obvious that anyone could figure it out.

A) Foley did it his ownself. No one did it for him. No one made him do it. Rock.
B) The alternative is Nancy Pelosi. Hardspot.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:35 AM

October 03, 2006

Time Blames The Victim

The spineless bastards

Did a Critic of Islam Go Too Far?

A teacher in France is the latest to face death threats for daring to criticize the religion and its prophet's emphasis on violence

Did a Critic of Islam Go Too Far?

A teacher in France is the latest to face death threats for daring to criticize the religion and its prophet's emphasis on violence

By JAMES GRAFF/PARIS

Posted Monday, Oct. 02, 2006

The French are always quick to quote Voltaire, but for the last week one of his bons mots has been particularly pertinent: "Even if I don't agree with what you say, I'm ready to fight to my death so you can say it."

What calls the phrase to mind is the plight of Robert Redeker, 52, a writer and high school philosophy teacher who has been under police protection and in hiding with his family since the newspaper Le Figaro published his op-ed piece about Islam on Sept.19. Entitled "Faced with Islamist intimidations, what should the free world do?," Redeker's article called the Koran "a book of extraordinary violence" that shows the prophet Mohammad to have been "a pitiless warlord, pillager, massacrer of Jews and polygamist." The very day the piece came out, Redeker started receiving e-mail death threats. In a letter to a friend published this week in Le Monde, Redeker wrote that one website condemning him to death included a map showing exactly where he and his family lived, along with photos of him and his workplaces. In the letter, published as part of an appeal of support signed by French intellectuals including Bernard-Henri Lévy, André Glucksmann and Elisabeth Badinter, Redeker writes that he and his family are being forced to move every two days. "I'm a homeless person," he complains. "I exercised a constitutional right, and I'm being punished for it right here on the territory of the Republic."

Dhimmi Magazine.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 03:14 PM

Al-Reuters and the Latest Installment of

..."You Brought That Sh*t on Yo'self".

Western foreign policy and a tendency among some Muslims to impose their idea of truth have been key factors in the rise of radical Islam, Muslim writers say.

"Islam is about peace and submission. But there are certain realities that we cannot hide from," said Ziauddin Sardar, a Britain-based writer best known for his book, "Why Do People Hate America".

"There is a certain radicalization of young Muslims not just in Muslim countries but also in the Muslim population in the West," Sardar told a writers' conference in the Balinese resort town of Ubud.

"One reason for it is Western policy, what's happened in Iraq, Afghanistan, Lebanon, Chechnya. (Millions of) Muslims are very young and they feel very angry and hurt by the perpetual death and destruction in their society."*

Muslim writers do not, however, pin the blame for the rise of Islamic radicalism only on Western policy, but say the Muslim world's failure to engage with the Western world is a key reason for the differences and misunderstanding.

*Note to poor young Muslims disaffected by Iraq policy: there would be no Afghanistan or Iraq without 9/11 and that always seems to be left out of these treatises from Islamic writers. Millions of 'very young' Americans are also 'angry and hurt by the perpetual death and destruction in their society' wrought by YOUR kind.

I think we should take the blame for some of the rise of radical Islam ~ because we ALLOW it, we PERPETUATE it, we ENABLE it. From Somali cab drivers dictating who may grace their PUBLIC cab as a fare (which MIGHT NOT be a religious issue after all: "Partly out of concern that taxi drivers might be citing religion to avoid short-distance fares"), to CAIR dictating what one may or may not say on PUBLIC airwaves, to cancelling operas and opening a 'prayer room' at Windsor Castle, EVERY accomodation is seen as weakness and the demands accordingly become more strident, more encompassing. The Germans are beginning to question things.

...SPIEGEL: You have said numerous times that the conflict between the Western world and Muslim groups here is an "ideological war."

Tibi: The result of a conflict between two sides is that people politicize their cultural backgrounds. In Germany representatives of the Islamic communities try to hijack children who are born here, along with the entire Islamic community, to prevent them from being influenced by the society which has taken them in. Children born here are like blank sheets on which you can write European or Islamic texts. Muslim representatives want to raise their children as if they don't even live in Europe.

SPIEGEL: Many Germans believe that communities should live together peacefully without any parallel societies. Is it therefore right to compromise in order to avoid antagonizing Muslims unnecessarily?

Tibi: Quite the opposite. The Islamic officials who live here are very intelligent and view this as weakness. Muslims stand by their religion entirely. It is a sort of religious absolutism. While Europeans have stopped defending the values of their civilization. They confuse tolerance with relativism.

When do we START defending ours? As Mr. Tibi says at the end of the interview, "America's strength is that it is capable of accepting people into its communities." But those very same people, be they Hispanic or Islamic, Vietnamese or Laotian, need to be willing to be BROUGHT into the fold. Not just satisfied to reap all that America symbolizes while maintaining isolated 'old country' enclaves they scuttle back to after taking our money in commerce or welfare. (And I'm about sick of those Spanish NFL commercials they've been running during games, but that's a whole 'nuther rant.)

Assimilation is our only hope. It has always been what makes us ~ the great, rambunctious, scrappy, larger-than-life collective ~ "American".

'Cause there really is an 'us' in U.S.A.

And if it needs defending, so be it.

Bingley Update: This post at Hot Air ties in very nicely with what Sis is saying.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:53 AM | Comments (1)

October 02, 2006

Media Sources Had the Foley Emails

...last year.

...The St. Petersburg Times said that last November, it received copies of an e-mail exchange between Mr. Foley and a former page from Louisiana. The newspaper said the boy, who was under age, did not want his name used, and the paper said it did not want to publish accusations based on unnamed sources. The Miami Herald apparently received the same information, although it is not clear when it received it.

Brian Ross of ABC News said he learned about the e-mail messages in August but was too busy with Hurricane Katrina and the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks to pursue them immediately. None of the organizations seemed to anticipate how big the story would become.

Who in Congress knew and when?
And oh Lord, is it ever going to get dirty.

In North Carolina, where Representative Robin Hayes, a Republican, is engaged in a tough campaign fight, the state Democratic Party issued a statement asking, “Who does Robin Hayes stand up for — Mark Foley and the Republican House leadership or under-age children?”

Damn! But Brian Ross is reporting hearing from more pages about others in Congress, so it might behoove the Democrats to contain their disgust and outrage to Mr. Foley for the present.

A former senior Republican official in Congress says Foley was one of a handful of members and staff whose behavior with pages was being closely watched.

But so far Foley is the only member whose overt sexual approaches have been documented.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:49 PM

September 27, 2006

Well, HUSH My Mouth!!!

I'll bet he wish he had...

Democratic Senate challenger Jim Webb declined to say definitively Tuesday whether he had ever used a common derogatory term to describe blacks, stepping carefully after watching his campaign rival confront charges of racism.

“I don’t think that there’s anyone who grew up around the South that hasn’t had the word pass through their lips at one time or another in their life,” Webb told reporters.

See "BINGLEY:Chapter 1"

Posted by tree hugging sister at 12:56 PM | Comments (1)

September 26, 2006

Baby, It's HOT Outside

Okay, well, maybe where YOU live. But here in Bangla-cola, it's a delightful 75 and the house is wide open. (Just like it was into the beginning of summer, which never happens, mind you.) This after last night's ABC News doom and gloom report (which had lots of chortle inducing computer screens shots with the infamous 'hockey stick'). In the global warming fracas, I'm gonna take sides with with Dr. Gray, I think.

...Another problem, Essex said, is in the inability to do controlled experiments - one of science's key tools.

"There's only one atmosphere, so you can't hold everything steady and change just one variable to see what happens," he said.

Essex offered his critique of the models at a Los Alamos National Laboratory climate conference in Santa Fe in July.

At the end of the presentation, CSU's Gray jumped up and demanded: "Should we base national policy on these models?"

"I'm not touching that," Essex replied.

And then Essex added: "At every stage of the history of science, there has been some element that was impossible, and we've found a way around it. I am sure we will here."

This did not assuage Bill Gray.

Gray is among the most strident critics, quick to use words like "fraud" or "gang" to describe the modelers.

Instead of model projections, Gray looks at the history and patterns of weather to find trends.

And befitting his 76 years, Gray has a long view. His first report on climate - on the return of the dust bowl - was in the early 1940s when he was in junior high school.

"We'd gone through a warming trend in the '40s, and everybody was saying we were going to win World War II but face terrible droughts," Gray said.

Soon after, temperatures went into a cooling trend and by 1975, Gray points out, there was talk of a coming ice age.

Not because I don't care, or don't think it could be true, mind you. Just because the guys with thick glasses ~ tweaking and twisting their poor computers over the vagaries of Mother Earth, trying to fit it all into patterns that ALWAYS should work, but somehow never completely do, while discounting observation, history and common sense ~ say so? As one person points out in the article ~ how does that thermometer placed next to the heat holding building affect the REAL temperature reading and all your models? Move it away and recompute.

It's too iffy to lose our minds just yet. Like I always preach ~ it shouldn't take global warming to be a good world citizen. major dad and I've talked about how $1.25 gal gas would be horrible, because then the country's back to Ford Excursions instead of driving efficient vehicles for what their NEEDS truly are. From recyling, turning off the lights, the toothbrushing water, etc. on an individual level to power plant emissions, pig poopie run-off, etc. on the industrial side, it ain't hard and it ain't rocket scientist. And every little bit makes it better for everyone.

UPDATE: THIS is a great read.

...Finally, a September 15, 2006 Reuters News article claimed that polar bears in the Arctic are threatened with extinction by global warming. The article by correspondent Alister Doyle, quoted a visitor to the Arctic who claims he saw two distressed polar bears. According to the Reuters article, the man noted that “one of [the polar bears] looked to be dead and the other one looked to be exhausted." The article did not state the bears were actually dead or exhausted, rather that they “looked” that way.

Have we really arrived at the point where major news outlets in the U.S. are reduced to analyzing whether or not polar bears in the Arctic appear restful?

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:45 AM | Comments (5)

September 18, 2006

What a Helpful Headline

...from Newsweek.

A Pope’s Holy War

Of course, they ask "what was he thinking" after confirming papist jihad in print for all who live in an "out of context" world.

I haven't gotten as far as St. Peter's Koranic toilet paper, but I'll bet the mullahs will have thought of that already and will SWEAR they read it in there somewhere, too.

F*ckwads.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 02:45 PM | Comments (6)

September 14, 2006

Videos Of US Soldiers Being Killed On YouTube

No, I'm not surprised. The terrorists in their puerile impotency against our troops have to celebrate and glorify, and feed off of, whatever damage they can do to the troops;most of it is by a single shot here or there or a bomb hidden somewhere. And they can count on their media-saavy friends around the world to help disseminate it...their trendy concerned friends in various high schools and universities who somehow think that they themselves are protected from these murderous scum simply by cheering them on.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 06:50 AM

September 08, 2006

What a Shame For ABC That Madeleine Albright

...doesn't have Alzheimer's and can publicly dispute the network's version of her and her cohorts' colleagues' conversations

Susan Lyne knew it was a bad idea. That's why the ABC Entertainment president passed on what morphed into The Reagans, CBS's now infamous—and now scrubbed—miniseries. "Either you were going to get something very soft, and you weren't going to get an audience for it," she said. "Or you did something where you played up whatever elements you could and ended up having a bad reaction."

...CBS President Leslie Moonves, who accepted responsibility for the cancellation, said it was based solely on the merits—actually, the lack of merit—of the miniseries, in which, conservatives complained, Reagan was wrongly portrayed as a doddering gay-basher whose wife, Nancy, pulled all the strings.

...Some Democrats on the Hill did weigh in, however. Rep. John Dingell who knocked heads with the Reagan White House in the 1980s, couldn't resist tweaking outraged Republicans and sent Moonves a letter expressing his own "concern" prior to the cancellation announcement. The final cut, Dingell, said should include "$640 Pentagon toilet seats, ketchup as a vegetable, trading arms for hostages" and other scandals that plagued the Reagan administration.

Senate Minority leader Tom Daschle later called the decision to pull the show "appalling." CBS "totally collapsed," he told National Public Radio.

It's just so much easier when you pick on the weak and infirm, right Tom?

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:20 AM | Comments (1)

September 07, 2006

And I'm Sure ABC Would Have Been EQUALLY Obliging

ABC alters 9/11 show under pressure
ABC's upcoming five-hour docudrama "The Path to 9/11" is quickly becoming a political cause célèbre.

The network has in recent days made changes to the film, set to air Sunday and Monday, after leading political figures, many of them Democrats, complained about bias and alleged inaccuracies. Meanwhile, a left-wing organization has launched a letter-writing campaign urging the network to "correct" or dump the miniseries, while conservative blogs have launched a vigorous defense.

...had the offending naughty bits reflected BUSH administration types.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 05:25 PM | Comments (1)

August 30, 2006

CNN Gets Racy

With headlines like this:

Police: Throbbing artery gave polygamist away

I bet that throbbing artery was the source of all his trouble...

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 02:44 PM

Differing Standards?

What would happen to you if the following was found in your car:

FBI officials said at a press conference Tuesday that [he] was found with $54,000 in cash, numerous gift cards worth an additional $10,000, 15 cell phones, four portable radios, four laptop computers, a global positioining system device, a police scanner, several pairs of sunglasses and three wigs.

First off, "positioining"? The AP and MSNBC don't have friggin' spell check (CNN doesn't even try to spell it; they just say "GPS device")? Anyhow, if you're the leader of a Mormon Sect in Nevada and Utah they think about giving you bail. Somehow I don't think that would be an option in my case.

This wacko polygamist guy is a real scumbag, and I hope they put him away for a long long time.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 08:39 AM | Comments (11)

New MSM Definition: "Jitters"

"Jitters" is defined as "feelings which cause one to hop in an SUV and run down Jews."

See? Isn't that simple? No jihad here folks, move right along.

Of course, we get the required “He is a very good person. He is not like that. What’s wrong with him?” from the AP report.

I'm sure the NYT will have a story today telling us about "Young Omeed, known as a quiet man with a quick, warm smile, who often was seen helping kittens out of trees."

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 07:16 AM | Comments (1)

August 23, 2006

How Many Times Can We Say the Code Word: 'ASIAN'

...in one article, in an attempt NOT to say 'Muslim'?

Asian students' shock at ejection from jet by passenger mutiny
Two Asian students have revealed their shock and despair after being thrown off a plane because other passengers feared they were suicide bombers.

• Mutiny as passengers refuse to fly until Asians are removed

'Muslim' is used twice ~ by the students themselves, who also persist in calling themselves...Asians first.

"We might be Asian, but we're two ordinary lads who wanted a bit of fun," Mr Ashraf told the Daily Mirror.

"Just because we're Muslim does not mean we are suicide bombers."

Kim Jong Il is ASIAN. Chairman Mao was ASIAN. Hideo Nomo is ASIAN. William Hung is ASIAN. You say 'ASIAN', most of the world thinks 'Far East/Occidental'. By the Daily Mail's reckoning, Mel Gibson is ASIAN. (I could call myself Gisele all night long, but that doesn't make me 'Bündchen'.) (At least it hasn't so far.)

Are we are going to be sensitive ~ turning 'Muslim' into the N-word of our times, even though, like 'Jew', it's an ethnic and cultural fact vice a perjorative? Then how 'bout just plain old 'Middle-Eastern'? Whatever happened to that?

Posted by tree hugging sister at 03:29 PM | Comments (5)

August 22, 2006

A Good Question

...without a really good answer.

Israel is still in Lebanon, and Hezbollah is more powerful, thanks to Israel's lack of resolve and our pitiful support. More roadside bombs were exploded in Iraq in July than in any month since we invaded almost four years ago. More than 3,000 Iraqi civilians were killed last month in Iraq — that is more than 100 a day. Iraq is in the middle of a civil war, not sectarian violence. Hell, I don't even know what sectarian violence is, but I do know — and so should you — what a civil war looks like, and that is Iraq. Over 2,300 American soldiers have been killed or wounded there, and that count is still getting worse. We are flat in the middle of a bloody war with terrorism. We have just witnessed how vulnerable we still are, based on the most recent London "liquid bomb" scare.

However, such mundane subjects as terrorism and war are not on the front pages or in the news today, no sir. What we care about now, what we will be treated, to is the revisiting (the constant yelling and confusion created by lawyers and experts talking about), the conjecturing about another blonde, this time about a dead 6-year-old beauty queen from Colorado, or last week, about a famous actor who gets drunk and says bad things. You have got to be kidding me! Of course it was and still is tragic for the Ramsey family, but come on. How do we square this round peg? How did we get so off track? How can we spend even a moment of our national time on this?

Posted by tree hugging sister at 08:53 AM | Comments (1)

August 20, 2006

Blah...BlahBlah...BlahBlah...PGA....

...blahblahblah...["P"-words]...blahblah...blah...Tiger...blahblahblah...blah.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:27 PM | Comments (2)

August 17, 2006

BREAKING NEWS ~ Warrantless Wiretapping

...is ruled unconstitutional by a federal judge.

A federal judge ruled Thursday that the government's warrantless wiretapping program is unconstitutional and ordered an immediate halt to it.

U.S. District Judge Anna Diggs Taylor in Detroit became the first judge to strike down the National Security Agency's program, which she says violates the rights to free speech and privacy.

Let the games begin.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 12:13 PM | Comments (3)

August 14, 2006

Now You Have a Casting Couch Chance

...with Bingley's boy.

JIM ("I am a gay American") McGreevey might have a new job soon - as one of the homosexual hosts on the talk show Joan Rivers is launching this fall on Bravo that's described as a queer version of "The View."

Ah, the Garden State can remain ever proud of it's elected officials in or OUT.

(Of office, duh...)

UPDATE: Lisa's right, of course. So

CAPTION THIS PICTURE

Let the games begin. Cyber jelly donut to the winner.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:17 AM | Comments (11)

Morning Read

Via Tim Blair, go read this:

THE apparently successful pre-emptive strike by British and Pakistani police against a home-grown terror cell in Britain should raise the concern of every decent patriotic citizen in Britain, Europe and Australia about their long-term security. For the danger comes from what one would have hoped were the socially integrated children of Muslim immigrants, millions of whom have settled in western Europe and hundreds of thousands in Australia. Instead, a small but potent minority of this second generation has embraced a totalitarian temptation that George W. Bush, following numerous liberal Western analysts, has correctly identified as Islamic fascism.

All of it.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 07:12 AM

August 13, 2006

From the New York Times ~ Today's Editorial

No kudos for the operation that busted this plot, no acknowledgment that listening in on trans-continental phone calls yields invaluable intelligence or that international financial transactions might lead to someone with a bomb in his Kos-KoolAid bottle. Nope, none of it. That august institution of the free American press has the Kos-KoolAid bottle firmly pressed to it's puckered lips and is drinking in long, self satisfying swigs.

...It comes like a punch to the gut, at times like these, when our leaders blatantly use the nation’s trauma for political gain. We never get used to this. It never feels like business as usual.

On Wednesday, when the administration already knew that British agents were rounding up suspects in what they believed was a plot to blow up planes en route to the United States, Vice President Dick Cheney had a telephone interview with reporters to discuss the defeat of Senator Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut in a Democratic primary. Mr. Cheney went off on a rather rambling disquisition, but its main point was clear: In rejecting Mr. Lieberman, who supported the war in Iraq, the Democrats were encouraging “the Al Qaeda types.” Within the Democratic ranks, the vice president added, “there’s a significant body of opinion that wants to go back — I guess the way I would describe it is sort of the pre-9/11 mind-set, in terms of how we deal with the world we live in.”

...But that did not seem to deter Mr. Lieberman from scoring a cheap sound bite yesterday. Leaving Iraq, as Mr. Lamont advocates, “will be taken as a tremendous victory by the same people who wanted to blow up these planes in this plot hatched in England,” he said. “It will strengthen them and they will strike again.”

Osama bin Laden said the very same thing, but in the first person on tape: that al-Qaeda has taken strength from our continual cut and runs. All they have to do is wait us out. In the Times' eyes, I guess bin Laden is the subject matter expert and a distinguished Senator speaking the verifiable, quantitative truth using Osama bin Laden's own words is a "cheap" trickster for political gain.

Bin Laden's right, you know. He has us nailed like a cheap roof shingle. I'll bet this editorial gets framed on the cave wall when he gets it.

UPDATE and BUMP: Captain Ed has an interesting background on a controversy in the comments.

"...The controversy was about the lack of congressional and judicial oversight of the program, followed by worries that the story itself somehow compromised the program (as though terrorists would not have known of the high likelihood of their financial transactions being monitored had they not read it in the NYT and some other papers.) In other words, get yer facts straight, Swilling."

Byron Calame's (Public Editor at the NYT) column today looks at just how critical this information was for public consumption. So critical, the story was DELAYED FOR OVER A YEAR, while lying about the timing when it was finally released.

In my January column, in which I refused to rely on anonymous sources, I noted that I was left “puzzled” by the election question. But I have now learned from Bill Keller, the executive editor, that The Times delayed publication of drafts of the eavesdropping article before the 2004 election. This revelation confirms what anonymous sources had told other publications such as The Los Angeles Times and The New York Observer in December.

And, as Captain's Quarters takes it apart, it was all calculated not to have Kerry look any more wishy-washy and ineffectual than he was doing on his own.

...Left-wing pundits and bloggers have insisted that Keller spiked the story to keep George Bush in office. Keller, however, has a different take on his decision. He insists that the news would have likely helped Bush rather than hurt him, and the public support for this program after its delayed revelation last December supports that analysis. John Kerry and the Democrats had castigated Bush for the lack of visible effort to find and track terrorists, and the program's exposure would have forced Kerry to recant and suddenly argue that Bush had been too enthusiastic about fighting terrorism, a tough pirouette to execute in a grueling presidential campaign.

In the end, the final version of the story got prepared just days before the election, and Keller argues that a release at that point would have been "unfair" to all parties. It took several weeks for all of the political dust to settle once the article did come out. He may have a point, but then two related events took place: he delayed the release for over a year, and then Keller lied about the timing when he published it.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:22 AM | Comments (16)

August 10, 2006

I Think There May Be a Little Literary License

...in this Sky News leadline.

Angry Travellers Hit Out At Plotters

It goes to this article...

