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March 04, 2005

Left-Wing Italian Journalist Released

The Jawa Report called it from the start. I guess one can only engage in making just so much anti-American propoganda for the enemy before burning out and needing to come home and rest.

Update: Sgrena was apparently shot and wounded and a bodyguard killed by U.S. Forces at a checkpoint roadblock somewhere in Iraq. Notoriously aggressive Italian drivers barreling down on soldiers primed to repel vehicular suicide bombers is a recipe for disaster. As you would expect, the Democratic Underground thinks Eason Jordan should be reinstated at CNN.

Update: Speaking of CNN:

According to a multinational forces statement, the car approached the checkpoint at high speed about 9 p.m. (1 p.m. ET)

U.S. troops "attempted to warn the driver to stop by hand and arm signals, flashing white lights, and firing warning shots in front of the car," the statement said. "When the driver didn't stop, the soldiers shot into the engine block, which stopped the vehicle, killing one and wounding two others."

I am very disappointed at the U.S. soldiers that fired on this vehicle.

If a vehicle is approaching your checkpoint at a high rate of speed and refuses to slow down or veer away despite the hand signals, flashing lights, and warning shots, you blow it away. Completely.

There should have been no survivors.

That there were survivors means that an appropriate force may not have been used. Our soldiers have one primary overriding goal, and that is their own personal safety, followed by the safety of the civilians around them that they are there to protect. If they suspected this vehicle was carrying a suicide bomber they should have put enough firepower on it to not only stop it, but to destroy any suspected explosive ordinance it could have been carrying.

That may sound callous to some, but it is a far more preferable outcome than this one last week where a suicide car bomber murdered 115 and wounded 132 Iraqi civilians. That Giuliana Sgrena is alive is the result an apparent inadequate use of force.

I would like this story to be covered in more detail so we can discover why the soldiers stopped firing upon what they had every reason to believe was a suicide bomber.

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Posted by Confederate Yankee at 02:56 PM | Comments (0)

March 03, 2005

Attn: Mid-Hudson Bloggers

If you are a blogger living in the Mid-Hudson Valley area (particularly Orange, Sullivan, and Ulster Counties) then be sure to check in with the Times Herald-Record. They are trying to find out about local blogs in the region, and may be interested in getting in touch with you for a future story.

If you are a mid-Hudson blogger in one of these counties or know someone who is, write to egliedman@th-record.com and give them your URL and blog name.


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Posted by Confederate Yankee at 03:03 PM | Comments (0)

Coming to a Blog Near You

Sorry for the light posting, but I'm tied up in research all day.

I'm busy working on a potential blockbuster of an article that could tie a prominent congressional Democrat to Osama bin Laden in Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon.

And no, you shouldn't take this too seriously.

Unless it's true...


Now, what was that old Styx tune again?

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Posted by Confederate Yankee at 01:38 PM | Comments (0)

March 02, 2005

Something Amusing Finally Happens at "The Rat"

I loathe Chuck E. Cheese the way liberals hate objectivity in the White House Press Room, so I'm slightly amused over this incident (Hat tip: Drudge).

A few things we should all take away from this story:

  • Stay in school and you probably won't end up as a Chuck E. Cheese manager
  • Abstinence is the only way to ensure you will never have to go to Chuck E. Cheese
  • Even if it is Chuck E. Cheese, if they have guns and Tasers, they are probably real cops
  • The preceeding point should be confirmed after the first Taser shock drops you to the ground
An upside of this story is that if Mr. Gale likes the Chuck E. Cheese salad bar, he'll love prison food.

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Posted by Confederate Yankee at 04:08 PM | Comments (0)

Tire Blogging Comes to New York

Glenn Reynolds is right, tire blogging is the next big thing, but oddly enough, not all tire places (or bloggers) are equipped for "live" tire blogging. I will however, blog it after the fact.

I did learn some interesting things, such as that plugging tires is no longer practiced in New York (the plugs tend to work loose, and the sudden deflatation can lead to blowouts), and that internal patching is the only acceptable way to make repairs, acording to the experts I talked too.

Regular, non-tire blogging resumes this afternoon...

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Posted by Confederate Yankee at 11:21 AM | Comments (0)

March 01, 2005

For Better or Worse

I've been avoiding commenting on the Terri Schiavo case, but since Phins says exactly what I want to say, I'll let him do that talking for me on this one.

Note: Fox News is reporting that Terri's parents have filed for divorce against Michael Schiavo on the grounds of adultery and not acting in his wife's best interests. As Michael Schiavo has had two children with another woman since he has been married to Terri the adultery charge is solid beyond doubt, and there would seem to be strong grounds that Mr. Schiavo is not acting in Terri's best interests by wanting her dead (trying to kill someone is usually considered against their best interests).

Quite frankly, I'm surprised this approach hasn't been tried before, though I don't know the legal rights of parents to conduct a divorce on behalf of an adult child under these circumstances.

The divorce proceedings, if allowed to continue, would cast a most critical light on Michael Schiavo.

If he only wants out of Terri's life so he can continue with his new family, a divorce gives him that option. If, however, he is after the remaining money from the 1992 malpractice case, then he will be revealed as the calculating killer many suspect that he may be.

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Posted by Confederate Yankee at 12:29 PM | Comments (0)

Play it again, George

In the wake of these events in Lebanon and this development in Egypt, President Bush should consider the possibility of seeing another note like this one in the future.

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Posted by Confederate Yankee at 12:07 PM | Comments (0)

February 28, 2005

Conspiracies Abound

Unfortunately the conspiracy theory wing of liberalism isn't just confined to my geographical location or my tinfoil hat-wearing Congressman (who has still not answered either of the letters from this constituent, one now a week old). As David Rogers of The New Editor finds out firsthand, the conspiracy theory mindset is spreading among liberals.

This is not good for our republic, and only Democrats can stop it. I hope they can, or they will so self-marginalize themselves as to make this an effective one party government, and that serves none of us well.

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Posted by Confederate Yankee at 04:22 PM | Comments (0)

Oliver, meet Vladimir

It is pathetic when someone who works for an organization devoted exclusively to promoting liberal media bias says there is no such thing, and deludes himself into believing it. These are the kind of reality-challenged people that think our president controls our entire media.

It is even scarier when someone who is that ignorant and clueless is in a position to have enough nuclear weapons to destroy all life on earth.

It is a frightening world when Vladimir Putin is as clueless about America as Oliver Willis is. Hopefully, Vlad at least can be educated. We've already given up on Oliver.

(Hat tip: Drudge)

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Posted by Confederate Yankee at 12:19 PM | Comments (0)

February 27, 2005

When Bias Becomes a Lie

Just over a week ago, my Congressman, Maurice Hinchey, made a claim that Karl Rove was behind the fake documents scandal at CBS News.

Since then, I've been highly critical of the media, particularly with newspapers in Hinchey's 22nd District in their coverage of this on-going story. While watching the papers first ignore story, and then write about it in both news stories and editorials, I've come to the realization of just how damaging political bias can be to a news organization.

Even under this best-case scenario, liberal bias inherent in these organizations is so strong that it affects both news stories and editorials to the point that they severely misrepresent the actual series of events. A simple look at one local news story and one local editorial underscores my point.

Michael Kruse of the Times Herald-Record wrote a story that appeared exactly one week after Hinchey's Rovian conspiracy theory was first recorded. The story, "Hinchey loves the limelight" (free reg. required), slanted his article, by intent or by inherent bias, to the point of eclipsing the real story. Kruse does not once touch upon the key essential element that makes this story newsworthy; that Hinchey has accused Karl Rove of being behind the fake documents scandal with absolutely no solid evidence to support his claim.

Instead, Kruse presents a fawning piece that shows bloggers as faceless aggressors attacking a noble man of the people who is taking his lumps in his fight for the truth. Kruse seeks to turn Hinchey into a sawn-off Erin Brockovich.

Kruse is more than willing to play straightman to Hinchey, and plays along with Hinchey's "the administration is out to get me" fantasy. Doubt my characterization? Read the article. Hinchey's own staff couldn't have written it better.

And Kruse is not alone. In fact, when the story makes the editorial pages, it goes from bad to worse. David Rossie is the associate editor of the Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin. His editorial, "Rep. Hinchey has no proof... so let's invade Rove's office" is tinfoil hat league.

Rossie firmly supports the "false, but accurate" claim about the fake documents (while conveniently offering no supporting evidence), and proves more than willing to pass along other dubious claims as proof of a pattern of behavior, even though he fails to provide factual basis for these claims, either. His pure spite and obvious hatred for all things conservative is almost Klannish in intensity as he mockingly refers to Bush as "God's instrument in the White House," and refers to "far right prattlers," in an apparent reference to anyone commenting on this issue who is not as liberal as himself.

Rossie, while cartoonish, is so rabidly anti-conservative that one has to wonder if any article of a political nature could pass through his desk without hopelessly compromising the objectivity of the story. He is not just an opinion writer, he is the associate editor, and his position and biases affirm that the Press & Sun-Bulletin is perhaps incapable of objective reporting. It is one thing to draw your own conclusions based upon your own personal biases, it is something far worse when you aren't provided a true accounting to base your personal opinion on.

I give each man the benefit of the doubt that they were honestly trying to write their stories with what they felt was objectivity, but in each case, their bias is apparent and overwhelming. In the Kruse article, he conveniently misses the main point of outrage of the entire issue. In the Rossie editorial, the issue is not only obfuscated, but the faulty premise is agreed to and furthered.

We all have our biases, but when one is a member of the media, he has a duty to attempt objectivity. Unfortunately, as these two examples show, when bias goes unchecked, it can slant a story far enough that it becomes a lie in its own right.

Update: "Talk on the Street," a section in the Times Herald-Record, shows another example of reporters selectively choosing minor parts of a story while completely missing the two major issues that made up the "meat" of Hinchey's appearance on Hannity's show. "Talk on the Street" said:

"Never one to shy from a fight, Hinchey got Hannity to admit the host made his own mistake recently by allowing someone who turned out to be a fake journalist onto the show. In return, Hannity kept cutting off Hinchey's mike and making fun of him."
Actually, every listener I've talked to said that Hinchey is the one who brought up the "fake reporter" (Jeff Gannon/James Guckert, a reporter for the now defunct Talon News) as part of his still unsubstantiated raft of theories that Karl Rove was behind the CBS News meltdown.

Once again, a Record reporter purposefully refuses to acknowledge that Hinchey has yet to provide a single piece concrete evidence to support his claims. The Record also refuses to report the stunning charge that Hinchey threatened Hannity during the 5:20 commercial break, and that Hannity apparently caught Hinchey's threat on tape.

I'm going to try to contact the Sean Hannity Radio Show to see if Hannity "kept cutting off Hinchey's mike" as the Record's Brendan Scott reports.

Will a retraction from the Record be in order?


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Posted by Confederate Yankee at 01:17 PM | Comments (0)

February 26, 2005

New Ward Churchill Art Discovered

(Clueless? Try this)

Posted by Confederate Yankee at 06:14 PM | Comments (0)

The World Ted Rall Can't See

Ted Rall, a reputed cartoonist, has a challenge posted on his web site:

"Several Bushist blogger types have written to assert that there are as many violent and threatening remarks and insults coming from liberals online as there are from conservatives against liberals. I've spent many sadly-lost hours online, and I say: no way.

"So here's my challenge: Please email your worst, most vicious examples of liberal/leftie blogger vitriol (with links, natch), and I'll post 'em right here. If they exist, obviously.

"If not, let's take as a given what we already know: that Republicans' first impulse is to punch people whose arguments they can't defeat with logic and to bomb countries whose people know something we don't.

"Come on, righties: my server is standing by at..."

You get the idea. But who is Ted Rall?

According to his blog (which I will not link to), he claims to be "America's BS Detector." I googled his name and after several eye-widening links, I think I found out what he does with the BS he detects. He wallows in it.

Some of Rall's work appears racist. Some of it appears as a hatred of patriotism. After viewing several of his more controversial strips online, I realized that Rall has to make controversial statements; his talent alone won't sustain a career. And it hasn't.

And so Rall is reduced to making incendiary statements to try to retain his dwindling relevancy. He claims he can't see liberal hatred, threats and insults.

I'd say he sees everything just fine, except his future. Ted sees and generates plenty of liberal bias.

He just can't see how he's going to pay the rent.

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Posted by Confederate Yankee at 12:05 AM | Comments (0)

February 25, 2005

Did Congressman Maurice Hinchey Threaten a Radio Talk Show Host?


According to reports from listeners, New York Congressman Maurice Hinchey threatened conservative radio talk show host Sean Hannity during the 5:20 PM (EST) break on Thursday's show, apparently while tape was still rolling and recording.

Hinchey has been under intense and growing media scrutiny since last weekend when he made an unsubstantiated claim that Karl Rove and the White House were responsible for tricking CBS News into running a story based on false documents.

I am currently trying to track down a transcript of Thursday's Sean Hannity Show, and will update this story as events develop.

Update: WuzzaDem has hilarious (and typical) experience with the apparent political bias at Google trying to find out about our unhinged congressman.

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Posted by Confederate Yankee at 12:14 AM | Comments (0)

February 24, 2005

When Awards Don't Matter


(Hat tip: LGF)

Wired.com has given combat journalist Kevin Sites the 2005 Wired Rave Awards for Blogs, though apparently "relevancy" was not one of the criteria for judging.

Why? According to Wired, Sites, "pioneered the new new journalism of war-blogging." Really? Someone please tell that to the many milbloggers that came before him, such as Lt. Smash or Argghhh!. Sites was not the first war-blogger, and his writing, though often quite good, rarely held the tension of Armor Geddon, or intelligence of Austin Bay. He was pedestrian, sometimes better, but never near the best of the military and war-bloggers.

Other blogs had far more national and international impact.

Powerline and Little Green Footballs exposed the fake documents scandal at CBS News that brought down Dan Rather and shook professional journalism to the core, and Powerline was named Time Magazine's Blog of the Year, based upon "The Sixty-First Minute," an article that is arguably the most important single post in the history of the blogosphere.

While Sites does not publish his blog's traffic statistics, it probably wouldn't rate in the top 250 for traffic, nor in the top 100 for links, according to a comparison of selected sites in the TTLB Ecosystem rankings against blog search relavancy results at Technorati.com.

Sites doesn't appear to score well for overall relevance, nor impact, nor traffic, nor linkage.

One would be forced to believe that the only reason Sites was chosen for this award was because of a single incident of relevance, when Sites released and blogged about controversial footage of a young Marine killing a wounded terrorist in a Fallujah mosque. Ultimately, even that had little relevance, as the Marine is not likely to face charges. Bad things happen in war.

That news, and the otherwise insignificant blog covering it, hardly seems worthy of an award.

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Posted by Confederate Yankee at 03:42 PM | Comments (0)

The Commies are Coming

The Commies are coming...

International A.N.S.W.E.R., a Stalinist terrorist-supporting group will be coming to New Paltz, NY on March 19 to protest the anniversary of the liberation of Iraq.

A.N.S.W.E.R.'s last major protest was a February 12 "Day of Outrage" in support of convicted terrorist collaborator Lynn Stewart.

Oh, did I mention Rep. Maurice Hinchey is scheduled as this group's featured speaker?

(hat tips: Slant Point, Free Will)

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Posted by Confederate Yankee at 01:06 PM | Comments (0)

HincheyWait Continues

So it has now been four days since I sent an email to Congressman Maurice Hinchey, asking him to explain his conspiracy theory that Karl Rove and the White House tricked CBS News into running a story based on false documents. I don't think the congressman plans to answer his constituent.

For those of you who might need a refresher, CBS News jumped at a chance to run a false story they thought would be damaging to President Bush's reelection, even though three of their own experts told them that there were major problems with the documents before the story ran.

The story's sole apparent source was a Bush-hating conspiracy theory-addicted man named Bill Burkett. The blindly partisan story with direct ties to John Kerry's presidential campaign was discredited within 24 hours, leading to the firing of one CBS News producer, the call for resignation of three other CBS News executives, Rather's replacement as the network's anchor, and the destruction of the credibility of CBS News.

This past weekend, in front of a crowd of partisan supporters in the leftmost major city in his district (politically and geographically), Hinchey made claim that Karl Rove was behind this incident.

What makes this story extraordinary is not that a politician played to a partisan crowd.

What makes this story extraordinary is that once caught in this tall tale and pressed for evidence, Hinchey admits that he has no proof for his allegations, but that he plans to continue making the slanderous statements, regardless any evidence supporting his position.

When pressed to defend his statements, Hinchey instead tries to redirect attention elsewhere.

We aren't buying it, Mr. Hinchey.

Nobody else made outrageous unsubstantiated claims here. You did. When offered chances to support your claims with facts, you flatly turned them down.

Mr. Hinchey, you are an embarrassment to New York's 22nd District, and are now the butt of jokes literally halfway around the world. Back up your conspiracy theories with cold hard facts, admit you were wrong, or resign.

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Posted by Confederate Yankee at 11:06 AM | Comments (0)

February 23, 2005

"A Host of Political Dirty Tricks"

I think I can understand why my congressman, Maurice Hinchey, hasn't found the time to respond to either of my emails concerning his seemingly slanderous comments about Karl Rove and the Bush administration. He's been too busy on television and the radio trying to spin his version of events and portray himself as an everyman hero.

Well, I'm sorry, Mr. Hinchey, but that dog won't hunt.

On CNN's Inside Politics on Tuesday, Congressman Hinchey said:

"And then the issue of the CBS Dan Rather event came up, and I said that there were false documents or documents which were falsified and presented as being accurate and there was a question as to where those documents came from. And in the context of the discussion I suggested that -- my theory was that I wouldn't be surprised if it came from the White House political operation, headed up by Karl Rove."
But is that quite how it happened, Mr. Hinchey? There was no question about where the issue came up. Hinchey went on a rant, of which this is just a small sample:
"They've had a very very direct, aggressive attack on the, on the media, and the way it's handled. Probably the most flagrant example of that is the way they set up Dan Rather. Now, I mean, I have my own beliefs about how that happened: it originated with Karl Rove, in my belief, in the White House. They set that up with those false papers."
Hinchey went on during the CNN interview with Judy Woodruff that he based his beliefs upon, "a great deal of circumstantial information and factual information. Mr. Rove, for example, has been involved in a host of political dirty tricks that are traceable back -- all the way back to the 1970s, '80s, '90s, right on up to the present."

I am sure then that Mr. Hinchey can provide us with concrete examples if he has three decades of "factual information." I await his timely release of such information. Surely Congressman Hinchey would never make up such allegations.

According to The Forest for the Trees Hinchey appeared on the Ed Shultz radio show and told their listener, "the forging of these documents and the shopping around of these documents, that was a well executed setup to destroy the issue of Bush's draft evasion."

Again, I'm sure Congressman Hinchey will be forthcoming with the truth in extremely short order. Does Friday sound reasonable to you, Congressman? You have three decades of evidence, according to your claims. It shouldn't be too hard to throw together eight or ten pages of well-sourced, corroborated allegations in that amount of time.

Hinchey apparently stated at one point during his radio interview that, "If we had a Congress that cared about this country we would see something done about this".

Congressman, that is expressly why you are there.

If you can't handle the job, I am certain we find someone who can.

*****
Credit where credit is due. In one of my earlier threads on this topic, I criticized the local newspapers harshly for missing this story, believing they may have been stonewalling. Since then, three of the four papers cited written articles on this topic, and the Times Herald-Record has created a section on its home page specifically dealing with this issue, including blog coverage and a message board. So far, of the four papers mentioned, only the Poughkeepsie Journal has failed to address this story.


Update: Mr. Hinchey was on Hannity & Colmes tonight. I missed most of it, but tuned in just in time to see Hannity ask Hinchey point-blank to provide his evidence against Rove within what I thought was a very generous two weeks, or if he couldn't provide evidence to donate $1,000 to a charity Hannity supports.

At a critical moment where he was quite literally asked to put his money where his mouth is, Hinchey declined. He claims to call for media accountability, but refuses his own. No wonder Hinchey is a punchline as far as half a world away.

Maurice Hinchey is an embarrassment to the Hudson Valley.

Update: Blogs and Media Coverage
Little Green Footballs broke the story over the weekend and has been following it closely.
Michelle Malkin thinks that Hinchey is "unhinged."
Powerline notes that other Democrats rarely criticize this kind of behavior.

Tim Blair goes iowahawk on Hinchey.
GOP and the City has commentary, a roundup, and visual aides.
Carpe Bonum has a take on Hichey's appearance on CNN's Inside politics.
Slant Point is developing a list of additional blog coverage of "Hincheypalooza."
Sounding the Trumpet is another 22nd District blog covering this story.

IMAO rips into Hinchey, among others.
Empire State Conservatives comments on the scene of the crime.
Lance Minnion defends Hinchey.
Musing Minds has comments and another collection of blog links.
Myopic Zeal has a good roundup that highlights selected bits of commentary from the top blogs and provides what is probably the a rundown of a lot of the smaller blogs.
Random Observations makes the observation that the Left is in a self-perpetuating cycle.

phin's blog thinks Hinchey's outburst constitutes abuse of power. My brother might be on to something, at least from the moral side of things.
The Forest for the Trees captured Hichey's appearance on Air America radio and was not impressed.
Wizbang notes that you don't have to be insane to be a Democrat... but it helps.

Technorati, the blog search engine, currently has 207 posts for "Hinchey+Rove."

If I missed your blog (and I know I missed at least a few), and you commented on this topic, please track back to this post.

Media Coverage:
Binghamton's Press & Sun-Journal ran the first web-accessible 22nd District local news story on the subject.
Middletown's Time Herald-Record is giving this story serious attention, with a section on the home page dedicated to the story.
Ithaca's Journal, which blew the original story, finally weighed in.
Kingston's Daily Freeman also has an article.
Poughkeepsie's Journal still has its head in the sand.
CNN's Inside Politics had a segment with Hinchey.
Air America's Ed Shultz did a segment with Hinchey as well.


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Posted by Confederate Yankee at 12:01 AM | Comments (0)

February 22, 2005

A Second Letter to Maurice

I have now sent and received confirmation of delivery of my second email to my Congressman, Maurice Hinchey. It reads:

Representative Hinchey,

You have said in the local print news that even though you have no evidence proving a connection between Karl Rove and the CBS News scandal, you will not stop making these allegations. I am issuing a challenge to you: either conduct an investigation to prove your slanderous comments, or quit making them.

Hinchey's office has still not responded to my first email, even though I specified that I wanted a written response.

I can only assume that the concerns of his conservative constituents are of low priority.

Update: Little Green Footballs, which broke the original story, has this excellent piece on cognitive dissonance from Scylla & Charybdis.

"Yeah, that the ticket..."


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Posted by Confederate Yankee at 03:24 PM | Comments (0)

Maurice Hinchey: Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is

Congressman Maurice Hinchey is finally talking to the local media about his charge that Karl Rove masterminded the fake documents scandal at CBS.

Far from issuing a retraction, Hinchey maintains the theory that Rove is behind the story that led to "RatherGate," despite the fact that he has no proof. In addition, Hinchey maintains that he will continue to make these charges against Rove and the White House despite any evidence to support his baseless accusations.

When we elect officials to go to Washington, they represent us and have a certain responsibility to hold their office with a certain degree of maturity, class, and decorum. Maurice Hinchey instead plays to extremists by repeating conspiracy theories that he admits as having no supporting facts.

Congressman Hinchey needs to do one of two things.

Option one is that Congressman Hinchey can shelve his slanderous accusations. Quite frankly, I don't expect the apology this situation warrants. I think that by furthering these accusations when he admits they are groundless, Congressman Hinchey has proven he doesn't have that kind of class. But I think we should expect him to at least stop repeating lies based upon outlandish conspiracy theories.

I actually prefer the second option on the table: Let's give Congressman Hinchey and supporters of this theory a chance to make their case.

I challenge Maurice Hinchey, New York's 22nd District Representative, to launch a Congressional Investigation into the accusations that Karl Rove and the White House were behind the CBS fake documents scandal.

Have both houses of Congress subpoena witnesses, and build your case. Prove to us who was behind this scandal. I'm quite certain that the White House would like to get to the bottom of this story as well, and if you were doing more than just pandering to highly partisan crowds, you would feel the same way.

So put your money where your mouth is, Rep. Hinchey.

Quite frankly, I don't think you have it in you.

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Posted by Confederate Yankee at 11:01 AM | Comments (0)

Maurice Hinchey: You Can Run...

If Maurice Hinchey didn't so obviously mean to slander Karl Rove and George Bush, I might be able to generate a bit of sympathy for him. Sadly, audio of the event and the accompanying transcript leave little room for confusion; Hinchey was radically pandering to a partisan crowd, espousing wild, unsubstantiated conspiracy theories that Karl Rove was responsible for setting up Dan Rather with faked documents of Bush's Texas Air National Guard service.

Congressman Hinchey happens to be my representative, and I sent him an email roughly 24 hours ago asking him to explain his statements. So far, I have received no response.

Congressman Hinchey is now in the middle of what has been dubbed a "blog swarm." At the time I'm writing this, at least 131 blogs have written about Congressman Hinchey's outburst, up from a mere handful the night before. In addition, MSNBC, CNN, and Fox News have already interviewed Charles Johnson of Little Green Footballs who brought the audio and transcript to the Web, and hopefully the efforts of a concerned constituent that were picked up by many other bloggers have helped generate enough email to the print media in New York's 22nd District (Hinchey's district) to get the story treated locally.

You cannot hide, Rep. Hinchey, and this will not blow over. I think you desperately need to get and read this book today, and act upon it. We don't want your job, nor your head on a silver platter, but we do deserve an explanation, and an apology.

I don't think that is too much to ask.

Late Update: The Binghamton Press & Sun Journal appears to be the first 22nd District newspaper to break the press blackout.

"I have no proof," Hinchey said Monday night. "But if the documents originated at the White House, then it would fit the pattern of the White House manipulating the media. And if it did originate in the White House, then it must have come from the most brilliant, most Machiavellian of all of them, Karl Rove."
Some people aren't blessed with the common sense to know when to shut up.


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Posted by Confederate Yankee at 12:15 AM | Comments (0)

February 21, 2005

Partisan NY 22nd District Newspapers Bury Hinchey Outburst

Not surprisingly, no one from Rep. Maurice Hinchey's office has so far replied to my email request to explain his outlandish claim that Dan Rather was duped by operatives of Karl Rove, even though I am a 22nd District constituent. I only mention that because Congressman reputedly like to use the dodge, "Well, you're not in my district so..."

Well Rep. Hinchey, I am in your district, you work for me and the other taxpayers of the 22nd District, and I think we have a right to know why you would make a comment, that if it did not involve a political figure, would likely constitute slander.

Not surprisingly, the local print news media, all with consistent liberal bias, have not felt this story warranted coverage. The Times Herald-Record whiffs, as do the three Gannett-owned papers in the District, the Poughkeepsie Journal, the Ithaca Journal, and the Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin.

I am quite certain that if a New York Republican (say, Stephen Minarik) made a controversial statement about a nationally prominent Democrat, (say, Howard Dean) that even the national news media, such as the Associated Press would find it newsworthy, though it would take a blogger to prove the connection.

Should anyone desire to contact executives at these fine news organizations and ask them why they are ignoring this story, their names, titles, and email addresses are provided below.

Times Herald-Record
Mike Levine, Executive Editor: mlevine@th-record.com
Meg McGuire, Managing Editor: mmcguire@th-record.com
Joe Dowd: North Orange/Ulster Editor, jdowd@th-record.com
Bob Gaydos: Editorial Page Editor, rgaydos@th-record.com

Poughkeepsie Journal
Margaretta Downey, Executive Editor, newsroom@poughkee.gannett.com
Richard L.Kleban, Managing Editor, rkleban@poughkee.gannett.com
John Ferro, City Editor, jferro@poughkee.gannett.com
James Konrad, News Editor, jkonrad@poughkee.gannett.com

Ithaca Journal
Jim Fogler, President, jfogler@ithaca.gannett.com
Dave Bohrer, Asst. Managing Editor, dbohrer@ithaca.gannett.com
Bruce Estes, Managing Editor, bestes@ithaca.gannett.com
Joe Swartz, Editorial Page Editor, jschwartz@ithaca.gannett.com

Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin

Rick Jensen, Executive Editor, rjensen@binghamt.gannett.com
Christopher Kocher, News Editor, ckocher@binghamt.gannett.com
Frank Roessner, Editorial Page Editor, froessne@binghamt.gannett.com

P.S.--Oliver Willis: Here is your media bias.

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Posted by Confederate Yankee at 02:56 PM | Comments (0)

Bloggers on C-Span

I'm watching C-Span right now with bloggers Oliver Willis and Patrick Ruffini.

I think Mr. Ruffini looks sharp and polished, wearing a nice suit. Mr. Willis wore an ill-fitting shirt and tie without a jacket.

I know that bloggers are supposed to be worried more about content than packaging, but we should all be media savvy enough to know that when you are in the visual media, you need to be dressed professionally. Fair or not, how you look and comport yourself affects your credibility. By dressing the way he did, Mr. Willis damaged his credibility, and did not help the image of bloggers in general.

Glenn Reynolds was unfortunately wrong: Oliver Willis is not ready for television. But he sure has a face for radio.

*****

Content was to be expected. Mr. Ruffini did well, but didn't say anything profound, which was to be expected. Mr. Willis repeatedly said that, "there is no liberal media," even though he works for a liberal organization called "Media Matters for America." He also said, "I'm just not willing to launch a headhunting campaign against someone based on secondhand reports."

