Ramblings' Journal

And so it begins...

No real surprise here, but Drudge is apoplectic over the new rumors swirling around the beltway like water down a toilet: that Hillary Clinton will be Ketchup Boy's choice for a VP running mate.

Official Washington and the entire press corps will be rocked when Hillary Rodham Clinton is picked as Kerry's VP and a massive love fest will begin!

So predicts a top Washington insider, who spoke to the DRUDGE REPORT on condition he not be named.

"All the signs point in her direction," said the insider, one of the most influential and well-placed in the nation's capital. "It is the solution to every Kerry problem."

"There are three issues that this campaign will be decided on-- national security, health care, and the economy, not necessarily in that order."

"Kerry believes that no one is better on national security than he is, he served in Vietnam after all, so he has that covered and the suggestion that he needs to strengthen the ticket with someone who has national security credentials is dismissed as foolish."

The insider continues: "The Democrats feel like health care is the domestic issue. But how to make it the dominant topic of conversation-- break through war and terrorism? Hillary Clinton."

If the pantsuited ice queen makes the ticket, Teresa Kerry might want to up the amount of life insurance she has on Ketchup Boy, lest an Arkancide catch her unawares.

After all, she does want to "take things away from you on behalf of the greater good."

I got to talk some more this time...

My appearance on last night's Hannity & Colmes (sans Hannity) went pretty well.

Alan Colmes was the lead host; Sean Hannity's out on vacation this week. Oliver North was sitting in for Sean.

For those that know me, you know that the media (both "new" and "old") is in my blood. I've worked in the broadcast realm (mostly in radio) off and on for more than twenty years. And while I insist that I have a "face for radio," I keep stirring the stick around in the embers of television from time to time.

Fox's news studio is in a relatively small office space in the Georgia Public Broadcasting center in Midtown Atlanta, near Georgia Tech. I pulled into the garage and aftering being passed through security, came on into the office.

Jack, the producer who was there for my last FNC appearance a couple of months ago, remembered me, so we ended up chatting while I got miked up and all.

The studio is a tape archive room, with a painted "Fox Atlanta" mural in a frame on one wall. This serves as the backdrop for anyone on camera. The camera is a robotic affair, controlled from FNC in New York. High-powered lights are also controlled from the New York studios.

Once I got situated, there was more small talk, this time with the folks in New York, so they could get a mike check on me.

Then it was time to wait.

At about 20 after or so, I heard Alan intro me and the in-studio guest, Ron Daniels. I still have no idea what he looks like -- the monitors in the studio were turned away from me so that I wouldn't be tempted to look at them and away from the camera.

Back and forth the conversaation went, certainly longer than the last time I was on Hannity & Colmes.

Predictably, co-host Alan Colmes, along with Daniels tried to drag Iraq into the conversation. But unlike last time, I didn't allow myself to have my cage rattled, and I didn't allow them to drag me into the deep waters of somewhere that I was unprepared to go.

"That is immaterial to the conversation at hand," I retorted.

And with that, I brought the conversation back on point: whether or not Kerry truly enjoys support from black America.

My counterpoint? That black America hates George Bush so much that they'd vote for the local dog catcher, just as long as he wasn't George W. Bush. And that John Kerry is simply the dog catcher of the moment.

The point I didn't get to make was that much of black America does not care about John Kerry, let alone know anything of him. If anything, Kerry is the pandering white guy of the moment, passing through black churches and smiling as if that would be anything special. Black America hates George Bush far more than it likes John Kerry. This is underscored by the lack of support Kerry received from blacks during Primary season. Most blacks supported Wesley Clark, Dick Gephardt and Howard "The Scream" Dean.

One thing I could agree with Daniels on is that there is a realistic possibility of many blacks becoming so disgusted with BOTH sides that they may not come out to vote at all.

If the Democratic party has fooled themselves into believing that Kerry enjoys this broad-based support from black America, they're fooling themselves, and ultimately, it'll come back and bite them in the ass. Just not with George W. Bush.

Anyhow, far too quickly, the segment was over. I got some verbal jabs in ("What about personal responsibility?"), but remained at a disadvantage by being in a remote studio in Atlanta as opposed to sitting in place with the other guest and the hosts.

I hope I came across well.

Sharpton to host reality show

Former Presidential candidate Al Sharpton, relatively quiet on the national scene since dropping out of the race for the White House, has a new job.

Sharpton will host SpikeTV's I Hate My Job, due to premiere this fall on the cable network.

"I like the concept of trying to have people discover their purpose in life, and not have the world define them or settle for less than who they want to be just to pay their bills," Sharpton said Tuesday.

"I'm the working man's (Donald) Trump," Sharpton said. "He brings people into the penthouse. We bring them into the house."

Since leaving the Presidential race, Sharpton has entertained a number of offers, including a possible talk show, as well as accepting an offer to become a commentator for CNBC. Sharpton cut his television chops with a guest host spot for NBC's Saturday Night Live earlier this year.

My ugly mug is gonna be on your TV tonight...

Well, let's do it again.

I'm set to be on Fox News Channel's Hannity & Colmes tonight in the 9:15 segment. The subject this time around is Ketchup Boy's "lack of diversity."

Darryl Fears has a piece in this morning's Washington Post where he discusses "concerns" among black America with John Kerry's lack of outreach among blacks in America.

"You pick up the paper . . . and you see a picture where he's surrounded by all whites," Ronald Walters, a University of Maryland political scientist who helped run two presidential campaigns, said of Kerry. "That's sensitive to black Democrats. It raises questions about the lack of blacks and Hispanics in his inner circle."

"What [Democrats] usually do is wait until the last minute and try to stir up interest in the black community, which would be a serious mistake," said the Rev. Joseph E. Lowery, former president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in Atlanta and current chairman of the Georgia Coalition for the People's Agenda. "They tend to take us for granted."

There is a fundamental perception that conservatives not only hate minorities, but are actively seeking to do away with them. This perception is fostered by half-truths, innuendo and outright lies by those on the left, and the simple fact that the right has neglected to counter those stories and lies.

And of course a lie told enough times becomes truth in effect if not in fact.

Historically, all truth, wisdom and knowledge in black society came from the pulpit. One's minister was (and still is) held in highest regard among the black community. By extension, every and anyone who is invited to speak in that same pulpit is accorded the same measure and level of respect. Because of that, many of the "civil rights professionals" and black intelligensia who have pushed their views on blacks in America, have done so and been able to do so from the pulpit, lessening the chances that their statements, whether true or not, would be challenged.

Conservatives in general and the GOP in particular has ignored those statements and speakers. And when combined with historic missteps during the Civil Rights era, a picture has been created that paints conservatives as an evil "boogieman" who would rather turn back the clock on black progress than to extend a hand of friendship.

When someone like myself shows up, who can see beyond the veil of the half-truths and innuendo painted by the man in the pulpit, we are derided as heretics and heathens. Names like "uncle tom" and "lawn jockey" are hurled our way. It's easy when using the power of raw emotion to not only imply that there is a hatred of blacks on the part of conservative blacks (it ain't true), but then to use that emotion to create a hatred of conservative blacks who have supposedly "sold out" their souls to the "white devils" in exchange for "a few pieces of silver."

But I digress. There's plenty more time for that conversation. Just not right now.

I am supposed to be on opposite Ron Daniels, executive director of the Center for Constitutional Rights. Daniels says that while Kerry is not quite doing enough, blacks are supported by the Democratic party far more than the Republicans do or would. [shrug] So what else is new. New day, different mouthpiece.

I'm just hoping that I don't get beat up again by Alan Colmes like I did last time. I'm supposed to be at their Midtown Atlanta studio tonight at around 8:45 for the 9:15 appearance.

Anyhow, that's on Fox News Channel's Hannity & Colmes, tonight.