'Terrorists Must Not Win'

...where the quote in the headline never appears, neither does 'anger' and only one of the interviewed travellers is actually talking about 'terrorists'. ("If I can't get to Brighton, they win.") Everyone else is stoic/philosophical about missed flights or 8 hours without their iPod. WTF is that? WAKE the f*ck up and for Christ's sake GET MAD !! Whatever happened to "I want the people who wish me dead DEAD!" English grace under pressure is one thing, but we are fast approaching Neville Chamberlin territory. C'mon, c'mon, c'MON and stop this pretense of feeling their pain when THEY'RE the ones inflicting it!

Can you imagine a New Yorker, had it been centered here? (I can...)

"I don't give a rats a$$ who these motherf*ckers think they are, but they can come see Vinnie and I'll show them how we act in this country. Blowin' up women and children and disruptin' interstate commerce? You and what army, Ahmed? I got your virgins right here, you sick [p-word]. Those f*cked up bastards need their a$$es kicked and we're just the guys to do it. I'd say back to the stone age, but, since they're already there, there ain't much point to diplomacy, like we were f*ckin' French or something."

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:36 PM | Comments (11)

August 09, 2006

Hmmmm...

So somebody besides us noticed.

Israel says BBC not reporting war fairly
The Foreign Ministry is under pressure from Israeli citizens to resume its boycott of the BBC and to withdraw credentials from its reporters due to "one-sided" reports on the war in Lebanon, Israeli diplomatic officials said Wednesday.

...The diplomatic officials said the network had not been reporting the war fairly. Senior diplomatic officials in Jerusalem went as far as saying that "the reports we see give the impression that the BBC is working on behalf of Hizbullah instead of doing fair journalism."

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:02 PM

Heh.

I'd really guffaw, but this is Florida.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 04:24 PM | Comments (4)

Today's Inspirational Poster

Is brought to you by our friend Robb at Sharp As A Marble:

We'll be seeing this in those SkyMall catalogues in no time, mark my words...

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 10:11 AM | Comments (6)

I Smell "Embellishment" in the Air

See the Headline?



Now see the last sentence?

Have these people lost their minds? The truth is bad enough, you don't have to manufacture anything worse.
I don't have an earlier version of the AP report they used, so right now? That BS headline is on 'FAIR and BALANCED' Fox.

UPDATE: It's now 0848 CST and FoxNews.com still has the same headline.

UPDATE Part Deux: 0852 and it's just changed to "crashes".
UPDATE Part Trois ~ 12:34 EST: The FOXNews home page still has the copter as SHOT DOWN. Screen shot below.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 08:17 AM

August 08, 2006

More Fauxtography

Gateway Pundit has got an amazing catch of Pravda:

he's alive

Now he be dead (while, as Gateway says, "sweating and holding his hat by his side")

Look at the guy in the center on the top photo; it's the same guy who is being pulled 'dead' from the Joos rubble!

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 09:14 PM | Comments (1)

August 07, 2006

Funny, I Thought This Was The Point Of Airstrikes

CNN has this big banner headline Five killed in Israeli attack in south Beirut.

BEIRUT, Lebanon (CNN) -- An Israeli strike hit a south Beirut street on the edge of the city's mostly Christian eastern district Monday evening, killing five people and wounding 24, security sources said.

The strike hit a building near a mosque in the upscale southern suburb of Shiyah, officials with the security forces told CNN.

What the hell are the airstrikes supposed to do, deliver flowers? And, frankly, hit the damned mosque if the bastards are hiding in it.

Oh, and, PS:

The strike came shortly after Israel warned residents south of Lebanon's Litani River to stay off roads after 10 p.m., Israeli military sources said.

The warning came in a message broadcast through the media, sources said.

And Hezbollucks has warned how many civilians to leave before they attacked?

Damn Joosss, putting civilians in harm's way by telling them to, er, leave areas where terrorists are.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 02:29 PM | Comments (4)

August 03, 2006

There Was Something About This Article

...on the Times UK tonight...

.

..that I found hugely depressing. "Men 'told to kill all Iraqis'". I knew the commander of the Army Brigade in question was Col. Michael Steele (of 'Blackhawk Down' fame), who is being investigated for allegedly giving the order to 'kill all Iraqi military-aged men'. We saw the story on World News Tonight yesterday (a story that is now missing from the website) and so I recognized his face. But the 'Massacre Evidence' link goes to a story on the Marine's Haditha investigation. As if the two were interchangeable. As if it didn't matter what uniform it was or what town or who died. It's all lumped into one ugly pile. The Army atrocity is dispatched with a headline and a sentence ~ no point on expanding coverage, just set the link to the next Marine massacre in the queue.

If you look carefully at the whole page, Americans are the only ones killing anyone in Iraq.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 01:27 AM | Comments (3)

July 31, 2006

A New Quagmire! Just In Time For Fall!

Now it's the fault of those darn Joooos:

The Israeli bombs that slammed into the Lebanese village of Qana yesterday did more than kill three dozen children and a score of adults. They struck at the core of U.S. foreign policy in the region and illustrated in heart-breaking images the enormous risks for Washington in the current Middle East crisis.

With each new scene of carnage in southern Lebanon, outrage in the Arab world and Europe has intensified against Israel and its prime sponsor, raising the prospect of a backlash resulting in a new Middle East quagmire for the United States, according to regional specialists, diplomats and former U.S. officials.

The Arab Street! They're outraged!

Well, la-dee-frikkin'-da. They attack civilians, rather, they target civilians, and then they hide their brave fighters amongst their own women and children or amongst UN nannies. Which means that some of those folks are going to get killed when the fighters are attacked. Horrible, horrific, sad. But unavoidable if you are going to fight and destroy Hezbollucks.

I'm really somewhat puzzled by this concern about "striking up anti-US resentment" in the region. As if the people in the ME were, prior to 2000, all founding members in good standing of the "We Love America So Much Society."

"What the conflict has exposed in a really clear way is how linked all these issues in the region are to each other," said Mara Rudman, a deputy national security adviser in the Clinton White House now at the liberal Center for American Progress. "The worst-case scenario . . . is a much more radicalized Islamic fundamentalist Middle East and much more isolated Israel and a much more isolated United States and fewer people to talk with."

Haass, the former Bush aide who leads the Council on Foreign Relations, laughed at the president's public optimism. "An opportunity?" Haass said with an incredulous tone. "Lord, spare me. I don't laugh a lot. That's the funniest thing I've heard in a long time. If this is an opportunity, what's Iraq? A once-in-a-lifetime chance?"

In the long run, he and others warn, the situation could cement the perception that the United States is so pro-Israel that a new generation of Arab youth will grow up perceiving Americans as enemies.

What these folks have failed to realize is that 'talk' accomplishes nothing here. Nothing, except give the Islamists time to grow and infiltrate, to wear down a little more the spine of the West. They want to rule us. They want to destroy us and our precious way of life.

I was sitting in church yesterday, sort of in the middle of the sanctuary, and I was looking at the backs of all the folks in front of me. As it was rather warm outside a lot of the young ladies were wearing off-the-shoulder tops or tops held up with little straps; nothing tarty, mind you, but just normal summertime clothes. And I thought "These kids would be lambasted (at best) as whores and disgraces to the honor of their families were we under Sharia; hell, a few of these girls might even be killed by their brothers."

Depressing times.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 08:11 AM | Comments (3)

July 20, 2006

Even The BBC Doesn't Read The BBC

There's this mildy interesting story in the BBC today:

Tut's gem hints at space impact

In 1996 in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, Italian mineralogist Vincenzo de Michele spotted an unusual yellow-green gem in the middle of one of Tutankhamun's necklaces. The jewel was tested and found to be glass, but intriguingly it is older than the earliest Egyptian civilisation.

Working with Egyptian geologist Aly Barakat, they traced its origins to unexplained chunks of glass found scattered in the sand in a remote region of the Sahara Desert.

But the glass is itself a scientific enigma. How did it get to be there and who or what made it?

...An Austrian astrochemist Christian Koeberl had established that the glass had been formed at a temperature so hot that there could be only one known cause: a meteorite impacting with Earth. And yet there were no signs of an impact crater, even in satellite images.

The article than talks about how they think it was made by an 'air-burst' sort of meteorite. All fine and good.

But then I looked at the 'related' story links in the sidebar and I saw this:

Huge impact crater found in Egypt 06 Mar 06 | Science/Nature

Huge impact crater found in Egypt

The crater dwarfs the next largest known Saharan crater

A giant crater made by a meteorite impact millions of years ago has been discovered in Egypt's western desert.
Boston University experts found the 31km (19 mile) wide crater while studying satellite images of the area.

It is more than twice the size of the next largest Saharan impact depression and more than 25 times the size of Arizona's famous Meteor Crater.

The American team that found it says its sheer size may have helped it escape detection all these years.

...The heat from this impact may be responsible for the extensive field of "Desert Glass", yellow-green silica glass fragments found on the desert surface between the giant dunes of the Great Sand Sea in southwestern Egypt.

How much do the editors at the Beeb get paid? Remember, folks: they're the professionals. Do not attempt to be a "journalist" at home, and most certainly do not attempt it in your pajamas.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 08:10 AM | Comments (15)

July 19, 2006

Thank You for the Hezbollah View

+

=

It would be more fun if Helen Thomas realized he was layin' a hurt on her.
And then shut up for a while.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 05:25 PM | Comments (13)

July 16, 2006

Reality Wrapped in a Fable

...from Bob Schieffer this morning.

...The frog agreed and the trip went fine until they got to the middle of the river and the scorpion stung the frog. As they were sinking, the frog asked in his dying breath, "why would you do that?"

To which the scorpion replied, "because it is the Middle East."

It is worth noting that Palestinians in the Gaza Strip did not kidnap that Israeli soldier and provoke all this because the Israelis were invading Gaza. No, all this happened in the wake of the Israeli withdrawal, which was what the Palestinians wanted, but this is the Middle East. Why fundamentalists in Gaza and Lebanon chose to provoke this war makes no sense.

Israel had every right to respond and did. But this is the Middle East. So, the response may have made it worse by giving moderate Arabs in the region an excuse to distance themselves from Israel.

There was a time when America spent a lot of its diplomatic effort on the Middle East and sometimes, it had real impact. Jimmy Carter's Camp David accords, after all, removed Egypt as the main threat to Israel.

But in recent years, we have stepped back. Why? Hard to say. Except this is the Middle East.

And the "Call It What It Is/What They ARE" award of the day goes to David Brooks...

Why is this Middle East crisis different from all other Middle East crises? Because in all other Middle East crises, Israel’s main rivals were the P.L.O., Egypt, Iraq and Syria, but in this crisis the main rivals are the jihadists in Hamas, Hezbollah, Syria and, most important, Iran. In all other crises the nutjobs were on the fringes, but now the nutjobs in Hamas and Hezbollah are in governments and lead factions of major parties.

... Now there is a debate over how Israel should respond to this situation. Some say Israel should temper its response so Arab moderates can corral the extremists, which would be great advice if the moderates had any record of ever doing that or any capacity to do so in the near future. Others say Israel simply must degrade the capabilities of its fanatical opponents.

But this is a secondary issue. The core issue is that just as Israel has been trying to pull back to more sensible borders, its enemies have gone completely berserk. Through some combination of fecklessness and passivity, the Arab world has ceded control of this vital flashpoint to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Bashar al-Assad. It has ceded its own destiny to people who do not believe in freedom, democracy, tolerance or any of the values civilized people hold dear.

And what’s the world’s response? Israel is overreacting.

Can't argue with words like "berserk" and "NUTJOBS" ~ succinct descriptions. How refreshing.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 03:26 PM | Comments (2)

July 11, 2006

WhoopWhoop! Alert! Alert! Novak Speaks

On Brit Hume at 6 EST TOM (Weds.) night*.

Let us pray ~
Oh Lord, let this be the end of Thy servant Novak's role in Plame Gate. Let the shining light of illumination and the New York Times cometh down upon your humble correspondants, that they might clear Thine air about Thy Cavernous Mouth Wilson of Jericho Joe and we pray you claspeth his jaw of an ass locketh'd. Let us heareth not the caterwaulings and gnashing of teeth that so often accompanies Clarity's clarion call ~ the Oracle of Truth. Let not the insouciance of Thy leftist servants defile and defame those who speaketh from Justice's alabaster halls, nor maketh filthy fodder for Thy Kosites. Forgiveth them, oh Lord, for they know not what they babble and Thou showeth us what Thou hast done to Babel once already, yeah verily. And, oh Lord, if thy bounty which is endless, and Thy mercy, which is eternal, spring forth in flurry and flow from Thy bosom to encompass Thy liquid sphere, we pray that Thou shalt ~ lending Thy glory and strength to smite and vanquish their unholy foes ~ granteth Thy lowly servants, Thy Yankees, the Almighty League pennant.
In Thy name we pray, amen.

UPDATE: Via Drudge*:

BOB NOVAK, My Leak Case Testimony: 'I learned Valerie Plame's name from Joe Wilson's entry in 'Who's Who in America'... MORE Published reports that I took the Fifth Amendment, made a plea bargain with the prosecutors or was a prosecutorial target were all untrue... MORE... My primary source has not come forward to identify himself... Bill Harlow, the CIA public information officer who was my CIA source for the column confirming Mrs. Wilson's identity. I learned Valerie Plame's name from Joe Wilson's entry in 'Who's Who in America'... I answered questions using the names of Rove, Harlow and my primary source... I considered his wife's role in initiating Wilson's mission, later confirmed by the Senate Intelligence Committee, to be a previously undisclosed part of an important news story. I reported it on that basis.

How peculiar ~ "I read a book" isn't showing up as breaking news on any of the major web sites. I thought this 'outing' was a big deal.

UPDATE: The Gateway Pundit has the "Who's Who" entry and it sure looks like it says "Valerie Elise PLAME" to me. So if her name's right there...what 'leaked'? MSNBC is still calling it a 'leak'.

...In his latest syndicated column released Wednesday, columnist Robert Novak revealed his side of the story in the Plame affair, saying Rove was a confirming source for Novak’s story outing the CIA officer, underscoring Rove’s role in a leak President Bush once promised to punish.

The shame is the gazillion dollars spent on this a$$hole and his wife. In a lighter vein, Charles Johnson at LGF puts a positive spin on things.

"Those tiny popping sounds you hear are thousands of moonbat heads exploding."

Novak himself.

In my sworn testimony, I said what I have contended in my columns and on television: Joe Wilson's wife's role in instituting her husband's mission was revealed to me in the middle of a long interview with an official who I have previously said was not a political gunslinger. After the federal investigation was announced, he told me through a third party that the disclosure was inadvertent on his part.

Following my interview with the primary source, I sought out the second administration official and the CIA spokesman for confirmation. I learned Valerie Plame's name from Joe Wilson's entry in "Who's Who in America."

I considered his wife's role in initiating Wilson's mission, later confirmed by the Senate Intelligence Committee, to be a previously undisclosed part of an important news story. I reported it on that basis.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 05:56 PM | Comments (3)

The 'Glum' Rush

...is overstated.

Within the last 20 minutes, investors have received confirmation that a growing economy during the first half of the year has resulted in large tax collections from corporations, allowing the White House to trim its budget deficit estimates by 30% to $296 bln.

UPDATE: Now THERE'S a headline:

Budget Deficit Drops $296B Under Estimate

Seems W spread the good news his ownself.

President Bush touted new deficit figures Tuesday showing considerable improvement upon earlier administration predictions, trumpeting it as validation of his tax cuts.

Bush himself announced the deficit -- a task that has in the past been left to lower-ranking administration officials. The figures show that the deficit for the budget year ending Sept. 30 will be $296 billion -- much better than the $423 billion that Bush predicted in February and a slight improvement over 2005.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:34 AM | Comments (2)

July 10, 2006

The Headline Makes It Sound Like the Minutemen Were Rumbling

...when the report implies it was the counter-demonstrators.

Officer Hurt, Several Arrested During Anti-Immigration Rally
...Counter-protesters stood along the sidewalks shouting as anti-immigration demonstrators, including members of the Minuteman civilian border patrol group, marched along Hollywood Boulevard. The Minutemen, many of them carrying American flags, had a permit to march.

Minuteman founder Jim Gilchrist was among the marchers.

Angry counter protesters, some wearing bandannas to cover their faces, yelled at the Minutemen and called them racists.

They also tried to join the march, but since they did not have a permit, police stopped them, sometimes forcefully.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:15 AM | Comments (6)

What Is It About The Name "Times"?

Yet another newspaper feels obliged to compromise important programs:

A PROGRAMME of covert action against nuclear and missile traffic to North Korea and Iran is to be intensified after last week’s missile tests by the North Korean regime. Intelligence agencies, navies and air forces from at least 13 nations are quietly co-operating in a “secret war” against Pyongyang and Tehran.

It has so far involved interceptions of North Korean ships at sea, US agents prowling the waterfronts in Taiwan, multinational naval and air surveillance missions out of Singapore, investigators poring over the books of dubious banks in the former Portuguese colony of Macau and a fleet of planes and ships eavesdropping on the “hermit kingdom” in the waters north of Japan.

Few details filter out from western officials about the programme, which has operated since 2003, or about the American financial sanctions that accompany it.

Yes, few details, so you feel obligated to reveal what you can to help out your bud L'il Kim, right?

In a telling example of the programme’s success, two Bush administration officials indicated last year that it had blocked North Korea from obtaining equipment used to make missile propellant.

It seems the ones doing the telling are you.

The Media. Remember, they're on the other side. Well, that may not be fair. They live in such a la-la land that they don't recognize that there is another side.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 08:20 AM | Comments (1)

July 06, 2006

The New Sony PSP Ad

Seen the latest headline at The Grauniad? "Sony ad casues white riot" Hehehe; at least I make spelling errors for free for crimney's sake!*

anyhow, here's the ad:

new billboard advert for Sony's white PSP has caused consternation across the US videogaming community. The ad shows a white model dressed entirely in white threateningly grasping the face of a black model. Next to them are the words, "PlayStation Portable. White is coming".

It seems to me pretty stupidly racist, frankly, and I'm certainly not one who is keen to toss that term around lightly. I think that the latex gloves that the White Beast is wearing so she doesn't even come in contact with the black girl/boy (I honestly can't tell) is an especially nice touch, as is the way the necktie thingy forms a Madonna-esque cross with WB's bra support. Yech.

Of course, since this is the Grauniad they have to end with a paragraph like this:

Importantly perhaps, the ads are for the European release of the white PSP and are appearing on billboards in Amsterdam rather than in the US where racial tension remains a fraught issue.

Ah yes, those cultured, prejudice-free Europeans.

Where they still have ad agencies that would produce this sort of crap.

*And I correct 'em too: "criminey's" d'oh!

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 08:41 PM | Comments (8)

Sullivaning Christians

From what I understand 'christianism' is his word to refer to folks who profess christianity but in his opinion act like islamists, and this is declared by him to be "Christianism, Symbolized"

As the congregation of the World Overcomers Outreach Ministries Church looked on and its pastor, Apostle Alton R. Williams, presided, a brown shroud much like a burqa was pulled away to reveal a giant statue of the Lady, but with the Ten Commandments under one arm and "Jehovah" inscribed on her crown.

And in place of a torch, she held aloft a large gold cross, as if to ward off the pawnshops, the car dealerships and the discount furniture outlets at the busy corner of Kirby Parkway and Winchester that is her home. A single tear graced her cheek.

...In "The Meaning of the Statue of Liberation Through Christ: Reconnecting Patriotism With Christianity," he explains that the teardrop on his Lady is God's response to what he calls the nation's ills, including legalized abortion, a lack of prayer in schools and the country's "promotion of expressions of New Age, Wicca, secularism and humanism." In another book, he said Hurricane Katrina was retribution for New Orleans's embrace of sin.

So these are the crimes, the evil acts that place these folks in the same league as the jihadis? No, gentle reader, there are some even worse:

The pastor is not shy. His church has bought full-page advertisements in The Commercial Appeal, the Memphis daily, condemning homosexuality. At the World Overcomers' previous location, neighbors complained that trees were felled unnecessarily; Mr. Williams said it had to be done so that people could see the church from the road.

My god, not only did the pastor condemn homosexuality, but he also cut down trees.

That certainly makes him the moral equivalent of these nice fellows whose picture I also found on Sully's blog:

At least in his mind, it seems: people who speak against homosexuality, decry abortion, and yes even say stupid things about hurricanes and God while at the same time "[their] church gives millions to the needy" are no different from people who speak against homosexuality, decry abortion, and yes even say stupid things about hurricanes and God while at the same time chopping the heads off of workers and blowing up car bombs in mosques and markets.

I can see a little bit of a difference; can you?

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 01:35 PM | Comments (16)

Google's Robots

The funny thing about automatic data robots is that they really don't get...context. I was reading this article about some Marines on trial for rape in the Philippines

MANILA (Reuters) - A Filipino woman who accuses four U.S. Marines of rape said she was too drunk to remember how she ended up in a van with one of the men on top of her, breaking down three times during her court testimony on Thursday.

The Marines, being detained by the U.S. embassy in Manila, deny the charges filed in December, saying only one of them had sex with the woman and that it was consensual. One of the sailors has said the woman was being manipulated to incriminate them.

Of course, the first thing that jumped out at me was the editorial brilliance of Reuters where they refer to Marines as "sailors." Remember, folks: Reuters are professionals, unlike us folks in our pajamas.

The next thing that caught my eye was this ad placed right next to the article by Google's keyword-based robot:

Philippines - Free to Join. 1000's of pictures of Beautiful Philippine Singles www.AsianPeopleMeet.com Manila Philippines - Build your Philippines Vacation More Choices, Flexibility & Savings www.Expedia.com

Yes, a story about alleged rape would certainly entice me to look up some "Beautiful Philippine Singles."

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 09:08 AM | Comments (1)

July 05, 2006

On a Clear Day

...she would have seen that love, ageless and evergreen, still only matters to people who need people. 'Soupahstah' Bahbrah matters only to Bahbrah and no one's paying $800 for the privilege of indulging her. I think she and the Dixie Chicks should hook up ~ maybe they can salvage a tour.

BARBRA Streisand may be starting to wish her last "farewell tour" six years ago truly was her swan song.

Sales for her upcoming gigs, which begin in October, have been disappointing, according to a top music industry source, who says fans are resisting ticket prices as high as $800, not including service fees. "Some cities [like] Detroit, where they wanted to do two days, are less than 3,000 sold," the source tells Page Six.

