A few questions about Larry Craig.

Before I decide whether or not Republican Senator Larry Craig should resign because of his George Michael impersonation at the airport, I'd like to pose a few relevant questions...

Did Ted Kennedy (D-Ma.) resign over his criminal behavior at Chappaquiddick?

Did Marion Berry's (D-DC) arrest and conviction for smoking crack cocaine with a prostitute prevent him from being re-elected mayor of Washington, D.C.?

Did Senator Barney Frank (D-Ma.)resign over his gay prostitution scandal?

Did Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.) resign over his role as an un-indicted co-conspirator in the Abscam bribery scandal of the late 1970s?

Did Rep. Gerry Studds (D-Ma.) resign after his sexual relationship with an underage male was discovered?

Did William Jefferson (D-La.) resign after $90,000 in bribes were found in his freezer?

Did Rep. Mel Reynolds' (D-Il.) 12 count conviction for sexual assault against a 16-year-old keep him from being re-elected?

Did Bill Clinton's (D-Ak.) numerous affairs, sexual assaults, inappropriate sexual contact with employees, and impeachment for perjury and obstruction of justice keep him from being re-elected and subsequently respected and loved by Democrats as a great president?

No?

Then why the rush to oust Larry Craig? Why shouldn't he simply stare down the critics, wait out the storm and continue to serve in Congress?

Having asked all that – and in spite of the fact that Democrats continue to elect and re-elect the scum of the earth to represent them even after knowing what reprobates and perverts many of them are – I think Larry Craig has demonstrated himself unfit for public office and should resign. I don't know what he did or didn't do in that airport bathroom. But I do know that he pleaded guilty to lewd conduct and tried to cover it up. And I don't want someone like him in the Republican party. If he wants to continue as Idaho's Senator, he needs to switch parties and become a Democrat, where his kind of behavior is accepted and rewarded.

Midweek Peek 08.29.07

Emily Scott, better late than never.

Blogging to come

Today's blogging will have to wait. I finally got some freelance work, so today's Midweek Peek and update will be delayed until I get home from Fort Worth. Ugh. I hate the drive, but don't hate the paycheck!

More lefty treason at HuffPo

For a while now, Daily Kos and Democratic Underground have cornered the market on traitors and rabid Marxists, but Huffington Post has been working hard to get points on the board. Saturday afternoon, columnist Martin Lewis revealed his unhinged hatred of President Bush, as well as his ignorance of history and the Constitution. He posted a letter to Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, General Peter Pace, called General Pace, You Can Save the US - by Arresting Bush for "Conduct Unbecoming" in which he urges a military coup.

General Pace - you have the power to fulfill your responsibility to protect the troops under your command. Indeed you have an obligation to do so.

You can relieve the President of his command.

Not of his Presidency. But of his military role as Commander-In-Chief.
...
In addition to relieving him of his command as Commander-In-Chief, you also have authority to place the President under MILITARY arrest

Is this what Democrats call "supporting the troops"?

Apparently, this asshat realizes the subversive nature of his request, but just like a child who wants his own way, asks anyhow.

To be crystal clear - I am NOT advocating or inciting you to undertake any illegal act, insurrection, mutiny, putsch or military coup.

"Um, yeah, Mr. General, sir? I know it's illegal to do what I'm asking, but I really, REEEALLY want it, and you'd be doing a huge favor to those of us that can't stand George W. Bush, so would you please remove him from office for us?"

What an ultra-maroon.

Lewis must have been asleep in civics class, as he doesn't realize that the military falls under civilian supervision. And the President doesn't serve the Joint Chiefs nor the military. And they have no authority with which to remove him. Plus, you can't remove the President from his position as Commander-In-Chief while leaving him in place. The only legal way to remove a sitting President is impeachment. And since the anti-Bush moonbats know they have no proper cause to remove the man they loathe so deeply, they're desperate for anything to achieve their ends short of a full armed uprising (which they probably aren't considering only because they're against personal ownership of firearms and don't own any - that, and they'd be shot dead in the streets as the traitors they are). Much better to urge others to subvert the Constitution to unseat a twice-elected chief executive with whom they disagree.

I'm wondering if this new burst of anti-Bush sentiment is due to the fact that the surge is working and it's looking more and more like President Bush will come out on top as having been right all along – despite his numerous mistakes – which means the anti-war Dems will be proven to have been on the wrong side. Yet again.

Sunday smile: Jihadis go to meet Allah

Here's a little something to bring a smile to your face: American soldiers from the 227th Aviation Regiment in an AH-64D Apache helicopter engage an insurgent mortar team in Iraq. Jihadis go boom. Allah grins. Everyone goes home happy.

Castro dead? Don't tell Michael Moore.

The U.S. government is officially denying it, but Estancia Cubana is claiming that Fidel Castro is dead.

Opus makes Muslims say "ack!"

As if we needed another reason to love Berke Breathed. But sadly, it's not allowed to poke fun at radical Islamists and the strip was censored for fear of offending Muslims. (h/t: Milblogs)

Halloween in August

Although it's launching two months early, Rob Zombie's new version of the horror classic Halloween looks pretty damn good. The William Shatner mask looks scarier than ever!