I'll have a debrief online here after the fact (don't I always?). I'll see you then...

Hillary: "We're going to take things away from you on behalf of the common good."

While Bubba continues his "rock-star tour" of bookstores across the nation, his wife, the junior Senator from New York, is with him, getting as much face-time as possible.

Yesterday, in San Francisco, while Bill Clinton signed books at the Book Passage bookstore, Hillary Clinton headlined an appearance of woman Senators for US Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA), who is up for reelection this year.

The "pant-suited one" told the crowd, who had just ponied up $10,000 a head to attend that the tax cuts of the Bus Administration would be a thing of the past under the Democrats.

"Many of you are well enough off that ... the tax cuts may have helped you," Sen. Clinton said. "We're saying that for America to get back on track, we're probably going to cut that short and not give it to you. We're going to take things away from you on behalf of the common good."

Just damn.

Still no confirmation on terrorist murder of G.I.

Still no solid word on whether or not the video that Al Jazeera ran earlier today, showing a blindfolded man actually was missing US G.I. PFC Keith Maupin of Batavia, OH.

Al-Jazeera aired a video showing a blindfolded man sitting on the ground, identified as Maupin by a statement issued with the footage. Al-Jazeera said that in the next scene, gunmen shoot the man in the back of the head, in front of a hole dug in the ground. The station did not broadcast the killing.

Michael "I could eat an entire house" Moore registered to vote in Michigan AND New York

Michael "I'm so famished I could eat a truck tire" Moore is registered to vote simultaneously in both New York City and his home state of Michigan (and of course, The Smoking Gun is there...).

Last I checked, you could only be legally registered in one place to vote.

"I am an Independent," the filmmaker told reporters. "I'm not a member of the Democratic party."

Which is not exactly correct.

New York City Board of Elections records show that Moore, 50, registered to vote in Gotham in 1992, checking off "Democratic" as his party affiliation (below you'll find a copy of his original registration form). He listed his address as the swanky Upper West Side building where he owns a multimillion dollar condominium (Moore's office is on West 57th Street). The filmmaker's New York registration remains active, though he has not voted since an October 2001 Democratic runoff election.

Now here's the good part: Moore is simultaneously registered to vote in Michigan, where registrants aren't even given the option of party affiliation (so he's not an Independent there either). According to Antrim County records, Moore registered last April from his lakefront spread in northern Michigan, where he reportedly splits his time (he transferred his drivers license to Michigan from New York around the same time, though Moore has a Volkswagen Beetle registered from his Manhattan home).

Are you a "NeoCon?" Take the quiz & find out

Behind the Christian Science Monitor's quiz, I earned the rating of "Realist."

Realist
Realists…

• Are guided more by practical considerations than ideological vision
• Believe US power is crucial to successful diplomacy - and vice versa
• Don't want US policy options unduly limited by world opinion or ethical considerations
• Believe strong alliances are important to US interests
• Weigh the political costs of foreign action
• Believe foreign intervention must be dictated by compelling national interest

Historical realist: President Dwight D. Eisenhower
Modern realist: Secretary of State Colin Powell

"Let Freedom Reign!"

Iraq is now sovereign. By now, you know all the details, but here's how President Bush found out -- while seated next to British PM Tony Blair at the NATO meetings this morning.

Unconfirmed reports of US G.I. beheading in Iraq

WCPO-TV/DT Cincinnati is reporting this hour that unconfirmed reports from inside Iraq indicate that captured G.I. Matt Maupin, captured in early April may have been decapitated by terrorists in Iraq.

9News heard nothing about the status of Pfc. Matt Maupin, 20, since this videotape a released a week after Maupin was taken hostage.

Then, just after 5 a.m. Monday, 9News received a phone call from ABC News saying Maupin had been executed. At this hour, the military-family spokesperson said he has no official confirmation on Maupin's status.

ABC News employees told 9News there is a videotape of Maupin being shot in the back of the head, but 9News has not seen that videotape.

That's right. This is only playing out what started when Islamic terrorists kidnapped and murdered Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics. And they want nothing short of the extermination of the Western way of life.

Unfortunately, there are too many people who are putting their collective heads in the sand and denying the evil that these cretins represent.

It's time to drop the leash and let the dogs of war loose. It's time to battle the uncivilized world with means that they appear to understand.

"I've come to chew bubble gum and kick ass....and I'm all out of bubble gum."

That quote was a tongue in cheek bit from the John Carpenter cult classic They Live. It's time to employ that mindset in reality.

Gypsy Jackson wants Electoral College abolished

This past weekend, Jesse Jackson called for a Constitutional Amendment to abolish the Electoral College.

The Gypsy prefers the mob-rule style of government where the presidential election is conducted in a fashion not unlike the vote for the next American Idol.

"We need an amendment ... to make sure every American has a right to vote individually and directly for the president, not through the Electoral College," Jackson said. "The idea of an Electoral College is an aristocratic idea that you can't trust the people."

The general idea was that all power would not be consolidated in the hands of any one person or group of persons. In time, the nomination of those electors shifted (by default) from the state legislators to the populace.

Obviously Jackson, along with everyone else who continues to bitch about the 2000 vote in Florida flunked their high school US History course. I won't even get into those idiots ("AlGore," he said under his breath) who are supposed to be Constitutional scholars, who in turn completely ignore the intent of the founders or the language of the law.

I realize that The Gypsy needs some "face time" but perhaps he could go back to getting in good with Ketchup Boy. After all, Kerry seems to still need some guidance in the "spiritual edification" department.

It's Monday, and link-whore that I am...

As I am wont to do every few weeks (or at least until I can get myself a seat on the Council), the Watchers' Council has their regular "gig"....

As you may or may not already be aware, members of the Watcher's Council hold a vote every week on what they consider to be the most link-worthy pieces of writing around... per the Watcher's instructions, I am submitting one of my own posts for consideration in the upcoming nominations process.

Here is the most recent winning council post, here is the most recent winning non-council post, here is the list of results for the latest vote, and here is the initial posting of all the nominees that were voted on.

AQ has a US Marine, threatens beheading

Al Jazeera ran video of two new hostages today; one a Pakistani civilian, who has been a driver for an American company in Iraq. The second, a blindfolded man in fatigues, and tenatively identified as a US Marine Corporal who was born in Pakistan, and was reported missing last week.

The U.S. military could not immediately confirm that a Marine had been abducted, but the video shown on the Al-Jazeera network showed a card identifying the man by a Pakistani name and as an "active duty" Marine. The man had a trimmed mustache and his eyes were covered with a white blindfold.

Al-Jazeera said the militants demanded the release of all Iraqis "in occupation jails" or the man would be killed. The group claimed it infiltrated a Marine outpost, lured the man outside and abducted him.

The U.S. military confirmed that a Marine named Wassef Ali Hassoun had been missing from his unit for nearly a week. It said it was unclear if he had been taken hostage, but Hassoun's name was on a Marine "active duty" identification card shown by militants in the videotape aired by the Al-Jazeera network.

Time to turn the Marines loose. Just take the chains off. Screw the PC hand-wringers...

Here we go again; AQ kidnaps 3 Turks, threaten beheading in 72 hours

Al Qaeda terrorists tied to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi have kidnapped three Turkish nationals in Iraq and they have threatened to behead them in 72 hours if Turkey does not withdraw their workers from Iraq.

The kidnapping victims were seen in a video shown this afternoon on Al Jazeera, crouching before three gunmen.

This crap is getting old. Patience among all for this crap is wearing thin.

The report of the abduction came hours before President Bush was to arrive in Turkey for a NATO summit, which will focus on winning the alliance's help in establishing security in Iraq.

Wanna buy a book?

(Call your local newspaper. Get Day By Day running daily! Damon'll thank you for it. In his own way...)