The slow ticket sales are said to be a concern for Michael Cohl and Live Nation, the promoters who paid nearly $80 million for Streisand's 20 shows with opening act Il Divo. The tour kicks off Oct. 4 in Philadelphia, continues in New York on Oct. 9, then rolls into Washington, Detroit, Boston, Ft. Lauderdale, Atlanta, Atlantic City, Chicago, San Jose, Las Vegas and Los Angeles. But with promoters facing the possibility of losing $15 million or more on the deal, they're now said to be mulling offers to book Streisand in Indian casinos.

UPDATE: About those tickets...

THE dynamics of Streisand's upcoming bye-bye, ta-ta, latest, newest, most recent, final forever farewell this year tour:

Il Divo opens for 10 songs. La Diva Herself then comes on to do 12 songs. Then eight songs together. One duet will be, again, the old "Somewhere," which she somehow gave to mankind in her 2000 after-this-I'm-outta-here-for-good-and-always tour as well as her 1994 this-is-the-last-time-you'll-ever-have-a-chance-to-pay-this-extravagant-price-per-ticket-to-see-me-in-the-flesh tour. Figures "Somewhere" is the theme for where she'll work on her next into-the-sunset schlep.

After I announced she's charging $750 a ticket, this gimme-the-money operation then quickly announced that it's for a charity deal. Now trickling out is that the donation might get phrased as "designated proceeds" - whatever that means. Benefit-type events usually mention how much is tax-deductible. Can she be copping the tax credit when she donates "designated proceeds"? Can those millions she'll make off this latest in her serial farewell tours slide through the taxman without her personally paying big-time?

By the way, souvenirs she'll hawk this time around include leftovers from the previous farewell tours. They'll be labeled "vintage collectibles."

By the way No. 2: Those $750 tickets are not the Triple-A Superbest. Seats for $1,000 and up include - ready? - a $40 souvenir program.

People who love people are not necessarily the people who brainstormed this tour.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 03:22 PM | Comments (8)

June 30, 2006

Woof! I Had to Double Check the Subject

The tone of the two reports is so markedly different, one might almost be forgiven for thinking they referred to separate events. I'd noticed a quick turn around in the DOW futures and, knowing they were waiting on the core-PCE deflator (Keep in mind, the first quarter GDP had been revised UP last Thursday, from 4.8% to 5.3%, with the inflation gauge remaining steady at 3.3%, "further easing anxiety over escalating prices. " So pretty good news all around, all things considered.), thought "sheesh ~ must be okay news". The Market Watch brief was chipper...

Both income and spending for May were up 0.4% versus expectations for increases of 0.2% and 0.4%, respectively. The core-PCE deflator, meanwhile, was up 0.2%, which was right in line with expectations. While that reading puts the year-over-year rate at 2.1%, which is above the Fed's forecasted range, it has been viewed favorably by the market since it wasn't worse than expected.

...and I waited for the wire reports. The first was al-Reuters ~ a sober, hyperbole free report. They even used the word 'moderate' and added encouraging words from the Fed's statement yesterday.

Core U.S. consumer prices rose a moderate 0.2 percent last month, as expected, but inflation-adjusted spending advanced just 0.1 percent as high energy prices ate into disposable income, a government report showed on Friday.

...In announcing its rate hike, the Fed acknowledged inflation readings had been elevated in recent months, but said a slowing pace of economic growth should ease price pressures over time as it left its options open on future rate decisions.

Fair enough. But from the AP? Check the language ~ doom, gloom, death and disaster:

Consumer spending slowed sharply in May as rising gasoline prices left Americans with less to spend on other items, the government reported Friday.

The Commerce Department said that spending rose by just 0.4 percent last month after a 0.7 percent gain in April. Income growth also slowed to an advance of just 0.4 percent last month, reflecting weaker job growth.

Nominal consumer spending increased 0.4 percent in May, right on Wall Street forecasts and just enough to stay ahead of inflation. The scant 0.1 percent rise in inflation-adjusted spending, however, marked a slowdown from the 0.2 percent gain logged in April.

The report on personal incomes and consumer spending provided further evidence that the economy, after growing strongly in the first three months of the year, slowed sharply in the spring as Americans were battered by rising gasoline prices, higher interest rates and a cooling housing market.

Selective editing and 'just the facts' makes for a pretty damning report if your average Joe doesn't know the rest. (And I guess they need to get it via mind meld, since the AP isn't going to tell them.) A quick fisking? 5.3% growth is phenomenal but also unsustainable, so gradual 'slowing' is a good thing and what both the Fed and the street are looking for. Even the housing market, which has been insane, is 'cooling', not crashing. (Of course, when all those ARM's come due...but that's another story.) The 'weaker' employment'? The Labor Dept. reported a drop in claims of 40,000 last week and the unemployment index is at 4.6. (May job growth was weaker than expected ~ +75K ~ but still a positive number.) Many states have tax revenues streaming in well above predictions. And the final June consumer numbers say people are significantly cheerier. Could things be better? Sure they could. But they could be ~ and have been ~ a whole lot worse.

So there's your reason for Bush not getting credit for this economy. In spite of everything nature and man could throw against it, it's still chugging along, but who would know when the AP has us all in line at the soup kitchen?

Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:08 AM

June 28, 2006

How Do You Say (Or Should I Say Como Se Dice...)

"Fake But Accurate" in Spanish?

A Spanish news agency apologized for a report that described a Republican gubernatorial candidate's proposed work program for illegal immigrants as "concentration camps."

The story last week caused an international stir when EFE, a national news agency of Spain, quoted candidate Don Goldwater as saying he wanted to hold undocumented immigrants in camps to use them "as labor in the construction of a wall and to clean the areas of the Arizona desert that they're polluting."

..."Upon further reflection, our investigation has determined that your plan to house illegal prisoners in a tent city is consistent with accepted practices for nonviolent American prisoners in your area," Sanchez said in the letter released Tuesday by Goldwater's campaign.

The letter also acknowledged that the freelance reporter never interviewed Goldwater or any of his staff for the story.

Well, duh, like he needed to actually talk to him; he's a Republican for gosh sake, of course he's in favor of gulags and concentration camps!

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 07:29 AM | Comments (1)

June 26, 2006

Taking the NYT to Task

...by Susan Estrich.

What’s wrong with the New York Times?

“A Look at Republican Priorities” said the headline of Friday’s New York Times.

And what are those priorities, according to America’s paper of record?

“Comforting the Comfortable” and “Afflicting the Afflicted.” Because they support eliminating the estate tax and oppose raising the minimum wage, the Republicans are said to be the Party that comforts the comfortable and afflicts the afflicted.

Help.

According to my Liberal Friends, I spend much of my time in the lion’s den, where one of the constant charges is that the mainstream media is dominated by liberals. Some days, like today, they make my job impossible.

...But does the New York Times have to stoop so low?

Are they afraid no one would read their editorials if they weren’t promoted with nasty headlines that question the good faith of those on the other side?

Are they no better than Ann when it comes to insulting their opponents?

Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:37 AM

June 23, 2006

Don't Question My Patriotism Pulitzers

Let's pretend the government has an effective program (I know, I know, but this is an academic exercise here, people; work with me) that is legal. Further, the key to its success is that it is basically secret; again, it is completely legal, and it works to protect the country from terrorists. And let's say you find out about it, and the government asks you to keep it a secret. What do you do?

Well, if you are The New York Times and The Los Angeles Times, the spirit patriotic fervor leads you to publish everything. Go read it all, and let there be much gnashing of teeth.

As Insta says, they're on the other side.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 08:11 AM | Comments (2)

June 22, 2006

What WMDs? We Don't See No Steenkin' WMDs!

I started reading about this yesterday

Emerging buzz seems to be focused on why it took so long to release info about 500 chemical-weapons shells found in Iraq. Allah's got video of Santorum and chock full of links.

CNN is completely ignoring it, naturally. Drudge is more concerned about Dan Rather.
The BBC is ignoring it, as well.

Let's see how it plays out.

Gateway Pundit has a good round-up of the info available.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 09:09 AM

June 21, 2006

Gee, Thanks For The Vote Of Confidence, Angelina

She makes a stunning statement:

"Just because you're a Republican doesn't mean you don't care about children."

I'm sure she will be swiftly and roundly criticized for such heresy.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 09:47 AM | Comments (8)

June 15, 2006

'Splain to me Why THIS Picture

...would be used to illustrate this point...

The global refugee population has begun to rise for the first time in four years, largely due to instability in Iraq, a US group said in a survey, which saw refugee protection deteriorating by all measures.

...when it's: a) Indonesia and b) 3 YEARS old? The "group" doing the survey says displaced Iraqis abound in Jordan and Syria as of this past year. But I guess not one refugee drew pictures ~ or ones that suited ~ for a new AFP photo op.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:39 AM | Comments (2)

"And I'm Working On That Contract"

"It's being faxed from a Kinko's in Austin as we speak..."

Stopwatch Ticking for Dan Rather
CBS to Drop Ex-Anchor From '60 Minutes'

CBS executives have decided there is no future role at the network for Dan Rather, making it certain that the man who sat in the anchor chair for 24 years will depart by this fall.

These executives recognize Rather's contributions over four decades and are not trying to boot him because of the controversy surrounding his botched story on President Bush and the National Guard, say network sources who declined to be named while discussing a sensitive personnel matter. But the executives concluded there was no room for Rather at "60 Minutes," particularly with incoming anchor Katie Couric planning to report a half-dozen stories a year and the hiring of CNN's Anderson Cooper as a part-time contributor.

I'd say "SEE-ya!", but that would imply that a) I give a hooyah or b) I'm gloating. Let's just leave it at Eddie Murphy's "You brought dat sh*t on yoself..."

Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:33 AM | Comments (5)

June 08, 2006

"Reality" ~ It Reads Like Poetry

Stop measuring for drapes, Nancy. If Democrats can’t win a special election for a seat left open by the guilty plea of a senior Republican congressman for bribery in a political environment that can politely be described as more sour than milk left on the counter for a week, how can they expect to win back control of the House of Representatives, handing the speakership to Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.)?

They can't.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 04:43 PM

al-Reuters Starts Already

"Father of beheaded man blames Bush, not Zarqawi"

PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - Michael Berg, whose son Nick was beheaded in Iraq in 2004, said on Thursday he felt no sense of relief at the killing of the al Qaeda leader in Iraq and blamed President Bush for his son's death.

Asked what would give him satisfaction, Berg, an anti-war activist and candidate for U.S. Congress, said, "The end of the war and getting rid of George Bush."

Read the rest if you want to feel sick.

Update: Ken finds that the UPI Jihad is also on the case.

ths UPDATE: On the lighter side:

Zarqawi victim's brother: 'May he rot in hell'
The brother of Ken Bigley, a British engineer beheaded by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's group, said Thursday that he expected the extremist will rot in hell.

"The man was an animal and he deserved what he got. And may he rot in hell," Paul Bigley told Channel Four television on Thursday.

I heartily second that, Mr. Bigley!

ths again: Tony Snow just now:

"The practice of killing Iraqi civilians is ~ surprise, surprise ~ not all that popular with Iraqi civilians!"

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 09:21 AM | Comments (11)

Ann Coulter

Well, I suppose the MSM is rejoicing in that they've found a Ted Rall of the Right. Aside from the bits I've seen and heard on the radio I must admit I haven't fully read what she said, nor am I likely to. I can't stand her. Oh, I will admit to getting a small thrill when I hear about her latest outrageous statement; there's some churlish part of me that enjoys hearing the outraged sputterings of the Left when someone dares to talk back to them in the same manner as which many of their mouthpieces regularly flail those who dare oppose them. But I lost interest in her about the time Monica should have been interested in a dry cleaner; Coulter's crassness is not neither witty nor worthy of that much attention. Oh, I'm sure she's held up as representing how conservatives think, much like Falwell or Robertson is held up as typical of how I believe, but bollocks, a pox on all of them. So I'm sure the MSM will demand a statement of contrition from her, or maybe force-feed her a few Big Macs on Pay-Per-View, but I will continue to mostly ignore her.

Mostly.

Because in spite of herself and her methods she did touch upon a point that has been bothering me for a while now, and one that has been expressed far better than Coulter could ever dream of doing by Dorothy Rabinowitz in this column in 2004: (thanks to THS for reminding me of it)

But the best known and most quoted pronouncement of all had come in the form of a question put by the leader of the Jersey Girls. "We simply wanted to know," Ms. Breitweiser said, by way of explaining the group's position, "why our husbands were killed. Why they went to work one day and didn't come back."

The answer, seared into the nation's heart, is that, like some 3,000 others who perished that day, those husbands didn't come home because a cadre of Islamist fanatics wanted to kill as many of the hated American infidels in their tall towers and places of government as they could, and they did so. Clearly, this must be a truth also known to those widows who asked the question--though in no way one would notice.

Who, listening to them, would not be struck by the fact that all their fury and accusation is aimed not at the killers who snuffed out their husbands' and so many other lives, but at the American president, his administration, and an ever wider assortment of targets including the Air Force, the Port Authority, the City of New York? In the public pronouncements of the Jersey Girls we find, indeed, hardly a jot of accusatory rage at the perpetrators of the 9/11 attacks. We have, on the other hand, more than a few declarations like that of Ms. Breitweiser, announcing that "President Bush and his workers . . . were the individuals that failed my husband and the 3,000 people that day."

The venerable status accorded this group of widows comes as no surprise given our times, an age quick to confer both celebrity and authority on those who have suffered. As the experience of the Jersey Girls shows, that authority isn't necessarily limited to matters moral or spiritual. All that the widows have had to say--including wisdom mind-numbingly obvious, or obviously false and irrelevant--on the failures of this or that government agency, on derelictions of duty they charged to the president, the vice president, the national security adviser, Norad and the rest, has been received by most of the media and members of Congress with utmost wonder and admiration.

Every day I see the hole in the ground that was the WTC. And every day it pisses me off anew. Firstly, mostly, and primarily, that the islamic bastards did it, and would gleefully do it again.

Secondly, but increasingly, that due in large part strident 9/11 families like the ones Coulter attacked and, as Rabinowitz says seem to feel

...their assurance that it had been given to them, as victims, to determine the proper standards of taste and respectfulness to be applied in everything related to Sept. 11...

I am pissed that I see the hole in the ground that was the WTC and not new buildings defiantly rising in its place. It's been 5 years, and while the majority of the families it seems to me have gotten on with their lives there's this small core that is intent on controlling all aspects of September 11th and wants to turn the WTC into some sort of shrine to the dead, as opposed to a place that honors them with life. If I ever hear the WTC site referred to as 'sacred ground' again I will, probably not too respectfully, point out that if you consider the materials that were there 'sacred' than you'd best make a pilgrimage to the Freshkills Landfill on Staten Island because that's where all those sacred items and relics and icons are. There's nothing left at the WTC site except a hole in the ground, a hole in the City, and a hole in the country.

And that hole needs to be filled.

Update: I see Michelle Malkin wrote bits of my screed for me last night. Oh well; that'll teach me to surf at home instead of playing SOCOM on my PSP like I did...

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 07:35 AM | Comments (7)

June 01, 2006

Hirsh

...is harsh.

...You’d think the Republicans would be the ones in need of professional help. This is a party burdened with a president so unpopular he barely has a base to stand on—Bush seems to be bypassing the lame-duck stage and heading straight for dead duck—a Vietnam-scale quagmire in Iraq and a post-Katrina rot of incompetence and corruption that is infecting the very foundations of the presidency and the GOP’s control of Congress. Not surprisingly, the Republicans are at each others' throats over this loss of prestige and popularity. Neoconservatives and traditionalists are fighting bitterly over foreign policy. Moderates and conservatives are battling over immigration and deficits. And when the maverick John McCain declares his candidacy for 2008 sometime in the next year, the Republicans will be shrieking at each other in public over abortion and other social issues.

But at least the GOP is engaged in a war over real policy choices. It is an emotional debate, often a hysterical and ill-informed one, but it is a fight among adults who know what they believe in and who have the guts to battle for it. By contrast the Democrats, ostensibly the party poised to exploit this GOP civil war, don't seem to remember what it is like to behave as adults. They resemble nothing so much as ill-adjusted adolescents, afraid of their own shadows, much less the presidency. What are they afraid of? Themselves, essentially: their past, their own left, the populist rhetoric of their leaders (Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, Howard Dean, Al Gore), the left-wing loony stigma represented by “Fahrenheit 9/11” filmmaker Michael Moore (every Dem’s favorite bugaboo). Above all they fear seeming and looking soft. They are all afflicted with varying degrees of megalophobia, a fear of assuming power. Even Dr. Melfi of “The Sopranos” wouldn’t take this case.

I hope nobody is paying attention.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:29 AM | Comments (7)

May 23, 2006

Justify My Ticket Price

So Madonna has herself crucified during her latest tour, "Confessions." Yawn. My, how bold and daring, taking on those beastly Christians! Why, take care, my dear, because you know what will happen if you anger them! Yes! They might, um, I don't know...deny you Communion or something...you are so brave! Such an inspiration to women who are fighting christo-facist oppression everywhere, as they drive to work and walk in public unescorted with their heads uncovered and vote and run businesses and govern and...stuff. Unbearable, really. I can't wait for her next tour, which I'm sure will continue her brave crusade for women as she takes on that other major religion and how it treats women...

And people are paying up to $375 a pop to see...her in various S&M outfits, wielding a riding crop on her dancers.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 07:58 AM | Comments (7)

Network Security And Dopes In The Office

Our friend Dave E takes issue with the InstaMan regarding some aspects of his surfing-from-work stance, and rightly so from DaveE's security-minded point of view. And I've another: idiots at offices who listen to mildly-to-extremely obscene 'comedy' site with the speakers turned up. Sound travels too easily in offices, you morons. Use some discretion before you get us all screwed via a lawsuit.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 07:44 AM | Comments (6)

May 20, 2006

We Saw "United 93" Last Night

I'm probably still not in any shape to speak coherently about it, but I want to completely encourage any of you who might be unsure to go see it, for a few reasons.

First, it is simply a spectacular movie, one that keeps you completely tied up in knots with the realistic portrayal of the tension and drama. Oh sure, you know how the story ends, but my God: you know how the story ends. The script and acting are both superb and completely realistic; you know that that is exactly how the people may have acted and progressed in their thoughts as that day unfolded. And there's no swelling music or other such stupid-assed 'audience cue cards' (like "dramatic close up on beautiful blonde in seat 23d") as it develops, either; the score is so non-existant and thereby completely effective that I can't even recall hearing it, and the actors all look like regular people, you and me, which drives home the point that it could have been any one of us* on that flight, and enhances the glory of what they did.

The second reason I want to encourage you to go see the movie is that I want to reward them for making it. The folks who wrote iit and made it deserve our support for this movie, to encourage Hollywood to make more ovies like this. Let's face it, money talks, and no matter how much we complain about the piles of crap they put out we vote with the ticket sales.

*Obviously, working in Lower Manhattan I have a lot of emotional memories about September 11th, but I also have a United 93 story: Another close business associate of mine from Brazil was also in town that week, and he was in our office on the 10th and went out to dinner with some of my colleagues that night. The next morning he went to Newark to catch the flight he was booked on to san Francisco: United 93. Except he, much like how I am, got to the airport very early, and United bumped him up to the earlier flight. When the FAA grounded all the flights his was put down in Milwaukee, and he spent four very drunken days there. When he got back to Brazil finally (a week or so later) his company gave him a birthday party, because they told him he'd been born again.

It could have been and it could still be any of us. Will we answer the call and honor their memory?

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 11:05 AM | Comments (3)

May 15, 2006

Millions

My goodness, what a great movie. When daughter first told us about it, it was in the context of "we watched this really weird movie on the bus back from the ski trip,' which really isn't such a ringing endorsement. But somehow it ended up in our Netflix que and we watched it last night. Now, perhaps some of it had to do with it being Mother's Day and all that yesterday, but it has a wonderful plot. It starts off a little slowly, and you're sitting there thinking, hmm, here's one of these strange european movies, but after about fifteen minutes it hooks you. I was sobbing like a blubbering baby at the end. The two boys who play brothers are fantastic. The premise is two boys, whose mom has died, move with their dad to a new town a few days before England is switching from the pound to the euro, and one of the boys 'finds' several hundred thousand pounds. What do they do?

Really, a great movie, and Nightfly you especially will like it.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 07:28 AM | Comments (3)

May 09, 2006

And They're Dumping This Guy?

The CBS EVENING NEWS WITH BOB SCHIEFFER finished the week of May 1 only 310,000 viewers behind ABC’s “World News Tonight,” narrowing the gap with ABC by 1.64 million viewers and with NBC’s “Nightly News” by 1.03 million viewers compared to the same week last year.

And for who? They've gone mad, MAD I tell you! See my post on the New Coke McDonald's for more on the "younger/hipper" syndrome that causes these calamitous tangents.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 05:29 PM

This Headline Writer

...is also having a rough day. The headline:

Judge Withholds $5M Award for LAPD Officers

And the story:

A federal judge refused Monday to overturn awards of $5 million each to three police officers who claimed the city of Los Angeles made them scapegoats for a corruption scandal.

The decision by U.S. District Judge Cormac Carney upheld a February jury decision. Carney also said he would not grant a new trial, finding there was enough evidence for the jury's conclusion that the LAPD "ruined the lives of three highly skilled" policemen and the department "had no probable cause" to arrest the men.

So I'm thinking he meant to say UPholds? Schmaybe?

Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:58 AM | Comments (3)

May 03, 2006

Spam Filters

I have to admit that I get a kick out of going through our company's spam filter. I mean, I have to do it of course to get the emails Ken sends, naturally, but I find the names that these people use to be quite funny. They must be generated by some bot that slaps random words together out of the dictionary. Here are a few from today's spam:

Carpetbag S. Frailer
Retrieval P. Citronella
Whey H. Reprise
Tigress V. Apprenticing (Hmm, potential as a new hire, I think)
Disgorged K. Ditto
Flowing I. Autos
Vicki S. Conflagration (We'll make sure to keep her away from Tigress)
Esthetics H. Theatre (Sounds like a pen name Sheila might use)
Dates P. Wrenches (I knew a girl like that in High School)
Jumper H. Deflates (obviously 'splats' as well)
Resistor S. Deferment
Weaponry V. Drones (I've often wondered that myself)
Applause T. Selflessness
Tone I. Busting (could be a rap mogul)
Nylon M. Estonian (sounds like an old drinking buddy of John's)

Man, these things are a hoot.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 11:05 AM | Comments (9)

May 01, 2006

Lou Dobbs Weighs In On "Immigrants" and the Radicals

...and pretty bluntly.

