In Wurtzburg, Germany, Paul Wolfowitz had to listen to nonsense like this:
Bonnie McCarty said her husband is preparing for a yearlong tour of duty in Iraq. "When he comes back, does this mean in another year he's going to go back again because the size of the Army isn't big enough?" McCarty asked Wolfowitz. "We don't want to keep going through this."
I'm sure the woman's husband is mortified.
I would have liked Paul to remind her of a few things: The Army could always turn Germany into an unaccompanied tour and just ship all the families back stateside; Had she considered the spouses of sailors? How often are sailors home?; Her mouth is a good example of why hundred-mile-an-hour tape was invented; and U.S. Army spelled backwards is "Yes, my retarded ass signed up".
One more reason I don't like John Kerry
Steve Irwin must have taken his cue from Florida's Ross Allen.
Nathan over at Southern Appeal links to a comic post about Howard Dean and the Rebel Yell.
I was reminded of Allen Sullivant's post on the Yell many years ago that has stuck with me. "Vicksburg... Vicksburg..."
Andrew Gilligan, the BBC reporter who told lies about Tony Blair and caused a lot of trouble, has resigned.
Glad to see the media being held accountable for some of the junk they publish.
Now Kerry's saying he didn't say it:
The debate opened with Kerry being asked about comments to the effect that Democrats put too much focus on winning Southern states.
``I never said that,'' he responded. ``I never said Democrats made a mistake.''
But in a recent town-hall meeting in New Hampshire, Kerry talked about how Democrat Gore could have become president by winning even one more non-Southern state. ``Everybody always makes the mistake of looking South,'' he said.
Trying to explain that remark in advance of the South Carolina primary Tuesday, Kerry said in the debate that he had just been making a mathematical point about Gore's campaign.
Everyday I try very hard not to be mean like Ann Coulter.
She was the girl in school who would peg you with rocks and laugh. She's also very funny.
For over 30 years, Kerry's primary occupation has been stalking lonely heiresses. Not to get back to his combat experience, but Kerry sees a room full of wealthy widows as "a target-rich environment." This is a guy whose experience dealing with tax problems is based on spending his entire adult life being supported by rich women. What does a kept man know about taxes? ...
Kerry is like some character in a Balzac novel, an adventurer twirling the end of his mustache and preying on rich women. This low-born poseur with his threadbare pseudo-Brahmin family bought a political career with one rich woman's money, dumped her, and made off with another heiress to enable him to run for president. If Democrats want to talk about middle-class tax cuts, couldn't they nominate someone who hasn't been a poodle to rich women for the past 33 years?
For 40 years, the Democratic Party begged Southern Democrats to return to the fold. Always undignified, this pleading eventually become futile as well, like Shirley Booth calling for her dead puppy in Come Back, Little Sheba. Now John Kerry, winner of the New Hampshire primary, is taking some heat for saying so. But it's about time somebody did.
I'm feeling very slighted...
Wait, I've gotten over it. I just remembered an old story I learned in school.
The author of the article thinks we're bad folks. I guess we'll have to keep on living... and deciding what Democrat, if any, gets through the door of the White House.
Time for some Duane. Wail on, Skydog!
As had to happen, there's a Steve Irwin game out. He wants you to feed his bee-yoooo-tiful crocs with a non-endangered species - babies.
(Thanks to Paul of Daily Diatribe)
Judd also thrashed the Dixie Chicks for their negative statements about George W. Bush. The Dixie Chicks' Natalie Mains recently wore a shirt at an awards show that said "FUTK," badmouthing fellow country music star Toby Keith. Judd twisted the acronym around, saying it stood for "Found Underneath Table Kneeling." He then contributed a song called "Natalie," in the tune of "Celebrity" by Brad Paisley, mocking the Dixie Chicks' lead singer.
That song was pretty much about Natalie anyways.
In the Miami Herald today is a good article about the Orlando Customs official I'd mentioned earlier who had denied entry to one of Atta's hijackers.
I wish everyone had have been on the ball like this guy. Atta was allowed in on the wrong visa.
Ending the democracy deficit in the Muslim world
DESPITE encouraging signs, it is impossible to ignore a 'democracy deficit' in the Muslim world, especially the Arab part of it. Only one out of every four countries with Muslim majorities has a democratically elected government.
Picking on the poor ol' Boy Scouts again. God forbid there be any Freedom of Association.
Democrats' next stop: Land of God and flag
Good article from the Chicago Tribune. Use laexaminer for login and password.
"Once upon a time, the most successful Democratic leader of them all, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, looked South and said, 'I see one-third of a nation ill-housed, ill-clad, ill-nourished.' Today, our national Democratic leaders look South and say, 'I see one-third of a nation and it can go to hell.'"