Somehow, I think James Gannon/Jeff Guckert won't buy either of those stories.

*****

Now we have the suspect Willis comments above captured on video, will Brit Hume call for his resignation?

Update: Oliver Willis writes to Glenn Reynolds: "Now, am I willing to launch a campaign based on firsthand knowledge? You bet."

So Oliver, which liberal blogger solicited Jeff Gannon?


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Posted by Confederate Yankee at 08:27 AM | Comments (0)

My Congressman is an Idiot

I'm too ashamed (and tired) to say more at this point, other than that I didn't vote for this genius.

Listen to the Hinchey in his own words.

Update: I just sent my esteemed Congressman the following letter:

Dear Rep. Hinchey,

I have felt that you have always been a reasonable congressman, despite our differing political viewpoints (I am a conservative). I was highly troubled, however, to listen to your outrageous claims that Karl Rove orchestrated a grand deception to dupe Dan Rather. I think they award tin hats and DNC Chairmanships for that kind of behavior, but I like to think we have higher standards in the 22nd District.

If you have forgotten your exact words, I have both the audio and transcripts of your statements that I downloaded off the internet, ironically enough, from on of the sites that proved the CBS documents fake.

Would you please care to explain your commentary to one of your constituents?

I eagerly await his response.

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Posted by Confederate Yankee at 02:22 AM | Comments (0)

Gonzales Will Set Tone with CNN Gun Story


Alberto Gonzales will now have a chance to set the tone for his term as U.S. Attorney General, thanks to a CNN story that apparently violated several federal gun control laws.

A CNN reporter in the pursuit of a story apparently committed multiple violations of the Gun Control Act of 1968. This act was brought about by the murders of Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. and Senator Robert Kennedy.

The Smallest Minority is bringing attention to a CNN expose on .50 BMG rifles that may have led the CNN reporter in the segment and a Texas buyer to commit federal felonies (hat tip: Instapundit).

CNN, apparently ran a story trying to show that it was easy for someone to buy a .50 BMG rifle without a permit and suggest it could be used it to bring down a civilian aircraft. We'll leave the disreputable fear-mongering of the "most busted name in news" aside for now, and focus on the apparent felonious acts committed in the story.

Triggerfinger.org describes a clip from the video:

Cut to the reporter in his SUV, taking about how the only paper involved in the transaction will be the cash. He flashes what looks like about 5 bills to the camera. Since the price of the gun was about $3000 new, he's not exactly representing the amount accurately. Cut to the reporter walking into a building, then walking out again with a carrying case. More inane comments in voiceover. Cut to an airport baggage claim, where he picks up the gun case. Voiceover about how it's perfectly legal to transport the gun on an airplane on your baggage (never mind the paperwork).
Let's look at this simple series of event described in the three paragraphs above.

The CNN reporter based in Atlanta, Georgia finds a .50 BMG rifle for sale from a private owner (not a licensed dealer, this is a crucial detail) in Texas. He then flies to Texas. He is filmed going into a building, and returning with a carrying case which he claims holds the rifle. Let's stop right there.

Two apparent felonies occurred inside this building.

If the private seller in Texas sold the gun to the Georgia-based reporter, he committed a felony, and the reporter likewise commited a felony by illegally purchasing the firearm.

The reporter then compounded the apparent intitial felony by transporting an illegally-obtained weapon across state lines, which is another federal felony on its own. All of these crimes fall afoul of the Gun Control Act of 1968 as covered in specific as it relates to this event here.

There is little the reporter can say to vindicate himself at this point. He not only apparently committed a crime, but videotaped and broadcast it.

The professionalism and fairness applied to this apparent crime captured on film will establish Gonzales' credibility with Americans on both sides of the political aisle, and determine if Gonzales has the courage and conviction to investigate crimes not popular with the press.

The ball is in Gonzales' court. Let's see how he plays it.

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Posted by Confederate Yankee at 12:14 AM | Comments (0)

February 19, 2005

Guckert/Rove "Link" From CBS News

I'm afraid I'm going to have to apologize to my liberal friends. They were right about a huge conspiracy by the White House to allow gay men to ask questions. CBS News Senior Political Analyst Dotty Lynch said Friday:

"But Rove's dominance of White House and Republican politics, Gannon's aggressively partisan work and the ease with which he got day passes for the White House press room the past two years make it hard to believe [emphasis added] that he wasn't at least implicitly sanctioned by the 'boy genius."'
Yep, a CBS News staffer has based an anti-Administration story on gut-level feelings that something was amiss. Luckily, we know that CBS News would never trump up a bogus story about President Bush (hat tip: LGF).

Interestingly enough, real members of the White House Press Corps see the Guckert story as far less of an issue than does the dotty Ms. Dotty above (hat tip: Instapundit).

Update: Powerline has come forward to give their opinion on the Gannon/Gucket non-story. It isn't pretty, but then, there isn't anything pretty about this witchhunt.

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Posted by Confederate Yankee at 01:36 PM | Comments (0)

Such Class


The Party of Hissy Fits seems to be at it again. The damage was repaired within hours, as this kind of behavior, sadly, was expected of liberals and the sign company was ready to make the repairs.

Democrats vandalized the White House in the 2001 transition to the tune of $15,000-$20,000 in damage according to an independent GAO Report, so this far less sacred venue was obviously fair game in what passes for morals on the left.

As no industrial cranes were spotted in the area at the time of the act of liberal vandalism, Michael Moore is not regarded as a primary suspect.

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Posted by Confederate Yankee at 12:29 PM | Comments (0)

February 18, 2005

Den of Hypocrisy

From my favorite den of wild accusation and paranoia, the Democratic Underground:

"This week is our first quarter 2005 fund drive. Our goal is to bring in 1000 individual donations before midnight on Sunday, February 20. There is no minimum (or maximum) donation. Whether you can spare $5 or $500, your contribution will bring us one step closer to our goal. So please take a moment to donate right now!"
Did you see that?

They only seem to want the evil American dollar-the same currency preferred by Halliburton, BusHilter, and the Evil NeoCon Cabal. These are the exact same dollars and cents used to pay military contractors, defense contractors, and anti-abortion lawyers.

They very Franklins, Lincolns, and Washingtons that they so crave, also go in church offering plates and might be used (gasp!) to bankroll religious holiday events... when they aren't used to buy Ohio voters.

Do you know who else insists on being paid in dollars? Sean Hannity. Anne Coulter. Karl Rove.

I, for one, can't stand the hypocrisy.

Update: If I'm going to tell you about where you shouldn't send your donations, I guess I should probably provide an alternative of where you should. While I'm always greatful, I can think of someone who has given quite a bit more to the blogosphere.

Glen Harlan Reynolds

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Posted by Confederate Yankee at 01:12 PM | Comments (0)

February 17, 2005

More Crunchy Social Security Goodness

The New Editor looks at the numbers and wonders if today's liberals are trying to make Democrats look foolish on Social Security.

My Answer?


Well, duh... It's all part of that new image they're shooting for.

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Posted by Confederate Yankee at 06:38 PM | Comments (0)

Boxer/Stewart/Dean Connection Verified

Howard Dean, who garnered 100% of Republican support to become the head of the DNC, has been in office less than a week and as we expected, he is already stepping hip deep in liberal stupidity.

Dean called for New York's Republican chairman Stephen Minarik to apologize or step down for remarks linking Democrats to radical leftist lawyer Lynn Stewart, who was just convicted of aiding terrorists.

Minarik said Monday that:

"the Democrats simply have refused to learn the lessons of the past two election cycles, and now they can be accurately called the party of Barbara Boxer, Lynne Stewart and Howard Dean."
Dean says Minarik's remarks were offensive, and that Minarik should apologize or resign for making the link. There is just one problem with Howie's argument:

Minarik was right.

There is a link, a very big one, between Barbara Boxer, and Lynn Stewart, and Howard Dean.

His name is George Soros, who not only famously backs the Democrat Party, but also bankrolled Lynn Stewart's defense (hat tip LawHawk, via LGF), gave MoveOn.org $5 million to benefit Howard Dean, and gave money to Barbara Boxer.

Stephen Minarik should not apologize for the truth. Liberal Senator Boxer, radical terrorist supporter Stewart, and DNC Chairman Screamin' Dean all readily took money from convicted criminal and anti-American billionaire George Soros.

Minarik's comments might be offensive to Dean, but they were on the money.

Update: Instapudit notes "This is mostly an example of why finding 'links' between people and organizations is an overrated activity."

Prof. Reynolds is correct, of course. Just becuase I was able to find an easily proven and politically uncomfortable link between these four people doesn't necessarily mean that the connection was fair.

That said, it doesn't make it any less entertaining.

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Posted by Confederate Yankee at 12:52 PM | Comments (0)

Ritter Joins al-Jezeera

I guess Scott Ritter has finally found the place where he belongs.

The fomer Marine, U.N. Weapons inspector and Time "Person of the Week" must have found the climate there a bit more accepting of his tastes, both political, and personal.

Of course, what probably attracted Ritter as much as the America-hating politics was the swingin' singles scene...

Right?

Update: No, Ritter has not been called as a witness in the Michael Jackson trial... Why do you ask?

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Posted by Confederate Yankee at 11:36 AM | Comments (0)

February 16, 2005

The Hivemind Falls Short

It has been alledged that if the liberal side of the blogosphere could learn to gather information from outside of their closed community, that they might indeed become a force. Unfortunately, they have a tendency towards groupthink.

This of course leads to the parroting of ideas not throughly vetted, and so the hivemind runs a risk of propogating a story that may or not be true, based upon fervent belief instead of facts.

The Brit Hume quote of FDR is a wonderful case in point.

Brit Hume, of Fox News quoted part of FDR's January 17, 1935 speech to Congress proposing Social Security. Here is the relevant paragraph of the Hume article:

In a written statement to Congress in 1935, Roosevelt said that any Social Security plans should include, "Voluntary contributory annuities, by which individual initiative can increase the annual amounts received in old age," adding that government funding, "ought to ultimately be supplanted by self-supporting annuity plans."
Liberals such as Al Franken and James Roosevelt Jr. are now shrilly crying for Hume's resignation, saying that, "he rearranged those sentences in an outrageous distortion, one that really calls for a retraction, an apology, maybe even a resignation."

Keith Olbermann chimed in, along with your expected deluge of liberal parrot blogs, and it was off to the races for the "me, too" crowd on the left to see who could call for Hume's resignation the fastest.

But what, exactly, did Hume actually "rearrange?"

Here is the exact two-line quote from the January 17, 1935 speech address from FDR that Hume abridged:

"Third, voluntary contributory annuities by which individual initiative can increase the annual amounts received in old age. It is proposed that the Federal Government assume one-half of the cost of the old-age pension plan, which ought ultimately to be supplanted by self-supporting annuity plans."
Compare that to Hume's abridged version:
"Voluntary contributory annuities, by which individual initiative can increase the annual amounts received in old age," adding that government funding, "ought to ultimately be supplanted by self-supporting annuity plans."
Could you easily spot the difference? Here is the FDR quote again, this time with the part Hume left out highlighted in bold:
"Third, voluntary contributory annuities by which individual initiative can increase the annual amounts received in old age. It is proposed that the Federal Government assume one-half of the cost of the old-age pension plan, which ought ultimately to be supplanted by self-supporting annuity plans."
So we can see that Hume's "great sin" against FDR was to leave out the clause which states that the government would assume one-half of the cost of what would become known Social Security. If FDR wanted the government to absorb 1/2 the cost, then by default, the remaining 1/2 would then be private, correct?

And isn't the fact that FDR spoke of private investment exactly what Hume was referring to in the first place?

Sometimes a little research is more important than simply shouting, "me too!"

Liberals should try it some time.

Update: Cassandra has more in-depth coverage of the "tempest in a teacup."

Update 2: While both the right and the left have been focusing on the text of FDR's speech A Little Reason compares the speech against the context of the actual bill and discovers that if Al Franken should call anyone a "lying liar," it should be Franklin Delano Roosevelt.


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Posted by Confederate Yankee at 03:38 PM | Comments (0)

WMDs , Or A Bottle Of Stoli?

And we wonder why the much vaunted UN Weapon Inspectors didn't find the WMDs that every major intelligence agency in the world says were in Iraq:

"UN inspectors in Iraq spent their working hours drinking vodka while ignoring a shadowy nocturnal fleet believed to be smuggling goods for Saddam Hussein, a former senior inspector told the US Senate yesterday.

"In a move that provoked fury from officials of the Swiss firm Cotecna, an Australian former inspector detailed a picture of incompetence, indifference and drunkeness among the men acting as the frontline for UN sanctions."

They were apparently more interested in getting bombed than finding bombs.

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Posted by Confederate Yankee at 02:36 PM | Comments (0)

Reality Bites

An Italian Communist anti-war journalist, Giuliana Sgrena, starred in a "Mujahideen Without Borders" video released to the Associated Press today, calling (in French, appropriately enough) for the "end of the occupation of Iraq."

A vigorous anti-war protestor, Sgrena's video was shown just hours before Italy's Senate started voting on extending the nation's 3,000-member military mission in Iraq until June.

I'm a tiny bit skeptical.

A mention in the MSNBC version of the story made it sound like she was not only starring in the video, but directing it:

At one point, her eyes watering as she struggled to recite her message, she waved the camera to stop. [my emphasis]
An unknown group snatches a terrorist-sympathizing journalist, presumably for ransom, and the video just happens to show up in time to try to influence a vote? Is this timing the idea of the abductors, or hers? They both have similar political agendas, so the possibility should not be ruled out, and while no one in the Italian government would mention it, I'd be very surprised if that possibility had not been discussed internally.

It is quite possible, however, that Sgrena is experiencing a rude awakening. She very well may have been jarred with the reality that her captors are the occupiers in Iraq, not American troops, and that they are not the nice revolutionaries she may have liked to believe that they were.

Maybe if more armchair leftists got the full hostage experience firsthand, then they would understand that they have been cheering for the wrong side. Education is sometimes a brutal experience that I think Sgrena is unfortunately finding out firsthand.

Note: The BBC seems to share a bit of skepticism as well over the timing of the release of the video. The video, by the way, did not keep the Italian Senate from extending their presence in Iraq.

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Posted by Confederate Yankee at 01:27 PM | Comments (0)

A Call for Comments On Blogging

I love blogs and blogging. I think you do, too, or you wouldn't be reading this.

Blogging is still in its relative infancy, but is maturing quickly, with thousands of new bloggers starting up every day. A lot more people will be getting into it in the months and years ahead. Unfortunately, growing pains won't be easy on any of us, and so I'm asking you to help me out on a bit of a blogging community project.

After I read of the incident where a 13-year old was verbally savaged over not following good netiquette, I thought it was a good idea to try to compile some blogging-specific netiquette to hopefully cut down on incidents like this. I intend to compile and display what I can here:

http://blognetiquette.blogspot.com/

What I ask of you is to let me know what you consider good form and bad form alike when blogging. From inappropriate trackback to comment spam, to attribution issues and blog promotion, or other thing I may have missed, I'd like to get your input.

I'll be accepting comments for several weeks, and just ask that as you run across something that you think needs to be mentioned, to please drop me a line at confederateyankee-at-hotmail.com.

I hope to take the site live in the first week of March, and hope it could be a resource that we could all use to help new bloggers get started.

Thank you very much for your time, and any input you can provide.

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Posted by Confederate Yankee at 11:22 AM | Comments (0)

"Leslie Moonves, Meet Howell Raines"

RatherGate refuses to die (hat tip: RatherBiased).

The three CBS staffers asked to resign after the airing of the fake Bush Air National Guard story have refused to go. What's more, they have retained counsel and may sue CBS News, alleging that upper management and the investigators did not run a real investigation, but one designed from the outset to protect the CBS News corporate brass, not to ferret out the truth.

Because of this, Josh Howard, the executive producer of "60 Minutes Wednesday" during the RatherGate episode, is threatening CBS News with a wrongful termination lawsuit that would require testimony under oath and could subpoena internal documents and email that may not have not appeared as evidence in the official 224-page Thornburgh Report (PDF). The two other CBS News Executives asked to resign, Mary Murphy and Betsy West, have also refused to step down and seem willing to fight CBS brass for what they consider the truth.

CBS News claims that Howard's accusations have "no basis in fact." That seems to be a common complaint around CBS News these days.

So what do we have here?

The last time I heard of such infighting at a news organization was when Howell Raines was forced out at the New York Times over the Jayson Blair scandal. If Howard, Murphy and West are playing it straight, then it seems entirely plausible that Leslie Moonves and Andrew Heyward might be far more interested in protecting their own positions than preserving what remains of the tattered credibility of CBS News.

CBS News cannot handle another scandal.

The brand is severely hobbled at ths point, and if Howard, Murphy, and West can establish any sort of merit with a public already distrustful of CBS, and get the easily ascribed "covering our own asses" defense tarred to Heyward and Moonves, then its effectively "Game Over" for CBS News, regardless of what a judge or jury later determine.

Their effectiveness as executives most likely will be fatally compromised, regardless of any eventual vindication in a court of law. What's more, if Howard does pursue his case and presents evidence damning the structure of the investigation, it could potentially also turn on the two "independent" investigators, former Attorney General Richard Thornburgh and former Associated Press head Louis Boccardi.

Many already have their doubts about the so-called "Thornburgh Report," and if it appears that the report was compromised by design, Thornburgh and Boccardi could end up with their reputations in hot water along with the CBS News brass.

This one is a long way from over, but I don't see how Heyward or Moonves can have much of a future remaining at CBS News.

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Posted by Confederate Yankee at 01:59 AM | Comments (0)

February 15, 2005

The Left Comes Out

Thanks to Instapundit, we see that Democrats.com is running a story, "Did George W. Bush Have Sex with That Man, James Guckert?"

Guckert is the real name of a former Talon News reporter who called himself Jeff Gannon, and who was "outed" by ever-tolerant liberals as the owner of several gay-themed web sites. Liberal "news" sites such as Democrat.com, RawStory.com, and Americablog.org have gone on to say that Gannon didn't only own a couple of gay-themed web sites, but that he was also an escort, or something worse.

According to the author of this piece (of what, I'll let you decide), Bob Fertik, gays are apparently sashaying out of the woodwork in Bush's White House. He claims White House spokesman Scott McClellan is gay, that Bush is gay, that Bush's former Yale classmate was gay, that GOP Ken Mehlman is gay... did he leave anyone out?

He uses the word "gay" in each instance like a pointed finger of accusation, with an implied "but there's nothing wrong with that" hanging in the air like a stale fart. Apparently, in Fertik's world "Gay" is the new shorthand for "Republican."

The lefty blogosphere, constantly touting itself as inclusive and accepting of minorities such as gay men, is not only outing Gannon/Guckert, but humiliating him in any way possible, and taking great delight in it.

Is this how the left displays tolerance and acceptance of gays? Posters on the Democratic Underground delighted in bashing Guckert. When Guckert announced he was no longer talking to the press, a liberal poster to the Democratic Underground message boards gleefully asked, "I wonder if he'll 'talk' for $200?" Another said, "Don't slander him by implying he was a cheap prostitute. He was a very expensive one." So much for the myth of a gay-friendly left.

I feel sorry for my gay friends having their sexuality batted around by their so-called "tolerant" liberal party. As more liberals pile on to this story, and gays find out what the liberal wing really feels under their sheets, I'll be at the lumber yard.

We're planning on adding rooms at the Log Cabin.

Update: I'm not the only blogger that seems the think the left is showing their homophobia while bashing Gannon/Guckert.


Weapons of Mass Discussion says that "the liberal blogosphere seems to think this is a story, but all it really is doing is exposing their hatred for a constituency they say they support."

Insulted.org adds: "To the Left, it's great if you're gay. Unless, that is, you're a conservative gay man who works in the White House Press Corps. Then, you're fair game for a public outing, followed by reprisals, harassment, and eventual hounding from your job."

Cynical Nation says that: "This kind of behavior is ugly, no matter which side does it (and both sides do!) Nevertheless, it's worrisome to see how exploiting homophobia has become a standard political weapon in the arsenal of the left these days. And I think if you were to ask Dick Cheney's gay daughter, who's a lesbian homosexual, she'd agree."

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Posted by Confederate Yankee at 03:00 PM | Comments (0)

A New "World" War

Thanks to fellow New York blogger Scott Sala and his blog Slant Point, I think I know which self-important junior member of the old media is next to be engulfed in a blog swarm.

Tulsa World, of Tulsa Oklahoma, has threatened Tulsa blogger Michael Bates of BatesLine with copyright infringement because BatesLine:


"...has reproduced (in whole or in part) articles and/or editorials from the Tulsa World newspaper or has inappropriately linked your website to Tulsa World content.

"The Tulsa World copyrights its entire newspaper and specifically each of the articles and/or editorials at issue. The reproduction of any articles and/or editorials (in whole or in part) on your website or linking your website to Tulsa World content is without the permission of the Tulsa World and constitutes an intentional infringement of the Tulsa World's copyright and other rights to the exclusive use and distribution of the copyrighted materials.

"Therefore, we hereby demand that you immediately remove any Tulsa World material from your website, to include unauthorized links to our website, and cease and desist from any further use or dissemination of our copyrighted content. If you desire to use (in whole or in part) any of the content of our newspaper, you must first obtain written permission before that use. If you fail to comply with his demand, the Tulsa World will take whatever legal action is necessary to assure compliance, Additionally, we will pursue all other legal remedies, including seeking damages that may have resulted as a result of this infringement."

I do not claim to be a legal expert. Anyone who is has probably had a nice chuckle over some of my previous articles.

But even I understand fair use doctrine, which explicitly allows the reproduction of copyrighted content for "purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research" which clearly covers the use of material by most bloggers.

In addition, there are legal precedents Bates found saying that links do not constitute violation of copyright laws. On even a common sense level, how can they? The simply direct a web site visitor to the original Web site, and do not copy anything. It sends the visitor to the original work (or at least the online version of such).

This heavy-handed threat by Tulsa World reeks of local political cronyism in an attempt to intimidate a blogger and stifle free speech. The last I checked, the Constitutional Right to Free Speech still applies, even in Tulsa.

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Posted by Confederate Yankee at 09:25 AM | Comments (0)

February 14, 2005

The Seditious Mr. Jordan

You didn't actually this the Eason Jordan affair was over because he resigned, did you? No, this is just the beginning. Admitting to a act of wrongdoing (or taking steps that look like a confession, as a resignation surely does) does not equate punishment.

If Jordan actually said what he is accused of-namely, that U.S. soldiers purposefully targeted journalists-then his resignation from CNN should be the least of his worries. Mr. Jordan should either provide evidence to support these claims, along with his November claim that U.S. soldiers tortured journalists, or he should face criminal charges. He almost certainly seems a viable candidate for a charge of slander, and possibly for more serious offenses.

The U.S. Sedition Act of 1918 states:

Whoever, when the United States is at war, shall willfully make or convey false reports or false statements with intent to interfere with the operation or success of the military or naval forces of the United States, or to promote the success of its enemies, or shall willfully make or convey false reports, or false statements, . . . or incite insubordination, disloyalty, mutiny, or refusal of duty, in the military or naval forces of the United States, or shall willfully obstruct . . . the recruiting or enlistment service of the United States, or . . . shall willfully utter, print, write, or publish any disloyal, profane, scurrilous, or abusive language about the form of government of the United States, or the Constitution of the United States, or the military or naval forces of the United States . . . or shall willfully display the flag of any foreign enemy, or shall willfully . . . urge, incite, or advocate any curtailment of production . . . or advocate, teach, defend, or suggest the doing of any of the acts or things in this section enumerated and whoever shall by word or act support or favor the cause of any country with which the United States is at war or by word or act oppose the cause of the United States therein, shall be punished by a fine of not more than $10,000 or imprisonment for not more than twenty years, or both....
I am not a lawyer and do not know if the referenced act has been rescinded or superceded, but this charge, or something similar, may be warranted if Jordan actually said what so many credible witnesses say he did. Which witnesses? Christopher Dodd. Barney Frank. David Gergen, who moderated the panel at which Jordan spoke. These are just some of dozens of witnesses.

What exactly did Eason Jordan say, and how did he say it?

Our soldiers defend us with their lives. We should at the minimum seek to preserve their reputations.

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Posted by Confederate Yankee at 01:08 PM | Comments (0)

Do Local Newspapers Matter Anymore?

The caller on the other end of the phone Saturday afternoon was Ashley, and she wanted to know if I wanted to subscribe to the Record, our local bird-cage liner. No, I said. She asked why, and I told her: it didn't offer anything I was interested in reading.

I still pick it up from time to time on weekends. For finding yard sales and coupon clipping it can't be beat, but as a source of news and commentary, it simply isn't worthwhile.

Like every newspaper, locals suffer an immediacy gap. They cannot compete with the immediacy of television or radio, which can (and often does) report events as they happen. For any major news story they rely on major news organizations. They parrot, but they don't add anything beyond formatting.

What local papers can do is report (obviously) local events. Badly.

The fact of the matter is that local newspapers do not spend top dollar for their stable of reporters, and those that do have talent tend to move on to better opportunities rather quickly. The same goes for the editorial board.

What do most local papers offer?

National news you found out about twelve hours ago on television or radio or the Internet. Classified ads and sales flyers. Local news stories poorly written, and pompous sophomoric editorials. Oh, and sports, which thankfully offers the only local reporting worth reading on a daily basis.

So what do local newspapers have to offer that is not better served by another news medium, better, faster, and cheaper?

I don't know the answer. I don't need to know. But someone in the local news business better figure it out before their advertisers do.

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Posted by Confederate Yankee at 12:02 AM | Comments (0)

February 13, 2005

Same Thong, New Verse

Why even run this, Matt?

Drudge seems to have his panties in a bunch over Barbara Boxer's briefer-than-briefs.

Drudge Reports:

Supporters of California Sen. Barbara Boxer have launched an underwear line -- with liberal radio network AIR AMERICA hyping the goods!

The next presidential race may be years away, but the race is already tightening up. Introducing: Boxer Classic Thong 2008!

100% Ultra-fine combed ring spun 1x1 baby rib cotton; Size up for a looser fit.

AIR AMERICA's website has been featuring a link to the Boxer merchandise.

[A staffer to Boxer said the senator had "absolutely" nothing to do with the merchandise. "These are not official."]

"This under-goodie is 'outta sight' in low-rise pants... This product is designed to fit juniors," reads the pitch.

Let the campaign begin!

Matt fails to mention that the thong is one from Cafepress.com, where anyone could have posted a design of their own without any permission from Boxer or her campaign.

A liberal supporter does something stupid and unsanctioned, and a liberal media outlet is dumb enough run with it unquestioned.

Since when is this news?

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Posted by Confederate Yankee at 11:04 PM | Comments (0)

February 12, 2005

Now Reading: Hugh Hewitt's Blog

I just got my copy of Hugh Hewitt's Blog: Understanding the Information Reformation That's Changing Your World. I'm one chapter in so far, and it is a fascinating read.

Hugh, should you ever come by here: "you done good."

Posted by Confederate Yankee at 12:16 PM | Comments (0)

Accountability

Eason Jordan has resigned. I guess CNN decided to duck after all. I'd still like to see the video from Davos, but I feel pretty comfortable that we know what we would see, at this point.

Sooner or later, the "professional" media is going to realize that there is a new accountability for those would would radically reshape the perception of the world we live in.

I just wonder how many more Dan Rathers and Eason Jordans it will take before that message finally sinks in.


Update: Michelle Malkin has an excellent thread titled Easongate: A Retrospective which has links to many of the power players in this episode.

You're living history in the making, folks, and in real-time.

Ain't it a rush?

Posted by Confederate Yankee at 09:22 AM | Comments (0)

February 11, 2005

And You Thought Human Life Was Priceless

Creepy. From a very real insurance company web site.

Posted by Confederate Yankee at 03:24 PM | Comments (0)

RE: Things Every Man Should Know

ROTFLMAO

Posted by Confederate Yankee at 01:00 PM | Comments (0)

Iran Promises "Burning Hell" Either Way

It seems that Iranian President Mohammad Khatami has promised a "burning hell" for any invaders, obviously referring to the United States and Israel, the two countries most likely to attack Iran and their suspected nuclear weapons production facilities.

Please, Mr. Khatami, tell me how this burning hell is any different than the nuclear attack your top clerics seem intent on unleashing against Israel if we don't act against you?

It seems to me, based upon the words of Iran's mullahcracy, that taking them out now is the only sensible course of action.

Better a little burning Hell now than a purpetual glow later.

Posted by Confederate Yankee at 11:58 AM | Comments (0)

What Are You, Nuts?

A Public Service Announcement (sorta) From Confederate Yankee:

Valentine's Day is Monday, and you still haven't ordered her anything. Do you have a death wish?

Get her some flowers, you bum (click the picture).

Normal political blogging returns this afternoon, but I want to make sure my readership survives...

Posted by Confederate Yankee at 09:48 AM | Comments (0)

February 10, 2005

Back in the Sewer: The DU Responds to the Lynn Stewart Conviction

Please, tell me again how liberals are patriotic, and don't sympathize with terrorists.

Liberal lawyer Lynn Stewart was just convicted for smuggling messages of violence from terrorists arrested for the 1993 World Trade Center attack, which, for the record, did have terrorist ties to Saddam's Iraq.

As you might expect, many posters on the Democratic Underground think that Stewart was framed, (despite 85,000 audio and video clips of Stewart and her clients) and that the government must have destroyed evidence exonerating her.

DU poster Just Me claims the Steart conviction, " is worse than jailing political dissidents!"

rooboy calls this, "one of the darkest days in the history of the American legal system."