Face lift in progress

No, nothing drastic. The main look of this blog will remain the same. However, I'm adding some new functionality like Snap preview windows to my links, and doing so is requiring that I change templates in Blogger. So for the next day or so, the sidebar info will probably change a bit. I'll try to tweak the code so comments will still be handled through Haloscan, but if things get squirrelly, please stand by.
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UPDATE: Well, it's taken practically all day, but I've got most of the blog back up and running with the majority of widgets and stuff like before. I've also added labels to the majority of my posts, some going back as far as 2004, so articles can be cross-indexed by subject with the use of the handle little "labels" widget on the sidebar. Enjoy!

Flock rocks!

As part of my ongoing leap into this thing called Web 2.0, I've adopted a new next-generation web browser that is definitely worth a look. It's a free app based on the Mozilla engine and it integrates the best of Firefox with a horde of new social networking features that make blogging (and just about everything else I access the internet to do) faster and easier. It's truly a step forward in the evolution of user interface.

For the past week, I've found that it streamlines all my accounts I use most often – Twitter, Flickr, Yahoo, Digg, YouTube, MySpace, and Blogger – and makes it quicker to browse my RSS feeds, manage bookmarks, upload and share photos, it works with the new Yahoo mail beta, and (my favorite) it handles tabbed browsing in a much more intuitive fashion.

Check it out for yourself. Their website has a friendly walkthrough of the features that will convince you. http://www.flock.com/

Bush's anti-zombie initiative

The newest threat in the War On Terror™: the undead!

Rudy misunderstands the 2nd Amendment

As much as I like and respect the guy, this is one of the reasons I'm having a hard time with Rudy Giuliani as a GOP candidate. How can a guy with such a misguided view of Constitutional rights be seriously considered for President? (h/t: Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler)

“My position for many years has been that just as a motorist must have a license, a gun owner should be required to have one as well. Anyone wanting to own a gun should have to pass a written exam that shows that they know how to use a gun, that they’re intelligent enough and responsible enough to handle a gun. Should both handgun and rifle owners be licensed…we’re talking about all dangerous weapons.”

Using Rudy's logic, voters should have to pass a written exam to prove they're "intelligent enough and responsible enough" to exercise their right to vote.

How well do you think that'd go over?

Quote of the day

"War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself."
- John Stuart Mill

Immigration smackdown

Pam picks apart some whiny liberal talking points by applying logic (and some hard truths about immigration) today over at Blogmeister USA.

If Powers believes that going to and fro with no restrictions is a "human right," I wonder what she would say to a squatter who decided that her home was a nice place to move in to, or a burglar who decided that her nice big television would look nice in his living room. What better way to demonstrate her devotion to the cause? And why stop there? If there is to be no law as to maintaining our borders and managing the immigrant flow, why not go the next step? Why not suspend all law and give the anarchists the gift they've always wanted? Get rid of our government, get rid of all public civil institutions, and let each and every individual get on with life as he sees fit to live it, protecting his "rights" and to hell with everyone else. Sound extreme? It's meant to. Because by disregarding one set of laws, we open the door to disregarding the next set, and the next, and the next...

Read the entire article. It's a short read, but very well worth the time.

Midweek Peek 08.22.07

UK model Lucy Pinder

30 Days of Night trailer

As one might expect, I'm a bit partial to vampire movies. Based on the killer graphic novel, this one looks VERY interesting.

History Channel spanks troofers

This should be fun. The "truther" tards are about to get a scientific slap in the face tonight at 9pm.

Examines the various conspiracy theories espoused on the Internet, in articles and in public forums that attempt to explain the 9/11 attacks. It includes theories that the World Trade Center was brought down by a controlled demolition; that a missile, not a commercial airliner, hit the Pentagon; and that members of the U.S. government orchestrated the attacks in hopes of creating a war in the Middle East. Each conspiracy argument is countered by a variety of experts in the fields of engineering, intelligence and the military. The program also delves into the anatomy of such conspiracies and how they grow on the Internet.

This vid isn't from the History Channel special, but the guy does a decent job of debunking one of many conspiracy theories about 9/11.

"Frozen Smoke" against the jihad?

This stuff is too cool!

Could it be a new tool in the fight against suicide bombers? (h/t: Hyscience)

A miracle material for the 21st century could protect your home against bomb blasts, mop up oil spillages and even help man to fly to Mars.

Aerogel, one of the world’s lightest solids, can withstand a direct blast of 1kg of dynamite and protect against heat from a blowtorch at more than 1,300C.

Scientists are working to discover new applications for the substance, ranging from the next generation of tennis rackets to super-insulated space suits for a manned mission to Mars.

It is expected to rank alongside wonder products from previous generations such as Bakelite in the 1930s, carbon fibre in the 1980s and silicone in the 1990s. Mercouri Kanatzidis, a chemistry professor at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, said: “It is an amazing material. It has the lowest density of any product known to man, yet at the same time it can do so much. I can see aerogel being used for everything from filtering polluted water to insulating against extreme temperatures and even for jewellery.”

