Bill's Bites -- 2006.09.29
Contributed by Bill Faith
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Bill's Bites -- 2006.09.30
Oliver Stone's true colors
Michelle Malkin
Now do you see why I was skeptical of that public relations campaign to entice conservatives into endorsing World Trade Center? Filmmaker Oliver Stone blasted President George W. Bush Thursday, saying he has "set America back 10 years."
Stone added that he is "ashamed for my country" over the war in Iraq and the U.S. policies in response to the attacks of September 11.
"We have destroyed the world in the name of security," Stone told journalists at the San Sebastian International Film Festival prior to a screening of his latest movie, "World Trade Center." ...
Video: Zawahiri calls Bush “lying failure,” whines about “torture”
Call it a “special comment.”
Short clip this time. The section on the Pope and Darfur wasn’t subtitled, so I cut it. Was it a last-minute addition, perhaps? Or did Chubs simply get bored with his translation duties?
I like his little toy cannon. Thanks to Rusty the Jawa Master for the vid. ...
Video: Brigitte Gabriel unloads on moderate Muslims
Most Muslims are moderate, she’s careful to emphasize. The radicals can’t number more than, oh, 180 to 300 million.
I guess Dean Esmay knows what he’s writing about next week.
This is Mary K’s first foray into video editing, so rather than swipe the clip from YouTube, I’m going to make you watch it on her site. She has thoughts on the Michelle-Esmay blogwar, too, so it’s worth your time. Click the image. ...
Devastating: Woodward’s new book on Bush and Iraq
There’s no other way to describe it. Read the synopses at the Times and, especially, the Daily News. Michael Yon told me a few months ago we’re very close to losing the war. It’s not hard to see why.
John Cole asks a good question. I’m not sure what my answer would be, frankly.
The News actually has a second article about the book devoted to the “urgent meeting” Tenet and Cofer Black had with Condi Rice in July 2001 about their fears of an impending attack and a request for $500 million to go in and get Bin Laden ASAP. Some of the rhetoric is absurd, particularly coming from “Slam Dunk” George–
Allen N-word accuser a longtime patron of … Daily Kos;
Update: Dead heat
Remember how there were initially three accusers who spoke to Salon? One was Dr. Ken Shelton, the other two were anonymous. One of them came forward today. And guess what. Days before being contacted by Salon, Sabornie said he had sent an unsolicited e-mail to Markos Moulitsas Zuniga, a prominent liberal blogger at DailyKos.com, describing his memories of Allen’s racist behavior. Sabornie said he also has posted on the DailyKos site as a reader in 2004, criticizing the performance of President Bush.
Bob Owens of Confederate Yankee also notes this passage from WaPo’s latest on N-wordgate: ...
Video: Borat’s press conference outside the White House
It only runs three minutes, but for some reason it’s been broken into two parts. The audio’s a little dicey, too.
Still, it’s worth it.
Even Reuters is enjoying this story:
Riddle: Why don't Congressmen use bookmarks?
A: They'd rather just bend over the pages. Breaking: Mark Foley (R-FL) to quit House over child-sex rumors; Update: IMs revealed
I almost posted on this yesterday but didn’t want to float something when it was still unsubstantiated. The original report quoted a 16-year-old Congressional page as being “freaked out” when Foley chatted him up over e-mail and requested a photo. Sounded reasonably innocuous to me.
It’s sounding a little less innocuous now: A spokesman for Foley, the chairman of the House Caucus on Missing and Exploited Children, said the congressman submitted his resignation in a letter late this afternoon to Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert.
Hours earlier, ABC News had read excerpts of instant messages provided by former pages who said the congressman, under the AOL Instant Messenger screen name Maf54, made repeated references to sexual organs and acts.
That’s another pickup for the Dems in the House. Can’t say I’m sorry about this one.
Update: Among Foley’s signature legislative accomplishments: ...
Foley's Folly
Ed Morrissey
Sometimes people say that politics make them feel unclean, but this story will amplify that exponentially. Rep. Mark Foley, a Republican from Florida with an almost-assured re-election bid, has resigned from Congress after harrassing a teen-age intern. His abrupt departure leaves his organization bereft of its chair -- the House Caucus on Missing and Exploited Children: Saying he was "deeply sorry," Congressman Mark Foley (R-FL) resigned from Congress today, hours after ABC News questioned him about sexually explicit internet messages with current and former congressional pages under the age of 18.