He was apparently unfamiliar with Dred Scott.

Interestingly enough, DUers were even flaming their own over this one, attacking trail lawyers and law students who actually went to the trial who said the outcome was fair and just.

I really must wonder if these people would have voted to convict the terrorists who carried out the 9/11 attacks.

Posted by Confederate Yankee at 05:26 PM | Comments (0)

New DNC Fundraising Book

Daily Kos is fielding questions about donations to the DNC after Dean is officially promoted.

I think you're a little late, Kos.

Fundraising has started on Amazon already. Nothing like a good book sale, especially when the book is so relevant to the future of the party.

(hat tip: an email from the lead guppy at phin's blog)

Posted by Confederate Yankee at 04:15 PM | Comments (0)

Conscientious Objector, or War Criminal?

While browsing my blogroll this morning, I noticed an interesting post at The Museum of Left Wing Lunacy about Sgt. Kevin Benderman. Sgt. Benderman is a ten-year veteran of the U.S. Army, where he is a mechanic. He served one tour in Iraq, including the assault on Baghdad. Facing a second tour of duty in Iraq, Sgt. Benderman applied for conscientious objector status in December of 2004. The Army has charged him with desertion, and his commanding officer called him a coward.

I have never been in combat, and am loathe to call a veteran a coward without having been put to the test myself, nor do I feel comfortable commenting on whether or not charging a conscientious objector with desertion is legal or right. I'm simply don't know enough to feel I have an educated opinion to offer.

I do however, have a huge question regarding Sgt. Benderman's claim that his outfit was under orders to open fire on children who were throwing rocks at his unit. Either Sgt. Benderman lied about the event, or someone committed a war crime. We need to get to the bottom of this.

One thing I have learned from reading "mil-blogs" (blogs from military personnel) such as Lt. Smash, Armor Geddon, and Blackfive, is that soldiers have very rigidly defined rules of engagement, which strictly limit the situations where they are authorized to fire a weapon.

I am certain that no unit in any branch of the U.S. military is sanctioned to fire upon rock-throwing children. We aren't French.

If such an order was given, it would be illegally issued and illegal to follow. If so much as a single bullet was fired at these children, a war crime occurred. If Sgt. Benderman fired a shot at these children, he is a war criminal. If anyone else fired, they are also war criminals. The person who issued such an order would also be a war criminal.

Based upon the circumstances described, I would also expect them to be charged with murder as well. Children can't throw rocks very far, perhaps thirty yards at the outside, fifty for a healthy teen. At this ranges the standard M-16s and M-4s will not miss, and children have almost zero chance of surviving a center-mass hit from these weapons at that range.

If Sgt. Benderman is right, his unit is most likely guilty of war crimes. If he is lying, he is guilty of far more serious crimes than desertion.

So which is it, Sgt. Benderman?

Posted by Confederate Yankee at 11:24 AM | Comments (0)

February 09, 2005

My Blogroll Just Got Lighter

I may not be blessed with a lot of class, but there are some lines even I won't cross.

Posted by Confederate Yankee at 02:51 PM | Comments (0)

Jordan Leads CNN into No Man's Land

Easongate continues. One must begin to wonder about the basic intelligence and awareness of CNN and Time-Warner executives at this point.

Eason Jordan said American soldiers tortured journalists. Eason Jordan, the top news executive at CNN, a Time-Warner company, claims that American soldiers targeted--murdered--a dozen journalists. And yet somehow CNN and Time-Warner executives apparently think that if they stonewall the incident long enough, that the matter will just go away.

A decade ago, even a few years ago, they may have been able to get away with it. Unfortunately for CNN and Time-Warner executives (and did I mention Time-Warner shareholders?), that was then. They do not comprehend the now.

Media executives remind me of the generals of World War One. They were tangentially aware of new technologies on the field of battle, but were unable to grasp their significance. As a result, they marched troops at a walk across a barren No Man's Land into nests of machine guns firing 600 rounds/minute. The carnage was unbelievable, the casualties catastrophic; and yet the generals, clinging to tactics best suited for the wars of single shot rifles forty years earlier, sent their troops to a grisly, almost certain end, time after time.

We're watched similar slaughters take place in the world of journalism.

CBS News thought they could get away with running a story about George Bush using faked documents. They were mown down mercilessly by the blogosphere within hours, and several prominent journalists with long careers were disgraced. The damage to the integrity of CBS News was immeasurable. It will take years for CBS News to recover their credibility.

CNN is walking across the field into the guns, and doesn't understand the carnage about to ensue. Eason Jordan, CNN's top news executive, essentially accused the U.S. military of the premeditated murder of a dozen journalists. This follows a claim from Jordan months earlier where he stated American soldiers captured and tortured journalists, which follows the 2003 admission that Jordan and CNN turned a blind eye to torture to retain a Baghdad bureau.

The blogosphere has targeted Eason Jordan. 438 blogs with combined daily traffic of over 720,000 visits have placed Jordan and CNN under withering fire. More blogs, as well as elements of the mainstream media, are joining daily. By next week this story will be fodder in every major news outlet. CNN needs to act, and act fast.

CNN must fire Eason Jordan, or forever lose their credibility within the U.S. market.

The old tactic of stonewalling until an issue goes away has passed. CNN and by extension, Time Warner, are walking into the proverbial guns. They can either duck, or be shot to pieces.

Posted by Confederate Yankee at 09:45 AM | Comments (0)

February 08, 2005

New Symbol of the Democratic Party

Barring a minor miracle, it appears Howard Dean will be confirmed as the next chairman of the Democratic National Committee, pulling the DNC even further toward the radical left and away from any chance of striking a chord with mainstream America.

To commemorate this hysteric, err, historic event, I'd like to bestow upon them a new branding image that I feel captures the essence of the future of the Democratic Party, and where it is heading.



You've got to love a party whose platform includes a trapdoor with a quick-release.

Posted by Confederate Yankee at 05:28 PM | Comments (0)

"Err" Jordan Still Employed by an Ethics-Challenged CNN

Eason "Err" Jordan seems to be quite the athlete, deftly turning away from dozens if not hundreds of real incidents of torture, rape and murder by tyrants and dictators, only to volunteer that charges of war crimes by U.S. soldiers are a slam-dunk... without the first shred of corroborating evidence. I think Jordan would be very close to fouling out of the game of journalism for good if his masters retained any integrity at all.

Eason Jordan first came to light in October of 2002, when The New Republic accused CNN of
collaborating (registration required) with Saddam's Ministry of Information in order to retain access in Baghdad. Jordan denied it-sort of-at the time. When Baghdad fell in April of 2003, Jordan told a much different story, admitting that he hid the truth. He said he did not report the truth because it would have "jeopardized the lives of Iraqis." Jordan turned a blind eye to murder, rape and torture to retain access to get access to Iraqi leaders. How concealing the existence of government-sanctioned rape rooms and torture chambers saved lives, Jordan never adequately explained. For this ethical offense alone, he should have been fired. CNN declined to do so.

Many allege Eason Jordan allowed Saddam to use CNN to broadcast his propaganda, unedited, and uncut.

Jordan claimed U.S. troops tortured and killed journalists in 2004, which is very close to the comments Jordan is alleged to have made at the World Economic Forum, where he claimed U.S. forces have targeted journalists on purpose. He never produced any evidence to support this wild claim. He should have been fired for this offense as well. Again, CNN declined to fire him.

This most recent incident in Davos at the World Economic Forum was not an isolated incident, but one event in an established history of ethically outrageous behavior on the part of Eason Jordan and CNN. A lot of very credible people witnessed this willful and malicious slander of our troops, including Congressman Barney Frank, Senator Christopher Dodd, journalist David Gergen, and Wall Street Journal writer Bret Stephens, among others. And yet, once again, CNN once again refuses to fire Eason Jordan.

Why is that, CNN?

It is one thing to capture a questionable event and report it as Kevin Sites did in Fallujah, but quite another for a dangerous allegation to be made during wartime without a shred of evidence.

Eason Jordan tacitly supported the terrorism of the Iraqi people, turning a blind eye to torture for his (and CNN's) professional gain, and then commits slander against our military on multiple occasions, presumably to further ingratiate himself to the despots of the world and allow CNN even greater access to the dictatorships of the world.

This must not stand.

If CNN retains any sort of moral fiber or journalistic ethics it will fire Eason Jordan.

Unfortunately, CNN and other so-called "professional" news organizations seem to be circling the wagons to protect a man who is treading dangerously outside the lines of what we will morally (and legally?) accept as a society regarding slander and sedition.

Eason "Err" Jordan has erred one time too many to retain his credibility as a news executive for a major news organization. He should be forced to resign from CNN, if not fired outright for his outrageous, unsubstantiated claims against our troops and a history of a dangerous lack of ethical judgement.

Update: This thread has been been Malkinized. I'd suggest my readers check out Michelle's site, as she seems to be the lead investigator into this issue across all forms of media.

Posted by Confederate Yankee at 10:52 AM | Comments (0)

February 07, 2005

ActionFigureGate Continues

SITE Institute currently has a story up about a message board member who takes credit for the "ActionFigureGate" hoax where a G.I.Joe-type doll was used in a particularly lame "hostage" attempt last week.

According the SITE, the hoaxer wrote :

In the name of God, the Most Merciful and Most Compassionate,

Soldier John Adam is [only] a toy.

I am a 20-year old Iraqi young man. I am unarmed, independent and do not belong to any party or group. I apologize to all the parties and everyone, for I meant nothing by that [no harm].

The picture was a scheme that I made up with a toy that I bought with $5.

Today I am announcing that this news was made up, and that the picture was of a toy that I worked on with the help of some children.

I cannot provide any information about me because, as I mentioned earlier, I am unarmed, and any information about me might jeopardize my life and the lives of my family [members].

My apologies to everyone.

The hoaxer, who identifies himself as "al-Iraqi4," apparently includes a picture showing him setting up the famed picture.

The problem is that this picture appears to be a fake as well.

If you look at the wall and floor in the original picture, you'll see what appears to be an unpainted wall and floor, that both appear to be made of rough concrete that is mostly tan in color.

If you look at the SITES photo, you see a floor that is of gray concrete and a wall that has been painted white.

Also, you will note that the size of the two banners are different (the original is almost square, the SITES photo is more rectangular) and that the Arabic writing is significantly shorter on the original.

This admission appears to be as much a hoax as the original story.

Update: Added to OTB's Beltway Traffic Jam.

Update 2: There are also a hint in the text itself that leads me to beleive this was faked, but I only thought about it just now. The poster claimed that he paid for it in dollars ($). The last I checked, the monetary unit of Iraq is the dinar, not the dollar.


Update 3: The imposter claims that he is not part of any group... so how does he have posting rights on a known militant web site?

Posted by Confederate Yankee at 01:48 PM | Comments (0)

All Aboard the Crazy Train

(hat tip: Drudge)

Will the last nut out of the tree please turn off the light?

Melanie Redman, 30, assistant director of the Epilepsy Foundation in Seattle, said she had put her Volvo up for sale and hopes to be living in Toronto by the summer. She and her Canadian boyfriend, a Web site designer for Canadian nonprofit companies, had been planning to move to New York, but after Nov.2, they decided on Canada instead.

"I'm doing it," she said. "I don't want to participate in what this administration is doing here and around the world. Under Bush, the U.S. seems to be leading the pack as the world spirals down."

I guess that the freeing of 50 million people in two countries by the Bush administration was just too much for her, bless her poor Volvo-driving bleeding heart. But don't worry.

The Democratic Underground Railroad was created just for people like you, Melanie.

Toot. Toot.

Update: I had almost forgotten: I have a picture of this nut in her home. Hardly surprising, is it?

Posted by Confederate Yankee at 10:39 AM | Comments (0)

Dear Michelle Malkin

(hat tip, basil's blog)

Dear Michelle,

I also have found the Google News folks to be a bit less than objective in which sites they feel are worthy. To be frank, they expose a severe leftward slant. Despite that, I think they must be forced to play within their own set of rules.

basil has already offered his services as a headline news writer. I would like to offer my services to the editorial board of michelemaklin.com as an editor. I have relevant practical work experience as a technical writer and editor, and have the academic degrees to support such a position.

I have a salary requirement of $0.25/year, and would be quite willing to assist in developing a formal editorial review process.

Thank you very much for your time.

Respectfully,

Confederate Yankee

Posted by Confederate Yankee at 09:34 AM | Comments (0)

February 04, 2005

Garofalo: Republicans and Iraqis are Nazis?

(Hat tip: Kevin McCollough)


Republicans and Iraqis are Nazis?

That seems to be the only thing I can take away from this salute Janeane Garafalo gave on MSNBC the other night while saying:

"The inked fingers and the position of them, which is gonna be a 'Daily Show' photo already, of them signaling in this manner [does the Nazi salute], as if they have solidarity with the Iraqis who braved physical threats against their lives to vote as if somehow these inked-fingered Republicans have something to do with that."
Janeane, they did have something to do with that: A Republican president and Republican-controlled Congress gave the orders to our military, which destroyed the Baath Party in Iraq, captured its leader, and killed his heirs.

After deposing Saddam, we have tried, and usually succeeded, in acting as a protective wedge between the Iraqi people and the terrorists that would plunge their country into chaos. We have put our soldiers lives on the line so that we could give Iraqis a shot at forming their own democracy.

The fact that Garafalo apparently links conservatives, American soldiers and the Iraqi people with the Nazis in her warped ideology is disgusting, but not particularly surprising for anyone who has heard her ratchet-up her increasingly shrill rhetoric over the past few years.


A Republican president directed American troops to dispose a despotic dictator who practiced mass murder upon his own people, and gave oppressed peoples a chance to form their own government, hardly an act that would have been supported by the National Socialists.

That she can equate the celebration of newfound freedoms with fascism is disturbing at best and possibly delusional at worst. Garafalo has become a perfect example of the "reality-based community" drifting further and further away from reality.

Posted by Confederate Yankee at 01:00 PM | Comments (0)

February 03, 2005

Treason at CNN

Read this:
November 19, 2004

Independent journalists operating in Iraq face arrest and even torture at the hands of the US military and the authorities are failing to act on promises to do more to protect them, news organisations have warned.

Eason Jordan, chief news executive at CNN, said there had been only a "limited amount of progress", despite repeated meetings between news organisations and the US authorities.

"Actions speak louder than words. The reality is that at least 10 journalists have been killed by the US military, and according to reports I believe to be true journalists have been arrested and tortured by US forces," Mr Jordan told an audience of news executives at the News Xchange conference in Portugal.

Then read this:
Forumblog.org
During one of the discussions about the number of journalists killed in the Iraq War, Eason Jordan asserted that he knew of 12 journalists who had not only been killed by US troops in Iraq, but they had in fact been targeted. He repeated the assertion a few times, which seemed to win favor in parts of the audience (the anti-US crowd) and cause great strain on others.
Then read this:
Title 18 > Chapter 115 > § 2381 Treason
Whoever, owing allegiance to the United States, levies war against them or adheres to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort within the United States or elsewhere, is guilty of treason and shall suffer death, or shall be imprisoned not less than five years and fined under this title but not less than $10,000; and shall be incapable of holding any office under the United States.
CNN's chief news executive Eason Jordan has apparently accused our soldiers of no less than twelve counts of first degree murder against civilians, while the very soldiers he is accusing are in a combat zone. This propaganda has no apparent basis in fact, and serves to inflame our enemy, putting our soldiers' lives at greater risk.

CBS News fired one person and asked others to resign when they ran a false story about President Bush's Texas Air National Guard service, so at a bare minimum, Eason Jordan should be fired from CNN.

But backpedalling by Jodan and CNN does not pull the knife out of the back of the American GI, nor does it excuse his latest statement (which as the first quote proves, is hardly isolated, or even a first for him).

If transcripts do indeed prove Jordan's statements were made as alleged (and at least one witness claims that they are), Mr. Jordan not only owes the soldiers he slandered an apology, he owes the American people a term in a federal penitentiary no shorter than five years, and a fine of no less than $10,000.

That is the punishment for treason.

Posted by Confederate Yankee at 01:44 PM | Comments (0)

My Thoughts Exactly: NY Post Editorial Cartoon


(Hat tip: GOP in the City)

Posted by Confederate Yankee at 10:47 AM | Comments (0)

So Who Stayed Awake Through the Democratic Rebuttal?

I didn't see any real new information in the State of the Union tonight. I do think Bush knocked Social Security out of the park, selling it quite effectively to the public, in terms most can readily digest. On the other hand, I think he underwhelmed his base with his treatment of border security and illegal immigration. All in all, a nice, serviceable address, but nothing we didn't already know.

I wish I could say the same for the Democratic response. I tried, really, really hard to pay attention to Harry Reid, but he delivered his portion with all the excitement of Ben Stein droning, "Bueller... Bueller... Bueller..."

I drifted off. I do recall there was some ten year-old Napoleon Dynamite-type from Searchlight, NV that wants to grow up to be like Harry. Poor kid. Nothing else he said was memorable.

Pelosi started off trying to act like she cared about the troops, and I was suddenly overcome with an intense desire for a long, hot shower.

I missed the rest.

Posted by Confederate Yankee at 12:35 AM | Comments (0)

February 02, 2005

A Victory in the War on Terror

Amid all the jeers and laughter yesterday surrounding the "capture" of a children's action figure, a funny thing happened:

We won the War on Terror.

No, the shooting didn't stop, and more real hostages will likely be taken and face for real the dire possibility of death by beheading. No, the war won yesterday was more symbolic than practical; terrorists, perhaps for the first time, ceased to terrorize us and became a joke.

On 9/11 and in the days that followed, terror really did have the upper hand in the United States. For the first time I can recall in my generation, America was unsure and afraid. Once the immediate danger passed, we were filled with what Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto once described as "a terrible resolve." The Taliban and elements of al Qaeda in Afghanistan were the first to feel our wrath, and from there the physical battle has continued, as it shall until Islamic terrorism is no longer a sustainable threat.

But all this time, even as we were winning the war, and hearts, and minds, the threat of terrorism still hung heavy in our national conscious.

But thanks to the stellar fact-checking of the mainstream media and the apparent desperation of terrorists reduced to threatening toys, the cloud of terrorism threatening us has been lifted, if but for a time.

We laughed at them.

And in that, we can find a special victory.

Update: Thanks to Instapundit for picking up this thread.

Update 2: Tom Elia over at The New Editor makes an excellent point:

... I would stipulate that we won a battle in the War on Terror yesterday with the unmasking of the fraudulent photos depicting a GI Joe as an al Qaeda "hostage" -- it was a mighty big battle, no less -- but just one battle. There will be many more to fight -- a point that Confederate Yankee does make, but I think it should be emphasized that the war that we are winning is a long way from being over.
We won the war on the pervasive emotion of terror yesterday, not the physical war. It is, as Tom says, a part of a larger war. One that I think we will eventually win.

Posted by Confederate Yankee at 03:00 PM | Comments (0)

February 01, 2005

Zarqawi quits al Qaeda, joins C.O.B.R.A.

Apparently Zarqawi and the Iraqi insurgency are so desperate to capture a U.S. solder to use as a hostage, that they doesn't even care if the soldier in question is only twelve inches tall.

It all started when Drudge cited this story where militants claimed to have captured a U.S solider.

Now, if you had taken the time to really look at the full-size image in the story, you might have developed deep suspicions early on. For starters, the uniform has no insignia. Second, the soldier does not appear to have the first bit of equipment on his vest. Every picture I've seen coming out of Iraq shows U.S. soldiers with wires, cables, hydration tubes, etc, sticking out all over the place, which are horribly absent here. Of course, the overly shiny head, expressionless face and fake gun (what's an oversized AR-10 receiver doing on a M-4, and why is it in camo?) also should have been clues.

I do think it is so funny that the insurgency is so pathetic that they are reduced to kidnapping children's toys. Maybe "Z-Man" isn't getting enough sleep, what with inner circle being picked off or picked up one-by-one, and the proverbial noose getting tighter around his neck.

I can understand him going off the deep end under that kind of pressure--we watch liberals do it every day--but I still don't think his new allies of The Baroness and Cobra Commander will do him much good.

They're too preoccupied with competing against Howard Dean for the chair of the DNC.

Update: Backcountry Conservative is on the case with what is probably the biggest roundup of blogger reaction out there.

Update 2: Thank you again, Glenn. Hello, Instalanche! Folks, please look around, and bookmark the site (CTRL+B) if you like it. Also, please check out some of the sites in my blogroll. You might not have heard of some of them, but they are all great reads. Fellow bloggers, if you like the site, please add me to your blogrolls. Thanks!

Posted by Confederate Yankee at 03:54 PM | Comments (0)

Jersey Jihad?

I've read quite a bit of online coverage on this so far, but haven't blogged it until now. The background of the story is that a family of four Egyptian-Americans Christians were murdered in their home, presumably by Jersey City-area followers of "The Religion of Peace."

Michelle Malkin has a lot of links to work from, and agrees that Jihadwatch has the best coverage so far, with the three latest links here, here and here.

The mainstream media has stonewalled this story so far. How unsurprising.

Posted by Confederate Yankee at 11:22 AM | Comments (0)

Absolutely Correct

I really like Frank J.'s humor, but every once in a while, he writes serious essays of such obvious brilliance that I have no choice but to agree with them in full.

The Iraq elections had high participation. The people are dancing in the streets. Do you know what that means?

It means I'm right about everything, you stupid pinko!

Even more importantly, it means you're wrong and totally suck!

I know; it's still just hitting you now. "What? They're happy! They're free! They like America! But this would mean Bush was right, and I was ::gasp:: wrong!" Then it makes you think, if you could be wrong on such a big issue, could you be wrong and the right-wingers right on other things such as taxes, Social Security, and abortion? Yes, absolutely!

Now, some of you will not face reality and continue to argue for your views that have been now scientifically proven to be wrong and destructive by this one victory, and your high pitch whines eventually reaching such a frequency that they can no longer be heard by humans (around 23kHz). Little kids will walk by and ask, "Who are those weird people waving signs of gibberish and moving their mouths without noise?"

And their parents will answer, "Those are liberals, people proven by events to be wrong about everything. Now ignore them like everyone else."

Go to IMAO for the rest.

Posted by Confederate Yankee at 09:36 AM | Comments (0)

January 31, 2005

Stalkers and Me

basil (no, not Basil, basil), of basil's blog has a disturbing late night visitor.

The telephone rang, jolting me from the most pleasant, but strangely odd, dream. The infernal chirping of the cordless phone continued as I reached over to find it. I must have knocked it off the nightstand, because I heard a small "thump" and the ringing moved down about 3 feet. I got out of bed and picked up the phone. I didn't recognize the telephone number, but answered it anyway.

"Hello?"

"Basil?" came the voice on the other end.

"It's 'basil'" I corrected.

"Yes, that's what I said," came the voice. I didn't say anything. He continued, "I'd like to talk to you about your blog."

"Why?" I asked.

"So, you are the 'Basil' of 'Basil's Blog?'" he said.

"It's 'basil' and it's 'basil's blog,'" I corrected.

"Yes, that's what I said. I'd like to talk to you about your blog," He repeated.

"You remember when I asked 'Why?' Well, what I meant by that was, 'Why?'"

"You're not that snotty on your blog," he said.

"Wait till I write about this conversation."

He tried again, "My name is Michael Moore and I'm doing a documentary on blogs and bloggers. I'm interviewing people who are running blogs. I'm also blogging my research into bloggers.

"Good for you," I said.

He continued, "I'm outside, actually. Can I come in?"

Sit down with a nice freshly-blended puppy, and read the whole thing.
Posted by Confederate Yankee at 05:42 PM | Comments (0)

Well Then, I Guess It's Unanimous

The Guardian (among other sources) is reporting that Howard Dean has won the support of state Democratic Party leaders today in his bid to become the chairman of the Democratic Nation Committee.

Interestingly enough, Dean is also thought to be the choice of most Republican state party leaders as well.

Posted by Confederate Yankee at 03:39 PM | Comments (0)

"We are tired. We have faltered. We will fail."

"The president needs to spell out a real and understandable plan for the unfinished work ahead… Most of all, we need an exit strategy so that we know what victory is and how we can get there; so that we know what we need to do and so that we know when the job is done."
So says Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid (D-Gambling and Legalized Prostitution) on CNN.com.

What Senator Reid won't tell you is why an an exit strategy deadline is important. Without a deadline, the liberal faithful might begin to feel that the continuing success in Iraq is a permanent change. Without a "cut and run" date, the terrorists in Iraq might think they have a chance if they can just outwait America.

Luckily, we are governed by a man with a spine, and this will not happen.

President Bush recognizes that an arbitrary withdrawal date (what the liberals really mean by "exit strategy") does nothing for the United States or our Iraqi allies, and only serves to bolster the morale of terrorists and liberals. I can only assume that bolstering the morale of the terrorists is just an unintended side effect of Democratic gamesmanship, though it is becoming increasingly obvious that liberals hate the Bush Administration more than terrorist tyranny, and are willing to go against their own country's best interests in their desperate partisan thrust for relevance.

Reid shows the true soul of the Democratic Party, in effect saying, "We are tired. We have faltered. We will fail."

The nauseous downward spiral continues.

Update: A big "thank you" goes out to one of my favorite journalists, Michelle Malkin, for picking up this thread in her "Quote of the Day" update.

Posted by Confederate Yankee at 11:56 AM | Comments (0)

A Book You Might Like

I listen to a lot of talk radio.

Five nights a week I listen to a local New York host by the name of Mark Levin, who in addition to being a talk radio host, happens to be a rather astute legal mind, as a constitutional lawyer and contributor to National Review Online.

It so happens that he has just published what I think is his first book, called Men In Black: How the Supreme Court is Destroying America. I haven't had a chance to pick it up yet, but I've heard nothing but great things from his reviewers and feel that if you like this site, you'll probably like what Levin has to say.

Let me know what you think of it, okay?

Posted by Confederate Yankee at 11:06 AM | Comments (0)

Carnival of the Commies #3 is Up...

...And it looks good. Tigerhawk reads the America-hating lefties so you don't have too. Just be sure to take it on an empty stomach.

Posted by Confederate Yankee at 10:08 AM | Comments (0)

T Minus Two Weeks, and Counting

As threatened, err, promised, this is your two-week warning for Valentine's Day.

Last week, I mentioned where you could find some nice stuff that she would actually like from PajamaGram, their treat-based offshoot TastyGram, and the rather famous Vermont Teddy Bear Company. For those of you who would like to get dirty looks from your wife on Valentine's Day, there was also Frederick's of Hollywood.

For those of us who enjoy a nice glass of fermented grape juice every now and again, wine.com has some nice offerings, as does similarly-named but different 800wine.com.

For those of you with a taste for fine jewelry alle' is having a Valentine's Day Sale with Free Fed-Ex Shipping. For those of us who haven't recieved their Halliburon disbursements just yet, Target.com has a nice selection as well, and currently are having a 10%-off sale on sparkly stuff.

Of course, for those of us trapped in the frozen zones of this great country, you might want to simply get away from it all and escape to somewhere warm for a few days. Orbitz can help you do that, and a trip to Bermuda right now would go a long way towards curing your frostbite.

Now back to your regularly scheduled conservative political programming.

Posted by Confederate Yankee at 09:39 AM | Comments (0)

January 30, 2005

Liberals Against Democracy: Lurking at the D.U.

Despite the attacks of suicide bombers, Iraq's first free elections in decades seem to be a success. Somewhere around 60% of eligible Iraqi voters risked their lives to cast more than eight million votes. Video from Iraq shows poll workers, voters, and the police guarding them dancing in the streets. Among certain factions in America, however, the elections were met with rather less enthusiasm.

"Yea, this is going to be a great representative government with a third of the country not voting." opined Dark on the Democratic Underground message boards. Apparently he was too stoned to realize that their turnout was equal to or better than the turnout in our last national election, even though we didn't have to risk our lives when going to the polls.

"Just more crap from US-appointed Iraqi puppets," added DU poster leftchick. Yes, leftchick, the American GOP appointed all eight million Iraqi voters. Gotta love that "reality-based" intelligence.

This pathetic crying from DU-poster patsified was wildly celebrated in the forum as the most eloquent of sentiments of the American far left:

"Even if all the Iraqis in the world are jumping up and down and clapping and dancing and crying for joy; even if there were really and truly 100% turnout for this election; even if the winner of this election were truly the choice to represent the majority of all Iraqis:

Was this worth destroying the United States of America? Was this worth sending our nation tumbling into the toilet? Was this worth destroying our reputation and the worth of our word in the world? Were the lies worth it? Was this worth the billions and billions of dollars emptied from our nation's treasury? Was the enrichment of Halliburton and the Carlyle Group worth it? Was this worth the bloodshed of soldiers and of innocents? Was it worth losing your arms, little Ali? Was there NO OTHER WAY to have achieved this? Am I supposed to jump up and down and clap and dance and cry for joy that MY nation has been turned into a shitpile and everyone in the world hates MY nation now? There is no democracy here in America, but I am supposed to be overwhelmed with good cheer that it exists for the Iraqis?

I can't think of a single cause outside of the borders of my country that would be worth destroying my country for. And that's what has happened, I don't care how happy the Iraqis are. I mourn what my country has become, and I am bitter because I know what she could have been. So I'm sorry if I can't join in the joy today."

When a disjointed rant against freedom is the best your side has to offer, your days as a major political party in America are over.

When America is spreading freedom in the midst of tyranny, it is not destroying our country, but making it stronger, and safer. If our reputation is faltering in the world, it is among those despots who chose to believe we were weak and ideologically spineless, and unwilling to fight for what is right.