And don't let the door hit ya...

On second thought, scratch that. I hope the door does hit her in the ass on the way out.

Immigration Activist Arrested Outside L.A. Church
(AP) LOS ANGELES An illegal immigrant who stayed in a Chicago church for a year to avoid separation from her 8-year-old son, a U.S. citizen, was arrested Sunday and being processed for deportation.

Elvira Arellano, who arrived in Los Angeles on Saturday after leaving her sanctuary to campaign for immigration reform, was arrested around 1:30 p.m. outside Our Lady Queen of Angels Catholic Church where she had been speaking to reporters, said the Rev. Walter Coleman, pastor of Adalberto United Methodist, the Chicago church.

Arellano was "being processed for removal to Mexico based upon a deportation order originally issued by a federal immigration judge in 1997," U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said in a news release.

Immigration activists promised protests and vigils to support her.

Well there's a shocker.

"We are sad, but at the same time we are angry," said Javier Rodriguez, a Chicago immigration activist who worked with her. "How dare they arrest this woman?"

Yeah, how dare American immigration officials actually enforce the law?! How dare they force this criminal to obey American law?!

Arellano, 32, has become a symbol of the struggles of illegal immigrant parents and a source of controversy. She had said Saturday she was not afraid of being taken into custody by immigration agents.

"From the time I took sanctuary the possibility has existed that they arrest me in the place and time they want," she said in Spanish. "I only have two choices. I either go to my country, Mexico, or stay and keep fighting. I decided to stay and fight."

She forgot her other choice. Go back to Mexico and come back through the system legally. Apply for citizenship and get in line. Oh, and learn English, thank you very much.

Someone cue the "But what about her child? How can you split up a family?" tripe.

At an afternoon news conference in Los Angeles, Arellano's son, Saul, hid behind Coleman's wife, Emma Lozano, and wiped away tears. Lozano said she is the boy's legal guardian.

"He's taking it better than we thought he would," said Lozano, the head of an immigration rights group in Chicago.

Just so we're clear, her son was born while she was here in this country illegally. She knew what she was doing when she gave birth. He should not be considered an American citizen and should be sent back to Mexico with his mother. This whole "anchor baby" garbage must stop.

Arellano came to Washington state illegally in 1997. She was deported to Mexico shortly after, but returned and moved to Illinois in 2000, taking a job cleaning planes at O'Hare International Airport.

She was arrested in 2002 at O'Hare and convicted of working under a false Social Security number. She was to surrender to authorities last August.

Pardon me for asking, but WHY THE F*** WAS THIS ILLEGAL ALIEN NOT DEPORTED BACK IN 2002 when she was arrested for being in this country illegally for the SECOND time?!!

I'm just glad to see that the law is finally being enforced and this scofflaw is about to be sent packing. Now, if we can only do this a few million more times...

She sought refuge at the storefront church on Chicago's West Side Aug. 15, 2006. She had not left the church property until deciding to be driven to Los Angeles, Coleman said.

I just hope the church leaders will be held accountable for their part in Arellano's crimes, as well as the impact this very public case will have on encouraging future lawlessness by illegal immigrants.

Corruption comparison

Jay Tea has a story about Bill Richardson's campaign organizer which turns into a nice compare-and-contrast over at Say Anything:

Every now and then, some leftist will publish an account of some Republican (rarely a prominent one) who’s run afoul of the law or some moral issue (usually both). This is usually tagged as “Republican family values” or “culture of corruption.”

I don’t care for those sorts of stories. To my way of thinking, such corruption is pretty much non-partisan. I don’t like hanging the failings of one person on their group. I prefer to see how the person is treated by their compeers after the scandal has broken; to me, that’s a fairer measure of the group than how thoroughly it weeds out potential miscreants.

By that standard, I don’t have much truck with either party, but I think that the Republicans have a slightly better record than the Democrats. Mel Reynolds was pardoned by Bill Clinton, Alcee Hastings nearly won a choice committee chairmanship, Ted and Patrick Kennedy are still in office, and Bill Clinton is still wildly popular. On the other hand, Mark Foley became an instant pariah, virtually nobody rushed to Duke Cunningham’s defense, and Bob Ney was shunned and the calls for his resignation were quite bipartisan.
...
The point should not be “which side is the most corrupt.” It should be “how quickly can we get rid of the corrupt ones ..."

Terrorists pwn3d, again.

Just a little more good news from Iraq to bring a smile to your face on a Friday. More 'splodey fun for al-Qaeda assclowns.

General: Quick Strikes Planned in Iraq

The U.S. military is planning a series of "quick-strike" attacks all around Iraq to go after militants who evaded the big military operation of recent weeks, a top commander said Friday.
...
Military operations launched since America's troop buildup have helped coalition forces retake some territory in main population centers from extremists, he said, adding that militants have now moved to remote areas. He noted this week's devastating bomb attack in two remote northern villages that officials say killed at least 500 people.