-Senator Zell Miller, Democrat, Georgia
Scorned!
John Kerry has written off the South and he's talking about it.
Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., is discounting notions that any Democratic candidate would have to appeal to Southern voters in order to win the presidency, calling such thinking a "mistake" during a speech at Dartmouth College.
That's alright. There's a handsome Republican gentleman over there who says he'd travel across the dry and dusty desert just to look at our pretty eyes.
Hero Builders has a new action figure- the Mean Dean doll.
Some excerpts from the talking doll:
White folks in the south that drive pickup trucks with confederate flag decals in the back ought to be voting with us and not them.
The capture of Saddam has not made America safer.
and
We're going to South Carolina and Oklahoma, Arizona, and North Dakota, and New Mexico. And we're going to California and Texas and New York. And we're going to South Dakota and Oregon and Washington and Michigan! And then we're going to Washington, D.C., to take back the White House! unrecognizable howl
The troops in Afghanistan have made their own Starbucks.
It'd be nice if the company donated coffee beans to them, but I wouldn't hold my breath. These are the people who on 9/11 charged rescue workers for water at Ground Zero.
MTV has a collection of seven Howard Dean remixes. (Scroll down, right-hand side) My favorite's "Ozzy Osbourne's Crazy Train (Dean's Aboard)".
Islamic Scholar: Women driving cars is a sinful thing
This is why I loved driving my deuce in Saudi Arabia.
I remember before we went over, there was a female professor there whose family helped her stage a protest against the driving ban. The protest was that they were going to go to a public place and she was going to get in a car and drive. They were arrested, and her students broke into her office at the university and trashed it.
"We've been digging... and we found Michelle"
Nutty con and crazy cops.
While we're at it, some Vietnam vets *really* don't like John McCain either. "The Manchurian Candidate"- those POW/MIA families don't fool around.
I'm not any kind of expert on the subject. I read "Garwood" way back when, and I'll just leave it to the people involved to sort things out amongst themselves.
My vehicle could have gotten stuck in the sand like Melissa Rathbun Nealy's. I hope I would have behaved honorably like they trained us, but I don't know because I wasn't tested. So, for me, what's between the Vietnam vets and families regarding the POWs and breaking faith is between them.
BTW, here's an interesting Garwood site: "The Strange Case of PFC Robert Garwood". Here's another one.
Chronwatch has a new article on John F. Kerry that helps fill in his background:
Recently, Senator Kerry gave a speech at a Vietnam War Memorial, and many of the veterans turned their backs to him and walked away. They saw him as the man who called them war criminals in his testimony before Congress. The man who received the Silver Star for killing a wounded, retreating enemy soldier, had accused them of hideous war crimes.
The issue of his chairing the Senate Select Committee on POW/MIA Affairs keeps coming up. There's an article on the subject over at the All POW/MIA site.
Country Store has the scoop on Wesley Clark and his precious bodily fluids.
Paul at the Daily Diatribe has pics of Steve Irwin's other unfortunate children: Fred, Kevin, and Bevan. Also there, a nifty Steve doll that says twelve different phrases, only ten of which are "Crikey!".
According to Harry Potter film director Alfonso Cuaron, Gitmo is Azkaban and the American soldiers guarding the terrorists are Dementors.
"It's a myth for our times," Cuaron tells Entertainment Weekly magazine in its Jan. 23 issue. "You read about Fudge and the Ministry of Magic - that's Tony Blair! And Guantanamo is not that different from Azkaban. There are Dementors there, too."
Further ruminations on Blair:
Cornelius Fudge reminds Cuaron of Tony Blair. "He’s the ultimate politician. He’s in denial about many things. And everything is for the sake of his own persona, his own power. The way the Iraq thing was handled was not unlike the way Fudge handled affairs in book four."
No word on what J.K. Rowling thinks of the director politicizing a children's film.
From The American Spectator, (scroll down) more on Dean's visit to Jimmy the Knife:
"Governor Dean shows up and everything we thought was planned was now off," says a Dean adviser in New Hampshire. "No endorsement, nothing. It was like we got shivved in the back."
And Bill helped.
He didn't even throw his own medals
From Front Page magazine's article on John Kerry:
Throw as I say, not as I do: On that same day he led members of VVAW in a protest during which they threw their medals and ribbons over a fence in front of the U.S. Capitol.
Kerry later admitted the medals he threw were not his. To this day they hang on the wall of his office.
He also drove an SUV to an energy conservation rally, which is the final proof of his dastardliness.
"Abu Haider will find the solution."
God bless Paul Bremer for being such a good, steady guy. And for being an expert on crisis management.
I sure couldn't do his job.
I'm reminded that today's Wednesday. That means it's time for a Duane Allman pic. Wail on, Skydog!
