Monday, May 24, 2004
Matt Drudge had a funny show last night. He took two consecutive calls from people who complained about the "neo-conservatives" and "zionists" who took America into a war with Iraq that wasn't in our national interest. It's easy to see that words like "neo-con" and "zionist" are used as code words for "Jew." Matt Drudge, as a Jew, had to cut these knuckleheads off.
My fear is that the left's distrust of the "neocon cabal" within the Bush White House is just a new version of the "Great Jewish Conspiracy" espoused by Lyndon LaRouche and other lunatics. We have Rep.s Jim McDermott and Cynthia McKinney blaming the Jews for their problems, and "neocons" like Wolfowitz, Perle, and Bill Kristoll make convenient targets for angry lefties.
I have a revelation to share with the kooks about their "Great Jewish Conspiracy": it was founded by Albert Einstein, Sammy Davis jr., and the Three Stooges. Nyuk nyuk nyuk (the Curly laugh.)
Drudge also touched on how the film "The Day After Tomorrow" is being touted as "a very important movie" and is the basis for Al Gore's pro-Kyoto treaty political movement. Unfortunately, my sister is repeating the same soundbites provided by our stiff-as-wood former vice president. The problem, as best I can tell, is the "environmental education" that goes on in the junior high school. This is not a blanket attack against the public school system; I simply speak from my own experiences in the same school. The kids don't understand the difference between ozone depletion and global warming, and they don't understand the nature of the controvery behind global warming and why people like me remain open-minded but skeptical on the subject. Global Warming is not a fact, yet the schools continue to treat it as such.
If you want to be entertained, go blow your eight bucks at the theatre watching "The Day After Tomorrow." But if you want to see a movie that has more basis in reality, "Shrek 2" might be your ticket instead. If you really want to see who believes in "The Day After Tomorrow," you should read the book it was based on, "The Coming Global Superstorm." The authors are Whitley Streiber (known for the alien abduction book "Communion") and Art Bell, the part-time host of radio's "Coast to Coast AM." The book touches on a variety of interesting topics, including the sinking of Atlantis and the supposed influence of space aliens on ancient human civilizations. Yet "The Coming Global Superstorm," much like "The Day After Tomorrow," should be viewed as entertainment instead of science.
I wish we got more news out of Afghanistan. Of course, the media won't show us the progress we have made in Afghanistan because it will give credit to the Bush administration's Afghanistan policy. We have Michael Moore winning the gold prize at the Cannes film festival for "Farenheit 911," alleging that George Bush doesn't want to catch Osama bin Laden, yet we also have Operation Mountain Storm going on in Afghanistan to catch the bastard al Qaeda leader. So who is right? The media silence on Mountain Storm will prevent the great unwashed masses from questioning the accuracy of Michael Moore's "documentary" and not seeing it as a two-hour Kerry campaign commercial. Yes, John McCain, your supposed "campaign finace reform" failed to anticipate bogus documentaries as a means of circumventing rules on campaign finance.
My fear is that the left's distrust of the "neocon cabal" within the Bush White House is just a new version of the "Great Jewish Conspiracy" espoused by Lyndon LaRouche and other lunatics. We have Rep.s Jim McDermott and Cynthia McKinney blaming the Jews for their problems, and "neocons" like Wolfowitz, Perle, and Bill Kristoll make convenient targets for angry lefties.
I have a revelation to share with the kooks about their "Great Jewish Conspiracy": it was founded by Albert Einstein, Sammy Davis jr., and the Three Stooges. Nyuk nyuk nyuk (the Curly laugh.)
Drudge also touched on how the film "The Day After Tomorrow" is being touted as "a very important movie" and is the basis for Al Gore's pro-Kyoto treaty political movement. Unfortunately, my sister is repeating the same soundbites provided by our stiff-as-wood former vice president. The problem, as best I can tell, is the "environmental education" that goes on in the junior high school. This is not a blanket attack against the public school system; I simply speak from my own experiences in the same school. The kids don't understand the difference between ozone depletion and global warming, and they don't understand the nature of the controvery behind global warming and why people like me remain open-minded but skeptical on the subject. Global Warming is not a fact, yet the schools continue to treat it as such.
If you want to be entertained, go blow your eight bucks at the theatre watching "The Day After Tomorrow." But if you want to see a movie that has more basis in reality, "Shrek 2" might be your ticket instead. If you really want to see who believes in "The Day After Tomorrow," you should read the book it was based on, "The Coming Global Superstorm." The authors are Whitley Streiber (known for the alien abduction book "Communion") and Art Bell, the part-time host of radio's "Coast to Coast AM." The book touches on a variety of interesting topics, including the sinking of Atlantis and the supposed influence of space aliens on ancient human civilizations. Yet "The Coming Global Superstorm," much like "The Day After Tomorrow," should be viewed as entertainment instead of science.
