Who Are You Calling "Fascist", You Fascist Hypocrites?!?

It's been tough not posting about all the craziness of the past few months – the treasons of the media, the defeatism of the Democrats, the jihad by Left to destroy America – but I've been just to busy to do these topics justice. The only reason for this post is because I was forwarding and commenting the note to a friend and realized it should be seen by all to inoculate them against the pernicious lies of the true fascists of the Left.

This is the latest newsletter that unhinged psycho moonbat radio hostette Randi Rhodes sent out to her slobbering audience of mouth-breathing loons:

For 8 years I listened to a drug-addled Rush Limbaugh and his cadre of wannabes call (sic) me a Communist.

In their twisted logic peace, prosperity, fiscal and social responsibility, smaller government, merit over cronyism, personal privacy, and homeland security through competence and vigilance somehow equated to Cold War era Soviet Union governance...I know, it makes ZERO sense but consider the source.

If Limbaugh & Co. truly would like to study real domestic parallels to oppressive 20th Century governments, they could start with Dr. Lawrence Britt's 14 Defining Characteristics of Fascism, which I have provided below.

This is a big break from the usual format of my newsletter but I believe that you'll appreciate the info.

Thanks for listening!

Love ALLways,

Randi

To understand why this is so dastardly a pack of lies, you need to know the definition of specious: having a false look of truth or genuineness.

Let's look at these howlers first - this is what she claims are Democrat values:

Peace - Through non-response to terrorist attacks in the Nineties. No war if you surrender, right?

Prosperity - Government does NOT create prosperity! Besides, as all the trials of people from Enron, etc. show, the boom of the Nineties was partially built on fraud in order to make it appear that Clinton was the God of Economic Prosperity.

Fiscal and social responsibility - If not for the old GOP Congress - not the losers there today - and their strangling of Clinton's socialist schemes (e.g. government takeover of health care, welfare reform) the budget would've been in as bad shape as it is now, the dot-bomb boom notwithstanding.

Smaller government - Bwahahahahahahaha!!!! Moving on…

Merit over cronyism - Two words: Billy Dale. The Clintons booted the White House Travel Office staff and prosecuted Dale on bogus charges in order to give the business to their cronies, the Thomasons, who were TV producers with an air business on the side. The charges were so false, Sam Donaldson testified for the defense and Dale was acquitted faster than O.J. At least Dubya only hire unqualified and nepotistic doofuses; he doesn't try to imprison anyone in the process.

Personal privacy - The Clintons used the IRS to audit their political foes. As always with the Left, the only privacy they support is for abortion. Don't believe me? Can you still smoke in your own home? If so, for how much longer?

and homeland security through competence and vigilance - Because they did such a good job preventing Oklahoma City, didn't they? (And that was by Americans.) We haven't been attacked here since 9/11, but by the time the MSM and the Left get done gouging the eyes out of our intel network via leaks and treason, we'll get hit again. Thanks, guys.

Wow. Seven lies in a row. That's who were dealing with. Now, let's look at this specious list of items meant to convince the clueless that we're living under "Bushitler" rule. (Put on your tinfoil hat now…)

------------------------------------------------------------------------

*Fourteen Defining Characteristics Of Fascism*

Dr. Lawrence Britt has examined the fascist regimes of Hitler (Germany), Mussolini (Italy), Franco (Spain), Suharto (Indonesia) and several Latin American regimes.

**Britt found 14 defining characteristics common to each:

*1. Powerful and Continuing Nationalism - *Fascist regimes tend to make constant use of patriotic mottos, slogans, symbols, songs, and other paraphernalia. Flags are seen everywhere, as are flag symbols on clothing and in public displays.

If you have a flag, wear a flag pin or sing "God Bless America", you're a fascist. Funny how no one noticed this until now, eh?

*2. Disdain for the Recognition of Human Rights - *Because of fear of enemies and the need for security, the people in fascist regimes are persuaded that human rights can be ignored in certain cases because of "need." The people tend to look the other way or even approve of torture, summary executions, assassinations, long incarcerations of prisoners, etc.

Two words: Jack Bauer. He's a fictional hero which is why he's so popular: People know that no one is actually doing what he's doing to protect the country, thus this point is more hysteria and eyewash. Whose rights are being supposedly trampled? Harry Belafonte's or Alec Baldwin's?

*3. Identification of Enemies/Scapegoats as a Unifying Cause - *The people are rallied into a unifying patriotic frenzy over the need to eliminate a perceived common threat or foe: racial, ethnic or religious minorities; liberals; communists; socialists, terrorists, etc.

Um…we're attacked for 15 years by Islamofascist jihadis and to point this out is scapegoating? Gee, the Left didn't mind it when anyone thinking government was too big and taxes were too high to be lumped in with Tim McVeigh, did they?

*4. Supremacy of the Military -* Even when there are widespread domestic problems, the military is given a disproportionate amount of government funding, and the domestic agenda is neglected. Soldiers and military service are glamorized.