Sen. Zell Miller to speak at GOP convention; Dems are pissed

Retiring US Senator Zell Miller (D-GA) will be speaking at the Republican National Convention in New York later this summer.

The speech will be on Wednesday night of that week, and come 12 years after delivering the keynote speech at the 1992 Democratic National Convention that nominated Bill Clinton for his first term in office.

The announcement of Miller's speech at the GOP convention brought a sharp rebuke from fellow Democrats, including US House member John Lewis (D-GA).

"I think he has sold his soul for a mess of pottage," Lewis said, a reference to a speech Miller gave 40 years ago in which he argued that President Johnson was abandoning his Southern roots by pushing some civil rights issues. Pottage is defined as a thick soup or stew of vegetables.

Bobby Kahn, the chairman of the Georgia Democratic Party, said he wasn't surprised.

"Maybe I'll switch to the Republican Party so I can speak at the Democratic Convention and bash Bush," Kahn said. "It makes about as much sense."

Kahn was a top aide to Democratic Gov. Roy Barnes, who appointed Miller to the Senate following the death of Miller's predecessor, Republican Sen. Paul Coverdell.

"I advocated his appointment," Kahn said of Miller. "He said he would be independent and he was for a while, but he hasn't been lately. He's been in lockstep with the Republicans and I don't know what's happened to him. It's really kind of sad."

Miller, who is retiring in January, has voted with Republicans more often than his own party and has been a key sponsor of many of Bush's top legislative priorities, including the Republican's tax cuts and education plan.

In May, Miller spoke at the Georgia Republican convention and criticized Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry as an "out-of-touch, ultraliberal from Taxachusetts" whose foreign and domestic policies would seriously weaken the country.

"I'm afraid that my old Democratic 'ties that bind' have become unraveled," Miller said.

Miller's recent book, "A National Party No More: The Conscience of a Conservative Democrat," is now a national best-seller. In it, he assails members of his own party, including Clinton.

New translation of Bible changes names, content

A new translation of the Bible, called Good As New: A Radical Retelling of the Scriptures, from former Baptist preacher John Henson makes some significant changes in the Holy Scripture in the name of modernization.

Some names are changed (St. Peter becomes "Rocky," Mary Magdeline becomes "Maggie," Aaron becomes "Ron," Andronicus becomes "Andy" and Barabbas becomes "Barry"), as are Biblical concepts (to baptize becomes "to dip," salvation becomes "healing" or "completeness" and Heaven becomes "the world beyond time and space" and the Son of Man, as Jesus describes Himself in scripture, becomes "the Complete Person").

But what is more disturbing is the change in conceptual meaning that results from some of the wholesale changes.

Here, according to the London Times, are a few sample passages:

Mark 1:4

Authorized version: "John did baptize in the wilderness, and preach the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins."

New: "John, nicknamed 'The Dipper,' was 'The Voice.' He was in the desert, inviting people to be dipped, to show they were determined to change their ways and wanted to be forgiven."

Mark 1:10-11

Authorized version: "And straightway coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens opened, and the Spirit like a dove descending upon him. And there came a voice from the heaven saying, Thou art my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased."

New: "As he was climbing up the bank again, the sun shone through a gap in the clouds. At the same time a pigeon flew down and perched on him. Jesus took this as a sign that God's spirit was with him. A voice from overhead was heard saying, 'That's my boy! You're doing fine!'"

Matthew 26:69-70

Authorized version: "Now Peter sat without in the palace: and a damsel came unto him, saying, 'Thou also wast with Jesus of Galilee.' But he denied before them all, saying, I know not what thou sayest."

New: "Meanwhile Rocky was still sitting in the courtyard. A woman came up to him and said: 'Haven't I seen you with Jesus, the hero from Galilee?" Rocky shook his head and said: 'I don't know what the hell you're talking about!'"

1 Corinthians 7:1-2

KJV: "Now concerning the things whereof ye wrote unto me: [It is] good for a man not to touch a woman. Nevertheless, [to avoid] fornication, let every man have his own wife, and let every woman have her own husband."

New: "Some of you think the best way to cope with sex is for men and women to keep right away from each other. That is more likely to lead to sexual offences. My advice is for everyone to have a regular partner."

1 Corinthians 7:8-7

KJV: "I say therefore to the unmarried and widows, It is good for them if they abide even as I. But if they cannot contain, let them marry: for it is better to marry than to burn."

New: "If you know you have strong needs, get yourself a partner. Better than being frustrated."

But there's something inherently and fundamentally wrong with making these kinds of wholesale changes to the Bible.

All I could imagine when hearing of "Rocky" was Sylvester Stallone screaming "AAAAADRIENNEEEE!!!!!"

I'll stick with my New International Version, thank you very much...

Senator Foghorn Leghorn calls Americans infidels

US Senator Ernest Hollings (D-SC) wrote a guest editorial for the State newspaper in Columbia, SC this week, where he referred to Americans as infidels.

In the war against terrorism, we’ve given the terrorists a cause and created more terrorism. Even though Saddam is gone, the majority of the Iraqi people want us gone. We have proven ourselves “infidels.” With more than 800 GIs killed, 5,000 maimed for life and a cost of $200 billion, come now the generals in command, both Richard Myers and John Abizaid, saying we can’t win.

Heretofore, the world looked to the United States to do the right thing. No more. The United States has lost its moral authority.

Instead, here's a man who doesn't care about those same fighting forces. He's more concerend with fostering his hatred for George W. Bush and the Administration. So much for "leadership" from one of the senior members of the Senate.

Just damn.

Cheney to Leahy: "F*** you."

While using profanity on the floor of the Senate when it is in session is against the rules of the Senate, technically, the body was not in session. Today was the day for the "class photo," when all of the members of the Senate are assembled for a group photograph.

The story, which was recounted by several sources, goes like this:

Cheney, who as president of the Senate was present for the picture day, turned to Leahy and scolded the senator over his recent criticism of the vice president for Halliburton's alleged war profiteering.

Cheney is the former CEO of Halliburton, and Democrats have suggested that while serving in the Bush administration he helped win lucrative contracts for his former firm, including a no-bid contract to rebuild Iraq.

Cheney's office has said repeatedly that the vice president has no role in government contracting and has severed all financial ties with the Texas-based oil services conglomerate.

Responding to Cheney's comment, Leahy reminded him of an earlier statement the vice president had made about him. Cheney then replied with profanity.

Black Caucus demands Nader leave Presidential ballot

Nader & Cummings before yesterday's meeting

Nader stormed out of a Capitol Hill meeting in which members of the Congressional Black Caucus told him to abandon his bid for the White House. The chairman of the group, Rep. Elijah E. Cummings (D-Md.), refused to apologize for a meeting that Nader publicly described yesterday as abusive.

"Some of them used very abusive language," Nader told National Public Radio host Tavis Smiley during his morning program. "Congressman [Melvin] Watt of North Carolina used such abusive language until I could hardly believe what he was saying."

"We could understand his right to run, but we were just convinced after the meeting that this was just about Nader," Cummings said. "First of all, he can't win, but he can be an aider and abettor of four more years of President Bush's regressive leadership."

It's pretty pathetic when a grown man begs, ain't it?

Zarqawi: We will fight 'Until Islamic rule is back on Earth'

A recording supposedly made by the mastermind of bombings and beheadings in Iraq threatened to assassinate Iraq's interim prime minister and fight the Americans "until Islamic rule is back on Earth."

Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's recording was found yesterday on an Islamist website, where previous recordings and threats have been found.

In the audiotape, the speaker thought to be al-Zarqawi told Iraq's interim prime minister, Iyad Allawi, that "we will continue the game with you until the end." The speaker said "we will not get bored" until "we make you drink from the same glass" as Izzadine Saleem, the Iraqi Governing Council president killed last month in a car-bombing claimed by al-Zarqawi's group.