"Due to the constant pressure and depletion of their leadership, extremists have been pushed out of many population centers and are on the move, seeking other places to operate within the country," Odierno told a Pentagon press conference by video from Baghdad.

"As a result, we are now in pursuit of al-Qaida and other extremist elements, and we'll continue to aggressively target their shrinking areas of influence," he said.

"Over the coming weeks, we plan to conduct quick-strike raids against remaining extremist sanctuaries and staging areas," Odierno said.

Hoo-ah! Feel the surge, jihadists.

Padilla found guilty. Leftists found traitorous.

Jose Padilla has finally been found guilty of supporting terrorism.

Jose Padilla was convicted of federal terrorism support charges Thursday after being held for 3 1/2 years as an enemy combatant in a case that came to symbolize the Bush administration's zeal to stop homegrown terror.

Padilla, a U.S. citizen from Chicago, was once accused of being part of an al-Qaida plot to detonate a radioactive "dirty bomb" in the U.S., but those allegations were not part of his trial.

Padilla, 36, and his foreign-born co-defendants, Adham Amin Hassoun and Kifah Wael Jayyousi, were convicted of conspiracy to murder, kidnap and maim people overseas, which carries a penalty of life in prison. All three were also convicted of two terrorism material support counts, which carry potential 15-year sentences each.

Now that this scumbag has been tried and convicted of plotting with al-Qaeda to murder Americans, what do the Leftists over at Daily Kos do? They complain that he wasn't acquitted.

Rooting for terrorists to be released so they can kill Americans another day. Ah, there's some "progressive" patriotism for ya.
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UPDATE: Before any leftists who read here go off on your talking points, let's get some of the facts on the table. Ken at Say Anything lays it out pretty clearly.

Here is the false leftist narrative on the Padilla case: President Bush is using his unitary executive powers to arrest American citizens and hold them indefinitely without charges, legal counsel, or regard for any constitutional rights. A typical apoplectic leftist response is this, from the Democratic Underground: "imprisoned without charge for 3.5 years, physically and/or psychologically tortured 'til he's half-insane, and what do we do? Convict him anyway. Now he'll face the needle." This Kos diarist warns: "everything points to a coming police state and woe unto all dissenters, both here and everywhere."

Well, first of all, Padilla is facing life imprisonment, not the death penalty. As for being imprisoned for 3.5 years without charges, it isn't as if he and his battalion of lawyers were not busy during that time: Padilla had a hearing on his petition for a writ of habeus corpus, had questions over the writ heard before the Supreme Court, and had a second appeal before the Fourth Circuit. The wheels of justice turn slowly, but that is true for everybody, not just al-Qaeda dirty bomb makers. [emphasis mine - RV]

As for the claims of torture, these came from a forensic psychologist hired by Padilla's legal team. Enough said.

As for the overwrought fears of the Kos diarist, it is not true that the Padilla case means "woe unto all dissenters." Only those 'dissenters' who also happen to be al-Qaeda operatives need worry about being classified as enemy combatants. It was Congress that passed legislation allowing this kind of detention for American citizens, not some Executive Order from President Bush. The Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF) allows for military commissions to target nations, organizations or persons whom the President "determines planned, authorized, committed, or aided the September 11, 2001 attacks, or harbored such organizations or persons." The DUmmies and Kos Kultists might be surprised to learn that clownsuit-wearing hippies on stilts leading International A.N.S.W.E.R. protests are exempt. Padilla, being an al-Qaeda alum however, fits into that category quite nicely, and was held as an enemy combatant, not as a criminal suspect. Only when he was handed over to the Department of Justice for indictment did the time begin to toll for speedy trial requirements.

Of course, facts don't matter when there is a narrative to be propounded.

Ginormous iPhone bill

This is the main reason why I haven't taken the plunge and bought an iPhone yet (things like iJustine's 300+ page bill of monthly text messaging charges).

That, and also the fact that I'm still scoping for full-time work to pay for it.

Religion of Peace update: Appeasement watch

Captain Ed had a good paraphrase of Rudyard Kipling yesterday:

Appeasement never works. Burglars always want what hasn't been left outside on the doorstep. Danes always want more Danegeld, poetically speaking. Terrorists and tyrants once rewarded for their violence expand the use of it, until they achieve an abject surrender or someone finally decides to fight back.

How true. Especially given the recent torrent of worldwide Islamic appeasement. It seems that every few days, we hear more stories of organizations and governments bending over backwards in order to not offend Muslims, for fear of incurring the wrath of the jihadis among them.

For instance:

Muslim students to get footbaths at UBC
Muslim University of B.C. student Hesham Alsalaman hopes the days of cleansing his feet in the small washroom hand basin near the university’s prayer room are numbered.

Alsalaman and other Muslim students use a prayer room in UBC’s Brock Hall up to five times a day. Before each prayer session they must perform an ablution ceremony in which they wash their hands, lower arms, face and feet. “Washing your feet in a high sink you end up splashing water around,” said Alsalaman, an engineering student from Saudi Arabia. “That can create a hazard and we’ve had complaints.”
...
“The footbath installation will not be difficult and not cost very much,” Alsalaman said. “We are asking that it only be in the two washrooms near the prayer room. It’s not that big of a deal and is very important to us. We feel more welcome.”