No, the best the left has to offer is a spasmodic, reflexive gushing forth of vitriol against Halliburton and the freedom of fifty million newly free people in Iraq and Afghanistan. Liberalism hates all that most Americans identify as the very soul of America. They apparently believe in liberty on their terms, or not at all.

Liberalism rejoices when our soldiers and the civilians they are trying to protect are murdered by the terrorists that liberals sympathize with, because they feel each death is one more strike against Bush. Sickening.

America is watching liberalism, and notes each poison phrase they utter. Liberalism is killing itself in America.

No one will be sorry to see it go.

Update: A big "Thank you" to Instapundit, Professor Bainbridge, and Tom Elia over at The New Editor for picking up this thread. For those visitors who are new to Confederate Yankee, I invite you to look around and if you like what you see, please bookmark the site and come back often.


Also: Please consider helping our soldier in Iraq via the Any Soldier program (which I write about here), and our allies in Iraq through the Spirit of America Iraq Democracy Project. Thank You.

Posted by Confederate Yankee at 02:35 PM | Comments (0)

January 28, 2005

Hugh Hefner To Take Over Interrogations at Gitmo

"The attractive woman strutted into the room wearing a revealing miniskirt, a bra, and a skimpy thong. The man was tied to a chair and helpless to defend himself. As she removed her bra and tossed it at him, he closed his eyes and began to pray. She touched her breasts, rubbing them against the man's back, commenting on his apparent erection. He lurched forward and cursed at her. With a smile, she pulled down her thong and sat on his lap, grinding her exposed behind against his crotch. The man screamed and began to cry like a baby."
Okay, that was from the bachelor party of Liberal Larry's brother, but it sure sounds like what happened to terrorists during interrogation sessions in Gitmo, according to a story by some AP reporter named Paisley Dodds. Paisley? Yeah, I'm sure someone named "Paisley" doesn't harbor liberal bias, but that is a whole other kettle of fish...

Anyway, liberal outrage aside, I have a simple question: how is this "torture" any different than say, Paige Davis' mock strip tease for charity? Was the torture that the terrorists in Gitmo didn't have dollar bills to tip with, or that they didn't like the color of paint they chose for the cell walls?

Woodchippers, branding irons, and pliers are acceptable tools of torture in Islamic countries, but a Frederick's of Hollywood thong isn't. Yeah. What they consider torture sounds like a good night to most guys I know.

My opinion? If you see it on Cinemax every night of the week, it probably isn't torture.

Of course, I'm just a conservative, so I could be wrong.

Update: So I don't get called the next Armstrong Williams, in the interest of full disclosure, I do sell "items of torture" at Confederate Yankee Store, Blogger Gear, and Conservative Blogger Gear, and another store I'm somewhat ashamed to admit I have at Cafepress.com.

Alert the mainstream media

Posted by Confederate Yankee at 09:48 AM | Comments (0)

January 27, 2005

Pot, Meet Kettle


Once again, I can't quite get over the arrogance of Democrats who have the gall to chide Alberto Gonzales in his bid to become the next Attorney General, when the last Atttorney General they put into office, Janet Reno, was responsible for the most infamous 51 Days in American law enforcement, where 74 people, including 20 children, were killed in Waco, Texas.

Puts naked pyramids in perspective, doesn't it?

Posted by Confederate Yankee at 05:25 PM | Comments (0)

The Politics of Slime


I created this image in response to a bit of ignorance hunted up by The Museum of Left Wing Lunacy.


Once again liberals ignore the fact that Albert Gonzales had nothing to do with the criminal acts perpetrated by a handful of prison guards in Abu Ghraib, all of which (at least in the cases prosecuted so far) have been proven to be independent criminal actions with no orders from their superiors.

But hey, why let the facts get in the way of a good liberal rant? It didn't stop CBS News or the New York Times, so it certainly won't stop those with even a less tenuous grip on reality.

Too bad they can't as easily explain away the million plus dead as a result of liberal polices of inaction and apathy in Rwanda, Iraq, and Darfur.

Posted by Confederate Yankee at 01:38 PM | Comments (0)

January 26, 2005

From Car Bombs to Matchbox Cars

My wife and daughter filled up a Priority Mail box last night with an assortment of goods that might seem a little odd to some.

  • Baby wipes
  • Pens and pencils
  • Pads and paper
  • Beanie Babies
  • Matchbox cars
  • chocolate coins
  • two letters

Part of the shipment was for our soldiers, part was for Iraqi kids to let them know we care about them.

Most important of all were the letters, one in heartfelt feminine script, the other in chunky crayon. I'm guessing one or both is going to make an American tanker in Iraq smile, and maybe even grow misty-eyed for a moment, thinking of home.

It is our family's first shipment via Any Soldier to a New York-based armored unit was just of many more to come. I hope it finds them well and safe.

It really is amazing, that terrorists attack Iraqi and American alike with car bombs and IEDs, and expect to win over Iraqis. We respond with freedom and matchbox cars, No wonder we will win. Tax dollars that support or military might will help beat the terrorists, but little things, like beanie babies and matchbox cars, are more powerful in the long run.

For this reason I'm glad we've got organizations like Any Soldier so that our men and women can tell us what they need, not only for them, but for our new allies.

You might want to consider checking them out, or Google similar organizations.

Posted by Confederate Yankee at 10:59 PM | Comments (1)

Iraqi Election Video Promos You Should Watch


Nickie Goomba of Hey, Relax....I'm Just Sayin' asks you to please watch this video.

Something tells me that despite the increasingly irrelevant rantings of leftists here at home such as Ted Kennedy (D-Massachusetts) and terrorists overseas such as Abu Musab al-Zarqawi (D-Jordan), that Iraq is far from a quagmire heading into their elections.

No, I think they'll do just fine.

(Hat tip: basil's blog)

Posted by Confederate Yankee at 03:55 PM | Comments (0)

AP Editor Run Over By Blogger's Tank

Figuratively speaking, of course.

From The Mudville Gazette (and yes, you should read the whole thing):

...Note to AP Technology Editor Frank Bajak:

Meet CPT Neil Prakash. His first hand accounts of the battle for Fallujah kick your guy's ass. He won't get a Pulitzer for his writing, but he did earn a Silver Star for his efforts. But part of the theory is correct, like the Times, I'm sure he'd credit a bulwark of experience, credibility and financial, medical, legal and logistical support for his accomplishments, and probably the guys who went in with him too. I suppose we could call them a "staff of savvy locals." Frankly, you've really got to expand your knowledge base, build credibility and respect before publishing things about web logs. wade a little deeper into the blogosphere one of these days if you get some time.

On the other hand, to give credit where due, no one covers the insurgent side of the war quite like the AP.

Indeed. (Hat Tip: Instapundit)

Posted by Confederate Yankee at 03:23 PM | Comments (0)

Oil for Peanuts

Aaron at The Blue State Conservatives is reporting that Jimmy Carter might be linked to the United Nations Oil-for-Food scandal.

It is unclear whether Peter Pan, Skippy, or JIF will also be implicated at this time.

Posted by Confederate Yankee at 01:15 PM | Comments (0)

January 25, 2005

Sig Murdoch! Ted Turner Rants

Had Ted Turner been drinking with Ted Kennedy?

Turner called Fox News a propaganda tool of the Bush administration and indirectly compared it to Hitler during a Q&A session at the National Association for Television Programming Executives' conference .

However, Turner had no comments about the apparent collusion between CBS and the DNC in their "fake but accurate" falsified Texas Air National Guard documents story, nor Michael "Some Animals are Moore Equal" Moore and his crockumentaries.

It seems pretty obvious Turner doesn't mind propaganda, as long as it comes from his side.

I think I've heard this line before.

With Ted's comments, I think we can now make the new total 450 things.

FOX Responds
: "Ted is understandably bitter having lost his ratings, his network and now his mind -- we wish him well."

Personally, I don't think Turner ever psychologically recovered from getting beaten down by Vince McMahon. He just went downhill from there, like a wrestler that has been pile-drived into the mat far too many times.

Posted by Confederate Yankee at 02:54 PM | Comments (0)

By Any Means Necessary

MSNBC.com is running a Doug Struck/Washington Post article today, claiming torture in Iraq is still routine, at least according to a report issued by Human Rights Watch. HRW is an organization that takes great pains to avoid mentioning that Darfur is a Arab Muslim genocide of African Muslims and Christians. So much for their objectivity, or credibility.

In any event, the article states that Iraqis are routinely beaten, hung by their wrists, and shocked with electrical wires. Struck makes sure to use a quote from an Iraqi by the name of Dhia Fawzi Shaid, claming that the the torture is "worse than Saddam's regime."

Really?

Would Dhia Fawzi Shaid come forward openly, using his full name, and complain to an international organization with full media exposure if Saddam was still in power? Only if he would like to be intimately acquainted with the inner machinations of a wood chipper. Color me skeptical, and this report less than honest.

Human Rights Watch also acknowledges that Iraq was, "in the throes of a significant insurgency" (who knew?) , but what really got under my skin was the statement in the Human Rights Watch report that:

"no government, not Saddam Hussein's, not the occupying powers and not the Iraqi Interim Government, can justify ill-treatment of persons in custody in the name of security."
They could not be more hopelessly wrong.

Ladies and gentlemen, I've got news for you: if you are in the middle of an insurgency and capture someone that may have information about an impending attack that will almost certainly take the lives of dozens of men, women, and children, it it not only morally justified to use every method at your disposal to avert that attack, it is your moral imperative.

Yes, the "ill-treatment" of prisoners in a combat zone is acceptable and justifiable to get the intelligence needed to save a far greater number of lives. Yes, I condone torture in extreme cases, and even summary executions.

To say you will not use every means necessary to avoid terrorist attacks is to say you hold the lives of the terrorist in higher regard than the lives of Iraqi mothers, fathers, and children. Does anyone dare make that case?

You must do what you must to save lives. I don't care if this involves electrical shock to the genitals of terrorists or the cutting off of their fingers joint-by-joint. If having your compatriot's gray matter splattered all over your burka loosens your tongue, then so be it.

As someone once astutely noted, war is Hell.

That said, torture is obviously unacceptable for routine criminal offenses, and I'm neither thrilled nor surprised that the Iraqi prison system is still in need of substantial reform.

But don't try to tell me torture is never justified.

It simply isn't true.

Posted by Confederate Yankee at 10:06 AM | Comments (0)

January 24, 2005

It's No Fun, Being an Illegal Elian

From Yahoo! News:

MIAMI - A trial opened Monday in a $3 million-plus lawsuit by 13 people who say they were injured or traumatized when federal agents seized a screaming Elian Gonzalez from his Miami relatives' home.

The opening witness was neighbor Maria Riera, who testified that she clutched her chest and thought she was dying when an agent doused her with tear gas during the April 22, 2000, raid to reunite the 6-year-old boy with his father in Cuba.

The 13 neighbors and protesters are seeking up to $250,000 each, claiming that agents used excessive force during the armed raid.

"I was stopped by a gentleman on my left approaching me with a shotgun," said Riera, who lived across the street from the home where the boy had lived since shortly after he was rescued from a shipwreck on Thanksgiving Day 1999.

She said a black-garbed agent wearing a mask ordered her to "stand back" or he would shoot, adding a word of profanity. She said she complied, but a second agent approached with a gas gun as she stood in her driveway and left her in a gray cloud of tear gas.

A total of 108 people sued over the raid, but U.S. District Judge K. Michael Moore limited the case to people who were not on the Gonzalez family property and were beyond police barricades.

Elian, now 11, was one of three survivors of a shipwreck that killed his mother.

The raid took place after the family refused to return the boy so he could be taken back to Cuba.

An illegal alien is an illegal alien, and I don't care if he's a cute little Cuban boy or a hardened Dominican gang member. Sorry, but we have must have equality in the deportation process as well as every other facet of civilized society.

As for those suing...well, I'm sure that the law enforcement guys who had to execute this raid were tramautized as well. Perhaps the government or the individual officers should countersue the protestors for damages?

Posted by Confederate Yankee at 08:42 PM | Comments (0)

Carnival of the Commies, Week 2

Tigerhawk quietly posted the second week of Carnival of the Communists on Sunday.

It includes a link to a lefty blogger who lionizes Osama's favorite journalist, Robert Fisk, and provides a link to the most disturbing image in human history, and I'm no talking about the suicidal rabbit, either.

Need I say more?

Posted by Confederate Yankee at 08:24 PM | Comments (0)

Lame Ducks and Other Foul Creatures

The University of Oregon has banned the near ubiquitous yellow "Support the Troops" ribbons found across the country as a political statement.

Kevin McCollough has the details of this disgusting stifling of dissent popular support for our troops. Who do they think they are, Columbia?

Meanwhile, UCLA's student paper spreads terrorist propaganda. Who do they think they are? Columbia?

Stanford?

Duke?

And those are just a scant handful of universities supporting Islamofascism. I guess we're getting a clearer understanding of so-called "diversity" in ultra-liberal university cultures, aren't we?

Posted by Confederate Yankee at 02:36 PM | Comments (0)

Boxer Suffers Too Many Hits to the Head

Senator Barbara Boxer, who attacked the integrity of Secretary of State nominee Condoleeza Rice, is now attempting to play the victim, saying she was the one attacked by Rice during the Senate Foreign Relations Commitee hearings last week.

That's funny. I specifically recall Boxer saying, "I personally believe -- this is my personal view -- that your loyalty to the mission you were given, to sell this war, overwhelmed your respect for the truth."

Boxer was calling Dr. Rice a liar in no uncertain terms.

I guess this leader of the "reality-based community" is getting further from reality every day. That, or Babs might have pounded her head against the wall one time too many after Bush was certified the winner of the election. She should consider getting her PEST treated.

Captain's Quarters has more.

Posted by Confederate Yankee at 10:46 AM | Comments (0)

T-Minus 3 Weeks for Valentine's Day

If you guys are anything like me, you tend to forget about holiday's until the very last minute, leaving yourself to scramble for the lame, last-second cards and presents nobody else wanted.

As something of a public service annoucement for you (and a shameless plug for my advertisers), I've decide that I'd drop in a short reminder post to you every Monday leading up to Valentine's to keep you out of trouble, and potentially make you a hero in the eyes of your spouse or that "special someone."

While I'm sure I can sell Frederick's of Hollywood stuff to the guys, I have it on good authority that something from PajamaGram tends to be a bit better received by most of the ladies.

In addition to that, a lot of folks like Valetines' sweets, and TastyGram has a pretty good reputation for being able to satisfy that need.

Another gift that scores well among ladies of all ages are the bears from the Vermont Teddy Bear Company.

So consider yourself warned, and don't wait till the last second guys, I'd hate to see you in the dog house.

We now return you to your regularly-scheduled conservative political blogging.

Posted by Confederate Yankee at 10:20 AM | Comments (0)

January 23, 2005

Milblogger Wins Silver Star

1st Lt. Neil Prakesh of ARMOR GEDDON (and Syracuse, NY) was recently presented a Silver Star for action in Ba'quabah, Iraq.

Congratulations, Avenger Red Six.

(hat tip LGF)

Posted by Confederate Yankee at 09:11 AM | Comments (0)

January 22, 2005

New York Blizzard Live-Blogging

Look! The first snowflake!

And another...

And another, and another, and another, and another, and another, and another, and another, and another, and another, and another--oh look, a squirrel--and another, and another, and another, and another, and another, and another, and another, and another, and another, and another--hey, a plow truck--and another, and another, and another, and another, and another, and another, and another, and another, and another...

For some applications, live-blogging is overrated.

Posted by Confederate Yankee at 07:17 PM | Comments (0)

January 20, 2005

"America Is Divided By Jerks."

P.J. O Rourke's An Alternative Inaugural Address
(hat tip: The Ebb & Flow Institute)

MY FELLOW AMERICANS, I had intended to reach out to all of you and bring a divided nation together. But I changed my mind. America isn't divided by political ethos or ethnic origin. America isn't divided by region or religion. America is divided by jerks. Who wants to bring a bunch of jerks together with the rest of us? Let them stew in Berkeley, Boston, and Ann Arbor.

The media say that I won the election on the strength of moral values. If the other fellow had become president, would the media have said that he won the election on the strength of immoral values? For once the media would have been right.

Read the whole thing.

Posted by Confederate Yankee at 03:54 PM | Comments (0)

Some Animals Are Moore Equal

I love the smell of hypocrisy in the morning, it smells like... bacon.

Yes, the fat frying this morning belongs to none other than Michael Moore.

Moore, who disingenuously challenged America's gun culture and history with his now customary use of inaccurate, contradictory and confused information in Bowling for Columbine, just had his bodyguard arrested for attempting to illegally carry a handgun onto a flight at JFK Airport in New York.

Moore now joins gun-grabbers Chuck Schumer and Ted Kennedy,Dianne Feinstien, Barbara Boxer, and many more that belong to the liberal culture that tells us, "do as I say, not as I do."

"All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others," was the proclamation by the pigs of Orwell's classic Animal Farm.

It looks like Michael Moore is one pig who took that lesson to heart.

Update: You've got to L-O-V-E synergy. I also just won the weekly photo caption contest at Slant Point. The winning comment? You have to see it for yourself.

Update 2: Hello, Instapundit readers! Be sure to look around the site and bookmark it (CRTL+B, Mom) if you like it. Also check out my advertisers so I can afford a new gun of my own. Thanks!


Update 3: Readers are expanding the list of those that apparently feel they are "more equal than others."

"Tongueboy" reports late columnist and rabid gun control advocate, Carl Rowan, managed to shoot a trespasser with his unregistered gun.

"Brad" adds that California State Senator Don Perata (D) has a CCW for a Beretta 92F 9mm an identical copy of the military M9. Most of you would recognize the 92F/M9 as pistol carried by Mel Gibson's character in the Lethal Weapon series and Bruce Willis' in the Diehard series. Yippie-ki-yea, Don.

I'm sure more qualify. Keep them coming.

The "I'm a Bad Capitalist" Update: I forgot to ask my visitors to check out the Confederate Yankee Store for "Luck Fiberals" Merchandise and my new "Unlike Liberals" bumper sticker.

The "Fox News Must Have Hired Mary Mapes" Update.
Apparently, Fox News really screwed up this story, but Moore's hypocrisy still stands. As Moorewatch reader Rann Aridon says:

"Just because the guy wasn't in the process of guarding Moore at the time doesn't detract from the fact that Moore still employs bodyguards armed with the very weapons he wants to deny the "common people" he claims to represent."

Posted by Confederate Yankee at 09:50 AM | Comments (0)

January 19, 2005

My Blue States Conservatives Article Is Up

My guest-blogging article Can the Declaration be Drafted? is up over at The Blue State Conservatives.

Posted by Confederate Yankee at 01:48 PM | Comments (0)

Rice Confirmation Mini-Roundup

Like most of you, I have better things to do with my day than watch the Secretary of State confirmation hearings (such as my job, or alphabetizing my socks). Still, the news clips shown last night on the various cable news outlets all seemed to show what we expected going into the hearings, namely that Dr. Rice would be calm, professional and the epitome of the word "classy," while Senate Democrats would be anything but that.

At least one blogger has the real story, but don't expect to find much resembling insightful commentary from the left. The deep analysis from the reality-challenged community focuses on how Rice was "grilled like Mahi-Mahi in Miami" and how Barbara Boxer was a hero for stooping to petty personal attacks. Yet librals can't figure out why moderates grow more disgusted with them every day.

Mini-Roundup

  • Instapunk reports on Kerry's near-meltdown during the hearings
  • Sisu captures a couple of soundbites and draws an interesting visual comparison
  • LGF reader Model4 catches Barbara Boxer lying through her teeth
  • Blogs For Bush catches it as well

  • Jimme at Blue State Conservatives dissects the day's events with specific focus on Dodd's obsession with the torture issue and how Rice may have missed a chance to knock it out of the park
  • Polipundit suggests Dr. Rice's future job after her tenure as Secretary of State
  • La Shawn Barber takes dead aim
  • Patterico puts the homestate screws to Boxer's "reality-based" comments
  • The Ebb & Flow Institute has excerpts from the transcripts
  • Spoons at The Spoons Experience says Boxer, Biden and Dodd were gratuitously picking fights they know they can't win
More later as it develops.

Feel free to post additional relevant links in the comments.


Update:

  • Kevin McCollough has the complete transcript of the Rice/Boxer exchange (Kevin was also nice enough to provide a link to this thread for his radio audience, which I appreciate)
  • La Shawn Barber has a roundup at the bottom of her thread I must have missed the first time around, that includes blogger voices I'd missed.
  • As a side note, Technorati.com seems to be having technical problems this morning, making the blogosphere a bit of a challenge to check for more updates.
Update 2:

  • Roger L. Simon compliments Kerry on his impeccable Arabic.
  • Mark at Weapons of Mass Discussion evicerates Kerry and Boxer for their grandstanding
  • Acidman of Gut Rumbles adds Biden to the malarkey-slinging list
  • The confirmation hearings spur Cobb's thinking of how Republicans can pick up minority voters
  • Weapon of Choice goes beyond the confirmation to opine about the kind of SecState Rice might be.My advice for Iran? Duck.
  • Just for kicks, The Kool Aid Report is caught Fisking the Crap out of Barbara Boxer.
  • Slant Point brings up the disturbing possibility that compared to Boxer, other liberals might seem same by contrast.

Not surprisingly, The Senate Foreign Relations Committee voted 16-2 to confirm Dr. Rice, the holdouts being Senators Boxer and John "I voted for her, before I voted against her" Kerry.

Posted by Confederate Yankee at 09:35 AM | Comments (0)

January 18, 2005

Carnival of the Commies

From Tigerhawk we have the Carnival of the Commies, which he intends to be:

"a periodic review of the best and most representative work on the left side of the blogosphere. We will read the blogs you hate so you don't have to, and find within them the stories from the Left that you should know about. Why should you be reading them? Your reasons might range from a laudible desire to understand the other guy to simply knowing your enemy. In any case, this post will link to points of view that don't often make it into our own echo chamber."
Great content, and lots of it.

Posted by Confederate Yankee at 03:11 PM | Comments (0)

Kos He Can


I thought this guy looked familiar (source: al KozJazerra TV)

Wretchard at Belmont Club is reporting that some representatives of certain news services are in the paid service of terrorist organizations.

Neither Daily "F Them" Kos nor al Jazeera have issued a denial at this time.

Posted by Confederate Yankee at 01:11 PM | Comments (0)

Hersh's Syrup has Useful if Bitter Taste

Roger L. Simon is dead on.

Seymour Hersh is apparently after the Bush Administration again, but it seems the President he has consistently misunderestimated has made Hersh into a useful idiot sending a warning to Iran.

Has anyone determined how much this one cost us?

Don't worry, I'm sure Kos will think of something.

Posted by Confederate Yankee at 09:47 AM | Comments (0)

January 17, 2005

Harvard President: Women Are Stupid

The smug smile above belongs to the soon ex-President of Harvard University, Lawrence Summers, who said that women, lack "natural ability" in some fields, essentially opining that women were too stupid to excel at math and science careers.

Summers has already been criticized because the number of job offers to women has dropped each year of his presidency, and he suggested that instead of math and science jobs, that women should get bigger breasts and strip instead… or maybe I'm getting him confused with someone else.

Posted by Confederate Yankee at 05:05 PM | Comments (0)

A Complete Blank

Sorry.

It has been a long weekend and I've got a hellacious set of deadlines this week, so my mind isn't on blogging right now. I have exactly nothing of interest to say at the moment, other than the fact I'll be working tonight on my guest blogging article for The Blue State Conservatives which will be posted later in the week.

You should check them out if you haven't already, thy have some interesting, and frankly disturbing, content up today.

Also check out the guys at The New Editor if you haven't yet.

Iowahawk calls them, "Powerline with a little Tex-Mex flava." Not a bad analogy, as they are another tight group blog with good commentary and talent for ferretting out interesting stories.

Posted by Confederate Yankee at 11:18 AM | Comments (0)

January 15, 2005

Signs of Intelligent Life

I just wanted to let others know that there is intelligent life up here beyond the Manson-Nixon Line, other than yours truly.

Two blue state conservative sites I've recently run across in the last few weeks are The Blue State Conservatives and Slant Point.

The Blue State Conservatives are a brand-spanking new group blog that launched just over a week ago, and looks like it is going to be a lot more than just your normal political blog, as it already has a post up entitled NFL criminals your children can idolize.

You won't get that kind of coverage anywhere else, kids.

I also have it on the highest authority that in addition to the regular stable of bloggers they are filling out, they have also lined up at least one excellent guest blogger to provide occasional commentary. Gee, I wonder who that could be...

Slant Point is based in NYC, and has managed to thrive as a hub of conservative blogging in the middle of liberal lunacy. Slant Point also has one of the few blogrolls of NYC-area bloggers I've run across.

Besides, Scott Sala, blogger-in-residence, has pictures of himself posing with both Ed Koch and Curtis Sliwa. Top that, Instapundit!

Posted by Confederate Yankee at 01:02 AM | Comments (0)

January 14, 2005

All Your Dreams Come True

I so hope this will come to pass.

The New York Post is reporting that not only is Kerry considering another presidential bid, but Tipper says Al Gore is considering an 2008 run.

As a blogger, all I can say in response is: "Please?" It will be great to have the guy who created the Internet (yeah, I know) running against the man who re-invented the flip-flop in the Democratic Primaries.

And if they become running mates, Gore could keep Kerry's cornicopia of plans in his lockbox.

Yes, I am salivating.

Posted by Confederate Yankee at 01:14 PM | Comments (0)

Punjis for Peace

I'd like to take a few minutes of your time to talk about a modest proposal for stopping illegal immigration.

It is simple in design, cost-effective to implement, and best of all, it nearly pays for itself.

As we all know, illegal immigration to the United States is growing problem. According to a recent Bear Sterns report(PDF), there may be as many as 20 million illegal aliens in the United States. These illegals are taking between 4-6 million jobs that used to belong to American workers, essentially outsourcing American jobs within America. This is a travesty.

In addition to taking American jobs, uninsured illegals are driving up healthcare costs for the American taxpayer, which hurts legal immigrants and native-born American citizens alike, and costs the nation billions of healthcare dollars. Los Angeles hospitals alone are losing more than $350 million each year on illegal aliens. These dollar figures do not begin to account for the law enforcement bill caused by illegals, who are each and every one a criminal, and occasionally terrorist sympathizers to boot. These illegal aliens are crippling the American economy.

It is time we cripple them back.

President Bush calls for changes on the status of illegal aliens, and proposes making them legal workers. I'm sorry Mr. President, but simply making them taxable doesn't address the issue, and may even encouage more illegal immigration.

I don't see where plans sponsored by either political party will halt the flow of illegals blatantly sponsored by certain banana republics looking to sponge off money flowing southward from jobs that should be rightfully held by hard-working Americans.

No we need strong, decisive action, and I think I have the answer in a simple economical solution.

Punji stick pits.

Instead of spending billions of dollars and thousands of additional man-hours on patrolling the border, we can simply line suspected border crossing areas with thousands of hidden pits filled with sharp sticks covered in human waste. Then simply send out bi-weekly patrols to pick up any survivors that haven't succumbed to infection or the desert heat, and take them to the border, where we will unceremoniously dump them back into Mexico where they belong.

Once there, Mexican authorities must cover the costs of debriding week-old gangrenous wounds caused by their lack of respect for U.S. sovereignty. I'm no medical expert, but the medical costs associated with treating thousands of these cases each month should encourage Mexican authorities close up their side of the border tighter than a nun's thighs in no time at all.

In addition, after a few illegals return home from Mexican hospitals minus a foot or two, the prevalence of cripples in their neighborhoods might open up space in the internal Mexican job market for those that are still healthy, while encouraging potential illegals to stay and better their own economies instead of literally risking life and limb.

Once Mexico strengthens its border security and Mexicans are willing to work at crappy jobs in their own country instead of ours, relations between our two nations can improve. That thought alone should be inspiring.

Punjis for Peace. Punjis for Prosperity.

Indeed.

Posted by Confederate Yankee at 12:24 AM | Comments (0)

January 13, 2005

Jailed for Lawyer Jokes

A little bit of local news from MSNBC.com:

Did you hear the one about the two guys arrested for telling lawyer jokes?

It happened this week to the founders of a group called Americans for Legal Reform, who were waiting in line to get into a Long Island courthouse.

"How do you tell when a lawyer is lying?" Harvey Kash reportedly asked Carl Lanzisera.

"His lips are moving," they said in unison.

While some waiting to get into the courthouse giggled, a lawyer farther up the line Monday was not laughing.

He told them to pipe down, and when they did not, the lawyer reported the pair to court personnel, who charged them with disorderly conduct, a misdemeanor.

Yep, jailed for jokes that a nearby thin-skinned John Edwards-type didn't much care for. I would add that he apparently wasn't a very good lawyer either; the "good ones" (according to the lawyer mentioned below) have special security passes and don't have to wait in line with the peons.

I actually heard these guys (well, one of them) on the radio this morning when they made an appearance to explain their story and get legal representation from the liberal lawyer/talk show host I love to hate, Ron Kuby. While I disagree with Ron on the vast majority of his politics, he is a hell of a lawyer, and I'm glad he's taking on this one... for free.

Of course, this arrest should never have happened, which makes the fact that the two guys arrested were with a judicial reform advocacy group all the more ironic.

Note: Despite what the caption says, the name of the dog in the Ron Kuby link above is Lily, not Commie. "Commie" just describes Kuby's political stance.

