Jose Chung

'Obama didn't want you to know how much progress Iran had made'

2009-09-27T02:58:00.000-07:00

DID it surprise a single Post reader that Iran's been hiding a big nuclear weapons development facility? It stunned our president when he learned about it months ago. Then he kept it secret from you.

Obama didn't want you to know how much progress Iran had made. It's an embarrassment. (Ralph Peters)

First They Came For ACORN

2009-09-27T02:50:00.000-07:00

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Hysterical, childish piece by Peter Dreier.

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'protecting the progressive movement'

2009-09-27T02:43:00.000-07:00

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The New York Times' avoidance of stories about Van Jones and Acorn. By the paper's public editor.

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Global Warming Causes Arson

2009-09-04T10:10:00.000-07:00

A wildfire in the foothills north of Los Angeles that has claimed the lives of two firefighters, ravaged more than 250 square miles and destroyed more than 60 homes was caused by arson, the federal Forest Service said.

But according to Democrat Congresswoman Linda Chavez the fires were caused by global warming:

“I think that also is a signal that our weather patterns are changing and I think that that is further evidence that, you know global warming and the need to do something about it is going to affect us sooner rather than later and I can’t think of a better example than the fact that we’ve had now these habitual wildfires just about every year,” Sanchez said.

So was it arson or global warming? Or maybe both? Perhaps the global warming cooked the brain functions of an otherwise law-abiding citizen and turned him into an arsonist?

UPDATE
There have always been fires in Southern California around this time of year. The answer is controlled burns to limit the amount of brush for the fire to burn.

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Butcher of Wasilla

2009-08-31T12:35:00.000-07:00

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The earliest and most susceptible (most ignorant?) victims of Sarah Palin Derangement Syndrome (SPDS) originally fell ill and were found mumbling to themselves at the news Palin supported shooting predatory wolfs from helicopters. Never mind that more than ONE MILLION wild animals are killed in this country every year.

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Iraq: Good news, bad news

2009-08-31T11:19:00.001-07:00

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Seven US military deaths in Iraq this month, eight last month. But horrible bomb attacks against civilians in Baghdad in the wake of the hasty American withdrawal.

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What liberal bias?

2009-08-31T10:02:00.000-07:00

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Was Cindy Sheehan really at Martha's Vineyard last week where the President and his family were vacationing? You would barely know it from the news coverage.

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Palin smart, Liberals dumb?

2009-08-28T20:58:00.000-07:00

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Insightful article by Ron Rosenbaum about Sarah Palin's "death panel" comment and the Left's reaction to it and to her.

They couldn’t believe that Sarah Palin was capable of something as canny as that deadly “death panels” phrase. They couldn’t see that it was a metaphoric shorthand for something real. Instead they thought she was too dumb, that she meant it literally (to have seen the potential for rationed end-of-life care in the bill), and instead indulged in an orgy of disdain for her “crazy,” “ignorant” “lies” and malicious misrepresentation.

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What Fidel said

2009-08-25T07:53:00.000-07:00

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Fidel Castro, speaking publicly for the first time after being dead for three years, decried the evils of global warming and declared that right-wingers in America oppose Obama's policies because they're racists. It's good to see the old man knows his left-wing talking points. My understanding is that Fidel is an avid follower of Democracy Now! with host Amy Goodman.
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Where's Oprah?

2009-08-21T01:13:00.000-07:00

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MSNBC host Rachel Maddow had on a special guest the other night in the person of Bill Maher, the Sage of Hollywood. As the two of them were commiserating over the difficulties in passing health care legislation Maddow began earnestly beseeching the Sage for an answer to the Democrat's dilemma. Maher opined about the need for the very people who got Obama elected to come to the fore once again and join the fight. "Where's Oprah?" the Sage asked.

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Comparing protests against socialized medicine to historical evils

2009-08-11T10:50:00.000-07:00

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Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House: protesters are "carrying swastikas and symbols like that to a town meeting on healthcare."

Rep. Brian Baird (D-Wash.) “What we're seeing right now is close to Brown Shirt tactics. I mean that very seriously.”

Rep. John Dingell (D-MI) "Well, the last time I had to confront something like this was when I voted for the civil rights bill and my opponent voted against it. At that time, we had a lot of Ku Klux Klan folks and white supremacists and folks in white sheets and other things running around causing trouble."

Rep. Brian Baird (D., Wash.) protests remind him of Timothy McVeigh

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It doesn't get any lower than this

2009-08-10T10:05:00.000-07:00

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If you oppose the [Democratic] health care plan you are a racist!

So says Paul Krugman:

But they’re probably reacting less to what Mr. Obama is doing, or even to what they’ve heard about what he’s doing, than to who he is.

That is, the driving force behind the town hall mobs is probably the same cultural and racial anxiety that’s behind the “birther” movement, which denies Mr. Obama’s citizenship. Senator Dick Durbin has suggested that the birthers and the health care protesters are one and the same; we don’t know how many of the protesters are birthers, but it wouldn’t be surprising if it’s a substantial fraction.

And cynical political operators are exploiting that anxiety to further the economic interests of their backers.

Does this sound familiar? It should: it’s a strategy that has played a central role in American politics ever since Richard Nixon realized that he could advance Republican fortunes by appealing to the racial fears of working-class whites.

Many people hoped that last year’s election would mark the end of the “angry white voter” era in America. Indeed, voters who can be swayed by appeals to cultural and racial fear are a declining share of the electorate.

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Amateur Hour

2009-08-08T00:39:00.000-07:00

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Rachel Maddow delivered a sermon ripping Rush Limbaugh for comparing Obama and his policies to the Nazis because she warned such comparisons would incite violence, but when her own guest, a Democratic congressman, compared the protesters of socialized medicine to Timothy McVeigh she nodded in agreement, as if it were an apt comparison. Nor did she explain to her audience (she probably didn't know or didn't care) the context of Rush's observations, that he was in fact answering Nancy Pelosi, who the day before had compared those protesting against the health care bill at Town Halls to Nazis!

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Nuts, fruits, and flakes

2009-08-04T23:19:00.000-07:00

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This is what mob rule looks like

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Conservative bloggers defend protesters:

2009-08-04T23:10:00.000-07:00

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Philip Klein: "The liberal effort to discredit American citizens who are expressing their views on an issue of vital importance is completely without merit, but it is instructive. It tells us that liberals know that despite their tremendous advantages in terms of resources and power in Washington, they are losing the health care messaging war.
Jennifer Rubin: "I think this is called community-organizing. But the Obama spinners are beside themselves.
Erick Erickson: "The rich irony here is that the party that chose a community organizer as President cannot handle communities of people organizing and protesting the destruction of their way of life.

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I've Got Your Hooliganism

2009-08-04T12:19:00.000-07:00

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While pointy-headed lefty intellectuals were decrying the tactics used by those who they called right-wing thugs and hooligans for shouting down Democrat politicians at recent Town Hall meetings who were caught red-handed trying to shovel shit called government-run health care down the throats of Americans, their brethren in Latin America were throwing tear gas canisters at TV stations (in Venezuela) and ripping control of both radio and TV outlets out of private hands (in Ecuador).

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Right -Wing Thugs

2009-08-04T01:38:00.000-07:00

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Rachel Maddow branded as hooligans the concerned citizens who confronted politicians at recent Town Hall meetings. Maddow's guest, political analyst Eugene Robinson, offered the idea of locking the smartest Democratic minds in a small room to force them to come up with a strategy to fight this new kind of political intimidation.

Earlier, Keith Olbermann attempted to undermine the credibility of those speaking out against the government takeover of health care by repeatedly referring to them as fake and implying they were in the pay of insurance companies.

Because, after all, no real Americans would be against ObamaCare.

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What was Joe Biden doing there?