Of course they feel more welcome when special concessions are made exclusively for their religion. No special treatment, though. Right?

Try this one:

Let's call God Allah
The Bishop of Breda, Tiny Muskens, wants people to start calling God Allah. He says the Netherlands should look to Indonesia, where the Christian churches already pray to Allah. It is also common in the Arab world: Christian and Muslim Arabs use the words God and Allah interchangeably.

Speaking on the Dutch TV programme Network on Monday evening, Bishop Muskens says it could take another 100 years but eventually the name Allah will be used by Dutch churches. And that will promote rapprochement between the two religions. ...

Of course, he doesn't ask why the Muslim minority can't adopt Christian terminology in order to "promote rapprochment."

Dhimmitude, more likely.

Or how about this:

Doctors Give In To Muslims
Doctors and health workers have been banned from eating lunch at their desks - in case it offends their Muslim colleagues.

Health chiefs believe the sight of food will upset Muslim workers when they are celebrating the religious festival Ramadan. The lunch trolley is also to be wheeled out of bounds as the 30-day fast begins next month. ...

The new guidance comes in the wake of the failed terror attacks on Glasgow and the death of suspect Kafeel Ahmed, 27. Health chiefs in Lothian and Glasgow will give all employees time off to pray and to celebrate Eid, which marks the end of Ramadan.

But Greater Glasgow and Clyde as well as Lothian NHS boards also issued the advice, warning workers not to take working lunches, and said all vending machines should be removed from areas where Muslims work.

Yeah, we sure don't want others to be able to eat when Muslims are supposed to be fasting for their religion. Everyone else must change to accommodate them rather than the Muslims learning to integrate their religious practices into secular life.

Sheesh.

Practice whatever religion you wanna follow. But don't expect everyone else to change to please you. It's up to you to assimilate, not vice versa. If you don't like where you're living (whether for reasons of religion, language, culture, etc) and just can't stand the differences, then move to where you fit rather than trying to force everyone else to conform.

Midweek Peek 08.15.07

I was watching Training Day last week, so this week's peek is Eva Mendes.

Hillary's baggage

Her own role in the Bill's legacy aside, what would a Clinton presidential campaign be without more coverups?

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton cites her experience as a compelling reason voters should make her president, but nearly 2 million pages of documents covering her White House years are locked up in a building here, obscuring a large swath of her record as first lady.

Clinton's calendars, appointment logs and memos are stored at her husband's presidential library, in the custody of federal archivists who do not expect them to be released until after the 2008 presidential election.

A trove of records has been made public detailing the Clinton White House's attempts to remake the nation's healthcare system, following a request from Bill Clinton that those materials be released first. Hillary Clinton led the healthcare effort in 1993 and 1994.

But even in the healthcare documents, at least 1,000 pages involving her work has been censored by archives staff because they include confidential advice and must be kept secret under a federal law called the Presidential Records Act. Political consultants said that if Hillary Clinton's records were made public, rivals would mine them for scraps of information that might rattle her campaign.

Yeah, we sure don't want the facts of Hillary's past to impact her chances at hoodwinking the American public into electing her as the first female president.

No matter. I'm sure Sandy Berger already took care of any seriously damaging material.

Learn from Rome

Here are a few words about why I get so agitated about liberals' obtuse affinity for socialism/Marxism. Witness one of several great quotes posted today over at DPGI:

"A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and carries his banner openly. But the traitor moves amongst those within the gate freely, his sly whispers rustling through all the alleys, heard in the very halls of government itself. For the traitor appears not a traitor; he speaks in accents familiar to his victims, and he wears their face and their arguments, he appeals to the baseness that lies deep in the hearts of all men. He rots the soul of a nation, he works secretly and unknown in the night to undermine the pillars of the city, he infects the body politic so that it can no longer resist. A murderer is less to fear."
- Marcus Tullius Cicero (Roman statesman, philosopher and orator)

So close ...

... but no damn cigar.

After three weeks of suspense, five rounds of interviews and 43 hours spent over a single weekend preparing a design presentation, the dotcom @$$holes in question decided they'd rather go with someone else.

If this was dating, they'd be the equivalent of a world-class prick tease.

*sigh*

Yeah, yeah, something else will come along. I'm just sick of the whole process. Tired of shelling out ridiculous Cobra costs to maintain my children's health insurance. And worrying about whether or not there will be enough freelance work to pay the bills and the rent.

Tomorrow I'll be more confident. Right now, I'm too busy recovering from an unsportsmanlike shot in the nads.

Religion of Peace update: Shari'a rally

Feeling the peace of Islam yet?

Thousands of Muslims gather in a stadium and scream for the blood of the infidels, raging that they must implement shari'a law.

Hardline group rallies for world Islamic rule

More than 70,000 members of a hardline Muslim group held a rally in Indonesia that heard calls for a caliphate -- or Islamic rule -- to govern the world.