We all awoke to headlines in our nation's most important newspapers reminding us that this is "A Day Without Immigrants." Not illegal immigrants, mind you, but immigrants.

USA Today headlined today's demonstrations and boycott "On Immigration's Front Lines." The New York Times headlines its story "With Calls for Boycott by Immigrants, Employers Gird for Unknown." The Washington Post and The Los Angeles Times are both calling its coverage "The Immigration Debate."

These major newspapers obviously don't want to disturb their readers with the information that today's demonstrations and boycott are about illegal immigration and amnesty for illegal aliens.

But only one newspaper, to its credit, reported that illegal aliens and their supporters' boycott of the national economy on the First of May is clear evidence that radical elements have seized control of the movement. The Washington Post, alone among national papers, reported that ANSWER (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism) has become an active promoter of the national boycott.

..."The meat packers are confirming what we know," says University of Maryland economics professor Peter Morici, "and that is that this large group of illegal aliens in the United States is lowering the wage rate of semiskilled workers, people who are high school dropouts or high school graduates with minimal training."

In fact, a meat-packing job paid $19 an hour in 1980, but today that same job pays closer to $9 an hour, according to the Labor Department. That's entirely consistent with what we've been reporting -- that illegal aliens depress wages for U.S. workers by as much as $200 billion a year in addition to placing a tremendous burden on hospitals, schools and other social services.

A good, GOOD read. (A Warm Swill Salute to the eagle eyed Kcruella for the heads up!)

Posted by tree hugging sister at 04:13 PM | Comments (1)

April 27, 2006

Who is Radley Balko and Why

...is he channeling James Frey? Working subtitle:

How 'Ha hah ~ Buy This Mug!' became
"Bloggers who sell Scottie mugs HATE ANDREW SULLIVAN to a million little PIECES !!!"

Which we don't, of course. Our scrupulously researched empirical data flow charts...

...overwhelmingly support this conclusion. (Science, my friends, is a great tool.)

My post of two o' clock yesterday morning ~ admittedly a shameless attempt at mug promotion ~ has morphed into something unrecognizable through Mr. Balko's fertile imagination and lackluster research. (He was kind enough to trackback.)

Now, "they need a mug" and "where to GET a mug" firmly in your upper register? Great. THIS is what Mr. Balko read and posted:

Blog chatter over the Tennessee torture case has taken an unfortunate turn into petty Red State-Blue State territory.

Andrew Sullivan picked up the story yesterday, and pondered a link between CIA torture and torture by drug cops, suggesting that when the federal government condones torture overseas, we probably shouldn't be surprised when government agents at home are given light sentences for torturing drug suspects. He then suggested that the Bush administration's rather callous approach to civil liberties on other fronts might play a role in this kind of behavior from law enforcement at the local level.

That caused Glenn Reynolds to approvingly link to two sites mocking Sullivan for, as they put it, "blaming Bush for police brutality." That then degenerated into a childish "blame Bush for everything" caricature of Sullivan's position.

Yup. That second dastardly link is to our scottie mug. But I must have missed all the Sullivan mockery implied in those two sentences of mine. And he takes a crack at you guys, too! (This from a guy who doesn't allow comments on his site.)

But he's not done...::sigh::

...But Reynolds and the sites he links to mischaracterize what Sullivan wrote about this administration's more general record on civil liberties, seemingly intentionally...

Was ist daß?! We're just selling mugs! Where's Reverend Jesse when we need him? Mr. Balko has constructed a virtual novelette, full of conflict, pathos and bullsh*t. So I wrote him a little note.

Concerning the Coalition of the Swilling and our "Blame Bush" mug

Dear Mr. Balko ~

Thank you for your trackback and your notice. It's quite an honor to have you visit us. (I have linked to several of your Corey Maye posts.) But I'm afraid I'm going to have to point out what I feel is a misinterpretation ~ no, let's use 'mischaracterization' ~ of the "Blame Bush" mug and post. Written as a dig at Andrew Sullivan?! Where on earth did you get that idea? I sure wish you had clicked through the link to our Swill page. (Like the song says "That's what links are for...") There you would have found our original, Andrew Sullivan-free 'Blame Bush' post, written in JANUARY. The genesis of the mug/post/all of it was a complaint we received from one of the fourteen in-country United States Marines the Swilling had adopted. Since October, packages had been flying overseas and then we got an urgent "Please send Atomic Fireballs ~ There are NONE in Iraq!" In the spirit of the times, we figured it HAD to be Bush's fault, the design came to me at zero dark thirty a few days later and we were off. I am a stickler for reference and attribution ~ I've recently had a fact based dustup with Meryl Yourish, for example ~ so EVERY Bush sin listed is a corresponding link to the news/source.

http://www.coalitionoftheswilling.net/archives/2006/01/blame_bush_1.html

You will see no mention of Mr. Sullivan, torture in Tennessee or whether Brett Favre will play this year ANYWHERE in the post. And our post handsomely predates ALL of them by three months. The other link was a result of my seeing the "I Blame Bush For [Insert...]" title. I was thinking 'jeez, we've already done that!' and suggesting that someone could use a mug. I'm sure you can attest, if you revisit our post AND the trackback to theirs, that I do indeed mention they could use a mug. I could sure use someone to BUY one. It was capitalism, greed and good humor, pure and simple.

As for your:

"to two sites mocking Sullivan for, as they put it, "blaming Bush for police brutality." That then degenerated into a childish "blame Bush for everything" caricature of Sullivan's position."

...as well as...

"the sites he links to mischaracterize what Sullivan wrote about this administration's more general record on civil liberties, seemingly intentionally."

...dang! I'm hardly as nefarious as all that. You give me way too much credit and are WAY OFF the hyperbolic mark. I also should disabuse you ~ I could care less about Andrew Sullivan, in any way, shape or form, have no clue what he's written in any capacity as I don't read him in any capacity and haven't the luxury of time to construct an assault on his opinions. Nor do I possess the wherewithal to design and offer goods specifically to impugn whatever it is he's said. We don't work with Cafe Press ~ our goods are locally done and they get paid when I order. (And you believe by virtue of a post with NO mention of Andrew Sullivan, by a blog that Andrew Sullivan doesn't have the foggiest notion exists, that said blog 'intentionally' 'mischaracterizes' what the unmentioned Andrew Sullivan said?!) Bingley, on the otherhand, has always spoken well of him and actually had quotes from his emails posted on Mr. Sullivan's site. So there are no axes to grind from his end either.

I will assume, for the sake of argument, that your "degenerated into a childish "blame Bush for everything"" referred to the comments as well? They are dear regulars, the lot of them. One was green with envy at our double Instalanche ~ a very gratifying reaction ~ while the others let fly in the spirit of the theme (which, IF you'd read our original post's 25 comments, you'd know they delight in). That's the advantage of being small like us ~ we develop a sense of intimacy with our readers unavailable to you big, BIG guys. There's a 'secret code', a giddy patter that springs up when it's an inside joke (mention 'goat' ~ you'll see what I mean) or awful pun, and blaming Bush is one of them. It's one of the best things about our blog.

I'd like to believe you'd read the comments. But alas, no. You will find NO mention of Andrew Sullivan. NO Sullivan slurs, sullies or schmears in EITHER the post or the comments you so fiercely deride. I believe you have 'mischaracterized' us, "seemingly intentionally." You pulled Andrew Sullivan out of a hat, NOT out of my post. (I believe Mr. Sullivan owes moi an apology, too, since it seems he also cannot follow a link to determine if someone is picking on him or not. He defers to you. That fact that his name is wholly absent should be his FIRST clue.) All in all, it was a pretty selective skewering on your part ~ is it a 'Glenn Reynolds' thing? I mean, there we were, with one funny mug and a three month old marketing concept, while there appears to be a wealth of targets at the other site ~ trackbacked blogs who WROTE about Andrew Sullivan!

So, there you have it. The mug is a JOKE. A slice of the absurd. The post is a winkwinknudgenudge revisit of our original laughing place. How we were tarred with your anti-Andrew conspiracy brush, I have no idea.

Pleasantry, pleasantry, blahblahblah, lovely evening,
signed
th sister

So, since I've really liked the guy, I shipped this "WTF?!" off (with a copy to ANDREW SULLIVAN, who is BUSY and IMPORTANT) and am waiting for some sort of reply. Knowing he's also BUSY and IMPORTANT and has IMPORTANT FRIENDS and CAUSES and STUFF to WRITE, I've cut him a huss. In the meantime, his happy little backtracking a$$ has plastered the Swilling and his brand of fiction out there for God knows who to read and 'mischaracterize' us, 'probably intentionally'. Call me names? Duck off a goat's baaack. Make sh*t UP? A whole 'nuther story.

And I sold a whopping two mugs. I should have listened to jeffS and got working on those "BITE ME" t-shirts.
I sure could use one now.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 01:13 PM | Comments (25)

April 26, 2006

Some Alternate Fuel Research

Is it me, or has Popular Mechanics quietly become the most respected news service in the country? My goodness, they do great in-depth research and present the facts on a variety of issues. They really put the NYT and other dino-papers to shame. Here's their latest look at alternative fuels:

In the lab, many gasoline alternatives look good. Out on the road, automotive engineers have a lot of work to do, and energy companies have new infrastructure to build, before very many people can drive off into a petroleum-free future. And, there's the issue of money. Too often, discussions of alternative energy take place in an alternative universe where prices do not matter.

Read the whole thing and let's discuss.

(h/t to Insta. When does he prepare for class? Heh.)

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 07:25 AM | Comments (36)

April 25, 2006

Life Sucks

...or so they tell me. Therefore I have NO idea who these happy bastards are.

Consumers shrugged off higher gasoline prices in April and sent a widely watched barometer of consumer confidence to its highest level in almost four years, a private research group said Tuesday.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:19 AM | Comments (6)

April 24, 2006

You HAVE to Ask Yourself

...'why', as in "WHY dey do dat?"

Phoenix Police Shoot Dead Hostage Taker

Sounds like overkill, n'est pas?

(Do they ever, like, read these headlines out loud to themselves?)

Posted by tree hugging sister at 01:28 PM | Comments (10)

April 23, 2006

A Case of the Pot Calling the Kettle

...um...black? (Can I say that?)

Cynthia McKinney is caught on tape referring to her aide as 'a fool.' WGCL's Renee Starzyk reports.

Who you callin' a fool, fool?
Then she compounds the FOOLISH stoo-pidity by returning to tell the CBS crew what video/audio they can and cannot use. Oh yeah. They paid attention.

VIDEO here

Posted by tree hugging sister at 02:48 PM | Comments (1)

April 20, 2006

After Having a Rumble About Facts

...with another blogger, I'm running down quotes contained in this RECONQUISTA email I just received from a friend. Since they're scorchingly inflammatory (St. Bingley Bastard's started enough hate and discontent for one afternoon with his geriatric bashing ~ I'd be remiss if I added something that's pure bloggery.), if they pan out, I'll post it. In the course of my Googling/Snopesing away, I did stumble across this entry, concerning a speech given last year by a former governor of Colorado. Reprinted in it's entirety in the extended section if you've never read it.

I HAVE A PLAN TO DESTROY AMERICA
RICHARD D. LAMM

I HAVE A SECRET PLAN TO DESTROY AMERICA. IF YOU BELIEVE, AS MANY DO, THAT AMERICA IS TOO SMUG, TOO WHITE BREAD, TOO SELF-SATISFIED, TOO RICH, LETS DESTROY AMERICA. IT IS NOT THAT HARD TO DO. HISTORY SHOWS THAT NATIONS ARE MORE FRAGILE THAN THEIR CITIZENS THINK. NO NATION IN HISTORY HAS SURVIVED THE RAVAGES OF TIME. ARNOLD TOYNBEE OBSERVED THAT ALL GREAT CIVILIZATIONS RISE AND THEY ALL FALL, AND THAT "AN AUTOPSY OF HISTORY WOULD SHOW THAT ALL GREAT NATIONS COMMIT SUICIDE." HERE IS MY PLAN:

I. WE MUST FIRST MAKE AMERICA A BILINGUAL-BICULTURAL COUNTRY. HISTORY SHOWS, IN MY OPINION, THAT NO NATION CAN SURVIVE THE TENSION, CONFLICT, AND ANTAGONISM OF TWO COMPETING LANGUAGES AND CULTURES. IT IS A BLESSING FOR AN INDIVIDUAL TO BE BILINGUAL; IT IS A CURSE FOR A SOCIETY TO BE BILINGUAL. ONE SCHOLAR, SEYMOUR MARTIN LIPSET, PUT IT THIS WAY:

THE HISTORIES OF BILINGUAL AND BICULTURAL SOCIETIES THAT DO NOT ASSIMILATE ARE HISTORIES OF TURMOIL, TENSION, AND TRAGEDY. CANADA, BELGIUM, MALAYSIA, LEBANON-ALL FACE CRISES OF NATIONAL EXISTENCE IN WHICH MINORITIES PRESS FOR AUTONOMY, IF NOT INDEPENDENCE. PAKISTAN AND CYPRUS HAVE DIVIDED. NIGERIA SUPPRESSED AN ETHNIC REBELLION. FRANCE FACES DIFFICULTIES WITH ITS BASQUES, BRETONS, AND CORSICANS.

II. I WOULD THEN INVENT "MULTICULTURALISM" AND ENCOURAGE IMMIGRANTS TO MAINTAIN THEIR OWN CULTURE. I WOULD MAKE IT AN ARTICLE OF BELIEF THAT ALL CULTURES ARE EQUAL: THAT THERE ARE NO CULTURAL DIFFERENCES THAT ARE IMPORTANT. I WOULD DECLARE IT AN ARTICLE OF FAITH THAT THE BLACK AND HISPANIC DROPOUT RATE IS ONLY DUE TO PREJUDICE AND DISCRIMINATION BY THE MAJORITY. EVERY OTHER EXPLANATION IS OUT-OF-BOUNDS.

III. WE CAN MAKE THE UNITED STATES A "HISPANIC QUEBEC" WITHOUT MUCH EFFORT. THE KEY IS TO CELEBRATE DIVERSITY RATHER THAN UNITY. AS BENJAMIN SCHWARZ SAID IN THE ATLANTIC MONTHLY RECENTLY:

...THE APPARENT SUCCESS OF OUR OWN MULTIETHNIC AND MULTICULTURAL EXPERIMENT MIGHT HAVE BEEN ACHIEVED NOT BY TOLERANCE BUT BY HEGEMONY. WITHOUT THE DOMINANCE THAT ONCE DICTATED ETHNOCENTRICALLY, AND WHAT IT MEANT TO BE AN AMERICAN, WE ARE LEFT WITH ONLY TOLERANCE AND PLURALISM TO HOLD US TOGETHER.

I WOULD ENCOURAGE ALL IMMIGRANTS TO KEEP THEIR OWN LANGUAGE AND CULTURE. I WOULD REPLACE THE MELTING POT METAPHOR WITH A SALAD BOWL METAPHOR. IT IS IMPORTANT TO INSURE THAT WE HAVE VARIOUS CULTURAL SUB-GROUPS LIVING IN AMERICA REINFORCING THEIR DIFFERENCES RATHER THAN AMERICANS, EMPHASIZING THEIR SIMILARITIES.

IV. HAVING DONE ALL THIS, I WOULD MAKE OUR FASTEST GROWING DEMOGRAPHIC GROUP THE LEAST EDUCATED - I WOULD ADD A SECOND UNDERCLASS, UNASSIMILATED, UNDEREDUCATED, AND ANTAGONISTIC TO OUR POPULATION. I WOULD HAVE THIS SECOND UNDERCLASS HAVE A 50% DROP OUT RATE FROM SCHOOL.

V. I WOULD THEN GET THE BIG FOUNDATIONS AND BIG BUSINESS TO GIVE THESE EFFORTS LOTS OF MONEY. I WOULD INVEST IN ETHNIC IDENTITY, AND I WOULD ESTABLISH THE CULT OF VICTIMOLOGY. I WOULD GET ALL MINORITIES TO THINK THEIR LACK OF SUCCESS WAS ALL THE FAULT OF THE MAJORITY - I WOULD START A GRIEVANCE INDUSTRY BLAMING ALL MINORITY FAILURE ON THE MAJORITY POPULATION.

VI. I WOULD ESTABLISH DUAL CITIZENSHIP AND PROMOTE DIVIDED LOYALTIES. I WOULD "CELEBRATE DIVERSITY." "DIVERSITY" IS A WONDERFULLY SEDUCTIVE WORD. IT STRESSES DIFFERENCES RATHER THAN COMMONALITIES. DIVERSE PEOPLE WORLDWIDE ARE MOSTLY ENGAGED IN HATING EACH OTHER-THAT IS, WHEN THEY ARE NOT KILLING EACH OTHER. A DIVERSE," PEACEFUL, OR STABLE SOCIETY IS AGAINST MOST HISTORICAL PRECEDENT. PEOPLE UNDERVALUE THE UNITY IT TAKES TO KEEP A NATION TOGETHER, AND WE CAN TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THIS MYOPIA. LOOK AT THE ANCIENT GREEKS. DORF'S WORLD HISTORY TELLS US:

THE GREEKS BELIEVED THAT THEY BELONGED TO THE SAME RACE; THEY POSSESSED A COMMON LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE; AND THEY WORSHIPED THE SAME GODS. ALL GREECE TOOK PART IN THE OLYMPIC GAMES IN HONOR OF ZEUS AND ALL GREEKS VENERATED THE SHRINE OF APOLLO AT DELPHI. A COMMON ENEMY PERSIA THREATENED THEIR LIBERTY. YET, ALL OF THESE BONDS TOGETHER WERE NOT STRONG ENOUGH TO OVERCOME TWO FACTORS . . . (LOCAL PATRIOTISM AND GEOGRAPHICAL CONDITIONS THAT NURTURED POLITICAL DIVISIONS . . .)

IF WE CAN PUT THE EMPHASIS ON THE "PLURIBUS," INSTEAD OF THE "UNUM," WE CAN BALKANIZE AMERICA AS SURELY AS KOSOVO.

VII. THEN I WOULD PLACE ALL THESE SUBJECTS OFF LIMITS - MAKE IT TABOO TO TALK ABOUT. I WOULD FIND A WORD SIMILAR TO "HERETIC" IN THE 16TH CENTURY - THAT STOPPED DISCUSSION AND PARALYZED THINKING. WORDS LIKE "RACIST", "XENOPHOBE" THAT HALTS ARGUMENT AND CONVERSATION.

HAVING MADE AMERICA A BILINGUAL-BICULTURAL COUNTRY, HAVING ESTABLISHED MULTICULTURALISM, HAVING THE LARGE FOUNDATIONS FUND THE DOCTRINE OF "VICTIMOLOGY", I WOULD NEXT MAKE IT IMPOSSIBLE TO ENFORCE OUR IMMIGRATION LAWS. I WOULD DEVELOP A MANTRA - "THAT BECAUSE IMMIGRATION HAS BEEN GOOD FOR AMERICA, IT MUST ALWAYS BE GOOD." I WOULD MAKE EVERY INDIVIDUAL IMMIGRANT SYMPATRIC AND IGNORE THE CUMULATIVE IMPACT.

VIII. LASTLY, I WOULD CENSOR VICTOR HANSON DAVIS'S BOOK MEXIFORNIA — THIS BOOK IS DANGEROUS — IT EXPOSES MY PLAN TO DESTROY AMERICA. SO PLEASE, PLEASE — IF YOU FEEL THAT AMERICA DESERVES TO BE DESTROYED — PLEASE, PLEASE — DON'T BUY THIS BOOK! THIS GUY IS ON TO MY PLAN.

"THE SMART WAY TO KEEP PEOPLE PASSIVE AND OBEDIENT IS TO STRICTLY LIMIT THE SPECTRUM OF ACCEPTABLE OPINION, BUT ALLOW VERY LIVELY DEBATE WITHIN THAT SPECTRUM." — NOAM CHOMSKY, AMERICAN LINGUIST AND US MEDIA AND FOREIGN POLICY CRITIC.

Both Governor Lamm and the writer of the e-mail misidentify the author of the book Mexifornia, whose correct name is Victor Davis Hanson.

Last updated: 16 June 2005

Posted by tree hugging sister at 04:30 PM

All Hail The Grauniad!

Oh mighty Grauniad! That bastion of the MSM who yesterday confused Mark Steyn with a vagina. Well, today we learn that Big Business (cue the scary organ music) is all excited to commence ethnic cleansing in New Orleans:

Big business sees a chance for ethnic and class cleansing

...Organised money has something else in mind: the destruction of many of those communities and permanent removal of those who lived in them, a city that follows the gentrification patterns of racial removal and class cleansing that have played out elsewhere in the US.

My goodness, we'd better call in the UN!

(Thanks to The Daily Ablution)

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 10:33 AM | Comments (5)

United 93

A couple of reviews are appearing today, and both are very positive. From what they say it seems like this movie has been shorn of all the usual cliche crap that Hollywood loves to attach to true stories, and I'm glad. There's one part of me that is almost afraid to go see it, afraid of the emotions it will revive. Hell, I had a good friend who went to the airport that morning to get on 93 to fly to San Francisco, but since he got there so early United let him catch the earlier flight, and so he's alive today.

But there's a bigger part of me that really wants to see this, that wants everyone to see it, to remind us of why we are doing what we are doing. Oh sure, there have been mistakes in planning and execution and foresight along the way, and there has and will continue to be proper criticism of our failings, but son of a bitch let us never ever forget why we are doing it, and that we need to continue fighting to ensure that it never happens again.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 07:58 AM | Comments (2)

April 19, 2006

Breaking News

MSNBC.com

White House spokesman Scott McClellan is resigning post.

Guess he's had 'bout enough, huh?

Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:48 AM | Comments (3)

April 18, 2006

Nope, No Bias In This Headline

"Marines fire on mosque to repel attacks"

I mean, they couldn't say "Terrorists Hide In Mosque To Attack Marines," now could they? And I love the aside: "18 bodies with signs of torture found around Baghdad." Yawn, so boring how those Shi'ites and Sunnis keep hating eachother.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 08:10 AM

April 17, 2006

Full Of Sound And Fury

Did you guys see that WashPost article that Tim linked to? If you can stomach it read the whole thing. It's a very interesting look into the life of one of the evidently more popular frothies (I'd frankly never heard of this woman until the article, as I don't visit any of those sites). I read her reaction to the story briefly, and it seems her major beef with it is the rather unflattering picture they used. I dunno, based on how she acts in the article and on her writings it seems to me that picture is probably pretty darn accurate; I've certainly run into several folks who get that fired-up glazed crazed look in their eyes too.

But I'm just evul, I reckon.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 07:43 AM | Comments (8)

April 13, 2006

So What Happened On South Park?

I didn't see it, as I was off a'sedering, but there's an interesting discussion going on at Volokh.

Any of you folks see it?

Update: Welcome Volokh readers! So now we know:

Disgusting.

I'm not sure if it's been reported yet, but for what it's worth, I just got off the phone with a Comedy Central spokesman. I asked him about last night's episode of South Park in which, at a moment right before the prophet Mohammed was supposed to make a cameo, the words, "Comedy Central has refused to broadcast an image of Mohammed on their network" appeared on the screen.

I asked him whether this truly was Comedy Central's decision or whether this was just another gag (with South Park, you never know). He said:

They reflected it accurately. That was a Comedy Central decision.

Just in case there was any confusion, that settles it. Comedy Central censored the image.

Where are you now, Jon Stewart? Oh sure, it's easy to be bold and brave when you are parodying Bush, Cheney, Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell, etc., because you know there are no consequences. Will you have the courage to stand up for freedom of speech now? Where is the Jon Stewart whose first post-September 11th monologue was one of the most moving things I've ever seen? Now is the time to step up to the plate.

ths UPDATE: That incredible Jon Stewart opening monologue of September 20th, 2001 ~ for those who want to tear up again. Hits me in the solar plexis everytime. As Bingley says, where is that guy now?

Michelle Malkin has a complete round up.

Update and Bumpity-bump: Wow, the cravenness Of Comedy Central knows no bounds:

Comedy Central Releases Brief Statement on Decision to Censor Mohammed.--

I just had an amusing off-the-record conversation with someone at Comedy Central. They have released a simple public statement on their decision to deny South Park the right to show a depiction of Mohammed in their Wednesday episode, Cartoon Wars--Part II:

"In light of recent world events, we feel we made the right decision."

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 04:01 PM | Comments (4)

April 07, 2006

And he was grabbed by brownshirts and hauled off immediately after, right?

To be taken to the Gulag, I assume.

Wait, you mean he wasn't?

"In my lifetime, I have never felt more ashamed of my leadership in Washington," Taylor told the president. "And I would hope from time to time that you have the humility and grace to be ashamed of yourself."

He must have been assaulted by a brownshirt, at the least, right?

Afterward, Taylor was approached by Barry Richards, a 42-year-old town manager from nearby Cabarrus County. Richards shook Taylor's hand and told him how glad he was that Taylor had spoken.

Exxxxcelllent....[/Mr. Burns voice]

Then came the punchline.

"I 100 percent disagree with everything you said, but I'm glad you said it," Richards said.

Curse you Chimpy and your Rovian mind games!

Bingley Update: Gateway Pundit has more on this, though I would say that this man is not what I would call a "typical" liberal, in that he was rather polite and respectful.

Posted by Crusader at 12:50 PM | Comments (3)

Hurray For South Park

They're the only ones in our Media with any courage.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 12:32 PM | Comments (2)

April 05, 2006

Allegedly?

I've noticed what may be an interesting pattern regarding MSM coverage of events. When people are accused of crimes the standard used to be the use of the word "allegedly" until their innocence or guilt was proven. Now, it seems that sometimes it's used and sometimes it isn't.

"Allegedly":
Teacher/Student Sex
Fightin' Fists of Georgia
Jihadis

No "Allegedly":
Homeland Security Scumbag
DeLay
CIA Torture Flights
Gitmo Torture Dogs

Anybody pick up a pattern here?

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 07:47 AM | Comments (2)

April 04, 2006

Bolstering Bingley's Theme

..."that the definition of "slander" is "to quote."", I offer this statement from an ABC spokesman concerning the now suspended author of the "Bush makes me puke" emails on Drudge last week.

An ABC spokesman told us, "This is a vendetta being waged by a very determined and unethical individual who wants to smear John."

On the other hand, if one took a snippet of the original...

"...I'm going to puke," Green declared. "Bush makes me sick."

...and did a name swap...

"...I'm going to puke," ROVE declared. "KERRY makes me sick."

...I'm sure it would have been front page NEWS, vice a 'schmear'.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:32 AM | Comments (14)

Oliver Has Spoken

Continuing our theme from yesterday, the ever-clear minded Oliver Stone has weighed in:

Movie-maker OLIVER STONE has blasted media groups who "slander" celebrities for their political comments - because intelligent stars have every right to question their leaders. The Vietnam veteran, who is a fierce opponent of the US leadership, is appalled every time a celebrity is rudely mocked for making his or her thoughts about PRESIDENT GEORGE W BUSH and the war in Iraq public, and he urges journalists to be more supportive. The NATURAL BORN KILLERS director says, "We're Hollywood wackos and all that stuff, left-wing... (It's) an easy and facile dismissal. "I'm still a citizen, I've served my country as a veteran, I've had many jobs before the film business. I know something of life, having lived to this age. "We have a right to speak and every time we speak: 'You're an actor, a showbusiness director,' we're making it up! "This is not a way of dealing with people. This is slander."

And I for one am glad he has, as, moron that I am, I was not aware that the definition of "slander" is "to quote."

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 07:35 AM | Comments (6)

April 03, 2006

McCarthy! Puritans! Lions! Tigers! Bears!

I am so tired of hearing these Hollywood "artistes" talking about the pall of repression that they are tirelessly struggling under. Basic Instinct 2 had rather...limp box office receipts in its opening weekend. Do they blame the actors? Do they blame the directors? Do they blame the script? Hell, do they Blame Canada?

No! They blame Bush!

Paul Verhoeven, director of the first "Basic Instinct" (which scored $353 million worldwide) as well as the widely ridiculed "Showgirls" (now regarded as something of a camp classic), attributes the genre's demise to the current American political climate.

"Anything that is erotic has been banned in the United States," said the Dutch native. "Look at the people at the top (of the government). We are living under a government that is constantly hammering out Christian values. And Christianity and sex have never been good friends."

Scribe Nicholas Meyer, who was an uncredited writer on 1987's seminal sex-fueled cautionary tale "Fatal Attraction," agrees, noting that the genre's downfall coincides with the ascent of the conservative political movement.

"We're in a big puritanical mode," he said. "Now, it's like the McCarthy era, except it's not 'Are you a communist?' but 'Have you ever put sex in a movie?'"

Oh puh-lease. Maybe it's 'cos, you know, the script and the direction...suck?

At least finally at the end of the article they find someone who isn't a nut:

"For producer JC Spink, the genre's demise has little to do with politics, scripts or willing talent and everything to do with the Internet, which became ubiquitous in American homes around the same time studio executives were suffering through such debacles as "Body of Evidence," "Showgirls" and "Jade."

"Why pay $10 to see something at the movies that you can see for free on the Internet?" Spink asked. "I think the genre is suffering because sex is more pervasive in our society now than it was 10 years ago, from Vanity Fair ads to reality TV. I mean, there's porn stars on reality TV."

And even Verhoeven grudgingly admits in the end that the scripts stink. Geesh. But I guess the scripts are poor because of the theocratic climate of fear, so the writers (those few who haven't been dragged off to the Gulags yet, obviously) can't think erotic thoughts.

Yeah, that's it.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 10:10 AM | Comments (31)

It's Been Interesting

Very interesting seeing how the MSM has handled the Jill Carroll statements about how her captors were, in fact, scumbags. Is it me or does it seem rather, well, low key? When she was first released the video she made was trumpeted as much as her release

American journalist Jill Carroll, who was released this week after being held hostage in Iraq for almost three months, has slammed the United States and praised Iraqi insurgents in a video posted on an Islamist Web site.

And people rushed to judge her

Counterterrorism expert Laura Mansfield speculated that Carroll may have made the comments after being subjected to her captors' thinking for 83 days. It would not be surprising for Carroll to come away with a "heightened affection" for the mujahedeen, she said.

"That's what she's been spoon-fed for nearly three months," Mansfield said.

But it seems her father knew the real reason

Her father, however, told The Christian Science Monitor -- the paper she was freelancing for when she was abducted -- that she made the video to meet a final demand made by her captors, the newspaper reported Friday. The article's headline was "Jill Carroll forced to make propaganda video as price of freedom."

So now the MSM can't resist tweaking things a little

CNN cannot authenticate the source of the video. It is not clear when or where it was taped...

"During my last night in captivity, my captors forced me to participate in a propaganda video," she wrote. "They told me they would let me go if I cooperated. I was living in a threatening environment, under their control, and wanted to go home alive. I agreed.

"Things that I was forced to say while captive are now being taken by some as an accurate reflection of my personal views. They are not."

She even lambasted her captors, who allegedly killed her interpreter, Alan Enwiya, when they abducted her in western Baghdad in January.

Allegedly? Allegedly??

Tell that to his alleged family who was allegedly given his allegedly bullet-riddled body.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 08:00 AM | Comments (2)

March 27, 2006

A Big Win For Bloggers

This is good news:

The Federal Election Commission decided Monday that the nation's new campaign finance law will not apply to most political activity on the Internet.

In a 6-0 vote, the commission decided to regulate only paid political ads placed on another person's Web site.

The decision means that bloggers and online publications will not be covered by provisions of the new election law. Internet bloggers and individuals will therefore be able to use the Internet to attack or support federal candidates without running afoul of campaign spending and contribution limits.

...Bloggers would be entitled to the same exemption from the campaign finance law that newspapers and other traditional forms of media receive.

"There will be no second class citizens among members of the media," Toner said.

I'm glad it was unanimous.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 01:34 PM | Comments (8)

An Email Arrived Forwarding This

...column by Ralph Peters to friends and family. Shortly afterward a "reply all" came back with the following:

"Yeah, its amazing how 2 or 3 thousand journalists have all gotten together in a conspiracy in Iraq to report only the bad stuff and none of the good. Man, those lousy journalists, can seem to get the story straight in Iraq but are really, really good at getting together and pulling the wool over the entire world's eyes.

And its also amazing that the people in charge of this war, the ones that have access to the US airwaves whenever they want (think Presidential speeches, news releases carried by every major news outlet, news conferences etc) don't have ANY opportunity to release their side of the story, poor souls. And finally, isn't it amazing how EASY it is to blame the news media instead of accepting ANY blame for misguided policies and mistakes (think Nixon and Watergate, I won't go into this administration - except maybe Katrina).

Sorry, but when people tell me that the MEDIA is to blame, then I'm almost CERTAIN that its not. There many be LOTS of good things happening in Iraq, but that doesn't mean there aren't a LOT of bad things happening there either. Weak minds and weak hearts seek to blame others - looks like it's happening again!"

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:13 AM | Comments (6)

March 20, 2006

Quotes of the Weekend

Vice President Cheney on Face the Nation Sunday, in response to Bob Sheiffer's, "Let me read to you what Senator Kennedy, a liberal Democrat from Massachusetts and a long-time opponent of the war, said on the third anniversary. "

CHENEY: Well, I would not look to Ted Kennedy for guidance and leadership on how we ought to manage national security, Bob.

...And I think we are going to succeed in Iraq. I think the evidence is overwhelming. I think Ted Kennedy has been wrong from the very beginning. He's the last man I'd go to for guidance in terms of how we should conduct U.S. national security policy.

I about spit out my Danish.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 01:04 PM | Comments (2)

March 19, 2006

Wicked Good

Ho My God was this show phenomenal!

The number right before the intermission was one of the finest numbers I've ever seen on stage.

Simply awesome.

Update below the fold

Whew. Ookay, where to begin? The set is very cool; the walls are all covered with interlocking wooden gears and cogs and then to the outside of that is this wild growth of vines and ivy. Centered above all of it is this large dragon that moves. Very neat.

The show starts with the announced death of the Wicked Witch of the West and the munchkins asking Glinda where she came from, and Glinda has to uncomfortably admit that they where friends at one point. So the whole "Wizard of Oz" tale that we are familiar with is intertwined through this show, but viewed in a different way. It's very well done and often very humorous (and based on a question my bride had I checked this morning and found that all of the works of L Frank Baum are in the public domain now) in a twisted way. I won't give any more of the plot away, other than to say it is focused on the development Elphaba (the Wicked Witch) and Glinda.

And boy does the show appeal to its target demographic: the audience was packed with teenage girls, 11 to 18.

Cast notes:

Eden Espinosa (Elphaba) is great. She has a fantastic voice with a lot of oomph in the lower end and can really belt out some of the songs with out noticeable strain, and despite being, well, green, she is able to convey a lot of emotion and thought. And does she have Margaret Hamilton down cold. I tell you, when she cackled I wanted to buy some Maxwell House...
My only complaint, and my daughter noticed this too, so it's not just me, ok?, is that when she sings she has a very unattractive mouth. The way she forms her lips is is just unpleasant and distracting at times frankly. A great voice, a great actress. Fix the mouth.

Megan Hilty (Glinda) is great as well. Fantastic voice, and plays the blond part to a 't.' She develops her character very well during the show, and even though she's set up as the character to dislike you end up liking her alot. She plays the slapstick aspects of her role perfectly.

Carol Kane and Ben Vereen were frankly disappointing. Kane seemed to be trying to play Maggie Smith, and she just doesn't pull it off. Oh she's not awful, just..bland, really. Ben's problem partially stems from his part, as there's not a lot of depth to his character, but he too is just sort of ...eh. Neither of them detract at all from the show, but you don't come away with any special memories of their performances either.

But I would go see it again in a flash. A very enjoyable show, and the sets and effects are wonderful.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 10:18 PM | Comments (5)

March 14, 2006

Never Let Facts Get In The Way...

Via Tim Worstall, yet another blogging Tim shows that George Clooney is as good as his word:

Syriana is a film largely about the workings of the oil and gas industry, in particular the Middle East oil and gas industry, and as I know a thing or two about this subject, I was interested in watching it. Having now done so, I think Clooney was understating the fact.

A good primer on how business in the ME really works.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 12:55 PM

Fight! FIGHT !!

In THIS corner, the challenger...

N.Y. Times' Iraq Detainee Story Challenged

The New York Times is investigating questions raised about the identity of a man who said in a Page 1 profile that he is the Abu Ghraib prisoner whose hooded image became an icon of abuse by American captors.

The online magazine Salon.com challenged the man's identity, based on an examination of 280 Abu Ghraib pictures it has been studying for weeks and on an interview with an official of the Army's Criminal Investigation Command. The official says the man the Times profiled Saturday, Ali Shalal Qaissi, is not the detainee in the photograph.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:41 AM

March 13, 2006

"V For Vendetta"

I think I'll pass on this one.

It sounds like a much more interesting movie could be made about the producers:

The Wachowskis no longer talk to the press, and their personal lives are the subject of considerable speculation. Larry, the older of the two, is a transvestite in a relationship with a Los Angeles dominatrix.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 07:55 AM | Comments (2)

February 21, 2006

I Wouldn't Talk to Them Either

There were about four pissy little stories and opinion pieces on MSNBC.com this morning (all gone now, of course) about how Sasha Cohen had dissed the media and not done a single interview. Well folks, since Sasha Cohen didn't exist as far as the media was concerned once La Kwan got her spot on the team, she's now supposed to forget she was chopped liver for those weeks? Even though she is (Did you know? Had you heard?) the reigning U.S Champion.

Pith on them.
UPDATE:

Cohen's first leads strong U.S. short program

Now, THAT's what I call a GREAT start! Go, girls, GO!!

Posted by tree hugging sister at 02:09 PM | Comments (6)

February 19, 2006

Where Was the Outrage on ESPN's "The Sports Reporters"

... ~ regarding Bryant Gumball's clever, blatant racism ~ this morning?

It wasn't. Not one word, pro OR con. I doubt the silence would have been quite so deafening had it been, like, a Terry Bradshaw who'd said it about blacks in the summer olympics, or the NBA or whatEVER.. They'd be sizing him for a Goodyear necktie two seconds later.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 01:37 PM | Comments (4)

February 15, 2006

Cartoons

...about the cartoons.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:14 AM | Comments (4)

Truer Words

...were never spoken. Ed Koch quotes Bill Bennett, while adding insight of his own.

At that point, Blitzer interjected, saying to Bennett, “You can understand, Bill, that feeling among many Muslims, that this is beyond the pale when you insult the Prophet Muhammad.” Bennett, as penetrating and brilliant as Krauthammer, responded, “Sure. And if I were a Jew watching what CNN just led in with [anti-Semitic cartoons used in Muslim countries], I might be a little upset, too. But CNN doesn’t have the solicitude for Jews it has for Muslims. Your policy is not to show these cartoons that were shown in Denmark, but to show one after another of the most anti-Semitic cartoons they could come forward with. CNN -- I don’t mean to pick on CNN, just because I work for you. But NBC, The New York Times, other media -- the Virgin Mary in cow dung, that was fine. We can show that everywhere. Now, the Islamists have won, in that they have intimidated the major news media from showing these cartoons. They have lost, however, in the wider world, because people see that this is just totally nutty behavior, that these cartoons are shown and people, as a result, want to kill people, behead people, burn buildings down. And, whatever the argument with the Danes, what is the point of burning the Jewish flag? What is the point of burning the U.S. flag and saying death to Israel and death to the United States? People get a good, close look at this and say, you know, these people are unhinged.”

Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:07 AM | Comments (3)

February 13, 2006

Would It Were Different

The silence was deafening and the seats were empty. The western press was nowhere to be found. The location was Baghdad and the event was a February 10th, 2006 press conference announcing the final verification of December's election results. Although the final allocation of parliamentary seats did not change from last month's tentative reports, the conference was nonetheless significant for American and Iraqi history. What was equally significant was the absence of members of the western press.

Lieutenant Colonel John M. Kanaley

Posted by tree hugging sister at 12:19 PM | Comments (1)

February 07, 2006

This Guy

Asked whether this self-relativization does not apply to Islam and the Danish cartoons, the Cardinal’s spokesman told the press: “One does not mock the essence of someone’s faith. It is forbidden to depict the prophet. If you do, what’s more with a bomb in his turban, then that is a provocation. Just look at the violent reactions. The cardinal does not condone this violence, but he believes our own freedom has its bounds.”

The Belgian Cardinal would be the perfect bishop for Christian dhimmis in the Muslim continent of Eurabia. We are in the closing years of the pre-Islamic era of Europe’s history, and The Brussels Journal is there to record them – so that America may hopefully gain some insights from this and learn from our fatal mistakes.

...needs a group hug BADLY. Buy Danish.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 12:00 PM

February 02, 2006

How Beautifully Said

A couple of poignant paragraphs from Bob Woodruff's wife Lee. They are incredibly graceful and gracious.

Your positive thoughts, prayers and good wishes have sustained us over the last 72 hours as we have experienced the highs and lows of this emotional roller coaster. Bob could not have made the progress he has to date without the unbelievable care he received from the military in Iraq, Germany and now, Bethesda. Simply put, they saved his life. There are no words to express our gratitude.

We realize that our family is going through something that thousands of military families have experienced over the last three years since the war began and throughout our history. Bob's name may be more recognizable but his story is no more important. He would be the first to insist that the attention should be focused on the members of the U.S. military whose heroic actions he has reported on for years.

Our best wishes for the happiest of outcomes.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:03 AM | Comments (5)

January 30, 2006

A Hard Time

...for Hardball?! You have got to be kidding me.

The campaign against Chris Matthews has escalated into talk of a boycott, though the would-be boycotters prefer to call it an "appeal to advertisers." Matthews is accused of being soft on Republicans in general, and in particular, of comparing Michael Moore to Osama bin Laden. On Jan. 19, Matthews said on "Hardball" that in his new audio message, bin Laden "sounds like an over-the-top Michael Moore." Matthews was citing bin Laden's mention of "the flow of hundreds of billions of dollars to the influential people and war merchants in America." The next night, Matthews suggested that bin Laden was picking up the lingo of the American anti-war left, and asked, "Why would he start to talk like Moore?" Bloggers turned quickly against Matthews, a Democrat, calling him "a broadcasting neo-con," "stupid Bush lover" and "man whore for the GOP."

What a schizophrenic bunch those liberal bloggers are! Dang! I just thought they were unhinged in the pissy school yard mode ~ the "I know you are but what am I" come-back when you've got absolutely nothing else. But to turn on your own? Chris Matthews is a GOP "man-whore"? How icky and desperate is that? Good grief. It'll be even more pathetic if Chris Matthews feels he has to soothe ruffled feathers by making 'I'm an insensitive pig' apologies.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:02 PM | Comments (6)

January 20, 2006

Guess Their SPAM FIlters Weren't Working

Paper Shutters Blog After Ombudsman Post

The Washington Post shut down one of its blogs Thursday after the newspaper's ombudsman raised the ire of readers by writing that lobbyist Jack Abramoff gave money to the Democrats as well as to Republicans.

...There were so many personal attacks that the newspaper's staff could not "keep the board clean, there was some pretty filthy stuff," and so the Post shut down comments on the blog,...

Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:32 AM | Comments (6)

January 16, 2006

We Feel Your Pain

...since no one's remembered a little number named Ivan, either. Witness how we were left out of the Gulf Opportunity Zone Act. Bangla-cola might as well be in Asia.

Many on Miss. Coast Feel Overshadowed

GULFPORT, Miss. (AP) -- Nicki Henderson has had plenty of reasons to be angry since Hurricane Katrina destroyed her Biloxi home, but it was a simple news item about dislocated dolphins that really made her blood boil.

Henderson lost her temper when she logged on to her computer and spotted this headline: "New Orleans Dolphins Find New Home." She knew the dolphins actually came from a hurricane-ravaged marine park in Gulfport, not New Orleans.

The headline writer's error reinforced her belief - shared by many on Mississippi's Gulf Coast - that New Orleans has gotten a disproportionate share of the news coverage and the nation's attention in the aftermath of the storm, now more than four months gone.