2009-07-31T10:20:00.000-07:00

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Why was Vice President Joe Biden sitting in at the Beer Summit? Because he had clean hands? Because he was neutral? Then it occurred to me: because he is white is the answer. The carefully orchestrated Beer Summit, with hosts in shirt sleeves while the guests wore suits, staged at an outdoor picnic table at the White House, required racial balance. Otherwise the white police sergeant would appear outflanked by the two blacks, Obama and Gates.

That's how the Left thinks. (Or is it how the Left think?)

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New Bumper Sticker

2009-07-28T23:59:00.000-07:00

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The latest moonbat bumper sticker courtesy of dingbat actress Mimi Kennedy:

Health-Care not Warfare

Choosing to be Popular with Thugs

2009-07-28T10:43:00.000-07:00

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There was a time when America's foreign policy stood for liberty.

But not any more

Nor here either

Nor here

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Fair Game

2009-07-27T21:04:00.000-07:00

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According to Rachel Maddow, all the nasty personal crap written about Sarah Palin's kids was deserved because Palin was shamelessly using her own children for "political gain." So it was Palin's own fault that her kids became fair game to be smeared by the liberal press, left-wing political bloggers, and lefty talk-show hosts. One of the more egregious examples of Palin's exploitation of her own children, as spotlighted by Maddow on her MSNBC program, was when Palin spoke in praise of her son's decision to enlist in the army and of his subsequent deployment to Iraq.

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The professor who cried wolf

2009-07-24T22:43:00.000-07:00

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When he saw the policeman had a white face, Henry Louis Gates immediately began crying wolf and blaming the hidden hairy hand of the white man. If the cop had been black--and did everything the same--we would have never heard of this incident, because Gates wouldn't have reacted.

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Man at his worst: Henry Louis Gates Jr.

2009-07-24T08:04:00.000-07:00

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Arrogant. Hotheaded. Accusatory. Condescending. Paranoid. Self-righteous. Immature. Racist. Privileged. Pampered. With an over-sensitive ego.

Quite the exemplar. (And offering such a text-book example for young black males in how to interact with the cops.)

Never mind that Gates was returning from China to a town with a black mayor (Cambridge), in a state with a black governor (Massachusetts), in a country with a black president (United States). The liberal media was all too happy to see its belief affirmed that America remains a racist nation with a white racist police force at the pointy end of the spear.

Here's another take on Gates: "Ivy League Effect"

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Obama: 'It is a ticking time bomb'

2009-07-21T11:26:00.000-07:00

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Health care?

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Where have I heard this before?

2009-07-20T02:51:00.000-07:00

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Surprise, surprise. Daniel Ortega wants to alter Nicaragua's constitution so he can run for another term as president.

In related news, Ortega accused U.S. intelligence agencies of orchestrating the coup that removed Honduran president Mel Zelaya.

And finally, Ortega, the former guerrilla commander, is accused by his former comrades of exploiting his presidency primarily to expand his own financial and political power base.

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California and Water

2009-07-17T11:43:00.000-07:00

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Listen to this wonderful talk by comedian Paul Rodriguez.

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Can we trust ourselves to negotiate with Iran in good faith?

2009-07-17T10:37:00.000-07:00

Iran Simmers, America Moves On

That didn't take long. President Obama last week gave Mahmoud Ahmadinejad an autumn deadline to negotiate over Iran's nuclear program. "We remain ready to engage with Iran, but the time for action is now," Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said yesterday in a speech to the Council on Foreign Relations. So much for waiting to see how Iran's post-election drama plays out.

Premature would be a generous description of this diplomatic outreach. Leave aside that this regime can't be trusted to negotiate anything. More immediately relevant is that millions of Iranians refuse to accept the "leaders" of the "Islamic Republic" (in Mrs. Clinton's words) that the Administration so eagerly aims to engage. (WSJ)

One would think that a rational person would conclude, as the WSJ editorializes, that Iran "can't be trusted to negotiate anything." But leave it to the Left, in its mistrust of America, to put the shoe on the other foot:

Whoa. Now correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't this the first time an American President has publicly acknowledged the role of the US in the Mossadegh coup? If so, this is a huge development, and one which (one hopes) would signal an intent to negotiate over nuclear arms---or anything else--in good faith with the Iranians.

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Liberals love being angry

2009-07-17T03:02:00.000-07:00

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Political cartoonist Tim Kreider admits to sharing a trait with many on the Left. He enjoys being angry, and so his eight years of drawing Bush-hating cartoons and writing Bush-hating essays were a "physical pleasure," regardless of how over the top his work may seem to him in retrospect.

A couple of years ago, while meditating, I learned something kind of embarrassing: anger feels good. Although we may consciously experience it as upsetting, somatically it feels a lot like the first rush of an opiate — a tingling warmth on the insides of your elbows and wrists, in the back of your knees. Realizing that anger was a physical pleasure explained some of the perverse obstinancy with which my mind kept returning to it despite the fact that, intellectually, I knew it was pointless self-torture.

Once I realized I enjoyed anger, I noticed how much time I spent experiencing it. If you’re anything like me, you spend about 87 percent of your mental life winning imaginary arguments that are never actually going to take place.

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Calling for blood in the streets?

2009-07-16T09:55:00.000-07:00

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Is the former president of Honduras, Manuel Zelaya, calling for his country to disintegrate into civil war? In his name? For him personally? (Is Honduras not better off without this guy?)

"The Honduran people have the right to insurrection," said Zelaya, speaking in the neighboring Central American country of Guatemala.

Insurrection is a legitimate democratic right "when faced with a usurping government and a coup-supporting military," he added, urging his supporters in Honduras to strike, march and engage in civil disobedience because that is "a necessary process when the democratic order of a country is disrupted.

"I want to tell you to not leave the streets, that is the only space that they have not taken from us," he told a news conference alongside Guatemalan President Alvaro Colom.

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I know my rights!

2009-07-15T19:58:00.000-07:00

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The videos below show a man being arrested three separate times by the same police officer. Each time the officer subdues the suspect in a different way.

Click link to view the initial confrontation between the officer and a man on a lawnmower.

Here is the same suspect and same officer in a later confrontation.

This time Steve the lawnmower guy has called 911 on his own wife.

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Standing with Honduras

2009-07-14T00:53:00.000-07:00

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Dennis Prager is doing his radio show from Honduras this week in order to show solidarity with this small Central American country standing firm for democracy and the rule of law in the face of international pressure to capitulate to a Hugo Chavez dictatorial wannabe wearing a white cowboy hat.

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The Doctor Will See You Now....

2009-07-12T23:21:00.000-07:00

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Some cancers are more urgent than others, and other cancers are not urgent at all. In Scotland the latter are called "non-urgent" cancers.

In total, some 27,000 patients are diagnosed with cancer in Scotland ever year. But only 9,500 of them were classified as "urgent" by GPs. Once the non-urgent cases are included, hospital by hospital analysis of all cancer cases shows that:

• Between January and April last year, head and neck cancer patients at Hairmyres hospital in East Kilbride waited an average of 112 days after GP referral before treatment.

• Average waits at Falkirk and District Royal for gastrointestinal cancer between April and June was 118 days.

• In the same quarter, patients at Stobhill in Glasgow suffering from urological cancer waited an average of 105 days.

The figures also show that lengthy waits are still common for cancers such as breast cancer, where speedy treatment is needed. Of 28 hospitals treating women with breast cancer in 2008's last quarter, 14 had an average wait of over 40 days.

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A Nation of Cowards

2009-07-12T09:53:00.000-07:00

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Newsweek is running a piece on Attorney General Eric Holder in which we learn that Holder's wife, Malone, compares the racism in America's past to the treatment of terrorists in Gitmo:

At a recent dinner in a leafy corner of Bethesda, Malone drew a direct line from the sins of America's racial past to the abuses of the Guantánamo Bay detention center. Both are examples of "what we have not done in the face of injustice," she said at one point, her Southern accent becoming more discernible as her voice rose with indignation.

