Fallout 3 image causes fallout of its own

Since its introduction I've been a fan of Fallout, a post-apocalyptic RPG where players roam a fictional landscape devastated by nuclear war in the distant future. For the past several years I've been eagerly following the progress on the upcoming third installment in the series, particularly the concept art being created by Bethesda Softworks. So I was more than a little surprised to hear about the ruckus between SITE Intelligence Group – a provider of anti-terrorist intelligence – and UK's Telegraph newspaper.

The Telegraph said:

SITE red-faced as Islamist 'Washington ruin' image turns out to be from Fallout 3 game

This image of Washington after a nuclear holocaust, which a US intelligence group claimed showed the ambition of Islamic extremist terrorists, was actually lifted from a computer game.

The SITE Intelligence Group said that the image, showing a ruined Capitol Building in Washington, was created by extremists as part of discussions about the feasibility of nuclear strikes against the US and Britain.

The images appeared in a video, called Nuclear Jihad: The Ultimate Terror, posted on two password-protected websites, al-Ekhlass and al-Hesbah, believed to be affiliated with al-Qa’eda.

SITE also released translated several chatroom threads from al-Ekhlass and al-Hesbah, discussing the possibility of nuclear attacks on the West.

However, it has transpired that far from being a detailed simulation created by terrorist masterminds, the apocalyptic vision is in fact lifted from the computer game Fallout 3, by US game designers Bethesda Softworks.

And SITE fact-checked them back with a press release:

SITE rejects the claims by the Telegraph and stands fully behind the accuracy of its information and analysis. SITE at no time maintained that the image "was created by extremists."

SITE reported to its subscribers that extremists posted the image to a password-protected forum affiliated with al-Qaeda. This is entirely accurate. Moreover, this information was part of a report describing the general atmosphere in this forum with regard to extremists' discussions on weapons of mass destruction, making its context all the more important. This report in its entirety is also completely accurate.

The Telegraph is not a subscriber to SITE's services. Apparently, the newspaper made these erroneous claims without actually reading SITE's original report, and the basis of their information for their incorrect article is unknown to us.

Sounds like much ado about nothing. Hopefully, our intelligence services will spend more time tracking down the wanna-be murderers on those chat boards and not be distracted about where they got their imagery.

It's Hillary Clinton! Party time! Excellent!

Preparing to concede defeat? Or are we seeing the reason for her cockeyed policy ideas?

Hillary Clinton took time out from her punishing campaign schedule to enjoy a glass of whiskey with a group of journalists.

The Democratic presidential hopeful was flying back from Rapid City in South Dakota, one of the few states yet to hold its primary when she decided to let her hair down a little.

Her relaxed mood may give rise to speculation she is preparing to concede to her Democratic rival Barak Obama.

Comedian Harvey Korman dies at 81

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Harvey Korman, the tall, versatile comedian who won four Emmys for his outrageously funny contributions to "The Carol Burnett Show" and played a conniving politician to hilarious effect in "Blazing Saddles," died Thursday. He was 81.

Korman died at UCLA Medical Center after suffering complications from the rupture of an abdominal aortic aneurysm four months ago, his family said. He had undergone several major operations.

"He was a brilliant comedian and a brilliant father," daughter Kate Korman said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press. "He had a very good sense of humor in real life. "

"I want rustlers, cutthroats, murders, bounty hunters, desperados, mugs, pugs, thugs, nitwits, halfwits, dimwits, vipers, snipers, con-men, Indian agents, Mexican bandits, muggers, buggerers, bushwhackers, hornswogglars, horse thieves, bull-dykes, train robbers, bank robbers, ass-kickers, sh*t-kickers, and Methodists!"

As brilliant as he was in Blazing Saddles and High Anxiety, some of my favorite memories of Harvey Korman were from The Carol Burnett Show where he was paired with Tim Conway. Not just because Harvey was the perfect straight man but because every time they were on stage together, everyone was wondering when Korman would crack up because of Conway's ad-lib humor. He almost always did. And so did we.

Rest in peace, sir. You talent will be sorely missed.

Looking forward to President Obama?

While the fat lady hasn't even gotten on the stage yet, let alone opened her mouth to sing, I was intrigued by this blog post on CultureFeast:

First, what a President Obama will not be, he will not be some Islamic Manchurian candidate sent on a secrete mission to convert the United States to Islam. Chances are he will not turn out to be the Anti-Christ and lead the world into seven years of tribulation and he will definitely not destroy the US economy.

On the other hand, President Obama will not be the Mythical seconding coming of JFK and end poverty in this nation and fix all our social issues such as racism and prejudice. Education, healthcare and the environment will not just all of a sudden become great and to borrow a line from Hillary Clinton, a choir of angles will not come down and start singing.

If Obama is lucky and makes the right choices he could be like Harry Truman or FDR, if he is unlucky and makes bad choices he could be Jimmy Carter.

It'd be the ultimate in understatement to say this post is optimistic. But it's mostly even-handed. There's a lot more, so read the entire article.

Obama rewrites WW2 history

Hillary had her Tuzla. Now Obama has his own military fabrication falsehood gaffe.

Barack Obama took the occasion of Memorial Day to tell a blatant lie about his family's military service, claiming his uncle marched with Patton and was one of the first troops to liberate prisoners at Auschwitz (hey, maybe it wasn't a lie, maybe it was just like his version of geography where the US has 57 states). A little fact-checking reveals yet another whopper from the Harvard-educated Obamessiah. From Ace of Spades HQ:

In one of his more egregious and easily demonstrated lies, made even more so by the day he decided to let it loose on, Obama has rewritten WWII history such that the allies liberated Auschwitz.

...Obama also spoke about his uncle, who was part of the American brigade that helped to liberate Auschwitz...

Auschwitz of course is in Poland. It was liberated by the Red Army on Jan 27 1945. Poland, on most maps is usually placed to the east of Germany, although we may need to investigate the geography textbooks the Messiah used as a child...