Part and parcel of the liberals hatred of military power…unless it's arrayed against us. Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security will eat up 2/3rds of the entire budget, yet we're still hearing about how the money is going for guns at the expense of butter.

*5. Rampant Sexism - *The governments of fascist nations tend to be almost exclusively male-dominated. Under fascist regimes, traditional gender roles are made more rigid. Divorce, abortion and homosexuality are suppressed and the state is represented as the ultimate guardian of the family institution.

Apparently, this idiot has never examined how women are treated under Islamic rule. Perhaps he doesn't know that those walking piles of black fabric under the hot sun are the women of Islam. (When asked for comment, Condi Rice just stared at us like we were insane.)

*6. Controlled Mass Media -* Sometimes to media is directly controlled by the government, but in other cases, the media is indirectly controlled by government regulation, or sympathetic media spokespeople and executives. Censorship, especially in war time, is very common.

The fact that the NY Times hasn't been shut down and its editors summarily executed for treason disproves this point. Christianne Amanpour of CNN said that reporters are getting a sanitized view of the war due to censorship despite the nightly death toll reports. If anyone is sanitizing the news, it’s the media: When's the last time you saw footage of 9/11 or a hostage beheaded on the news? They won't even show the cartoons from Denmark that are going to lead to more slaughter at the hands of the "religion of peace and love" on the news because they don't want to offend Muslims, yet they've got no problem putting Christian-mocking shows like "The Book of Daniel". No one cares about offending Christians - maybe they should start killing people to get some respect?

*7. Obsession with National Security - *Fear is used as a motivational tool by the government over the masses.

The only real job of government is to protect the citizens from enemies, but I guess that's just more fascism. Stand down, everyone!

*8. Religion and Government are Intertwined -* Governments in fascist nations tend to use the most common religion in the nation as a tool to manipulate public opinion. Religious rhetoric and terminology is common from government leaders, even when the major tenets of the religion are diametrically opposed to the government's policies or actions.

Hello? Iran? HELLO?!?!? Dubya has a Bible and we're all doomed? What about Dem pols preaching in churches for votes? Oh, that's different?

*9. Corporate Power is Protected - *The industrial and business aristocracy of a fascist nation often are the ones who put the government leaders into power, creating a mutually beneficial business/government relationship and power elite.

This is an old chestnut of the Left as if Dems are poor peasants who have to walk uphill to Washington D.C. in sackcloth and ashes and never do anything for an Evil Corporation. Do a Google on Terry McAuliffe and Global Crossing to see just how pure their sheets are.

*10. Labor Power is Suppressed - *Because the organizing power of labor is the only real threat to a fascist government, labor unions are either eliminated entirely, or are severely suppressed.

Unions are in decline because THE WORKERS DOWN WANT THEM!!!! Funny how the CHOICE of the workers is blamed on this imaginary fascist government, eh?

*11. Disdain for Intellectuals and the Arts -* Fascist nations tend to promote and tolerate open hostility to higher education, and academia. It is not uncommon for professors and other academics to be censored or even arrested. Free expression in the arts and letters is openly attacked.

Yet another trip thru the looking glass. The Left has been brainwashing the youths forever and now that someone is speaking against their indoctrination, suddenly it's fascism. Gee, when's the last time a liberal speaker had a pie thrown at them or were shouted at during their talks? How many extreme liberal professors have been arrested? The professor in Colorado and the asshat from Columbia U. who wished for "a thousand Mogadishus" are still holding tenure and spewing their lies and hate to their students. What kind of fascist government is supposed to be in place that this is happening?

*12. Obsession with Crime and Punishment -* Under fascist regimes, the police are given almost limitless power to enforce laws. The people are often willing to overlook police abuses and even forego civil liberties in the name of patriotism. There is often a national police force with virtually unlimited power in fascist nations.

When every fleeing criminal who gets caught and clobbered by the cops after he's plowed thru traffic is granted an edited version of events on TV and the police are forced to back off from crime-fighting in order to placate criminal advocates, just how are we living under fascism? That's right, WE AREN'T!!!

*13. Rampant Cronyism and Corruption - *Fascist regimes almost always are governed by groups of friends and associates who appoint each other to government positions and use governmental power and authority to protect their friends from accountability. It is not uncommon in fascist regimes for national resources and even treasures to be appropriated or even outright stolen by government leaders.

Under this definition, ALL governments are fascist. I guess if Dubya hired enemies and strangers, we'd be safe. Of course, the Clintons never did anything for their friends and cronies and would never have needed a shaved Wookie of an Attorney General to cover up and obstruct investigation into their crimes.

*14. Fraudulent Elections -* Sometimes elections in fascist nations are a complete sham. Other times elections are manipulated by smear campaigns against or even assassination of opposition candidates, use of legislation to control voting numbers or political district boundaries, and manipulation of the media. Fascist nations also typically use their judiciaries to manipulate or control elections.

