Kitty Litter

 
WHY DON’T YOU COME UP AND SEE ME SOMETIME :)


The 75th Rangers!
I like to think that Pat Tillman helped to arrange a few dates :)

I’m not the only one who has been saturated with depressing media coverage. Roger Simon (listed on Lucianne’s “Blog Truth of the Day”) writes about this very subject.

The New Reactionaries
I didn't think I could get any more depressed about American life than I am now -- only I just did when I read (via Instapundit) Mort Kondracke's new essay "Congress, Media Could Talk U. S. Into Iraq Defeat"

People called Rush yesterday expressing the same view. It’s not that any of us will cave come November and vote for L’Fraude. I keep reminding myself that this is media generated.

Then yesterday, as I was Googling for something else, I stumbled upon this heart-be-still scenario:

ULTIMATE REVENGE: Sealing The Gates To Islam's Heaven
Behind The Lines - Dr. Jack Wheeler
Thursday, May 20, 2004

Sit down and sit tight, folks, or else this is going to totally blow you away.

Over a drink at The Cosmos Club in downtown Washington the other day, one of the Pentagon’s key intel guys – let’s call him Larry Johansen – ran something by me.

“Suppose – purely hypothetically, you understand,” said Larry, “that there was a number of people where I work who became determined to exact an ultimate revenge for Islam perpetrating September 11 upon America, for dancing on the streets from Cairo to Damascus to Ramallah in celebration of the slaughter of 3,000 Americans and the destruction of the Twin Towers, for creating and tolerating Al Qaeda, for waging war on Western Civilization?”

“Ultimate revenge? Sounds intriguing,” I responded. “What might that be?”

“Well, this is just supposition, right?” Larry responded. “But if there were this group where I work, they would call it Project Jahannam.”

My eyebrows shot up. “Project Jahannam?”

“Yes – Jahannam, as you know, is the Arabic word for Islam’s Hell. If a Moslem doesn’t go to Jannah – Heaven, the Paradise with the virgins and all – when he dies, he burns in Jahannam. The goal of Project Jahannam would be to seal off the Gates of Paradise to every single Moslem in the entire Middle East – or even the entire world. Although – since we’re only speaking hypothetically here – I might have used the wrong tense. It might be that Project Jahannam has already been completed. It might be that no Moslem alive today has a chance to live in the Paradise of Jannah when they die. They all, just like every Moslem who has died of whatever cause for the past year or so, are doomed to spend eternity in Jahannam – the fires of Hell.”

There was the look of deepest satisfaction in Larry’s eyes.

I stared at the ice cubes in my glass of Glen Morangie for a moment to let this all sink in. “So,” I asked, “just how might one go about consigning all Moslems to Hell?”

The only problem is, I’m not a subscriber ($8.95/mo) so I can’t read the rest. This is a good launching point for speculation, so feel free to comment on this. In fact PLEEEEEEEEZE comment on this! Tell me what you think the plan could be. Is this a pipe dream? Or could this have actually taken place (whatever IT is)? And if any of you are subscribers, would you mind spilling the beans?

 
SOMETHING’S BLOOMIN’ IN THE GARDEN STATE?



NEW JERSEY UP FOR GRABS?
By JOHN PODHORETZ
POLLS, polls, polls. All you've been hearing is that President Bush's poll numbers are dropping. Yes, they have been, although far less precipitously than the hysterical discussion would warrant.
But then there's this extremely interesting and very significant bit of new polling: In New Jersey, John Kerry and George W. Bush are in a statistical dead heat, with a three-point margin in Kerry's favor. That number tracks with two other recent polls that indicate New Jersey is a state Bush can win.
Why is this significant? First off, it suggests the Bush pounding in the New York media market hasn't killed him — which is good news for Bush not only in the Garden State but nationally as well, because it indicates that his bad press may not be translating into a significant collapse of support.
Second, it means another major state may be in play. And that is dreadful news for Kerry, because New Jersey is supposed to be a state he can depend on.
...
You won't read much about the New Jersey polls in the New York Times or see it trumpeted in the mainstream media, because it's good news for Bush. But it's happening nonetheless, and trust me, Kerry knows it.

 
VOTE FOR NADER!


pritchettcartoons.com

Dubya to Darth Nader's rescue :)

GANGING UP ON RALPH
While presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Sen. John Kerry was meeting with presumptive independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader, Kerry campaign operatives were coordinating with friends and allies in the amorphous 527 world to stab Nader in the back.
…
Legally, Kerry campaign staff is barred from having contact with 527 groups -- those groups operating on unlimited, soft-money donations from organized labor and other special interest groups. But throughout the primary season, the campaigns of Democratic candidates have flouted the rules, and lately the Kerry campaign has through back channels attempted to coordinate messages with the groups, particularly in planning media spending in critical swing states around the country.

 
BABBLING BUBBA


dwtoons.com

His pals call him 'Telephone Bill'
Friends of Bill Clinton better start screening their calls. The former President is feeling chatty.
For weeks, Clinton has been holed up in his Chappaqua home as he and Knopf editor Robert Gottlieb saw and chisel the 900-page autobiography titled "My Life." The book is apparently going through its final buffing this week, and the former Oval Officer has been reaching out to pals to give them tastes of his prose.
They never know when he'll strike.

Hee-hee-hee! Live with it!

 
FAT, STUPID, WHITE


That about sums him up, in his own words :)

"MICHAEL Moore Is a Big Fat Stupid White Man."
That's the title of an upcoming tome from ReganBooks by Jason Clarke and David T. Hardy, the creators of two Web sites devoted to exposing the filmmaker's hypocrisy, moorelies.com and mooreexposed.com. "Moore shows the greatest disdain for that which he actually is . . . a very rich, pasty white American male," the authors say. Watching Moore spinning statistics in "Bowling for Columbine" and "Dude, Where's My Country?" spurred the authors to ask, "Dude, where's your integrity." The book, due in July, will expose his use of camera tricks, manipulated facts and spliced speeches. "Post-war filmmakers gave us the documentary, Rob Reiner gave us the mockumentary and Moore initiated a third genre, the crockumentary."