I wish we got more news out of Afghanistan. Of course, the media won't show us the progress we have made in Afghanistan because it will give credit to the Bush administration's Afghanistan policy. We have Michael Moore winning the gold prize at the Cannes film festival for "Farenheit 911," alleging that George Bush doesn't want to catch Osama bin Laden, yet we also have Operation Mountain Storm going on in Afghanistan to catch the bastard al Qaeda leader. So who is right? The media silence on Mountain Storm will prevent the great unwashed masses from questioning the accuracy of Michael Moore's "documentary" and not seeing it as a two-hour Kerry campaign commercial. Yes, John McCain, your supposed "campaign finace reform" failed to anticipate bogus documentaries as a means of circumventing rules on campaign finance.
Friday, May 21, 2004
The International Red Cross has retrieved the remains of Fabrizio Quattrocchi, the brave Italian who faced his Iraqi captors as they blew his brains out last April. Fabrizio, may your boldness never be forgotten. This American will always remember your last stand and your defiant epitaph, "This is the way an Italian dies."
Hanoi John Kerry is considering delaying his nomination so he can use up whatever remains of the funds he raised during the primaries. In addition to the "527" organizations like moveon.org, this has become the new tactic in funding politics. Wasn't McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform supposed to prevent the shadiness of Washington fundraising? Haw haw. It's just like the Supreme Court warned us as it upheld the McCain-Feingold act: money is like water, and it will find new ways to flow. The root problem in Washington is crooked politicians, rather than crooked money.
On the subject of John Kerry, I've been going through mixed feelings about him regarding Iraq. On the surface, he's saying the same things the president is: stay the course, send more troops, get the UN involved. And I think he's got a better shot at securing UN involvement than the president does, simply by nature of the fact that he's not George W. Bush, who is despised by every spineless French-loving internationalist in the world. But how much is the UN willing to provide? Even under President Kerry (a chilling thought,) it's unlikely they would send combat troops, and even less likely that the Iraqis would show soldiers from other countries an easier time than they have given our soldiers.
I also doubt John Kerry's commitment to Iraq. He seems to have wrong-headed and simplistic ideas about the war against terrorism (read: militant Islam.) If John Kerry thinks of terrorism as an "overrated threat" and "a law enforcement problem," he clearly doesn't understand the big picture. The Western Way of Life is fighting for survival against a segment of the larger Sunni Muslim culture which believes that the two can't coexist. Whether we realized it or not when we went into Iraq, that country has now become the central arena for this fight, and the Western Way of Life cannot be allowed to fail.
I want to give a shout out to Astro Nick. I assume he's the most avid reader of the Impossible Scissors Blog on the planet. For everyone else who comes upon this humble little blog of mine, I think that you will find happiness, fulfillment, and success in life if you follow Astro Nick and read Impossible Scissors fervently.
Hanoi John Kerry is considering delaying his nomination so he can use up whatever remains of the funds he raised during the primaries. In addition to the "527" organizations like moveon.org, this has become the new tactic in funding politics. Wasn't McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform supposed to prevent the shadiness of Washington fundraising? Haw haw. It's just like the Supreme Court warned us as it upheld the McCain-Feingold act: money is like water, and it will find new ways to flow. The root problem in Washington is crooked politicians, rather than crooked money.
On the subject of John Kerry, I've been going through mixed feelings about him regarding Iraq. On the surface, he's saying the same things the president is: stay the course, send more troops, get the UN involved. And I think he's got a better shot at securing UN involvement than the president does, simply by nature of the fact that he's not George W. Bush, who is despised by every spineless French-loving internationalist in the world. But how much is the UN willing to provide? Even under President Kerry (a chilling thought,) it's unlikely they would send combat troops, and even less likely that the Iraqis would show soldiers from other countries an easier time than they have given our soldiers.
I also doubt John Kerry's commitment to Iraq. He seems to have wrong-headed and simplistic ideas about the war against terrorism (read: militant Islam.) If John Kerry thinks of terrorism as an "overrated threat" and "a law enforcement problem," he clearly doesn't understand the big picture. The Western Way of Life is fighting for survival against a segment of the larger Sunni Muslim culture which believes that the two can't coexist. Whether we realized it or not when we went into Iraq, that country has now become the central arena for this fight, and the Western Way of Life cannot be allowed to fail.
I want to give a shout out to Astro Nick. I assume he's the most avid reader of the Impossible Scissors Blog on the planet. For everyone else who comes upon this humble little blog of mine, I think that you will find happiness, fulfillment, and success in life if you follow Astro Nick and read Impossible Scissors fervently.
Thursday, May 20, 2004
The US is finally starting to come down on Ahmed Chalabi, the charlatan who became the darling of congressional Republicans and wooed the intelligence community with exaggerated stories about WMD (TM.) First, the Pentagon cut off his monthly payments (which he never deserved in the first place.) Now a joint force of Americans and Iraqi police raided his home, seeking members of his organization in connection with passing highly-classified secrets to Iran and getting rich off the Oil-for-Food scandal.
With friends like Chalabi, who needs enemies? He admitted to feeding us bad intel, saying that members of his Iraqi National Congress were "heroes in error." He tells Paul Bremer to de-Baathify the country and lay off the Iraqi army. Bremer agrees, and the insurgency just gains thousands of young men with heavy arms. No doubt, Chalabi was trying to punish the people who enabled Saddam and eliminate anyone who stood in his way of becoming the Iraqi George Washington. The Iraqis hate him, and Americans shouldn't feel any differently. At best, Chalabi is a fool who fell out of touch with his countrymen after spending forty-five years in exile. At worst, he is a pawn of the Iranian government.