A Saudi man who was prevented from entering the United States a few weeks before the Sept. 11 terror attacks may have been the plot's intended 20th hijacker, federal officials say.
The man, identified only as al-Qahtani, was turned away by a U.S. immigration agent at Orlando International Airport in late August 2001, according to two senior law enforcement officials who spoke on condition of anonymity Tuesday. ...
After his apprehension, U.S. agents put al-Qahtani on a plane back to Saudi Arabia, the officials said. He later wound up in Afghanistan, where he was captured by U.S. forces and is now being held along with other captives at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
The agent who stopped al-Qahtani, Jose Melendez-Perez, is to testify about the matter at a hearing next week before the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon The United States, better known as the 9/11 commission.
A murderer almost made a clean getaway, but the law got there in the nick of time.
CARTER ON DEAN: I DIDN'T CALL HIM, HE CALLED ME
Sun Jan 18 2004 19:43:22 ET
Even though he hosted Dem hopeful Howard Dean in Plains, Georgia on Sunday, former President Jimmy Carter annoyed Dean's senior advisers when he claimed that Dean was not invited!
"He called me on the phone and said he'd like to worship with me," Carter explained. "I did not invite him, but I'm glad he came."
Carter said he has also visited with retired Gen. Wesley Clark, and hopes he will again.
The embarrassing Dean moment came after Dean was pressed in recent interviews on why he would leave Iowa at a crunch time.
Dean said he could not turn down an invitation to appear with a former president he admires, the WASHINGTON POST reports on Monday. But when a visitor to the Marantha [sic] church thanked Carter for inviting Dean, Carter quickly interjected, "I did not invite him!"
Tee! Dean is such a smooth operator.
BTW, it's "Maranatha", for crying out loud. It means "Our Lord cometh". Over and over with this mistake.
Palm Beach judge criticized for reporting illegal aliens
"They're violating the law, and I'm a judge,'' said Colton, whose background included nine years as a special agent with the FBI. "Don't I have some type of obligation to the system to report it... when it's smack-dab right out in front of me?''
Former President Carter praised Democrat Howard Dean on Sunday for his "courageous and outspoken" stands -- in particular his steadfast opposition to the Iraq war -- but the 39th president stopped short of an endorsement on the eve of the Iowa caucuses.
Dean's steadfast opposition, courtesy of Kucinich:
Sept. 23, 2002, DEAN -- Might Endorse Pre-Emptive Strike
Dean gives a waffling endorsement of President Bush's pre-emptive war:
"Pre-emption is not off the table, but the moral high ground does matter," he says, as quoted in the Iowa City Press-Citizen. The paper reports that Dean "also said he would endorse a pre-emptive strike against Iraq if it can be proven that Saddam Hussein has access to weapons of mass destruction and the means to discharge them."
Sept. 29, 2002, DEAN -- "If You Don't Do This...We Will Go Into Iraq"
On CBS "Face the Nation": After saying that the administration "had not yet made" its case that Saddam was an immediate threat, and that if we attack Iraq, "it's got to be gone about in a very different way," Dean also states: "It's very simple. Here's what we ought to have done. We should have gone to the UN Security Council. We should have asked for a resolution to allow the inspectors back in with no pre-conditions. And then we should have given them a deadline, saying, 'If you don't do this, say, within 60 days, we will reserve our right as Americans to defend ourselves and we will go into Iraq.'"
February 19, 2003 DEAN -- Unilateral Action Is...Unavoidable Choice
Salon's Jake Tapper summarizes Dean's oft-repeated position on attacking Iraq: "Saddam must be disarmed, but with a multilateral force under the auspices of the United Nations. If the U.N. in the end chooses not to enforce its own resolutions, then the U.S. should give Saddam 30 to 60 days to disarm, and if he doesn't, unilateral action is a regrettable, but unavoidable, choice."
August 12, 2003, DEAN -- "We Cannot Leave Iraq"
"I think it was a mistake to go into Iraq in the long run. Now that we're there, we're stuck there, and the administration has no plan for how to deal with it, and we cannot leave because losing the peace is not an option. We cannot leave Iraq" (Buchanan & Press, MSNBC)
The two men joined worshippers at the 131-member Marantha [sic] Baptist Church in Carter's home town of Plains, Ga., where Carter teaches Sunday school most weeks, and afterward the former president introduced Dean as "my friend, our visitor and a fellow Christian."
Hmmm. Not enough of a friend to endorse him?
Carter's lesson was on integrity and he taught from the book of Job, which Dean recently said was his favorite book of the Bible.
That's not exactly what he said. ;)
Dean missed 24 hours of campaigning in Iowa to make this little trip. Very poor timing and what did he gain?