 
THE EVER POSITIVE LIMBAUGH



Yesterday, Rush had the most amazing phone call from Jeff from Moorhead, Oklahoma, who was just back from Iraq and about ready to go back. He had spent about 356 days over there and never had a day off, partly, according to him, because of his job.

He talked about the rules of all Iraqi citizens:
1.) ‘Don't stay out past curfew and
2.) ‘don't shoot at us. … They love to have their weapons at their celebrations. … [J]ust about every Iraqi citizen has an AK-47. We allow them to keep an AK-47 per household, and/or a pistol.’

‘At the beginning, we were taking care of business, Rush. I mean, we were allowed to do our job. And a lot of it is -- we still have a lot of embeds, and those kinds of people that had gone through the war, and they knew the deal -- and then we started getting people from all over the place coming in and pretty much dictating (laughing) what we would do on the street by just being there. Making simple arrests, there would be a camera stuck in your face, and you'd have to be very careful, and I'll tell you right now the Iraqi people are not real nice people. Now, I would say the majority them want us there, but there are some out there that just absolutely don't like us and they will cause problems -- and the thing of it is, they know they got media in their back pocket.’

After everything Jeff faced in Iraq, guess what scares him?
‘I have been more scared of Iraq watching it from the news over here than I ever was over there -- and I was in quite a few little skirmishes, lots of firefights, about 75 hostile raids and I have never been so scared in my life watching it over here on this news. It's not near as bad as people think it is.’
…
‘I come back and I'm scared to death at just how stupid people are.’

What “chaps” Jeff more than anything?
‘The one thing that really chaps me more than anything else is that, "We're over there for oil," and it chaps me to no end because, if you were there, you would see that oil really -- at least at the tactical level -- now, strategic and operation, maybe -- not operation, but strategic, maybe, and you know what, that's fine. That's fine by me. But at the level that I'm at, this is the farrest [sic] thing from oil.’

Can we win?
‘There is no doubt in my mind we can win. As a matter of fact, there's no doubt in my mind that we could finish this whole thing pretty quickly. The one thing that Iraq needs more than anything else is religious freedom, and you don't hear that from a lot of the politicians. Maybe in the inner circles, I don't know, but this is a religious war. They hate us simply because we're not them.’

Read the entire transcript or, better yet, listen to Jeff tell it himself.

 
WHAT GIVES, MATT?



Drudge is one of my first stops in the wee hours of the morning. I luv the guy! I really don’t know what his politics are, which has always been one thing I admired about his reporting. He has posted enough bad news, as well as the good, on just about every political figure in the news. That’s fine; I can handle it. Through it all, you knew that he loved America.

Lately, though … I dunno. Lately it seems that Drudge has been posting -- no, dwelling -- on the most vile news of America, almost as though he hates this country. There seems to be no balance to his reporting. A handful of Americans commit disgusting acts and it’s reported as though they’re a microcosm of our whole country. Any more when I log on I’m prepared to immediately log off if I see another prisoner humiliation picture. What's your point, Matt? And if it’s not the prisoner story, it’s some fairly negative headline and/or inference about Bush. Is it just me? Or has Matt changed?

 
WE CAN HELP!


It’s the least we can do.

OPERATION GRATITUDE TO SEND 10,000 CARE PACKAGES
DURING PATRIOTIC DRIVE OVER MEMORIAL WEEKEND
MAY 29-30, 2004


Operation Gratitude is planning its Patriotic Drive that will take place over the Memorial Day weekend, May 29-30, 2004 at the National Guard Armory in Van Nuys, California. Over 400 volunteers will assemble and ship ~10,000 care packages that weekend. The National Guard soldiers will conduct a Car Wash during the event to raise funds, and local Scouts will host a BBQ. We welcome volunteers as well as donations of funds and products for the packages. Operation Gratitude will launch its 2004 Holiday Drive over the Veteran's Day weekend in November, and expects to send 20-25,000 packages at that time.

The items that are most needed include:
DVDs and CDs
AT&T Phone cards
Personal Cooling Products: Misty Mates, Bandana Coolers, Handheld fans
Boxes of Girl Scout Cookies (non-chocolate preferred)
Individual Packets of Trail Mix, Dried Fruit or Nuts
Ready to Eat Food Kits (Tuna, Chicken Salad)
Energy/Power bars, Snack Foods, Beef Jerky
Packets of Powdered Beverages
Disposable Cameras
Handheld Electronic Games
Small containers of Foot Powder
Unsealed Letters and Cards

For additional information, please contact:
Carolyn Blashek, Operation Gratitude
818-789-0123
mailto: cblashek@aol.comcblashek@aol.com
http://www.opgratitude.com/www.opgratitude.com

Hat tip to Lucianne.

 
Terrorists would love to see more of this, and they'll do it again, here in America ... maybe worse ... unless we stop them in THEIR country first.

 
The terrorists cheered when they saw this.

 
Terrorists flew this plane, not Bush or Rudy or Rumsfeld.