The best thing we can do is to seize Chalabi and deport him to Jordan, where he was convicted in 1992 for bank fraud and sentenced to 22 years hard labor. It gets our erstwhile "buddy" off our backs and hopefully will convince a few Iraqis that we're not interested in making Iraq our puppet state.
With friends like Chalabi, who needs enemies? He admitted to feeding us bad intel, saying that members of his Iraqi National Congress were "heroes in error." He tells Paul Bremer to de-Baathify the country and lay off the Iraqi army. Bremer agrees, and the insurgency just gains thousands of young men with heavy arms. No doubt, Chalabi was trying to punish the people who enabled Saddam and eliminate anyone who stood in his way of becoming the Iraqi George Washington. The Iraqis hate him, and Americans shouldn't feel any differently. At best, Chalabi is a fool who fell out of touch with his countrymen after spending forty-five years in exile. At worst, he is a pawn of the Iranian government.
The best thing we can do is to seize Chalabi and deport him to Jordan, where he was convicted in 1992 for bank fraud and sentenced to 22 years hard labor. It gets our erstwhile "buddy" off our backs and hopefully will convince a few Iraqis that we're not interested in making Iraq our puppet state.
Wednesday, May 19, 2004
Four suspects were detained in connection with Nick Berg's murder. Despite all of the attention given to the depravity in Abu Ghraib prison, I hope we use all available methods to interrogate these savages and locate the head terrorist in Iraq, Abu Musab al Zarqawi. If it comes down to stacking these four suspects in the "pyramid of buttcrack," as radio host Roe Conn calls it, so be it.
Iraqis claim an American helicopter fired on a congregation of Iraqis, hitting a wedding party. American authorities responded by saying a Spectre gunship fired on foreign fightern near the Syrian border. It reminds me of an incident during summer 2002 when an Afghan wedding party was blasted to oblivion by a Spectre gunship. The moral of the story: next time you're at a wedding, don't fire your weapons into the air. I repeat: guns are NOT used for celebrations. Invest in some noisemakers and party poppers instead.
Jeremy Sivitz is getting a year in jail for his role in the prisoner abuse. NBC news showed two Iraqis condemning this "light" sentence. One Iraqi called for death to Sivitz, reflecting the pervading influence of Saddam's justice system. A second Iraqi claimed that the abuse was worse than Saddam's torture. Apparently the Iraqi culture thinks that the "pyramid of buttcrack" and other forms of sexual torture are far worse than having hands cut off, being hung from ceiling fans, or being put in a shredder.
The weather's been so rainy and depressing lately. It's hard for a guy to be motivated when it's been so intermittently storming.
Iraqis claim an American helicopter fired on a congregation of Iraqis, hitting a wedding party. American authorities responded by saying a Spectre gunship fired on foreign fightern near the Syrian border. It reminds me of an incident during summer 2002 when an Afghan wedding party was blasted to oblivion by a Spectre gunship. The moral of the story: next time you're at a wedding, don't fire your weapons into the air. I repeat: guns are NOT used for celebrations. Invest in some noisemakers and party poppers instead.
Jeremy Sivitz is getting a year in jail for his role in the prisoner abuse. NBC news showed two Iraqis condemning this "light" sentence. One Iraqi called for death to Sivitz, reflecting the pervading influence of Saddam's justice system. A second Iraqi claimed that the abuse was worse than Saddam's torture. Apparently the Iraqi culture thinks that the "pyramid of buttcrack" and other forms of sexual torture are far worse than having hands cut off, being hung from ceiling fans, or being put in a shredder.
The weather's been so rainy and depressing lately. It's hard for a guy to be motivated when it's been so intermittently storming.
Monday, May 17, 2004
Apparently, Weapons of Mass Destruction (TM) have been found in Iraq, according to Drudge. A 155 mm binary artillery shell filled with Sarin gas exploded as part of a roadside bomb. This would confirm my suspicion that Iraq did retain a limited WMD capability before the US invaded; apparently this shell didn't find its way to Syria or the western desert of Iraq where I suspect the rest were hidden. The idea that insurgents would use chemical weapons in roadside bombs is frightening, and it shows how desperate they are to stop the interim government from coming to power. At first I suspected that these bombs (a common tactic in the Gaza strip and elsewhere) were the work of Baathists who had stockpiled explosives in anticipation of the US overthrowing Saddam's regime. But as we've learned more about Abu Musab al Zarqawi and how he's become the world's most dangerous terrorist, there's a strong possibility that his people have built many of these bombs. As much as the media emphasizes the "insurmountable" challenges of Iraqi democracy, Zarqawi and his fellow thugs are just as worried that we will succeed. America should not rest until we have destroyed Zarqawi and his savage band.
Last week was pretty uneventful for me. I counted my spare change (it added up to over $50) and played lots of "Medal of Honor: Frontline." We started building the screen porch out back by putting up the header boards. I really hate climbing ladders.