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But, hey, he was democratically elected!

2009-07-10T02:15:00.000-07:00

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'democratizing the airwaves'

Sean Penn's second favorite democratically-elected president, behind the "elegant" Barack Obama, has decided to take hundreds of Venezuelan radio stations from private to government control because "The use of the radio-electric spectrum is one of the few areas where the revolution has not been felt."

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There is only one word to describe Honduras

2009-07-03T11:30:00.000-07:00

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Los Angeles Times--the impoverished nation

Financial Times--the impoverished Central American country

Pioneer Press--the impoverished Central American nation

GreenvilleOnline-- an impoverished part of the world

The Age--the impoverished nation

Sacramento Bee--the impoverished Central American nation

PR-Inside--the impoverished Central American nation

Episcopal Life--this impoverished country

Sydney Morning Herald--the impoverished country

Reuters--the impoverished country

MiamiHerald--impoverished nation

Red Country--the impoverished nation

Guardian--an impoverished nation

WallStreetJournal--the impoverished nation

TVNZ-- the impoverished nation

AlJazeera--the impoverished nation

NationalPost--an impoverished coffee, textile and banana exporter

Stuff.co.nz--the impoverished nation

NewsandObserver--his impoverished nation

AFP--the impoverished nation

ManilaTimes--the impoverished nation

FinancialDaily--an impoverished nation

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Coup in Honduras

2009-06-30T10:49:00.000-07:00

UNITED NATIONS (AP) - The U.N. General Assembly is condemning the military coup in Honduras and demanding President Manuel Zelaya's immediate return to power.

The world body adopted a resolution by acclamation Tuesday calling on all 192 U.N. member states not to recognize any government in Honduras other than Zelaya's.

The irony is that a coup in Honduras has already been prevented. A coup in progress, led by former President Zelaya, was stopped in its tracks by the Honduran Supreme Court.

The UN and the United States have it wrong. Perhaps President Obama actually read the book given to him by Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez, and found the book's content persuasive.

Three Amigos?

Easy as one two three

2009-06-29T12:34:00.000-07:00

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I just made two phone calls in rapid succession. Both calls were answered on the first or second ring, by a live person. My long-time private physician will see me tomorrow at 2:30, and my long-time optometrist will see me tomorrow at 4:30.

But for the good of the many I am to surrender the simplicity of the current system and be forced to thrash through the bureaucratic health care jungles wielding a machete, for the notion that all of us, workers and non-workers, whether here legally or illegally, receive the same slow and rationed care, in a system where the doctor is just another government worker?

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Andrew Sullivan and Moral Equivalency

2009-06-29T11:29:00.000-07:00

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Andrew Sullivan sees no difference between the street demonstrations in Tehran and those in Honduras:

I'm struck by the similarities in the streets of Honduras to images we've seen this month from the streets of Iran. It's hard to fathom how some folks have opposite reactions - sympathetic to one people, hostile to another, based on rigid ideologies - but what I see is the same human phenomenon in both places: people in rebellion, yearning to breathe free against authoritarian and illegitimate regimes.

Actually it's Honduran President Manuel Zelaya who was the authoritarian hell-bent on keeping his power through illegal, illegitimate, and unconstitutional means. And instead of facing prosecution he chose to take the deal and leave town.

This is crazy. What if the democratically elected president who was shredding his country's constitution in order to serve another term was named Bush? What would Sullivan be saying about those taking to the streets to support him?

This?

What liberal media?

2009-06-26T12:07:00.000-07:00

One measure of how unabashedly liberal our media is are the stories it chooses to ignore. Case in point is the Monica Conyers bribery story. I think I can speak for practically all of my fellow Americans, excepting the informed denizens of Old Detroit, when I say today is the first I've heard of it.

Here are some juicy details:

an individual sent by Rayford Jackson met Conyers and her aide in a McDonald's parking lot in Detroit at which time the individual delivered an envelope containing cash.

Who is Moncia Conyers? She is a Detroit City Council member. Who is her husband? None other than John Conyers, the 80-year-old chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, one of the most powerful men in the Democrat controlled 110th United States Congress.

If the same set of facts involved two married Republican politicians of similar stature this story would have been broadcast from coast to coast. No way would it have remained a local story that we were just hearing about now.

UPDATE:

♦ Only ABC's World News reported how Monica Conyers, a Detroit city councilwoman married to powerful U.S. House Democrat John Conyers, pled guilty to accepting bribes. But anchor Charles Gibson, who on Wednesday night made sure to identify Mark Sanford as “a rising star in the Republican Party,” failed to name the party affiliation for either Monica Conyers or John Conyers, and neither did any on-screen graphic. Speaking of Detroit, last year, when Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick was charged with felonies, Gibson (as well as the CBS and NBC anchors) didn't consider Kilpatrick's party worth mentioning.
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Buenos Fucking Aires

2009-06-26T11:01:00.000-07:00

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Call the man a liar if you will, play the category 5 hurricane card if you must, brand him a womanizer, a cheat, a derelict, a heretic, a hypocrite, a scoundrel--but remember this: until you've slept with a porteña in beautiful Buenos Aires, you can't know, you just can't know, how deeply fulfilling the experience is.

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Valerie Plame

2009-06-23T19:56:00.000-07:00

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The Supreme Court refused to hear a lawsuit brought against former Bush administration officials by Valerie Plame and her husband Joe Wilson. Which is pleasing news. What's unpleasant is knowing Plame and Wilson will only temporarily be beaten back into the darkness under a rock in New Mexico.

Fair Game, a movie based on Plame's memoirs, will be released next year. Sean Penn plays Ambassador Joseph Wilson and Naomi Watts play the heroine--A blister on my heel radiated little jabs of stinging pain--Valerie Plame.

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The Essential Chomsky

2009-06-22T21:41:00.000-07:00

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Noam Chomsky: "The health care system is a complete disaster."

It seems every time I hear him on the radio Chomsky is describing our health care system as a disaster.

A disaster!

When 89 percent of Americans are satisfied with their health care?

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" We're starting to see some restoration of America's standing in the world"--Barack Obama

2009-06-22T10:24:00.000-07:00

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Only 6 percent of Jewish Israelis consider the views of American President Barack Obama's administration pro-Israel, according to a new Jerusalem Post-sponsored Smith Research poll.

Israelis' views of Obama's predecessor in the White House, George W. Bush, are nearly the opposite. According to last month's poll, 88% of Israelis considered his administration pro-Israel...

I'm only guessing, but I sincerely doubt the Left counts Israel among the "international community" which colors our "standing in the world." After all, isn't Israel a piranha state practicing apartheid much like the old South Africa? And isn't Israel also deserving of corporate divestment?

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Earth to Google

2009-06-17T11:41:00.000-07:00

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Using Google Earth to research a trip to Peru, I found this note about a restaurant in the Miraflores section of Lima:

Cafe del Mar (also known for its racist policies towards dark-skinned people)

Well, if I make the 4188 mile trek to Lima, the fifth largest city in South America, behind only Mexico City, Sao Paulo, Buenos Aires, and Rio de Janeiro, I promise to avoid the infamous Cafe del Mar.

I wonder what Google Earth's take is on our Congressional Black Caucus?

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Where Letterman left off...

2009-06-16T12:05:00.000-07:00

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Two leftist pricks discussing the Palin/Letterman affair can't get it out of their heads that, when it's all said and done, Palin is the real villain in the piece. (And screw all those Alaskan hillbillies and whatever they're clinging to.)

Lawrence O'Donnell I think Dave reached a point that makes perfect sense, and I think he's making perfect sense in what he has to say tonight.