A spokesman for Foley, the chairman of the House Caucus on Missing and Exploited Children, said the congressman submitted his resignation in a letter late this afternoon to Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert. ...
*** 2006.09.30.01:06 The Foley mess
Michelle Malkin
Very damning evidence. If it is all true, and it seems very likely that it is, Rep. Foley has shamed himself, his office, his district, and his party.
I got back recently from Seattle, where good friends told me about their son's wonderful experience as a Congressional page earlier this year. Rep. Foley's apparent abuse of office and lecherous communications with a 16-year-old boy-- during what should have been one of the best times in his life as a page in Washington--is every parent's worst nightmare. ...
National Security Experiment (H/T)
7/3/2006 - An Australian TV performs a simple and hilarious experiment on bridge security. How long can an average looking white tourist take pictures of security cameras before being bothered? What about an arab tourist? ...
Jihadis threaten French prof: “This pig must have his head cut off”
They’re posting that online, alongside maps to his house.
Posting maps to an enemy’s house. That sounds familiar.
He says he’s “alone and abandoned,” but the article claims he’s under police guard 24-7. I think he means “alone and abandoned” by the state education ministry, which seems to have decided it’s his fault: ...
Oprah names Kos one of her sexiest men in the world
Of course, Oprah thinks Stedman is hot. So, you know.
This would make sense, sort of, if it was one of those beautiful-on-the-inside lists that feminists like to do for fat women. But except for the two Google geeks, the rest of the guys on there are actually pretty good looking.
And I mean that in the least gay way possible.
Video: RealVerse - “Under the Weather”
Bethany’s got a throat cold this week, so naturally the thing to do was to film outdoors in an off-the-shoulder sweater. A warning to the realVerse guys: if harm befalls her, my wrath will be terrible.
On the plus side, she’s milking that Kathleen Turner huskiness for all it’s worth.
Liberals document PEST sufferers’ reaction to Bush winning in ‘04
Yet another Bush hating documentary that no one but those who hate him will want to watch (or promote): It’s the morning after, our Liberal awakens from a fitful sleep, depressed. He can’t believe Bush won the election. He feels empty and angry. He is grieving as if he has experienced a profound loss. ###This story may be familiar to you. It was experienced, in one form or another, by millions of people around the world. Maybe, even yourself. It has become the driving force and simple theme for our documentary, RED STATE.
Gee, the symptoms experienced seem awful familiar: ...
In defense of waterboarding
Paul Mirengoff
Vasco Kohlmayer explains why waterboarding should be the interrogation method of choice in certain circumstances, namely when more conventional methods aren't working and the terrorist is believed, reasonably, to have vital information. Apparently, waterboarding has succeeded in breaking down resistance to providing truthful information every time it's been used (usually in less than a minute), even when the subject knows in advance that death is not a possibility. Moreover, the discomfort of waterboarding lasts for only a very short period of time and carries virtually no risk of long-term harm. ...
Why let the facts stand in the way of a good slander?
Paul Mirengoff
Dafydd ab Hugh catches the demagogic Senator Leahy in what appears to be a gross misstatement of recent history. According to Daffyd, this is what Leahy said on the floor of the Senate: Even though they [the Bush administration] had him [Osama bin Laden] cornered at Tora Bora, they yanked the special forces out of there to send them to Iraq.
But the Battle of Tora Bora took place in December of 2001, when there was not even a resolution on the table to invade Iraq. As far as I know, we sent no special forces to Iraq until February 2003. ...
No Frist fence flakeout, Frist full of feck
Scott Johnson
In "Frist fence flakeout?" this past Monday I raised the question that Mickey Kaus posed after watching Senator Frist on one of the Sunday television gabfests. The post prompted a response from Stephen Smith, Senator Frist's online communications coordinator, assuring us "that Senator Frist isn't 'flaking out' and that he is committed to a cloture vote on the Secure Fence Act this week."