I also watched plenty of "Frasier," including the final episode. Although I didn't watch the show that often, it was always one of my favorite sitcoms. And I don't think I felt that way solely because Kelsey Grammer is one of the rare Hollywood conservatives out there. The episodes were always well-written, smart, and, most importantly, funny. John Mahoney (Martin Crane,) always reminded me of my grandfather, not only in physical appearance but because of their blue-collar nature, their familiar TV-watching chairs, and their canes. Most importantly, "Frasier" was a show about family, as the final episode emphasized. At its core, it's about the working man father and his Anglophile, effette sons trying to bond with each other.
Saturday we went to the university of Illinois to pick up my brother, and eight days prior I was at Michigan State helping my buddy pack up. I just can't say goodbye to school.
The car finally went in for repairs today. Surprisingly, it wasn't totalled. Father seemed disappointed about that, as the mechanic is quite good at repairing cars on a shoestring budget. He was so anxious to fix the Saturn that he purchased the replacement parts before we had even committed to his body shop. Driving the car to the shop was a nerve-racking experience; whatever driving confidence I had is gone, and it will take some time to get it back.
Last week was pretty uneventful for me. I counted my spare change (it added up to over $50) and played lots of "Medal of Honor: Frontline." We started building the screen porch out back by putting up the header boards. I really hate climbing ladders.
I also watched plenty of "Frasier," including the final episode. Although I didn't watch the show that often, it was always one of my favorite sitcoms. And I don't think I felt that way solely because Kelsey Grammer is one of the rare Hollywood conservatives out there. The episodes were always well-written, smart, and, most importantly, funny. John Mahoney (Martin Crane,) always reminded me of my grandfather, not only in physical appearance but because of their blue-collar nature, their familiar TV-watching chairs, and their canes. Most importantly, "Frasier" was a show about family, as the final episode emphasized. At its core, it's about the working man father and his Anglophile, effette sons trying to bond with each other.
Saturday we went to the university of Illinois to pick up my brother, and eight days prior I was at Michigan State helping my buddy pack up. I just can't say goodbye to school.
The car finally went in for repairs today. Surprisingly, it wasn't totalled. Father seemed disappointed about that, as the mechanic is quite good at repairing cars on a shoestring budget. He was so anxious to fix the Saturn that he purchased the replacement parts before we had even committed to his body shop. Driving the car to the shop was a nerve-racking experience; whatever driving confidence I had is gone, and it will take some time to get it back.
Thursday, May 13, 2004
God bless you, Nick Berg.
Mr. Berg, as a man of strong faith, good heart, and technical skill, just wanted to help out in Iraq, as he had done previously in Kenya. Instead, he gets slaughtered by the head savage in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, because he was a Jew.
Zarqawi may have cited the prisoner abuse as he murdered Mr. Berg, but his real strategy, not yet deciphered by the media, is to break the will of Americans by murdering Americans in gruesome ways. Zarqawi was behind the contractor mutilations, in addition to the Nick Berg murder. It certainly helps Zarqawi's strategy that the American media will flood us with images of slutty Lynndey England messing around with naked Iraqis, but they deny us the Nick Berg video, the footage of the brave Italian standing up to his captors as they blow his brains out, or the Fallujah boy gnawing on the arm of a mutilated contractor. The media is censoring the true savagery of our terrorist / Islamist enemies while they ruin the reputation of America and our efforts to take the moral high road.
We should keep things in perspective. In World War II, it wasn't unusual for Americans to shoot German prisoners like the dogs they were, then tell their superiors that the Germans tried to escape. Between Iraq and Afghanistan, 25 prisoners have died, one of whom was the notorious Palestinian terrorist Abu Abbas. We do need to make the distinction that some of the prisoners have American and Iraqi blood on their hands. For the innocent Iraqis in the prisons, we do need more soldiers and officers working the prison system so we can speed up their release.
Remember Nick Berg, and continue to pray for captured Americans Matt Maupin and Amin Elias, so that they may safely return home.
Mr. Berg, as a man of strong faith, good heart, and technical skill, just wanted to help out in Iraq, as he had done previously in Kenya. Instead, he gets slaughtered by the head savage in Iraq, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, because he was a Jew.
Zarqawi may have cited the prisoner abuse as he murdered Mr. Berg, but his real strategy, not yet deciphered by the media, is to break the will of Americans by murdering Americans in gruesome ways. Zarqawi was behind the contractor mutilations, in addition to the Nick Berg murder. It certainly helps Zarqawi's strategy that the American media will flood us with images of slutty Lynndey England messing around with naked Iraqis, but they deny us the Nick Berg video, the footage of the brave Italian standing up to his captors as they blow his brains out, or the Fallujah boy gnawing on the arm of a mutilated contractor. The media is censoring the true savagery of our terrorist / Islamist enemies while they ruin the reputation of America and our efforts to take the moral high road.
We should keep things in perspective. In World War II, it wasn't unusual for Americans to shoot German prisoners like the dogs they were, then tell their superiors that the Germans tried to escape. Between Iraq and Afghanistan, 25 prisoners have died, one of whom was the notorious Palestinian terrorist Abu Abbas. We do need to make the distinction that some of the prisoners have American and Iraqi blood on their hands. For the innocent Iraqis in the prisons, we do need more soldiers and officers working the prison system so we can speed up their release.