From Mohammed and Ali of Iraq the Model:
I wish you can come and see Baghdad's streets after today's crime. No one ran away to his home, life didn't stop, students didn't quit their exams, banks and shops are still open and police patrols still moving in the streets. The streets were crowded, and people were shouting loudly this time "LET THE MUJAHIDEEN GO TO HELL".
Hammorabi is thoroughly pissed and wants a necktie party for the culprits and their backers.
Great way to strengthen the resolve of the Iraqi people, moron terrorists.
U.S. soldiers help a crying Iraqi man away from the scene of a car bomb which exploded outside the main gate to headquarters of U.S.-led coalition.
Jack the Ripper mystery solved!
According to Indian writer, Arundhati Roy, it's Dubya.
Who knew? I thought he was supposed to be Hitler, while all along he was the Ripper!
Alaa, of the Mesopotamian has some advice for us:
These are critical times and I think much will happen the next few weeks. But take courage brave America, the courage that comes from conviction that you are in the right; that your cause is noble and just. Despite all the fog and deliberate confusing of the issues, you must know that the Majority of the people still believe in you at heart. You have taken on formidable tasks. You must rise up to the challenge, and you can and we are with you. Never mind the noise; the barking of enraged canids deprived of their spoils; the scheming of old “Belles� of yesterday who cannot understand that their days are gone; the brutality of misled peasants who know not what they are doing; never mind all that and more, as long as you are on the right path.
And he ends with this:
And finally, a special salute to Dear President Bush, the man who dared.
Merde in France reports that not everyone is thrilled with our space program.
Enjoy your flight, Mr. bin Laden!
The wacky folks at News of the World go around to airports in Great Britain with their Osama bin Laden boarding pass.
The Palestinian Authority is going broke. That's a darn shame. Arafat, the head of the PA, is the sixth-richest world leader and controls all their money. You'd think the Palestinians would be eyeing him closely, but they're saying it's all Israel's fault. They've been living on donations the last three years and the donor nations are now demanding an accounting.
Besides keeping his wife in luxury far, far away, I can't see what he's spending it on. Maybe he's the Imelda Marcos of head rags.
At a checkpoint, PFC Jessica Nicholson takes down a fellow who had a grenade stashed in the car visor.
She said the man then started crying and someone said he might have been embarrassed because it was a shame for a man in Iraq to get beat up by a woman.
Five Lamb siblings may reunite in Afghanistan
The dad, four sons, and one daughter, are all in the service.
Just Call Him the Chairman of the Board- What's ol' Howie been up to?
Planned Parenthood: We put the D&C in the DNC.
Rumors of Castro's death sweep Miami-Dade -- again
This happens frequently here. Hope springs eternal, I guess.
Y'all can make up your own minds about Judith Steinberg Dean. The Dean for America site has a lengthy section on her, and it's quite interesting. Although they see pretty much everything about her as capable of being a hit with one or another segment of America, I personally am going to have to pass on her.
I've seen a lot of first ladies come and go now. She can be an asset, a non-entity, or a hindrance. A lot of it boils down to the first lady's own personality, character, and ability to give of herself. Pat Nixon is one I truly feel sorry for. Always shy, she had a hideous childhood and as an adult was forced to partake of her husband's disgrace.
In any case, there's no getting around the fact that being the President of the United States is the most important job in the world. We all like to do what we want to do, when we want to do it. However, if you're the wife of the President, you're going to have to reprioritize, if necessary, because he's very much going to need your help and support.
Ain't she sweet?
Here Laura's taking Mrs. Putin to a book festival. All the pics in this series are just lovely. Laura's a warm, gracious lady who does her part to help her husband and her country. I love her to pieces.
Dhimmi Watch news: Iraq: Mainstream Political Leaders Denounce Attacks on Christians
I'm glad some of these guys are stepping up to the plate. Basra is on its way to becoming a Christian-free zone.
Wow. Saddam removed a bullet from his leg with a SHOEHORN. Well, not really, but he said he did.
At a private screening of a biographical film on Saddam...
The film was shown in a small theater. Saddam sat surrounded by his cronies. When the film began, they started weeping with emotion. Would you believe that each one of them finished off the box of Kleenex in front of him?!
They were all trying to out-cry each other. LOL.
Neither one will be appearing in any more sequels.
From today's Washington Post:
Women in Iraq Decry Decision To Curb Rights
Council Backs Islamic Law on Families
"This new law will send Iraqi families back to the Middle Ages," Hakki said. "It will allow men to have four or five or six wives. It will take away children from their mothers. It will allow anyone who calls himself a cleric to open an Islamic court in his house and decide about who can marry and divorce and have rights. We have to stop it."
Paul Bremer has not signed off on this, so let's cross our fingers.
Changing faces: statue honors fallen heroes
Iraqi sculptor Kalat examines the statue of an American Soldier made from melting down bronze statues of Saddam Hussein.