Here's the clip:


In damage control mode, Obama supporters and his campaign are trying to spin it as a mistake or misstatement. Trouble is, not only did he make the ridiculous claim, he's been doing so since 2002. But it wasn't always his uncle, he used to claim it was his grandfather.

"My grandfather signed up for a war the day after Pearl Harbor was bombed, fought in Patton’s army. He saw the dead and dying across the fields of Europe; he heard the stories of fellow troops who first entered Auschwitz and Treblinka. He fought in the name of a larger freedom, part of that arsenal of democracy that triumphed over evil, and he did not fight in vain."

Pretty blatant stuff. But don't hold your breath waiting for the mainstream press to question him on his ignorance of world history, nor his long-standing prevarication.
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UPDATE: Welcome, readers of The Root.

John McCain's renewed push for amnesty

After his disastrous open-borders stance on illegal immigration was overwhelmingly rejected by American citizens last year, Sen. John McCain backtracked and claimed "I got the message" in a weak attempt at damage control. Since then, he has repeatedly claimed that he no longer supports comprehensive immigration reform. As recently as February of this year, he stated:

"...it would be among my highest priorities to secure our borders first, and only after we achieved widespread consensus that our borders are secure, would we address other aspects of the problem in a way that defends the rule of law and does not encourage another wave of illegal immigration."

I have remained unconvinced of McCain's change of heart and have tried to be cautiously optimistic, mainly because Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton's policy proposals are still worse choices for America.

Which is why I was doubly disappointed to hear last week that John McCain is backing off of his promise to secure the American borders with his new push for "guest worker visas," which is simply a polite euphemism for amnesty for illegal aliens.

Republican presidential candidate John McCain joined Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in calling today for comprehensive immigration reform, including guest worker visas to bring employees to California's Silicon Valley and the state's vast agricultural fields.
[...]
But today McCain, the now presumptive GOP presidential nominee, said an immigration program is needed that protects America's borders and national security. While he called for punishing employers who hire illegal immigrants, he also advocated a humane approach that treats illegal workers as "God's children."

McCain said they should be allowed to seek legal status in a "humane and comprehensive fashion" through a program "they can count on and trust."

I'll agree with him on this; we should treat illegal aliens as God's children, albeit God's children who have chosen to break America's laws and need to be removed from American soil. These same children of God can "seek legal status in a 'humane and comprehensive fashion' through a program 'they can count on and trust'": it's called coming back to America through legal channels and applying for citizenship.

Senator McCain, if you continue to mollycoddle businesses who rely on illegal alien labor and kowtow to amnesty groups like La Raza, I will refuse to vote for you this November. I don't know yet who I'd write in as my candidate of choice, but as it stands now, I will not put my support behind a lying RINO who won't enforce the law and ensure the safety of American citizens.

Jim Geraghty gives McCain the benefit of the doubt, but quips:

"so, this change away from border-security-first wouldn't happen, unless John McCain and his top advisers had gotten together, studied it in great detail, weighed all the advantages and disadvantages, and came to the carefully-considered conclusion that they're really not interested in winning the election?"

Memorial Day; today we honor our fallen

I hope you all enjoy your long weekend, but please take a few moments to reflect on the reason for Memorial Day. We honor and are truly thankful for all those who selflessly gave their lives or health in service of our great nation, and we treasure the precious gift of freedom that their valor has purchased at such high cost. We owe them an eternal debt of gratitude.

"Let no vandalism of avarice or neglect, no ravages of time, testify to the present or to the coming generations, that we have forgotten, as a people, the cost of a free and undivided Republic." ~John A. Logan
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UPDATE: Other good posts to read on this most solemn day...

• Black Five
• Jenn of the Jungle
• Say Anything
• Ace of Spades HR
• Captain Ed
• Wyatt Earp
• Texas Rainmaker

Theorized Coconut Transport Probabilities

Maxine Waters' freudian slip on nationalizing oil companies

Here's the video showing what happened yesterday in a Senate and House Judiciary Committee meeting. Congresswoman Maxine Waters displayed not only her utter ignorance about supply and demand, but made a very revealing verbal gaffe: (h/t: Hot Air)

"And guess what this liberal will be all about? This liberal will be all about socializing.... uh, umm... will be about... basically... taking over... and the government running all of your companies."

1:10 into the clip, Ms. Waters accidentally says what the far left of her party believe, that the government has the right to seize control of private industry. If Democrats truly were interested in reducing the price of gasoline, they'd allow the oil companies to drill in ANWR and off our gulf coast to increase the output of oil and gas and improve our energy independence. But liberal extremists don't really want that. They'd rather use the American citizens' plight to demagogue their way to more power and bigger government.

Religion of Peace update: Basra militias commit atrocities for Allah

Somebody alert John Murtha and John Kerry, it's not our soldiers who are terrorizing civilians in Iraq...

CNN – The man, blindfolded and handcuffed, crouches in the corner of the detention center while an Iraqi soldier grills him about rampant crimes being carried out by gangs in the southern city of Basra.

"How many girls did you kill and rape?" the soldier asks.

"I raped one, sir," the man responds.

"What was her name?"

"Ahlam," he says.

Ahlam was a university student in the predominantly Shiite city of Basra. The detainee said the gang he was in kidnapped her as she was leaving the university, heading home.

"They forced me, and I killed her with a machine gun, sir," he says.

The suspect, who is unshaven and appears to be in his 20s or 30s, was arrested by Iraq security forces after they retook most of Basra in April.

CNN was shown what authorities say was his first confession. On it are the names of 15 girls whom he admitted kidnapping, raping and killing. The youngest girl on the list was just 9 years old.

Women bore the brunt of the militias' extremist ideologies. The militants spray-painted threats on walls across Basra, warning women to wear headscarves and not to wear makeup. Women were sometimes executed for the vague charge of doing something "un-Islamic."

Militias implemented their own laws with abandon, threatening stores for displaying mannequins with bare shoulders or for selling Western music. Many store owners are still too frightened to speak publicly.

But the horrors of militia rule are now surfacing as some residents begin to feel more comfortable speaking out.