Unfortunately, all I can tell her is get used to it. If you think it s*cks now, try along about next December. The collective consciousness will be lucky if they can remember Mississippi's a state, less mind what happened in Gulfport/Biloxi.

Welcome to our world.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 05:06 PM | Comments (4)

January 11, 2006

The Mouse That Flambeed...

Evidently didn't:

A small -town rumor that sparked world -wide interest about a mouse burning down a house has been found to be untrue.

The story always sounded a little cheesey to me...

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 10:42 AM | Comments (7)

December 21, 2005

Call Me Cranky But...

I sort of have a problem with this story opening. The folks in it survived a God awful, harrowing Katrina night and have lost everything. My heart goes out to them; truly it does. But the set-up paragraph is just so jaw dropping a snap-shot of everything wrong with an ingrained welfare system, that it took reading it three or four times to get past it. See if you read it the way I (we) did. Tell me if I'm wrong.

Lisa Moore, 37, says that she was in church with her husband, Larry Morgan, and never heard the mayor's warning. "We didn't think it was going to be that bad," she says. Besides, they had no place to go. "New Orleans is our home, our culture," says Lisa. "It's everything." Larry and Lisa, who have been together since she was 18, have 10 children, ages 2 to 18. Before Katrina, they "had a good life with beaucoup stuff," says Lisa. There was the widescreen TV, their favorite spicy foods (red beans and rice) and federally subsidized rent (only $280 a month) for their large, yellow four-bedroom house. On most Sundays, Larry donned a white suit and top hat and waved feathered fans as a member of a "second-line club" that marches in jazz funerals (the "main line" is the grieving family; in the "second line" come the friends and revelers). Larry, who could make $2,500 a month as a roofer, could make hundreds more marching behind coffins. Even though Lisa and her family lived in the city's most impoverished neighborhood, they never felt poor in New Orleans. "That's why they called it the Big Easy," says Lisa.

They never felt 'poor' in New Orleans? Maybe because they weren't.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 05:00 PM | Comments (8)

I Wish I Knew What Channels

...she was watching. I could have avoided the Mother Sheehan lovefest I was subjected to night after night.

But the peace movement in the U.S. remains small. Why?
One thing that has prevented the peace movement in America is the media. I spoke with 5,000 people in North Carolina on March 19, 2005, and the press called the protest "insignificant." They covered the Terri Schiavo case instead.

You feel like you were mistreated by the press?
They got hold of everything I've ever said and scrutinized it so carefully. They never scrutinized what Bush said. No one said, "Why did you lie to the American people and say there was WMD?" The press found an easy target in Iraq, and they found an easy target in me

Gack.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 04:48 PM | Comments (5)

December 20, 2005

The Goonies

Mentally unstable reporters who are tempted to compulsively make up phony stories now have a place to turn: disgraced former New York Times staffer Jayson Blair has set up a foundation to help people who suffer from bipolar disorder, also known as manic depression. “The key issue in Jayson Blair’s life has been his lifelong battle with mental illness, in the form of manic-depression,” notes The Jayson Blair Foundation’s Web site

Don't get crushed in the rush. I'm gonna wait and then slide right in behind Mary "Miss Marple" Mapes.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 03:44 PM | Comments (3)

I Know I Sound Like A Broken Record...

...but is there a better columnist in the world today than Mark Steyn? Read all of today's in the Telegraph:

So suppose we do as Mr Reimers suggests and "take a good hard look" at "racism by exclusion". As Monday's Australian reported: "Sydney's western suburbs remained quiet yesterday after a call for a full day's curfew by Lebanese community leaders. Mohammed Elriche, 19, said he and his friends would have enjoyed nothing more than their regular swim at Cronulla Beach, but their parents had asked him to stay at home.

"His parents, Eddy and Samira, who have lived in Australia since 1972, said their five children would be allowed to go to the beach again only when the 'conflict is resolved and peace is restored' in the Sutherland shire region. 'If there's no more conflict, I will let him go,' Samira, 42, told the Australian in Arabic."

In Arabic? Let's suppose that Cate Blanchett got her wish and a tidal wave of tolerance washed into all those "dark corners of Australian society" taking the chill off the chilling glimpse Squires got. How are even the most impeccably diverse multicultural types supposed to welcome into the bosom of their boundlessly tolerant family a woman who prefers to speak the language of the land she left at nine? When it comes to "racism by exclusion", who's excluding whom?

There's a reason my wife has told me that if Mark Steyn shows up at our front door she'll try and remember to write occasionally...

(Thanks to Tim for the head's up on the column)

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 02:50 PM | Comments (2)

December 15, 2005

"He's a president that comes in with conclusiveness."

George Bush' biggest fan is Don King:

DON KING; I love George Walker Bush because I think he's a revolutionary. He's a president that comes in with conclusiveness. What they're doing in tomorrow in Iraq is a demonstration of that for the vote for democracy. The fundamental process of democracy is freedom of speech, law and order, being able to have freedom, working with people and working and governing yourselves. George Bush is that. He included in...

BLITZER: Do you have any regrets supporting him? Take a look at that picture when you and I were there at the diner last year. Do you have any regrets supporting him as enthusiastically as you did?

KING: No, I don't. In fact, I want to support him more now because it seems like everybody is punching him. You know what I mean? But he's fighting back, and he's throwing great combinations. And I think he's the guy that is really a revolutionary president.

I think he's a president that cares about the people he represents, but doesn't compromise himself to the extent that he acquiesce and accommodate. He goes out there and says like it is, and tries to make things better. Inclusiveness, education, is fighting for that.

These are the things that many guys that don't fight for -- George Walker Bush is a tremendous advocate to America, a great president for the great American people, and he's decisive. He's doesn't equivocate.

Only in America, folks. I love it.

(but you're still a crook, Don)

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 11:01 AM | Comments (4)

December 12, 2005

More ABCNews to the Contrary

This is not something the Dems wanted to hear...or have broadcast.

Surprising levels of optimism prevail in Iraq with living conditions improved, security more a national worry than a local one, and expectations for the future high. But views of the country's situation overall are far less positive, and there are vast differences in views among Iraqi groups — a study in contrasts between increasingly disaffected Sunni areas and vastly more positive Shiite and Kurdish provinces.

An ABC News poll in Iraq, conducted with Time magazine and other media partners, includes some remarkable results: Despite the daily violence there, most living conditions are rated positively, seven in 10 Iraqis say their own lives are going well, and nearly two-thirds expect things to improve in the year ahead.

If the administration has any brains at all, they'll be handing these two surveys out with their talking points at every whistle stop and hammering them home on every Sunday morning talk show. But it worries me, as they haven't been real adept at the PR stuff so far...

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:23 AM | Comments (2)

December 09, 2005

You've Got To Love Rummy

Via Tim, this interview is a thing of beauty:

JIM LEHRER: Also, you told reporters this morning that, assuming the Dec. 15 elections in Iraq go well, that the U.S. can start drawing down forces. Tell me what you mean and give us some numbers on this.

DONALD RUMSFELD: I think what you meant to say, Jim, was that you read reports that I said that to reporters, as opposed to what I actually said...

...JIM LEHRER: All right, now the figure that was mentioned in the story that I was reading from or quoting from said you used the figure, somebody used the figure in the discussion with you early today of 137,000 -- I mean 130,000 maybe shortly after the 137,000 -- no?

DONALD RUMSFELD: I said nothing like that.

Read it all. It's a beautiful schmackdown after schmackdown.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 09:15 AM | Comments (5)

December 08, 2005

The Best Year For Music?

In comments below, Ken talks of how he basically listens to nothing released after 1975. That led me to think about what year I would say was the best ever for music, at least in my lifetime. I've thought on this before, and I keep returning to...

1979

Just take a look at some of the albums released that year, in no particular order:

Joe Jackson "I'm The Man"
Joe Jackson "Look Sharp"
The Specials "The Specials"
Frank Zappa "Sheik Yerbouti"
Frank Zappa "Joe's Garage"
The Police "Reggata de Blanc"
Led Zeppelin "In Through The Out Door"
The Clash "London Calling"
Talking Heads "Fear of Music"
Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers "Damn The Torpedoes"
Supertramp "Breakfast In America"
The B-52s "The B-52s"
Elvis Costello and the Attractions "Armed Forces"
Cheap Trick "At Budokan"
Cheap Trick "Dream Police"
Chicago "XIII"
Blondie "Eat to the Beat"
Eagles "The Long Run"
Pink Floyd "The Wall"
Michael Jackson "Off the Wall"
AC/DC "Highway to Hell"
The Cars "Candy-O"
Queen "Jazz"
Van Halen "Van Halen II"

And there's many others. For me, 1979 is the year in my life that produced the best music. What are y'all's nominees?

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 12:12 PM | Comments (32)

Frankly

We were stunned when we watched this last night. Major Dad said "Wow. Not one bad thing or cheap slap." It really was a miracle in broadcasting ~ from Bob Woodruff, to the reporters, to the folks they interviewed, to the wrap-up ~ as upbeat as you could get.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:35 AM | Comments (1)

December 04, 2005

Sunday Snippets

John Saunders gave a moving, emotional tribute to the Army-Navy game, and why he watches every year, on the Sports Reporters. Wow.
Then:

For Environmental Balance, Pick Up a Rifle

UPDATE: On the Wikipedia story, a 'whoops'.

Here's a quick quiz: Which large American mammal kills the most humans each year?

It's not the bear, which kills about two people a year in North America. Nor is it the wolf, which in modern times hasn't killed anyone in this country. It's not the cougar, which kills one person every year or two.

Rather, it's the deer. Unchecked by predators, deer populations are exploding in a way that is profoundly unnatural and that is destroying the ecosystem in many parts of the country. In a wilderness, there might be 10 deer per square mile; in parts of New Jersey, there are up to 200 per square mile.

Opinion in the New York Times.

As well as an interesting account of a Wikipedia entry surprising the person it was about.

Snared in the Web of a Wikipedia Liar
ACCORDING to Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia, John Seigenthaler Sr. is 78 years old and the former editor of The Tennessean in Nashville. But is that information, or anything else in Mr. Seigenthaler's biography, true?

The question arises because Mr. Seigenthaler recently read about himself on Wikipedia and was shocked to learn that he "was thought to have been directly involved in the Kennedy assassinations of both John and his brother Bobby."

"Nothing was ever proven," the biography added.

Mr. Seigenthaler discovered that the false information had been on the site for several months and that an unknown number of people had read it, and possibly posted it on or linked it to other sites.

And an awakening of sorts. (To which we reply "duh".)

IN December 1997, representatives of most of the world's nations met in Kyoto, Japan, to negotiate a binding agreement to cut emissions of "greenhouse" gases.

They succeeded. The Kyoto Protocol was ultimately ratified by 156 countries. It was the first agreement of its kind. But it may also prove to be the last.

Today, in the middle of new global warming talks in Montreal, there is a sense that the whole idea of global agreements to cut greenhouse gases won't work.

A major reason the optimism over Kyoto has eroded so rapidly is that its major requirement - that 38 participating industrialized countries cut their greenhouse emissions below 1990 levels by the year 2012 - was seen as just a first step toward increasingly aggressive cuts.

But in the years after the protocol was announced, developing countries, including the fast-growing giants China and India, have held firm on their insistence that they would accept no emissions cuts, even though they are likely to be the world's dominant source of greenhouse gases in coming years.

Their refusal helped fuel strong opposition to the treaty in the United States Senate and its eventual rejection by President Bush.

But the current stalemate is not just because of the inadequacies of the protocol. It is also a response to the world's ballooning energy appetite, which, largely because of economic growth in China, has exceeded almost everyone's expectations. And there are still no viable alternatives to fossil fuels, the main source of greenhouse gases.

Then, too, there is a growing recognition of the economic costs incurred by signing on to the Kyoto Protocol.

As Prime Minister Tony Blair of Britain, a proponent of emissions targets, said in a statement on Nov. 1: "The blunt truth about the politics of climate change is that no country will want to sacrifice its economy in order to meet this challenge."

Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:52 AM | Comments (5)

December 01, 2005

Oh, Here We Go...

The Case of the Secret Memo
The White House denies plans to bomb Al-Jazeera. But a warning sent out to British newspaper editors has given the controversy a fresh twist.

Nov. 30, 2005 - A British government crackdown on government leaks may have backfired by calling world attention to an ultrasensitive secret memo whose alleged contents have embarrassed President George W. Bush and strained relations between London and Washington. The document allegedly recounts a threat last year by Bush to bomb the head office of the Arabic TV news channel Al-Jazeera.

I'll betcha one of Mr. Summers' Janeane Garofolo blow-up dolls I know exACTLY what President Bush said about blowing up Al-Jazeera.
UPDATE: Hmmph! Imagine that. When I first posted this it was fresh to the headline territory on MSNBC.com. Now it's gone completely from the front page.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 01:32 PM | Comments (2)

November 29, 2005

The Grey Lady, Collusion and Tap Dancing

This November 21st article (complete text below) about an Italian "documentary" film, headlined:

THE REACH OF WAR: WEAPONS; Defense of Phosphorus Use Turns Into Damage Control

...Daryl G. Kimball, director of the Arms Control Association, a nonprofit organization that researches nuclear issues, was more cautious. In light of the issues raised since the film was shown, he said, the Defense Department, and perhaps an independent body, should review whether American use of white phosphorus had been consistent with international weapons conventions.

''There are legitimate questions that need to be asked,'' Mr. Kimball said. Given the history of Saddam Hussein's use of chemical weapons in Iraq, he said, ''we have to be extremely careful'' to comply with treaties and the rules of war.

...The Italian documentary, titled ''Falluja: The Hidden Massacre,'' included gruesome images of victims of the fierce fighting in the city in November 2004. American and Iraqi troops recaptured the city from insurgents, in battles that destroyed an estimated 60 percent of the buildings.

Opening with prolonged shots of Vietnamese children and villages burned by American use of napalm in 1972, the film suggested an equivalence between Mr. Hussein's use of chemical weapons in the 1980's and the use of white phosphorus by the American-led forces.

...has now been quietly corrected.

Correction: November 29, 2005, Tuesday An article on Nov. 21 about an Italian documentary film accusing the United States of misusing white phosphorus munitions in Iraq referred imprecisely to footage of napalm use in Vietnam. The film shows United States Air Force jets dropping napalm on Vietnamese villages and includes famous footage from 1972 of Kim Phuc Phan Thi, a 9-year-old girl, fleeing after napalm burned her clothing off. But the aircraft that dropped the napalm on her village in 1972 was South Vietnamese, not American.

A thinly disguised smack at the administration's bungled response. All the while leaving the impression that there is something to the film's claims, thanks to the few sentences refuting them scattered among the paragraphs of film scenes/quotes from folks like Mr. Kimball. How upsetting to have to correct such a carefully crafted storyboard. For the record, Major Dad adds:

Those lying Italian Communist's. WP does nothing remotely similar to napalm.

For our non-subscribers:

FOREIGN DESK

THE REACH OF WAR: WEAPONS; Defense of Phosphorus Use Turns Into Damage Control
By SCOTT SHANE; IAN FISHER CONTRIBUTED REPORTING FROM ROME FOR THIS ARTICLE. (NYT) 1051 words
Published: November 21, 2005

CORRECTION APPENDED

On Nov. 8, Italian public television showed a documentary renewing persistent charges that the United States had used white phosphorus rounds, incendiary munitions that the film incorrectly called chemical weapons, against Iraqis in Falluja last year. Many civilians died of burns, the report said.
The half-hour film was riddled with errors and exaggerations, according to United States officials and independent military experts. But the State Department and Pentagon have so bungled their response -- making and then withdrawing incorrect statements about what American troops really did when they fought a pitched battle against insurgents in the rebellious city -- that the charges have produced dozens of stories in the foreign news media and on Web sites suggesting that the Americans used banned weapons and tried to cover it up.

The Iraqi government has announced an investigation, and a United Nations spokeswoman has expressed concern.

''It's discredited the American military without any basis in fact,'' said John E. Pike, an expert on weapons who runs GlobalSecurity.org, an independent clearinghouse for military information. He said the ''stupidity and incompetence'' of official comments had fueled suspicions of a cover-up.

''The story most people around the world have is that the Americans are up to their old tricks -- committing atrocities and lying about it,'' Mr. Pike said. ''And that's completely incorrect.''

Daryl G. Kimball, director of the Arms Control Association, a nonprofit organization that researches nuclear issues, was more cautious. In light of the issues raised since the film was shown, he said, the Defense Department, and perhaps an independent body, should review whether American use of white phosphorus had been consistent with international weapons conventions.

''There are legitimate questions that need to be asked,'' Mr. Kimball said. Given the history of Saddam Hussein's use of chemical weapons in Iraq, he said, ''we have to be extremely careful'' to comply with treaties and the rules of war.

At a time when opposition to the war is growing, the white phosphorus issue has reinforced the worst suspicions about American actions.

The documentary was quickly posted as a video file on Web sites worldwide. Bloggers trumpeted its allegations. Foreign newspapers and television reported the charges and rebuttals, with headlines like ''The Big White Lie'' in The Independent of London.

Officials now acknowledge that the government's initial response was sluggish and misinformed.

''There's so much inaccurate information out there now that I'm not sure we can unscrew it,'' Lt. Col. Barry Venable, a Defense Department spokesman who has handled many inquiries about white phosphorus, said Friday.

The State Department declined to comment for the record, but an official there said privately that the episode was a public relations failure.

The Italian documentary, titled ''Falluja: The Hidden Massacre,'' included gruesome images of victims of the fierce fighting in the city in November 2004. American and Iraqi troops recaptured the city from insurgents, in battles that destroyed an estimated 60 percent of the buildings.

Opening with prolonged shots of Vietnamese children and villages burned by American use of napalm in 1972, the film suggested an equivalence between Mr. Hussein's use of chemical weapons in the 1980's and the use of white phosphorus by the American-led forces.

It incorrectly referred to white phosphorus shells -- a munition of nearly every military commonly used to create smoke screens or fires -- as banned chemical weapons.

The film showed disfigured bodies and suggested that hot-burning white phosphorus had melted the flesh while leaving clothing intact. Sigfrido Ranucci, the television correspondent who made the documentary, said in an interview this month that he had received the photographs from an Iraqi doctor. ''We are not talking about corpses like the normal deaths in war,'' he said.

Military veterans familiar with white phosphorus, known to soldiers as ''W. P.'' or ''Willie Pete,'' said it could deliver terrible burns, since an exploding round scatters bits of the compound that burst into flames on exposure to air and can burn into flesh, penetrating to the bone.

But they said white phosphorus would have burned victims' clothing. The bodies in the film appeared to be decomposed, they said.

In their first comments after the Nov. 8 broadcast, American officials made some of those points. But they relied on an inaccurate State Department fact sheet first posted on the Web last December, when similar accusations first surfaced.

The fact sheet said American forces had used white phosphorus shells ''very sparingly in Falluja, for illumination purposes, and were fired ''to illuminate enemy positions at night, not at enemy fighters.''

The Americans stuck to that position last spring after Iraq's Health Ministry claimed it had proof of civilian casualties from the weapons.

After the Italian documentary was broadcast, the American ambassadors to Italy, Ronald P. Spogli, and to Britain, Robert H. Tuttle, echoed the stock defense, denying that white phosphorus munitions had been used against enemy fighters, let alone civilians. At home, on the public radio program ''Democracy Now,'' Lt. Col. Steve Boylan, an American military spokesman, said, ''I know of no cases where people were deliberately targeted by the use of white phosphorus.''

But those statements were incorrect. Firsthand accounts by American officers in two military journals note that white phosphorus munitions had been aimed directly at insurgents in Falluja to flush them out. War critics and journalists soon discovered those articles.

In the face of such evidence, the Bush administration made an embarrassing public reversal last week. Pentagon spokesmen admitted that white phosphorus had been used directly against Iraqi insurgents. ''It's perfectly legitimate to use this stuff against enemy combatants,'' Colonel Venable said Friday.

While he said he could not rule out that white phosphorus hit some civilians, ''U.S. and coalition forces took extraordinary measures to prevent civilian casualties in Falluja.''

Correction: November 29, 2005, Tuesday An article on Nov. 21 about an Italian documentary film accusing the United States of misusing white phosphorus munitions in Iraq referred imprecisely to footage of napalm use in Vietnam. The film shows United States Air Force jets dropping napalm on Vietnamese villages and includes famous footage from 1972 of Kim Phuc Phan Thi, a 9-year-old girl, fleeing after napalm burned her clothing off. But the aircraft that dropped the napalm on her village in 1972 was South Vietnamese, not American.

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Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:15 AM | Comments (4)

November 27, 2005

Kinda Lonely Out There in Crawford, Huh?

I went through about fifty odd snippets in this slide show before I couldn't take any more. While suffering for this report, I did notice a dearth of fresh faces, like, you know...fellow peace-niks, Mother Sheehan alcolyte-types. 18 folks holdin' up the "Hey ya Cindy" sign. No crowds. Pretty much 80+ angles of the same six folks. Maybe it's just me, since I will admit to my eyes glazing over about 1/4 of the way through this manufactured story, but dang.

Do it in six relevant pictures, already, not eighty-eight. Gimme some 88 Marine pictures, how 'bout it?

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:27 PM | Comments (4)

November 22, 2005

"X" Marks The Veep

You really can't make this stuff up.

It's as if CNN is trying to become SNL.

More from Drudge.

Update: Evan Coyne Maloney says

A number of conservative bloggers are criticizing CNN under the assumption that the glitch (or not-glitch) was both deliberate and an example of political bias. Sorry guys, I don't see it. I recognize the possibility, but I also recognize a much larger number of possibilities for actual glitches in video production.... ...Maybe CNN should get the benefit of the doubt. There's an old saying: Never ascribe to malice that which can be explained by incompetence. Given CNN's recent performance in the marketplace, that statement seems apt.

I'm not convinced. It seems a little too convenient, does it not, that this 'glitch' appears only on Cheney? Anyone else in all the thousands of live feeds and transitions done by CNN over the years ever have the same sort of glitch?

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 09:04 AM | Comments (8)

November 16, 2005

WaitWaitWait WAIT!!!

I thought there was cannibalism and MURDER most foul run amok DURING Katrina?

New Orleans Has First Post-Katrina Slaying

A woman was stabbed to death in what police say is the first slaying in the city since Hurricane Katrina.