The supporters of the Hizbut Tahrir group filled up most of an 80,000-seat sports stadium in the capital Jakarta, waving flags as they heard fiery speeches saying it was "time for the caliphate to reign."

The meeting was held as part of "civic education" for Indonesian Muslims, said Muhammad Ismail Yusanto, a spokesman for Hizbut Tahrir.
...
The senior Muslim figure Dien Syamsuddin was among the key speakers to address the crowd. He is the chairman of Indonesia's second largest Islamic movement, the Muhammadiyah.

"Islam's progress or regress depends entirely on Muslims themselves," he told the crowd.

He said that "the essence" of a caliphate was that Muslims be united and that therefore Indonesian Muslims should safeguard the unity of their country.

But popular Muslim preacher Abdullah Gymanstiar said Muslims in Indonesia were still divided over Sharia law.

"Why do some Muslims not agree with the Islamic Sharia, even though it is for the own good of Muslims?" he said, his voice quickly drowned out by loud applause.

Nothing to worry about, right?

Sands of Passion

"Like infidels through the hourglass, so are the sands of passion." An al-Qaeda soap opera from NationalBanana.com. (h/t: Blogmeister USA)

Illegal alien rapes child, then murders 3 students while on bail

This one has me seeing red for so many different reasons. (h/t: DPGI)

NEWARK, N.J. — A Peruvian national in the U.S. illegally and who was previously charged with raping a 5-year-old girl pleaded not guilty Friday in the execution-style slayings of three young college students, a day after he surrendered to the Newark mayor.

FOX News has learned Carranza, who has a fake Social Security number, had been arrested on charges of raping a 5-year-old girl and then threatening the child and her parents. In that case he faced a 31-count indictment.

In another, he was arrested on assault charges stemming from a bar fight.

Immigration officials apparently were aware of Carranza's illegal status since his prior arrests, according to Essex County Sheriff Armando Fontoura.

First of all, this man is a perfect example of why we need to deport every illegal immigrant who is caught breaking additional laws. Second, if he's guilty of raping a child, this scumbag should have already been executed. Third, with so many charges against him, how is it that a violent criminal illegal alien is allowed to walk around free on bail?

This piece of sh*t was arrested for raping a 5-year-old child only last July. And his assault arrest was in April of this year, nine months after the rape charge! How is that possible? How can a child rapist just be released back into the community with charges pending?

How stupid must the authorities in Newark be? They had in their possession a violent illegal alien who was suspected of raping a little girl and they let him go? The criminal negligence displayed here staggers me. I can only hope the good people of Newark will hold those who authorized Carranza's release partially accountable for his crimes.

Dog the Bounty Hunter cleared of all charges!

I blogged about this case back in April, and here's some good news.

Last week, a judge in Mexico cleared Chapman, 53, of all criminal charges for his 2003 capture in Puerto Vallarta of a convicted American rapist on the lam. An appeal was pending.

I'm glad to see that the Mexican judge realized there's nothing wrong with what Dog did: seize a felon who had escaped and return him to the United States to face justice. It's nice to see there's a happy ending to this one.

Revisions inc.

I'm making some more changes to the layouts I made for *****.com's CEO since I need to present them tomorrow morning, so today's blogging will likely be only the Midweek Peek. Back Thursday with more opinion, p*ss & vinegar.
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UPDATE: Ok, so I lied. Today has been spent in presenting and interviewing. Again. Round five. And then subsequently sitting in the hot 100° Texas sun, being lazy and waiting for word of a concrete job offer. The HR guy today gave me a brochure on their benefits, which I suppose is another good sign.

But I'll sleep better after a real offer is extended.

Sorry for the slack-assedness. This whole unemployment thing is kicking my ass every other day. I promise, I'll be back Friday morning with some real blogging about today's weak Bush speech or more of this week's issues.

Midweek Peek 08.08.07

Christina Sutton

Yet another reason I despise the far left

In addition to the fact that many of them don't bathe frequently, many of the ultra-left hate our military. And aren't afraid to express their loathing. (h/t: Little Green Footballs)

Main Entry: Retarded
Part of Speech: adjective
Definition: limited
Synonyms: backward, defective, held back, opaque, simple-minded, slow, slow-witted, stupid

Michelle Malkin just mentioned on Fox that I called our troops 'morally retarded".

I was not misunderstood nor taken out of context, an attempt at humor did not go astray, no, the truth is my view is genuinely despised. I can understand why. Nobody wants to think of themselves or their loved ones morally deficient.

Nevertheless, I admonish not from anger or to mock, but from compassion.

Ah, there it is! "I hate our soldiers because I'm compassionate! Aren't I an enlightened and noble liberal for protecting them from the evil war machine?" Such sickening condescension!

Now, of course, when one joins, or is accepted into the military, of any country, this problem does not arise. Within the law, subject to the rules of engagement, it is strictly prescribed who one must or may not kill.
With the war in Iraq, as with most wars, the decision is made even easier for the seeker of wisdom, since they are often placed in a situation where the question practically answers itself.
But is it wise to surrender to turn over to a chain of command the right to choose your mortal enemy? To let another, no matter how superior, fill in the blank spaces on your killing list, as it were?
...
Such recklessness would indicate a fundamental failure of the innate moral facility. That is what I mean by morally retarded.