 
PUTTING THE COMMISSION IN ITS PLACE



RUDY STRIKES BACK
Rudy Giuliani yesterday delivered a passionate defense of the city's response to the World Trade Center attacks - and denounced finger-pointing by members of the 9/11 commission.
"We have to channel our anger," the former mayor calmly told the panel as it wound up two days of hearings in Manhattan. "Our enemy is not each other, but the terrorists who attacked us."
…
Giuliani told the commission that quick thinking and bravery by city rescuers, many of whom perished, had saved thousands of people by getting them out of the World Trade Center in time.
"Maybe 8,000 more, maybe 9,000 more than anyone could rightfully expect" were evacuated, Giuliani said during his testimony at the New School, about a mile and a half from Ground Zero.
All told, some 25,000 people were brought to safety before the Twin Towers collapsed, the mayor said.
…
In regard to his "Boy Scouts" attack on city officials' handling of the attacks, Lehman told The Post that he was "misunderstood" and that he has nothing to apologize for.
…
Kerik was still smarting from the sharp questioning of him and Von Essen.
"It's a little odd to see people sit on a panel who weren't there, who didn't have to respond, who didn't have to deal with the devastation, who didn't understand the enormity of the catastrophe and sometimes they don't take that into perspective,"

 
WRETCHED EXCESS



The 9/11 Hearings Jump the Shark
By Paul Beston
NEW YORK -- The 9/11 Commission hearings reached a terminal level of absurdity in New York on Tuesday and Wednesday. Commissioners spent their time attacking the officials responsible for preventing a much greater loss of life, thereby giving the venerable Western tradition of self-criticism another black eye. Meanwhile, spectators and survivors continued to play the card of victimhood, interrupting testimony and carrying on with all the dignity of antiwar protesters at a rally in Union Square.

In television, they call such wretched excess jumping the shark, meaning the point of silliness beyond which a program is no longer viable. The term comes from an episode of Happy Days when Fonzie, wearing his ubiquitous leather jacket, jumped over a shark on water skis. Unfortunately, while the 9/11 Commission is about as substantive as a sitcom, it is not nearly as funny.
…
Through all the rage and the posturing, there was Giuliani, speaking simple truths that we seem to be forgetting, much as he did that fateful day. "The blame," he said Wednesday, "should be put on one source alone, the terrorists who killed our loved ones." What a shame that on Wednesday, this qualified as a political statement.
Meanwhile, the enemy lies in wait, nurturing a victimhood that long ago became deadly.

 


I'm printing the raunchy passage (paragraphs 3&4), so be forewarned. It's simply not as effective without the actual language.

Pasty Prison Pastimes
By R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr.
I do wish, however, that [the media blowhards] would stop lecturing us on the sanctity of the Arab male body. I have no doubt that among the Iraqi male population there are many goody-two shoes and possibly many middle-aged virgins. However, at Abu Ghraib it seems you have men more expert at roadside ambush, murder, and perhaps rape than at chastity and good works
…
I dissent from the widely held notion that this sort of lasciviousness is all that alien to the Arab male, especially the Arab male with a hankering for violence.

MAY I REFER FELLOW skeptics to a first-person report on the folkways and mores of Arab prisoners at Guantanamo written by Matt Labash(1.) in early 2002? Writing in the Weekly Standard he reported asking Marine jailers "if they've seen anything weird." The Marines, continues Labash, "laugh sheepishly, looking at each other. Finally, Sgt. Josh Westbrook, who sports a forearm tattoo of flaming baby heads, steps up. 'They know they're being watched,' he explains, 'so they'll stare at you, and while they stare at you, they'll, uh, masturbate.'"
The Marines believed that their Islamic fundamentalist masturbators were particularly avid "to embarrass the female Army guards."

"The weirdness doesn't end there," reports Labash. "They've also eaten their toiletries and urinated on equipment. 'The other day,' says Westbrook, 'one of the guys tried to do a naked cartwheel.' In the most bizarre twist," writes Labash, "Lance Corporal Devin Klebaur says a few have also been known to 'put toothpaste in their ass.'"

(1.)Guantanamo's Unhappy Campers
The only abuse the detainees are experiencing is self-inflicted. (2-2-02)

 

CitizensUnited.org

I discovered this site and thought I’d pass it along to you:

Citizens United Launches New Webmercial
Firefighters Support President Bush's Leadership

The day before the 9/11 Panel will hear testimony on federal and local emergency response on 9/11, Citizens United launched today a webmercial that shows America's firefighters and first responders are supporting President Bush's leadership in the war on terror.
National firefighters' union leadership has publicly endorsed Senator Kerry in the Presidential election; however, more union members are registered Republicans than Democrats. In his term, President Bush has secured more funding and support for America's firefighters and law enforcement officers any other president.
The webmerical features detailed photos of the September 11 attacks and longtime firefighters and members of the Uniformed Firefighters Association discussing what the President has already accomplished to retaliate those responsible for the murder of over 3,000 Americans on 9/11.

 
JUST A REMINDER


it’s Kerry Haters for all things You-know-who.

PLUS!
Crush Kerry has some "side-splitting Funny New Ads" you must see!

 
LUCIANNE

Lucianne has a wealth of info in her archives. Her Short Cuts during the 9/11 attacks remain, IMHO, some of the very best gut-wrenching woman-on-the-street journalism. It was hours before the planes hit when she wrote her Short Cuts for 9-11-01. Yet, her very first item was eerily prescient.

Short Cuts, Tuesday, Sept. 11th, 2001
Troubled Skies: We begin the morning with one of our spy planes shot down over Iraq and Russian war planes buzzing our planes over the Pacific. Watch for calls today for no more Mr. Nice Guy. It's time already.

And then all hell broke loose.


9-12-01 “The sky rained bodies and paper, plaster and steel and burning jet fuel.”


9-13-01 QUOTE OF THE DAY:
"We're gonna rebuild," vowed Mayor Rudy Giuliani. "We're gonna come out of this stronger than we were before. ... You can't stop us."


9-13-01 Steel heroes hardened by fire. 200 may be dead. Our entire elite NYPD Bomb Squad is dead. God help us all.