...The killing is the 205th for the city this year, compared with 225 by the same time last year, police said. The previous killing in New Orleans was on Aug. 27, two days before the hurricane struck.

Huh. I'm confused.
UPDATE: MSNBC is running that exact same AP story but with this headline:

New Orleans sees first murder since Katrina

"SINCE" Katrina? But the article says it's since "BEFORE" Katrina. Weird how they left that out, huh?

Posted by tree hugging sister at 12:18 PM

October 19, 2005

Buried in Yahoo News 'Opinion'

...was this little gem:

The spoiling of war
War correspondents need not retire yet - peace isn't blanketing the planet. But a number of scholarly thinkers who tally up wars find a sharp decline in armed conflicts over the past decade. And current wars are inflicting far fewer casualties

Needless to say, we won't see these statistics anytime soon on the front page of Pravda, because counteraction is bad when you've an agenda.

These scholarly studies help counteract a media impression of rising and bloodier conflicts. They also help sift out the excuses for war from their underlying causes, which often lie in a long and historic battle over which ideas will keep uplifting all of humanity.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:37 AM

October 17, 2005

I Could Argue About Quite a Few of These

ASME's TOP 40 MAGAZINE COVERS OF THE PAST 40 YEARS

Posted by tree hugging sister at 01:08 PM | Comments (7)

Miller, Schmiller, Plame, Flame ~ I'm Confused

I've read read this article 6 times and still can't figure out WTF happened. Miller knew and then she didn't. The New Yawk Times thought she knew, but didn't know for sure, so they never knew one way or the other what she really knew. Scooter Libbey has a goofy name for a grown man. Karl Rove is Satan. Saddest quote in the whole thing?

"The Times felt helpless," Rosen said. "It couldn't print the news. It was very much trapped."

Sometimes it's a blessing in disguise and the Times should try can't 'print the news' more often. The Washington Post has it's own credibility, 'truth in reporting' problems. After noting "Bloggers were much blunter", what 'blogger' do they quote first?

"This is as believable as Woodward and Bernstein not recalling who Deep Throat was," wrote columnist Arianna Huffington.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:27 AM

October 13, 2005

Have Gun, Will Shoot

Two concurrent stories on our local ABC affiliate seem to cancel one another out. A home invasion ring cracked...

Five people - including three teenagers - are facing charges after a pair of robberies in Okaloosa County.
Timothy Whitaker and Jaymie Greek, both aged 16. . . 14-year-old Kace Zuidhoek. . 20-year-old Dean Huffer. . And 23-year-old Juan Alvarez, whose photo was not available. . Are all charged with Home Invasion Robbery. .
Whitaker and Greek are also accused of using an airgun and knife to injure one of the victims. The Sheriff's Department says more arrests are possible.

...followed by a seeming attempt to stir up controversy.

The shooting death of a burglar by an Escambia County homeowner has renewed debate about the legal use of a deadly force to protect your home.

...Police say the homeowner, 57-year old Robert Peaden, was working in his trailer when he was confronted by the suspect, 44-year old Richard Piovesan. The caller to 9-11 said a burglar was trying to break into a trailer on his property. When deputies arrived they found a man shot in the chest.

Piovesan was taken to Sacred heart hospital where he was pronounced dead.

I don't see a problem. I'll bet the first group of victims wish they'd been armed. And people seem to forget it's NOT a license to kill ~ that just because you can shoot someone threatening you in your home or on the sidewalk it DOESN'T mean the police don't investigate anymore. They'll climb all over you and the scene even more thoroughly. God help you if you thought you could get away with murder.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 06:14 PM | Comments (3)

October 12, 2005

An Incendiary Lead-In on the News Last Night

In the "a court rules it's okay to LIE about another candidate in campaign literature" mode. Well, my guess that it had something to do with existing defamation laws turned out to be right, but of course THAT little tidbit was never mentioned. But DANG, WHAT you have to go through to get to the why of it all.

State law barring untrue campaign remarks tossed
Court rules it violates constitutional right of free speech

TACOMA -- A law that bars political candidates from deliberately making false statements about their opponents violates the First Amendment right of free speech, an appeals panel has ruled...

...In a campaign flier, Rickert said the incumbent, Sen. Tim Sheldon, D-Potlatch, "voted to close a facility for the developmentally challenged." Sheldon won re-election, then filed a complaint with the commission, asserting that he was the only legislator who voted to keep it open...

...An ACLU spokesman, Doug Honig, said the law was a wrongheaded attempt to give politicians greater protection from false statements than other citizens.

"We have defamation laws," Honig said. "If somebody believes they are defamed, they can sue under that law. We don't need a separate broader law to protect candidates."

Posted by tree hugging sister at 12:40 PM | Comments (1)

October 05, 2005

Why Aren't We Hearing More About This?

Some Islamic Nut Job blows himself up at a football game in Oklahoma. There were only 80,000 people there Saturday night.

But we can't upset the RoP, now can we?

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 08:01 AM | Comments (6)

October 04, 2005

Sony Can Kiss My A$$

The bride just bought the latest Gretchen Wilson album so she would have appropriate music blasting as she drives around town in the F-150 with the custom gunrack and the case of longnecks in the back. Last night she went to burn it into her iPod, and the computer spat the disc out; it wouldn't even recognize it as an audio cd.

That's the last cd we're buying from them.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 12:40 PM | Comments (37)

September 30, 2005

A Program Note ~ Kolchak is Back

...ain't it ain't half bad. We were all pleasantly surprised by the premiere episode of "The Night Stalker". Hard to believe they could come close to the quirkiness of the original in this day and age, but they did. It was also beautifully filmed, like they took time with it.

Ever since Fox got too full of themselves, straying from the X-Files, Millenium and Brimstone that made us Fox fans to begin with, TV just hasn't been as creepy...or as fun. Maybe there's hope for the ghouls among us.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 08:14 PM | Comments (6)

September 27, 2005

Let Me See If I Understand...

Karl Rove is Evuul Incarnate, and it is a Bad Thing that he is pulling all the strings in Washington. This is a given, no?

So why is my glorious Senator Laughenberg upset that he was not in DC when Rita arrived?

WASHINGTON (AP) — A senator from New Jersey is criticizing White House adviser Karl Rove for planning to attend a North Dakota fundraiser the same day Hurricane Rita is expected to hit Texas.

Democrat Frank Lautenberg sent a letter to President Bush Friday saying "it would be expected that Mr. Rove would be at his post '24/7' during this crisis."

You would think they'd be rejoicing that Sauron was off to inspect the Gulags in North Dakota.

Heck, even the Democrats think he's swell:

"Rove is putting politics over people," said Rick Gion, a spokesman for the state Democratic Party. "What is he doing politicking in North Dakota when the people of the Gulf Region need his help?"

Heh.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 02:52 PM | Comments (1)

Katrina Chaos Redux

Updating our Katrina coverage: The LA Times, of all publications, is jumping into this. Are they channeling Pete King? Other stories that didn't get out...

Louisiana National Guard Col. Thomas Beron, who headed security at the Superdome, said that for every complaint, "49 other people said, 'Thank you, God bless you.' "

Now, how sad is that? And the money quote of the day?

“My biggest mistake was not recognizing by Saturday that Louisiana was dysfunctional,” Brown told a special congressional panel set up by House Republican leaders to investigate the catastrophe.
-Former FEMA director Michael Brown

Somebody should have asked us. We could have told him so, free of charge.
ADDENDUM UPDATE: Lest anyone think Pete King and Mr. Brown are overstating the utter DISGRACE that is the New Orleans Police Department...

NOPD says 249 officers were AWOL after Katrina

Compass plans tribunal to judge each case

Missing officers were nearly 15% of force
The New Orleans Police Department has identified 249 officers who left their posts without permission during Hurricane Katrina and the storm's chaotic aftermath, and is now trying to distinguish out-and-out deserters from those who had compelling reasons to be AWOL.

And there's this comforting tid-bit...

Mayor Ray Nagin said the city attorney's office will review Compass' plan to ensure that it falls within Civil Service regulations that cover all classified city employees.

Privately, they're worried, because not much of anyone wanted to be a New Orleans cop to begin with.
ADDENDUM REDUX: Thank God Newsweek found someone to explain whose fault it was.

In your opinion, what went wrong with the response to Katrina?
In terms of the preparedness, a lot of the key issues or aspects of disaster preparedness could have been implemented much better [at] all levels, from the top to individuals. At the top we had a president who, in knowing one of major cities in the country was going to take a big hit, elected to continue on vacation.

And Mayor Noggin, Governor Blameco, et al's culpability quotient ?

How do you think the response to Katrina was handled on the state and local levels?
The blame does not just rest with the federal administration. Louisiana had an emergency response plan and New Orleans had an emergency office. And a lot of lessons and issues that were known could have been implemented better…

I'd call that insightful analysis a get out of jail free card. And Mr. Kelman has one more swipe at the administration in him...

Several Bangladeshi experts said, “If you bring me over I will help.” As far as I know, the U.S. did not take them up on that.

WTF is that? Oh my God,::GASP::, we turned down the Bangladeshis, bless their hearts?!! That's important enough to mention why? Cheap shot 'why', that's WHY. But I'm equally as sure we thanked them for their kind offer, so I can sleep tonight, even knowing what I do now.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 12:52 PM | Comments (1)

September 26, 2005

'Katrina' Means Never Having to Say You're Sorry

Rumors of deaths greatly exaggerated

Widely reported attacks false or unsubstantiated

6 bodies found at Dome; 4 at Convention Center

In interviews with Oprah Winfrey, Compass reported rapes of "babies," and Mayor Ray Nagin spoke of "hundreds of armed gang members" killing and raping people inside the Dome...

Four weeks after the storm, few of the widely reported atrocities have been backed with evidence. The piles of bodies never materialized, and soldiers, police officers and rescue personnel on the front lines say that although anarchy reigned at times and people suffered unimaginable indignities, most of the worst crimes reported at the time never happened.

It's much easier to cover your incompetent, lackluster a$$, when you pump up the story to include firefights, rampaging natives, Swift boats under attack, heroic rescues, bodies in the wat...wait...that was Kerry. No wonder I was confused! Same sh$tty story, just different storytellers.
More Katrina above.

Some of the more egregious New Orleans officials' quotes I've moved off the front to conserve space.

...Police, according to their chief, Eddie Compass, found themselves in multiple shootouts inside both shelters...and were forced to race toward muzzle flashes through the dark to disarm the criminals; snipers supposedly fired at doctors and soldiers from downtown high-rises...

...Unidentified evacuees told of children stepping over so many bodies, "we couldn't count."

...The picture that emerged was one of the impoverished, masses of flood victims resorting to utter depravity, randomly attacking each other, as well as the police trying to protect them and the rescue workers trying to save them. ....Nagin told Winfrey the crowd has descended to an "almost animalistic state."

Posted by tree hugging sister at 09:11 AM | Comments (6)

September 23, 2005

Reporter Fired For Refusing To, Er, Report

So of course he's suing:

A former ABC News correspondent accused the network of dropping his contract because he refused to go to Iraq and other war zones, and he sought $4.2 million in lost earnings at an employment tribunal Friday...

While he had frequently covered conflicts, including those in Bosnia and Chechnya, earlier in his career, Gizbert said he became increasingly reluctant to do so as his children grew up.

"A lot of people stop doing it when their kids come along," he said. "I stopped doing it a little later than that, when my kids started asking me why I was doing it and I really couldn't come up with a good answer."

Here's one: it's your goddammed job. If you don't want to do your job, then you tend to lose it (note: this does not apply to politics or baseball commissioners).

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 12:26 PM | Comments (7)

September 19, 2005

Whatever You Think of the Idea

...it makes for some interesting reading.

Via Instapundit.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:51 AM | Comments (3)

September 16, 2005

Bless Her Heart!

She doesn't bite.

A warm Swill Salute to The Political Teen.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:19 PM

September 14, 2005

File Under: I'm So Mad, I'm Molting

You know, when the Swilling was mentioned on CNN, people had to Google to find us. But THIS classless anal orifice...

The heckler who cursed Vice-President Dick Cheney on live television has become a bit of a hero among foes of the Bush administration.

The man, who had just visited his hurricane-destroyed home at the time he told the veep to “Go [bleep] yourself Mr. Cheney,” has been identified as Dr. Ben Marble, a young emergency-room physician who plays in alternative rock bands.

He has been lauded on various Web sites and blogs, has set up his own Web site that discusses the incident, has been attempting to sell a tape of the incident on eBay, and even links to a line of “Go [Bleep] Yourself Mr. Cheney” merchandise — including T-shirts, bumper stickers, coffee mugs, a baby bib, and a dog shirt, emblazoned with the now-infamous line.

...gets a LIVE LINK to his CafePress site?!! What, so everyone has a chance to buy his clever, clever T-Shirts? They didn't even try to spell our name right in the transcript, for gawd's sake! Talk about BIAS in the media! Gorezilla in Sod Off stuff runs rings around this loser and tastefully.

Sniff.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:58 AM | Comments (4)

September 13, 2005

Sigh. If Only Insta Read The Coalition...

He wouldn't be so embarrassingly behind on the news:

RICK STUART:

So far incredible news from Katrina, the dead body count is really low compared to the numbers in the thousands we heard about.

...reader Ryan Israelsen emails: "Don't you know why the body count in NO is so low? It is because of cannibalism

Faithful Swillers knew all about this yesterday at lunchtime.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 11:13 AM | Comments (5)

September 12, 2005

CNN Won't Give Up

"After 2 weeks, Bush hits ground" reads the headline. Beat that meme! The blood of all those thousands of people who didn't die in NOLA is on Bush's hands!

Katrina is blamed for killing 426 people in five states. Most of the deaths were in Mississippi.

[cough-cough] Where Bush was on the ground over a week ago.

Damn that Chimpy.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 09:40 AM | Comments (6)

September 08, 2005

Maintaining His Can-Do Posture...

...as a former Vice-Presidential candidate and U.S. Senator, John Edwards unleashes inspired rhetoric...

...Edwards said the destruction caused by Katrina in New Orleans accentuates the differences between those who fled the city and those who lacked the means to do so.

He said it reflects "a harsher example of the two different Americas," repeating a familiar theme from his presidential campaign.

(Maybe I should have called it "I'm tired of his rhetoric".)

Posted by tree hugging sister at 01:11 PM | Comments (3)

September 01, 2005

What Is The Problem?

Drudge has the following blurb up:

Eyewitness: Sec of State Condi Rice laughs it up at 'Spamalot' while Gulf Coast lays in tatters. Theater goers on New York' City's Great White Way were shocked to see the President's former National Security Advisor at the Monty Python farce last night -- as the rest of the cabinet responds to Hurricane Katrina...

I'm sorry, but is she supposed to sit at home and rub her rosary beads? Her portfolio is foreign affairs, anyway. This ridiculous hyper-criticism is assinine.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 01:00 PM | Comments (6)

August 22, 2005

The Forgotten Ruined Man

Completely lost amid the press hoopla over the sentencing of scumbag Eric Rudolph is any mention of the man the press and the FBI villified: Richard Jewell

Funny how the press doesn't want to mention him.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 12:53 PM | Comments (2)

August 19, 2005

Signs in Crawford

Powerline has them. Oh and I'll bet you won't see them anywhere on the news.

The photo below depicts a sign posted by the neighbord nearest to the roadside crosses. The neighbor does not agree with the anti-Bush protesters.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 04:02 PM | Comments (4)

August 17, 2005

Having It Both Ways...

...and I'm not talking Bingley and David Hasselhoff. No, I'm talking about the ability of the moonbat population to twist anything. In a codicil to my post below on self delusion, I will add this snippet from another site that shall remain nameless. I found it on a Technoratic webstat ping related to my other recent post ~ the one from Newsweek about President Bush's visits with the family members of servicemen killed in Iraq. The one about his empathy and kindness. The one we were all astounded and quite pleasantly surprised to find, as Newsweek isn't exactly known for articles of that tenor. Another site that linked to it thought differently and I was blown away by the vituperative sample I saw. It started with some babble about 'Rush' and went straight into (I cleaned it up a smidge)...

My first reaction to this is, "say what?" What a f**king paranoid f**k he is. Delusional too. First of all, there is no "coordinated left." We don't have a Rove-type figure working for our side who releases forged documents to established journalists in order to ruin their career and force them into early retirement. Either Rush is stupid or just plain mean.

Secondly, if he really wants to talk about fabricated stories, let's take a look at a recent Newsweek article put out in the nick of time to give Bush's image a much needed dose of humanity. Too bad the whole article rings false. Are we really supposed to believe Bush cries for fallen soldiers? Give me a break. The bastard is on a FIVE WEEK VACATION during a time of war! Or struggle. Or whatever the thought police are calling it this week.

...a scatalogical reference to the article and then the moonbat, hateful coup d' grace.

Come on Newsweek, give me a story I can actually believe, like Jenna Bush discovering the cure for cancer.

Dang. I mean DANG!
UPDATE: She makes these rabid animals seem so small, bless her heart.

‘Honor me in this way’

Marine’s mother tells mourners he would want the war in Iraq supported

WEST CHESTER, Ohio - The mother of a Marine killed in Iraq urged mourners Wednesday not to let their anger and sadness turn them against the U.S. fight in Iraq.

“Honor me in this way,” Kathy Dyer said during a memorial service for Lance Cpl. Christopher J. Dyer, 19, of the Cincinnati suburb of Evendale.

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.”

Thank you for your son Christopher, Mrs. Dyer. Thank you for your Marine.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 06:42 PM | Comments (5)

August 05, 2005

A Helpful Reminder From The AP About Robert Novak

When you report the story about him saying he's sorry for his temper tantrum on CNN, make sure to include a 2 year old picture of Novak with Karl Rove to remind everyone what this is all really about:

In this photograph taken in June 2003, Karl Rove, senior advisor to President Bush and Robert Novak are pictured together at a party marking the 40th anniversary of Novak's newspaper column at the Army Navy Club in Washington DC. Novak was suspended indefinitely by CNN after he swore and walked off the set during a debate with Democratic operative James Carville. The exchange came on CNNs 'Inside Edition' during a discussion of Florida's Senate campaign. (AP Photo/Lauren Shay)

Repeat after me: There is no bias in the media.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 03:38 PM | Comments (2)

August 02, 2005

CSA

Like me, I'm sure many of you have been looking for that special metaphor to describe the horrid state of affairs here in Bushy McChimphitler Ville. I mean, Theocracy is so 90s, and, while I admit Gulag does have a certain romantic flair about it, it just seems to fall short somehow. No, what we need is something more historically sweeping, yet still closely tied to the 'Merkun psyche.

Fear not, gentle surfers, for your prayers (sorry, your desires) have been answered: CSA: The Confederate States of America has arrived (or will soon, I reckon).

Beginning with the British and French forces joining the battle with the Confederacy, thus assuring the defeat of the North at Gettysburg and ensuing battles, the South takes the battle northward and form one country out of the two. Lincoln attempts escape to Canada but is captured in blackface. This moment is captured in the clip of a silent film that might have been.

Through the use of other fabricated movie segments, old government information films, television commercials, newsbreaks, along with actual stock footage from our own history, a provocative and humorous story is told of a country, which, in many ways, frighteningly follows a parallel with our own.

After victory, President Davis brings slavery back to the northern states by offering a tax rebate to businesses and households who will buy and own them. Liberals move to Canada. The nation chooses an expansionist policy and conquers Mexico and South America. As world war looms, the CSA takes a non-aggressive stance toward the Third Reich and their move toward racial purity (although not condoning their wasting of possible slave stock by the Final Solution) and makes a preemptive strike on Japan on December 7, 1941.

Kennedy is assassinated soon after being elected, as it appears he will not only emancipate but also give women the vote. A growing black terrorist base stems from Canada and a Cold War breaks out...complete with the Cotton Curtain being built between the two countries.

Through it all, including a contemporary run for the presidency, we follow a political dynasty, the Fauntroy family, who lead the country through its triumphs and tragedies.

We arrive to a today that, in many ways, we recognize. Although a nation that is content and prosperous, there is a tremendous divide within and suspicious eye without. Current politicians refer to us as two countries and perhaps, other than geographically, there is no difference between Red and Blue or North and South states. We have always struggled as to whether we are the United or Confederate States of America.

Why yes, we have always struggled, haven't we? Why, just the other day I woke up and said "Tommy, where's my supper?" before I remembered, silly me, that over 600,000 Americans had died in the Civil War 140 years ago to end slavery. But I can be so silly-brained sometimes. Red State/Blue State, Yankee/Reb, Hitler/Gandhi, Redneck/Suave Urbanite...what's the difference? La-la-la.

ARGH! These idiots drive me absolutely insane.

(hat tip pugnus mentim)

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 01:29 PM | Comments (4)

August 01, 2005

Al Gore TV

I can assure you I won't be watching. It sounds like a bit of a jumbled mess.

Based on material previewed on its Web site, Current at first glance seems like a hipper, more irreverent version of traditional television newsmagazines.

Most of its programming will be in "pods," roughly two to seven minutes long, covering topics like jobs, technology, spirituality and current events.

I dunno. "Al Gore" and "Hip" just really don't mesh. Maybe I'll submit a film on Tipper and censorship...

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 08:09 AM | Comments (3)

July 23, 2005

"Truth is the First Civilian Casualty"

A Newsweek 'Web Exclusive'

Tens of thousands of Iraqis have died since 2003. But killings by U.S. troops are not nearly as common as the war’s critics would like us to believe.

...But how often, really? The answer: not very often, in fact. And not nearly often enough to make the 150,000 U.S. and coalition troops in Iraq the leading scourge of Iraq's civilians. That dishonor goes, hands down, to the insurgents. Even one incident is bad, of course, and there have been many. But civilian killings by U.S. troops are not nearly as common as the critics of the war in Iraq would like us to believe. It has become an article of faith among them that American troops have been slaughtering Iraqi civilians indiscriminately, and that one of the consequences of the war has been an unconscionable loss of life among the civilian population. It just isn't true.

READ it. Then email Newsweek to ask why they didn't have the cajones to put this in all their print editions. This way they can say, "look at us - we've told the other side of the story!" 'Web exclusive', indeed. Everyone who buys the print edition has a right to read this.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 05:08 PM | Comments (6)

July 22, 2005

Surprises Abound!

From the LA Times Opinion page:

Is Islam to blame?

Despite claims of moderate Muslims, a literal reading of the Koran offers cover for acts of terrorism.