Inside her rundown home, Sabriya's watery eyes peer out from under her robe. She points to the first photo of one of her sons on the wall.

"This one was killed because he was drinking," she says.

She draws her finger across her neck and gestures at the next photo.

"This one the same," she adds, looking at the third.

Her three sons, her daughter and her sister were all killed by the hard-line militia. Her sister was slaughtered because she was a single woman living alone, Sabriya says.

"They came in at night and put a pillow on her face and shot her in the head," she says.

Sabriya lives on what was once dubbed "murder street" for the daily killings that happened there last year.

On the day CNN visited, dozens of young men sat where there used to be piles of bodies. Sheik Maktouf al-Maraiyani shudders at the memory.

"Every day, we would find 10 or 15 of our men killed," he says, adding sorrowfully "one of them was my son." His son was 25 years old.

Now, "murder street" is part of a citywide effort to get Basra back on its feet. In a project funded by U.S. forces, Sheikh Maktouf and others are being paid $20 a day and upwards to clean up trash.

Basra may be part of the country's oil-rich south, but it wallows in its own sewage and trash. The stench of filth is impossible to escape. The effort also helps with the massive unemployment plaguing the city.

British forces officially handed over responsibility of Basra to Iraqi forces in December.

"The situation was so bad because the security forces were controlled by the militias," says Brig. Gen. Aziz al-Swady, who commands the 14th Iraq Army Divison.

To help curb the violence, British troops have returned to the city, adopting the U.S. approach of embedding with Iraqi units as advisers. The Iraqi prime minister also has flooded the city with additional troops, bringing in soldiers from western Iraq along with their American advisers.

"Now the citizens have started to trust the Iraqi security forces," said al-Swady.

Hmm, law and order returns when there is a surge of soldiers to protect the civilians from the fundamentalist Islamists? What a coincidence!

AP fact checks Obama's foreign policy

Anybody with more than half a brain has already noticed the ridiculous inconsistencies and naive idealism in Barack Obama's foreign policy. But you know things are bad when the MSM starts to ask questions.

Obama's outreach to US foes is questionable

Barack Obama's willingness to meet Iranian, Cuban and other hostile leaders who would not get face time from John McCain stands as a distinctive element of his foreign policy.

Distinctive, yes, but clearly defined? Not quite.

Obama gets cheers at his rallies when he declares there is nothing to fear, and potentially much to gain, from talking to enemies as well as friends.

But U.S. diplomacy is not that simple and neither is his position.

This week, Obama qualified his past statements that he would meet the Iranian leadership directly and without precondition by saying he did not necessarily mean Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Iran's hardline, anti-American president.

Nor is it certain lately at what point he, as president, would speak personally with some of the dictators he says should be engaged.

This, despite months of assertions that his willingness to sit down with foes sets him apart from Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton and now McCain, the likely Republican presidential nominee, who challenges Obama on that point.

Check out the rest of the spin.

U.C. students fawn over former Gitmo detainees

Leave it to some "blame America first" idiots to host an event geared around sympathizing with captured terrorists.

California – Via videoconference from Sudan, three former Guantanamo Bay detainees will talk for the first time to a U.S. audience about their prison experiences at a May 31 benefit for the Guantanamo Testimonials Project, a UC Davis-based effort to catalog accounts of prisoner abuse from print and broadcast sources around the world.
[...]
The event is organized by the UCD Center for the Study of Human Rights in the Americas and is co-sponsored by the UCD Hemispheric Institute on the Americas, the UCD School of Law, the UCD Muslim Student Association, the UCD Middle East/South Asia Studies Program and the American Civil Liberties Union of Yolo County. The former detainees' participation in the videoconference was arranged by Isma'il Kushkush, a UCD graduate who is now working as a journalist for Islam Online.

I wonder if these myopic students will realize the error of their ways if/when these guys follow in the footsteps of other "former detainees" who end up killed in subsequent combat or suicide bomber attacks.

Metallica is back-a!

Metallica played last week in L.A. at the KROQ Annual Weenie Roast and it sounds like they're back in more ways than one. (h/t: Tony Pierce)

Following a small benefit concert this past Wednesday at the Wiltern, Metallica hit the stage with such force and bombast that it was hard to believe that had only done a handful of shows since 2004. The legendary four-piece tore through "Fuel" and "For Whom the Bell Tolls" at the open of their set. Led by the ever powerful James Hetfield, the volume and power that comes with a Metallica show is unlike anything you will experience. They kept their setlist limited to pre-St. Anger material and did not showcase any new songs. It was hard to tell that it had been almost four years since they had toured as they three guitar/bass wielding members weaved a delicate choreography on stage with one player never in the same spot for more than a song. Guitarist Kirk Hammet's shredding solos are still some of the most intense and charged out there as each solo break was a showcase for his amazing talent. The 16,000 + capacity crowd at the Verizon Wireless Amphitheater, who had braved the fierce heat of the day, loved every second of it.

I can hardly wait 'till they come to Dallas this August!

Midweek Peek 05.21.08

Since she's in the news this week, country music diva Shania Twain is this week's dose of feminine pulchritude.

Busy Tuesday blogroll roundup

Last week, the freelance gig I've been working for 8 months finally came to a close. I had been hearing rumors and pretty much knew it was gonna happen, but after I got home I received an email from my recruiter telling me that the agency has slowed down and doesn't need any freelancers at all.