Remember Nick Berg, and continue to pray for captured Americans Matt Maupin and Amin Elias, so that they may safely return home.
Sunday, May 09, 2004
Should Rumsfeld stay or should he go?
I've always appreciated Donald Rumsfeld's blunt honesty during Pentagon daily briefings. He has to be my favorite member of the Bush White House due to his candor. His enemies have referred to his straight talk as "arrogance," which I believe does a great disservice to a civil servant with a long career doing the duty of his nation.
That being said, the Rumsfeld leadership of the DoD has seen both highs and lows. His leadership after 9/11 was instrumental in reevaluating the fight against terrorism as a military problem instead of a law enforcement dilemma, and his people made the most out of a tough situation vis-a-vis Afghanistan. When it came to Iraq, his decision to both ignore the State Department's "Future of Iraq" project and to rebuff Gen. Shinseki, going with a "leaner, meaner" force of 135,000 in occupied Iraq, may prove to be a fatal decision. Without adequate manpower to protect soft targets, Wahhabi insurgents have killed large numbers of Shiites and broken their trust of the Americans.
It's no surprise that Manchurian Candidate John McCain wants Rumsfeld to resign; he said the same thing to the secretary of the Air Force after the academy rape scandal went public. For John McCain, firing the boss is an appropriate punishment whenever low-level subordinates screw up. I guess John McCain would fire Cubs manager Dusty Baker because Cubs starting pitcher Greg Maddux is only 2-3 this season. Rumsfeld's biggest mistake was violating one of the vaunted "Rumsfeld's Rules" of government service: not informing the president until it was too late. That decision has proven to be a harmful miscalculation, certainly not the first and hopefully the last of Secretary Rumsfeld's tenure.
Regarding the punishment of soldiers involved in torture: the bitch from the pictures who is now pregnant should be forced to give her child up for adoption. That child will eventually be told, "You came into this world after your mommy and daddy met each other through their mutual love of torturing Iraqis." Poor kid.
Iraqis will only trust us if they see that justice is done. We should determine who is to blame (among both soldiers and officers) and hand them over to Iraqis for punishment. If Iraqis want to drag their bodies through the streets and mutilate them, so be it. These people have damaged the reputation of the United States and pooped on everything we stand for. They have brought tremendous ill will towards us at a time when we can least afford it. In my estimation, no punishment can be strict enough.
I've always appreciated Donald Rumsfeld's blunt honesty during Pentagon daily briefings. He has to be my favorite member of the Bush White House due to his candor. His enemies have referred to his straight talk as "arrogance," which I believe does a great disservice to a civil servant with a long career doing the duty of his nation.
That being said, the Rumsfeld leadership of the DoD has seen both highs and lows. His leadership after 9/11 was instrumental in reevaluating the fight against terrorism as a military problem instead of a law enforcement dilemma, and his people made the most out of a tough situation vis-a-vis Afghanistan. When it came to Iraq, his decision to both ignore the State Department's "Future of Iraq" project and to rebuff Gen. Shinseki, going with a "leaner, meaner" force of 135,000 in occupied Iraq, may prove to be a fatal decision. Without adequate manpower to protect soft targets, Wahhabi insurgents have killed large numbers of Shiites and broken their trust of the Americans.
It's no surprise that Manchurian Candidate John McCain wants Rumsfeld to resign; he said the same thing to the secretary of the Air Force after the academy rape scandal went public. For John McCain, firing the boss is an appropriate punishment whenever low-level subordinates screw up. I guess John McCain would fire Cubs manager Dusty Baker because Cubs starting pitcher Greg Maddux is only 2-3 this season. Rumsfeld's biggest mistake was violating one of the vaunted "Rumsfeld's Rules" of government service: not informing the president until it was too late. That decision has proven to be a harmful miscalculation, certainly not the first and hopefully the last of Secretary Rumsfeld's tenure.
Regarding the punishment of soldiers involved in torture: the bitch from the pictures who is now pregnant should be forced to give her child up for adoption. That child will eventually be told, "You came into this world after your mommy and daddy met each other through their mutual love of torturing Iraqis." Poor kid.
Iraqis will only trust us if they see that justice is done. We should determine who is to blame (among both soldiers and officers) and hand them over to Iraqis for punishment. If Iraqis want to drag their bodies through the streets and mutilate them, so be it. These people have damaged the reputation of the United States and pooped on everything we stand for. They have brought tremendous ill will towards us at a time when we can least afford it. In my estimation, no punishment can be strict enough.
Thursday, May 06, 2004
Michael Moore's new film "Farenheit 911" has hit a snag: Disney will not distribute it in the US. I'm certain that Michael Moore has already lashed out at the "corporate right-wing media" for censoring his message. From Moore's perspective, releasing the film will tempt Florida governor Jeb Bush to lift the tax breaks granted to Disney World. Eisner claims that the film did not fit in with the supposed "family-friendly" image of the company.