This is just pitiful, but typical. They don't win elections and they cry like little babies when they can't have the rules changed to allow them to steal the legitimate vote of the people. I guess when the citizens of California vote for something that the Left doesn't like and they go to a single judge to have the vote overruled on phony Constitutional grounds, that's not fascism. (Oh, wait…that's different, isn't it?)

=======

Randi is certifiably psychotic. Before the State of the Union speech, she was ranting about how Dubya wants people to die so that their organs can be harvested for Rich Republicans to buy for cheap. (I'm not kidding.) I'm surprised that she didn't accuse him of turning welfare recipients into soylent green.

Who Are You Calling Angry, You Unhinged Moonbat?

Michelle Malkin takes down Janeane Garofalo - a person who I used to have a fondness for before she contracted terminal Bush Derangement Syndrome and became another hateful fascist zombie - after her appearance on MS-NBC.

Read it all, but here's the sauce:

Accessorized by a permanent scowl (hard to believe she was once considered a comedienne), Ms. Garofalo accused conservatives of having "an anger management problem. Without a trace of irony, the frowning Garofalo griped about "right-wing partisan hacks who are always on the verge of punching somebody or always behave as if they've just been cut off in traffic."

This, dear readers, is a classic case of liberal projection. Like CNN executive Jonathan Klein, who derided Fox's audience as full of "angry white men, and those men tend to be rabid," and liberal comedian Bill Maher, who also railed that "Republicans need anger management" and are possessed with a "vein-popping, gut-churning rage that consumes the entire right wing," Ms. Garafolo crossly blames the Right while denying the pathological wrath and fury that characterize the unhinged Left.

Who are you calling angry, Ms. Garofalo? You want political road rage? Let's start with Al. Take your pick: Sharpton. Gore. Franken. Yearrghh!

Now, open your eyes:


It isn't out-of-control conservatives tossing Molotov cocktails at police officers in San Francisco, burning American soldiers in effigy, and smearing pig's blood and feces on the walls and windows of military recruitment centers across the country to protest on behalf of peace.

It isn't rage-blinded conservative professors who embrace fragging (the murder of American soldiers by their fellow soldiers on the battlefield) as a legitimate anti-war tactic.

It isn't vengeful conservatives torching SUVs, condo developments, and research facilities, and targeting biotech and pharmaceutical company employees and their families to protest on behalf of the environment.

It wasn't mad conservatives sporting "F*** Bush" license plates, punching cardboard cutouts of the president, and vowing to secede after losing the 2004 presidential election.

It wasn't rabid conservatives who gloated over Ronald Reagan's death or John Ashcroft's pancreatitis.

It wasn't a gut-busting conservative journalist who vowed to kill herself if Dick Cheney ran for president. (That would be the perpetually agrrieved Helen Thomas.)

It wasn't hate-filled Republican officials who reportedly screamed "faggot" and "fruitcake" and "I'll break your nose" at their political opponents. (Those were all Democrats: Pennsylvania state legislator Vincent Fumo, California Rep. Pete Stark, and Virginia Rep. Jim Moran, respectively.)

It isn't fanatical conservatives joking about the assassination of President Bush and the execution of his Republican aides. (That, Ms. Garofalo, would include your Air America colleagues. But I'll forgive you if you weren't tuned in to them. Few are.)

[snip]

My Christmas wish for Ms. Garofalo and her ilk: a mirror and a clue to make the yuletide bright. In the meantime, when vein-popping liberals start seething about the rage of the Right, the wisest action for peaceful right-wingers I can recommend is this:

Duck.

14:57...14:58...14:59...15:00!!! Time's Up!!!

We interupt this Operational Hold to bring this photo of Cindy Sheehan waiting for people to worship her....



The media used to be careful to make it look like she had a crowd, even if there were only a few people there. Now, they don't care. The Left has MOVED ON.

Buh-bye, Cindy. Now maybe Casey can rest in peace without you using his casket as a soapbox.
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UPDATE: Apparently, Cindy is pitching a hissy about these photos and claiming, get this, that it's a RIGHT-WING PLOT to make it look like she's lost her following of insane America-haters. Gee, she didn't have a problem when the media was closely cropping the frames to make her small gatherings look like a huge throng, so why is she - and her Lefty moonbat pals - suddenly shrieking that coverage is slanted?!?

Amazing what happens when the Left has the Truth about them revealed. They just can't handle the Truth!!!

Dirkworld® Operational Hold Announcement.

Since I'm swamped with writing work and am taking a few days off to catch up, there won't be any updates until at least mid-week, next week. If you do the RSS thing, be sure to add my feed (available at right) to your list so as to be sure not to miss any important updates.

One thing that's been lost in the shuffle was a huge list of the lies of Joe Wilson and how the liberal media has been giving him a pass to promulgate the meme that his wife was outed by Scooter and the Darths - Rove and Cheney.

The Media Blog on National Review Online has been tracking this closely, so go check out how Wilson lied on Larry King and the rapidly-growing "Dishonor Roll" on liberal news outfits that blatantly repeat the Wilson meme in all denial of reality.