Luckily for me, I had received a call earlier in the day from the agency for whom I used to work, asking if I could come in and work for a week or two. Of course, I was more than happy to oblige. So this week, I'm back at my old agency, cranking out whatever they happen to have around. I'll probably blog later this afternoon. In the meantime, here's some good stuff:

• Jumpmaster 82: Cost of War...Put Into Perspective


• Neal Boortz: Obama says "Leave My Wife Alone"


• Ace: MSM Tries Redefining Recession as Up to 1.5% Positive Growth


• Crush Liberalism: Americans Think Obama Will Lose Iraq War


• Say Anything: Enviros Want Global Warming Laws Tied In With Polar Bear Status


• Michelle Malkin: The Blogosphere Schools Barack Obama in Asymmetric Warfare


• Hot Air: Muslim School Officials Attack News Crew In Twin Cities

I'm John McCain and I approved this anti-McCain message

It makes me sad that this is the candidate put forth as the best the GOP has to offer. His McCain-Feingold assault on First Amendment freedoms is abhorrent, his McCain-Kennedy attempt at amnesty for 20+ million illegal aliens is a crime against every American citizen, and his apparent inability to express himself coherently might severely hamstring his ability to overcome the Obamessiah. The only things he's got going for him is a better position on the war against Islamofascists and a lukewarm position on the Fair Tax. Here's hoping he can get his foot out of his mouth long enough to put forth some kind of coherent message to defeat the advocates of Marxism at the polls in November.

Dave Navarro spoofs 24 on Mad TV

The following takes place between 8:00am and 9:00am...

CA Supreme Court legalizes gay marriage. So?

Yesterday was a big day for equal rights.

San Francisco – The California Supreme Court, striking down two state laws that had limited marriages to unions between a man and a woman, ruled on Thursday that same-sex couples have a constitutional right to marry.

The 4-to-3 decision, drawing on a ruling 60 years ago that struck down a state ban on interracial marriage, would make California the second state, after Massachusetts, to allow same-sex marriages.

Let me clarify one thing. I'm against judicial activism. But at the same time, I'm against using religion to justify denial of equal rights to other Americans. Part of me wants to say that from a legal standpoint, the issue of gay marriage should be settled on a state-by-state basis. But even then, I'm more than a little uncomfortable with the idea of a mandate from the voters being the basis for civil rights. If the people of a state voted for a measure amending their constitution to ban people of a certain race, would that make it right?

I really have a hard time understanding why so many on the right have such a problem with the idea of gay marriage. Sure, I get the whole "marriage is between a man and a woman" argument. That's what some folks believe, based on their own hang-ups and bolstered by a few Bible verses. Ok, fine. Believe what you want. But religious beliefs shouldn't be mandating public policy. You wanna let Old Testament Christianity (Judaism, actually) dictate state and federal law? If so, you're gonna have to give the Muslims a go of it, too. And given the whole stoning thing, I don't think we wanna let that camel into the tent.

Don't give me any bullshit about "sanctity of marriage" either. Not when we're a country with an approximately 50% divorce rate (and I don't even know what the rate for adultery would be). Homophobes have no solid ground upon which to stand here.

Besides, how does it impact your life one iota if a gay couple – who love each other and want to commit to one another – enters into a domestic partnership to receive the same legal rights as married hetero couples? The state may choose to recognize gay unions or marriages or whatever you wanna call them. As long as nobody forces a church to perform the ceremony, it shouldn't be an issue apart from highlighting some people's insecurities.

Hillary's 3am calls

A few words on Obama and terrorist appeasement

I think Barack Obama has confused being defensive with national defense. Instapundit made an excellent observation about the presumptive Democrat nominee's response to President Bush's foreign policy speech yesterday:

MEMO TO THE OBAMA CAMPAIGN: When somebody condemns appeasement, it doesn’t help things to jump up and yell "Hey, he's talking about me!"

Ken McCracken not only takes the ball into the end zone, he does the funky chicken.

Obama walked into this like a drunk into an open manhole, drawing all kinds of attention to the fact that Obama does in fact favor appeasing America's enemies. Giving rogue terrorist states the honor and legitimacy of meeting with America's leader with no conditions and nothing more than a wistful hope that something positive will come of it is indeed appeasement, even if it is not on the scale of handing the entire Sudetenland over to Hitler. Obama flip-flopped on his statement that he would meet with the leaders of Iran and North Korea without any preconditions and now claims he does not favor that policy, but it is too late. We now know what his instincts tell him to do, and it is to capitulate whenever possible. Presumably because America is at fault in the first place, which is of course what his good friend, mentor and spiritual advisor Jeremiah Wright counsels.

Just a few other thoughts on appeasement in general:

"The truly and deliberately evil men are in a very small minority; it is the appeaser who unleashes them on mankind; it is the appeaser's intellectual abdication that invites them to take over." – Ayn Rand (h/t: DPGI)

And on Barack Obama's contentious need to lash out:

"Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt." – Abraham Lincoln

Please help save a life

One of the folks who used to come to karaoke with us is facing a terrible crisis. Please do me a favor, take a moment to visit this site and help out in any way you can. Even just a few dollars would help (there are PayPal buttons on the site).

Just when I think things are going rough for me, I see something like this and realize just how much my life is blessed and abundant.

As of April 21, 2008, Bram is 22 months old. On that same day, Alayne found out that the brain tumor he had removed on 04/15 is an Atypical Teratoid Rhabdoid Tumor. This is a very rare tumor, only diagnosed in about 50 children a year. The survival rate is 50% from the time of diagnosis to 2 years. His year-long treatment will consist of aggressive chemotherapy and possible radiation.

Alayne is a single mother who works as a teacher in a small town. She will have to drive 55 miles each way to the Children's Hospital that he will be treated in. She does not have a reliable car and the gas prices are outrageous, as you know. She is not getting paid for any time she takes off of work. The real father will not help in any way even though he now knows that Bram has cancer.

So, we need to get Bram and Alayne's story out to as many people as possible. We hope that this story will touch the right heart and Bram and Alayne can get the help they need to financially make it through this ordeal.

McCain's "Big Vision" speech from Lala Land

John McCain gave a speech in Columbus, Ohio this morning to convey his "big vision." Much of it was worded as though he had already been president for several years. While that's a creative way to get his points across, the substance of his message was hobbled by his "can't we all just get along" platitudes (the entire speech is here).

"If I am elected President, I will work with anyone who sincerely wants to get this country moving again."
[...]
"I will ask Democrats to serve in my administration."
[...]
"I’m not interested in partisanship that serves no other purpose than to gain a temporary advantage over our opponents. This mindless, paralyzing rancor must come to an end."

McCain's political identity revolves around him being a so-called maverick, bravely "reaching across the aisle" in a spirit of bipartisanship.