Keith Olbermann Any chance, briefly, that the Palins try to outclass him and just say, "Accepted?" [Big grin on face]

Lawrence O'Donnell Boy, ah, if there's anyone in Alaska who can..who can make them, you know, handle one of these things correctly, we haven't found that person yet, so let's see what happens. That is the suspense here. If Dave Letterman does something completely reasonable like this, what is the Palin reaction? I have no ability to predict that.

Keith Olbermann [Laughing] Oh yes you do. Lawrence O'Donnell with the Huffington Post and and MSNBC. And so do I. But we'll have to tune in tomorrow to find out.

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the Eliminationist Mindset

2009-06-13T23:20:00.000-07:00

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David Neiwert: A guy like O'Reilly is never going to stop. So eventually what you have to do is go after his advertisers, get him off the air, because he is not going to change his ways.

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Angels & Demons & Duds

2009-06-11T21:48:00.000-07:00

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Wonderful images of Rome and Vatican City. Sweeping aerial shots of St. Peter's Square. Stunning panoramas of classic paintings, statuary, and architecture.

A 150 million dollar travel log.

The scenes of the cardinals conducting conclave feel as authentic as a coffee commercial made for Folgers, and the depiction of the Swiss Guard, and scenes inside the Vatican also feel lacking in verisimilitude. This turkey has the typical idiot plot, and if the dialogue can be muted on the DVD that would be tremendous. Directed by Ron Howard. My ass.

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A photograph is worth a thousand lashes

2009-06-10T12:00:00.000-07:00

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There is a deep-seated urge on the Left to continually communicate to the world what it sees as the evil America has wrought. And what more effective way to communicate this evil than through 8" x 10" glossies? So any picture depicting prisoner abuse must be broadcast to the world. And the consequences be damned.

So when the Secretary of State worries that the release of detainee photos would endanger the security of diplomats abroad, she is mocked:

Coming next: release of detainee photos will cause deadly hurricanes, asteroid attacks and incurable viruses (glenngreenwald)

Honey, I Shrunk the Jews

2009-06-08T00:08:00.000-07:00

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Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has warned that the Obama Administration doesn't want to see any more Jewish faces in the West Bank. That is, if you bring in a fresh face, say through birth, an old face must leave; but the total number of faces must remain the same--and we'll be counting (sending in Acorn to tabulate).

Which is what the "Muslim world" has demanded all along; after all, it's their land, all of it is their land--any place Muslims have lived is their land, and always will be their land. The world must appreciate that Muslims require plenty of room for growth.

And the anti-Israel left argues that the United States has every right to tell Israel what to do because it gives Israel money.

Just wondering: Would Obama be comfortable mandating "no natural growth" to Israel's million-and-a-half Muslims?

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Nazi Israel

2009-06-03T23:01:00.000-07:00

Your comment on dday's entry about Obama and Israel on Hullabaloo is absolutely retarded. I had to come to your blog and verify that you are indeed this stupid, and unsurprisingly, you are. No country in the world is permitted by international law to expand its boundaries to accommodate "newborns" in pursuit of "natural growth". In your absurd defense of Israel you are basically championing the Nazi concept of Lebensraum. Congratulations, Defender of the Jewish People!

This note was left for me by an anonymous reader. Given my experience with guys like this I'm neither surprised nor offended by his ad hominem attack. His is a debating style typical of many on the Left: because I don't see things the way he does I'm retarded, stupid, and absurd. Also typical is his lecturing me on the holy writ of "international law," that sacred text we're all so familiar with.

But when he begins to ape the arguments of anti-Semites I have a problem. Sorry, but comparing the simple addition of an extra room to your house to the Nazi Lebensraum is a comparison motivated by flat-out Jew hatred. Either that or he has no idea what Lebensraum was.

Race-baiting Republicans

2009-06-03T13:14:00.000-07:00

Robert Bork's

America

is a land in which women would be forced into back-alley abortions, blacks would sit at segregated lunch counters, rogue police could break down citizens' doors in midnight raids, schoolchildren could not be taught about evolution, writers and artists could be censored at the whim of government.
--Senator Edward Kennedy

If the debate over Sotomayor has been ugly, don't Democrats share much of the blame? If Sotomayor is unfairly called a racist, won't Democrats admit the taste of their own medicine makes them sick? Will Democrats finally learn that it's not fair to casually call people racist?

Of course, many Democrats have no problem with Sotomayor's "wise Latina" comment at Berkeley; it was taken out of context, it was eight years old, it doesn't seem to match her rulings from the bench, it is the Bronx girl in her talking, it was entertaining.

A Real Man

2009-06-02T23:40:00.000-07:00

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A blogger named Baseball Crank recently observed that one of the "lingering obsessions" in Glenn Greenwald's writing is his "fixation on masculinity." Impugning and mocking the manhood of those with whom they disagree is a way Greenwald and other lefty bloggers have of attacking those who have supported George Bush's Iraq policy or who want to keep Guantanamo Bay from being shuttered. But with Greenwald the masculinity of his adversaries has been a never-ending theme, along with psychoanalysing and critiquing the lives and personal family histories of conservative writers. The upshot of these personal attacks is that Greenwald believes neocons, supporters of the war, and those who wish Gitmo to stay open, are in fact, under their macho bluster, fear-mongering cowards, while he--Greenwald--and his fellows on the Left are among the "strong [who] remain rational and unafraid."

Here are a few examples of Greenwald's obsession, which I gather runs through everything he has written since he stopped practicing law:

(Tuesday June 2, 2009) Some of the most cartoonish pseudo-tough-guy, play-acting-warrior-low-lifes of the Right

(Wednesday May 20, 2009) Right-wing super-tough-guy warriors project some frightened, adolescent, neurotic fantasy onto the world

(Thursday April 2, 2009) ..that almost certainly set a record for most tough-guy/warrior nepotism ever stuffed onto a single panel

(Tuesday April 17, 2008) Those who end up as leaders of the right-wing movement in

America

have nothing in their lives to demonstrate any actual courage, physical strength, or any of the warrior virtues they desperately strive to exude. Their only "toughness" or masculine "tough guy" credentials are from cheerleading as they send others off to fight wars, never to fight in any themselves. Just like John Wayne, their masculine toughness comes from the costumes they wear, the scripts they read, the roles they play – never from the reality of their own lives.

(Wednesday Sept. 5, 2007) From Jonah Goldberg to

Rich Lowry

, National Review has long been renowned for its roster of tough-guy commentators -- real salt-of-the-earth conservative men who love to let you know what tough warriors they are.

(Thursday, June 14, 2007) Below are some of our most vocal war proponents who are courageous crusaders of the masculine virtues

(Tuesday March 6, 2007) It is a cult of contrived masculinity whereby people dress up as male archtypes like cowboys, ranchers, and

tough guys

even though they are nothing of the kind

(Sunday January 21, 2007) It's rather ironic (and almost certainly not coincidental) that neoconservatives love, more than anything else, to strut around spewing tough-guy Chruchill warrior rhetoric

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'Baghdad will burn'

2009-06-02T12:46:00.000-07:00

Of course, this raises the most important question again (for me at least) which is why anyone thinks the withheld pictures will cause some sort of firestorm if they are actually less incendiary than what we've seen before. The logic of that just escapes me. If they are just pictures of something similar to what Graner and the crew did, or something more mundane, then it's ludicrous that they will cause any trouble overseas at this point. (digby)

Did you hear what she said? The logic of that escapes her. Her understanding of the Iraqi mind is such that she finds it ludicrous the release of the photos will cause any trouble overseas.

Well, Digby, perhaps you've heard of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki, who went "pale in the face" and warned "Baghdad will burn" if the photos are released.

Identity Poltics

2009-05-28T21:07:00.000-07:00

Second, I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn't lived that life.

Upon reading her entire lecture ("A Latina Judge's Voice") it seems reasonable to ask whether there is anything that Sonia Sotomayor does not see through the prisms of race, gender, and culture? These are clearly the words of a proud Latina activist, who believes that her race, gender, culture, and background make her better qualified to judge (and especially better qualified than vanilla white people).