Everyone have a good weekend. Don't forget to vote against fascist Democrats (what you vote FOR is up to you). Comments are off (for real) and I'll see y'all next week.

Two Questions for George Tenet

The American Thinker has an interesting piece about the weird details behind the mess caused by the CIA sending the lying Joe Wilson to Niger. Read it all, but here's the sauce for "Slam Dunk":

Finally, the spotlight has started to swing away from Lewis Libby and his allegedly perjurous grand-jury testimony toward where that spotlight should have focused all along: on the CIA’s incompetent, weird – and possibly treasonous—response to Vice President Cheney’s inquiry about Iraq’s interest in purchasing yellowcake from Niger.

[snip]

All this raises two important questions for George Tenet, who was Director of Central Intelligence during all the time that “Plamegate” was going on:

• Why did the CIA, under your direction, treat the Vice President’s query about Iraqi efforts to purchase yellowcake in Niger so casually?

• When Joe Wilson started blabbing in public about his CIA mission to Niger – and lying about what he reported to the CIA upon his return – why didn’t you say something rather than allow the President’s credibility to be shredded?

These days George Tenet – to whom President Bush inexplicably awarded the Medal of Freedom, our country’s highest civilian honor—is raking in a fortune on the lecture circuit. Perhaps someone in his next audience will take the opportunity to ask these questions and insist on answers – which is more than any of the hot-shot reporters in Washington seems interested in doing.

Buy A CD, Destroy Your PC!

I never ceased to be amazed at the ways the music Industry™ finds to further destroy themselves with regard to how they treat their customers. Nevermind that the music these days blows goats to the point that I don't even care what's out there - and I'm a musician! - but when labels place digital rights management software on CDs that prevents people from ripping them into their iPods and now Sony Music CDs surreptitiously install DRM Trojan horses on PCs, you've got to wonder what blend of crack, meth and stupidity these idiots are smoking.

In an effort to crack down on P2P piracy - an overstated bogeyman if there ever was one - the labels are agressively punishing THEIR PAYING CUSTOMERS by rewarding their purchase with a f*cked-up computer! The labels tried to use the fear of downloaded viruses to scare people into being legit and then turn around and secretly install viruses onto the computers of the people foolish enough to listen to their propaganda.

It's sad to say, but at the moment, stealing is safer than buying and until the public and the artists fight back, it's not going to get better. Perhaps a class-action lawsuit and some Federal hacking charges will focus their attention? Doubt it.

If you're super-geeky, the particulars of how this works can be found here.

UPDATE: Yeesh. Five seconds after I post this, I see that Sony has released a patch to remove this Trojan junk. Of course, people have to know about the existance of the spyware in the first place and just how f*cked-up is it that now we have to be aware of updates to our CDs?!?!?

The Physics of Bras

Learn about the research into new hi-tech boob hammocks. ;)

Fake Documentary Alert!!!

Remember "Sicko"? That was supposed to be Michael Moore's follow-up to his liberal porn epic "Farginghype 7-11" making up sh*t about the pharmaceutical industry, but it appears that he doesn't care about poor people supposedly being soaked for their medicine when he can exploit the people soaked by Hurricane Katrina for his own personal enrichment.

Ergo, that brings us Katrina: The Wrath Of Bush which has already been giving a slot at the Canne Film Festival, home to all cinema that is anti-American. Gotta love those French - we sacrifice thousands of soldiers to liberate them from the Nazis and they repay us by taking oil bribes from Saddam and opposing our self-defense.

I see that the Muslims are rioting and burning over there. Don't call us, Francoise.

Two Words: SULU DANCE!!!

Download it now, Mary!!!

So This Is Fitzmas?

After two years of breathless hype and leaky speculation, marked by Randi Rhodes shrieking "TREASON!!!" and Al Franken predicting that Rove and Cheney will be executed, special prosector Patrick Fitzgerald has indicted Lewis "Retarded Nickname For A 55-Year-Old Man" Libby with five counts related to telling fibs. In an act that would've never happened during the Clinton Regime, Scooter has packed his bags and resigned his gig. Such as it is when you're charged with felonies and aren't a Democrat - you go and face the music.

Details are still sketchy and since I'm stuck at work, I haven't had a chance to check Rush's site or listen to Randi Rhodes or Michael Savage's opinions - like I need them to lay the smack down - and I've been piling up Firefox tabs with different interesting bits all day on this slightly moving target of a story, but here's a recap and thoughts about it. (For some reason, Hugh Hewitt has been silent on this, preferring to post more dribblings on the SCOTUS picks - that's so yesterday, Hugh, and you blew it with Miers. Michelle Malkin must be at Pilates class working her fine booty, but I digress...)