Horse hockey.

Personally, I’m still waiting for him to “reach across the aisle” to conservatives! He doesn't need to reach across to Democrats, as he already sides with them on many issues. That's not bipartisan, nor is does it make him a nonconformist. It makes him a liberal, also known as a RINO (Republican In Name Only). It's cowardice to refuse to stand on principle and fight for what one believes. Compromising on every issue is weakness. If he truly wants to side with the La Raza racists and give amnesty to 20+ million illegal aliens, he should be a real maverick and abandon the Republican party to become a Democrat. If he wants to side with Al Gore and push the "global warming" hoax, he should likewise place a (D) beside his name. I'd still disagree with him, but at least I would respect his willingness to stand by his convictions.

While I agree with the sentiment that we are all fellow Americans and should act that way when dealing with one another in the political arena, we also have a duty to debate the serious and substantive disagreements about the role, size and scope of the Federal government. We all have a right to our opinions, yes, but we also have a Constitution for a reason. Either we abide by it or we don't. Abandoning our principles to “get things done” is just a mealy-mouthed way to enact a carefully-worded Democrat agenda for a socialist America. We need a leader who can speak persuasively about national security, high standards and personal responsibility, and inspire others to achieve greatness. Sadly, John McCain doesn't seem to be that man. Rather than following Rodney King's "Can't we all just get along?", he'd do better to pursue Martin Luther's maxim; "Peace if possible, truth at all costs."
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UPDATE: Fred Thompson is back on the radar, blogging on Townhall.com today with some similar advice:

"Now isn’t the time for conservatives to be looking for a tailored message or a politically expedient route to victory if the end result is going to be the inevitable slide toward the liberalization and secularization of America, and the growth of government and loss of freedom that inevitably ensues. For us conservatives it must be about principles and policies that are grounded in freedom, free markets and the rule of law."

Religion of Peace update: Murdered for speaking against suicide bombing

Sadly, this indicative of why we don't hear much from moderate Muslims. (h/t: Jihad Watch)

KABUL, Afghanistan – A teacher was shot to death in northern Afghanistan after he gave a speech condemning suicide bombings, officials said Wednesday.

Abdul Hadi criticized such attacks as un-Islamic and un-Afghan during a speech Tuesday in the Archi district of Kunduz province, said Khair Mohammad Subat, the provincial education department director.

Hadi spoke at a gathering of about 700 people, including the Kunduz governor, and was on his way home when he was killed, Subat said.

Kunduz police chief Gen. Mohammad Ayub Salangi said police were investigating. No arrests have been made.

In January, Education Minister Mohammad Hanif Atmar said the number of students and teachers killed in Taliban attacks spiked in the past year in a campaign to close schools and force teenage boys to join the Islamic militia.

Once again, intolerance and violence strengthen the jihadi stereotype and terrorize into silence and assent those Muslims who disagree with radical Islam as the true interpretation of the Qur'an.

Not voting for Obama is racism?

In case you haven't been paying attention, anyone not voting for Barack Obama is a racist. CNN's Ruben Navarrette Jr. makes no bones about it.

Meanwhile, some white Americans are turning themselves inside out to come up with excuses for why they’re not supporting Obama. It seems like just yesterday that these folks were arguing there is no racism in the immigration debate, and now they’re insisting there is no racism in the presidential election.

Some want to know why it isn’t racist when 70 percent of African-Americans vote for Obama but it is when 70 percent of whites vote against him.

The answer has to do with history. Over the decades, black Americans have had plenty of opportunities to vote for white people for president. And they have done so. But this is the first time that white Americans have a chance to vote for an African-American with a shot at the presidency. And what are they doing?

Many are responding quite well. Obama won the votes of many — to borrow a phrase — "hardworking white Americans — in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska and Wyoming. But, elsewhere, as Obama said in a recent interview, people may need to get their head around the concept of an African-American even seeking the presidency, let alone winning it.

Yeah, the answer couldn't possibly be that many Americans dislike Obama because of his lack of judgment, lack of experience, and radical socialist positions on many issues. It's gotta be racism. It's your opportunity to make up for past racism by voting for a black man, and you white people are blowing it.

I guess I'm not "responding quite well" to my opportunity.

Hillary campaign deathwatch

Despite her West Virginia victory, Hillary's campaign has so many forks stuck in it, it's looking like a porcupine.

Midweek Peek 05.14.08

Catalina Cruz

MISSION: METALLICA

It was cool enough that they're finally back in the USA, but now they've launched a site to hype the new album (their first one in five years) before it's done... MISSION: METALLICA!

Check it out. Riffs and excerpts, unique live tracks, and behind-the-scenes footage as they polish off the next weapon of aural destruction!
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UPDATE: This just in, Metallica will be making their Ozzfest debut in Dallas on Saturday, August 9!

U.S. Marine Corps reach 142% of recruiting goals

Some good news despite the best efforts of many anti-military zealots on the left. OOO-RAH!

AP – The Marine Corps far surpassed its recruiting goal last month and could eventually be more than a year ahead of schedule in its plan to grow the force to 202,000 members.

All military services met or exceeded their monthly recruiting goals in April, with the Marine Corps signing 142 percent of the number it was looking for, the Pentagon said.

The Army signed 101 percent of its goal, recruiting 5,681 against a goal of 5,650. The Navy and Air Force met their goals — 2,905 sailors and 2,435 airmen.

The Marine Corps enlisted 2,233 recruits against a goal of 1,577.

"The Marine Corps, if they continue to achieve the kind of success they have had, could meet their growth figures more than a year early," Defense Department spokesman Bryan Whitman told Pentagon reporters.

Is Obama a Muslim apostate?

We're not allowed to mention Barack Obama's middle name nor his Muslim heritage. But surprisingly, the New York Times has done the latter. According to their op-ed piece, not only might Barack Obama be considered an apostate of Islam, but shari'a law might command his execution.

As the son of the Muslim father, Senator Obama was born a Muslim under Muslim law as it is universally understood. It makes no difference that, as Senator Obama has written, his father said he renounced his religion. Likewise, under Muslim law based on the Koran his mother’s Christian background is irrelevant.