Yet when you point out the obvious, that Sotomayer is the new poster girl for identity politics, lefties accuse you (ironically) of focusing on her race and gender--when it is she, if you've read her lecture, who made race and gender an issue. It is her passion. Her way of seeing and understanding the world. Her doctrine. Her words.

Undoubtedly Sotomayer will relish her confirmation hearings where she can prove she's smarter than a bunch of old white guys.

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Literally. Not hyperbole

2009-05-28T11:48:00.000-07:00

MSNBC talk show host Rachel Maddow said, "Liberty University is about to become famous for something else. They have banned Democrats on campus. Literally. Not hyperbole."

Sorry, Rachel, Democrats have not been banned at Liberty University. The university’s College Democrats club is intact and allowed to meet. While it lost some privileges and won't be able to use the Liberty name or receive school funds, Brian Diaz is still the club's president.

But congratulations for finding a needle in the haystack.

President: 'Guantanamo likely created more terrorists than it ever detained'

2009-05-26T22:38:00.000-07:00

"Instead of serving as a tool to counter terrorism, Guantanamo became a symbol that helped al-Qaeda recruit terrorists to its cause," Mr. Obama said. "Indeed the existence of Guantanamo likely created more terrorists than it ever detained."

Undoubtedly, our great symbolic crime, which our President somehow forgot to mention, but which hit the always seething Muslim street like a punch in the gut, was the story of American soldiers at Gitmo flushing a copy of the Holy Koran down the toilet.

But didn't we execute (or at least prosecute) the Japs for the same thing?

2009-05-26T12:54:00.000-07:00

After World War II, we convicted several Japanese soldiers for waterboarding American and Allied prisoners of war. (Washington Post)

In 1947, the U.S. charged a Japanese officer, Yukio Asano, with war crimes for waterboarding a U.S. civilian. Asano was sentenced to 15 years of hard labor. (NPR)

Fifteen years of hard labor for waterboarding? Not exactly. These reports purposely omit the other guilty charges found against Yukio Asano : "by beating and kicking them, by forcing water into their mouths and noses; and by pressing lighted cigarettes against their bodies." Or listed here: beating using hands, fists, club; kicking; water torture; burning using cigarettes; strapping on a stretcher head downward.

And what about the claim Japanese soldiers were sentenced to death by American judges for waterboarding? Is there any evidence of Japanese being executed specifically for waterboarding?

Here, at any rate, is Japanese style waterboarding:

There are two forms of water torture.
In the first, the victim was tied or held down on his back and a cloth placed over his nose and mouth. Waters was then poured on the cloth. Interrogation proceeded and the victim was beaten if he did not reply. As he opened his mouth to breathe or answer questions, water went down his throat until he could hold no more. Sometimes he was then beaten over his distended stomach, sometimes a Japanese jumped or sometimes pressed it with his foot.
In the second,
The victim was tied lengthways on a ladder, face upwards with a rung of the ladder across his throat and his head below the ladder. In this position he was slid head first into to a tub of water and kept there until almost drowned. After being revived, interrogation continued and he would be re-immersed.

Quite a difference from our version of waterboarding, wouldn't you say? In fact, the three we waterboarded were assured before hand that it would not kill them.

What Liberal Media?

2009-05-23T21:16:00.000-07:00

Recently The New York Times, because of pressure from the Left, changed the wording of an article to now say that some prisoners released from Guantanmo Bay are engaged in (terrorism or militant activity) rather than returned to (terrorism or militant activity)--because the first version would have implied prisoners in Gitmo had actually committed acts of terrorism in the first place! (Nobody on the anti-war Left believes these acts were committed by anyone we've actually caught, at least not by anyone locked up in Gitmo.)

Yet The Times appears to have no problem with calling carefully considered legal opinions torture memos.

Coming to America

2009-05-21T21:45:00.000-07:00

Wednesday on Hardball host Chris Matthews and his guests--Senators Ben Nelson (D) of Nebraska and Saxby Chambliss (R) of Georgia--were discussing what to do with the prisoners currently being held in Guantanamo Bay. Subtopics included sending prisoners back to their country of origin, reports that some prisoners already released have returned to the field of battle, the fanatical commitment to violent jihad shared by prisoners at Gitmo, the adequacy and suitably of American maximum security prisons, the possibly that prisoners transferred stateside would become eligible for greater legal rights, the symbolism of the Guantanamo prison itself, the question of how far into the future the facility at Gitmo should remain open, the possibility that prisoners if brought stateside could operate and recruit Islamic followers from inside the walls of American prisons, the option of executing the prisoners, and the Saudi Arabia rehabilitation program for jihadists.

But unbeknowst to these three blockheads, they had blown their opportunity to show proper respect and credence to one of the most salient and important aspects of the entire subject, of the entire Gitmo dilemma:

Never once, during the entire incoherent, intellectual compost pile of a discussion did anyone mention the fact that a bunch of these "terrorists" are not guilty of anything.

Yessiree dad, did you ever consider that we are detaining a "bunch" of goat farmers and taxicab drivers whose only crime was they were "in the wrong place at the right time?" (Did you ever consider that you bitches in cell block 11!)

This is where a normal rational person shrieks and throws up his arms. Not only does one of the queen bees of the lefty blogger-hood (Digby) believe it's a "fact" that we are holding a "bunch" of harmless innocent hairy people at Gitmo, she can't even bring herself to say the word terrorist, as if there wasn't such a thing in reality, or was an invention of the diabolical Neocons.

'We Don't Want Them Around'

2009-05-19T21:31:00.000-07:00

So says Democrat leader Harry Reid. So not one monster will get to plant his hairy foot on American soil, under any circumstances, after Guantanamo is closed.

Now that that's settled, what do we do with them? Obama foolishly promised to close Gitmo after one year--which is eight months from now, but he still apparently has no idea where to put them.

May I suggest leaving them where they are? There was never anything wrong with Gitmo in the first place. The anti-war crazies have been wrong about this issue for seven years. Now finally some on the left are seeing the light, such as Senator Jim Webb.

***It should be noted that Reid made a horrible Freudian slip when he referred to the prisoners at Gitmo as "terrorists."

Ring of Truth

2009-05-19T11:31:00.000-07:00

According to Jules Crittenden, the following news item "has the ring of truth."

NEW YORK (Online) - Former prime minister of Pakistan Benazir Bhutto was assassinated on the orders of the special death squad formed by former US vice-president Dick Cheney, which had already killed the Lebanese Prime Minister Rafique Al Hariri and the army chief of that country.
The squad was headed by General Stanley McChrystal, the newly-appointed commander of US army in Afghanistan. It was disclosed by reputed US journalist Seymour Hersh while talking to an Arab TV in an interview.

"By 'ring of truth,' I mean it sounds like something Seymour Hersh would have said."

So let me understand this? Is Crittenden saying it strikes him as true that Sy Hersh would make something out of whole cloth that was also a blood libel?

We Don't Have To Show You No Stinking Documents!

2009-05-18T12:55:00.000-07:00

House Intelligence Chairman Silvestre Reyes (D-Texas) is accusing his Republican counterpart, Rep. Pete Hoekstra (Mich.), of compromising national security in order to stoke the ongoing flap over what Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) knew about harsh Bush-era interrogation techniques.

“It’s irresponsible what Republicans are doing, particularly in Mr. Hoekstra’s case,” Reyes said Tuesday. “When you’re asking to declassify material that’s been classified for a very good reason — that’s the height of irresponsibility.”

Does anyone think that if these documents supported Pelosi's position that they wouldn't have already been declassified by Reyes?

Detainee Abuse Photos to be Leaked

2009-05-14T21:20:00.000-07:00

Despite President Obama's decision to reverse his position on the release of the detainee abuse photos, we can expect the pictures to be leaked on schedule to The New York Times or The New Yorker by Labor Day.