One can only see the carnage on TV but the story told around St. Vincent's hospital was the result. Hundreds of people stood in an orderly if irregular line. Each clutched some sort of picture of a loved and missing person. Some were framed, some folded and crumbled, some still caught in wallets and lockets. One woman held a line drawing. It was all she had to help someone else recognize her brother who phoned Tuesday morning and then disappeared. They were waiting, hoping against hope that the bone tired nurses at the door of the lobby would tell them, "Sure, we have that person here. Come right in." It wasn't happening for any of them. They slowly turned away with tears in their eyes.

…
I finally shut things down. I am afraid to turn off the phone as I usually do. The last thing I hear is that Al Gore is "stranded in Austria" and Bill Clinton is "under protective guard in a resort in Australia." For the first time in a long, long day there is some good news.


Then, on 9-14-01, Lucianne wrote what many of us felt (and still feel to ths day):

The nightly news showed Clinton on the street here in New York. He was in front of Curry in the Hurry on Lexington Avenue miles from the scene or carnage. He had his arms around a comely, crying brunette holding a picture of a missing loved one. He was feeling her .....pain. Doing something for himself, not New York. Sorry, that may be crass but my loathing for his man requires medication. What, dear God, is he doing here in the first place?

Check out her archives for that time.

 
>:O GRRRRRRRRR!



Who y’gonna call, Lehman, the next time you need help, say for a fire or a mugging? You disgusting, grandstanding morceau de merde. And that goes for Boob Kerrey, too!

HEROES RAGE AT WTC PROBE
The bitter charges began flying when [commissioner John] Lehman told [Fire Commissioner Thomas]Von Essen that miscommunication between the city's emergency-response agencies is "a scandal."
"It's not worthy of the Boy Scouts, let alone this great city," Lehman fumed, prompting relatives of 9/11 victims to break into applause.
Von Essen fired back at Lehman, saying, "I couldn't disagree with you more strongly. I think it's outrageous that you make a statement like that."
…
The unusually harsh attack by Lehman, as well as biting comments from other commission members, touched a raw nerve with firefighters, many of whom lost friends and colleagues on Sept. 11, 2001.
"These people are Monday-morning quarterbacking," Lt. Dennis Stanford of Engine Co. 44 on the Upper East Side told The Post at the firehouse.
On Lehman's "Boy Scout" crack, Stanford said, "Obviously the person who said that is not a firefighter, a police officer or a Boy Scout."
…
In another testy exchange during the hearing, commissioner Bob Kerrey asked former WTC director Alan Reiss if he was angry about not being told enough before Sept. 11 by the FBI about the al Qaeda terrorist network.
"Things might have been different had they trusted you enough" with information about the terror group, Kerrey suggested.
Reiss shot back that he was angry at "19 people in an airplane" — the hijackers — not the FBI.
…
But former Port Authority Police Chief Joseph Morris testified, "If they knew what was going on, they probably would have panicked more."
Battalion Chief Joseph Pfeiffer, one of the first firefighters to arrive at the WTC, told the commission staff his men were plagued by a lack of information.
"It was impossible to know how much damage was done on the upper floors, whether the stairwells were intact or not," he said.
"As a matter of fact, what you saw on TV, we did not have that information."
…
The mayor's Office of Emergency Management, which was created to handle such crises, had its command center on the 23rd floor of 7 World Trade Center, which collapsed hours after the Twin Towers.

 
MASON & FELDER GETTING SERIOUS



Nobody Asked Us, But …
By Jackie Mason & Raoul Felder
There never was a war where the participants, who are usually barely old enough to shave, on both sides, did not commit atrocities.
…
It is of singular importance that under Saddam Hussein, in that very same prison, Abu Ghraib, that is now being scrutinized by the American authorities, rape, murder, the cutting off of limbs, and whatever tortures the ingenuity of a highly technologically advanced society could devise were a routine daily occurrence. The whole world knew of this Arab-on-Arab torture. Yet not a peep. Now when a few individuals out of hundreds of thousands of American soldiers have acted inappropriately, the Arab world is outraged.
…
Americans should understand that self-flagellation only satiates a deranged individual.

 
MISUNDERESTIMATED



BUSH'S BEST BET: BOLDNESS
By JOHN PODHORETZ
GEORGE W. Bush does best when he is bold. Time and again, he has energized himself, his political organization and the nation with bold policy moves in times of trouble.
Mr. President, the time for boldness is now.
…
Look what he's been up against: If the anti-Bush storyline of the week is that Bush & Co. weren't tough enough before 9/11 — that's the Richard Clarke angle — then that's what critics will argue. If it becomes that Bush & Co. were too tough after 9/11 — the Seymour Hersh "we were very mean to John Walker Lindh in Afghanistan" angle — then so be it.
And on the right, it appears that the answer to every single problem in Iraq can be boiled down to this: We need more troops. If a car bomb explodes, we need more troops. If an ayatollah issues an unfriendly fatwa, we need more troops. If eight psychos in one cellblock in the Abu Ghraib prison pile naked Iraqis on top of one another, we need more troops.
…
Since he is best being bold, and since what the world needs to see from the United States is martial determination in the face of terrorism and insurgency, the president should embrace his right-wing critics and go them one better.
He should announce that the struggle in Iraq and the long-range goals of the War on Terror require us to enlarge the size of the nation's military by several hundred thousand men and women over the next several years.
I am not actually taking sides here in the question of whether more troops should be committed to Iraq, but I don't see how such a policy shift can hurt.

 
CONGRATULATIONS LUCIANNE!


Your favorite site reaches 2 MILLION hits a day! It's Ldotters' fault

Thank YOU, Lucianne!

 
PEEK-A-BOO?