"We will carry on our jihad against the Western infidel and the Arab apostate until Islamic rule is back on Earth," the voice said.

It's hard to be politically correct when someone is trying to kill you.

Nancy Pelosi & Beaker: Separated at Birth?

I'm still wiping tears from my eyes....

(Help Damon find an "in-print" home; call or write your local newspaper and ask them to carry Day By Day today!)

OJ's favorite love song

Anybody remember Ray Parker, Jr's "(I Still Can't Get Over) Loving You?"

Girl, I cant forget cause it's not over yet
I still can't get over lovin' you
Every breath you take, I'll be watchin' you, girl
Cause I still can't get over lovin' you, mmm

There's no way that this thing is through, no
[I still can't get over] Not yet, I ain't through lovin' you
I'm gettin' mad [Lovin' you], girl, don't you ever try to leave, no, no
[I still can't get over] It'll be the last thing you'll ever do, oh

I wonder if OJ and Ray compared notes...

George Bush thinks you have lost your mind

The Bush Administration is set to unveil a sweeping initiative next month that recommends that every single American citizen be screened for mental illness.

The New Freedom Initiative, according to a progress report, seeks to integrate mentally ill patients fully into the community by providing "services in the community, rather than institutions," the British Medical Journal reported.

The initiative began with Bush's launch in April 2002 of the New Freedom Commission on Mental Health, which conducted a "comprehensive study of the United States mental health service delivery system."

The panel found that "despite their prevalence, mental disorders often go undiagnosed" and recommended comprehensive mental health screening for "consumers of all ages," including preschool children.

The commission said, "Each year, young children are expelled from preschools and childcare facilities for severely disruptive behaviors and emotional disorders."

Schools, the panel concluded, are in a "key position" to screen the 52 million students and 6 million adults who work at the schools.

Eli Lilly, manufacturer of one of the drugs recommended in the plan, has multiple ties to the Bush administration, BMJ says. The elder President Bush was a member of Lilly's board of directors and President Bush appointed Lilly's chief executive officer, Sidney Taurel, to the Homeland Security Council.

No official word on this entire mess from the Administration...yet.

Stay tuned.

Is NOTHING sacred to these lowlifes?

My God, just how low can these predators sink?

When the body of Kim Sun-il was found 35 km west of Baghdad toward Falluja at 5:20 p.m. (10:22 p.m. Korean time) on June 22, it was discovered that a booby trap had been installed in his body.

“A booby trap was placed in Kim’s body,” reported CNN, quoting Pentagon sources. A booby trap is an explosive device, which is designed to blow up on contact. It appears that Iraqi insurgents were hoping to kill coalition forces or rescuers recovering Kim’s body. Outrage at the brutality of a terrorist organization that abducted Kim exploded after people learned that Kim’s body had been booby-trapped.

"Religion of peace," my ass...

A Swedish site glorifying Al Qaeda includes a post with a link to a video of Muslim kids reenacting the decapitation murder of Nick Berg.

From a discussion thread titled Al Qaeda for Kids, posted with a comment in Swedish (“Salam aliykom. Look how cute!”), here’s a death cult video that breaks new ground in loathsomeness, as
smiling, laughing Muslim children reenact the savage beheading of Nick Berg.

Muslim kids play “Holy Warrior.”

And in order to play-act the decapitation of Nick Berg, these children must have studied the actual video.

If they weren't then why don't we hear CAIR and other Muslim groups denouncing crap like this?

Yes, Virginia, there IS a "Liberal Media"

(Help Damon find an "in-print" home; call or write your local newspaper and ask them to carry Day By Day today!)

Gypsy Jackson doesn't want to dump felons from voter rolls

Jesse Jackson accused FL Governor Jeb Bush of conductiong "disenfranchisement schemes" by asking local officials to remove felons from voter rolls.

"This is a typical South (tactic), denying the right to vote based on race and class," Jackson told those at a rally in Miami. "You see classical voter disenfranchisement. These schemes to deny or suppress voters are not new schemes."

Jackson, in an appearance in Miami this week, said that his Rainbow-PUSH Coalition would conduct voter registration drives and turnout drives across the state in retaliation to Bush's "tactics."

Bush responded angrily, callng Jackson "past his prime."

South Korean Hostage Kim Sun-il Beheaded

Korean hostage Kim Sun-il has been decapitated by terrorists holding him in Iraq.

Kim Sun-il had been held hostage by suspected Al Qaeda-linked abductors, who originally said they'd kill him Tuesday but then extended that deadline during negotiations, according to Ahmed al-Ghreiri, an employee with the NKTS security firm that is acting as an intermediary.

But his captors apparently changed their mind and executed Kim anyway, Al-Jazeera reported.

Kim's body has been found by US forces west of Baghdad.

Al Jazeera reportedly has a video tape of the murder, which they have not broadcast yet.

The pan-Arab station said it had received a videotape showing that Kim Sun-il had been executed.

Al-Jazeera, which had not broadcast the tape, said the execution was carried out by the al-Qaida-linked group Monotheism and Jihad.

5P ET Update: Based on the initial web releases of videos of the Nick Berg and Paul Johnson beheadings, any video of Kim Sun-il's decapitation -- if it is leaked to the web -- most likely will show up at either Northeast Intellegence Network, Consumption Junction (NSFW), or Ogrish (NSFW).

Afghan solution to terrorist actions: Quid Pro Quo.

From Reuters (via OTB):

Afghan soldiers beheaded four Taliban fighters after guerrillas cut off the heads of an Afghan interpreter for U.S.-led forces and an Afghan soldier, a government commander said on Tuesday.

The interpreter and the soldier were beheaded after becoming separated from a patrol of Afghan and U.S.-led foreign troops in the Arghandab district of the southern province of Zabul on Monday night, Namatullah Tokhi, commander of the government’s 27th division in the province, told Reuters. He said government troops later captured and killed four Taliban guerrillas in the same way. “They cut off their heads with a knife, so when our forces arrested four Taliban, we cut off their heads too.”

Sheriff expands jail video probe

Beleagured Fulton County Sheriff Jackie Barrett is on the hot seat once again, this time over a music video produced at the Fulton County Jail last week.

A music video for rap artist "T.I." (23 year-old Cobb County work-release inmate Clifford Harris) was produced in the maximum security wing of the downtown Atlanta facility, and during the time that the video was being produced, ostensibly without Barrett's knowledge, a prisoner who was being booked in slipped OUT of the jail.

Clifford Harris, who goes by the stage name "T.I.", is part of a work release program in Cobb County, officials confirmed Friday. He is assigned to work at Atlanta’s LaFace Records from 11 p.m. until 6 a.m. daily and the rest of time, he is in custody. He was convicted on drug charges and a probation violation.

Cobb County’s sheriff gave him special permission to go the Fulton County Jail from 6 p.m. Thursday until 6 a.m. to tape the video. Fulton County Sheriff Jackie Barrett said she was unaware of the filming.

Barrett said that the video production had nothing to do with the escape of 23-year-old Cara Williams. Williams, who was taken to the jail wearing hospital scrubs, ducked down a staff corridor while she and eight other women were being walked to the intake room Thursday night.

"What we know right now about the escape is really more a factor of not having enough staff to watch the number of inmates. We had 125 inmates in the back (being booked) last night," Sheriff Barrett said, adding that four staffers were doing the booking when normally eight are on duty.

Barrett is looking at firing a number of employees, starting with Lt. Dwayne Turner, who arranged for the artist's use of the jail, and Chief Deputy Caudell Jones, who is the uncle of the artist.

Five other deputies face dismissal for allowing Clifford Harris, also known as rapper "T.I.," to make the video, which also featured eight prisoners and a few guards.