Posted by Confederate Yankee at 01:00 PM | Comments (0)

January 12, 2005

WNBC News Jumps The Gun

I have always been a staunch Second Amendment advocate.

I think we would benefit as a society from a national concealed carry law. I am a proponent of reinvigorating high school and college shooting programs, and feel that what the media labels as assault weapons are exactly the kinds of firearms the Founding Fathers intended us to have as I noted in a previous article.

But as strongly pro-gun as I am, I have finally found a specifically horrific firearm/ammo system whose ban I wholeheartedly support once I saw it pre-pitched for broadcast Wednesday evening (01/11/05) at 5:00 PM on WNBC News, New York.

Once you saw the pitch, how could you not?

"It" is the Fabrique Nationale Five seveN, a handgun that fires the relatively new 5.7x28mm cartridge. One kind of ammunition for this firearm is SS190, ammunition that looks like scaled-down 5.56mm NATO rounds and boosts the 2.02 gram (31 grains) pointed steel and aluminum core bullet to the muzzle velocity of 650 meters per second (ca. 2130 fps) from the pistol barrel.

It isn't a hunting handgun like a .454 Casull or .475 Linebaugh that penetrates armor as a side effect, but a weapon specifically built from the ground up to penetrate helmets and body armor to kill the person inside when using the SS190 ammunition. As law enforcement officers are the only Americans who typically wear body armor, this weapon/ammunition combination in civilian hands functions only as a "cop killer." Right?

We would be fools to allow this monstrosity of gun and ammo to be for sale on New York streets, or streets anywhere else. The nerve of these people! Got your righteous indignation up? Freshened your torch and sharpened your pitch fork?

Great!

Come with me and burn down WNBC News, because this weapon/ammo combination is not now, nor has ever been, available to the public.

You heard me right: this firearm/ammunition combination is not for sale at any price, to any civilian in the United States.

If WNBC News had bothered to Google the Five seveN, they might have run across the very prominent information that this specific ammunition and weapon combination is available for government and law enforcement sales only. The Five seveN, itself is perfectly legal to own, but only with the slower, lighter SS192 practice/duty ammunition that in not armor penetrating.

Even in armor-piercing SS190 form, this ammunition is thought to be less lethal than most existing handgun ammunition, and has not convinced experts that it has any more stopping power than the anemic .22 Magnum rimfire, and weaker than 95% of handgun designs currently on the market.

So much for the myth of the magical cop-killer. I guess this myth will go the way of the plastic gun invisible to x-rays.


Remind me again who the professional journalists are?

Post-Broadcast Update
WNBC News, to their credit, did a better job with their story than I was prepared to give them credit for initially. They acknowledged that the SS190 ammunition was not for sale to the public, and were able to show that the SS192 practice/duty ammunition was able to pierce a piece of body armor they selected in an uncontrolled environment.

WNBC News showed footage of a law enforcement officer firing a three-shot group from a Five seveN loaded with SS192 ammunition into a ballistic vest on an indoor firing range at a distance I estimated to be about seven yards.

There was definite penetration of the ballistic material, but their demonstration raised as many questions as it answered, at least in my mind.

What was the age, classification, and integrity of the vest in the demonstration?
How old was this vest? Was it recent, using the most modern ballistic materials, or was it an older vest made with less advanced technologies than are used in the average body armor of today's police officers? Was it obsolete?

What was the classification of this vest? I know that no body armor is truly "bulletproof," and that there are various levels of protection, from vests rated at a relatively low Level 2 that will stop edged-weapon attacks and some low-to-mid-powered pistol bullets, to Level 4 armor that will stop direct, multiple hits from 7.62 rifle rounds. What was the rating of the vest in question? I have seen body armor before, and quite frankly, the armor used for the demonstration looked flimsy, at least on television.

What was the structural integrity of this vest prior to the demonstration? The demonstration claimed to fire three rounds from the Five SeveN followed by one round from a low pressure .45 ACP, but the vest appeared to have as many as six impact points prior to firing the .45 ACP round. Multiple bullet strikes can diminish the ability of the vest to stop following rounds, and therefore if there were previous rounds fired into this vest, it could have weakened it significantly.

In short, if WNBC News used an older early model ballistic vest with lower level protection, and/or a vest that had been previously compromised by multiple bullet impacts, then they ran what is essentially a rigged test with severely compromised validity.

The fact that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms approved both the Five seven and it's SS192 cartridge indicates that the experts who evaluate these firearms and their cartridges before allowing their sale and import, obviously disagree with WNBC News as to the armor-piercing abilities of this handgun and its ammunition. To me, their rigorous testing and expertise is just a bit more believable than an uncontrolled impromptu demonstration performed with questionable methodology and materials.

In addition, WNBC News made no comment at all as to the miniscule size of the actual bullet and its lethality, or "stopping power," preferring instead just to focus on its velocity. Folks, ask any real gun guy you know and ask them if they'd rather be shot by the Five seveN's 5.7mm bullet, which some experts compare to a .22 magnum, or the nearly hundred year-old .45 ACP cartridge. The vast majority will take their chances with the over-hyped mousegun that is the Five seveN. It is highly hyped, but unproven.

WNBC News managed to pull off a more sophisticated smoke and mirrors act than most news channels do in their anti-gun stories, but in the end, it is still just seems to be smoke and mirrors.

NYPD Update: I noticed this weekend that this site is getting some traffic from a law enforcement message board discussing the Five SeveN. I would like to point out that while the Five SeveN has much more velocity and lower recoil than any other duty-sized semiauto that I can recall, there are at least three half-century-old inexpensive pistol/ammo combos that I can think of right off the top of my head that can defeat many kinds of body armor, though for your safety, I will not mention them here.

My advice to the brave men in law enforcement is to simply follow your training; even a lowly .22 short can kill you if it hits you in the right spot. So don't get shot (Gee thanks, C.Y. we wouldn't have thought of that on our own!).

Get expert opinions from firearms guys in the BATF, FBI, and the firearms and ballistic armor industry before you make policy changes and leave the hype (positive or negative) to the news guys, the brass, and the bloggers.

Final (hopefully) update: The Five SeveN was built from the ground up as an anti-armor sidearm and ammunition combination.

While I do not advocate infringing upon the Second Amendment, I would note that the BATF is the organization responsible for determining whether a firearm an caliber of ammunition are available to the public.

Posted by Confederate Yankee at 03:05 PM | Comments (0)

January 11, 2005

Hung Up On Socks

Patterico runs with the Sandy Berger Story:

The New York Post reports:

The criminal probe into why former Bill Clinton aide Sandy Berger illegally sneaked top-secret documents out of the National Archives - possibly in his socks - has heated up and is now before a federal grand jury, The Post has learned.
Well, I guess it's technically true. It's also "possible" the documents were shoved up his rectum. But there's no real evidence of either.

Unless I'm missing something, there has never been any but the most tangential hint of evidence that Berger took documents out of the room in his socks. Wild-eyed Bob Somerby explained back in July 2004.

The Post doesn't do itself any favors with such reporting.


As I noted in his comments section, how Berger smuggled out the documents doesn't matter as much as the fact that he did, and that he destroyed some of them.

If Berger goes to jail for his crimes as he should, then there will be ample opportunity to discuss what is entering and leaving selected Berger orifices.

If you really want too.

Posted by Confederate Yankee at 01:09 PM | Comments (0)

Return to Sandy Burglar

[Welcome Instapundit readers! Enjoy the article, and if you like what you see, please read some of the other articles here at Confederate Yankee, and consider bookmarking or blog-rolling the site, or picking up the RSS or Atom feeds. Also consider visiting the Confederate Yankee Store. Thanks!]

When the "graywash" CBS investigation of Rathergate was finally released yesterday, I like many others, had my say on the matter. The general consensus in the blogosphere seems to be that of dissatisfaction. I doubt we have heard the last of Rathergate, however, as external investigations are almost certain into the apparent coordination between the Democratic National Committee and CBS News. You can read more punditry on the subject in Bill's roundup at INDC Journal and more blogger reactions at Blogs for Bush.

But as the title of this thread indicates, The CBS/DNC Rathergate connection is not the only potentially explosive allegation of election illegalities involving the 2004 Democratic run at the White House. Sandy Berger, the corpulent Clinton Aide with sticky fingers and document-swallowing clothes, has been the subject of interviews by the FBI and federal prosecutors as reported today in the New York Post (hat tip: Instapundit).

For those of you who don't remember, John Kerry advisor and former Clinton national security advisor Berger was caught sneaking Code Word (Code Word is the highest level of secrecy, above Top Secret) government documents-as many as 50-out of a secure area of the National Archives. These documents, apparently relating to how the Clinton administration's handling of terrorism matters prior to 9/11, were being "vetted" by Berger for the 9/11 Commission investigation. Berger was subsequently forced to resign from the Kerry campaign because of the scandal.

In Berger World, "vetting" apparently means stuffing beyond Top Secret documents in your suit pockets, down your pants, down your socks, or any other available hiding place and taking them to unsecured, unprotected locations, such as his home or office, where at least some of these documents (presumably the most damning) were destroyed.

Far from being swept under the rug, the Berger investigation seems primed for a federal grand jury. Among the documents Berger removed from the archives all five or six drafts of a critique of the government's response to the millennium terrorism threat. This was no trivial matter.

The interesting thing about this investigation is not his guilt or innocence; Berger has already confessed to at least some of the crimes he could be charged with. No, the interesting point in this developing story is going to be how equal powerful political figures are treated under the law when compared to the common man, which could foreshadow how seriously an investigation is persued in any illegal coordination between CBS News and the DNC in the Rathergate scandal.

Berger claims that he knew he was violating the law when he took the documents, but also said July 19, 2004 that he "made an honest mistake." Apparently, Sandy Burglar has a hard time believing even himself.

Hopefully he'll have the time to contemplate this if he goes to a federal penitentiary as is appropriate for those admittedly who steal, alter, or destroy our nation secrets.

Update: I almost forgot to include this classic Cox and Forkum take on the matter from last summer, which has more text links in the commentary under the cartoon.

Posted by Confederate Yankee at 10:41 AM | Comments (0)

January 10, 2005

A Liberal Born Every Minute


Proof that P.T. Barnum was right when he said, "There's a sucker liberal born every minute."

As Tim Blair quickly notes, they apparently haven't heard of the invention of something called a "remote control."

Maybe it is really is better (for the gene pool) that we let these brilliant folks keep practicing abortion.

Posted by Confederate Yankee at 01:52 PM | Comments (0)

CBS Rathergate Investigation: What It Was, Was Failure

The axe has fallen. Too bad it didn't hit the right necks or Rather, enough of them.

Interestingly enough, Andrew Heyward, the President of CBS News, was not asked to resign.

When a football team blows a season, the blame usually falls on the head coach. Instead of firing the head coach (Heyward), CBS chose the equivalent of firing a few position coaches and trading some players. As any football fan knows, when you leave a failing coach at the helm, he will continue to make the same bad decisions that led to the losing season, even if his coaching staff or personnel changes. Bad leadership leads to bad teams, in professional journalism as well as football. In this regard, we can expect a Heyward-led CBS News to soon revert to the slipshod, partisan journalism that has characterized his leadership. Heyward's head should roll along with his underlings.

The fact that the "general manager" of the Team CBS, CBS President Leslie Moonves did not fire Heyward makes me wonder if the CBS Board of Directors should consider not only sacking the head coach, but the general manager.

Until the senior management is changed, can expect "Rathergate" type inaccuracies to resurface again, despite the window dressing recommendations of the two-person CBS-appointed panel.

CBS News is in cover-up mode (still not admittign the documents wer forged or their reporters blindly partisan and politically-motivated), and has offered up a few underlings as a sacrifice to the American people, but it does not seem to be serious about making changes to the underlying organizational structure that allowed Rathergate to happen.

We will see another "Rathergate" at CBS News.

It is simply a matter of time.

Posted by Confederate Yankee at 11:28 AM | Comments (0)

New CBS Reporting Standards Really Help

The axe has fallen in the Rathergate investigation. Too bad it hasn't helped their ability to air accurate reports.

CBS News is now reporting (ed. note: link since changed, read update at bottom of page) that:

Four CBS News employees, including three executives, have been ousted for their role in preparing and reporting a disputed story about President Bush's National Guard service.

The action was prompted by the report of an independent panel that concluded that CBS News failed to follow basic journalistic principles in the preparation and reporting of the piece. The panel also said CBS News had compounded that failure with "rigid and blind" defense of the 60 Minutes Wednesday report.

Asked to resign were Senior Vice President Betsy West, who supervised CBS News primetime programs; 60 Minutes Wednesday Executive Producer Josh Howard; and Howard's deputy, Senior Broadcast Producer Betsy West. The producer of the piece, Mary Mapes, was terminated.

CBS might want to fact check this, as firing Betsy West twice, as the paragraph above seems to indicate, doesn't mean they fired four employees. I'm glad to see their standards of journalistic integrity haven't been affected by the shakeup.

NOTE: CBS will probably find ths soon enough, at which point I'll redirect to the PDF of the original CBS News story.

Update: PDF format won't work with my current limited image options. A GIF of the relevant section of the PDF I captured is available here. Email me if you want the full-screen PDF of the original CBS News page.

Posted by Confederate Yankee at 10:33 AM | Comments (0)

Gotta Love Buy Blue

I might be a day late in catching the 01/09/05 Instapundit reference to Buy Blue over the weekend, but as someone who is mostly conservative, I loved their "Blue Christmas" campaign.

It not only provided a list of "blue" companies, but a list of "red" companies as well(PDF), which came in very handy for making sure I bought Christmas presents from companies that still (apparently) believe in keeping Christ in Christmas as I mentioned earlier.

Sometimes, liberals are their own best enemies.

Posted by Confederate Yankee at 09:37 AM | Comments (0)

January 07, 2005

51 Days

Call it torture.

As Alberto Gonzales is grilled for his role in formulating the policies of torture for insurgents, terrorist, and fundamentalists as he strives to become the first Mexican-American Attorney General, it is important we review a few basic facts.

A group of liberal-sympathizing religious fundamentalists was trapped and tortured, and stood by and Gonzales did nothing.

You don't remember this?

For 51 days they were kept in the dark, without heat or light. Even with no physical evidence, they were repeatedly accused of:

  • abusing children;
  • selling drugs;
  • trafficking in weapons.
Flammable, potentially explosive pyrotechnic devices were used against them, and flammable CS gas containing methylene chloride sprayed into their cramped and drafty compound, with women and children present. 74 people, including 20 children, died of this torture and eventual immolation directed by U.S. soldiers wrongly used as agents of law enforcement by the U.S. Government.

Attorney General-nominee Alberto Gonzales did nothing to stop these horrific events.

Why?

Because he was an attorney in private practice in 1993 when a Justice Department led by Janet Reno was alleged to have committed these acts, but I guess these acts don't amount to torture when administered by Democrats.

The liberal-sympathizing religious fundamentalists were of course the Branch Davidians of Waco, Texas.


Makes Abu Ghraib allegations of intimidation and humiliation look pretty benign, doesn't it?

Posted by Confederate Yankee at 01:16 PM | Comments (0)

January 06, 2005

Slacker

Blogging has been nonexistent for the last few days and will likely remain light for a few more while I finish a project for my day job and dive into one of my Christmas presents.

I should be back over the weekend, unless I'm not.

Also, I'm interested in getting visitor book recommendations for the Get This Book ad over to the right, so if you've read something more interesting than a travel guide lately, let me know.

Posted by Confederate Yankee at 05:04 PM | Comments (0)

January 02, 2005

Flipper Speaks

John Kerry looks back at why he lost.

But more importantly, is he going to finally share his plans now?

Posted by Confederate Yankee at 04:07 PM | Comments (0)

January 01, 2005

Race and Disaster

Help me understand something.

We (and here I mean "the world community") largely stood by when 138,000 were killed in the 1991 Bangladesh cyclone, and did next to nothing as 800,000 were slaughtered in tribal warfare in Rwanda. There was also relatively little international concern or outcry of support when 30,000 died one year ago in the 12/26/03 Iranian earthquake that the world has largely forgotten.

As many as 300,000 have died in the on-going Darfur genocide as Arab "janjaweed" militias continue to rape and murder their way across the Sudan. An estimated 10,000 are dying there each month, and the world is largely indifferent as this preventable disaster continues unabated.

But you see, these disasters don't affect us.

All of the disasters I just mentioned involved dark-skinned people in developing countries, and therefore they've been largely ignored.

But when a natural disaster occurs in a favorite European tourist destination and a few thousand folks of the caucasian persuasion perish, the world is suddenly filled with empathy and compassion. Did anyone notice that in a disaster that killed 124,000+ in Southeast Asia, and thousands in Africa and India, that the most popular individual "face" put on the disaster by the MSM is that of a two year-old Swedish boy?

Nature happens, and we should of course help those affected by the Sumatran tsunami. That said, it is pathetic that we can't generate the same outpouring of support and empathy for the manmade disasters we can prevent, for reasons that largely appear to be tied to classism and bigotry.

Posted by Confederate Yankee at 01:12 PM | Comments (0)

December 31, 2004

Tsunami Perspective

I've been getting what is actually fairly polite hate mail for my coverage of the 12/26/04 Sumatran earthquake and tsunami so far, with several people taking exception to my pointing out that:

A few people asked why I have been so insensitive to the plight of the innocent lives lost. I asked them the questions below in response, and so far, not one has responded.

Where was the global outcry and pledges of support when 800,000 Rwandans were slaughtered? Where is the indignation as Muslims in Darfur continue to rape and murder their way across Sudan with over 100,000 dead and no end in sight?

Why is this earthquake so much more cared about on the world stage than the one exactly one year before that killed tens of thousands in Iran? My guess is that all this sudden interest wouldn't be nearly as intense if thousands of light-skinned Europeans hadn't died as well.

So my critics can call me cynical (among other things).

But they shouldn't dare imply that they are somehow more caring or a better person when they finally decide to contribute when it is finally convenient for them, or suddenly in their societal interest. They've ignored greater preventable human tragedies in the past decade alone.

I think they have a word for that.

Posted by Confederate Yankee at 11:21 AM | Comments (0)

December 30, 2004

"We are doing very little at the moment."

"We are doing very little at the moment."

So speaks U.N. emergency relief coordinator Jan Egeland, just days after calling the U.S. "stingy" in our goverment's aid to tsunami victims.

As usual, the United States pulls the load, and the United Nations complains, but contributes next to nothing but rhetoric.

Par for the course.

Posted by Confederate Yankee at 01:28 PM | Comments (0)

Silent America goes Amazon

Talented blogger Bill Whittle's book of essays Silent America: Essays from an America at War goes on sale at Amazon today. As a big fan of his blog, I can highly recommend the book.

Update: Dropped the inline ad. I didn't like the way it looked. You can still see the book through the text link to Silent America above.

Posted by Confederate Yankee at 11:18 AM | Comments (0)

With Liberty and Eastern NC BBQ For All

Some say, "save 'em all and let God sort 'em out." That's a great sentiment, and we should provide aid for those affected by the 12/26 tsunami.

Despite my own personal reservations about providing money to suspected terrorist havens, I was this close to clicking over to Amazon and donating some money to the tsunami relief fund, and then I saw this picture from Getty Images (hat-tip LGF). Take a few seconds, you'll see "it" soon enough.

As of now, my cash goes to the first aid organization that promises to season all food shipments with ham hocks, and sends over appropriate clothing.

Let them eat pork.

Posted by Confederate Yankee at 01:35 AM | Comments (0)

December 29, 2004

Don't Believe Drudge's Hype

Parroting a sensationalist headline from The Independent, Drudge runs the banner headline "The Lost Generation" on his site for December 29th. A lot of people are buying that line, and running with it.

The only problem is, the headline isn't true.

Using the CIA World Fact Book for total population data and the This is London link from Drudge's own site for current casualty data, we can compile some rough figures using the calculator at Math.com.

  • India, a country of 1 billion, has lost a confirmed 7,000 dead, or 0.0007-percent of their population.
  • Thailand, a country of 64 million, has lost a confirmed 1,700 dead or 0.002-percent of their population.
  • Indonesia, a country of 238.5 million, has lost a confirmed 42,000 dead, or 0.017-percent of their population.
  • Sri Lanka, a country of 19.9 million, has lost a confirmed 22,500 dead, was the hardest hit per capita, with 0.113-percent of their population killed.
The hardest hit country lost just over one-tenth of one-percent of their overall population, hardly anything approaching the loss of an entire generation.

The deaths from this seismic event are tragic on a grand scale, but it falls far short of the massive casualties sustained at Stalingrad (1942-3, 1-2 million dead), and I've heard few claiming that an entire generation of Soviets or Germans were wiped out in that battle.

Perhaps the media should stick with the facts, and leave the propaganda to Michael Moore.

Edit: The phrase "The hardest hit countries lost less than one-tenth of one-percent of their overall population..." was corrected to read "The hardest hit country lost just over one-tenth of one-percent of their overall population."


Update: The death toll in Indonesia has nearly doubled to 80,000, raising their loses to 0.034-percent of their total population.

Posted by Confederate Yankee at 02:23 PM | Comments (0)

Writing on the Wall

Some cranky midwestern newspaper columnist just lit into the guys at Powerline with the maturity of my four year-old, but without as much skill. Read the rant, and then see what Powerline has to say on the matter here and here. Who do you think it more professional?

The Star-Tribune advertising department seems to know who is going to win this argument.

Check out the blog advertising at the bottom of the article.

Nick Coleman, your days are numbered.

Posted by Confederate Yankee at 01:47 PM | Comments (0)

Grieving

I apologize for the lack of posting today. I'm still grieving for the loss of Susan Sontag.

Dumfart tombstone

Yeah.

Posted by Confederate Yankee at 01:47 PM | Comments (0)

December 28, 2004

Will the Tsunami Curb SE Asian Terrorism?

The massive 9.0-magnitude earthquake that caused a tidal wave that has killed 50,000+ this week was centered in the Indian Ocean, off the coast of the Indonesian province of Aceh.

Interestingly enough this humanitarian disaster may have a small upside; a lessening of the potential for terrorism in Southeast Asia.

Aceh, the province of Indonesia closest to the epicenter of the quake, is a terrorist sanctuary that is the home to the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) and has been mentioned as a probable al Qaeda base as members try to reorganize their infrastructure. Other Indonesian terrorist organizations that may have been affected is Jemaah Islamiyah, which seeks to turn Indonesia, Malaysia and the southern Philippines into an Islamic state, and Lasker Jihad, which claims to have disbanded after the 2002 Bali bombing.

The violent Tamil Tigers have the most well-developed capacity for maritime terrorism according to the South Asia Analysis Group, and while it is too early to determine the extent of any damage inflicted upon this terrorist organization, their home country of Sri Lanka was among the hardest hit by the tsunami, particularly ethic Tamil regions on Sri Lanka's eastern coast.

The physical proximity of suspected terrorists to the impact zones of the earthquake and its tsunami suggest that some of these organizations took casualties and lost physical resources as a result, though only time will tell.

Relief Effort Update: The Command Post has the most updated information I am aware of if you want to help those affected by this massive natural disaster.

12/31 Update: Welcome Spring Starts Here! readers. While you are here, please be sure to visit my latest columns on the subject here (and be sure to check out the guy in the bin Laden tee shirt) and see if you can answer the important questions I ask here. Enjoy your visit, and be sure to come back soon.

Posted by Confederate Yankee at 01:01 PM | Comments (0)

Associated Hard-Pressed

Wretchard (an always excellent blogger) at Belmont Club has been hammering the Associated Press for their uncanny ability to have a terrorist photographer on-scene to capture the assassination of Iraqi election officials as it happened. Michael Ledeen over at The Corner reports in part in an email from Tom Holsinger:

"AP may have significant civil liability exposure to the victims' families in American courts, under the legal theory of civil conspiracy. The conspiracy objective would be to give publicity to terrorists. Every person or organization agreeing to act in concert to achieve a conspiracy's goals is liable for every act in furtherance of the conspiracy.
American courts have taken jurisdiction, and awarded huge civil judgments, in far more questionable cases."
In short, a case can be made for conspiracy between the Associated Press and terrorist groups in Iraq, and that case, if brought, could potentially cost the AP millions of dollars in civil judgements and legal bills.

The mainstream media coddling Muslim terrorists: would you believe such a thing?

Posted by Confederate Yankee at 10:30 AM | Comments (0)

December 27, 2004

Frank Perdue in Iraq?

I missed this on Christmas Eve when it was originally posted by MEMRI, but apparently our nominal allies in the Saudi government daily Al-Watan are accusing the U. S. Army of illegally harvesting organs from dead and dying Iraqis.
"Secret European military intelligence reports" indicate the:

"...transformation of the American humanitarian mission in Iraq into a profitable trade in the American markets through the practice of American physicians extracting human organs from the dead and wounded, before they are put to death, for sale to medical centers in America. A secret team of American physicians follow the troops during their attacks on Iraqi armed men to ensure quick [medical] operations for extracting some organs and transferring them to private operations rooms before they are transferred to America for sale. "The reports confirm the finding of tens of mutilated cadavers or cadavers missing parts. Some were found without a head. The American military command could not offer reasons to explain the bewilderment about the missing parts, suggesting that this may have been caused by the penetration of bullets to the [missing] parts."
Of course, you will note the unimpeachable resources cited by the Saudis.

Secret intelligence reports, vague reports of missing organs from the cadavers of combat casualties, and of course, the ever-available anonymous witness. Not one corpse has ever shown up, or course, or any other shred of physical evidence.

Years ago their was a Purdue chicken commerical talking about how the "parts is parts" approach is wrong when making good chicken nuggets. Apparently, the Saudis would have us believe the competitor's line from that commercial that anything would work, and that we were randomly hot-swapping Iraq kidneys into American bodies like so many USB drives.

I guess no one has explained to the Arab street about the complexities of organ transplants. They couldn't know that many organs could not remain viable for the amount of time it would take to type, match, and ship them half-way around the world.

But parts, after all, "is" parts, and one anti-American lie is just as good as another.

Posted by Confederate Yankee at 05:40 PM | Comments (0)

Going Hard Copy

So far Hugh Hewitt's new book Blog seems to be doing quite well (Amazon rank #287), Scott Ott's Axis of Weasels continues to sell, and Bill Whittle is finding success with Silent America.

A half dozen or more other bloggers are also getting into the publishing game, trying to turn their digital reputation into hard copy sales. It is going to be interesting to see who triumphs and who doesn't in this attempted transition from digital to print. Laura McKenna has an interesting take on it over at her blog, 11D.

I agree with her opinion that non-fiction is the way to go. I don't know how many bloggers have the ability to write good book-length fiction, such as the novel for which Wonkette scored a $275,000 advance. I'm sure there will be some, but I'd be surprised if blogger/novelists sell all that well.

This is going to be interesting to watch.

Posted by Confederate Yankee at 11:13 AM | Comments (0)

A New D.U. Record

In the wake of the massive 9.0 earthquake off Sumatra, and the resulting tsunami, tens of thousands are dead. Posters at the Democratic Underground get all the way to the second post of this thread before a poster named NYC offers up:

I haven't read any projections. An amazing number of dead in so little time. I have heard nothing about the U.S. offering aid.
Yep.

They got to the second poster before finding a way to work their America-hating in. That has to be a new record. It took another five hours before another DUer named StopDiggingTheHole pointed out this was a global tragedy, not a chance to attack the administration.

For those of you keeping score at home, they got all the way to the 13th post on the thread before finding a way to fault Bush directly, and all the way down to the 72nd poster before they started ranting about the "wingnut Fundies."

They haven't yet found a way to hold Halliburton responsible.

Give them time.


Update 1: Michele at A Small Victory has a list of ways you can help the survivors of this natural disaster. Please help, if you can.

Update 2: I spoke too soon. As poster Abu Maven noted at Little Green Footballs, DU-ers did blame Halliburton, Lockheed-Martin, SIAC, etc before I even completed the original post. I just missed it.

Update 3: Those "wingnut Fundies" the DU-ers complained about are on the ground in affected regions. If you would like to help through one of these organizations, visit Scrappleface.com.

Posted by Confederate Yankee at 01:24 AM | Comments (0)

December 26, 2004

A Curious Desire

For years, I've had the desire to try solo primitive wilderness camping. This a somewhat odd fixation, as the closest I've ever come to "real" camping is a drive-in campground, but I've always had this unquenchable urge to light out on the open trail alone, subsisting with only what I could find, catch, or carry with me.

My wife thinks I'm nuts. I mentioned it once in passing to her and simply got "the look." Married men know what I'm talking about. And so I haven't mentioned it any more to her. Maybe she is right. But I still have the urge.

I think I could do it. Seriously.

Yes, I have a bum knee that has already required surgery once. But at my own pace on the terrain of my choosing, I don't see a touchy knee being an insurmountable issue.

I have basic outdoor knowledge, having hunted and fished with my father and brothers for years. I've just never tried to apply everything I know about nature all at once, and I think that is a key part of the challenge of this adventure.

I figure during the fall would be a nice time.

I'd start on a weekend morning at the drop off point, and go as far as I felt comfortable going until mid-afternoon, where I'd make camp, and if conditions warranted, build a simple lean-to for shelter. I'd then find some downed trees and choose a few well-seasoned limbs for my cooking fire, and once this basic camp-making was completed, set off in search of sustenance.

In most parts of the North America there is wild food literally for the taking, you simply have to know what you are looking for. I'd collect wild plants and tubers, maybe do some fishing or hunting nearby, and just play it by ear, simply getting back to nature…getting back to myself.