And we can expect no promise from the President that theleaker[s] will bepunished.

My Son the Mass Murderer

2009-05-13T22:10:00.000-07:00

The New York Times and USA Today are planting the seeds of a bleeding-heart defense for the monster who murdered five of his fellow soldiers in Iraq: It was his third deployment, he was behind on his mortgage, he was ordered into counseling, he had trouble with his commanding officer, they wanted to get rid of him, he could never advance above the rank of sergeant, he was on his second marriage, the pressure was too great, and so on.

And to the father of this monster his son was a victim of the army--an idea cherished by the liberal anti-war media. It is to the father I write this message:

Dear Mr. Wilburn Russell,

You raised a boy with a defective conscious who grew up to be a psychopath and a mass murderer and who is deserving of neither our pity nor our sympathy but who is most assuredly deserving of a firing squad.

Bomb Ticking Time

2009-05-13T19:27:00.000-07:00

Lefties like to put words in the mouths of others and then respond to what had never been said in the first place. A case in point is Dday's rebuke of Liz Cheney for using the "ticking time bomb" scenario in a debate on torture. But in the YouTube clip Cheney speaks of an "imminent" attack, not a ticking time bomb.

So what did she mean by an imminent attack (or eminent)? Could it mean a big one is coming next week? Next month? In six months?

Consider the much ballyhooed presidential daily briefing titled "Bin Laden determined to strike in US." Based on that briefing, is there anyone prepared to say that--at that point in time--the subsequent attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon were not imminent? That briefing was five weeks before 9/11.

A Heartfelt Question from a Reader

2009-05-12T22:15:00.000-07:00

If we didn't torture why does any republican care what pelosi knew?
Yet they all talk about it constantly.
You know in your heart we tortured people.

This is from one of our regulars in the comments section named Anonymous (of Rome?) and he asks a good question: If Republicans do not believe we tortured, what difference does it make what Pelosi knew?

Let's turn it around. If we did torture, wouldn't it be of significance to learn that one of the most powerful members of congress, the first female speaker of the house, knew what was happening and said nothing? Or should only members of congress and the government with "R"s after their names be brought before a truth commission, while those with "D"s get a pass? Conversely, if we did not torture, why should only Republicans be made to sweat it out in a political show trial under the harsh glare of the Klieg lights with all that carbon burning in the air while Democrats get to watch at home reclining on comfortable leather sofas nursing gin and tonics?

You know in your heart we tortured people.

I do? I don't recall growing up believing that depriving bad guys of sleep was torture. Depriving criminals of sleep is torture? No, sir. Not to this boy. I can honestly say I never believed in my heart or in my mind or in my gut that a method that leaves neither physical or psychological damage to a person while being an effective interrogation technique is torture.

Witches of Torture

2009-05-11T15:09:00.000-07:00

Karl Rove Indicted on Charges of Perjury, Lying to Investigators
By Jason Leopold
t r u t h o u t | Saturday 13 May 2006

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

Evidently Andrew Sullivan of the Daily Dish is not particular with whom he takes his cups with. His latest torture dispatch quotes and links to the defrocked journalist Jason Leopold (see above) whose work cannot be trusted.

And here too there appear to be problems with the Leopold piece to which Sullivan links, and I'm not talking about the casual use of the word torture by yet another lefty agenda reporter. We expect that. We expect them to have little reverence for the language in pursuit of their ends. But when they put their words in the mouths of others something must be said. And it appears Leopold has done that. This is the opening paragraph of his report:

CIA interrogators provided top agency officials in Langley with daily "torture" updates of Abu Zubaydah, the alleged "high-level" terrorist detainee, who was held at a secret "black site" prison and waterboarded 83 times in August 2002, according to newly released court documents obtained by this reporter.

The problem here is pretty simple. Leopold puts torture, high-level, and black site in quotes, indicating they are words taken from court documents. However, this is very misleading. Reading the whole piece one cannot help but to conclude that the phrase "daily 'torture' updates" is the concoction of Leopold himself, in the sense that it is he, Leopold, who is characterizing the subject of these communications torture.

Only Nan is Telling the Truth

2009-05-10T05:53:00.000-07:00

Dday has written a spirited defense of Nancy Pelosi, although he assures us, quite unconvincingly, that's it's not because she has a "D" after her name.

Bullet point number one is that "CIA agents are a group of professional liars." Here he references an ABC news story that claimed Abu Zubaydah was only waterboarded once, and started to cooperate after being waterboarded for probably 30, 35 seconds. This misleading version, which ricocheted around the media, came from a former CIA agent who was not present at the interrogations and who still insists that at that time he believed Zubaydah had been only waterboarded once. To Dday this is evidence of a disinformation campaign by the CIA rather than bad reporting by Brian Ross, who used unverified information from a source who had only partial knowledge of what was going on. The question is how does this in any way get Nancy Pelosi off the hook? How do reports by ABC which later turned out to be inaccurate prove the CIA is lying about what Pelosi knew and when she knew it?

Ddays next bullet point in his defense of Pelosi is that she was briefed "after the torture was committed." Even if this were true, how would that exonerate her? Wouldn't that make her an accessory after the fact?

Furthermore, Dday argues, if Pelosi had known about the torture what was she to do with the information? Innocently, he asks: Didn't the system in place tie her hands? Was she to illegally leak what she had heard? (As if she wouldn't have done that in a millisecond if she thought it would help her and her party politically.) Evidently she could have done what Jane Harmon did and write a letter to the CIA's top counsel. But Pelosi apparently did nothing.

Reading further we learn the CIA briefing documents in question are "dishonest and discredited." Oh, really? Is that because Republicans are using them to hold Pelosi's dainty little feet to the fire?

Welcome and Bienvenido

2009-05-08T22:16:00.000-07:00

I remember in the Fall of 1993 I was driving through the college town of Eugene Oregon and was being constantly honked at by drivers behind me because I had California plates. But at least they didn't throw rocks.

Even healthy Mexicans have been the target of fear: Some Acapulco residents hurled stones last week at cars with Mexico City license plates, angry that anyone from the epicenter of the outbreak had ventured to their town.

Thought Crime

2009-05-08T13:10:00.000-07:00

The Soviets lost tens of millions in the Second World War. And Andrew J. Bacevich argues that it was the Soviet Union, not the United States, who was the real hero of the Twentieth Century, and that we should never forget to doff our Yankee caps to them.

Now Putin intends to criminalize those who may think differently: "The dominant political party led by Putin, now Russia's prime minister, is working on legislation that would make it a crime to belittle the Soviet contribution to victory in what Russians call the Great Patriotic War."

One Boy's Story

2009-05-06T08:11:00.000-07:00

Andrew Sullivan writes with panache, with purple pulsating words, his thoughts simultaneously pounding and parsing modern history with grand flourishes, all in the principled service of seeking justice and righting wrongs. Too bad he doesn't care very much what his words mean.

The fact that arguably the leading conservative intellectual in Washington, Charles Krauthammer, has openly supported the power of the president to torture solely on his own discretion and minimally if it could save one single life reveals how much contempt the current right has for individual liberty.

The right has contempt for individual liberty because it supports the President ordering the torture of a few terrorists? (First of all, what Andrew considers torture cannot be taken seriously, not in this world. The Left, as it so often does, waters down words--in this case torture--as to render them useless, thus torture now means putting a caterpillar in with one of these monsters.) Andrew goes out of his way to use contempt here; not only does the right not care about individual liberty, it holds such ideals in contempt. That's how low the current right has fallen! It has contempt for individual liberty!

How Andrew makes the leap from supporting harsh interrogations of a handful of terrorists (a limited number of high-value detainees) to accusing the right of having contempt for individual liberty is to say, among other things, there is no difference between the mastermind of 9/11 and any private citizen. I would beg to differ.