ClayBennett.com

A Kerry/McCain ticket is causing Dems and their media lemmings to positively salivate. Turncoat McCain has repeatedly said “NO!” For crissakes, he’s Bush’s campaign chairman! So why he’s even talking with Kerry about this is beyond me. He does seem to lap up the attention like a parched dog at a mud puddle. I’m not fond of McCain. So he votes for some things … yeah yeah yeah … and he suffered immeasurably at the hands of the Viet Cong for years. That alone should prompt him to view the Swift Boat Bullsh^tter with some well-deserved contempt … at least a soupcon! But the fact that this is even a story, and it’s a biggie with the media, only underscores the complete lack of faith and enthusiasm they all have in Sen. Razzle-Dazzle.

DEMS DESPERATE FOR MCCAIN MUTINY
By ERIC FETTMANN
ANYONE who doubts that the Democratic Party is seriously lacking in ideas and any core set of principles in this election need look no further than the never-say-die effort to run John McCain as the party's vice presidential candidate.
…
Now, the Democrats are so desperate for victory at any price that many seem prepared to select a vice-presidential candidate whose positions constitute an enormous red flag being waved in the face of every one of the Democrats' constituency groups.
…
Imagine — Democrats like Kerrey want to rally behind John McCain because the American people see him as a man of courage and principle.

 
KISS & TELL



When I read my latest Left Coast Report, from James Hirsen, I was eager to post this:

In an interview on Melbourne's 3AW radio, Gene Simmons used his elongated tongue to speak his mind on Muslim extremists.
The Kiss bass player said Muslim women have to walk behind their men and are not allowed to be educated or own homes.
He went on the talk about survival, explaining how "extremism believes that it's OK to strap bombs on to your children and send them to paradise and whatever else and to behead people."
"This is a vile culture," the Israeli-born rocker said. "And if you think for a second that it's willing to just live in the sands of God's armpit, you've got another thing coming. They want to come and live right where you live, and they think that you're evil."
Simmons also asserted that the United Nations' approach did not work and the West had to "speak softly and carry a big stick."
The Left Coast Report thanks the makeup-wearing, blood-spitting Kiss rocker for doing what our politicians and press won't -- remind us about the kind of enemy that we really face.

So I googled for an appropriate Kiss image to post and found the following on Simmons’ own web sit (damn!):

May 16th -
Hello everyone.
Lately, comments that have been attributed to me in the press have been printed. They are false. Please use your own logic and best judgement when reading media. Sometimes media is responsible and sometimes, it is not.
You know me. And, I believe your instincts will guide you in determining what is real and what is not.

Was it too good to be true? Or did Simmons get flack and turned chicken?

 
RATS TO THE RESCUE?


Joao Silva for The New York Times
After locating a land mine, a pouched rat got a piece of banana.

For Sniffing Out Land Mines, a Platoon of Twitching Noses
GONDOLA, Mozambique — Just about every method of detecting land mines has a drawback. Metal detectors cannot tell a mine from a tenpenny nail. Armored bulldozers work well only on level ground. Mine-sniffing dogs get bored, and if they make mistakes, they get blown up.
The Gambian giant pouched rat has a drawback, too: It has trouble getting down to work on Monday mornings. Other than that, it may be as good a mine detector as man or nature has yet devised.
…
Wanjiro, a sleek 2-year-old female in a bright red harness, pauses halfway down the line, sniffs, turns back, then sniffs again. She gives the red clay a decisive scratch with both forepaws. Her trainer, Kassim Mgaza, snaps a metal clicker twice, and Wanjiro waddles to him for her reward — a mouthful of banana and an affectionate pet.
"What Pavlov did with his dogs is exactly what we're doing here — very basic conditioning," said Mr. Weetjens, a lanky, 42-year-old Belgian who works for an Antwerp mine-removal group named Apopo. "TNT means food. TNT means clicking sound, means food. That's how we communicate with them."
…
Rats are abundant, cheap and easily transported. At three pounds, they are too light to detonate mines accidentally. They can sift the bouquet of land-mine aromas far better than any machine. Unlike even the best mine-detecting dog or human, they are relentlessly single-minded.

Hat tip to ACE.

 
I received the following from a reader:

HERE IS A LETTER I RECEIVED THE OTHER DAY. SPELLING AND GRAMMAR ARE
UNTOUCHED BY ME. THOUGHT IT WAS NEAT.

"God Keep and bless You"
Dear sirs, and my brothers,
In the begining of my letter to you I give you all my best wishes. My dear, my name is Kawa and I am teacher of mathimatics in secondary school. and I thank you and thank the US army very very much about saving and helping us from the darkness and from the hard life, and you don't know how much we love you and love the soldiers of the coalition forces in the Iraq. Thankyou about giving hi salary and hi life. Please my friends be careful from the terrists people and from the hard people, and you don't know how we become when we hair that one or two or..........soldiers have been killed from the US army we become very very sad! I and my family, my sisters soms and sisters daughters........etc of my relatives. Please send me with (Salam) letter and Salam is my friend and he likes and love you very much because you are the justice and USA is the genuine country in the world, and we are not moslems, and we love the christians very much, please stay in Iraq untill the scurity becomes good and we want you and need you. In the end of my letter I ask from you to send me small flack of USA with the new soldier (Salam)! please any one want to hurt you kill him and send him to the hell.
Yes Yes Yes USA
Your new friend
Kawa H. Alyas
Salam the new sergeant will give you this letter and you shuld give him your letter to me and I am waiting.
I wrote this individual back by the way.

Boy, is it ever great to read something like this, especially these days! Good luck to you, Kawa!