Yesterday Senator Frist fulfilled his commitment, securing a cloture vote that passed 71-28. Senator Frist comments on the vote at his VOLPAC site. Mickey Kaus eats no crow over his misdiagnosis of "flakeout" from Senator Frist's body language on the Sunday show. However, apparently without reliance on body language, he now finds Senator Frist to be "brimming with feck." ...
Drive-By Reporting at the New York Times
John Hinderaker
Rush Limbaugh refers to the mainstream media as the "drive-by media," a term that is all too often apt. This Editors' Note in today's New York Times reveals a case in point: A front-page article on Sept. 14 reported that the inspector general of the Interior Department had accused top officials at the agency of tolerating widespread ethical failures. The article said that the inspector general in a 2004 report had described J. Steven Griles, a deputy secretary accused of more than two dozen ethical lapses, as a “train wreck waiting to happen.” That quotation was taken out of context. The quotation said in full: “Framed within the context of a train wreck waiting to happen, the Department of the Interior was presented with its most complex set of ethical issues with Mr. J. Steven Griles appointment at a time that, following years of neglect, demise and compartmentalization, the ethics program was wholly incapable of addressing them.”
The article also said that Mr. Griles resigned after the accusations against him surfaced. In fairness, the article should have made clear that his resignation came nine months after a government ethics office and his boss concluded that he had committed no ethical breach.
[...]
Note that Griles was appointed as Deputy Secretary in 2001, so the "years of neglect, demise and compartmentalization" occurred during the Clinton administration. ...
The Blog of War
Contributed by George Mellinger
During the Second World War three American reporters achieved fame for their reporting from the front with the troops, and the books they wrote about the experiences. Richard Tregaskis wrote Guadalcanal diary. Bill Maulden, best known for his cartoons of the dogfaces Willie and Joe wrote Up Front, and Ernie Pyle, the most revered of all, wrote Brave Men. After surviving the war Tregaskis and Maulden returned home to the daily grind of civilian journalism. After surviving the campaigns form North Africa to Europe. Ernie Pyle was killed during the last days of the Pacific war. All three men were famed for focusing their attention on the lot of the common soldier, leaving the great matters of campaigns and strategy to others. However, even they could not capture the immediacy and intensity of the individual soldier’s life. ...
Honor Roll: S3930 [Mil Tribunals, etc.]
Contributed by John Werntz
After all the rancorous hoo-ha the Congress and the media have subjected us to, both the House and the Senate passed the compromise bill on establishing military tribunals and on permissible methods of interrogation of detainees. In both houses of Congress, the bill passed with thumping majorities--just over 60% in the House and by just short of two-thirds [65-34] in the Senate. In what follows, this post concentrates on the Senate vote, around 7 PM on 9-28-2006. ...
Murtha - the Big Fish that Got Away
Contributed by George Mellinger
Everyone is focusing attention on Jack Murtha's current anti-war raging. And a few vets are going back even further to question the reality of his claimed military record and supposed heroism in Viet Nam. But what about all those years in between? Hasn't he been a good congressman in the interim? Decide for yourselves. But first remember Abscam. ...
Just how low won't they go?
Contributed by Bill Faith
Personal to "chancuff": Blogs are free if you don't insist on being too fancy. Maybe you should get one. You've annoyed my Dogs for the last time. Don't let the door hitcha in the ass, son.
To our other reader's: Reasoned debate is welcome here. Feel free to leave relevant comments when you're so inclined. There is no such thing as a comment that's relevant to 6 different posts.
OBTW, son: MURTHA SUCKS and trolling the comments on conservative blogs won't change that fact.
Problem solved
Cookie emails: Subject:Fwd: NBC News Special Report . . .
Date:Fri, 29 Sep 2006 6:05 PM
The Pentagon announced today the formation of a new 500 man elite fighting unit called the United States Redneck Special Forces. These Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, Okalahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Louisiana boys will be dropped into Iraq and have been given only the following facts about terrorists:
1. The season opened today.
2. There is no limit.
3. They taste like chicken.
4. They don't like beer, Pickup trucks, Fishing, Country music, or Jesus.
5. They are DIRECTLY RESPONSIBLE for the death of Dale Earnhardt.
6. Their favorite movie is "BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN"
We expect the problem in Iraq to be over by Friday.