For the next days, I'd plan on doing nothing more complicated than try to figure out where my next meal was coming from and trying to relax. I'd have time to think. Time to reflect. Something you never seem to be able to find in our normal lives, even when on normal vacations.

Come the next weekend, I 'm sure a dirty, smelly, hungry man would return to the drop-off point to go back to civilization, but I'd think I'd also be a man that was a bit more at peace with himself.

If I can come back like that, it would have been worth it.

Note: I've finally posted my Amazon wish list after someone reminded me it wasn't available on my blog. For some reason, a lot of it seems slanted towards camping gear...

Posted by Confederate Yankee at 03:05 PM | Comments (0)

December 25, 2004

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas!

I got a new laptop case, some PJs, and sausage sizzling on the stove. Kid made out like a bandit (like she should), and the wife seemed happy with her new ironing board (jus' kiddin').

Now go spend time with those you love, and I'll be back posting tomorrow as my regular obnoxious self.

Happy Birthday, J.C.

Posted by Confederate Yankee at 10:26 AM | Comments (0)

December 24, 2004

It's Christmas Eve, GO HOME

While checking my Sitemeter stats this morning I noticed that someone from bellsouth.net has been on my site for over 940 minutes.

At first, I thought that I might have finally bored someone to death, and they were face-down on their keyboard. Then I noticed they had 94 page views as well, so that means they were actively clicking around at least part of the time.

And they--YOU--are still here.

Hey, I'm flattered.

Really, I am.

But go home.

It's Christmas Eve.

And at this point, it's just getting creepy.

Shoo.

Go.

Buh-bye.

Update: My overly loyal visitor finally logged off at 12:18 PM, after being on this site for 1050 minutes and 2 seconds. That has to be some sort of record...well, for a non-porn site.

Posted by Confederate Yankee at 10:24 AM | Comments (0)

Happy Birthday, Jesus

And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.

And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid.

And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.

For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.

And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.

And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying,

Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.

Luke 2:8-14

Merry Christmas to all.

Posted by Confederate Yankee at 09:40 AM | Comments (0)

December 23, 2004

What, No Prize Money?

Sgt. Stryker apparently likes my sense of humor, and dubbed me the winner of his second Caption Contest. Check it out.

So far I'm 2-0 in contest posts (I've blocked out any losses), winning one over at IMAO a long time back with this one...

IMAO: I got an e-mail from the John Kerry campaign titled "What would you ask John Kerry" saying how if I set up a house party, I could ask a question to John Kerry. So, what would you ask John Kerry?

C.Y. Answer: "So, Senator, how does four months of actual combat experience make you a better candidate than say, Lyndie England?"

And yet, I'm stilling waiting on that invite to go write for Dennis Miller.

Call me, Denny babe. Ciao.

Posted by Confederate Yankee at 07:25 PM | Comments (0)

Festivus Does Not Impress Us


I don't "get" Festivus.

And I don't care that I don't get it.

I'm sorry that you aren't a Jew to celebrate Hanukah, or a Christian to celebrate Christmas. Deal with it. The vacuum of faith in your life does not mean that I should celebrate the inadequacies of your spirituality with a made-up holiday.

Have fun griping about inadequacies real and perceived if that is what mimics Confession for you. Enjoy the weak reflectivity of a stark aluminum pole, while I snuggle with my wife in the soft warm glow of lights on the Christmas tree.

Just don't expect me to help you celebrate a hollow, soulless holiday inspired by a a show about nothing.

Posted by Confederate Yankee at 09:11 AM | Comments (0)

December 22, 2004

Tasteless Formalwear Is Not Hate Speech

One potential downside of have the name Confederate Yankee for your blog is that you feel obligated to comment when someone does something stupid with the Confederate Navy Jack, the flag now most associated with the Confederacy becuase of the War of Northern Aggression.

And so people have asked me to comment on the young woman in Lexington, Kentucky who was kicked out of her senior prom for wearing a dress she designed that was patterned after the more popular cousin of the Stars and Bars.

Well, what exactly do you expect me to say?

It is a sequined dress folks, and I have a hard time associating formalwear with hate speech, even if her taste is questionable. Quite frankly I think the dress itself is ugly, but she has every right to sue on First Amendment grounds for being denied the right to be mocked and ridiculed by her classmates for her horrible fashion sense. Strapless with sequins? My date knew better in the late '80s.

I'm much more offended that citizens of a half-breed state like Kentucky think they're legitimately Southern, though I'll give them the benefit of the doubt based upon some of their cultural contributions.

Let's just hope that some of the scholarships that she claims she lost weren't for fashion.

Posted by Confederate Yankee at 03:20 PM | Comments (0)

Victory

After a few days of fitful tinkering, I finally have Haloscan fully implemented across the site, and the Blogger commenting system fully suppressed. For a while I was running parallel commenting systems, with Haloscan working off my main URL and Blogger taking comments for any other pages, including archived pages and direct links.


So What.

Well, that means any comments you may have made on the Blogger system are history. Sorry.

But at least we're all on the same page, now that I've beat my templates into submission.

Carry on.

Posted by Confederate Yankee at 11:40 AM | Comments (0)

December 21, 2004

Credit Where Credit is Due

With his usual amount of honesty, Daily Kos blames President Bush for a terrorist attack, with his headline, Bush destroys another 22 families.

As deaths continue to pile up from the flu, I'm sure Kos will be sure to credit Hillary with the headline, Hillary destroys another 11 families.

Somehow, I don't think he'll get around to writing that one, no matter how many toddlers die as a result of HillaryCare.

Posted by Confederate Yankee at 09:53 PM | Comments (0)

If Your name Is Margolis, You'd Better Stick to Modeling

Florida state senator Gwen Margolis is proposing Senate Bill 500, a ban on assault weapons and high capacity magazines that would not only to attempt to resurrect the flawed and failed 1994 Crime Bill on a statewide level, but would also seek to make the ban retroactive. She advocates nothing less than the confiscation of the very arms our Founding Fathers would most protect, and it is all based upon a series of lies.

Let us go through the fallacies perpetuated by Margolis, shall we?

Her bill states, starting on line 29 of the first page, "WHEREAS, the United States Congress passed, and the President of the United States signed into law, the Federal Assault Weapons Act on September 13, 1994, which prohibited the use and possession of assault weapons, and-"

And let's start right there.

The last I checked, there has never been a "Federal Assault Weapons Act." There was, however, the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994. Perhaps if Senator Margolis is going to try and reinstate and expound upon a law, she should at least see if that law has ever existed.

But her lack of knowledge of the law neither starts nor ends with the name of the law, but extends into the most basic content of the law as well.

"-which prohibited the use and possession of assault weapons, and-"

And which did no such thing. Margolis is either ignorant of the law, or is exaggerating it to the point of outright fabrication.

The possession and use of assault weapons was never prohibited in the 1994 Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 (which from now on, we will simply call the "1994 Crime Bill" as it is commonly referred).

The fact sheet of the 1994 Crime Bill specifically states the fact that the law "bans the manufacture of 19 military-style assault weapons, assault weapons with specific combat features, 'copy-cat' models, and certain high-capacity ammunition magazines of more than ten rounds.'"

The 1994 Crime Bill did not, in letter or in practicality, ban the use or possession of assault weapons, or of their semi-automatic clones. As a matter of fact, it specifically protected existing lawfully-owned assault weapons, and allowed the manufacture of assault weapons throughout the entire period of the failed ban with only slight cosmetic and zero functional change to the basic design of the firearms whatsoever.

Shall we continue?

Margolis continues on line 6 of the second page of the proposed bill "WHEREAS, as a result of the expiration of the ban, UZI's, AK-47's, and other semiautomatic weapons are now available for purchase and possession in this state, -"

I have a news flash for Senator Margolis: semi-automatic weapons were available for legal purchase and possession every single minute of every single day that the 1994 Crime bill was in effect, not only in Florida, but in every state in the Union.

In fact, hundreds of new models and variants of semi-automatic rifles came to the public market in the past ten years, including, but hardly limited to, models from manufacturers such as Armalite, Benelli, Beretta, Browning, Bushmaster, etc.

Her contention that these firearms were not for sale during this time period is simply a fallacy. The only question that matters is this; does Senator Margolis spreads fallacies out of ignorance, or out of malice?

In either event, I saw no reason to continue reading a proposed law based upon shoddy research and blatant falsehoods, though there appeared to be far more of this proposed bill that would not stand up to closer scrutiny.

This flawed document should be regarded more as a work of fiction than a serious attempt at legislation.

Perhaps Senator Margolis should try to learn something about her subject matter before she tries to legislate it.

Update: text of email sent to Senator Margolis on 12/21/2004:

Dear Senator Margolis,

It is readily apparent that you lack even fundamental knowledge of a subject on which you are trying to legislate. Perhaps you should at least try to get your basic facts correct before basing legislation on incorrect or misleading information, as you have done with your proposed bill.

A few of your many fact errors have been noted in an article at the web link below.

(link to this article)

Have a Nice Day.

Sincerely,


(Hat tip to Frank J. at IMAO)

Posted by Confederate Yankee at 01:07 AM | Comments (0)

December 20, 2004

Better Late Than Never

Afterglow grandstanding.

I think 41 is standing up for his victorious President, not for his embattled son, when he finally comes down on Michael Moore. I think that is a distinction worth making, as he didn't publicly say anything about Moore until well after the election was over.

Politically, 41 was soft, and it is clear than the spine 43 was bequeathed came from maternal DNA. Dad's rant was little more than a little boy shouting at a vanquished foe, granted this particular foe isn't intelligent enough to know he's been soundly beaten.

While I agree with his assessment of Moore being a new pariah on the Left, as is his due for his disingenuous propaganda, I must wonder if Bush 41 would have been as vocal if Moore's "Fiberal" party had won the election. Somehow I think not.

Bush 41 should be proud of his son, but attacking Moore now, when it doesn't matter, is simply beating a corpulent, dead horse.

Update: An apology to Bush 41 may be in order. Bill at INDC Journal thinks I'm coming down too hard on him, and believes he has spoken out against Michael Moore before. I haven't heard of such comments, but if they do exist, I'll apologize for that particular criticism.

Update 2: Basil found two pre-election comments made by Bush 41 hammering Moore. I stand corrected.

Posted by Confederate Yankee at 02:57 PM | Comments (0)

Earnhardt Fans are Smarter

According to the Monday morning edition of Paul Harvey News, an organization called the American Institute for Intelligence Testing has released a study claiming that NASCAR fans are ten-percent smarter than the average person.

Duh.

All it takes is listening to one disingenuous anti-American Noam Chomsky rant to figure out that his fans aren't as bright as they like to think they are. Hell, they voted for Kerry, cry for dead terrorists, and still think the media doesn't have liberal bias.

Luckily, it looks like the intelligence is spreading northward. There may be hope of turning New York into a Red state after all, once DEI, Richard Childress, Robert Yates, Roush Racing, etc help educate the unwashed blue masses.


Posted by Confederate Yankee at 10:17 AM | Comments (0)

December 19, 2004

Support Any Soldier

My better half, God bless her, is an angel with the most charitable and caring of souls, and she found an organization over the weekend that I'd like to share with you.

Any Soldier, Inc is a charitable organization with a simple, vital goal: delivering care packages and letters of support to our troops. If you are looking to contribute to a noble cause, you couldn't do much better.

While it is a little late for Christmas, you could help an American serviceman overseas get 2005 started off right with support from home. Any letters or notes you send let them know you appreciate what they are doing, and for those of you able to send Care packages, this page lets you know what soldiers need and provides links to where you can find items online.

Please check out Any Soldier, and pass along their Web address to those you know who might be interested in supporting our troops.

Posted by Confederate Yankee at 06:27 PM | Comments (0)

December 18, 2004

Fiberals

Fiberals.

Let's call them what they are. They don't support the troops, and they never will respect the military, even though they say the opposite. They don't respect minorities, and move quickly to quash any who fail to toe the party line. They don't respect the Constitution, and they don't respect the law of the land.

They don't have to. They're better than us.

The ACLU claims to fight for civil liberties, but was founded by socialists and communists with the express goal of undermining the Constitution. Planned Parenthood claims to be about choice, but was founded by a eugenicist and practices genocide. Fiberals shrilly attack conservatives and moderates of both parties as being "right wing," and then openly embrace a radical religion that admired Adolph Hitler.

Welcome to the Fiberals.

As Fiberals, they have the right to claim that the most inclusive President in history is a racist, when in fact their party founded the Ku Klux Klan and stood in the way of civil rights for over one hundred years. They can confidently call minorities that step out of line "Aunt Jemima" or "Uncle Tom" without reprisals, and certainly no complaints from the NAACP.

They have the right to claim Faux News and the Moonie Times are unbalanced in their news coverage because Maureen Dowd and Lawrence O'Donnell told them so, and Rather and Mapes were just telling the truth by other means, and Halprin was just trying to provide the right perspective.

They have the right to claim the War on Terror has nothing to do with Iraq, even though the World Trade Center bomb-builder came from and returned to Iraq in 1993, and Iraq was home to one, two, three, four terrorist organizations, and Saddam provided money to the families of terrorist bombers.

Fiberals claim the right to say that we acted illegally and without United Nations support in our invasion of Iraq as the corrupt organization of despots quietly pocketed hundreds of millions from Saddam as he continued to murder, rape and kill thousands of his captive people each year.

As Fiberals, they have the right to claim American soldiers are terrorists for killing men who purposefully shoot women and children and build bombs on holy ground, and question the moral fiber of those who fight against criminals who rape, behead, and torture in the name of a God Fiberals claim doesn't even exist.

As Fiberals, they get to register Mary Poppins for crack cocaine and claim voter fraud when the terrorist-meeting war protestor they support is beaten by a dunce from Jesusland.

As Fiberals, they get to believe our 51% of the country is so stupid that we cause mental disorders and flight to more tolerant climes.

As Fiberals they get to be a lot of things...

Just not in charge.

Note: Don't like Fiberals, and want everyone to know it? Visit the Luck Fiberals Store and view "Luck Fiberals" t-shirts, stickers, mousepads, and more.

Posted by Confederate Yankee at 01:06 PM | Comments (0)

December 17, 2004

Snotblogging

Sure, Glen Reynolds has his tireblogging, but does it come with Kleenex?

A nurse who should know better sent her SARS-infested twins to school yesterday, and now my curtain-climber is going to be home today with a nasty cough, hacking up green things that crawl away on their own. Poor kid.

Parents who send their Ebola-babies to school knowing (this one is a nurse!) that they will infect other kids deserve a nice beating with a ClueBat. Thanks to this momtard, an entire kindergarten class was exposed, and more than her kids will spend the weekend before Christmas sick.

Ho. Ho. Ho.

Posted by Confederate Yankee at 08:22 AM | Comments (0)

December 16, 2004

Courage and Heart

Love is stronger than hate, freedom is stronger than tyranny.

Read this, and try to convince me we're losing in Iraq.

(Hat tip: LGF)

Posted by Confederate Yankee at 11:16 PM | Comments (0)

Coming Down on Pixelated Porn

It looks like Illinois is going to be the first state to try to institute some sort of governmental control over the sale and distribution of violent or other adult-themed video games to minors.

It's about time.

I don't want to hear anyone who lives with their parents whining about "freedom of speech," either. Various levels of obscenity law have been upheld by courts for a very long time, and that is what these proposed laws are, and nothing less.

Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich (D) is promoting two bills to make selling or renting violent or sexually graphic materials to minors a crime, treating video games with the same kind of oversight governments have traditionally used to regulate cigarettes and alcohol distribution.

The Entertainment Software Ratings Board (ESRB) and Video Software Dealers Association (VSDA) are both unhappy with these proposed laws, claming that they have their own ratings system, and feel they should be self-regulating.

I'm sure Larry Flynt felt the same way about marketing and selling Hustler.

But the fact of the matter is that the industries do not adequately self-regulate unless forced. I've never seen a store refuse to sell a violent videogame to a teenager, but these same kids know not even to try buying a copy of Penthouse or a six-pack of Coors.

The fact of the matter is that the software gaming industry has been under-regulated from it's inception, and enforcing a state-mandated minimum level of morality at the cash register or at the rental counter is precisely the kind of involvement that I do feel is necessary by state governments.

Whether the content is delivered via pixels or picas shouldn't matter.

We don't let our kids buy "adult" products in other forms until they meet minimum level of maturity, and we should not allow video games to be excepted from those rules.

Posted by Confederate Yankee at 01:15 PM | Comments (0)

Site changes

There may be some minor hiccups today as I try to update the blog template.

Sorry!

Update: Haloscan seems to be implemented correctly in my blog template, but a limited number of posts seems to stil be trying to use Blogger's old "comments" template. I was trying to troubleshoot this last night and again this morning, but decided that I don't care that much about a minor problem concerning old posts.

If you end up not seeing a comment that you posted, let me know and I'll see if I can hunt it down and put it where it belongs.

Normal blogging to resume later today.

Posted by Confederate Yankee at 10:43 AM | Comments (0)

December 15, 2004

A Blue Christmas? Not Quite

Seems like the liberal-run education system has failed us again.

A new generation of oxygen-starved liberals have now decided to color Santa blue instead of red, proving their mothers (the ones who chose to carry them to term, that is) ingested far too much THC during their pregnancies.

A group calling themselves "Buy Blue" has a web site up encouraging lefties to buy products from left-leaning businesses that directed the majority of their campaign contributions to Socialist Democratic candidates.

An offshoot of this moonbattery is their Blue Christmas campaign, alluded to above.

Yes, we're all shocked that a party allied with the Anti-Christian Liberties Union (PDF) would even mention the word "Christmas" without an overwhelming urge to sue themselves, but they obviously felt they corrupted the spirit of the season enough to suit their Godless existence.

That said, a wonderful benefit of the Blue Christmas campaign is this page, which not only tells you which "blue" companies donated heavily against freedom in Iraq and Afghanistan, against the rights of children to be born, and against the very mention of the name of the man who's birth we are celebrating with this holiday, but also includes a list of "red" companies that still support the principles this country was founded upon.

Please download the printer-friendly PDF version of their page (before they wise up and take it down), and be sure to send it to everyone you know, so that when they buy consumer goods, they are buying from the "red" companies that still support traditional American values.

These liberals want to take Christ out of Christmas and make Santa blue.

Thanks to your convenient list, liberals, I'll be confidently shopping "red" for 364 days, and I'll still be dreaming of a white Christmas.

Update: I visited Little Green Footballs after I posted this thread and noticed that Charles found another group of Shop Blue morons. Check it out.

Posted by Confederate Yankee at 10:19 AM | Comments (0)

S.H.P.W.N.A.S.

The following was culled from a series of emails sent back and forth between "R" at a small Southern software company and "J", one of their ornery Northern clients, after a software upgrade.

J,

I've taken care of item the issues please send in the latest executables. In regards to item b) there isn't a way for me to have this carry over. With the old transfer routine that was causing problems the Duplicate Value Entry Error the Customer PO Transfer was a part of the problem; thus it had to be done away with.

--R.


###

R,

What does this mean to me?

--J.

###

J,

It probably doesn't mean much to you, except that you'll have to hear D. bitch, moan, whine and complain about the Customer's PO Number in Other Order Entry not Defaulting to the Purchase Order Number for the Purchase Order when you transfer the items to it.

But as we all know, some things must be sacrificed in the name of progress; and I truly feel sorry that your sanity is part of what is being sacrificed.

If you want I could send up some ear plugs so you won't have to hear D. bitch, moan, whine and complain.

And just in case you're wondering yes I'm in a fabulous mood.

It's just another fabulous day in paradise down here.

--R.

###

R,

Is this what they call Southern Hospitality?

--J.

###

J,

I think it would be closer to southern hostility caused by the war of northern aggression; you guys call it the civil war. Maybe I'll coin a new psychological disorder SHPWNAS (Southern Hostility due to Post War of Northern Aggression Syndrome). You know if the damn liberals can claim Post Election Selection Syndrome and the ACLU / NAACP can claim that people of color my age have been directly affected by slavery, maybe the War of Northern Aggression is the cause of my mental instability.

R.

###

R,

It has come to my attention that you have lost your friggin mind and have started some new hostile grass roots organizations of hostility towards the northern (and smarter) section of this fine country we live in. You lost the damn war - it's over - now stop whining like hillbilly and get back to work.

J.

Of course, J. is supposed to think that the war is over. We're just in an extended phase of lulling you Yankees into a false sense of security.

Sleep tight.

Posted by Confederate Yankee at 01:04 AM | Comments (0)

December 14, 2004

And they say bloggers need oversight

I heard another yippee media figure on a talking head show last night (O'Reilly's) denigrating bloggers as needing some sort of "oversight."

It is just one rant of many in the media, and has been covered in enough blogs in enough detail that I don't need to discuss it here, other than to make one comment: bloggers are limited by the same legal checks and balances that affect the professional media. Indeed, it can be argued that since individual bloggers do not have the support of corporate conglomerations and their significant legal resources, that the professional media can get away with pushing the envelope further than bloggers.

But that envelope only stretches so far. As this case suggests, all media are subject to the limitations of libel and slander law, and if recent history is to be observed, the blogosphere, it can be argued, does the better job of staying within the ethical and legal constraints that big journalism claims to follow.

As I sit here marveling at how the print media forged their circulation numbers as well as their stories, and wait for results of the CBS Rathergate investigation, I think that perhaps Mr. O'Reilly, recently in his own bit of legal hot water for the alleged suggestive sexual abuse of a falafel, and also playing a role in the libel case cited above, should keep his mouth shut on media ethics until his own house is in order.

Posted by Confederate Yankee at 11:24 AM | Comments (0)

December 13, 2004

Kerik in 2008?

According to the New York Daily News, former NYPD commissioner Bernie Kerik didn't step down from his nomination as Homeland Security Director because of "Nannygate" issues, but rather, because of a slew of other allegations, including:

  • two simultaneous extramarital affairs
  • involvement with mafia-run businesses
  • accepting expensive gifts without proper disclosure
  • discriminatory retaliation against the co-workers of one alleged mistress
Because of the newness of these allegations, there is no word from Senator Clinton's office yet on whether she considers Kerik a threat for the Democratic Presidential nomination in 2008.

Posted by Confederate Yankee at 11:50 AM | Comments (0)

December 10, 2004

Happy Armed Jews Week

I hope everyone takes the time to celebrate Armed Jews Week. We're dead center in the middle of it, so read this fascinating piece over at PuppyBlender.com written by a moonlighting Dave Kopel, who knows a thing or two about the subject.

Update: While you're celebrating, why not buy a Bren from the JPFO? Proceeds go to raise funds for the pro-gun documentary Innocents Betrayed.

Posted by Confederate Yankee at 05:36 PM | Comments (0)

December 09, 2004

Spitzer Going for the Plantation Owner Vote?

I know politics makes for strange bedfellows, but I don't know that this approach will work in New York.

From Page Six of the NY Post:

STAFFERS at the engineering firm owned by Bernard Spitzer - the father of state Attorney General Eliot Spitzer - are accused of driving the office's lesbian receptionist positively batty.

Evelyn Quinones was fired from her job answering phones at Spitzer's Fifth Avenue firm last January. She has since filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission alleging that four female staffers at Spitzer Engineering harassed her so badly, she suffered panic attacks and had to check into a psychiatric ward.

Now her girlfriend, legal aide Lisa Padilla, charges in a letter to PAGE SIX that Eliot Spitzer is unfit for office because his "campaigns and lifestyle have been financed by his father . . . Since the younger Mr. Spitzer is attempting to build support in the gay and lesbian community for his gubernatorial run, it is akin to an abolitonist[sic] running for office financed by slavers."

That tactic (supporting slavery) is at least 140 years out of date, Elliot, but if you are going to hold one set of views privately and project another when it comes to minority relations, then at least you're in the right party.

Of course this allegation against Spitzer's father has absolutely nothing to do with Spitzer himself, but it is amusing to watch the moonbats turn on each other.

Posted by Confederate Yankee at 02:30 PM | Comments (0)

Time for an Impeachment

Michelle Malkin is talking about a bureaucrat who is very likely to get people killed in this country due to his paper-pushing incompetence. (Hat tip: Powerline)

Get the bumper sticker.

Posted by Confederate Yankee at 01:21 PM | Comments (0)

December 08, 2004

There's a chupacabra in my room

Did you know that when you combine four days of insomnia with a heavy workload, the mind can start to play tricks on you?

Either that, or I need to get a chupacabra trap.

The next thing you know, Terry McAuliffe will start to sound intelligent...

Nah.

Update: It turns out that I didn't see a chupacabra, but something else with similar physical characteristics.

Posted by Confederate Yankee at 10:49 AM | Comments (0)

December 07, 2004

The NAACP's Slow Suicide

Last Tuesday (11/30) I noted that as Kweisi Mfume was stepping down as president of the increasingly irrelevant NAACP, that Chairman Julian Bond needed to go next.

At the time I wrote that, I said Mfume had to go "for allowing the organization's credibility to be damaged severely, to the point where many feel it is no longer a civil rights organization, but instead a mouthpiece of the Democratic Party."

Well, it looks like I might owe Mr. Mfume an apology, based upon this article.

It now seems that Mr. Mfume was trying to right a sinking ship, one that the rest of the crew of the U.S.S. NAACP apparently wants to scuttle.

According to the Human Events Online story, Mr. Mfume had been reaching out across the aisle, trying to build a working relationship with Republicans. Mfume nominated Condoleezza Rice for an NAACP Image Award in 2003, and had realized that by voting lockstep Democrat in every election, black voters had given away their political bartering power.

After the election last month Mfume sent a letter to President Bush mapping out ways they could work together to help the community, which was against the wishes of a rabid Julian Bond.

Bond then had Mfume forced out, for this apparent sin of trying to bring political diversity to a once-meaningful civil rights organization.

Thank you Mr. Mfume, for trying to reach out and make the NAACP relevant again.

I'm sorry it didn't work out.

Posted by Confederate Yankee at 12:06 AM | Comments (0)

December 06, 2004

The Winter Blogger Investigation

Excerpts from John Kerry, Spokesman, for Liberal Veterans Against the Blog:

"I would like to talk on behalf of all those liberal bloggers and say that several days ago we had an investigation at which over 150 honorably pajama'd, and many highly caffinated, Daily Kossacks testified to blog crimes they committed at the 2004 Weblog Awards.

"They told stories that at times they had personally fisked, cut off or deleted dissenting comments, blocked dissenting IPs, dowdified quotes and turned up the rhetoric, cut off intelligent discourse, blown up childishly, randomly trolled at conservative sites, and hacked and scripted to falsify award poll results in a fashion reminiscent of Ghengis Khan, poisoned topics, and generally ravaged the blogosphere in addition to the normal ravaging of blogs and the very particular ravaging done by the applied hacking and scripting of the 2004 Weblog Awards Best Overall Blog in particular."

It is not currently known if Daily Kos or Senator Kerry met with anyone in Paris in the time period surrounding this attempted award poll-rigging incident.

Posted by Confederate Yankee at 11:18 AM | Comments (0)

December 05, 2004

Admissions of Cheating at 2004 Weblog Awards

Simply pathetic.

LGF is reporting that Daily Kos fans are admitting to hacking the 2004 Weblog Awards and corrupting the vote for Best Overall Blog with scripts stuffing the virtual ballot box.

In addition to Koz, three other sites (LGF, Wonkette, Talking Points Memo) are also facing recounts because of hacking that manipulated their numbers.

Folks, these awards are about appreciating the blogging community. That some people would take the time to cheat for what is essentially an award of appreciation, is sad in the extreme.

I suggest that Daily Kos be tossed from this competition, or voluntarily withdraw on his own, if it can be determined to a reasonable degree that he knew of the cheating on his behalf (or should have) and did not report it. I would hold the other three blogs in question to this same standard.

Integrity, kids, is a beautiful thing.

Posted by Confederate Yankee at 11:12 AM | Comments (0)

December 03, 2004

Religion of Peace says the word-of-the-day is "legs"

...And so they continue spreading the word.

You've got to admire a religion like that. Yes, I'm being sarcastic, but it is the safest thing to be. You can't actually accuse Islam of being a bunch of mindless rutting pigs without respect for women. They don't respond well to criticism. Better to turn your head and be a good little dhimmi.

You know. Like Europe.

But guess what, kids: there's a nasty storm brewing of-dare I say it-biblical proportions.

We are in a clash of civilizations that some very astute thinkers are already classifying as World War IV and yet most people don't even recognize what is going on around them.

For the next few days, the mood here at Confederate Yankee is projected to be a little darker and more serious than the satirical charity work and reality show pilots of the past week, but I encourage you to stick around. Hopefully, I might say something profound.

And doesn't everyone enjoy a good surprise?

Posted by Confederate Yankee at 02:55 PM | Comments (0)

Blech

Some things just shouldn't be.

This is one of them.

Remember kids:

Love your grandmother, but don't loooove your grandmother.

Posted by Confederate Yankee at 01:09 AM | Comments (0)

December 02, 2004

A Worthy Cause

Election got you down? Are you suffering from Post Election Selection Trauma? You are not alone, little liberal.

I know several liberals that packed up their Volvos on November Third and headed north, only to be incredulously turned away just shy of the Canuckistani border. Let me tell you, it really soured their frappacinos to find out they'd have to face at least another year of BusHitler before being accepted to Paul Martin's Promised Land.

Surely, there was something that could be done.

Something that should be done.

But after almost a month of incessant whining from the high-minded-but-functionally-useless libs milling around aimlessly, it was once again up to the conservatives to actually do it.

Looking deep into our collective past, we hit upon just the solution.