The Editors on National Review Online have their editorial about it and it sounds about right and cautions against some of what has been happening earlier and I'll quote in a second:

There has been much high-minded talk about how the Valerie Plame controversy is really about the case for the Iraq war. No. For liberals, it has always been about inflicting as much damage as possible to the Bush White House, especially by taking out through indictment its most central player in the person of Karl Rove. That has not happened. Nor has special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald alleged a conspiracy at the top levels of the Bush administration to out a CIA agent. What he instead charges in his five-count indictment is that Vice President Dick Cheney’s chief of staff, Lewis “Scooter” Libby, lied to investigators about conversations with three reporters. This long-hyped, two-year investigation appears to come down, in other words, to one man's alleged dishonesty when investigators came knocking. This is not Watergate or Iran-Contra, but neither is it a trifle.

Please spare us the excuses warmed over from Democratic talking points in the 1990s: the prosecutor is out-of-control, there was no underlying crime, etc., etc. It is the responsibility of anyone, especially a public official, to tell the truth to FBI agents and grand juries. If Libby didn't, he should face the consequences.

But conservatives would be well-advised not to start slamming Fitzgerald. We don't know all the facts and until we do, his acts are open to dueling interpretations. It seemed unfair for him to talk at his press conference of Libby damaging national security by revealing classified information, when Libby wasn't charged with that. But this was a departure for the otherwise restrained and responsible Fitzgerald. The Bush administration, for its part, has conducted itself with notable forbearance in this case, avoiding the sort of smears that the Clinton administration routinely resorted to whenever a prosecutor proved inconvenient.

Unfortunately, Republicans and Democrats engage in alternating opportunism over “the criminalization of politics,” and it is the Democrats’ turn to pin their political hopes on the work of a prosecutor.

What I and others find odd is the lack of specifics about things like was Plame really covert and who was Novak's source and if Darth Rove is in the clear or not. Talking Points Memo is going with the sinister moonbat view of things in thinking that a smoking gun exists. I dunno and considering the hallucinatory properties of BDS, I'm not gonna worry about it. (As if I was in the first place.)

Power Line thinks it's only bad for Libby and basically wonders WTF Scooter was thinking in lying so badly as does Just One Minute who says "Maybe Libby Can Try An Insanity Defense". Andrew Sullivan wonders why Scooter lied and suspects he's covering for Darth Cheney.

One fascinating aspect is how BOTH sides were planning on and/or are attacking Fitzgerald as a partisan hack depending on what had happened. The Dems were already whispering "whitewash" if he didn't go all Judge Dredd on Rove and the GOP peeps are now whining like Dems now that one of theirs got tagged. Michael Leeden thinks it "stinks" and Mark R. Levin is growling about the presser, but the worst example of trashing Fitz I've seen so far is this guy at Newsbusters who says "It was just like Captain Queeg. Fitzgerald had everything except the strawberries, and the ball bearings. By the end, I think many of the reporters had reached the same conclusion." Hyperbole much, pal?

It's an All Spin Zone, folks, but who REALLY knows what's up outside of the players on the field? That's right! No one!!! So rather than add to the speculation, let's notice the HYPOCRISY on display from the MSM, shall we?

The Big Three Networks broke into the soaps today to report that some guy with a dumb name got charged with fibbing, but as Newsbusters notes, when Clinton Regime crooks were charged, it barely rated a mention on the evening snooze.

[W]hen former Agriculture Secretary Mike Espy was indicted on 39 counts, the networks aired a single evening news story. Three of the four networks -- ABC, CNN, and NBC -- underlined that the Smaltz inquiry had so far cost $9 million. None of them noted civil penalties originating from targets of Smaltz's inquiry amounted to more than $3.5 million. The next morning, CBS's morning show, called CBS This Morning, didn't even mention Espy's indictment. Months later, I noted in a Media Reality Check that on December 11, former HUD Secretary Henry Cisneros was indicted on 18 counts for misleading the FBI about payoffs to a mistress, Linda Medlar. NBC Nightly News filed one story; ABC's World News Tonight gave it 18 seconds. CBS Evening News didn't arrive on the story until the next night, and gave it nine seconds, a fraction of the two minutes Dan Rather gave the nightly El Nino update, about the weather "giving a gentle lift to the monarch butterfly."

What liberal bias?!?

They also note that the AP reporting is using loaded language about Rove not being charged:

Here's how the AP reported today's developments in the Plame case:

"Karl Rove, President Bush's closest adviser, escaped indictment Friday but remained under investigation, his legal status a looming political problem for the White House." [emphasis added]

"Escaped"? Did he scale the wall at the Big House? Pull a Shawshank Redemption and slip out through the sewer system?

If during the Clinton administration, a top aide had not been indicted, would the AP have spoken of him having "escaped"?

Is the AP's disappointment showing?

Here's a link to the AP story:

Check out the comments below on that one.

Michael Kinsley has a funny piece about this:

Everyone assumed that Miller's source was Snapper. Him and/or Karl Rove (another great name, especially for the official bad guy). He said he didn't mind if she testified. She apparently didn't hear this, so a couple months later he said it louder and she said okay. Then she testified that she couldn't remember who told her that Valerie Plame was an undercover CIA agent, but it wasn't Skippy. And she conceded that much of what she reported in the run-up to the Iraq war, relying on administration leaks, was wrong. So she went to jail to protect a "source" who didn't give her the crucial fact at issue for a story she didn't write, but did give her inaccurate information for other stories. Huh?