For this view, I have been called Anti-Military.

My response is this: Who on earth could be Pro-Military! The purpose of a military is to kill. It is at best a necessary evil. Necessary only because someone else has a military that threatens our survival.

Pro-Military? That’s like being Pro-Abortion! Or Pro-chemo-therapy!

No! In a world of ignorance, greed, and ambition it is a practical matter that we defend our peace and security against the militaries of others, but the goal is always to have as little military as needed, and no more than absolutely necessary. Currently we spend more than all the rest of the world put together.

A military is an extortion demanded of us by other militaries, a practical acquiesence to the world as it is, but only a sadist, a brute, a glory-monger, a thief or a tyrant can look at a military as a good thing, noble in itself.

Only a society blind with avarice or fear would see a military as anything other than an indictment of our inability to persuade! And yes, an indictment of our courage to try.

Here is an Unknown Known - something we all know but are not aware we know: A Man Cannot Be a Hero in Service To an Unjust Cause. What kind of society would rob it’s soldiers in such a way? A twisted, sickened society.

Yep, folks, you read that right. According to AWhitneyBrown, protecting the American citizens and their way of life from terrorists who want to behead them is an "unjust cause." Such stunning ignorance from one so seemingly articulate.

*sigh*

Also, such a decidedly naive view of the world. *clasping hands and making big cartoon lovey eyes* Why, if it weren't for our evil, nasty, retarded military, everyone would hold hands and play Ring Around the Rosies (no, wait, that's a song about the plague). Why, if it weren't for our evil, nasty, retarded military, everyone would hold hands and skip merrily in the sunshine, enjoying the goodness of Mother Earth and eating only vegetables while maintaining a neutral carbon footprint!

Another step closer to "hired"

I met this morning with the CEO of *****.com (name to be divulged once an offer is made) and presented to him the three designs I created over the weekend. They had asked me to redesign on of their website pages, simplifying the interface and incorporating several of the CEO's ideas.

Turns out, he liked my work.

He asked for a few small tweaks which I'll be doing over the next few days and presenting the results to him on Wed or Thurs.

In the meantime, he's slated me to meet with the company's new VP of Product, (the person who would be my boss, I think) as well as the Creative Director of *****.com's ad agency, with whom I'd be working quite a lot. Seems to me this speaks well of my chances. I'm just waiting for them to go ahead and make an offer.

The suspense is killing me. That, and the lack of money from being unemployed. But hopefully not for very much longer!

(Blogging to resume as regular tomorrow.)

Jackie Mason skewers the Dems

"The Democrats proved once again, that they want America to lose the war, so that they win the White House in 2008. The Troops to them is merely secondary to this heartless goal. They have a pointless all night pizza party, that solved nothing, and now as they go on vacation, will not give our troops a raise. Who is the enemy in this country? What are the Democrats doing? At least with the terrorists, we know where we stand."

Preach on, bruthuh.

Excessive alcohol causes itchy nuts?

Yet another reason why NOT to drink & drive.

Blogroll link roundup

Today, I'm working on a huge assignment that has the potential to land me a job, and I have to prepare three options to be ready for presentation by Monday at 10am. So blogging must wait.

Fortunately, there is plent of good reading out there today.

• Say Anything sums up the Democrats' record since regaining the majority.
• Speaking of which, Michelle Malkin has the story on last night's anti-democracy shenanigans in the House.
• Blogmeister USA has a good column about Hollywood's defamation of America.
• Texas Rainmaker has a funny bit about the gullibility of environmentalists.
• Little Green Footballs documents the far left's anti-military tantrum at the Yearly Kos convention.

The far left demagogues the Minneapolis bridge collapse

The tragic collapse of the Minneapolis bridge doesn't appear to be terrorism, but too early to tell. Looks more like neglect. Miraculously, there have been only four known fatalities so far, despite the fact that this happened during rush hour. Popular Mechanics weighs in on probable causes:

It will take time to determine why the Interstate 35 bridge collapsed, so tragically, during the height of a Minneapolis rush hour on Wednesday night. But investigators will likely find that two factors contributed to its failure: age and heavy use. Bridge 9340 was constructed in 1967, 11 years after the launch of the Eisenhower Interstate System. Until it plunged into the Mississippi River, it served as a transportation lifeline for the growing Twin Cities population, carrying across its 14 spans many of the SUVs, cars and trucks that accounted for the 42 percent rise in Minnesota’s vehicle traffic from 1990 to 2003.

Age and heavy use are by no means isolated conditions. According to a report card released in 2005 by the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), 160,570 bridges, or just over one-quarter of the nation’s 590,750-bridge inventory, were rated structurally deficient or functionally obsolete. The nation’s bridges are being called upon to serve a population that has grown from 200 million to over 300 million since the time the first vehicles rolled across the I-35W bridge. Predictably that has translated into lots more cars. American commuters now spend 3.5 billion hours a year stuck in traffic, at a cost to the economy of $63.2 billion a year.