Back prior to the War of Northern Aggression, courageous early Republicans often outsmarted early pre-Klan Democrats and helped those held in servitude escape to the North. It seemed only fitting to resurrect this idea to assist our "friends" in their quest to reach their socialist Nirvana.

And so, it became necessary to create the:


Yes, the Democratic Underground Railroad will help ferry the disenfranchised and downtrodden out of the land of Christian ayatollahs and non-stop Toby Keith, to the land of polar bear milk and honey.

Please make a donation or two to your favorite conservative bloggers who are doing this noble and dangerous humanitarian work.

It is, after all, for a worthy cause.

NOTE: I just added Haloscan for comments and trackback. Previous comments were unfortunately deleted in the changeover. Sorry, but it was necessary to be able to block Hate-Filled Lefties. Granted, I haven't had any to speak of just yet, but you know how we conservatives favor preemption.

Posted by Confederate Yankee at 01:01 AM | Comments (0)

December 01, 2004

Batter Up

Can you guess what's going to happen now, Brian?

Posted by Confederate Yankee at 01:45 PM | Comments (0)

French Twist

Let me see if I understand the game properly.

If terrorists in an American prison have to listen to loud music, it is torture.

If a terrorist is shot by American soldiers, it's a war crime repeated incessantly on the news.

But when French helicopter gunships fire into a crowd of civilians without warning or provocation, it isn't newsworthy.

Yeah, there's no such thing as media bias.

Update 12/3: Cox and Forkum noticed what the Red Cross considers "torture" and respond accordingly.

Posted by Confederate Yankee at 11:52 AM | Comments (0)

November 30, 2004

Next Get Bond... Julian Bond

The media at large and CBS News in particular took hard hits as a result of the last election cycle, and it appears they are not alone. In addition to propagandist Michael Moore being shelled as the least inspiring, least-intriguing celebrity in Hollywood, it now appears the axe is falling on at least one head at the incredibly ineffective NAACP, as President Kweisi Mfume plans to step down.

Neither the NAACP nor Mfume would say why he was stepping down, but I'll go out on a limb and say he has to for allowing the organization's credibility to be damaged severely, to the point where many feel it is no longer a civil rights organization, but instead a mouthpiece of the Democratic Party.

Mfume allowed NAACP Chairman Julian Bond to threaten the organization's tax-exempt status by making overtly partisan statements at the organization's annual Convention in July. Bond said:

"They preach racial neutrality and practice racial division," Bond said Sunday night in the 95th annual convention's keynote address. "They've tried to patch the leaky economy and every other domestic problem with duct tape and plastic sheets. They write a new constitution of Iraq and they ignore the Constitution here at home."
In light of these statements, and earlier comments where Bond compared Republicans to terrorists, it is clear (at least to me) that Mfume is not the only officer of the NAACP that should step down. Bond has destroyed any remaining shreds of credibility the organization has, and it would be a shame if the one-time powerful civil rights group should be forced to consider reorganizing as a 527 or other non-tax-exempt group thanks to their poor and partisan leadership.

Julian Bond, is is time for you to go.

Posted by Confederate Yankee at 11:30 AM | Comments (0)

November 29, 2004

I Wish I'd Run So Far Away

The Puppy Blender has a tittilating thread promoting "Hot French Chicks with Guns."

Sucker that I am, I clicked on it...

For my trouble, I got a fake Glock, a fake Beretta, what are probably not even real French people, and a "chick" (singular) looks like a long lost member of A Flock of Seagulls.

No wonder Glen is credited with being the leader of the Axis of Naughty.

If you want real hot foreign chicks with guns, you have to go here.

Accept no substitutes.

And be very polite.

Posted by Confederate Yankee at 08:24 PM | Comments (0)

November 28, 2004

Neither Muskets nor Ducks

Like it or not, the assault weapons outlawed by the now-expired 1994 Crime Bill are precisely the kind of firearms that our Founding Fathers probably intended to protect.

"A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed."
Earlier today I read the interpretations of a group of self-professed "experts" explaining how assault weapons were dangerous, obviously not protected by the Second Amendment, and in need of a permanent ban.

They were following the collectivist, or "states rights" argument, that the Second Amendment of the Constitution was written to protect the States in their authority to maintain formal, organized militias. To their way of thinking, there is no individual right of gun ownership, and the government is permissive in the kind of sporting arms used in hunting or target shooting. According to their argument, assault weapons and several other categories of firearms should be banned outright.

These people could not understand the Second Amendment any less.

If any category of modern firearm is protected by the Constitution it is assault weapons, not hunting or target-specific arms. Does this seem like a strech to you?

Read on.

Many may scoff at the idea, but those who subscribe to the collectivist interpretation of this Amendment betray a misunderstanding of the historical context the Bill of Rights was written in, or they simply chose to ignore it in pursuing their political agenda.

In the cultural context in which it was written, the Colonial Era "militia" referred to the armed citizenry as a whole, as opposed to the "organized militia" which was the government-controlled force we would now recognize as the Guard and Reserve components of our full-time armed forces.

In this correct context, the Second Amendment simply justifies the pre-existing right to keep and bear arms, just as the Constitution was written to justify certain inalienable rights. We have a pre-existing natural right to keep and bear arms for self-defense and other reasons that is bolstered by the phrasing "the right of the people" in the First Amendment that is understood to apply to all the other Amendments to protect individual rights, not the authority of states. To say that the Second Amendment is the only amendment in the Bill of Rights that followed the collectivist model is disingenuous at best.

The only Supreme Court case on the matter, United States v. Miller (1939), held that a shotgun having a barrel of less than eighteen inches did not show a "reasonable relationship" to the kind of arm that might be expected to use in a well regulated militia, and that the sawed-of shotgun in the case was not the kind of ordinary military equipment that could be reasonably expected to be used in the common defense.

In Miller, the Court specifically held that the militia was comprised of all males physically capable of acting in concert for the common defense. This individual rights position was bolstered in 2001 where in United States v. Emerson, the Court held that the people have "rights" and "powers" but that the federal and state governments have only "powers" or "authority," holding that the "right" referred to in the Second Amendment was an individual right.

In addition, a 2002 Justice Department brief states that the Second Amendment "broadly protects the rights of individuals, including persons who are not members of any militia or engaged in active military service or training, to possess and bear their own firearms, subject to reasonable restrictions designed to prevent possession by unfit persons or to restrict the possession of types of firearms that are particularly suited to criminal misuse."

In short, the modern Justice Department and apparently the Supreme Court uphold the individual right to own arms, but what kind of arms does that specifically apply to?

Once again, this historical context of the Framer's time period is important to understand their intent.

At the time the Bill of Rights was ratified in 1789, a substantial portion of the population lived in rural or semi-rural areas, where firearms played a vital role in the lives of the colonists being used primarily for hunting, self defense, and community defense.

The typical military firearm of Revolutionary War was a musket, a smoothbore firearm typically loaded with "buck and ball," a single large round ball slightly smaller than the interior diameter of the barrel, and several smaller buckshot. This was an inaccurate firearm not capable of reliably hitting a single man-sized target outside of approximately 50-75 yards, however, it was easy to load and fire several projectiles per firing in a comparatively short amount of time, which was desirable in an age and style of warfare that utilized densely packed formations of men firing in close proximity to their enemy.

The typical civilian firearm of the time period was the rifle, a firearm with spiraled grooves down the length of the barrel that imparted spin on a single projectile, making it much more stable in flight, and thus more accurate, much in the way a football thrown to impart spin is much more stable and accurate than one that is thrown so that it tumbles end over end.

The rifle was a huge technological improvement over earlier firearms such as muskets and shotguns, extending the practical range from the approximate 50-75-yard range of muskets to 150-200 yards for rifles. The downside of a rifle in the military usage of the period was it's comparatively slow rate of fire and lack of a bayonet mount, both major problems in the style of combat prevalent in regular armies of the time period. That said, rifle-equipped units were the "special forces" units of their day, and excelled in unconventional combat.

So... what does that have to do with assault weapons in modern America?

Everything.

The Second Amendment was written to make sure that the civilian population that makes up the general militia has arms suitable for the protection of the community at large, which at the time of the adoption of the Bill of Rights, consisted of the continued civilian ownership of muskets and of more technologically advanced civilian rifles.

A logical person understands that for the civilian militia to be effective, they must have personal arms that can be militarily viable in the context of the potential conflicts of the day. This of course does not apply to crew-served weapons employed by professional militaries and their organized militia (Guard and Reserve) components, but just to small arms. Civilians have no rights to cannons, tanks, or nuclear weapons, just small arms.

Considering the small arms technologies employed by conventional infantry units in 2004, civilian versions of military assault weapons are specifically the kind of small arms our Founding Father's intended us to have.

Militaries today primarily use either NATO-specified 5.56mm and 7.62mm ammunition, or military calibers of the former Soviet Union (7.62x39mm, 7.62x54R). Therefore, firearms chambered to fire these calibers of ammunition are exactly the kind of firearms the Founders who have had in mind for the general militia that is the population at large.

Further, the kinds of semi-automatic firearms erroneously called "assault weapons" that most closely mimic conventional military weapons, are precisely the kinds of civilian-owned firearms most protected by a correct contextual interpretation of the Second Amendment.

The Second Amendment was never written to preserve our right to hunt ducks or squirrels, and it was certainly never intended to limit our choice of weapons to period muskets any more than the Freedom of Speech would be limited to those conversing in Colonial-era English.

The Second Amendment was written to ensure that the individual American could ensure his access to military capable arms for the defense of his home and his community.

Now, when can we get a militia-friendly, semi-automatic version of one of these?


Update 11/30: This thread has been picked up by excellent gun blogger Jeff Soyer at Alphecca, and was "Today's must read" from SayUncle. Thanks, guys!

Posted by Confederate Yankee at 07:31 PM | Comments (0)

November 26, 2004

Do I Have a Show For You...

Dear Mr. Network Executive,

I think we need a new mega-reality show. One that will put your network over the top.

People are getting tired of the simple formulas that inspire trauma-based shows (Fear Factor, Scare Tactics), touchy-feely self-improvement tripe (The Swan, The Biggest Loser), or even surrounding-improvement programming (Monster House, Trading Spaces) or transportation-makeover episodes (Pimp My Ride, Overhaulin').

No, what we want, what we need, is a new ultra-reality show that combines the best elements of all the shows above.

My Solution:

Pimp My Bride. Seriously. Hear my out.

Start with four moderately-attractive engaged couples.

Maked them eat something really disgusting, and then given them a physical challenge that will make the more-athletic member of each couple infuriated with his or her future spouse. Or even better, combine the two into one event.

Then boot one of the couples out of the contest for some completely arbitrary reason.

Host Ty Rogan: "Maria, while your team actually came in first in the oral buffalo-chip relay, we just couldn't stand the bouncing of Dave's man-boobs as he ran. Your team is eliminated. Have some minty-fresh Listerine (sneaky product placement for our sponsers) and get to steppin'."

Down to three couples, split them up into teams of guys and girls, and have the same-sex threesomes compete in gender-opposite stereotypical contests.

Then bring the three couples back together, and boot another pair out of the contest, again for simply not liking one of them.

Host Ty Rogan: "Phil, you made an excellent three-cheese and broccoli quiche for brunch, and your lovely financee Marilyn excelled in calling that three-downs-and-out series in the Rams game. You should win this round and advance. But who carries the stones in this couple, Nancy-boy? Is she carrying your pair? You're eliminated. And don't drop your apron on the way out, Phil-lis."

At that point the contestant lunging at the host will, of course, call for an overzealous response from show security, combining the best elements of The Jerry Springer Show and Cops.


Am I a genius or what?

As the now-beaten and bloody losing contestant(s) are hauled away to jail, the remaining two couples will compete for our grand prize, a complete extreme makeover for the future bride, just like on The Swan... sorta.

But I'm getting ahead of myself.

For our final contest, we'll combine the best of the home and car improvement shows, and have the couples design and build a garage that functions not only as a place to park a vehicle, but doubles as a man-refuge from his constantly nagging spouse.

The premise of this stunt alone will cause tension, and as the guys, blissfully unaware, try to figure out how they can fit a La-Z-Boy (product placement), a Budweiser beer tap (more advertising!) , and a Sony widescreen television (Even more advertising moolah, Mr. Network!) in front of a Buick (am I good at this or what?), the faces of the fuming girls will provide great tragi-comic relief.

Then, just to change things up, actually judge the final event on merit.

Relationship merit.

Ty Rogan: "Bill, that was an excellent idea to run the urinal tube from the front of your recliner directly into the septic line so that you'd never have to miss a second of the game. Unfortunately, in all your engineering excitement, you completely ignored Pam, and never noticed she was fuming in the corner. Think about how much butt you're going to have to kiss to make up for this one on the way out the door. And good luck in your 'Relationship.'

"John, you actually had the brains to tell Rebecca how wonderful she was and never even glanced at your potential sanctuary until she understood this was something you would only ever dream of doing 'for the show.'

"You are the winner of Pimp My Bride!"

At this point, we start a stage of the game that the winning couple doesn't know about. Remember I promised a Swan type ending? Well, that would be just too boring, wouldn't it?

At this point, an excited Rebecca, as the winning female, will be led away to visit a team of top-notch plastic surgeons for consultation, and will then have a day at the spa.

John on the other hand, as the winning male, will meet with the team of plastic surgeons who will actually be performing the surgery on Rebecca. He gets to make the call on implants, liposuction, dental work, etc. Just like in the other surgical shows, no one will see her, including herself, until the "big reveal" at the end of the episode.

Will Rebecca end up having more plastic than a cupboard full of Tupperware?

Does John even come close to making the right decisions?

Will Rebecca, in fact, kill John for what he did to her?

Are they going to remain engaged?

Who cares?

It's all good (for ratings), and you can see it all unfold again next week on Pimp My Bride.

So, Mr. Network Executive... do we have a show?

Update: Kevin at Cadet Happy whipped up an awesome image for Pimp My Bride and dropped it into sarahk's "real" site with all her other reality show addictions (right column). Now to pitch this to Fox...

Update 12/3: This article was the #1 search result for "Pimp Juice" on popdex ("the Website Popularity Index") for 12/1. Heh.

Posted by Confederate Yankee at 11:01 AM | Comments (0)

November 25, 2004

Dubya's Thanksgiving 2004 Proclaimation

From the White House:

All across America, we gather this week with the people we love to give thanks to God for the blessings in our lives. We are grateful for our freedom, grateful for our families and friends, and grateful for the many gifts of America. On Thanksgiving Day, we acknowledge that all of these things, and life itself, come from the Almighty God.

Almost four centuries ago, the Pilgrims celebrated a harvest feast to thank God after suffering through a brutal winter. President George Washington proclaimed the first National Day of Thanksgiving in 1789, and President Lincoln revived the tradition during the Civil War, asking Americans to give thanks with "one heart and one voice." Since then, in times of war and in times of peace, Americans have gathered with family and friends and given thanks to God for our blessings.

Thanksgiving is also a time to share our blessings with those who are less fortunate. Americans this week will gather food and clothing for neighbors in need. Many young people will give part of their holiday to volunteer at homeless shelters and food pantries. On Thanksgiving, we remember that the true strength of America lies in the hearts and souls of the American people. By seeking out those who are hurting and by lending a hand, Americans touch the lives of their fellow citizens and help make our Nation and the world a better place.

This Thanksgiving, we express our gratitude to our dedicated firefighters and police officers who help keep our homeland safe. We are grateful to the homeland security and intelligence personnel who spend long hours on faithful watch. And we give thanks for the Americans in our Armed Forces who are serving around the world to secure our country and advance the cause of freedom. These brave men and women make our entire Nation proud, and we thank them and their families for their sacrifice.

On this Thanksgiving Day, we thank God for His blessings and ask Him to continue to guide and watch over our Nation.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, GEORGE W. BUSH, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim Thursday, November 25, 2004, as a National Day of Thanksgiving. I encourage all Americans to gather together in their homes and places of worship to reinforce the ties of family and community and to express gratitude for the many blessings we enjoy.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this twenty-third day of November, in the year of our Lord two thousand four, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and twenty-ninth.

GEORGE W. BUSH

Posted by Confederate Yankee at 01:57 PM | Comments (0)

November 24, 2004

The BBC Foulkes Up

In an article titled "Housing Report slams US and Sudan," Imogen Foulkes of the BBC reports on the Geneva-based Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions (COHRE) condemnation of the United States and several other nations because of high homelessness rates.

As an American citizen I was extremely surprised by the news story, as when I think of world homelessness, I tend to think first of developing nations with high birth rates, not the world's sole remaining superpower. Upon further reading, in the second paragraph of the story, I happen to notice an unfamiliar term-"forced evictions." What, exactly, does that mean?

You would be hard-pressed to find a direct answer from the BBC article, but it seems that the condition of "forced eviction homelessness" Foulkes highlighted is readily apparent on the COHRE site, and is defined as:

the removal of people from their homes or lands against their will, directly or indirectly attributable to the State. It is a widespread practice affecting persons in developed and developing countries.

Wow…where I live? I read more.

There is invariably an element of "force" or coercion involved and the use of physical and psychological violence is also common. To implement a forced eviction, it is now common practice for governments to employ armed police officers, SWAT teams, criminal gangs or hired thugs and bulldozers to ensure a complete and successful eviction. COHRE receives regular reports of the use of severe violence during forced eviction including killings, beatings, rape and torture.

Now, as a blogger, I just felt stupid. Completely incompotent.

I've spent countless hours breathlessly searching the web for news of relevance to write about, to the point that sweat is dripping from my pajamas and pooling around my fuzzy bunny slippers, and I miss a case of this magnitude, virtually in my own back yard?

I had yet to hear of cases where NYPD SWAT teams murdered and raped, or raped and then murdered, tenants that did not pony up their monthly rent.

I knew obtaining rent-controlled apartments in Manhattan was very competitive, but I didn't think it had gone so far as to necessitate torture. I thought that was a right reserved for housing co-op boards.

I fought down an urge to call Mayor Bloomberg's 311 line, and left the COHRE site to return to the BBC article, so that I could bring the full weight of evidence of this atrocity into the public eye.

As I rejoined her BBC article, Foulkes went on to say that the US was cited for not only high levels of homelessness, but for criminalizing acts such as sleeping on a park bench. Oh, the horrors! But before I could renounce my citizenship and run for the Canadian border, I caught the next paragraph, where it stated the US:

was also cited because of its activities outside US borders. The centre claims indiscriminate bombing in Iraq has destroyed thousands of homes.

Wait just a minute...

I put down my copy of The SAS Survival Handbook and sat staring at my computer monitor, stunned.

The article nearly took me in, and instead of a true human rights report, I find a blatantly anti-American screed.

Let me get this straight: this "journalist" and a bunch of Euro-dunces takes issue with the fact we are disenfranchising Islamofascists in Iraq from their rights to fortified positions?

Something stinks in London, and it isn't the Thames.

Not only does this "journalist" (and I use that term loosely) fault the United States for these so-called crimes, but she refuses to mention, in any way, that the terrorist forces in Iraq are commandeering these houses-often committing the very rapes, murders, and torture COHRE seems to want to credit to the U.S.-and thereby forcing coalition forces, in military terms, to "reduce" these structures to save the lives of peaceable Iraqis who are being terrorized, murdered and raped by terrorists who have taken over their own homes.

Apparently Imogen Foulkes and COHRE doesn't care if the house is being lived in by the rightful owners or being used as a weapons cache, rape room, or torture center, as long as it is still erect and even so much as a terrorist can call it "home."

No, Foulkes and the COHRE instead use this as an excuse to attack the United States on the most dubious of charges, while commending Sao Paulo, Brazil for their policies on treating the homeless. Unless Brazil has recently moved or there is another Sao Paulo, this is the same city where no less than another BBC article showed the police there have been accused of murdering the homeless in their sleep.

Nice.

Once upon a time I though that the BBC was a credible news organization. It is quite a shame to realize that they, too, are Rather biased.

Update: Upon further reading, COHRE takes issue with the United States for confiscating the homes of drug dealers, and those homes used as drug dens, or what we tend to call "crack houses." I guess in their eyes, violating the law is not a crime.

Posted by Confederate Yankee at 02:09 PM | Comments (0)

Washington's Thanksgiving Proclaimation

Thanks to PBS for their site Discovering George Washington for providing the text of this speech.

Proclaimation of National Thanksgiving

Whereas it is the duty of all Nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits, and humbly to implore his protection and favor, and whereas both Houses of Congress have by their joint Committee requested me "to recommend to the People of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many signal favors of Almighty God especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness."

Now therefore I do recommend and assign Thursday the 26th day of November next to be devoted by the People of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being, who is the beneficent Author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be. That we may then all unite in rendering unto him our sincere and humble thanks, for his kind care and protection of the People of this Country previous to their becoming a Nation, for the signal and manifold mercies, and the favorable interpositions of his providence, which we experienced in the course and conclusion of the late war, for the great degree of tranquility, union, and plenty, which we have since enjoyed, for the peaceable and rational manner, in which we have been enabled to establish constitutions of government for our safety and happiness, and particularly the national One now lately instituted, for the civil and religious liberty with which we are blessed; and the means we have of acquiring and diffusing useful knowledge; and in general for all the great and various favors which he hath been pleased to confer upon us.

And also that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations and beseech him to pardon our national and other transgressions, to enable us all, whether in public or private stations, to perform our several and relative duties properly and punctually, to render our national government a blessing to all the people, by constantly being a Government of wise, just, and constitutional laws, discreetly and faithfully executed and obeyed, to protect and guide all Sovereigns and Nations (especially such as have shown kindness unto us) and to bless them with good government, peace, and concord. To promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue, and the encrease of science among them and Us, and generally to grant unto all Mankind such a degree of temporal prosperity as he alone knows to be best.

Given under my hand at the City of New York the third day of October in the year of our Lord 1789.

Go: Washington

Let's hope the atheists and agnostics among us among us don't get too upset that this is indeed a religious holiday, a national day of thanks to a higher power.

From Confederate Yankee and Family: Y'all have a safe and happy Thanksgiving, and God Bless.

Posted by Confederate Yankee at 10:21 AM | Comments (0)

November 23, 2004

Rather Biased Reporting: 1962-2004


Dumfart tombstone

Bye, Dan.

Update: I think I may have been outdone. "Pajamahadeen" indeed.

Posted by Confederate Yankee at 01:59 PM | Comments (0)

Little Green Foul Balls -Redux

It seems that once again Charles and I are disagreeing about the issue of photojournalist Kevin Sites. For those of you who did not catch the last thread I wrote on the subject, I felt the crowd at Little Green Footballs was wrong to vilify Sites for shooting the video of a Marine killing a wounded terrorist inside a Fallujah mosque that had been used for days as a fortified bunker.

I had taken the time to read a few of the entries at Sites' blog, and thought that he wasn't the left-wing apologist bent on fabricating the news that many were accusing him of being. I said that I thought Sites showed himself to be another war correspondent trying to make sense of the insanity of a combat zone.

Over the weekend, Sites wrote Open Letter to Devil Dogs of the 3.1 in an attempt to explain the decision he made to release the video he shot in Fallujah.

I agree with LGF that the information about the incident itself has not changed from the original report. No, where I disagree with Charles is where he asserts that Sites is somehow of less importance as a human being for being a war correspondent and not a Marine rifleman.

He seems to imply that Sites is a traitor by saying Sites, "doesn't share the goals of the people operating the weapons."

I must ask: what kind of America does Charles Johnson want to live in?

The "goal" of America has always seemed to me to be promoting individual liberties and freedom for every human being. I firmly feel that the freedom of our press to operate freely, without censorship, is our single greatest long-term weapon ensuring that freedom, not the use bullets and bombs.

The free exchange of ideas may not ensure individual truths, but it does ensure the discussion of larger truths important to the essence of our democracy.

Journalists reporting stories as accurately as they can "straight down the middle" do not create dangerous long-term situations. Censoring our media and turning them into propaganda mills creates danger for the very foundation of our democracy.

If we are as strong and kind and noble as we would like to believe ourselves to be, then honest reporting of even the most difficult, complex stories is no threat to our society or way of life. Contrary to some popular wisdom, the airing of this video does not constitute a "defeat." This story, and others like it, are bound to emerge In Iraq as they do in every war.

The measure of our society and its values emerges in how we respond to these events.

In my opinion, Sites himself said it quite well in his Open Letter:

The Marines have built their proud reputation on fighting for freedoms like the one that allows me to do my job, a job that in some cases may appear to discredit them. But both the leaders and the grunts in the field like you understand that if you lower your standards, if you accept less, than less is what you'll become.

There are people in our own country that would weaken your institution and our nation -by telling you it's okay to betray our guiding principles by not making the tough decisions, by letting difficult circumstances turns us into victims or worse…villains.

I interviewed your Commanding Officer, Lieutenant Colonel Willy Buhl, before the battle for Fallujah began. He said something very powerful at the time-something that now seems prophetic. It was this:

"We're the good guys. We are Americans. We are fighting a gentleman's war here -- because we don't behead people, we don't come down to the same level of the people we're combating. That's a very difficult thing for a young 18-year-old Marine who's been trained to locate, close with and destroy the enemy with fire and close combat. That's a very difficult thing for a 42-year-old lieutenant colonel with 23 years experience in the service who was trained to do the same thing once upon a time, and who now has a thousand-plus men to lead, guide, coach, mentor -- and ensure we remain the good guys and keep the moral high ground."

We are the good guys.

And as long as we have the courage of our convictions and the faith to never compromise our liberties for what may be politically expedient, we will remain strong, we will remain just, and we will remain an example for those in the Middle East and around the world that aspire to freedom.

I believe Ben Franklin is credited with once saying:

They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.
I would think Mr. Franklin would be very disappointed to know that so many seem to be willing to stifle the essential freedoms of the First Amendment in the childish hopes that by suppressing a few seconds of video, our mortal enemies would somehow be less bent on our ultimate and total destruction.

Those that feel this way have neither an understanding of our enemy, nor of the essential nature of this country that makes it worth fighting for.

Posted by Confederate Yankee at 01:04 AM | Comments (0)

November 22, 2004

Where is Michael Moore's intellectual honesty?

Michael Moore, the activist filmmaker that excoriated George Bush in Fahrenheit 9/11 for alleged ties to Saudi Arabia, is strangely silent on the news that these same Saudi interests, including the Saudi royal family and three Saudi businessmen, funneled millions of dollars into the Presidential library of one William Jefferson Clinton.

The governments of Dubai, Kuwait, and Qatar (state-owned apparatus of Arab news outlet Al Jazeera ) also each donated a million or more.

Somehow, I don't see the hypocritical Moore making a video condemning Clinton, either Bill or Hillary. Moore is great at slickly-edited partisanship, but lousy at seeking or presenting any sort of true intellectual honesty.

Posted by Confederate Yankee at 01:51 PM | Comments (0)

November 20, 2004

The Arrogance of Amphibians

In a visit to Britain Friday to try to improve relations between crumpet-eating mammals and spine-deprived amphibians, Jacques Chirac huffed:

"It's not for any given country to consider that a situation is open to stepping in and interfering," he told a question-and-answer session with students at Oxford University, according to the UK's Press Association in a sentence that either Chirac or the British has trouble translating into coherent English.

"It's up to the international community to do so and particularly the U.N., which alone has the authority to interfere," he said in remarks apparently aimed at the United States and its involvement in Iraq.

He went on to hold forth about the importance of dialogue between Europe and "the world's major poles" -- China, India, Brazil, Russia and various trading blocs according to CNN.

"For although our memory is sometimes short, the peoples submitted to the West's domination in the past have not forgotten and are quick to see a resurgence of imperialism and colonialism in our actions."

This would be presumably the same world whose United Nation's had Security Council members Russia, China, and France accepting lucrative bribes in the ongoing Oil-For-Food scandal with Saddam Hussein's Baathist Iraq. These five same Security Council members were understandably against any action against their revenue stream Iraq, and would have vetoed any military action by the United States against Saddam's regime.

So, Jacques Chirac, the President of France, is against the use of unilateral military force by Western powers, and thinks we should guard against actions that might be taken as resurgent colonialism?

I'm sure Ivory Coast appreciates that sentiment.

For those of you who can't keep up with African maps that change with more frequency than the bug splatter patterns on a NASCAR windscreen, Ivory Coast is a former French colony in the middle of a civil war that pits the dictatorial Laurent Gbagbo government against northern rebel forces.

On November 6 Gbagbo's forces launched an air strike against rebel positions, and nine French soldiers were killed in the attack, presumably while trying to surrender.

So France of course followed their own recommendations to the Americans, right?

They of course called an emergency session of the United Nations, where a timetable was arranged to start strategically applying increasingly stronger-worded resolutions over a multi-decade time period until Gbagbo died of boredom, or old age. That is what they have been telling us to do with Iraq for several years, so obviously that would the correct course of action in these kinds of circumstances, oui?

Well, someone apparently forgot to pass along the "timetable for peace" to the French military, as their response to the killing of their handful of peacekeepers was to wipe out the Ivory Coast Air Force.

This overkill response led to outrage among Gbagbo's government loyalists, and the French have now found themselves in a situation where they are being blamed for shooting into a crowd of anti-French demonstrators, killing over 60. As tensions escalate in an impending showdown in Africa, one can only assume that Jacques Chirac was either a complete fraud in his call for sanctions in Iraq, or he was simply too arrogant to think that his advocacy of a world authority would actually apply to him.

Update: According to feeds compiled by Instapundit, French soldiers were caught on video indiscriminately firing up African civilians (additional updates available here), though exact details and context seem to be lacking.