Krugman on Sin and Soul

2009-04-24T10:47:00.000-07:00

The first order of business when discussing a column like this is to first thank the author for departing from his usual area of expertise--in this case, economics--to pontificate on the matter at hand. Paul Krugman, Nobel Prize Laureate, has taken a well-earned respite from saving the world's economy to pen an article about "reclaiming America's soul."

With such a deep subject--America's soul--this Lincolnesque writer and poet is best read accompanied by hymns playing from a gramophone, softly floating in from a near distant room.

Torture, Sweet Torture--or criminalizing caterpillars

2009-04-23T18:49:00.000-07:00

The other day, the President declassified documents pertaining to techniques used by the CIA to interrogate captured terrorists. Lefty bloggers called these techniques torture and named the documents "torture memos."

To these bloggers, the memos were clear and compelling evidence that crimes were committed by officials of the previous administration against the detainees. The case for their guilt looked like a slam dunk. The groundwork for the prosecution of these former officials was laid bare. Some were calling on the Attorney General to name a Special Prosecutor to go through what would be the legal formality of collecting evidence for trial. Others called for a Nuremberg-style inquiry. Others for a Truth Commission.

But in whichever form the path to justice would eventually take, they could look forward in a matter of months to celebrate an historic victory. Perhaps with a black Russian with ice cream on top.

That these former officials were guilty of torture was an article of faith to them. There was no need for discussion, no need for debate. There was no need to define what torture was. They knew it when they saw it, and this was it. And if others didn't see it that way there was something wrong with them.

And the loyal readers of these blogs shared and defended these iron-clad views. They would parry and thrust when their collective assumptions were questioned. A passerby who wondered aloud if forcing a detainee to stay awake over a number of hours really constituted torture was called an "enthusiastic supporter of torture." Another interloper who thought that pouring ice water on a subject didn't quite fit the definition of torture was called "inhuman scum." Another who didn't think it was such a big deal to force water down a persons nose for twenty seconds and certainly not a crime against humanity, was told he was a "sick immoral individual" and most probably a menace to his friends and relatives. Like enraged cats, arching their backs and hissing, the followers of these blogs attacked the humanity of those who, in their words, supported torture.

Analyst: No surprise media mainstays ignore tea parties

2009-04-13T21:37:00.001-07:00

"I don't think they like a nationwide protest they perceive as attacking their guy," said Dan Gainor, vice president of the Media Research Center's Business and Media Institute.

Blog-gate: Tories demand apology from Brown after e-mail smears

2009-04-12T19:56:00.000-07:00

DAMIAN McBride suggested several possible stories to ensure the New Labour "attack" website got off to a good start.

None was true.

• The first he described as a "solid investigative story" and suggested it "may be a good one to use early". It involved a gay Tory MP and allegations he was promoting his companion's business interests in the Commons.

"He invites MPs to a reception at the Commons – courtesy of the taxpayer – to promote (the retailer's) new fair-trade range of products."

The other suggestions for stories, Mr McBride admitted, were "gossipy and mainly intended to destabilise the Tories".

• Mr McBride seized on the admission by David Cameron in an interview once that, when a student, he attended a clinic for sexually transmitted diseases.

Mr McBride suggested that Mr Cameron should publish his financial and medical records – though there is no suggestion that the Tory leader ever had treatment at the clinic.

• The next subject of a possible smear was the shadow chancellor, George Osborne. Mr McBride suggested hinting that Mr Osborne might have embarrassing pictures from his university days.

"Embarrassing photos have followed George Osborne around throughout his career ... but he knows that the most embarrassing photos from his past have yet to emerge."

Mr McBride then suggested spreading rumours that pictures existed of Osborne "posing in bra, knickers and suspenders" and "with his face blacked up".

• Mr McBride also asked: "Why are friends of George Osborne letting it be known that his wife Frances has been feeling emotionally fragile?"

• In another, later e-mail, Mr McBride returned to the theme of Mr Osborne and embarrassing pictures, and also made some unfounded allegations about Nadine Dorries, a backbench Conservative MP.

Shuster: Conservative 'Wing-Nuts' 'Inspire' Cop Killer Violence

2009-04-10T23:09:00.000-07:00

SHUSTER: Up next gun sales are up, violence is back on the front page and conservatives are calling for revolution. Is the red hot rhetoric of the right helping foment something dangerous in this country? That debate over words and what they may cause is coming up next. You're watching Hardball, only on MSNBC.

Because Richard Poplowski killed three police officers in Pittsburgh a couple of days ago because he thought President Obama was, and others, and the Feds were coming to take his guns away. And I guess my question is, Charles to you, who's responsible for that? Is it this deranged guy or how much a factor is the stuff that's out there in the right wing megaphone contributing to this, that, this thought process of these people?

Federally Funded Group Advises Teens on How to Decide if They Are Gay

2009-04-10T23:06:00.000-07:00

A group that has received more than $16 million in grants from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services over the past 15 years maintains Web sites that advise young people on how to decide if they are gay, how to come out to their parents and getting active in causes ranging from abortion to "comprehensive" sex education.

“Is it possible that your heterosexuality is just a phase you may grow out of?” one question asks. “If you have never slept with a member of your own sex, is it possible that you might be gay if you tried it?” another asks.

1,050 Officers Sign Letter Urging Obama to Uphold Law Barring Homosexuals from Military

2009-04-10T22:59:00.000-07:00

A letter signed by 1,050 retired military officers, including 47 four-star leaders, requests that a 1993 law banning homosexuals from serving in the U.S. armed services be retained. The letter was delivered to President Barack Obama and Congress last week.

CNN's Sanchez Blames Fox News, 'Right-Wing Radio' for Cop Killings

2009-04-10T22:43:00.000-07:00

CNN's Rick Sanchez returned to blasting conservatives on Wednesday's Newsroom program, blaming the recent murder of three Pittsburgh police officers on the Fox News Channel and other media on the right: "That weekend tragedy involves a man who allegedly shot and killed three police officers in cold blood. Why? Because he was convinced, after no doubt watching Fox News and listening to right-wing radio, that quote, 'Our rights were being infringed upon.'" He tag-teamed with Media Matters fellow Eric Boehlert to argue that conservative media personalities like Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity were offering "garden-variety fear and hate mongering...night in and night out."

On December 10, 1990, Sanchez struck a pedestrian, Jeffrey Smuzinick, with his car while driving drunk on a residential street near Dolphin Stadium.^[2] Smuzinick was paralyzed and eventually died from his injuries in 1995.^[2]^[3] Sanchez, who had just left an NFL football game with his father (and left the scene of the accident)^[4], was not charged with causing the accident, but was charged with and pleaded no contest to DUI.^[2]

CNN's Rick Sanchez Draws Link Between Shooting and Fox News' Alarmist Rhetoric

Unlike Olbermann and Sanchez, WaPo Blames Economy For Cop Killings

Al-Qaeda terror plot to bomb Easter shoppers

2009-04-10T14:18:00.000-07:00

An al-Qaeda cell was days away from carrying out an "Easter spectacular" of co-ordinated suicide bomb attacks on shopping centres in Manchester, police believe.

Hero worshiping a dictator

2009-04-08T09:56:00.000-07:00

CBC members praise Castro

Fidel Castro to Congressional Black Caucus members: 'How can we help President Obama?'

Lawmakers' Cuba concerns are misplaced

The Careful Exaggerator

2009-04-07T22:34:00.000-07:00

By John Dickerson

...another Obama trait: He's also a nuance-free exaggerator.

The Presidential First Stone

2009-04-07T19:36:00.001-07:00

In this great age of atonement, in a mere two or three days the world has been reminded that (1) the U.S. has been arrogant; (2) dismissive and derisive to Europe; (3) was a slave-owning society; (4) practiced genocide against native Americans; (5) did not let blacks vote; (6) was the only nation to have used nuclear weapons; (7) embraced torture; (8) alienated the world under Bush, and on and on. The subtext has been that those of a different race, of a different era, or under a different president have done terrible things, which I, from my own moral Olympus, must now apologize for.