Lt. Dwayne Turner acknowledged arranging the 23-year-old hip-hop star's use of the maximum-security wing of the jail. But Turner insisted that he had permission from Jones to shoot a documentary.

"He said, 'OK, go ahead,' " Turner said Monday. "He actually cut me off before I could give him all the details."

Jones has said Turner told him he wanted to bring a wayward nephew into the jail for some "scared straight" counseling similar to what the Sheriff's Office does for television judge Glenda Hatchett. The jail occasionally allows Hatchett's TV crew to fly juvenile delinquents to Atlanta to talk with inmates about staying out of trouble.

Many people, both supporters and detractors of Barrett alike, are calling for her resignation. She has been in office since 1994.

And now, it's "Saddam's Torture Videos"!

While we keep hearing about how awful Abu Ghraib has been because of the American soldiers who got out of hand there, we really need to keep the stories in context (which is something the left doesn't want you to do).

Saddam Hussain had people tortured at that prison for the heck of it. Not only that, he had some of the sessions videotaped. And thanks to the wonder of the internet (and some directions pointed by Jim Taranto), you, too, can see for yourself the horror of "Saddam's Torture Videos."

The American Enterprise Institute presented the videos in public at the beginning of the month in Washington, and while I think the videos are not suitable for anyone to see (let alone the weak of constitution), you can certainly look for yourself.

The videos include depictions of decapitation, amputation of fingers one-by-one, tongues hacked out with razor blades, all to the tune of Saddam's henchmen wailing his praises.

You can download Saddam's attrocities from the American Enterprise Institute. Don't say I didn't warn you!

CT Gov. Rowland to resign tonight

According to a Hartford Courant report, Connecticut Governor John G. Rowland will announce his resignation from office during a televised speech tonight at 6P ET, amid a growing federal corruption investigation and a growing movement to impeach him.

Lt. Governor Jodi Rell will take the reins of the state's highest office on July 1.

Evidence presented during the past two weeks in televised hearings had established what newspapers had reported: Rowland had accepted a variety of favors from state contractors and close aides in violation of state ethics laws.

In the case of businessman Robert V. Matthews, Rowland had accepted a total of more than $50,000 in inflated rental payments and an above-market purchase price on the governor's Washington condominium.

At the time, Matthews was seeking state economic aid for several ventures.

AQ to S. Korea: Get out of Iraq or we'll behead hostage

Here we go again, dammit! The so-called brave cowards of Al Qaeda have threatened to decapitate yet another hostage.

This time, the victim is from South Korea. 33 year-old Kim Sun-il works for a trading company, doing business in Iraq. It is no known when or how he was abducted.

Al Jazeera television broadcast a tape from the terrorists today, which showed Sun-il kneeling in front of three masked and armed thugs.

The tape insists that Sun-il will be beheaded at sundown on Monday if South Korea has not announced an immediate withdrawl of their forces from Iraq. South Korea presently has 600 troops on the ground in Iraq and plans to send another 3,000 as part of the Western Coalition.

South Korea does not plan to change their troop plans.

"Criminals are a cowardly and superstitious lot..."

The Dark Knight is coming. And it looks like they got it right...

NYT Book Review on Bubba's book: "Sloppy; Dull."

In tomorrow's edition, the New York Times Book Review excoriated Bill Clinton's My Life, which is being released this weekend to much pomp and circumstance.

The book, which weighs in at more than 950 pages, is sloppy, self-indulgent and often eye-crossingly dull — the sound of one man prattling away, not for the reader, but for himself and some distant recording angel of history.

In many ways, the book is a mirror of Mr. Clinton's presidency: lack of discipline leading to squandered opportunities; high expectations, undermined by self-indulgence and scattered concentration.

While Dan Rather, who interviewed Mr. Clinton for "60 Minutes," has already compared the book to the memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant, arguably the most richly satisfying autobiography by an American president, "My Life" has little of that classic's unsparing candor or historical perspective. Instead, it devolves into a hodgepodge of jottings: part policy primer, part 12-step confessional, part stump speech and part presidential archive, all, it seems, hurriedly written and even more hurriedly edited.

"My Life" reads like a messy pastiche of everything that Mr. Clinton ever remembered and wanted to set down in print; he even describes the time he got up at 4 a.m. to watch the inaugural ceremonies for Nigeria's new president on TV. There are endless litanies of meals eaten, speeches delivered, voters greeted and turkeys pardoned. There are some fascinating sections about Mr. Clinton's efforts to negotiate a Middle East peace agreement (at one point, he suggests that Yasir Arafat seemed confused, not fully in command of the facts and possibly no longer at the top of his game), but there are also tedious descriptions of long-ago political debates in Arkansas over utility regulation and car license fees .

Part of the problem, of course, is that Mr. Clinton is concerned, here, with cementing — or establishing — his legacy, while at the same time boosting (or at least not undermining) the political career of his wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton. He does a persuasive job of explicating his more successful initiatives like welfare reform and deficit reduction, but the failure of his health care initiative, overseen by Mrs. Clinton, is quickly glossed over, as is the subsequent focus of his administration on such small-bore initiatives as school uniforms and teenage smoking.

Of course, his friends on the Democratic side of the aisle will quickly gloss over this oh, so important review from the Nation's leading book review publication, and focus on the televised ass-kissing from Oprah Winfrey this coming Tuesday, and the softball interview by Dan Rather on tomorrow night's 60 Minutes.

Sorry, Bubba. Sounds like your wife even writes better than you do.

AQ beheads hostage Paul Johnson in Saudi Arabia

Word just in from Fox News & the BBC.

Arabic television network al-Arabiya said Paul Johnson had been executed, while an Islamist website showed photographs of the apparent beheading.

That "Instant Win" button I talked about yesterday is looking more and more appealing...

Traffic there, from what I understand, has been very heavy. I'm sure that site'll disappear by the end of dinner tonight.

According to Reuters, the body of Paul Johnson has been recoverd in the Saudi capitol of Riyadh; Al Qaeda is claiming responsibility for Johnson's murder.

These are links to the photos of the decapitation from multiple sources. THE IMAGES ARE VERY GRAPHIC AND DISTURBING. THIS IS YOUR ONLY WARNING.

• Link to decapitation photo from Ogrish.com
• Johnson decapitation photo from HomelandSecurityUS.com
• Enhanced version of photo (with contrast and brightness boosted)
• Link to photos on The Drudge Report

Pay no attention to the all the people finding jobs...

That loud banging noise you're hearing right now is me smacking my head repeatedly against the wall. Read this, and you, too can join me in smacking your head...

The economic expansion has not been equal. Minorities lag behind whites in employment and earnings more than two years after the 2001 recession officially ended.

African-Americans in particular have taken a big hit: suffering higher and longer unemployment than whites and dropping out of the labor force more rapidly. Black teen unemployment rose to 32.5% in May. Even in such areas as Washington, D.C., where unemployment is low and construction is surging, willing workers far exceed steady jobs.

Esther: The Artist Formerly Known as Madonna

The new name is tied to her increasing religious belief in the Kabbalah, a Jewish mystic sect.

She says that the change in her name is in no way a slam against her mother, whom she was named after at birth.

"I wanted to attach myself to another name," she said according to excerpts from the interview released by ABC on Thursday. "This is in no way a negation of who my mother is. ... I wanted to attach myself to the energy of a different name."

The interview with ABC's Cynthia McFadden airs on tonight's 20/20 at 10P ET/PT.

You know you've made it when an Warhol-ish homage is done for you

The artsy types have glommed onto Abu Ghraib as post-modern art.

Of all the images to have come out of Iraq's notorious Abu Ghraib Prison over these past few weeks, the one that has apparently captured the imagination of the masses is the picture of the shrouded figure standing on a box, wired to God-knows-what.