Unlike the video of the American Marine shooting a terrorist in Fallujah, this story is getting swept under the rug by the international media. The AP, Reuters, and other news agencies seem to be ignoring the story entirely, and the BBC makes no mention of the video and focuses more on the French denial of beheading victims.

The international apathy to French attrocities is appalling. Of course, we've seen French "diplomacy" in action before.

Posted by Confederate Yankee at 02:37 AM | Comments (0)

November 19, 2004

The campaign button probably didn't help

According to the fair and balanced media, John Kerry believes he lost to George Bush because of the release of a video from Osama bin Laden right before the election.

Though mentioned before, I can only wonder why he feels that might be the case.

Update: Sometimes great minds think alike. Steve H. posted an almost identical picture back on November 1 on Hog On Ice, about 24 hours before I posted my version of the same idea on another message board.


I suspect he has a time machine beside his brewing equipment, but I could be wrong...

Posted by Confederate Yankee at 03:32 PM | Comments (0)

Madison, put down those matches

Not content to make assinine comments in this moron-a-thon that were largely (and perhaps overzealously) debunked here, another Cheese-stater has shown his bigoted hatred by calling Dr. Condoleezza Rice an "Aunt Jemima" and Colin Powell an "Uncle Tom" who wasn't a competent Secretary of State.

How "white" of him.

For some reason, parts of the country want to believe that the bigot is alive and well and isolated to those more temperate regions of the country. They think of Sins of the Father and Mississippi Burning when they think of those "backward" red staters, and tend to think that where they live is right as rain.

Well, I have news for you, folks. It isn't like that.

Southerners are burying our past and moving on. It's time the rest of you, from the idiots above to this guy, try to do the same.

Posted by Confederate Yankee at 11:02 AM | Comments (0)

Calling Kerry's Libel Bluff

According to the gossip-laden Page Six of the New York Post, Senator and former presidential candidate John Kerry is considering filing a libel lawsuit against the leader of the Swift Boat Veteran's for Truth, John O'Neill. 800,00 copies of O'Neill's book Unfit For Command and a series of television commercials produced by the Swift Boat Veterans and POWs for Truth attacked Kerry's war record and branded him a traitor.

The Post added:

Now, "the Kerry camp is thinking about filing a libel lawsuit against Regnery and O'Neill," a source close to the candidate's inner circle tells PAGE SIX. "I don't know if they will actually go forward, but consideration is serious. If Kerry plans on running again in 2008 - and I'm hearing he will - it would make sense that he'd file the suit."

I'll go ahead and promise Mr. O'Neill he won't have to loose one night's sleep over this empty threat for a very simple reason: Kerry's bluffing, and not bluffing very well at that.

If Kerry files suit against O'Neill, Regnery Publishing or Unfit's co-author Jerome Corsi, John Kerry's service records, so long and successfully hidden from public view, will become key pieces of evidence for the defense, and therefore, public knowledge.

While the liberal mainstream media has been almost as careful about avoiding Kerry's record as it has recklessly and occasionally fraudulently challenged Bush's, they know that Kerry has failed to file a release of his service record, and that as many as 94 pages are hidden. Why?

Good question.

We do know that any libel lawsuit by the Kerry campaign against Mr. O'Neill will bring the uncomfortable glare of the media spotlight on a man who has so far managed to avoid answering questions about his unusual discharge circumstances, his own repeated lies about the "Christmas in Cambodia" myth he created, his fraternization with an enemy he himself categorized as "terrorists" in Paris, and other mysteries that happened between his enlistment and eventual discharge.

In poker terms, John Kerry is "drawing dead."

It's time we called his bluff.

Posted by Confederate Yankee at 01:07 AM | Comments (0)

November 18, 2004

I can't wait for that free national heathcare...

I wonder if this is what Hillary had in mind.

Link "borrowed" from one of those nice red-state dog lovers.

Posted by Confederate Yankee at 01:48 PM | Comments (0)

Ronstadt speaks out

According to WorldNetDaily, has-been singer Linda Ronstadt has gone on the rant against those of us from the more enlightened regions of the country, declaring that "People don't realize that by voting Republican, they voted against themselves," and that we're dealing with a "a new bunch of Hitlers."

Don't beat her up too bad, though.


She seems to be gravely ill.

Posted by Confederate Yankee at 01:06 PM | Comments (0)

Tolerable versus terrible journalism

I've gotten some attention based upon my support of a certain liberal photojournalist's attempt to break what he felt was an important story in Fallujah. Interestingly enough, some think becuase I support a journalist who happens to be liberal in this instance, they jump to the conclusion that I support all liberal journalism. They should probably read my blog more (bookmarking it is optional).


No, there is a world of difference between reporting a valid if controversial story with a moderate degree of bias, and completely making stuff up, a la Robert Fisk.

Fisk has long had a reputation as a hardcore liberal apologist. His coverage of the Margaret Hassan murder and mutilation by terrorists is a perfect example of crossing the line from liberal media bias to blatant propoganda.

Fisk opines:

So if anyone doubted the murderous nature of the insurgents, what better way to prove their viciousness than to produce evidence of Margaret Hassan's murder?

What more ruthless way could there be of demonstrating to the world that America and Alawi's tinpot army was fighting "evil" in Fallujah and the other Iraqi cities that are now controlled by Washington's enemies.

No, of course we cannot say that Alawi was involved in Margaret Hassan's death, even though he would have hated her political views.

Just because the "Interim Prime Minister" is widely believed in Baghdad to have executed seven prisoners in the Amariya Police Station just before taking office - he denies this - should not suggest he would ever have a hand in so terrible a deed.

But the question remains: Who killed Margaret Hassan?


This revolting bile spewed forth by Fisk absolves the terrorists who abducted and murdered Hassan of all guilt, and not only that, it implys that the leader of a fledgling democracy is responsible for not only her death, but the murder of seven others.

Kevein Sites provided video and commentary from his perspective of an event he witnessed firsthand. Robert Fisk excretes his own twisted apologist views and sourceless street rumors into an editorial and tries to pass it off as a news article. There is a huge gulf of distance betwee these two viewpoints, and it would be worthwhile for all of us to remember that.

Posted by Confederate Yankee at 10:58 AM | Comments (0)

November 17, 2004

Little Green Foul Balls

Charles Johnson has an awesome blog at Little Green Footballs (one of my daily reads), but I think he's making a bad call by villifying Kevin Sites. Sites is the NBC reporter that shot the infamous video several days ago of a Marine killing a wounded terrorist inside a Fallujah mosque that had been used for days as a fortified bunker.

I wrote in a previous thread that I'd reviewed Sites' own photoblog, and he seems much more like a later day Ernie Pyle trying to accurately explain life in a combat zone to his readers than a left-wing apologist bent on fabricating the news.

But don't take my word for it.


Read some of Ernie Pyle's columns from World War II and then the latest available entry from Sites in Fallujah. They are far more alike than different.

Kevin Sites seems to be one journalist who tries to be objective, and to attack him personally for objectively reporting a tough story does not serve our democracy well.

Note: This thread has been picked up by Instapundit.com. Thanks, Glen.

Posted by Confederate Yankee at 01:20 PM | Comments (0)

Mr. Consistency...

In his first interview since his November 2 loss, Kerry was asked by the Fox News in Boston about running again in 2008.

He replied, "It is so premature to be thinking about something that far down the road. What I've said is I'm not opening any doors, I'm not shutting any doors."

Those flip-flops must be really comfortable.

Posted by Confederate Yankee at 01:09 PM | Comments (0)

K'Mears Stores

As reported by a reputable news outlet, Sears and K-Mart, two retail giants, are set to merge.

Since both chains have such a strong base in the South, they are considering a new marketing strategy where stores below the Manson-Nixon line will be called "K'Mears" with the slogan:

"Y'all wanna buy stuff? K'Mears!"

Mama will be soooo happy. Now she can get all her Bob Stewart and Martha Villa stuff all in one place...

Posted by Confederate Yankee at 10:34 AM | Comments (0)

A touch of Grey in Fallujah

Remember a movie called Red Dawn?

In that movie, a wounded insurgent, played by a young Jennifer Grey, hides a grenade under her bullet-ridden body as she lay dying, so that when the enemy soldier comes to check on her, he gets blown up.

This seems eerily similar to the situation the young Marine faced in that Fallujah mosque, and from the perspective of the movie, I can't disagree with his decision.

Posted by Confederate Yankee at 01:16 AM | Comments (0)

November 16, 2004

"It's all political"

I said earlier that I don't know enough to judge the situation regarding the Marine that killed a wounded terrorist in Fallujah, but according to an al Rueters story, his fellow Marines are rallying around him, even as they support an investigation of the incident. To me, that means they feel that there is nothing to hide.

Charles wonders about the motivations of the NBC reporter who broke the story. I'm not so sure.

Kevin Sites doesn't seem like someone with an anti-military grudge, at least not by what I've see on his web site. While I've never been in combat, I think it would be mighty difficult to be prejudiced against the men you're embedded with, and I can't find any overt anti-Marine bias in what I've seen of his reporting.

Time will tell.

Interestingly enough, some of the MSM seem to be playing this one close to the vest. Maybe the incident will be treated in context after all.

Update: Maybe the Marine shooter should get a Silver Star?

Posted by Confederate Yankee at 10:04 AM | Comments (0)

The Pornography of War


As I write this, the Dowd's and Krugman's of the left are doubtlessly wringing their hands with macabre delight. A videotape has surfaced apparently showing a Marine in Fallujah firing a shot into the head of a wounded terrorist lying on the floor of the mosque he'd used as a bunker.

The New York Times will run this on the front page for several weeks if they can find a way to justify it, and Dan Rather will make sure it leads every broadcast as long as he thinks it can be used against the administration. The shrieking classes are almost sexually titillated as they ache for another Abu Graib as an excuse to attack a U.S. military they have always loathed.

We will see the still photos and the few brief seconds of video hundreds, if not thousands of times in the days and weeks ahead. What we will not see is the true story, and the media, which is not equipped to handle the truth, will most likely not even try to provide it in their rush to an accusatory climax.

This is what we know.

Marines from the 3rd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment, came under fire from terrorists hiding in a mosque on Friday. 10 terrorists were killed and five more were wounded. The following day, another group of Marines from the same unit engaged in battle, and an embedded correspondent reported seeing fresh gunshot wounds on terrorists that had been injured the previous day.

It was during this second day operation that a group of Marines is seen coming up upon this group of terrorists, and a Marine is heard to yell several times, "He's faking he's dead!" The Marine then fired a single shot, killing the terrorist.

You will probably here most of this part of the story from the mainstream media, right before they try to crucify our soldiers in an almost orgasmic lust.

Here is what they won't tell you.

They won't tell you that shortly before this incident, one Marine was killed and five were injured when a booby-trapped body went off just a block away.

They won't tell you that insurgents that have faked being dead or wounded have risen up to shoot at our troops from behind in this battle. The will probably "forget" to mention that four of the five terrorists in the video had fresh wounds, meaning that after being wounded the first day and left to be taken prisoner, then once again raised arms and tried to kill American soldiers after having once been spared.

I don't know if what this young Marine did was right. I wasn't there. I can't imagine the pressure of days of close quarters battle. I simply don't now enough to form a judgment at this time. I will withhold judgment and let the Uniform Code of Military Justice runs its course.

War is jarringly violent and chaotic. I hope the media can try to understand this as they rush to pass judgment on this Marine, in what is almost sure to be a pornographic display of media hatred for this administration and our soldiers in the field.

Posted by Confederate Yankee at 01:01 AM | Comments (0)

November 15, 2004

Speechless

I see the next crop is coming along nicely.

Posted by Confederate Yankee at 03:59 PM | Comments (0)

An Avenging Angel at the CIA

While it is far too early to intelligently speculate about the new team Bush will try to assemble for his second term as President, indications from a recent appointee seem to indicate Bush's version of Team America will not accept dissention within the ranks.

Porter Goss, the former spymaster now heading the CIA, is clearing out the deadwood in management. Two more officials "resigned" today from the CIA, and according to a Washington Post article:

Both men are highly regarded by their clandestine service colleagues, said 10 former CIA officials who have worked with them.

Of course, commentary from the CIA to the news just like this is exactly why these men needed to be "resigned."


The CIA is supposed to be a spy agency, which it clearly has not been for the last decade in any effective way. With John McCain calling the CIA a "rouge" agency with a political agenda instead of an intelligence service, Goss is right in telling these paper-pushers to ship out.

The job of the CIA is to provide intelligence, not attempt to sway public opinion.

I'm glad that someone in Washington finally realized that. It's amazing that this was even an issue after the multiple and broad CIA failures noted in the 9/11 Commission Report and other critical reports and books.

Goss, thankfully, understood the importance of having an intelligence service that works for the administration and the country instead of against it. His "can do" attitude is certain to strike fear into career CIA bureaucrats the way another famous Porter did when he took care of business in his own environment 150 years ago. If Goss is any indication of the character of men and women Bush will appoint, Bush's second term is going to be fun to watch and blog.

Update: wretchard of Belmont Club provides an excellent analysis of the CIA culture Goss is trying to reform.

Posted by Confederate Yankee at 01:58 PM | Comments (0)

Watch where you spend it, Mr. President

It has been almost two weeks since 51% of American voters decided to give George Bush a second term as President of the United States. Bush not only won the election with a majority; he picked up support across a wide range of demographics when compared against the 2000 election. In addition, the Republicans not only won the White House, they picked up four seats each in the House and Senate, while deposing Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle. Liberalism may not be dead, but the public issued a strong admonition against it.

In this charged political atmosphere President Bush and the Republicans feel they have earned some political capital, and they say that they intend to spend it. Let's just hope they decide to spend it on the right things. From what I've seen so far, President Bush has good ideas that his capital is worth investing in, if it doesn't get wasted upon issues with the potential to be costly mistakes.

Gay Marriage Amendment
Quite frankly, this stands to be a Pyrrhic victory, at the very best, and could cost President Bush dearly while stoking the fires of his liberal obstructionist opponents. Most Americans don't feel comfortable with the proposition of a Constitutional amendment that seems to have the sole purpose of limiting the rights of a group of American citizens.

The Republicans need to remember that they did not win the election because of the Religious Right. No, the Republicans won because of moderate voters, Democrat, Republican and Independent, that thought the more conservative values of the traditional Republican party trumped the liberal extremism being displayed by Democrats. If the GOP lets the extremists of the far right drive this amendment, they can expect to lose the popular support that have steadily been gaining over the past few elections. This should be a state's rights issue, and the GOP would be wise to step away from this on the federal level if they hope to pick up more seats in the 2006 elections.

Border Security/Illegal Immigration
The elephant in the room that neither side wanted to discuss during the campaign. The popular excuse has always been that the Republicans don't want to take away cheap labor from Big Business, and Democrats were silent because they tend to consider new immigrants (legal or otherwise) "money in the bank" for a variety of reasons on Election Day. That mindset should have changed in the wake of September 11, 2001.

The 9/11 Commission Report and ongoing intelligence operations show that our borders are exceedingly porous, an unforgivable sin considering what we know and what we suspect may be coming into the country. Bush's response so far has been anemic at best, and embarrassing at worst. We need stronger border security, not amnesty for lawbreakers. Bush's current lackadaisical attitude on the subject may have fatal consequences that could not only cripple his second term, but replicate or exceed the human tragedy of that day in September three years ago.

These are two issues where many of us voted for you despite your position, Mr. President. Don't make us wonder if we wasted our capital on November 2.

Posted by Confederate Yankee at 04:04 AM | Comments (0)

November 12, 2004

Dear Mr. "Swift"

I read with some amusement the almost coherent babble on your new web site. I find it quite interesting that you blame "the South" for a Bush re-election, when in fact, the "reddest" counties were in the Midwest and West, including every county bordering your home base of Madison, WI as well. I'm sorry that we can't all be as urbane and enlightened and indeed, mature as you are, but let's try to face some factual problems with your little hatefest, shall we?

The Second Amendment, sir, is about making sure Americans have sufficient arms to prevent tyranny, sir, which would by definition included military-capable arms of the day, including what you erroneously call "assault weapons" in your ignorance of the mechanics of the law and of firearms design.

In addition, you didn't kill half a million people in the Civil War. Of the 618,222 men who died in the Civil War, 414,152 died from disease, not combat. When it comes to combat losses, the South lost 94,000 and the Union lost 110,070. Also, the war was fought primarily about states rights, not slavery. Do get you facts, correct, sir. They seem to be in short supply in your region, or at least, in your house.

"We" founded this country? "We" did not include Wisconsin, sir, as one of the 13 colonies. You may also want to reconsider you conscending, arrogant "we started this country" diatribe, as you, in fact, did not.

Both the Mecklenburg Resolves (May 31, 1775) and the Halifax Resolves (April 12, 1776) preceeded the Declaration of Independence, and The Halifax Resolves were the first formal call for American sovereignty. The first American military victory was also in North Carolina, at a place called Moore's Creek where on February 27, 1776 a thousand North Carolina patriots routed Scottish Highlanders for the first patriot victory of the Revolutionary War, months before the official Declaration of Independence was was signed on July 4th. Southerners also fought and won the turning point battle of the Revolutionary War at Kings Mountain, wiping out Ferguson's forces, killing or capturing every man. The Battle of Cowpens, made famous by Mel Gibson in The Patriot was also a major victory in the Carolinas in 1781, which led to the eventual defeat of British Forces in Yorktown, Virginia, which the last I checked, was part of the South, under the command of General George Washington, who was also a Southerner from Virginia. The Revolutionary War was decided in the South,sir, by the South, sir. Perhaps you should review your history.

You would like to whine about taxes and self-sufficiency, sir? We can play that game as well. It is hearby decreed that every county in the U.S. that voted "Blue" should be entitled to keep every single dime it produces in tax revenue. Will that make you happy, sir?

In exchange, the "Red" counties will not longer be required to provide these predominantly urban "Blue" areas with "Red" food and water. You'll have your tax money, but you'll be dead in a month from starvation and disease, sir. I guess we simple Southerners will share that orange juice amongst ourselves, won't we?


One last comment: regardless of party, a Southerner has been in the White House for five of the last six Presidencies, and that trend shows no signs of stopping, sir.

So enjoy your cheese, sir, and feel free to enjoy your whine as well, while we Southerners run the country for another four years.

Good Day, sir.

Posted by Confederate Yankee at 01:45 PM | Comments (1)

November 11, 2004

Remembering

Today is Veteran's Day, the day we remember those who have fought and those who have fallen for our freedom, and the freedom of others. I thought I would share an appropriate passage from a story I wrote many, many years ago.

The monuments in Washington all seemed false in the cool morning mist. They were big and white and extravagant, yet the tourists cheapened them somehow as they gawked, took photos, and scurried to the next place on their list of things to see. Their attention seemed to fous on what things were rather than why they were. The scene was a poor example of Americana. Even Honest Abe seemed to frown from his throne. Of all the walls of stone only one seemed real.

This wall's long black marble slices into the ground. On it are engraved fifty-eight thousand American names from an undeclared war that no one wants to remember in the jungles of a country half a globe away. There are no ornate scrolls or stenciled directions, no fancy faded pieces of parchment, no self-serving sentiments, just names.

There's also a statue some distance away. Three bronze soldiers stare into the wall, waiting for word of their fellow soldiers, or perhaps morning their loss. The soldiers don't talk; they simply stare. They are all just boys, most of them only six years older than I was then: nineteen.

Under the statue-soldier's gaze, an elderly man lagged behind a tour at the wall. He caressed it and knelt to leave a single rose at its based. He sobbed. He had difficulty standing up. A nearby park attendant helped him and asked, "One of your sir?" The old man shook his head and replied, "Not just one of them. All of them."

God bless those who serve.

Posted by Confederate Yankee at 08:07 AM | Comments (0)

November 10, 2004

Sick blogging/Thoughts on liberal succession

Sickness sucks
Bloggins is late and light today. Yesterday's sore throat evolved into today's bronchitis, so off to the physician I went. My doctor always creeps me out a little. He looks too much like Skinner from the X-Files, and every time he puts the flashlight thing in my mouth and makes me say "ah," I half expect an alien probe to Cartman out the other end.

But I have drugs now, so tomorrow I should be better.

Thoughts on liberal succession
This has been handled quite well on various blogs across the 'net, but when you're titled Confederate Yankee you feel obligated to make at least some comment on the subject.

My comment? I advise my liberal friends who want to go this route to stock up on canned goods, bottled water, and Glade plug-ins. Why?

As a reader noted on Powerline, a truly fair and equal succession would occur on a county-by-county basis, turning many metropolitan areas into liberal "reservations."

As these predominantly urban areas are incapable of supporting enough farming and ranching to feed their own populations, starvation is a short-term possibility and a long-term certainty. Granted, the animals in the Bronx and Central Park zoos might provide enough meat for a fraction of the population for a week or two, but I don't think there are any good recipies for red panda anyway.

These same urban areas also rely on watersheds from far away "red" areas for their drinking and flushing needs, making drought, famine and disease probable. 72 hours without water from "red" upstate counties and the Big Apple will start smelling like the Big Diaper.

So think carefully before you make a decision, my liberal friends. We can possibly live without you, but you most assuredly cannot live without us.

Posted by Confederate Yankee at 08:43 PM | Comments (0)

November 09, 2004

Bab-ble

Babs is on the rant again. In her post-election missive, she tries to offer hope for the 48% of the country that backed a losing Kerry Edwards ticket by quoting from Thomas Jefferson:

"A little patience, and we shall see the reign of witches pass over, their spells dissolve, and the people, recovering their true sight, restore their government to its true principles. It is true that in the meantime we are suffering deeply in spirit, and incurring the horrors of a war and long oppressions of enormous public debt......If the game runs sometimes against us at home we must have patience till luck turns, and then we shall have an opportunity of winning back the principles we have lost, for this is a game where principles are at stake."
Perhaps Mrs. Streisand should read the entire document. For if she had read the entire letter to John Taylor from Jefferson in 1798, she might have realized that he was in fact referring to a time in our history where Jefferson's Virginia and my own native North Carolina were:


"...compleatly under the saddle of Massachusets & Connecticut, and that they ride us very hard, cruelly insulting our feelings as well as exhausting our strength and substance."
Jefferson was lamenting the undue influence of the anti-Republican northern states of his day that used the economic forces of the Northeast to tried to run roughshod over southern states of the Republic, states that today would be recognized as the rural "Red States" that coastal liberals are reacting against with such venom today.

Babs, do you get your information from Jane Smiley by any chance?

Note: This thread was picked up by The New Editor. Thanks, Tom.

Posted by Confederate Yankee at 11:41 AM | Comments (0)

November 08, 2004

As we suspected...

According to NewsMax (which is about as balanced towards Kerry as the New York Times is towards Bush) Kerry describes in his diary his "meeting with some North Vietnamese terrorists in Paris" in 1970. Of course, I always take anything Newsmax says with a grain of salt.

However, when the article cited by NewsMax in Newsweek supports the exact same story, I start to think that there might be something to this. The last paragraph on the first page of the Newsweek article reads:

[Senator] Edwards played along, but his aides were indignant.
They warned the veep candidate that the story was already out of control and about to get worse. Historian Douglas Brinkley, author of a wartime biography of Kerry, cautioned that Kerry's diary included mention of a meeting with some North Vietnamese terrorists in Paris. Edwards was flabbergasted. "Let me get this straight," the senator said. "He met with terrorists? Oh, that's good."
No wonder Osama wanted Bush out of the White House. In Kerry, he might have found exactly what he was looking for in a presidential candidate.

Posted by Confederate Yankee at 02:37 PM | Comments (0)

More from SeeBS

It looks like another retiree from the Tiffany Network is soiling his Depends over how some blogs were leaking exit poll data from last Tuesday's election.

Maybe he should try to remember which network tried to determine the course of an election with fake documents and biased bomb stories before he starting preaching in front of his glass house, eh?

Posted by Confederate Yankee at 02:20 PM | Comments (0)

What is a Confederate Yankee?

Confederate Yankee. noun. A Southern-born inhabitant of a northern U.S. State.

I infiltrated north of the Manson-Nixon line in 2000 to bring intelligence and perspective to a part of the country steeped in leftist propoganda and outright dowdification. While I have been here, I have noticed that there are differences between Northern and Southern cultures.

Southern rednecks have gun racks.

Northern Rednecks have snowplows.

Southern states have economic growth.

Northern States have unions.

Still, we are more alike than different.

I am here to try to help translate, and provide some down-home wisdom to those who have been deprived of the experience of growing up in the more enlightened, more intellectually stimulating southern region of the country.


Enjoy.

Posted by Confederate Yankee at 01:43 PM | Comments (0)

November 07, 2004

Don't blame Gavin

It seems that San Francisco mayor Gavin Newsome is being offered as the sacrificial offering to the Democrat masses for the failure of the Kerry/Edwards ticket to capture the White House. According to the points-of-view I've seen offered up for the past few days, the near mythic power of the Evangelical was a dormant beast until Newsome decided to allow a few gay marriages.

As this theory apparently runs, the Evangelicals (which makes up about 59 million American voters if you listen to the way the mainstream media spin) felt that the Decline And Fall Of Civilization As We Know It would occur if Bruce and Steve were allowed to place rings on each other's fingers and say "I do."

To hear the media spin it, this barbaric act of exchanging rings was so outrageous that the so-called "morals voters" turned out in droves to reject this travesty of God's Law, and thus projected George W.Bush to the White House based upon their own bigotry and hatred of gays.

Maybe I'm not the typicalBushvoter, but that isn't what I was feeling on the way to the polls Tuesday morning.

Along with about 60% of America, I'm fine with Bruce and Steve having some form of legal and moral contract dedicating their lives to each other. My moral issues went a bit deeper than whether or not each household was composed of an equal number of adults preferring the toilet seat up or down.

My moral issues began with courage, conviction, integrity, and resolve, not gay marriage, or whether or not you beleive in God the same way that I do, or even if you believe in God at all. I found that for me, George W. Bush better exhibited these qualities of leadership better than John Kerry did, almost across the board.

Why?

We've had almost four years to judge George W. Bush in what fate shaped into a remarkable presidential term. To find a true position of leadership in John Kerry's life we have to go back over 30 years to four months in Vietnam, where his superiors and peers gave him less than stellar marks for his performance. These were the moral issues that troubled me, and the majority of American voters.

You see, we aren't just a bunch of bible-thumping rednecks. We have much more depth than the ineffectual intellectuals in the media would like you to believe. Gavin Newsome is just a whipping boy, an excuse. His opinion didn't affect the election in any appreciable way, despite what the media would have you beleive.

Call me crazy, but if you really want to find someone to blame for John Kerry's defeat, I think you might want to start with John Kerry.

Posted by Confederate Yankee at 08:37 PM | Comments (0)

November 06, 2004

Razing Arizona

On my drive to work Friday morning I listened to Paul Harvey, who mentioned that according to the 9/11 Commission Report, there were 59 references to al Qaeda activity in this border state. According to Arizona Monthly's feature article this month Al Qaeda Among Us (free registration required),

"...the most important nexus for international jihad outside of Pakistan and the Middle East has been Arizona."
Isn't that just peachy?

Specific attention is focused on the Islamic Center of Tucson (ITC) which according to the article, seems to little more than an al Qaeda base operating in the continental United States.

When you combine the Arizona Monthly article, to the chilling news that this past July, 25 Chechen terrorists slipped across the border from Mexico into the mountainous regions of Arizona before disappearing, then you have to wonder just how good our security is along our southern borders.

I think the goverment is correct in taking the fight to terrorists where they live and breed overseas, but when you let them in though the back door you open yourself up to dangerous and possibly catastrophic possibilities.

Let's get with the program, Washington.

3/2 Update: Welcome, Instapundit readers! Please make sure to check out the view from the front page. I am one of those bloggers that tends to update content daily or even several time a day, so please consider bookmarking the site. Fellow bloggers, feel free to grab a bit of this Instalanche by posting intelligent comments, and if you blogroll me, I'll remember you when I'm rich and famous. I promise. Also, following a few links to my advertisers would be nice, too.

Posted by Confederate Yankee at 12:13 PM | Comments (0)

November 05, 2004

Anatomy of an Idiot

I noticed with considerable amusement yesterday that according to Jane Smiley, 58 million American voters are complete idiots. Though apparently the victim of social promotion's influence on math skills, she is, of course, referring to the 59,459,765 Americans who chose to re-elect George W. Bush by a comfortable margin and a statistical majority over John Kerry.

In her vile, headlong rush to condemn the majority of American voters who voted red instead of blue, she seems to get her facts just a bit backward.

According to Smiley:

The worst civilian massacre in American history took place in Lawrence, Kan., in 1862-Quantrill's raid. The red forces, known then as the slave-power, pulled 265 unarmed men from their beds on a Sunday morning and slaughtered them in front of their wives and children.

Now, if history hasn't completely reversed itself recently, wasn't William Clarke Quantrill a Confederate raider?

According to PBS, the strongly pro-Union stronghold of Lawrence, Kansas, had 183 (again, social promotion does not help math skills) of their predominately Republican citizenry slaughtered by pro-slavery Democrats. These same Democrats, of course, went on to found the original Ku Klux Klan.

Of course, we are the party revelling in the "ignorance in America" so I guess she didn't think we'd notice her attempts to play fast and loose with the facts...

Us being idiots and all.


Note: This post got a mention by Glen Reynolds in an update of the Jane Smiley backlash over at Instapundit.com. Thanks Glen! Frank J. at IMAO picked it up as well. Thanks, guys.

Posted by Confederate Yankee at 02:29 PM | Comments (0)