 
WELL WELL WELL


mensnewsdaily.com

I got an e-mail from a reader who said that Canadian Prime Minister is quoted as believing that Saddam had WMDs. So, I did a bit of googling and found the following (entire piece) in mensnewsdaily.com. I posted their logo because I love their motto :)

Canadian PM: 'Terrorists Have Access' to Iraq's WMDs
By Jimmy Moore
Talon News
May 12, 2004
Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin said on Tuesday that ousted Iraq dictator Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction that are now in the possession of terrorists.
Speaking to a crowd of 700 university researchers and business leaders in Montreal, Martin said he believes the possibility of future terrorist strikes has dramatically increased because the terrorists have built a sizable arsenal of nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons that formerly belonged to Iraq.
"The fact is that there is now, we know well, a proliferation of nuclear weapons, and that many weapons that Saddam Hussein had, we don't know where they are," Martin stated. "That means terrorists have access to all of that."
However, France and Germany as well as Democratic lawmakers and liberal political groups in the United States accuse the Bush administration of making up evidence about WMDs to launch a war against Iraq.
Even Hussein's capture by coalition forces late last year has not thwarted the threat of future attacks, Martin expressed.
"I believe that terrorism will be, for our generation, what the Cold War was to generations that preceded us," he said. "I don't think we're out of it yet."
Although former Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien said poverty caused terrorism to prevail on September 11, Martin disagreed and said the attacks were nothing more than "hatred" from Islamic extremists.
Martin said he believes countries around the globe, including Third World countries, need to work to defeat terrorism for good. He is promoting having an international group formed among no more than 20 world leaders who will take on the topic of terrorism.
President George W. Bush approved of this plan and has encouraged Martin to submit his idea to the European Union and Latin America.

Thank you, Shaden!

 
SLICK



Just because this is funny ...

'VASELINE VANDAL' HITS MOTEL SLICKS
BINGHAMTON, N.Y. - Roger Chamberlain may have thought he managed to slide by police when he switched motels.
But when he was found a short while later, glimmering from head to toe in petroleum jelly, authorities believed they had their man.
Chamberlain, 44, of McLean, Va., is accused of coating nearly every available surface in his room at the Motel 6 near Binghamton with the substance.
A cleaning crew discovered the gooey mess - which included mattresses, bedding, a television set, furniture, carpeting and towels all slathered with petroleum jelly.
Damage to the room and its contents was estimated at more than $1,000, and once police arrived, they found 14 empty petroleum jelly containers and numerous pornographic magazines in the trash can, according to WNBF radio in Binghamton.
A short time later, a sheriff's deputy found Chamberlain in a room at another motel, his body smeared entirely in the greasy stuff, authorities said.
Chamberlain was charged with felony criminal mischief and ordered held in Broome County Jail.

 

MooreExposed.com

The only Michael Moore movie I have seen is “Roger & Me.” Amusing here’n’there, but it certainly didn’t sway me to believe that Big Business is the source of all that’s evil with our country. However, having seen “Roger & Me,” I was wise enough to not watch “Bowling For Columbine.” The title alone struck me as a diseased scheme to make MILLION$ by a man who professes solidarity with the downtrodden. And now comes his latest muckraker, ‘Fahrenheit 9/11.’

'Fahrenheit' lights fire in Cannes debut
The Korpulent Kommie’s movie received a standing O in France, a country noted for their utter distaste of all things American (except, that is, for our money, especially when funneled through the UN’s “oil for food” scam). A standing O in France for a movie that bashes President Bush should be a given, even as long as has been claimed. “15-20 minutes” "It was the longest standing ovation I've seen in over 25 years."

The movie, which is so up to date that it includes footage from the recent 9/11 Commission hearings, could undergo some changes before it is released if news developments warrant.
"Miramax has given us the funds and the ability if we need to before the film opens in America to update it and keep it right up to the moment," Moore said. "Right now, it is a finished film, it is a completed work, but I am able in the next six weeks before it is released to change it if I need to do that."
…
Asked by one journalist to respond to Bush's comments last week that the servicemen who took part in the Abu Ghraib prison atrocities lack character, [Moore] responded, "George W. Bush and his ilk, they actually despise our troops. Only someone who despises our young people -- who offer to serve and protect our country and give up their lives if necessary -- (would) send them to war based on a lie. (That) is the worst violation of trust you could have and the worst way to treat our troops. He is against our troops; he has put them in harm's way for no good reason other than to line the pockets of his friends and benefactors."

What about the explosive material in this movie?

Moore the Merrier
Reports from people who have seen the film in Cannes, where it premiered on Monday, indicated that Moore's film had scenes that showed U.S. military personnel abusing Iraqi prisoners. It isn't clear when the video was shot, but might indicate that Moore had knowledge of the events currently making headlines, but chose to keep them under wraps to better promote his film.
"Or else he was using military personnel for his own purposes," says a Pentagon official. "Either way, it's despicable."

Is it any good (she asks with a straight face)?

NEW '9/11' FLICK HAS FAR 'MOORE' FIZZLE THAN SIZZLE
CANNES, France - President Bush need not lose any sleep over Michael Moore's much-hyped "Fahrenheit 9/11," which turns out to be a wet firecracker.
…
Sure, there's some media-grabbing footage - apparently shot by one of the camera crews Moore claims to have smuggled in with embedded troops - of American soldiers laughing as they place hoods over Iraqi prisoners, and one GI touching a detainee's genitals through a blanket.
But that footage actually conflicts with one of Moore's main arguments - that GIs have been victimized by being forced to participate in what he considers to be the unnecessary and immoral invasion of Iraq.
…
Mostly Moore dusts off a litany of old accusations against the president - whom he portrays as both a buffoon and a world-class conspirator

Nothing new.

 
blah blah blah blah blah …


Listen fellas, Hillary is …

Yakety Facts: The Word on Clinton in Vanity Fair
If you're planning a dinner party, take this bit of sage advice: Don't invite Bill Clinton.
Big Bill is so desperate for attention these days that he might actually show up, and then you'd have a hard time getting rid of him as he jabbered on into the wee hours while your other guests stifle yawns and sneak peeks at their watches.
…
"He just talks. You don't really have a conversation with him."
"He is just self-absorbed. Totally."
"He's always the last to leave."
"He can't stand to be alone."