How's that for a headline? Irshad Manji writes a powerful column.

Which is why I don't understand how moderate Muslim leaders can reject, flat-out, the notion that religion may also play a part in these bombings. What makes them so sure that Islam is an innocent bystander?

What makes them sound so sure is literalism. That's the trouble with Islam today. We Muslims, including moderates living here in the West, are routinely raised to believe that the Koran is the final and therefore perfect manifesto of God's will, untouched and immutable.

This is a supremacy complex. It's dangerous because it inhibits moderates from asking hard questions about what happens when faith becomes dogma. To avoid the discomfort, we sanitize.

And so it was, one week after the first wave of bombings. A high-profile gathering of 22 clerics and scholars at the London Cultural Center produced a statement, later echoed by a meeting of 500 Muslim leaders. It contained this line: "The Koran clearly declares that killing an innocent person [is] tantamount to killing all mankind." I wish. In fact, the full verse reads, "Whoever kills a human being, except as punishment for murder or other villainy in the land, shall be regarded as having killed all humankind." Militant Muslims easily deploy the clause beginning with "except" to justify their rampages.

One needs to ask how dangerous a column this is for Irshad Manji. I hope there's no horrible price to pay for such honesty.
UPDATE: This would seem to be one of the clerics referred to.

Attacks on UK will continue, radical cleric says

LONDON (Reuters) - Militant Islamists will continue to attack Britain until the government pulls its troops out of Iraq and Afghanistan, one of the country's most outspoken Islamic clerics said on Friday...

...Bakri said he would like Britain to become an Islamic state but feared he would be deported before his dream was realized*.

"I would like to see the Islamic flag fly, not only over number 10 Downing Street, but over the whole world," he said.

*Why, in God's name, isn't he already gone?

Posted by tree hugging sister at 07:26 PM | Comments (4)

Jamie Rubin...

...surprises me. Pleasantly, I might add. He's quoted in Thomas Friedman's NYT piece today.

We also need to spotlight the "excuse makers," the former State Department spokesman James Rubin said. After every major terrorist incident, the excuse makers come out to tell us why imperialism, Zionism, colonialism or Iraq explains why the terrorists acted. These excuse makers are just one notch less despicable than the terrorists and also deserve to be exposed. When you live in an open society like London, where anyone with a grievance can publish an article, run for office or start a political movement, the notion that blowing up a busload of innocent civilians in response to Iraq is somehow "understandable" is outrageous*. "It erases the distinction between legitimate dissent and terrorism," Mr. Rubin said, "and an open society needs to maintain a clear wall between them."

Indeed.
*emphasis mine

Posted by tree hugging sister at 07:17 PM | Comments (2)

July 19, 2005

Ah, That Neutral Press

Check out this photo and the caption.

Jeesh.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 04:08 PM | Comments (5)

July 13, 2005

Name One Thing...

Tim Blair has a good post up about Hollywood's 'selective' memory when it comes to Fidel Castro:

Cathy Seipp’s actress friend Leah asks a bunch of Hollywood types why they’re so hot for Castro:

“Name one pro-Castro movie that’s come out of Hollywood,” Gelbart demanded.

“Comandante!” Leah snapped back, referring to Oliver Stone’s recent paean to Castro.

“OK, that’s one ...” Gelbart said.

“Motorcycle Diaries!” Leah immediately added. Gelbart was beginning to look exasperated at that point, so she shut up. “But there’s also Havana,” she whispered to me, “by Robert Redford, another lyrical poem to Castro.”

Don’t these people even watch their own movies?

All I can think of when I read this is the scene from Life of Brian...

REG:Yeah. All right, Stan. Don't labour the point. And what have they ever given us in return?!

XERXES:The aqueduct?

REG:What?

XERXES:The aqueduct.

REG:Oh. Yeah, yeah. They did give us that.Uh, that's true. Yeah.

COMMANDO #3:And the sanitation.

LORETTA:Oh, yeah, the sanitation, Reg. Remember what the city used to be like?

REG:Yeah. All right. I'll grant you the aqueduct and the sanitation are two things that the Romans have done.

MATTHIAS:And the roads.

REG:Well, yeah. Obviously the roads. I mean, the roads go without saying, don't they? But apart from the sanitation, the aqueduct, and the roads--

COMMANDO:Irrigation.

XERXES:Medicine.

COMMANDOS:Huh? Heh? Huh...

COMMANDO #2:Education.

COMMANDOS:Ohh...

REG:Yeah, yeah. All right. Fair enough.

COMMANDO #1:And the wine.

COMMANDOS:Oh, yes. Yeah...

FRANCIS:Yeah. Yeah, that's something we'd really miss, Reg, if the Romans left. Huh.

COMMANDO:Public baths.

LORETTA:And it's safe to walk in the streets at night now, Reg.

FRANCIS:Yeah, they certainly know how to keep order. Let's face it. They're the only ones who could in a place like this.

COMMANDOS:Hehh, heh. Heh heh heh heh heh heh heh.

REG:All right, but apart from the sanitation, the medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, a fresh water system, and public health, what have the Romans ever done for us?

XERXES:Brought peace.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 08:22 AM | Comments (1)

July 11, 2005

They Are Now Refered To As "People Whose Mom's Did Not Buy Them Puppies"

Were you shocked and stunned when the BBC refered to the bastards who murdered 50+ folks in London as 'terrorists'? Well, don't despair! Because in the cold, hard, safe light of socialist reflection the editors of the Beeb have gone back and changed what they wrote. Yes, no longer must those poor dirt-eating bastards suffer under the cruel weight of oprobrium brought about by the cavalier slinging of such a hateful term, no, indeed. For let us not forget that, as the BBC's guidelines state

"the word 'terrorist' itself can be a barrier rather than an aid to understanding" and its use should be "avoided"

You see, it's all about understanding. Oh sure, it's awfully inconvenient to some folks that their child or spouse got blown up, but, really, since I'm sure that some of them might work (worked - ed.) for zionists; hell, some of those folks who got blown up might even have been zionists, or even jews, for gosh sakes. I mean, everyone knows they had it coming. When you act, in the immortal words of Tim Robbins in Team America, "all corporationally," well, then we really know where the blame lies, don't we?

And remember:

The BBC's guidelines state that its credibility is undermined by the "careless use of words which carry emotional or value judgments"

Goodness, we can't have that.

I feel sick.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 10:08 PM | Comments (7)

July 09, 2005

Hey, The Soviets Had Purges Too

Heh.

"Reality based". Snort.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 11:12 AM | Comments (4)

I Was Gonna Fisk This Guy

Wunder Kraut had a post up the other day about an article that one James Carroll of the Boston Globe wrote on July 5th. Typical damp washcloth stuff, really, tying together how evul Bushy McChimphitler and crew are now with the sordid past of the US and showing how it's really part of our national character:

But what about today? In assessing post-celebration realities of the national moment, it may help to recall that America has never been an innocent nation, which is seen in its having constantly sought to appear as one. Indeed, the planting of the flag in self-affirming virtue is how the hallowed standard comes most readily under fire. The most poignant honoring of the flag of which I know is the US Marine Corps Memorial in Arlington, the magnificent bronze rendering of the famous Joe Rosenthal photograph of five weary leathernecks and a Navy medic raising the flag on Iwo Jima. That statue, not the Mussolini-like showcase of plinths, pillars, wreaths, and fountains that now despoils the Mall, should be the nation's memorial to World War II.

Neat, huh? "We are all New Yorkers" becomes "We are all fascists."

He also shows that he is quite the erudite fellow by casually tossing in phrases like "...how high-flown American ideals square with the quotidian reality of what the nation is becoming." I know I want to sleep with him now.

But I just got too disgusted to really shred him the new one he deserves, and in the course of following the links on this story I came across a comment on Wizbang that's one of the funniest things I've ever read:

My father fought in the pacific in WWII. He went to college in the fall of 1941. He was paying his own way through college, so happily signed up for a neat course that didn't cost anything but gave him college credits. The course was to teach you to fly. On December 7, my father realized why the US government would be willing to pick up part of his college tuition.

He served 22 months in the pacific flaying off carriers and islands (e.g. Bouganville). After those 22 months, he returned as a lt. commander and taught new pilots at Pennsacola. He doesn't talk much about his experience, but he did relate this story to me once.

He was flying over Raboul and no zeros were coming up to play. So while puttering around, he came across a scene of 3 Japanese soldiers herding some cows. Being a 20 year old kid from the country in a high performance fighter with a bunch of 0.50 caliber machine guns, he did the natural thing. He swooped down to shoot up the herd and the soldiers. The herd was coming up to a bridge, got a bit tangled up when they stampeded and apparently my Dad did a number on them.

When he started back, he remembered that he had gun cameras that took a picture when his guns fired. It was supposed to allow them to know after he returned if he had hit what he was shooting at. Since he had expended ammunition, they would routinely develop the film and see a picture of a bunch of cows looking back. That might not go over so well with his superiors.

So my Dad landed and filled out his after action report. He used phrases like "interdicted enemy supply lines" and "pressed the attack against ground fire" (the soldiers had fired their rifles at his plane traveling several hundred miles per hour over their head). It apparently all sounded very impressive. Then they took a look at the film. They could match what he had reported to the film, but the words took on a very different meaning when viewed in conjunction with the film.
The end of the story is he didn't get into trouble with his bosses. But the next day when he went to get into his plane, he found his ground crew had painted twenty udders on his plane to indicate he had become an 'ace' against cows.

So Mr. Carroll left off the part about WWII pacific veterans not being treating animals ethically.
Posted by: yetanotherjohn at July 6, 2005 06:49 PM

Friends, that spirit is what our great land is all about, and as long as we have folks like yetanotherjohn's pop and his ground crew this land of ours will maintain its virtue and be the beacon of hope for the world.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 10:53 AM | Comments (4)

June 29, 2005

Bless Their 'Lil Pointy Heads

MSNBC has video link on their home page called "Explaining Shark Attacks". I shall endeavor to explain it now, saving our gentle readers time. We will title this segment: Sister Knows Sharks
First, a basic equation.
+ +

=

Got that?

Now, for my helpful "Rules of Engagement":

1. It's their ocean, not yours. Never forget that.
2. The is your friend. NEVER EVER swim before/at dawn or close to dusk. Sharks like to feed when it's dark, since fishies can't see them. And, coincidentally, neither can you.
3. Do NOT swim near a guy with a pole and a handfull of bloody bait or rotting shrimp. That trail of goo is to a shark and he will be coming to find it, especially if the guy with the pole is reeling something in. The thrashing of that fish only energizes the
' for dinner' circuit in his little shark brain. You don't want to be in the way, 'cause he's coming in a big hurry with his mouth OPEN, to chomp the very first thing his fishwips touch.
4. Never EVER get in if the water is . Sharks have shitty eyesight and won't see your lilly white in the two feet of water next to the fish their nose tells them is there.
5. Should you see in the water, don't go splashing along to see what they are, or head off in a mad frenzy toward shore. is bad. Be calm, be vertical, be still, be not a , lest you become .

Okay. I've done my civic duty. Most shark attacks are cases of people visiting the area, getting in the water come hell or high..you know...because a vacation costs MONEY and they'll be damned if they're going to miss one second of time paid for. (Especially if kids are screaming 'but it looks okaaaayyyyyy, so why nnnooottttt???!!!!!') And, in all honesty, because they just don't know any better. Now you do. So be careful out there. Aloha.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:06 AM | Comments (6)

June 28, 2005

"US suspected of keeping secret prisoners on warships"

Yup. It's true. I seen 'um. They've even got a blue tarp on their roof, like the rest of us. But then BushChimpHitlerEvilMinionsofRove had the thing hauled back to Texass when it looked like the Truth was about to be Told. Why do you think they had to weld all those hatches back on? Nobody wants Abdul Bin Pacman running loose at the Galleria!

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:14 PM | Comments (7)

Another Stupid Link Headline

From the home page link to this MSNBC story.

Feds never learned why tiger attacked Roy Horn

I guess the tiger wouldn't take a deal and wasn't talking. Unfortunately, the same can't be said for the conspiracy theories offered in explanation.

He said the casino was flooded with e-mails such as this one the USDA included in its report: “If there is audio & video of the tiger attack it should be analyzed for far-UV and or high ultra sonics, as well as other triggers that might be the work of a terrorist aiming at a high profile GAY target.”

I subscribe to the "...unhinged by a woman with a beehive hairdo" theory.
I mean, haven't we all been at one time or another?

Posted by tree hugging sister at 04:04 PM | Comments (3)

Er, I'll Pass, CNN

I was perusing CNN a few minutes ago and I saw this:

Most PopularMORE NEWS • Watch Free: Video news hourly updates

• Senate passes energy bill

• Wal-Mart heir dies in plane crash | Profile | Watch Free

• Boy's leg amputated after shark attack | Map | Watch Free

While I appreciate the thought of them not charging me to watch the Wal-Mart heir die or the poor boy's leg get amputated, I'll take a rain check.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 12:59 PM

June 27, 2005

MSM and the Connecticut Land Grab

I noticed an odd thing during our weekend viewing, but wanted to check before I shot off my mouth here. Having ascertained that my initial impression was indeed correct, I will share it with you now.
KELO has fallen off the map. In one day's time.
There. I said it.
The only political/news show to mention it from the day after the decision through the entire weekend was (drumroll) PBS's NewsHour! I mean, CNN's Inside Politics had Chris Shays (R-Conn) as a guest, for gawdssake, and NOT WORD ONE. We were back to a missing blonde in Aruba, sprinkled with intermittent Mad Cows and a shark attack, as if Kelo was merely a cosmic burp in the space/time continuum.
Something's wrong with that picture.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 10:03 AM | Comments (4)

June 26, 2005

Adieu, Sweet Prince...

...of Darkness, that is. The Capital Gang is no more, as of last night.
For civilized political discourse, there was no better hour on the tube.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 05:59 PM

June 13, 2005

I Love Michael Kinsley

There. I said it. I didn't say I always agree with him, but I have always admired his 'unshriekiness', especially when he was still on Crossfire. He'd turn purple at Novak or Buchanan, but never came across a table, shout someone down or resort to inanities completely divorced from the subject at hand, burbled at 130 decibels just to drown out the other view. He's simply not a rude guy and I appreciate that in this age of classless, loudmouth louts (read Begala, O'Reily, Dean, Hannity, Lawrence O'Donnell, Katrina Vander whatever, Susan Estrich*, et al ~ 'get that sh&t off my TV' being the operative phrase). He also provides the random surprise, which makes him no friends in the Blue State city fortresses. Such was this column about the Downing Street Memo red herring being waved on every Sunday talk show, which looks more like an Icelandic fish slapping dance than 'smoking gun'. You won't see his column quoted from the left anytime soon.

But even on its face, the memo is not proof that Bush had decided on war. It says that war is "now seen as inevitable" by "Washington." That is, people other than Bush had concluded, based on observation, that he was determined to go to war. There is no claim of even fourth-hand knowledge that he had actually declared this intention.

How refreshing ~ a little integrity and a little honesty
*Note her unspeakably ill mannered feud with Kinsley. What a 'C' word and I never say that.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 11:59 AM

June 09, 2005

Hollywood Supported Kerry?

Who knew? If only those Tinsletownians, folks whose claim to fame is being able to recite words other people write, ah if only they'd let poor simple fools like me know where they stood in the election then of course I would have followed the lead of my betters. But alas, I and 62,040,605 of my fellow bovines were left to fend for ourselves and, well, we all know how that turned out.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 03:19 PM

May 26, 2005

No Speaka De Anglish?

Pravda** tweaka de anguish in a recent piece. Boldly titled 'Language Barrier Called Health Hazard in E.R.', it starts out with a tragic story of communications gone wrong.

When a Spanish-speaking hospital receptionist refused to interpret during her lunch hour, doctors at St. Vincent's Staten Island Hospital turned to a 7-year-old child to tell their patient, an injured construction worker, that he needed an emergency amputation.

With no one to bridge the language gap for another patient, a newly pregnant immigrant from Mexico with life-threatening complications, doctors pressed her to sign a consent form in English for emergency surgery. Understanding that the surgery was needed "to save the baby," the young married woman awoke to learn that the operation had instead left her childless and sterile*.

Those cases were among dozens detailed in a civil rights complaint contending that the lack of basic translation services at St. Vincent's and three other New York City hospitals endangers their immigrant patients and violates state and federal law.

*Emphasis mine and please to remember the sentence.

Oh my God, sounds bad, eh? There's a litany of complaints ranging from "Typical were cases like that of a woman who had to rely on her English-speaking Korean cabdriver to translate a doctor's directions for treating her 11-year-old son", "the woman who minimized her symptoms of depression because the person translating was her 13-year-old son" to " overheard doctors at St. Vincent's telling a construction worker, through his 7-year-old cousin, that the worker needed an amputation." They use the word pervasive* which sounds awful and implies every second immigrant gets dissed by the system because (drum roll, here) they speak NO English. They do note that hospitals are scrambling to accomodate. While there are more "than 150 tongues are now spoken in New York, nearly all the problems highlighted in the complaint concern Spanish and Korean." Last I heard, Spanish is pretty easy, but speaking Korean is a bitch. And I wonder about all the advocacy groups. They seem to be out to bang on the system...

Adam Gurvitch, director of health advocacy for the New York Immigration Coalition, which coordinated the efforts to document language barriers, called the civil rights complaint a last resort. "We feel like we've hit a wall," he said.

...instead of using their resources. Get some of their staff off their asses and down in the E.R.'s to...well, schmaybe...help out and translate. Or impress upon immigrants to need to learn basic English. When I travel to another country, I wear it as a badge of honor that I'm mangling the native tongue within a day or two. If I moved somewhere I'd sure as hell want to be able to articulate basic medical information. You know. 'Foot', 'Toe', 'Finger' and the all important 'OW, that f^%king HURTS!' Whose responsibility is that? The taxpayer is already picking up the tab for your repair at said E.R. (there's a passage on a mugging victim who "returned for follow-up care a few days later, she was handed a piece of paper stating in English that to be seen by a doctor she had to pay $95 and bring a photo ID. The robbery had left her with neither." To the latter statement, well duh. That's why it's called robbery. To the former, like that wouldn't happen to uninsured, born-in-the-USA Granny Gertrude Frothingslosh. Get a grip.) And I'm not expecting everyone to wax poetic in adopted languages, far from it. But I do expect them to try and start trying as soon as their damp liddle puddies come in contact with the north side of the Rio Grande or they come down the ramp off a Korean Air 747, or from whereEVER. (Just like my sainted M-I-L, Panamian by birth, American with a vengance, who has no patience with any of her newly arrived Hispanic brethren.) Make an effort, help yourselves, people. You'll be surprised how big the arms of this country can be when you do.

Now. Remember the histrionic, no more babies introductory paragraph? BURIED at the very end of the article is 'the rest of the story'.

The woman who was left sterile, who identified herself only as Nayeli, said two emergency operations were performed without adequate translation.

In her first visit to St. Vincent's, only her brother was available to translate, which made her "ashamed," she said, to discuss her treatment with doctors. They apparently removed one Fallopian tube after finding that an embryo was growing inside it, a dangerous condition known as an ectopic pregnancy.

Nayeli, who cleans houses, said she was assured after that operation that she and her husband would have no trouble conceiving in the future. But seven months later a new pregnancy, also apparently ectopic, put her back in the operating room, where her second Fallopian tube was removed, leaving her sterile. "Never at any time did I know they were going to remove my tubes," she said.

Left sterile after two ectopic pregnancies?? We should be outraged about this? She would be dead if they hadn't operated EITHER time, her now missing tubes having exploded because of the child attempting to grow in that teeny little place not meant for babies. (In N.C. we had a little girl of 18 die in the Camp LeJeune hospital after a mis-diagnosed ectopic pregnancy. The condition mimics everything from intestinal distress to ulcers. Everything but what it is and they don't find out until they get in there.) Although the lead-in was meant to incite indignation and empathy, the underhandedness of the article's machinations just pegged my sympathy meter.

*to become diffused throughout every part of

**Read the whole thing here, 'cause I waited too long and am too cheap to pay them.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 02:11 PM | Comments (13)

May 25, 2005

ACLU Asserts US Troops "Looked At Koran Wearing Groucho Mask"

Oh puh-lease...yawn.

Thousands killed in riots in Yomamabad.

"Not our fault" says ACLU.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 07:04 PM | Comments (7)

Do They Ever Think...

...before crafting the headline.

For Venus, it' s a question of desire

No. It's 'I'm your Venus, I'm your fire, at your desire'. Duh.

Posted by tree hugging sister at 01:07 PM | Comments (7)

May 12, 2005

Pat Buchanan: Toasted Nazi Apologist

Instapunk nails him perfectly.

Warning: Do not look at that link with food or beverage in your mouth.

Thanks to the Blogfaddah for the heads up.

*Update: VodkaPundit grills his Nazi Apologist Ass too (his "NAA").

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 12:49 PM | Comments (4)

May 06, 2005

I Want My Bleat!

I need my Bleat!

"This site is temporarily unavailable."

Did he finally get dragged off to AsKKKroft's Gualgs in North Dakota?

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 07:47 AM | Comments (6)

April 11, 2005

Pravda Goes Fishing

Not that the NYT has an agenda, mind you, but would you, as a prominent Republican, please write an Op-Ed for us attacking another Republican?

Oh, you won't? Then sorry, but we have no room for your piece.

Amazing.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 09:34 AM | Comments (1)

April 04, 2005

I Know Where My Dial Won't Be

Current

Gorezilla is Chairman of the Board. That tells you all you need to know about how hip and happening, how current, this new network will be.

Taking its cues from their media consumption habits, Current will offer short-form programming in the TV equivalent of an iPod shuffle. Its "pods" will be 15-second to five-minute segments that range from the hottest trends in technology, fashion, television, music and videogames, to pressing issues such as the environment, relationships, spirituality, finance, politics and parenting, subjects that young adults can rarely find on television.

With all this jumping about, how is anyone ever going to find anything on Current? Given that the Democrats have all been in a lather over the years about the short attention spans of Americans, is it not odd that their former standard bearer is at the forefront of encouraging even shorter ones?

And goodness knows there's never anything on TV about "the environment, relationships, spirituality, finance, politics and parenting."

Uh-huh.

Posted by Mr. Bingley at 02:58 PM | Comments (3)