Spain prosecutes Bush administration officials and the terrorist behind the case

2009-04-07T09:56:00.000-07:00

Gonzalo Boye is the "human rights" lawyer who filed the complaint to the Spanish judge against this group of American citizens.

And now for the incredible irony. Human rights lawyer, Gonzalo Boye, himself, is a convicted Chilean terrorist! He was a member of the terrorist Revolutionary Left Movement (MIR) when, in collusion with the ETA, Spain’s Marxist-Leninist Basque terrorist outfit. Having participated in the abduction of a Spanish businessman, Emiliano Revilla, Boye was convicted and sentenced to prison. His victim, Revilla had spent 249 days in captivity in a space which measured 2 meters long, 1 meter wide, and just 1.80 meters high. He said he only had a space of 2 meters by 40 centimeters in which to move. Emiliano Revilla was released after his family had reportedly paid a hefty ransom.

Fortunately for the citizens of ~~Spain~~ the world, while serving his time in prison, convicted terrorist and future human rights lawyer, Gonzalo Boye was able to earn his law degree. Along with this current venerable endeavor to aid Spain in prosecuting U.S. government officials, Boye Gonzalo in January was consulting with Hamas in anticipation of also bringing war-crimes charges-- in Spain-- against Israel. Arab League probes Israel for 'war crimes' committed in Gaza

Administration defends Bush wire-taps

2009-04-06T21:26:00.000-07:00

The Obama administration is again invoking government secrecy in defending the Bush administration's wiretapping program, this time against a lawsuit by AT&T customers who claim federal agents illegally intercepted their phone calls and gained access to their records.

How do we save NATO? We quit

2009-04-04T20:04:00.000-07:00

The alliance has lost its sense of purpose. The way to get it back is for the U.S. to withdraw and let Europe be responsible for its own defense.

By Andrew J. Bacevich

U.S. Military Deaths By Year/Month

2009-04-03T20:45:00.000-07:00

There were nine military deaths in Iraq last month.

Obama bows down to Saudi King

2009-04-02T19:03:00.000-07:00

Hersh: Cheney ‘Left A Stay Behind’ In Obama’s Government, Can ‘Still Control Policy Up To A Point’

2009-04-01T00:39:00.000-07:00

HERSH: I’ll make it worse. I think he’s put people left. He’s put people back. They call it a stay behind. It’s sort of an intelligence term of art. When you leave a country and, you know, you’ve driven out the, you know, you’ve lost the war. You leave people behind. It’s a stay behind that you can continue to contacts with, to do sabotage, whatever you want to do. Cheney’s left a stay behind. He’s got people in a lot of agencies that still tell him what’s going on. Particularly in defense, obviously. Also in the NSA, there’s still people that talk to him. He still knows what’s going on. Can he still control policy up to a point? Probably up to a point, a minor point. But he’s still there. He’s still a presence.

Actor Ed Norton Compares His 'Earth Hour' to March On Selma

2009-03-31T23:57:00.000-07:00

"I think it's, it's a call to action. It's, it's, it's-, turning off the lights won't solve the problem, obviously. But in the same way that the, the march on Selma, Alabama was a symbolic gesture for the civil rights movement I think those who care about climal [sic] change, climate change and carbon mitigation - which is a global movement -- are, are trying to find ways to symbolically demonstrate the, the unity of purpose around the planet and, and really get our leadership to take action."

No Exit Strategy, Timeline in Afghanistan Strategy, White House Says

2009-03-31T23:52:00.000-07:00

The Obama administration has no exit strategy for the conflict in Afghanistan, White House officials said Friday, as it escalates forces in the country announcing another 4,000 troops for security training on top of the 17,000 additional troops already approved.

Brazil builds walls around Rio de Janeiro slums

2009-03-28T19:17:00.000-07:00

RIO DE JANEIRO, March 28 (Reuters) - The government of Rio de Janeiro is building concrete walls to prevent sprawling slums from spreading farther into the picturesque hills of this world-famous tourist destination, an official said on Saturday.

By year-end the Rio de Janeiro state government wants to build almost 7 miles (11 km) of walls to contain 19 communities. It will spend 40 million reais ($17.6 million) and have to relocate 550 houses, Lazzoli said.

Protestors demand respect, build shrine to honor Mixon, felon, OPD cop killer, rapist

2009-03-27T09:04:00.000-07:00

The "protesters demanded equal respect for Mixon, who they said was a victim of what they called a broken prison system and a generally racist society. Family and friends of Mixon said he probably opened fire on the officers because he feared returning to prison."

About 60 people marched and rallied in Oakland on Wednesday to condemn the police and honor Lovelle Mixon, who was killed by Oakland police after he fatally shot four officers Saturday.

Asked about police allegations that Mixon was suspected in several rapes, including that of a 12-year-old girl, marcher Mandingo Hayes said, "He wasn't a rapist. I don't believe that."

Striving to Paint a More Positive Picture of a Cop-Killer

2009-03-25T22:27:00.000-07:00

On Wednesday, the Times did its best to muddy the seemingly clear-cut case regarding the character of cop-killer Lovelle Mixon, who shot and killed two motorcycle officers at a routine traffic stop in Oakland, then shot and killed two SWAT sergeants while on the run, before being himself killed by police.

The text box painted a mixed picture of the murderer of four officers: "A man who obeyed some conditions of parole, but not others," while the text from reporters Solomon Moore and Jesse McKinley suggested the killer had been "failed by an overloaded and flawed California penal system." Another omission: Three of the slain officers were white (the other had a Japanese surname). But even though Mixon was black, don't expect the Times to raise any hate-crime possibilities in this case. In fact, the Times didn't even mention the officers' names.

Under The Bus

2009-03-25T22:14:00.000-07:00

That’s where Hillary Clinton threw the US in Mexico. Washington Post, blame accepted for drug trade. Sure, our appetite for drugs, fueled by 1960s counterculture values and amped up in permanent ghettos 40 years worth of Democratic welfare policies failed to eradicate, makes it big business. There are a few issues. For starters, the guns south part:

Mexican authorities also blame some of the violence on the flow of American guns, which have been used in about 90 percent of the drug killings, according to both U.S. and Mexican officials.

Do they even make guns in Mexico? OK, shut down American firearms factories because the Mexicans can’t control their territory. A lot of those bodies along the border turn up with their heads cut off. American knives or Mexican ones? Shut down those factories, too. Newsbusters notes that many of the weapons described in condemnations of Mexican drug violence are already heavily regulated and not readily available in the United States, or not produced here.

No mention of decades of Mexican political and police corruption

Obama Used ‘Invest’ or ‘Investment’ 18 Times in Press

2009-03-25T21:43:00.000-07:00

Conference to Describe Government Deficit Spending

On the Parole of Terrorist Sara Jane Olson

2009-03-24T23:48:00.000-07:00

At least the founder of the Weather Underground, Mark Rudd (whose book I review today) admits the truth in his new memoir Underground: My Life with SDS and the Weathermen. Unlike Ayers or Olson, Rudd acknowledges that their goal was not to build a peace movement opposed to the war, but to engage in guerrilla warfare at home, waged through terror and violence, for the purpose of overthrowing our democratic government.

The Toxic Assets We Elected

2009-03-24T23:38:00.000-07:00

By George Will

Little Dictators

2009-03-24T23:29:00.000-07:00

The spectacle of the very same people responsible for one of the nation's great financial calamities angling to be given even more control to fix the problem would be funny if it weren't so tragic.

Rep. Barney Frank and Sen. Chris Dodd

Mexican Cartel's Main Areas of Influence

2009-03-24T23:21:00.000-07:00