 
LOPSIDED


She’s got Marty Feldman’s eyes.

And I’m not referring to her baby browns, either. She’s John Kerry's 30-yr-old daughter, Alexandra, at Cannes, and she's lopsided (like any red-blooded male will care). Tt appears she is wearing some underwear, although why I’ll never know. I think I see a waist-cincher, which makes me wonder if she’s bothering with a waist-cincher why not a bustier instead? Because just maybe she likes being on display?

I wasn’t going to post this picture; it’s such a tawdry way to gin up the hit meter. Pat has it posted on Kerry Haters, and Drudge has it, too. However, right under this picture Drudge had posted the story of the 13-yr-old who was sent home in tears from her Catholic School for wearing an inappropriate dress.

Teen Sent Home From Ceremony For 'Revealing' Dress
CINCINNATI -- Imagine it's a special day at school, and you're asked to leave because of what you're wearing.
That's what happened to a 13-year-old girl at Holy Family Catholic School in Price Hill on the day of her May crowning and graduation pictures, WLWT Eyewitness News 5's Brian Hamrick reported.



Dannielle Fuqua’s dress showed a bit of her cleavage, which is against the school’s specific dress code.



According to Dannielle, she and her mother made an attempt to comply with the rules, even to make certain the length was appropriate.



Thirteen can be such a rotten age. No two kids mature at the same rate; some are late bloomers while others, like Dannielle, are obviously not. It’s possible that she tried to sneak this by the school, but I’d like to believe she and her mother made an honest attempt to comply with the dress code.

I do agree with the Fuquas, however, that trying to find decent clothing for children is nearly impossible. Have you ever looked at fashions for even toddlers? Next time you’re passing through JC Penneys or Sears or any other clothing store, take a gander at the styles. Gold lame & leopard print outfits for 2-yr-olds? Micro-minis for the sandbox set? Before they even reach their teen years, little girls are dressing like sluts. It’s disgusting! So hallelujah for Dannielle's school!

Two pictures of two beautiful females … Alexandra Kerry and Dannielle Fuqua: the comparison of propriety is certainly lopsided.

 
THIS HAD TO BE SAID



Any readers from Philadelphia … City of Brotherly Love, home of L’Fraude’s favorite cheese steak sandwich, where Hack cabs around and where Stallone got his Rocky start? You’re lucky to be able to listen to Smerconish.

BUSH DIDN'T KILL NICK
By Michael Smerconish
THIS ISN'T going to be easy. But some things need to be said to Michael Berg even as he grieves the loss of his son. It would have been more appropriate to let the dust settle before this discourse began, but that is no longer an option where he has turned this tragedy into a morbid blame game.
…
But...
George Bush did not kill your son. Nor did Donald Rumsfeld. And, quite frankly, you are the one politicizing his death when you introduce their names into the same breath as his obituary.
…
Your son's death was far more complicated than a simple case of an unwarranted detainment.
…
[Nick Berg] was there seeking business opportunity, which displays a gritty sense of American individualism, but ought not to be equated with the actions of those putting on a uniform.
…
[Nick Berg] died because some sick SOB with an insatiable hatred for all that is good and decent in this world took his life.

L.dotters reply:

Reply 2 - Posted by: Maybeth, 5/17/2004 5:33:23 AM
I think this article brings out a few facts which need to be considered. Initially, I thought this father was only casting blame at President Bush and Donald Rumsfeld because of his extreme grief. I have changed my mind. It is beginning to appear that he 'doth protest' too much in an attempt to avoid any deep investigation of Nick and the rest of the Berg family.

Reply 5 - Posted by: efuji, 5/17/2004 6:03:45 AM
People are pussyfooting around the idea that Michael Berg may bear a lot of the responsibility for the death of his son. Whether the Iraqi police or the US Government was holding him is irrelevent, but the legal action brought by Michael Berg probably caused Nick Berg to be released to fend for himself. Blaming someone else is an attempt to deflect culpability from himself. It is unseemly for Michael Berg to try to advance his agenda against the war and against Bush on the death of his son.

Reply 6 - Posted by: shards, 5/17/2004 6:03:59 AM
A civilian, in a war zone promoting his business - communications systems - to a culture who considers Americans and Jews 'infidels'? Nick Berg may have been the nicest guy going, but IMHO, he did not get the big picture. Nick Berg died because he was an American Jew.

 
A COMMON MAN?


Yes, but does HE believe he’s “common”?

Kerry scoffs
Sen. John Kerry, responding to a new book that lays out President Bush's re-election strategy, called the plan "pathetic" and vowed not to be "pushed around" by Mr. Bush's adviser, Karl Rove.
….
Mr. Kerry, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, was responding to Mr. Rove's plan to paint him as a condescending elitist who is exploiting his Vietnam War record and is "fundamentally wrong" on issues of war, taxes and the culture.
Mr. Rove detailed the strategy in an interview with Bill Sammon of The Washington Times for the book, "Misunderestimated: The President Battles Terrorism, John Kerry, and the Bush Haters."

Zell wows 'em
Sen. Zell Miller skewered fellow Democrat Kerry:
"This man wants to be the leader of the free world. Free for how long?" Mr. Miller told state Republicans. "This man is so out of touch with the average American, it would be comical if it were not so dangerous."

 
GO FIGURE!


BillHobbs.com

It’s one of those cases of y’can’t-judge-a-book-bt-its-cover. This letter, in today’s TAS reader responses, is from a 17-yr-old Brittany Craigo who, like the young man pictured above, can think for herself. It’s always a relief to hear this sort of news. Who knew? You go, girl!