The picture has shown up across the globe, from a gallery in San Francisco (where the curator was punched solidly in the face by someone who objected, as evidenced by her black eye), to the New York subway Warholesque poster pictured here.

Why this image above all the rest? It is far from the most violent, but easily the most graphic. You need less than a second's glance to know exactly what it is. The triangle of the hood silhouettes sharply against the hot pink or chartreuse background of a fake iPod ad. Andy Warhol himself could not have done better. It holds its own on murals meant to be read from far away. It plays well against the Statue of Liberty. It suggests Christ on the cross. And, best yet, the hooded figure in the photograph is on a pedestal. It is already an icon.

As a symbolic shape, the hood is almost as strong as a cross. The difference is that the hood has generally been the sign of the persecutor, not of the victim. It is the uniform of the executioner, the sheet of the Klansman, the mask of Death. Until now.

I love when Chris nails it on the head!

Good one, Chris!

9/11 Commission wrings hands 'cause Bush didn't react for "minutes" on 9/11

Shortly after 9AM on September 11, 2001, while millions of us were watching disaster unfolding before our eyes, George W. Bush was in a classroom full of second graders in Sarasota, FL.

White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card bent down and whispered in the President's ear.

In a moment captured on video and replayed, White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card whispered in Bush's ear, saying, "A second plane hit the second tower. America is under attack." Bush's face froze, his lips tight.

Information was very fluid in those first minutes, and decisions were being made on a split-second basis.

I can't fault President Bush for waiting a few moments, not only to avoid alarming those closest to him -- the children -- but also to say the most reassuring thing he could under the circumstances. To ensure that he and his team were on top of the crisis and that decisions were being made that could safeguard as many American lives as possible.

Say what you will about the President; but you cannot fault him for taking time to be deliberate throughout the 9/11 crisis period.

The 'Instant Win' button

Bill Hobbs has an open letter to Al Qaeda on his site that warns them about tempting fate. They can still be obliterated with a single button.

We didn't have to invade and liberate Iraq and try to help it become a democracy. We could have pushed a few buttons and made Kabul and Baghdad disappear. We didn't because we're the opposite of your dysfunctional, godless, immoral, backwards, oppressive, failure of a society. We pulled our punches. We sent in the reconstruction crews right behind the armor and the infantry.

We didn't have to. We had - and still have - another option. One that would absolutely guarantee the end of the Islamofacist terror threat.

I bet that, if you blow up an American shopping mall and kill a bunch of innocent American kids and parents while they munch some Chik Fil A, or stand in line at Build-a-Bear or try on clothes at The Gap, a whole lot more Americans are going to reach the tipping point. The one where we say enough is enough, push the Instant Win button.

Don't test our patience.

Where were you ten years ago today?

I was riveted -- as was most of the nation -- to a surreal scene playing out on NBC.

A split screen showed Game Five of the NBA Finals from Madison Square Garden between the New York Knicks and Houston Rockets on one side of the screen. On the other? A white Ford Bronco on the other side of the continent, making it's way along the freeways of Los Angeles. Inside, OJ Simpson, then the prime suspect in the murder of his wife, Nicole just a few days before in the Brentwood section of LA. Simpson had a gun to his head, and his best friend, Al Cowlings in the other seat trying to talk to him.

OJ wanted to go...somewhere. Ultimately though, he wanted to go home.

OJ Simpson had been a hero to a generation of America, including me. Former football star, movie star, commercial pitchman and sports commentator. The very idea that he could have brutally butchered his estranged wife and her friend was completely foreign to me, as it was to much of the nation.

All we knew was that the scene of a slow-speed chase along the freeways of Southern California was bizarre enough, but for that to sit alongside the basketball game on the opposite side of the screen was one of the most surreal moments of television that had happened before or since.

This was before MSNBC and Fox News Channel even existed. Few people had any idea what CourtTV was, let alone what channel it was on, and CNBC was an obscure business channel. Which left us with images on CNN, ESPN and the bizarre split-screen on NBC.

Of course, now we know where things went from there: the arrest and booking, the assembling of the "dream team" for the "trial of the century." Wall-to-wall coverage of a type that hadn't been seen since Watergate, and wouldn't be seen again until 9/11. And finally the acquittal.

OJ lives in relative obscurity today near Miami -- raising his kids, and trying to stay out of the limelight, lest a skeptical America asks him how his "search for the 'real killers' is going."

At least until his recent interviews with Fox News' Greta Van Susteren and NBC's Katie Couric.

The story of OJ Simpson is the ultimate "hero-turned-heel" story. And one that, at least I hope, we don't have to see relived again any time soon.

Black Caucus members want to reinstate the draft!

I keep catching hell from folks who want to insist that a new draft is coming, and that the Bush Administration is engineering it so that "their rich kids" won't be caught up in it.

Citizen Smash has done the legwork to find out exactly who is behind this push.

But who is behind this movement to reinstate the draft? Let’s check the Congressional Record.

In the House of Representatives:

Charles Rangel, NY
Neil Abercrombie, HI
Corrine Brown, FL
Donna M. Christensen,VI
William Lacy Clay, MO
John Conyers, Jr., MI
Elijah E. Cummings, MD
Alcee L. Hastings, FL
Sheila Jackson-Lee, TX
John Lewis, GA
Jim McDermott, WA
James P. Moran, VA
Eleanor Holmes Norton, DC
Fortney Pete Stark, CA
Nydia M. Velazquez, NY

In the Senate:

Fritz Hollings, SC

Never mind that both of these bills have been stuck in committee for over 18 months, and have almost no hope of ever seeing the light of day.

Don't believe me? Check the Congressional Record yourself. The bills are S89 and HR163.

So now I ask you. Who really has black folks' best interests at heart, and who is selling out our children for "thirty pieces of silver?"

Kenneth gives Bubba's book five stars

CBS anchordude Dan "What's the frequency, Kenneth" Rather was one of the few people to get an advance copy of My Life, Bill Clinton's new book. Ostensibly, he got ahold of it since he's going to softball question the former President on this Sunday's 60 Minutes.

"Maybe he didn’t come totally, absolutely clean with himself, but he made an effort to do it," he (Rather) said, "an effort it would be difficult to find with any former President."

"I liked it more than I thought I would," he said, "more than I was prepared to like it. Who knew that Bill Clinton could write this well?"

CBS is in an all-out full-court press on Bubba's book; don't forget the CBS Radio one-hour infomercial call-in talk show with Bubba with The Early Show's Harry Smith tomorrow evening at 6P ET.

My Life publisher Random House sure wants you to call in so that they can have a huge payoff with all of this free publicity.

"Captain, the Romulans are massing along the Neutral Zone!"

Iran, rubbing it's collective hands in glee at the notion of a power vacuum in Iraq, is massing it's troops along the Iraq-Iran border in anticipation of a US pull out (or even pull back) at the end of the month.

The Saudi daily Al-Sharq al-Awsat, monitored in Beirut, reports Iran has massed four battalions at the border.

Al-Sharq al-Awsat quoted "reliable Iraqi sources" as saying, "Iran moved part of its regular military forces towards the Iraqi border in the southern sector at a time its military intelligence agents were operating inside Iraqi territory."

Would-be Ohio bomber came to US legally as 'refugee'

As most know, a terrorist attack on a shopping mall in Columbus, OH was thwarted last week, with the arrest of one of the perps, Nuradin M. Abdi. Abdi was associated with Al Qaeda, and as Attorney General John Ashcroft keeps telling us as he nabs these folks, AQ wants to hit us at home, and hit us hard.

Michelle Malkin's new column this morning examines just how Abdi was able to quietly enter the US. Of course the unanswered question in all of this is how many other terrorists are out there plotting to blow up a shopping mall in Denver or an amusement park in Atlanta, or a ball park in St. Louis?