(Via Fayrouz).
(Updated with alternate link.)
Iraqi plan for Sharia law 'a sop to clerics', say women
Hamid Kifa'i, Governing Council spokesman, denied the text, which was approved with no announcement, was part of a political deal with clerics. "It is not a concession to fundamentalists, we don't have fundamentalists in Iraq," he said.
No, you have to say "There are no fundamentalists in Iraq. Never!"
There's some serious trouble going on now. The GC wants to replace civil law with Sharia. Paul Bremer hasn't signed off on it yet, thank God. I can't imagine he will. They cannot be allowed to step back into the Stone Age. Women are 60% of the population and must have the same rights as any citizen.
Zeyad of Healing Iraq has more, as do Hammorabi and Ays.
Non mil.commers also can see the new Saddam pics here, including the previously released and now unblurred pic of the soldier who had Saddam on the ground.
(Via Tim Blair).
Hammorabi says the scenes in the video were only a drop in the ocean of Saddam's crimes. What a monster.
It's Wednesday and that means it's time for this week's Duane Allman pic. Here's Duane in his Layla shirt.
Wail on, Skydog!
Blogs for Bush has the latest on Mr. Howard Dean, Unilateralist.
It's wrong, except for when I want it, then it's right.
Ali, of Iraq the Model talks of an e-mail he received from an injured American soldier urging him and all Iraqis to take an active role in establishing democracy:
I couldn’t help wondering what was the power that pushes this man to endure such an effort and give so generously, not only for his country but also for other people. And I started asking myself, what can I do more?...
It’s been a long time since I started thinking what could be the solutions to Iraq’s major problems, even before the law of liberating Iraq was approved by the American congress. I kept asking myself, then what? What after Saddam will be toppled? As this was an easy and definite conclusion to me. For despite how Saddam looked to Iraqis, he was extremely weak compared to an American army and this was not just because of the huge difference on the scale of military power and technology. He derived his strength from our fear of him and his brutal regime, a fear that paralyzed our minds, a fear that the Americans were free of. In addition to that, and more important is that he was completely isolated from his people who stood watching him being defeated without moving a finger.
Good stuff. Read the whole thing.
Hammorabi mentioned sotaliraq.com had published the new Saddam pics, so I went there. It's all in Arabic and I didn't see Saddam, so I just clicked on a pic. I had no warning, but I'll give y'all one: it's a video clip of guys being executed by grenade.
What animals. Screw all the appeasers.
Great new pics of Saddamn and our boys up over at military.com's Shock and Awe.
Non-mil.com members can see some of the pics at Hammorabi's.
No. 54 on the list, Khamis Sirhan al-Muhammad, has been captured.
Out of 55, thirteen are still on the run. Izzi the Red, at number 6, is the most wanted fugitive and has a $10 million bounty on his ginger noggin.
A Saudi Arabian student has pleaded guilty to killing his Jewish friend...They spent time together at local bars and socializing with women until about a year before the killing, when Alayed ended ties with Sellouk after a religious reawakening that led him to adopt a more conservative, Islamic lifestyle, authorities say.
The Carpetbagger and the Scalawag
Carter was expected to remain officially neutral, but words of praise could help boost the former Vermont governor's chances when the race turns to the South on Feb. 3.
Naw, naw, I don't think so. They're grasping at straws.
Someone tell me why Kanukistan is being allowed to bid on these reconstruction contracts that are being financed by us damn American bastards, eh?
Stanley Kurtz talks about space lovers and space haters in a terrific article on the Mars mission in NRO.
They deserve each other.
If some people want to pretend this whole thing isn't a disgrace, go right ahead. Rationalizing is part of being human. As far as I can see it though, people were just listening to an opinionated junkie.
Patton said that compared to war, all other forms of human endeavor shrink to insignificance. I would disagree. I think exploration is magnificent. It calls for the brightest minds and the bravest hearts.
From the Telegraph:
Proposal to Send Men to Mars Fraught with Risk
Many scientists are skeptical about the need to put people in space. The most successful exploration of the solar system in the past few decades has been done by robots. Manned spaceflight is more about show business than science, they say.
No, it's about Man doing great things.
Aside from the dangers of living on Mars, where there is no air, where water is locked below the ground, where temperatures fall to minus 271 degrees Fahrenheit, and where dust storms scour the surface, the health risks of long-term spaceflight are huge.
No one has spent more than 13 months in space. The endurance record is held by Russian Sergei Avdeyev, who lived for 379 days on the Mir space station.
Without gravity, astronauts are vulnerable to kidney stones, immune-system problems and weakening of heart muscles. Bones can become so thin during a long journey across space that they spontaneously would snap on return to gravity. Away from Earth's protective magnetic field, there also is the threat of cancer-causing radiation from cosmic rays and solar winds.