"Farenheit 911" is probably the most partisan production to bear the Disney name since the World War II propaganda cartoons. Except that this movie is propaganda for the Wahhabis who want to destroy America. From the teasers I've heard, Farenheit 911 threatens to go far beyond "Bush the evildoer," and it will touch on such things as "America the Patriot-Act-police-state" and "America, the imperial oppressor of non-caucasians throughout the world." I'm sure that Walt Disney is spinning in his grave (not that Eisner's other actions would have made Walt Disney proud.)
Perhaps a filmmaker of a more conservative stripe will do a documentary about the exemplary leadership that the President showed in the immediate aftermath of 9/11 and the invasion of Afghanistan. On 9/12, we were at risk of a backlash at home against anyone who looked Arabic or Islamic. People were afraid to fly the friendly skies. al Qaeda was intact and safe inside Afghanistan, with Pakistani support for the Taliban regime that protected them. And, not mentioned by the mainstream media, a plot was in place to hijack more airliners and attack more buildings by March of 2002 (Zacharias Moussaoui was not the 20th hijacker on 9/11, he was part of the second wave.) The Bush team was able to diffuse this frightening situation, and avoid the quagmire the Soviets had in Afghanistan by resisting the urge to impose the American way on the Afghans.
Even today I think the left is too harsh on the Bush Afghanistan policy. There is no doubt that Afghan warlords are an obstacle to that country's prosperity, but there is not much we can do about it without resorting to a Soviet-style quagmire. The inter-tribal fighting should be left to the Afghan army. Why has bin Laden not been caught? Certainly not because George Bush doesn't want it to happen, but because he's lived his entire life on the run, and hiding in caves in areas that are sympathetic to him is easy for him. Maybe Michael Moore should have interviewed the soldiers who are actively looking for bin Laden (rather than the pussy "soldiers" who enlisted for the benefits and then ran to Canada after their number came up for a trip to Iraq.) And the decision to fly the bin Laden family out of the US, largely unnoticed by the media, should be hailed rather than condemned. These people have given from their bounty to the people of the United States, and these philanthropists surely would have been torn limb-from-limb on 9/11 by American mobs based on their brother Osama's actions.
Two nights ago, ABC-7 reporter (and king of sleaze) Chuck Goudie interviewed Susan Lindauer, the Andy Card relative who allegedly spied for Saddam. The piece was undoubtedly an attempt by Goudie to build sympathy for the woman. Frankly, she frightened me with the giddy demeanor in which she answered her questions. Given the gravity of the charges, she didn't seem to be taking them seriously. Yet she didn't dispute that she met with Iraq officials and offered money to "innocent Iraqis" who have been named "insurgents" by the government. She claims that her actions were "patriotic" rather than "treasonous." She and Goudie spent a good deal of time focusing on the Oklahoma City bombing, which Iraqi intelligence allegedly tied to Islamic militants. This story isn't new; people have alleged Iraqi or Islamic militant ties to Oklahoma City for years. And the stories are plausable, considering the strong resemblance between "John Doe #2" from Oklahoma City and "dirty bomber" Jose Padilla. Here's an interesting angle on the story: the Clinton White House knew about the Middle East connection to Oklahoma City, but hid the evidence from the public so they could place the blame on "right-wingers" and erode the momentum that Republicans built in the 1994 elections.
"Farenheit 911" is probably the most partisan production to bear the Disney name since the World War II propaganda cartoons. Except that this movie is propaganda for the Wahhabis who want to destroy America. From the teasers I've heard, Farenheit 911 threatens to go far beyond "Bush the evildoer," and it will touch on such things as "America the Patriot-Act-police-state" and "America, the imperial oppressor of non-caucasians throughout the world." I'm sure that Walt Disney is spinning in his grave (not that Eisner's other actions would have made Walt Disney proud.)
Perhaps a filmmaker of a more conservative stripe will do a documentary about the exemplary leadership that the President showed in the immediate aftermath of 9/11 and the invasion of Afghanistan. On 9/12, we were at risk of a backlash at home against anyone who looked Arabic or Islamic. People were afraid to fly the friendly skies. al Qaeda was intact and safe inside Afghanistan, with Pakistani support for the Taliban regime that protected them. And, not mentioned by the mainstream media, a plot was in place to hijack more airliners and attack more buildings by March of 2002 (Zacharias Moussaoui was not the 20th hijacker on 9/11, he was part of the second wave.) The Bush team was able to diffuse this frightening situation, and avoid the quagmire the Soviets had in Afghanistan by resisting the urge to impose the American way on the Afghans.
Even today I think the left is too harsh on the Bush Afghanistan policy. There is no doubt that Afghan warlords are an obstacle to that country's prosperity, but there is not much we can do about it without resorting to a Soviet-style quagmire. The inter-tribal fighting should be left to the Afghan army. Why has bin Laden not been caught? Certainly not because George Bush doesn't want it to happen, but because he's lived his entire life on the run, and hiding in caves in areas that are sympathetic to him is easy for him. Maybe Michael Moore should have interviewed the soldiers who are actively looking for bin Laden (rather than the pussy "soldiers" who enlisted for the benefits and then ran to Canada after their number came up for a trip to Iraq.) And the decision to fly the bin Laden family out of the US, largely unnoticed by the media, should be hailed rather than condemned. These people have given from their bounty to the people of the United States, and these philanthropists surely would have been torn limb-from-limb on 9/11 by American mobs based on their brother Osama's actions.