Of course, as most Americans understand it, Senator Obama is not a Muslim. He chose to become a Christian, and indeed has written convincingly to explain how he arrived at his choice and how important his Christian faith is to him.

His conversion, however, was a crime in Muslim eyes; it is “irtidad” or “ridda,” usually translated from the Arabic as “apostasy,” but with connotations of rebellion and treason. Indeed, it is the worst of all crimes that a Muslim can commit, worse than murder (which the victim’s family may choose to forgive).

With few exceptions, the jurists of all Sunni and Shiite schools prescribe execution for all adults who leave the faith not under duress; the recommended punishment is beheading at the hands of a cleric, although in recent years there have been both stonings and hangings. (Some may point to cases in which lesser punishments were ordered — as with some Egyptian intellectuals who have been punished for writings that were construed as apostasy — but those were really instances of supposed heresy, not explicitly declared apostasy as in Senator Obama’s case.)

It is true that the criminal codes in most Muslim countries do not mandate execution for apostasy (although a law doing exactly that is pending before Iran’s Parliament and in two Malaysian states). But as a practical matter, in very few Islamic countries do the governments have sufficient authority to resist demands for the punishment of apostates at the hands of religious authorities.
[...]
Because no government is likely to allow the prosecution of a President Obama — not even those of Iran and Saudi Arabia, the only two countries where Islamic religious courts dominate over secular law — another provision of Muslim law is perhaps more relevant: it prohibits punishment for any Muslim who kills any apostate, and effectively prohibits interference with such a killing.

At the very least, that would complicate the security planning of state visits by President Obama to Muslim countries, because the very act of protecting him would be sinful for Islamic security guards.

That last bit might pose a bit of a problem if a President Obama were to decide to go forward with his conditional/unconditional personal negotiations with Iran.
---
UPDATE: Contrary to what some apologists claim, the Qur'an and Hadith are not silent about Islam's death penalty for apostasy.

• Qur'an - 004.089
  They long that ye should disbelieve even as they disbelieve, that ye may be upon a level (with them). So choose not friends from them till they forsake their homes in the way of Allah; if they turn back (to enmity) then take them and kill them wherever ye find them, and choose no friend nor helper from among them
• Hadith Sahih Bukhari - Volume 9, Book 83, Number 17
  Allah's Apostle said, "The blood of a Muslim who confesses that none has the right to be worshipped but Allah and that I am His Apostle, cannot be shed except in three cases: In Qisas for murder, a married person who commits illegal sexual intercourse and the one who reverts from Islam (apostate) and leaves the Muslims."
• Hadith Sahih Bukhari - Volume 9, Book 84, Number 57
  Some Zanadiqa (atheists) were brought to 'Ali and he burnt them. The news of this event, reached Ibn 'Abbas who said, "If I had been in his place, I would not have burnt them, as Allah's Apostle forbade it, saying, 'Do not punish anybody with Allah's punishment (fire).' I would have killed them according to the statement of Allah's Apostle, 'Whoever changed his Islamic religion, then kill him.'"
• Hadith Sahih Bukhari - Volume 9, Book 89, Number 271
  A man embraced Islam and then reverted back to Judaism. Mu'adh bin Jabal came and saw the man with Abu Musa. Mu'adh asked, "What is wrong with this (man)?" Abu Musa replied, "He embraced Islam and then reverted back to Judaism." Mu'adh said, "I will not sit down unless you kill him (as it is) the verdict of Allah and His Apostle."

Obama's "unconditional" flip-flop

The Obama campaign, and their unabashed accomplices at the New York Times, are now claiming Obama never stated he would meet personally with Iran without condition.

Susan E. Rice, a former State Department and National Security Council official who is a foreign policy adviser to the Democratic candidate, said that “for political purposes, Senator Obama’s opponents on the right have distorted and reframed” his views. Mr. McCain and his surrogates have repeatedly stated that Mr. Obama would be willing to meet “unconditionally” with Mr. Ahmadinejad. But Dr. Rice said that this was not the case for Iran or any other so-called “rogue” state. Mr. Obama believes “that engagement at the presidential level, at the appropriate time and with the appropriate preparation, can be used to leverage the change we need,” Dr. Rice said. “But nobody said he would initiate contacts at the presidential level; that requires due preparation and advance work.”

Nobody said that? I guess "nobody" created the Obama campaign website, too.

And Senator Obama's opponents must have been performing one hell of a ventriloquism act at the Democrat debate on CNN/YouTube last year.

QUESTION: In 1982, Anwar Sadat traveled to Israel, a trip that resulted in a peace agreement that has lasted ever since.

In the spirit of that type of bold leadership, would you be willing to meet separately, without precondition, during the first year of your administration, in Washington or anywhere else, with the leaders of Iran, Syria, Venezuela, Cuba and North Korea, in order to bridge the gap that divides our countries?

OBAMA: I would. And the reason is this, that the notion that somehow not talking to countries is punishment to them — which has been the guiding diplomatic principle of this administration — is ridiculous.

Maybe they need to change their campaign slogan to "Changes We Want You To Believe."

Two-Face pic leaked!

I've been keeping up with the trailers for the upcoming Batman movie, The Dark Knight and stumbled across something that supposedly was to be kept secret until the movie's release. I'm not gonna post it here and spoil it for everyone, 'cause I'm good like that. But a pretty gruesome pic of Aaron Eckhart (who plays Gotham's District Attorney Harvey Dent) transformed into the villainous Two-Face has hit the web and if you wanna see it, you can do so here.

Who ya got?