Nuradin M. Abdi, who was indicted last week for plotting with al-Qaida to blow up an Ohio shopping mall, flew here from Somalia and received bogus "refugee" status in 1999, according to authorities. Prosecutors allege that Abdi then fraudulently obtained a refugee travel document, which he used to fly to Ethiopia for jihad training. After returning, Abdi blended back into the American landscape along with tens of thousands of other refugees from a country known to be a breeding ground for Islamic terrorists. Columbus, Abdi's home base, is home to more than 30,000 Somalis — the second-largest Somali community in the United States, after Minneapolis.

The Somali-al-Qaida connection is well-established. Intelligence reports indicate that Osama bin Laden sent extremists to Somalia in the early 1990s to train and organize the Somali Islamic radical group al-Ittihad al-Islamiya. Bin Laden claimed responsibility for the deaths of 18 American soldiers in Mogadishu. In addition, a Saudi Arabian-based Muslim charity with alleged ties to al-Qaida has been funding refugee camps in Somali border towns. The feds have frozen the Al-Haramain Foundation's assets based on terrorism grounds, but the flow of refugees from the overseas camps subsidized by the group has not been stanched.

Leave it to Bubba, right?

New AQ web video death threat to an American

An Al Qaeda-connected website has a new video up, this time of kidnapped American Paul Johnson. Johnson is a technician for Lockheed-Martin in Saudi Arabia, working on Apache helicopters.

Johnson was reported missing last week; an AQ-connected website showed a picture of him, along with his Lockheed-Martin business card earlier this week.

The website says that Johnson will be killed unless Saudi authorities free al-Qaida prisoners within three days.

"My name is Paul Marshall Johnson, Jr.," the seated hostage says in the tape, an elaborate tattoo on his left shoulder. "I am an American. ... I work on Apache helicopters."

The tape, which was first aired by CNN, also displayed his Lockheed Martin identification card.

The statement on the Web site says the holy warriors of the Arabian peninsula's Fallujah Brigade has "hit" the engineering team that "oversees the development of the American Apache helicopter that attacks Muslims in Palestine and Afghanistan."

It says: "The Fallujah Brigade has killed the director of this team and kidnapped one of its engineers, Paul Johnson, and if the tyrannical Saudi government wants their American master to be released, then they have to release our holy warriors that are held in Ha'ir, Ruweis and Alisha prisons within 72 hours of this statement's date or else we will sacrifice his blood to God in revenge for our Muslim brothers who have been liberally killed everywhere."

The Web site statement addressed Muslims all over the world, saying: "We have made a promise to ourselves to defend you. We will not let you down, and you should know that the treacherous tyrants who have helped the Americans against you, and shared your blood with them, do not represent the Muslims of Saudi Arabia. They are our enemies as much as they are your enemies. They are the enemies of God and his prophet."

"He felt he never had any fear for his safety and respects and honors their traditions and cultures," Johnson III said. "Dad said many times he loved living in Saudi Arabia."

Johnson's family could not be reached this evening for comment.

The "beautimus" Michelle Malkin is in the house!

The "beautimus" (to quote Don King, no relation) Michelle Malkin has joined the rest of us here in the jungle of the blogosphere.

Mind you, she's hit the ground running, with an excoriation of Paul Krugman's ongoing lies in the New York Times.

Krugman is entitled to his opinion about Ashcroft, no matter how ridiculous, but as the saying goes, he is not entitled to his own facts.

Welcome to the jungle, Michelle! Glad you're here with the rest of us!

Prepare for the worst of Abu Ghraib

Columnist Christopher Hitchens seems to straddle the ideological fence at times. Sometimes, he's clearly on the liberal side, at others, he's squarely on the conservative side. It's almost as if he can't decide where he truly is. Then again, in the minds of many, he's close enough to the center to provide a clear enough picture of reality.

In his newest piece for Slate, Hitchens takes a look at that dead horse that is Abu Ghraib, and points out that though it may be dead now, look for it to zombify and bite us all in the collective keyster real soon.

It is going to get much worse. The graphic videos and photographs that have so far been shown only to Congress are, I have been persuaded by someone who has seen them, not likely to remain secret for very long. And, if you wonder why formerly gung-ho rightist congressmen like James Inhofe ("I'm outraged more by the outrage") have gone so quiet, it is because they have seen the stuff and you have not. There will probably be a slight difficulty about showing these scenes in prime time, but they will emerge, never fear. We may have to start using blunt words like murder and rape to describe what we see. And one linguistic reform is in any case already much overdue. The silly word "abuse" will have to be dropped. No law or treaty forbids "abuse," but many conventions and statutes, including our own and the ones we have urged other nations to sign, do punish torture—which is what we are talking about here at a bare minimum.

So far, the press has focused on the questions "who knew" and "how far up did it go?" I'm equally interested in the question of how far down it has gone and how widespread it is.

But that spectre is still there. And with the continued witch-hunt fostered by the initial pictures and stories, and fanned further by the uproar over Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11 (whether his "documentary" is true or not), I have a fear that Hitchens is right -- that this will come back and bite us in the ass. Hard. When we least expect it or need it.

CBS forces radio affiliates to take softball interview with Bubba

From Drudge:

Bill Clinton is set to hit the talkradio waves with a live special promoting his new book -- one that CBS has ordered a "must carry" directive for all of its news affiliates.

Each and every one of CBS's news and talk stations will be required to take the Clinton book radio special, now scheduled for next 6 PM ET Thursday -- whether local programming management wants it or not!

"It's going to be like one big commercial for the book! Why didn't Mr. Clinton's publisher just buy an hour," one angry executive for a CBS news station said late Monday. "This is not news, this is marketing. I already feel dirty!"

CBS' parent company Viacom also owns the publisher of Clinton's book, Simon & Schuster.

Damn. The good guys keep dying...

Award winning sports writer and author Ralph Wiley died last night of heart failure.

Wiley was formerly senior writer at Sports Illustrated, and the author and co-author of a number of books, including Why Black People Tend to Shout and By Any Means Necessary: The Trials and Tribulations of the Making of Malcolm X, which he co-wrote with Spike Lee.

Most recently, Wiley was a Page 2 columnist for ESPN.com, and penned more than 240 articles for them.

And while politically, he was to the left of the aisle, one has to admit that Ralph Wiley was one of America's best sportswriters. No, one of America's best writers. He'll truly be missed.

Wiley is survived by his son, Cole, and daughter, Maggie; his mother, Dorothy Brown, of Washington, D.C.; and his fiancé, Susan Peacock. He was 52.

Iran sez "We're going nuclear, and you can't do a damn thing 'bout it!"

Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi

Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi rejected further outside influence on Tehran's nuclear ambitions two days before the International Atomic Energy Agency board of governors meets to discuss Iran's highly controversial program.

"We won't accept any new obligations," Kharrazi said. "Iran has a high technical capability and has to be recognized by the international community as a member of the nuclear club. This is an irreversible path."

Of course, that is barring a realistic outcome of the second question: Do you really think that Israel will sit still and allow -- yes, allow -- an Arab nation to develop nuclear weapons in their own back yard?

Think about this -- missles fired from Iran today can hit Israel. You know that Israel has to be scared spitless of this possibility.

And we thought India/Pakistan would go up first?

Israel might sit still, at least as long as George Bush is in the White House directing traffic. But let Ketchup Boy win the election. Mark my words, if Kerry wins, the whole damn place is going to go up like a powder keg.

I've heard of bad taste, but just damn.

I ran across this from AllahPundit last night, and the only comment I can come up with is "Just damn."

This truly leaves me speechless.

AQ videotapes ANOTHER execution of an American

Al Qaeda terrorists have released another internet videotape of an execution; this time, purportedly of the murder of an American citizen, Robert Jacob, who worked for defense contractor Vinnell Corp. The murder supposedly took place in the Saudi Arabian capitol of Riyadh last week.