Two nights ago, ABC-7 reporter (and king of sleaze) Chuck Goudie interviewed Susan Lindauer, the Andy Card relative who allegedly spied for Saddam. The piece was undoubtedly an attempt by Goudie to build sympathy for the woman. Frankly, she frightened me with the giddy demeanor in which she answered her questions. Given the gravity of the charges, she didn't seem to be taking them seriously. Yet she didn't dispute that she met with Iraq officials and offered money to "innocent Iraqis" who have been named "insurgents" by the government. She claims that her actions were "patriotic" rather than "treasonous." She and Goudie spent a good deal of time focusing on the Oklahoma City bombing, which Iraqi intelligence allegedly tied to Islamic militants. This story isn't new; people have alleged Iraqi or Islamic militant ties to Oklahoma City for years. And the stories are plausable, considering the strong resemblance between "John Doe #2" from Oklahoma City and "dirty bomber" Jose Padilla. Here's an interesting angle on the story: the Clinton White House knew about the Middle East connection to Oklahoma City, but hid the evidence from the public so they could place the blame on "right-wingers" and erode the momentum that Republicans built in the 1994 elections.
Tuesday, May 04, 2004
Abu Grab
A few thoughts on the prisoner torture in Iraq:
1) We came here to end these kinds of abhorrent acts, not start more of them. Everybody involved should be ashamed of themselves.
2) If you're going to do something that stupid, why are you going to leave photographic evidence of it?
3) Who is leaking all of this damaging info to the media? Obviously, it's someone who wants the US out of Iraq.
4) CBS News (perhaps it should be renamed "Al Jazeera USA") should be ashamed of what it started by running the photos. As Tony Cordesman said, hundreds of American soldiers weill be killed or wounded because of the ill-will stirred up by these photos. Just because CBS wants to see George Bush go down in flames doesn't mean they should sacrifice our brave fighting men to do it.
5) The only way we can begin to make amends for what happened is by ruining the lives of the people involved in this torture. After these people are rooted out, we should turn them over to the Iraqis for punishment.
French TV is also airing footage of "an American helicopter firing on innocent people." I think I've seen the video, if they're referring to the Apache cockpit film of three guys being blown to bits by the 30mm. We should hear out the people who were actually in the cockpit and let them judge whether the three people involved appeared to be a threat.
It seems like the left in this country is losing its sense of historical perspective. They love to talk about unjustified preemptive war and the like, they sling around words like "holocaust" and "imperialism," yet their threshold for using such terms is far lower than the historical examples justify. America certainly isn't an empire in the British / French / Dutch sense, where we take over foreign lands and rob them blind while treating their peoples like second class citizens.
If you want to talk about wars being preemptive or unjustified, read your history books. President Polk was ready to declare war on Mexico because the Mexicans rebuffed his offers to purchase territory. It just so happened that the Mexican army killed some American soldiers shortly before he was going to give his war declaration, giving him a causus belli to take much of the land that would become America. Or look back at the War of 1812, where the British quickly renounced all of the practices that we named in our war declaration.
So the question remains on whether Iraq will be George Bush's Vietnam, as Teddy "Chappequiddick" Kennedy asserts. Again, crack open a history book. Americans have this notion that insurgencies are unstoppable, but that's hardly the case. Most insurgencies have failed. Even the Viet Cong was eliminated as a serious fighting force after the Tet Offensive, and North Vietnam had to rely on its regular army to win the war. The United States has beaten back several insurgencies throughout history, including the Seminoles and in the Phillipines. The lesson to be learned here is that insurgencies take a lot of men, a lot of time, and a lot of will before they can be broken. When our society is locked in mortal combat with the values espoused by Osama bin Laden and practiced by the Iraqi jihadists, we had better find the will to succeed.
1) We came here to end these kinds of abhorrent acts, not start more of them. Everybody involved should be ashamed of themselves.
2) If you're going to do something that stupid, why are you going to leave photographic evidence of it?
3) Who is leaking all of this damaging info to the media? Obviously, it's someone who wants the US out of Iraq.
4) CBS News (perhaps it should be renamed "Al Jazeera USA") should be ashamed of what it started by running the photos. As Tony Cordesman said, hundreds of American soldiers weill be killed or wounded because of the ill-will stirred up by these photos. Just because CBS wants to see George Bush go down in flames doesn't mean they should sacrifice our brave fighting men to do it.
5) The only way we can begin to make amends for what happened is by ruining the lives of the people involved in this torture. After these people are rooted out, we should turn them over to the Iraqis for punishment.
French TV is also airing footage of "an American helicopter firing on innocent people." I think I've seen the video, if they're referring to the Apache cockpit film of three guys being blown to bits by the 30mm. We should hear out the people who were actually in the cockpit and let them judge whether the three people involved appeared to be a threat.