Religion of Peace update: radical Islam is like the FLDS cult

Surprisingly enough, HuffPo posted an excellent article this week entitled "Losing Our Spines to Save Our Necks" which discussed the conflict between civilized society and traditional Islam using the recently-publicized fundamentalist Mormon cult for comparison: (h/t: Weasel Zippers)

A point of comparison: The controversy of over Fitna was immediately followed by ubiquitous media coverage of a scandal involving the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS). In Texas, police raided an FLDS compound and took hundreds of women and underage girls into custody to spare them the continued, sacramental predations of their menfolk. While mainstream Mormonism is now granted the deference accorded to all major religions in the United States, its fundamentalist branch, with its commitment to polygamy, spousal abuse, forced marriage, child brides (and, therefore, child rape) is often portrayed in the press as a depraved cult. But one could easily argue that Islam, considered both in the aggregate and in terms of its most negative instances, is far more despicable than fundamentalist Mormonism. The Muslim world can match the FLDS sin for sin--Muslims commonly practice polygamy, forced-marriage (often between underage girls and older men), and wife-beating--but add to these indiscretions the surpassing evils of honor killing, female "circumcision," widespread support for terrorism, a pornographic fascination with videos showing the butchery of infidels and apostates, a vibrant form of anti-semitism that is explicitly genocidal in its aspirations, and an aptitude for producing children's books and television programs which exalt suicide-bombing and depict Jews as "apes and pigs."

Any honest comparison between these two faiths reveals a bizarre double standard in our treatment of religion. We can openly celebrate the marginalization of FLDS men and the rescue of their women and children. But, leaving aside the practical and political impossibility of doing so, could we even allow ourselves to contemplate liberating the women and children of traditional Islam?

There's much more in the rest of the article, it's well worth the read.

Nearly 25% of Rotterdam's Turks and Moroccans married to relatives?

It's like Deliverance with burkhas!

Netherlands – Almost one quarter of Turkish and Moroccan parents in Rotterdam are married to a relative. The National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) writes this in a study commissioned by the Health Ministry.

Marriages between nephew and niece, second cousins and uncles and nieces pose an increased risk of rare genetic abnormalities in their children. Education and genetic research is needed to bring down the number of disorders, according to RIVM.

Of the 653 Turkish parents who partake in the study, 24 percent stated they were married to a relative. Among the 474 Moroccan parents, the number was 22 percent.

Hillary R. Clinton, will you PLEASE GO NOW!

It's official, Barack Obama now leads in the popular vote, pledged delegates, and states. It no longer matters whether she promises ponies for every household or turns on the waterworks again, Hillary Clinton won't be able to overtake Obama’s lead. The "Hail Mary" play that is her campaign has fallen short.

The only question remaining is when she'll finally admit it.

Allahpundit sums up last night's drubbing:

Slate’s keeping an eye on RCP’s running popular-vote totals and notes that not only will Obama widen his delegate margin tonight, he’ll erase the PV gains she made in Pennsylvania. In fact, as of this moment, even if Florida and Michigan are counted RCP gives her a popular vote lead of just 3,000+ votes — a margin of less than one-tenth of one percent. And that’s assuming that the popular vote totals from the caucuses in Iowa, Washington, Maine, and Nevada (which weren’t reported) aren’t counted at all. If you estimate for those states, he ends up with a lead of more than 100,000. Which means she has nothing left to commend her to the supers except an electabilty argument unsupported by a single key metric or even circumstantial evidence that Pastorgate has done Obama grievous damage at the polls. Are they going to take the nomination from the first serious black candidate for president without any compelling data to hang their decision on? Not a chance. It’s over. Let’s move on.

Knowing how both Clintons are such megalomaniacs, we probably won't see an end to this any time soon.

Awareness test

Watch this ad very very carefully.

It’s a brief awareness test that requires some serious concentration.

Think you're up to it?

It’s actually a very clever road safety ad. Nice use of humor to effectively convey the message without resorting to the typical scare tactics.

Things Meatloaf Would Do For Love:

In the same vein as Rick Astley would never:

Midweek Peek 05.07.08

Mariah Carey

Both Dems racing toward defeat

AFP – Voters in North Carolina and Indiana weighed in on the fates of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton Tuesday, in the most significant contests left in their presidential showdown.

Opinion polls suggested Obama was positioned to win in North Carolina and Clinton could take Indiana, in a split which would keep her long-odds hopes of a comeback alive, but raise new fears of deep splits in the Democratic Party.
[...]
Whatever the outcome, neither candidate can win enough delegates Tuesday to secure the Democratic presidential nomination.

But victory or defeat in either state could sway the "superdelegates" -- Democratic Party bosses set to cast deciding votes in the stalemate.
[...]
Clinton currently trails Obama in nominating contest wins and pledged delegates. His campaign says he is now only 273 votes short of capturing the Democratic Party nod.

Clinton's camp admits she cannot overtake the Illinois senator in the count of pledged delegates who will formally anoint the nominee at the Democratic convention in August.

So she is trying to persuade superdelegates that her rival would be a liability against McCain.

With primaries in both NC and IN, tonight is gonna be interesting. But no matter which Dem eventually takes the nomination, both are poised to push America over a cliff. That's what I mean when I say both Democrats are racing toward defeat. It doesn't matter which one wins the primary. If one of them gets into the Oval Office, America will lose. Whether it's a continuation of recent reckless spending and the additional confiscatory taxes required to fund it, governmental takeover of 20% of America's GDP (euphemistically termed "universal healthcare"), retreat in Iraq, open borders anarchy, or a combination of all the above, many deluded Americans who say "it can't get any worse" seem eager to enable Obama or Hillary to prove them dead wrong.

The GOP isn't doing much better. Allahpundit translates Newt Gingrich's 9 Acts Of Real Change plan, intended as a wake-up call to the Republican party:

"The Republican brand has been so badly damaged that if Republicans try to run an anti-Obama, anti-Reverend Wright, or (if Senator Clinton wins), anti-Clinton campaign, they are simply going to fail."

Damn skippy. Watching the Democrats implode is fun, but won't get us anywhere after this election. It's time for the GOP to sound off with some ideas that demonstrate leadership and common sense, not just lofty rhetoric and feel-good platitudes. Check out Gingrich's plan. It's not perfect, but it's a start. The moratorium on earmarks is a good idea, as are the budget cuts, oil and energy initiatives, and English as our unifying language.