POST-PUNKS AND BUSH
Re: Shawn Macomber's Pretend Grown-Up Music:
I recently read your article on the "Rock Against Bush Tour," entitled "Pretend Grown-Up Music." As a 17-year-old, pierced, ex-fan of NOFX, let me say THANK YOU for writing this article. I first heard about the tour shortly after George W. Bush had been elected. All of my friends were head over heals to go -- not so much because of the political agenda, but because it was so unique to round up that many of our favorite bands on a tour. I was the only person I know to turn down the offer.
…
To make a long story short, I wanted to convey to you that not all "punks" follow their favorite bands' political ideology. Although, sadly, many do. Over the past couple of years I have grown up and grown out of most of my punk phase. But even when I was the most "hardcore chick" in the moshpit, I was telling the bands I loved (as Laura Ingraham would say) to "shut up and sing."
-- Brittany Craigo

 
THE FACE MADE FOR RADIO



Of course, just try to find that face on any radio dial these days. I haven’t been keeping track, so I don’t know if Air America is even on the radio at all. This article is at least a week old, but read it anyway for laffs. I know I did!

Franken says he's more likely than not to run for U.S. Senate in '08
Comedian and liberal talk show host Al Franken put the odds of a challenge against Sen. Norm Coleman, R-Minn., in 2008 at better than 50-50, and said he would make a decision by late next year.
…
"I asked Hillary, 'Can you give me some suggestions about running for Senate in a state you haven't lived for in a while, or in your case, ever?' " he recalled, laughing heartily.
…
"I feel like the [Air America Radio] show's growing every day, and the show in a year will be different than the show was the first day," he said. "But I feel like we're totally on the right track."

 


Received this from NewsMax.com and thought it was worth passing along.

Hillary's Secret War:
The Clinton Conspiracy to Muzzle Internet Journalists
"This book is required reading." – Ann Coulter
"There's one book that tells the true story of the Internet news revolution – this is it." – Christopher Ruddy

New York Times best-selling author Richard Poe has a new blockbuster: Hillary's Secret War
This just-released book tells the true story of how a group of renegade journalists fought to expose America’s darkest scandals through the Internet – and how the most powerful woman in the world tried to stop them.
In Hillary's Secret War you'll find out:
* How the Clinton "war room" really worked.
* The details of Hillary Clinton's secret police operation dedicated to silencing her opponents.
* How the major media -- Poe names names -- actually backed the Clintons.
* The real story of Matt Drudge's success and how he led the Internet news revolution.
* How Drudge has created a profitable online news service.
* The best account of how news web sites such as NewsMax.com, Worldnetdaily and FreeRepublic became America's opposition press.
* Full details on NewsMax.com's rise as the leading conservative news outlet in the nation.

 
HEADS UP!


The Dems' wet dream.


Now's not the time for Bush to go soft
BY MARK STEYN
In his column last week, Robert Novak talked to a big bunch of Beltway insiders about Donald Rumsfeld's future, or his lack thereof. Among my colleague's sources was ''one senior official of a coalition partner,'' who, apropos the Defense secretary, put it this way: ''There must be a neck cut, and there is only one neck of choice.''
Lovely line.
Unknown to the big shot diplomat, 'round about that exact moment halfway across the world, Nick Berg's captors were cutting his head off -- or, to be more precise, feverishly hacking it off while raving ''God is great!''
…
[T]he Mirror … has published pictures of British troops urinating on Iraqi prisoners, and the Boston Globe, … has published pictures of American troops sexually abusing Iraqi women. In both cases, the pictures turned out to be fake. From a cursory glance at the details in the London snaps and the provenance of the Boston ones, it should have been obvious to editors at both papers that they were almost certainly false.
Yet they published them. Because they wanted them to be true. Because it would bring them a little closer to the head they really want to roll -- George W. Bush's.

 


The Real Picture Show
by Roger Simon
I don't often get scoops on this site and there is no reason you should trust me, but I have one today. The following events ... light years beyond what you have seen from our troops in Abu Ghraib... are now in the hands of the new Arab-language Television network Alhurra. They are videotapes and, in one grisly case, photographs. These are all acts performed by Saddam's soldiers and police in uniform. I am not sure what Al Ahurra will broadcast, but they will be culled from among the following. I am told that when their people saw these tapes, they were unable to watch them. I can understand why. It is hard for me to type them.
First, the photographs. They are of actual live castrations of Kurds.
Now, the video tapes:
Two beheadings, during one of which "Happy Birthday, Saddam" is being sung in Arabic.
Fingers being cut off one by one from a hand tied to a board.
People being thrown off four-story buildings, one forced to wear a Superman costume.
A man scourged ninety-nine times.
Three different instances of gas poisonings (probably employing different types), including dead babies.
There may be more. I don't know. I would like to know if any of these torturers is actually in Abu Ghraib right now. Let's hope they were not among those let out. I also would like to know what Senator Kennedy has to say about the moral equivalence of our actions after watching these tapes. And finally, I would like to know why it took so long for these to come out.

 
THIS IS THE ENEMY



The headline of the article below caught my eye. My first thought was probably the typical knee-jerk reaction many of us might have: Fire the teachers! I mean, how COULD they show students, even high school aged students, that gruesome video? Then I read the pull-quote below and I began to see things differently. I think seeing such graphic torture in school, without the parents' prior knowledge and consent, was bad judgement. But I can recall learning about the horrors of the Holocaust in junior high. The images, created by the teacher's words, remain burned in my memory to this day. And we were shown some pictures. I can't say the horrors of war are any more ghastly than they were in WWII, but it does seem as though we must be reminded periodically of our enemy.

How many of you have seen the Berg video? What did you think? Should teenagers see it?

Teachers Placed on Leave for Berg Video
VILLA PARK, Calif. (AP) -
"He said: 'This is the enemy we're up against and these are the things you don't get to see,'" said Naim Dujak, 17. "He did not force anyone to watch it."