He closes with a good note about how the sides have hypocritically flipped:

The Republicans have their own plotline they'd like to impose on this confusing blur of events. It's actually a dusted-off plotline from the Reagan Iran-contra scandal of the 1980s: all about an "overzealous prosecutor" and "bitter partisans" on the other side who want to "politicize policy differences." But two intervening developments have overroasted these chestnuts: Bill Clinton and Yahoo. When Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison preemptively mocked perjury as what prosecutors charge you with if they can't find a real crime, it was the work of minutes for bloggers to find and post her comments from the Clinton impeachment about the transcendent seriousness of a perjury rap.

And that's the irony of this thing: Democrats are suddenly certain that perjury is a serious crime and Stupid Partiers are trying to blow it off.

Um, it IS a serious crime and I'd like to know what was so GD important that a presumably intelligent bloke like Pooter (sp?) needed to lie like a moth-eaten rug as if no one would notice? Who'd he think he was? Bill Clinton?!?

The Volokh Conspiracy wonders "what's a Bush Administration official supposed to do?" when the Left slags them when they lie and slags them when they tell the truth:

Jeralyn Merritt of TalkLeft complains at the Huffington Post that Karl Rove might avoid serious punishment because he told the truth to the government. Merritt outlines a scenario (which as best I can tell has to be strictly theoretical at this point) in which Rove would "make a plea deal with Fitzgerald under which he agrees to plead guilty if Fitzgerald agrees to request a sentencing reduction to probation, because of his cooperation against others." She then concludes:

As a devout critic of the Bush Administration, I bring it up because I don't like rats. If Karl Rove isn't indicted, or gets a sweetheart deal, I can't conceive of any reason why other than he sang his heart out.

So what's a Bush Administration official supposed to do? I would have thought that telling the truth to investigators about criminal misconduct, including your colleagues' misconduct, is generally part of a government official's job. It's also sometimes the self-interested thing to do, but while that might mean you deserve less credit for it, it doesn't mean you should be condemned for it.

Merritt's view, though, seems to be that Rove would be a "rat," whom she "do[es]n't like," for "s[i]ng[ing] his heart out." Should he compound his initial offense (if he had committed an offense) by failing to do his duty? I've heard people condemn the Bush Administration for placing too much premium on loyalty over other virtues -- but surely few (on the Left or on the Right) would think that Administration officials should place such a premium on loyalty that they refuse to testify about others' criminal conduct? Or is it damned if you do (covering up your colleagues' crimes; shameful!), damned if you don't ("singing" about your colleagues' crimes; shameful!)?

Uh, Eugene....you're asking a liberal to be consistent? Dude...

So the spin will go on and on with both sides trying to paint the other side as good or bad as possible. Maybe one day, we'll find out what REALLY happened, but until then, I'm sure we'll get more fun hypocrisies like this one from the lying liar who started this all, Joe "Hey, did I tell you what my wife does?" Wilson:

"While I may engage in public discourse, my wife and my family are private people. They did not choose to be brought into the public square, and they do not wish to be under the glare of camera. They are entitled to their privacy."

Yeah, right.

One View of Our Media Death Watch

NewsBusters notices what I've always pointed out: If today's feckless fascist media was around during WWII, we'd be speaking "Japerman" or "Gerpanese".

The excitement and anticipation radiating from the mainstream media, as American deaths in Iraq inched toward the 2,000 mark, has been more than evident. It has also been a time of struggle for those of us who deeply mourn the loss of these heroic young men and women. Now, in addition to the pain and suffering we truly understand, the American public must also endure the pre-planned platitudes of a press strongly opposed to this combat action.

Headlines and editorials condemning the war or calling for withdrawal of our troops have been everywhere. News and editorial leads have all sounded the theme of Washington’s wrong doing. For example, Bob Herbert’s column in the October 27 New York Times reads, “Thousands upon thousands are suffering and dying in Iraq while, in Washington, incompetence continues its macabre marathon dance with incoherence.”

Our national press corps argues that more than 2,000 deaths in two years of combat is far too high a price to pay in American lives. Since this is a war of “incompetence” and “incoherence”, nothing of value has been accomplished and we should turn our backs on Iraq and the midddle east.

It seems those who pour ink onto today’s news pages have forgotten their world history.

For example, between December 16, 1944 and January 25, 1945 the United States sacrificed 19,000 men to guns of Nazi Germany in a single engagement. Another 23,554 soldiers were captured. It was called the “Battle of the Bulge.” Using the logic of today’s media, we should have surrendered the war to our Nazi enemy on the spot.

During World War II there were 9,512 Merchant Marines who gave up their lives to assure American troops were supplied and moved into battle. By today’s press standards those were wasted lives and all shipping should have ceased.