America is collectively disgusted with our current direction. And the Democrats continue to prove themselves incapable of leading in a coherent, positive direction. McCain, as flawed as he is, better wake up and smell the coffee. As should we all.

What McCain has yet to learn about La Raza

It's an understatement to say that I'm disappointed that John "Amnesty" McCain has made plans in July to speak to the National Council of La Raza (The Race), the pro-illegal alien advocacy group.

Michelle Malkin put together a good list of the top 10 reasons McCain should repudiate the racists of La Raza (did I mention they refer to themselves as "The Race"?). Here are a few of the ones that make give me a facial tic:

• La Raza supports driver’s licenses for illegal aliens.


• La Raza supports in-state tuition discounts for illegal alien students that are not available to law-abiding US citizens and law-abiding legal immigrants.


• Former La Raza president Raul Yzaguirre (Hillary Clinton’s Hispanic outreach advisor) said this:"US English is to Hispanics as the Ku Klux Klan is to blacks." He was referring to US English the nation’s oldest, largest citizens’ action group dedicated to preserving the unifying role of the English language in the United States.


• Their signature slogan, chanted at pro-illegal alien rallies from coast to coast, is "La raza unida nunca sera vencida."
  
  "A united [Hispanic] race will never be defeated."

And just what, I wonder, does La Raza (The Race) feel the need to be united against? Secure borders for America? Law enforcement? The English language?

McCain has already made enough mistakes on the illegal immigration issue. He shouldn't be repeating them by pandering to bigots who have no respect for America's laws and culture. Any short-term success he might gain in illegal immigrant and Hispanic votes won't outweigh the long-term damage being done to this country by multiculturalism.

Rather than acquiesce to those who seek to subvert America for their own selfish cause, McCain would prove himself a better leader by following the wise words of Theodore Roosevelt:

"In the first place, we should insist that if the immigrant who comes here in good faith becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else, for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed, or birthplace, or origin. But this is predicated upon the person's becoming in every facet an American, and nothing but an American. There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn't an American at all. We have room for but one flag, the American flag. We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language. And we have room for but one sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the American people."

The newest trailer for The Dark Knight

I posted the bootleg along with the kickass movie posters last week, but here's the newest official trailer for The Dark Knight. Heath Ledger's laugh still creeps me out and it's looking like he did an incredible job as The Joker (eat your heart out, Jack Nicholson). I can't wait to see how they turn Aaron Eckhart into Two-Face!

The Empire Strikes Barack

An Obama supporter apparently has spent a LOT of time in his parents' basement recently, but this is pretty darn funny.

Democrat dirty trick goes wrong

To paraphrase a certain well-known reverend, identity politics are coming home to roost.

The buzz around the net this morning has revolved around a certain video clip from The War Room – a documentary of Bill Clinton's 1992 campaign – that began circulating yesterday (eagerly lapped up on Kos and DU, ostensibly to counteract the recent Snobama meme). It supposedly showed Hillary Clinton adviser Mickey Kantor calling working class whites in Indiana things like "sh*t" and "white n**ger".

Turns out it's fraudulent. The audio was badly manufactured and thrust out into YouTube for Dem cannibalization. Might this be Team Obama's sloppy shot across Hillary's bow? If so, they'd better tighten it up if they hope to compete against the team that originated the politics of personal destruction.

Hillary admits she won't enforce federal law as president

Ever since her campaign began, Hillary Clinton has been pandering to the illegal aliens in America, counting on Democrat voter fraud to ensure their numbers count for her this November. But she hasn't been honest (shockeroo) about her contempt for federal law until her interview this week with Bill O'Reilly, where he got her to admit in no uncertain terms that she will not enforce laws against sanctuary cities.

According to a new report from the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), the illegal immigrant population within the United States currently exceeds 13 million, an estimate that has almost doubled since 2000. Given this increasing trend, Hillary's response should be frightening to American families, who are forced to live with frequent criminal activity committed by illegals in sanctuary cities. Even during the Senate debate of the Grand Amnesty bill last year, Senator Clinton voted against the Coleman Amendment which would have banned sanctuary cities (Roll Call 177).

"It is an outrage that Hillary Clinton is running to become President of the United States, yet she is openly admitting that she will not enforce America's laws," said Eagle Forum Executive Director Jessica Echard. "Sanctuary city policies put all Americans in danger, and as an elected official, Hillary Clinton is well aware of that fact. Do we really want to elect someone who will enable criminal aliens to roam our streets?"

Religion of Peace update: Censored jihad

Jihad Watch's Robert Spencer discusses basic grammar and the results of the State Department's submission to Islamic apologists who object to the use Islamic in connection with Islamic terrorists people (who might by some slim coincidence happen to be Muslims themselves) who happen to murder non-Muslims – in the name of Allah – for the crime of being a non-Muslim.

We apologise for the fault in this blog's terminology. Those responsible have been sacked beheaded.

There ISN'T a recession? Inconceivable!

You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.

The bruised economy limped through the first quarter, growing at just a 0.6 percent pace as housing and credit problems forced people and businesses alike to hunker down.

The country's economic growth during January through March was the same as in the final three months of last year, the Commerce Department reported Wednesday. The statistic did not meet what economists consider the classic definition of a recession, which is a retraction of the economy. This means that although the economy is stuck in a rut, it is still managing to grow, even if modestly.

Schweeet Photoshop of the Week

Click to see Sweasel's asshat. (h/t: Ace)

"The Incredible Hulk" trailer

It appears Marvel is having a banner year, no pun intended (aw, what the hell, go pun yourself). Iron Man looks really good. I'm not so sure about The Incredible Hulk. I wasn't a big fan of Ang Lee's Hulk, am ambivalent about the addition of Ed Norton and Liv Tyler, and am skeptical about William Hurt's ability to pull off a villain role.

But if nothing else, Brad Pitt is gonna get his ass kicked in the next Fight Club.

I especially liked the little 4-note thematic hint at the end of the trailer that alludes to the 1970's TV series which starred Lou Ferrigno. Here's hoping the new movie hulks out!