[ -- Two items that were originally posted here have been moved to Just how low won't they go? -- ]
*** 13:01
*** 13:42
[ -- An item that was originally posted here has been moved to Just how low won't they go? -- ]
Mea Murtha
I somehow managed to accidentally delete everything in this post from this point down. I think I can more or less retrace my steps and reproduce my thought process well enough to produce a good approximation of what was here. Here goes (I'll post bits and pieces as I go): Critics of Islam under fire...again
Michelle Malkin
[images]
The Danish cartoonists aren't the only ones living in fear for offending the global jihadi mob. Now, French philosophy professor and secondary school teacher Robert Redeker is under police protection for penning a piece blasting Islamic violence in Le Figaro.
AFP/Expatica report: A French philosophy teacher was under police protection Thursday after receiving death threats over an article he wrote in a national newspaper that accused Islam of "exalting violence", school and police officials said.
Robert Redeker has not attended classes at his secondary school near Toulouse in southern France since September 19, when his opinion column appeared in the right-wing daily Le Figaro.
"He received written death threats in the form of emails. On the face of it they were pretty serious," said the lycée's headmaster Pierre Donnadieu.
Video: Dean says Dems are “going to take back Texas”
Ian Schwartz
Earlier in the week DNC Chairman Howard Dean was in Austin to rally Democrats. In his speech Dean predicted “we are [Democrats] going to take back Texas” and the White House. Just kidding about the last part.
[video link]
I’m surprised he didn’t go for it and do one of these.
This Deaniac caught my eye and my video editor’s frame-by-frame option: ...
Jesse Macbeth redux: Truther moron unmasked as military fake
The Screw Loose Change boys e-mailed me when this story started pulsing, but I just wasn’t feeling it. No photoshopped DD-214, no scandal. That’s the rule around here.
That’s the Hot Air way.
Well, last night it all came together. Here’s the saga, in sequence:
Sunday — Basic factual errors in idiot’s story raise suspicions.
Monday — More factual errors spotted; is idiot also a liar?
Tuesday — Idiot’s DD-214 scrutinized.
Wednesday — Photoshop smoking gun!
It won’t take long to read them all, but if you only have time for one, read the last one. What is it about using photoshop to expose fraud that’s so insanely gratifying?
Valiant Olbermann edged out in ratings battle by “Deal or No Deal” rerun
It’s not whether you win or lose. It’s whether you win or lose to game show reruns.
Congrats to the Olberdouche, whose crappy, insulting, unwatchable show has singlehandedly made players of Headline News and CNBC in the cable-news ratings game. The bright spot is, there’s no one left to lose to. He’s exhausted the universe of possibilities, unless Nielsen wants to start measuring him against non-news networks like Home & Garden TV. Which, perhaps, would not be to Olby’s advantage. Would you rather watch a Keith Olbermann special comment or a fat woman explain the best way to tend a cabbage patch? The question answers itself.
Join The Jihad, Take The Dirt Nap
The leader of Al-Qaeda in Iraq, Abu Ayyub al-Masri, released an audiotape that tries to recruit more radical Muslims to the Iraqi jihad. In doing so, Zarqawi's replacement shows why the US considers Iraq a central ground for the war on terror and how effective our effort there has been against the terrorists. Unbidden and apparently thinking it an attraction, Masri told his followers that the US-led Coalition has killed over 4,000 terrorists in Iraq: ...
Senate Approves Detainee Bill By Wide Margin
The Senate got bipartisan support for the passage of the White House's comprehensive terrorist prosecution bill this evening, putting an emphatic stamp on a victory for the Bush administration. In the end, the bill garnered 65 votes and Bill Frist fought off attempts to bury the bill in amendments: The Senate on Thursday endorsed President Bush's plans to prosecute and interrogate terror suspects, all but sealing congressional approval for legislation that Republicans intend to use on the campaign trail to assert their toughness on terrorism.
The 65-34 vote means the bill could reach the president's desk by week's end. The House passed nearly identical legislation on Wednesday and was expected to approve the Senate bill on Friday, sending it on to the White House.
Thirty five Senators who don't give a beggar's damn about you or this country:
Bill's Bites -- 2006.09.28
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