From April 1 until September 7, 1945 a total of 12,000 Americans died and 38,000 were wounded in the battle for Okinawa. People like Bob Herbert would call that Washington bumbling...a battle that should never have been fought.

At Antietam on September 17, 1862 we learn that in a single battle more than 3,500 young men from both the Blue and Grey Armies lay dead on the soil of their own country. Many in the press of that day thought all of the civilian leadership was lacking competence. Still the fight continued and in the end it was the glue of American blood that held the Union together.

All wars stress a nation. The losses, be they a single life or thousands, can never be taken lightly. But, to use death numbers as a media target for speaking out in opposition and defeatism is unconscionable. We all deserve better from those chosen to be our public voice.

To the fascist enemies within, not one life is worth losing if it protects America or serves a Democrat's purposes.

What The NY Times Left Out About Cpl. Jeffrey B. Starr.

Michelle Malkin-Belligerent has an item about the NYT selectively editing the e-mail of a dead soldier to omit his sense of mission and dedication.

Here's an excerpt from the Times' passage about Cpl. Starr:

Another member of the 1/5, Cpl. Jeffrey B. Starr, rejected a $24,000 bonus to re-enlist. Corporal Starr believed strongly in the war, his father said, but was tired of the harsh life and nearness of death in Iraq. So he enrolled at Everett Community College near his parents' home in Snohomish, Wash., planning to study psychology after his enlistment ended in August.

But he died in a firefight in Ramadi on April 30 during his third tour in Iraq. He was 22.

Sifting through Corporal Starr's laptop computer after his death, his father found a letter to be delivered to the marine's girlfriend. ''I kind of predicted this,'' Corporal Starr wrote of his own death. ''A third time just seemed like I'm pushing my chances.''

Last night, I received a letter from Corporal Starr's uncle, Timothy Lickness. He wanted you to know the rest of the story--and the parts of Corporal Starr's letter that the Times failed to include:

Yesterday's New York Times on-line edition carried the story of the 2000 Iraq US military death[s]. It grabbed my attention as the picture they used with the headline was that of my nephew, Cpl Jeffrey B. Starr, USMC.

Unfortunately they did not tell Jeffrey's story. Jeffrey believed in what he was doing. He [was] willing put his life on the line for this cause. Just before he left for his third tour of duty in Iraq I asked him what he thought about going back the third time. He said: "If we (Americans) don't do this (free the Iraqi people from tyranny) who will? No one else can."

Several months after Jeffrey was killed his laptop computer was returned to his parents who found a letter in it that was addressed to his girlfriend and was intended to be found only if he did not return alive. It is a most poignant letter and filled with personal feelings he had for his girlfriend. But of importance to the rest of us was his expression of how he felt about putting his life at risk for this cause. He said it with grace and maturity.

He wrote: "Obviously if you are reading this then I have died in Iraq. I kind of predicted this, that is why I'm writing this in November. A third time just seemed like I'm pushing my chances. I don't regret going, everybody dies but few get to do it for something as important as freedom. It may seem confusing why we are in Iraq, it's not to me. I'm here helping these people, so that they can live the way we live. Not have to worry about tyrants or vicious dictators. To do what they want with their lives. To me that is why I died. Others have died for my freedom, now this is my mark."

What Jeffrey said is important. Americans need to understand that most of those who are or have been there understand what's going on. It would honor Jeffrey's memory if you would publish the rest of his story.

When is the Times going to change it's motto to "All the news that fits our agenda."?

Celebrating the 2000th American Death in the Iraq War

Why is this man smiling?



Nothing makes anti-American "peace protestors" happier than dead soldiers. Here's the proof. (Note how the press prefers to shoot the candles instead of the grinning ghouls.)

Why are there no gays on "Star Trek"?

I stumbled over this old Salon.com article, "Gay 'Trek'", cataloging the complaints of gay sci-fi fans that none of the "Star Trek" series portrayed gays in space. The beef is based on the idea that since "Star Trek" is supposed to portray a enlightened (read: liberal) social Utopia of tolerance and understanding, there should be open displays of same-sex love and affection between bumpy-foreheaded people of all (prosthetic) colors and species.

While it catalogs the rank homobigotry - "homophobia" is a misnomer - of some of the Trek producers, what it overlooks is the cyborg elephant in the spaceship: Genetic engineering. It's said that homosexuality is born into people and not simply a "lifestyle choice", so if a preference for tight jeans is in the genes, why is it impossible to conceive of those genes being altered?

If the promise of genetic engineering (in conjunction with an agressive abortion policy for fetuses that can't be fixed) is to weed out all the negative genetic flaws, such as Down's Syndrome, left-handedness and a taste for Kenny G records, what's to say that in the future homosexuality will be eradicated medically as an undesirable flaw, like frizzy hair?

While it's SOP to blame the lack of [oppressed grievance group] on TV shows because of fearful racist/sexist/bigoted white men, in this case, pertaining to a future with faster-than-light travel and teleporters, it falls flat.