It seems like the left in this country is losing its sense of historical perspective. They love to talk about unjustified preemptive war and the like, they sling around words like "holocaust" and "imperialism," yet their threshold for using such terms is far lower than the historical examples justify. America certainly isn't an empire in the British / French / Dutch sense, where we take over foreign lands and rob them blind while treating their peoples like second class citizens.
If you want to talk about wars being preemptive or unjustified, read your history books. President Polk was ready to declare war on Mexico because the Mexicans rebuffed his offers to purchase territory. It just so happened that the Mexican army killed some American soldiers shortly before he was going to give his war declaration, giving him a causus belli to take much of the land that would become America. Or look back at the War of 1812, where the British quickly renounced all of the practices that we named in our war declaration.
So the question remains on whether Iraq will be George Bush's Vietnam, as Teddy "Chappequiddick" Kennedy asserts. Again, crack open a history book. Americans have this notion that insurgencies are unstoppable, but that's hardly the case. Most insurgencies have failed. Even the Viet Cong was eliminated as a serious fighting force after the Tet Offensive, and North Vietnam had to rely on its regular army to win the war. The United States has beaten back several insurgencies throughout history, including the Seminoles and in the Phillipines. The lesson to be learned here is that insurgencies take a lot of men, a lot of time, and a lot of will before they can be broken. When our society is locked in mortal combat with the values espoused by Osama bin Laden and practiced by the Iraqi jihadists, we had better find the will to succeed.
Saturday, May 01, 2004
One year ago, President Bush declared an end to major combat operations in Iraq. Since then, the speech has come to haunt him and his chief political strategist, Karl Rove. I think that much of the "mission accomplished" roasting was political in nature and unjustified, while other points are valid criticism of the administration's hubris.
On May 1, 2003, major combat operations in Iraq, the offensive against the Saddam Hussein regime, had ended. Gen. Tommy Franks had indicated this was the case as early as April 13, when American POWs were released and Marines were fighting to take the last enemy-controlled city, Tikrit. The war was entering the stabilization and reconstruction stage, and a major speech was called for.
The "Mission Accomplished" banner, used on a Time magazine cover and a moveon.org ad against the president, is ambiguous in meaning. The mission in Iraq was not finished. Indeed, in President Bush's speech of the evening, he admits that plenty of important work remains to be done in Iraq and that the country is still dangerous. However, the long mission of the USS Abraham Lincoln was accomplished. And isn't that feat alone worth the "Mission Accomplished" banner?
The president's "fighter jock" arrival on the S-3 Viking is the most criticized part of the entire spectacle, and rightly so. As Americans, we should be humble in victory, particularly our president. A helicopter arrival on the carrier, even if it required the carrier to sail for an extra day, would have been more appripriate. Now the image of the president in his flight suit threatens to be the "Michael Dukakis in a tank" moment of 2004.
Since that speech, the US saw the seeds of insurgency (initially from former Baathists, fedayeen, and soldiers,) and flinched. Gen. Garner was replaced by Paul Bremer, Iraq was fully de-Baathified (which Bremer eventually admitted was a mistake,) and the insugency intesified with help from foreign jihadists like Abu Musab al Zarqawi. The war with Saddam is over, but the new battle against anti-Amereican forces continues. The new enemies are al Zarqawi, Izzat Ibrahim al Douri (why has the media forgotten Saddam's right-hand man?) and upstart cleric Moqtada al Sadr. We can only hope and pray that our leaders will use the best combination of military might and political savvy to nurse Iraq through its transition to representative government.
On May 1, 2003, major combat operations in Iraq, the offensive against the Saddam Hussein regime, had ended. Gen. Tommy Franks had indicated this was the case as early as April 13, when American POWs were released and Marines were fighting to take the last enemy-controlled city, Tikrit. The war was entering the stabilization and reconstruction stage, and a major speech was called for.
The "Mission Accomplished" banner, used on a Time magazine cover and a moveon.org ad against the president, is ambiguous in meaning. The mission in Iraq was not finished. Indeed, in President Bush's speech of the evening, he admits that plenty of important work remains to be done in Iraq and that the country is still dangerous. However, the long mission of the USS Abraham Lincoln was accomplished. And isn't that feat alone worth the "Mission Accomplished" banner?
The president's "fighter jock" arrival on the S-3 Viking is the most criticized part of the entire spectacle, and rightly so. As Americans, we should be humble in victory, particularly our president. A helicopter arrival on the carrier, even if it required the carrier to sail for an extra day, would have been more appripriate. Now the image of the president in his flight suit threatens to be the "Michael Dukakis in a tank" moment of 2004.
Since that speech, the US saw the seeds of insurgency (initially from former Baathists, fedayeen, and soldiers,) and flinched. Gen. Garner was replaced by Paul Bremer, Iraq was fully de-Baathified (which Bremer eventually admitted was a mistake,) and the insugency intesified with help from foreign jihadists like Abu Musab al Zarqawi. The war with Saddam is over, but the new battle against anti-Amereican forces continues. The new enemies are al Zarqawi, Izzat Ibrahim al Douri (why has the media forgotten Saddam's right-hand man?) and upstart cleric Moqtada al Sadr. We can only hope and pray that our leaders will use the best combination of military might and political savvy to nurse Iraq through its transition to representative government.