Even more difficult could be the psychological problems of spending nearly 30 months in a confined space.
Danger and hardship have their appeal. Shackleton drew many applicants for his Antarctic expedition with the following ad:
"Men wanted for hazardous journey. Small wages, bitter cold, long months of complete darkness, constant danger, safe return doubtful. Honor and recognition in case of success.�
Sir Martin Rees, the astronomer royal and professor of astronomy at Cambridge University, said, "With the advances in robotics and miniaturization, the case is tilting more strongly toward unmanned exploration. The case toward sending people into space is getting weaker.
"Manned missions will only make economic and political sense if costs come down tremendously and also if the American public is prepared to accept higher risks than they were in the case of the space shuttle," he said.
This is for the bold and daring. Let's plant our flag on Mars.
Update: More on the space initiative.
And more.
Passenger Jets May Get Anti-Missile Systems
Concerned that airline travelers are increasingly vulnerable to terrorist missile attacks, the government is developing plans to equip commercial airliners with the same protective countermeasures that military pilots use to fend off enemy missiles.
Woo-hoo! I want this bumpersticker!
America: The Moon's Ass Belongs to the US. So Don't Be Landing Your Skanky Rocket on It. Don't Even Be Looking at the Moon
Via Tim Blair, who knows what I like, has more on this.
First an earthquake, then a meteorite, now Dubya's causing flash floods.
In case you missed them, Evangelical Outpost has some excellent news reporting tips for the Associated Press.
Oh, good grief. Dean and some wrestling-team buddies worked among blacks and Cubans for two months when he was 16.
Florida Summer Taught Dean of Diversity.
The article suggests all these life-lessons the experience must have engendered, but all he talks about is working and wild, beer-soaked parties that the police had to break up.
Oh, and he learned some dirty words in Spanish. How diverse.
Dean, typically loath to open up about his personal past, is not so introspective about the impact of his journey from the bourgeois to Belle Glade.
Maybe because the only thing making an impact was the Budweiser?
Newseum has a terrific shockwave display of Pulitzer pictures narrated by the photographers who took them. They have Joe Rosenthal describing the moment he took the picture of the flag-raising on Mount Suribachi, Eddie Adams talking about the unfounded uproar his photograph of a Viet Cong execution caused, Slava Veder talking about how he captured the POW home-coming picture, and many others. It's good stuff.
I'm very interested in the future of Iraqi women. Fox has a story on some centers being set up to reorient them so they can fully participate in a democracy. Women make up 60% of the Iraqi population, but still there are only three women on the Interim Governing Council, no female governor in any of the provinces, and only one female minister. There was one female judge appointed, and she was removed.
When I was in Saudi I would see the women riding in the back of pick-up trucks with the sheep while the men rode in front. We would joke and say "Forget liberating Kuwait. Let's liberate the Saudi women." I never failed to thank God that I wasn't born there. Who knows how many Alberta Einsteins were riding in the back with the sheep.
Dick Gephardt tried to chastize Dean for saying four years ago that the Iowa Caucus is dominated by special interests. Well, it is. They probably all are. Speak the truth and shame the Devil. Acidman weighs in.
Firas, of Iraq and Iraqis, describes his feelings on riding in an army convoy into the green zone in Baghdad.
Frank has some fun facts about spam. Check it out.
Y'all's comments have got me thinking about the mountain lion attack on Scott Lancaster that I read about in RD. That animal *ate* him and one of his classmates' response was how natural, beautiful, and circle-of-lifey that is. Someone enroll that guy in a Human 101 class. He obviously has no understanding of our specie, no racial memory, nothing. We are the tippety-top of the food chain and I'm not climbing down. It's nothing but hideous when something like this happens. Dag, you'd think that would go without saying.
This Florida boy just ran out of lives. He survived Blackhawk Down and cancer to die against these terrorists in Iraq.
Don't know how true this is, but it's the latest scuttlebutt.
Report: Saddam Hussein Has Cancer
2004-01-07
The ousted Iraqi dictator, who is currently under custody with the coalition forces, suffers from cancer of lymph glands, Kuwaiti Al-Anba daily reads, citing an Iraqi official. According to the daily, the disease is in an advanced stage, so doctors predict the former dictator would probably live a couple of years more.
Doctors came out with the fatal diagnosis while making thorough medical checking of Saddam Hussein at his capture near his hometown of Tikrit in December 2003.
Allegations of Saddam's illness appeared during the military campaign in Iraq last year, when one of his private doctors, residing in Syria, claimed that the former dictator suffered from cancer.
(Via Tim Blair)
An abandoned horse gets a happy new life. What a lovely story.