The reason there are no gays on "Star Trek" is because there are no gays in the future

Peggy Noonan: "A Separate Peace"

Probably because I'm working on an editorial piece for another site that touches on these themes, but Peggy Noonan's piece that says, "America is in trouble--and our elites are merely resigned." is pretty spot on. Go read it, but here are the disheartening punchlines:

Our elites, our educated and successful professionals, are the ones who are supposed to dig us out and lead us. I refer specifically to the elites of journalism and politics, the elites of the Hill and at Foggy Bottom and the agencies, the elites of our state capitals, the rich and accomplished and successful of Washington, and elsewhere. I have a nagging sense, and think I have accurately observed, that many of these people have made a separate peace. That they're living their lives and taking their pleasures and pursuing their agendas; that they're going forward each day with the knowledge, which they hold more securely and with greater reason than nonelites, that the wheels are off the trolley and the trolley's off the tracks, and with a conviction, a certainty, that there is nothing they can do about it.

I suspect that history, including great historical novelists of the future, will look back and see that many of our elites simply decided to enjoy their lives while they waited for the next chapter of trouble. And that they consciously, or unconsciously, took grim comfort in this thought: I got mine. Which is what the separate peace comes down to, "I got mine, you get yours."

You're a lobbyist or a senator or a cabinet chief, you're an editor at a paper or a green-room schmoozer, you're a doctor or lawyer or Indian chief, and you're making your life a little fortress. That's what I think a lot of the elites are up to.

Not all of course. There are a lot of people--I know them and so do you--trying to do work that helps, that will turn it around, that can make it better, that can save lives. They're trying to keep the boat afloat. Or, I should say, get the trolley back on the tracks.

That's what I think is going on with our elites. There are two groups. One has made a separate peace, and one is trying to keep the boat afloat. I suspect those in the latter group privately, in a place so private they don't even express it to themselves, wonder if they'll go down with the ship. Or into bad territory with the trolley.

And what's saddest is that so many people don't even care that it's all going to hell; they just want THEIR PEOPLE at the helm to get more for them on the way down.

Telling Lies Is NOT "Speaking Truth To Power".

An ever-growing peeve of mine lately is the resurrection of the phrase, "Speaking truth to power," which ONLY comes from the lips of the Left as they congratulate themselves for sticking it to Team Dubya et al. The fact that a lot of these "truths" are seditious lies to undermine America isn't advertised as much.

Ignoring George Clooney's new liberal-porn film, "Good Night, and Stalin's Not Such A Bad Guy Once You Get To Know Him", I saw that there's something in Vanity Fair this month about how the media's Al Jazeera-worthy coverage of Hurricane Katrina was an epocal moment in news reporting because....well, you know, that something to someone thing.

Now, I haven't read the whole piece yet and if anything needs to be ammended here, I will, but the general tenor of the piece that I gather is that it doesn't matter that there weren't actually 10,000 dead in New Orleans; it didn't matter that there weren't stacked corpses in the Convention Center freezer; it didn't matter that unconfirmed speculation and outright fantasies were given the weight of fact by a credulous media driven to embarrass and destroy Dubya at all costs, even the Truth.

Noooooooooo!!! This was "Speaking Truth To Power". Please. I wonder if Dan Rather is considered to be a "Truth to Power" speaker? It'd be funny if he was because most people know he was just a bad liar who finally got caught.

Go Yoda! Go Yoda! Go Yoda!

Check out the REVENGE OF THE SITH Easter Egg!

The Self-Inflicted Bleeding Stops (For The Moment.)

Lousy SCOTUS pick and latest example of Team Dubya's tone-deafness, Harriet Miers, withdrew her nomination today after a long month of causing fits in the conservative community as those who want a good pick clashed with those who believe that propping up Dubya is more important than a sound judicial candidate for the out-of-control court.

Hugh Hewitt's been the loudest voice in favor of Miers and, frankly, he's been an absolute crybaby about all this and weakened his conservative cred in my eyes with his nasty attacks against folks like George Will, Charles Krauthammer and the NRO gang. Hugh's diaper-filling reaction is here and I hope he gets the fook over it because he was backing the wrong horse for the wrong reason.

If Dems tried to foist a hack like Miers on the court - ignoring the fact that Dems never fail to defend their owm - folks like Hewitt would be hell-bent on their defeat, but since it's weak-old-Dubya who's suffering from many self-inflicted wounds and many more unfair smears by the media, it's rally around the leader time. Pass, Hugh.

Paging Janice Rogers Brown....

Regarding: Keira Knightley

I'd hit it.


She seems like someone who won't have a fit if it gets in her hair.

Could 9/11 Happen Again?

That's what a new book, "Terror in the Skies: Why 9-11 Could Happen Again", contends. It's a long read, but important if we're going to deal seriously with the Islamofascists who wish to slaughter us and the hack bureaucrats that allow political correctness to define our security.