It is not just roads and bridges that are being stressed to the breaking point. Two weeks ago New Yorkers were scrambling for cover after a giant plume of 200-plus-degree steam and debris shot out of the street and into the air. The mayhem was caused by the explosion of a steam pipe, installed underground in 1924 to heat office buildings near Grand Central station. In January 2007, Kentuckians and Tennesseans woke up to the news that the water level of the largest man-made reservoir east of the Mississippi would have to be dropped by 10 ft. as an emergency measure. The Army Corps of Engineers feared that if it didn’t immediately reduce the pressure on the 57-year-old Wolf Creek Dam, it might fail, sending a wall of water downstream that would inundate communities all along the Cumberland River, including downtown Nashville.

The fact is that Americans have been squandering the infrastructure legacy bequeathed to us by earlier generations. Like the spoiled offspring of well-off parents, we behave as though we have no idea what is required to sustain the quality of our daily lives. Our electricity comes to us via a decades-old system of power generators, transformers and transmission lines—a system that has utility executives holding their collective breath on every hot day in July and August. We once had a transportation system that was the envy of the world. Now we are better known for our congested highways, second-rate ports, third-rate passenger trains and a primitive air traffic control system. Many of the great public works projects of the 20th century—dams and canal locks, bridges and tunnels, aquifers and aqueducts, and even the Eisenhower interstate highway system—are at or beyond their designed life span.

Of course, this hasn't stopped the extreme left BDS sufferers like Ed Shultz, who basically claimed "the only reason Bush is talking about fatalities is because he didn’t give MN enough money to maintain the bridge." (h/t: Say Anything)

Wake up, far-left idiots. Congress is reponsible for federal highway funds for roads and bridges, not the President. And nevermind local responsibility to inspect and maintain local resources, to the nutters at Democratic Underground and Daily Kos, everything bad in the world must be laid at Bush's feet.

It's not just the Feds, obviously. In state after state, the bathtub drowners (a liberal euphemism for those who want smaller government - ed.) argue for tax cuts which ensure that this shameful deterioration of American infrastructure will continue. Every old bridge that falls down is, symbolically and actually, a testament to their vision.

I don't see those who want tax cuts calling for the Feds to abandon or neglect their basic responsibilities to the general public, just to trim the ridiculous and ever-growing spate of entitlement programs. Maintaining America's infrastructure is NOT part of the tax fund hemorrhage.

I'm just glad more people weren't killed or injured in this catastrophy. Let's learn from this and prevent it from happening again. This kind of negligence can't be tolerated from our public officials, regardless of political affiliation.

Religion of Peace update: Sharia by lawsuit

Jenn of the Jungle has a great article about how Muslim extremists are attempting to use our courts to advance their Sharia goals, and the alarming number of folks here and in Europe cowing toward dhimmitude.

It's bad enough that the Muslim extremist view is, essentially, "convert or die." And even worse that they use our own tolerance and freedom as tools to invade our society. But they're going so far as to re-write many Western works of literature as well, including Tom Sawyer, The Three Musketeers, and Les Miserables. Are Muslims so devoid of culture that they must appropriate those from other nations and rework them for their own religious views? Don't they have stories of their own? They even bastardized Homer Simpson so that he doesn't eat pork or drink beer. Is all this because they just have no more original ideas of their own and must subvert others? Is it because they're so intolerant that they can't even stand to read about someone who's not a Muslim, for fear that reading about non-Muslims might make them question their own faith? Or is it to ease the transition for everyone else when they are all forceably converted to Islam, so the converts' old standbys will have been rewritten as though they've always been Muslim, ala 1984's Ministry of Truth?

Don't let the door hit you in the arse

ABC News is reporting that more and more Americans are moving to Canada?

O Canada! More Americans Heading North.
...
The number of U.S. citizens who moved to Canada last year hit a 30-year high, with a 20 percent increase over the previous year and almost double the number who moved in 2000.

In 2006, 10,942 Americans went to Canada, compared with 9,262 in 2005 and 5,828 in 2000, according to a survey by the Association for Canadian Studies.

Of course, those numbers are still outweighed by the number of Canadians going the other way. Yet, that imbalance is shrinking. Last year, 23,913 Canadians moved to the United States, a significant decrease from 29,930 in 2005.

"There has been a definite increase in the past five years — the number hasn't exceeded 10,000 since 1977," says Jack Jedwab, the association's executive director. "During the mid-70s, Canada admitted between 22,000 and 26,000 Americans a year, most of whom were draft dodgers from the Vietnam War."

The current increase appears to be fueled largely by social and political reasons, says Jedwab, based on anecdotal evidence.

Of course, they totally ignore why the number of Canadians moving to America is so disproportionate. But oh well.

I say good riddance. Socialists aren't needed nor welcome here in the America. I've always said, if you don't like America, you're free to leave. Instead of trying to turn the United States into some Marxist utopia, go somewhere else that better fits your philosophy.

I'm glad to see so many far-left liberals taking my advice.

Midweek Peek 08.01.07

Ashley Robbins