Amen. This is total crap. I can't believe Mr. Bush would even suggest something so wrong.
My sister is still livid about Steve Irwin. What she found especially revolting was the fact that the baby needed his head supported and instead it was allowed to loll around. As to his defense that he's an expert croc hunter and was in control of the situation, she counters that Dale Earnhardt Jr is a professional race car driver, but it would still be a bad idea to strap a baby into the car and take it around the track at 200 mph, or for the Flying Wallendas to take a baby up on the high wire.
Steve is no longer defiant and has been apologizing left and right.
Forbes magazine says this amnesty is a non-starter. Just politics to woo Hispanic voters. I just lost a whole lot of respect for Mr. Bush.
"This clearly is an amnesty. It provides not only amnesty but a reward for people who committed a felony by coming here illegally," said Rep. Elton Gallegly, a California Republican.
"There will be substantial opposition from Republicans, Democrats and millions of ordinary Americans once they realize what's involved," Gallegly told Reuters.
This problem is just as important to me as the War on Terror.
My nephew and four other men worked for Aquatic Systems, a company in Fort Myers specializing in the removal of non-native invasive plant species in the wetlands. A couple of months ago they began training six Mexicans. On Christmas Eve, all the Americans were layed off. They had no idea they'd been training the people who'd be taking their jobs.
This story just made me laugh:
Zambia expels Briton over 'elephant' insult
By Basildon Peta, Southern Africa Correspondent
06 January 2004
A British journalist has been deported from Zambia for writing a satirical column in which he jokingly described the impoverished southern African country's President as a "foolish elephant".
Roy Clarke, a British citizen who had worked in Zambia for 30 years and is married to a Zambian, also described ministers as "baboons" in a column which was a spoof of George Orwell's Animal Farm. The article, which described a visit by President Levy Mwanawasa to a national park on Christmas Day, was in Zambia's independent newspaper, The Post.
Zambian law forbids journalists to ridicule the President in written or spoken form. Offenders can be jailed for three years. But many journalists have poked fun at Mr Mwanawasa because of his poor memory and slurred speech after a near-fatal accident in the early 1990s. At one stage, reports claimed, he said he could not remember the name Jesus and described him by saying "that guy who walked on water".
The deportation order by the Home Affairs minister, Ronnie Shikapwasha, gave Mr Clarke 24 hours to leave the country. The Post, which is highly critical of the government, said that the deportation order was stupid.
Mindset of the Beagle?
Gee, I didn't realize there were such hard feelings about our getting to Mars.
Why did this story make it to the Arab News, "The Middle East's Leading English Language Daily"?
Well, I can't wait all the way until Wednesday to post a new Duane Allman pic. Here he is with Will and Penny Robinson of "Lost in Space" backstage at the Whiskey, 1967. Wail on, Skydog!
This lady obviously reads my blog and considers me her muse. She ain't writin' me no check, though.
Dean's a Believer
(Sung to the tune of the Monkees' I'm a Believer)
I thought God was
Only true for Republicans
Meant for some white trash
But not for me
God was just so kitschy
That's the way it seemed
Wind-powered energy
Was more for me
And then I saw the polls
Now I'm a believer
Not a trace
Of doubt in my mind
I'm pi-ous
I'm a believer
I couldn't leave God
If I tried
I thought God was
More or less for low-class dupes
But the less I prayed the worse
I polled, oh yeah
What's the harm in claiming
Jesus is my guy
Southern votes got me kneeling
That's no lie
And then I saw the polls
Now I'm a believer
Not a trace
Of doubt in my mind
I'm pi-ous
I'm a believer
I couldn't leave God
If I tried
God was just so tacky
That's the way it seemed
Organic pilafs
Were more for me
And then I saw the polls
Now I'm a believer
Not a trace
Of doubt in my mind
I'm pi-ous
I'm a believer
I couldn't leave God
If I tried
Then I saw the polls
Now I'm a believer
Not a trace
Of doubt in my mind
Now I'm a believer
Yeah, yeah, yeah
Yeah, yeah, yeah
I'm a believer
I'm a believer
I'm a believer
And if you love dogs, I'm a retriever
And if you're a football fan, I'm a receiver
And if you're into wool, I'm a weaver
FADE
(Via Country Store )
This was just beautiful. A Soldier's Funeral, Texas Style. Make sure to look at all the pics.
(Via Random Nuclear Strikes.)
Doggone it, Joe. I wish you'd take the high road. You're the only one of the Dwarves I don't think is nuttified.
Some are wondering about the Flash Air crash and terrorism. Planes are still going to crash because of mechanical malfunctions, freakish weather, or human error.
In 1994 a USAir flight crashed because of a rudder failure. Last words: "Hang on. What the hell is this?"
In 1989 a Surinam Airways flight crashed while trying to land in the fog. Last words: "That's it. I'm dead."
In 1972 an Eastern Airlines flight crashed into the Everglades because everybody in the cockpit was focused on fixing a light on the panel and they forgot to fly the plane. Last words: "Hey, what's happening here?"
The Plane Crash Info site has more plane crash info than you can shake a shaker stick at.
According to this NYT article, Dean...
On Friday in New Hampshire, he invoked a Muslim phrase, "inshallah," God willing, to make a point about Americans believing they control their destiny.
"Inshallah"? What the heck?
Oh, I see. It was Friday. He's Muslim on Fridays...
Gary Aldrich of Town Hall takes a look at Dean's Southern campaign.
As Howard Dean holds his nose and heads to campaign in the Southern states...
NASA hits the bull's-eye. You can get streaming NASA TV here.
First Dubya causes an earthquake, now he's flinging meteorites.
Dean Now Willing to Discuss His Faith
Howard Dean, after practicing a quiet Christianity throughout his political career, said he is talking more about his faith because the presidential race has awakened him to the importance of religious expression, especially to southerners.
It's awakened in him the importance of getting Southern votes.
"Faith is important in a lot of places, but it is really important in the South -- I think I did not understand fully how comfortably religion fits in with daily life -- for both black and white populations in the South," he said.
Yes, it does. He hasn't been trying out his new material on all of us, though:
Still, Dean's remarks about his faith have been mostly confined to discussions with reporters and campaign stops at African American churches in South Carolina.
Pander as fast as you can. The SC primary is in February.
A small shift in support of religious voters could provide a big boost to the Democratic nominee.
He should remember to tell the faithful that he...
left the church 25 years ago in a dispute with a local Vermont church over efforts to build a bike path.
and that...
He rarely attends church services, unless it is for a political event.
and that...
Dean's wife is Jewish, *as are their two children*.
Because that's how really important his faith is to him.
Update: Cato the Youngest has more to say on this.
Some Vietnam vets *really* don't like John Kerry, and it's not because he's French-looking.
BOLO for a 90-year-old, one-eyed, nearly toothless crocodile
Thieves in my little hometown of North Fort Myers once again broke into the Octagon animal showcase. They stole money, fed steaks to the lions, left a big bag of cheese by the lake, and let out an elderly crocodile. Sounds like a wild night.
Despite his missing teeth, “He could still do damage to you,” cautioned caretaker Silas Caldwell.
While alligators are more plentiful (my nephew had an altercation with one just the other day), Florida also has its own native crocodiles.
Update on the Irwins: Seems the Australian child protection people didn't appreciate this morning's croc feeding. Crikey!
"If I had known it was going to cause a ruckus I would have thrown them (the media) out by their ears," he said. "I was in complete control of the crocodile. Robert was tucked right in my arm."
Update: Irwin's agreed not to do it again and no charges will be filed.
Update: Steve's upset and might retire.
Update: Steve Irwin will be on Larry King Tuesday night.
2003's Top Ten Campus Follies are up over at Town Hall.
Professor Nicholas De Genova of Columbia University stated during a six-hour university teach-in on the war in Iraq that he would like to see "a million Mogadishus, a reference to the eighteen American soldiers who were ambushed and killed in Mogadishu, Somalia in 1993.
IHT has a great article on our cool snipers. Seems most of them have been shooting since they were little boys. Practice makes perfect.
Soldiering is a violent business, and emotions in combat run high. But commanders say snipers are a different breed of warrior: quiet, unflappable marksmen who bring a dispassionate intensity to their deadly task.
Firas, of Iraq and Iraqis, comments on the New Year's Eve bombing in Baghdad.
I'm glad he and his family were unharmed and admire his resolute spirit in the fight against terrorism.
There's a horsetrack here that also does a free concert series. You can see how the mighty have fallen by looking to see who's playing at Gulfstream: Grand Funk Railroad (not with Mark Farner, though), Loverboy, Pat Benatar, Blondie, Three Dog Night (not with Chuck Negron, though). Blondie I saw back in '82, when they were big. Debbie Harry's voice defied the law of physics. She could close her mouth and still hold the notes. I decided that from then on I wanted all my singers to have some actual pipes.
According to this Reuters article, these are scary times for Christians in Basra. Zeyad comments on the story.
A lot of it seems to focus on liquor store owners, but there is also a mention of people trying to make girls wear hijab and become Muslim. Christians run liquor stores there like Pakistanis run 7-11's here, evidently. Now the religious vice squads have violently run every single one of them out of business, and Muslims have taken over the trade. In any case, they're heading out of there in droves. He also mentions Mandeans, who until yesterday I didn't know existed. Mandeans worship John the Baptist.
I wish all y'all a happy and prosperous new year.