Of course, the video made the top of the rotation on Al Jazeera over the past few days.

The video was released on a site, that, according to US intelligence officials, has been used by terrorists affiliated wtih Al Qaeda.

The video, less than two minutes long, does not show any faces. It begins with men running in a garage and a voice yelling in English, "No, no, please!" A shot is fired, and the body of what appears to be a Western man falls to the ground. Two gunmen fire at least 10 more shots at the fallen man, then one kneels by his head and motions as if he is beheading him.

AQ are like fire ants. They need to die. Now. Horribly. And without prejudice, lest they attack us in our homes.

Anybody got any Spectracide?

Intl Red Cross to USA: "Charge Saddam by 6/30 or let him go!"

The International Committee on the Red Cross has given the United States an ultimatum: Charge Saddam Hussain by June 30, or free him.

Nada Doumani, a spokeswoman for the ICRC, told the (UK) Guardian: "The United States defines Saddam Hussein as a prisoner of war. At the end of an occupation PoWs have to be released provided they have no penal charges against them."

Her comments came as the international body, the only independent group with access to detainees in US custody, becomes increasingly concerned over the legal limbo in which thousands of people are being held in the run-up to the transfer of power at the end of the month.

"There are all these people kept in a legal vacuum. No one should be left not knowing their legal status. Their judicial rights must be assured," Ms Doumani said.

"If we consider the occupation ends on June 30, that would mean it's the end of the international armed conflict. This is the legal situation.

"When the conflict ends the prisoners of war should be released according to the Geneva conventions," Ms Doumani said.

Fahrenheit 9/11 rated "R"; Moore appeals decision

Distributors for Michael Moore's documentary Fahrenheit 9/11 are trying to get the film's rating changed now.

The film has been rated "R" by the Motion Picture Association of America, which means that anyone under the age of 17 must come with an adult.

Moore, in his infinite wisdom, insists that because teenagers are those who may have to go to war in the near future, they should be able to see the film without the interference of adults.

"It is sadly very possible that many fifteen and sixteen years olds will be asked and recruited to serve in Iraq in the next couple of years," said Michael Moore. "If they are old enough to be recruited and capable of being in combat and risking their lives, they certainly deserve the right to see what is going on in Iraq."

"Lions Gate Films will continue to aggressively support the artistic visions of our filmmakers. The MPAA rating applied to 'Fahrenheit 9/11' is completely unjustified," said (Tom) Ortenberg (President of Lions Gate Films Releasing). "We are adamant about overturning this decision in an expeditious manner to ensure that as many people as possible, including young adults who represent the future of our nation, are able to see one of the most important and thought-provoking films of our time in theaters on June 25."

"IFC has great concerns with the MPAA's decision and will do everything within its legal power to fight this unjust rating judgment," stated IFC Entertainment President Jonathan Sehring. "With a film like 'Fahrenheit 9/11', IFC is of the strong belief that all filmgoers should be empowered to make their own viewing decisions. The bottom line is this - during these times, it is crucial for the young people of this country to be fully informed. Michael Moore's voice deserves a broad audience and we are confident this ratings decision will ultimately be overturned."

The politically charged film (in the eyes of many -- myself included -- pure anti-Bush propaganda film) is due to be released nationally June 25.

Nicole Kidman in romantic romp with 10 year-old in film

Actress Nicole Kidman is sparking a controversy over her upcoming film Birth, in which her character gets up close and personal with a ten year-old boy.

The shocking movie Birth will feature bizarre scenes of her nude and getting romantic with an underage lad she believes is the reincarnation of her dead husband.

The weird flick sees Kidman playing a widow, and two scenes have got New Line Cinema hot under the collar. Kidman and the boy strip off together to submerge in bubbles and then they even lock lips.

Ghosts found in New Orleans hotel ("My refrigerator says 'ZUUL'!")

Paranormal researchers in New Orleans claim to have figured out who the spirits are that "inhabit" a French Quarter hotel.

Investigators with the International Society of Paranormal Research unveiled their findings Friday at a news conference at the allegedly haunted 118-year-old Hotel Monteleone on Royal street. Dr. Larry Montz and psychic medium Daena Smoller said much of their research was caught on film.

"We have identified the ghosts and the tragic circumstances that brought their spirits to roam the hotel," according to a hotel news release. "Some of them are past employees who continue to make their rounds, others are former guests who have extended their stays into the afterlife, and others were in the wrong place at the wrong time."

Remember, "We are ready to believe you!"

Pop the top on a cold can of......champagne?

Technically, this is a "sparkling wine," not a "champagne," since it's made in California as opposed to the Champagne region of France, but you get the picture.

The Niebaum-Coppola Winery has released a "mini-container" of champagne, marketed in -- get this -- a pop-top can.

"Every crazy idea always sounds crazy at the beginning until somebody says, "Why didn't I think of that?" says Joel Robins of Niebaum-Coppola Estate Winery, which makes the Sofia Blanc de Blancs mini.

The winery has produced 2.4 million cans for a national introduction and some of them have showed up in metro Atlanta, in the hip westside club Compound and a handful of liquor stores. And Robins predicts a future as rosy as Sofia's packaging, right down to the little pink straw.

At $4 a pop the drink is being touted as a convenient choice for boats, baseball stadiums, bridal showers and, yes, golf carts.

But I don't know if I'm ready to toss a six-pack of champagne in the cooler as opposed to a six pack of brew.

The Good That Reagan Did For Black America

Syndicated columnist Joseph Perkins penned an editorial in yesterday's San Diego Union-Tribune that highlights some of the good things that the late former president Ronald Reagan did for black America.

Andrew Brimmer, the Harvard-trained black economist, the former Federal Reserve Board member, estimated that total black business receipts increased from $12.4 billion in 1982 to $18.1 billion in 1987, translating into an annual average growth rate of 7.9 percent (compared to 5 percent for all U.S. businesses.

Black social scientist Bart Landry estimated that that upwardly mobile cohort grew by a third under Reagan's watch, from 3.6 million in 1980 to 4.8 million in 1988. His definition was based on employment in white-collar jobs as well as on income levels.

Indeed, between 1982 and 1988, total black employment increased by 2 million, a staggering sum. That meant that blacks gained 15 percent of the new jobs created during that span, while accounting for only 11 percent of the working-age population.

Meanwhile, the black jobless rate was cut by almost half between 1982 and 1988. Over the same span, the black employment rate – the percentage of working-age persons holding jobs – increased to record levels, from 49 percent to 56 percent.

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission reported that the number of black managers and officers in corporations with 100 or more employees increased by 30 percent between 1980 and 1985.

During the same period, the number of black professionals increased by an astounding 63 percent.

Based on these and other statistics, the opposite is true.

The one thing -- the only thing -- that these so-called leaders can point at is that Ronald Reagan was [gasp] a Republican!

And in order to keep the masses doing what they want them to do, they have to paint the GOP as "evil." When nothing could be further from the truth...

This was the week that was...

Order of Service for State Funeral of Ronald Wilson Reagan

The National Cathedral has published the bulletin for today's funeral service.

Former US Senator John Danforth, an ordained Episcopal minister, will be officiating the service, which starts at 11:30 AM ET.

For those of you who will not be able to view the service on television, C-Span, MSNBC, CBS News, ABC News, and most likely most local television station websites will all stream the service live; many radio stations and radio station websites will do likewise.

C-SPAN 1: (RealPlayer | WMP 9/10)
CBS News
MSNBC/NBC News
CityPulse 24 Toronto
WRC-TV/DT Washington

Monty Python's JRR Tolikien's Fellowship of the Ring

And now for something completely different...

Jimmy Kimmel in hot water for Detroit remarks

Jimmy Kimmel's late night ABC show is not shown here in Atlanta. I get to watch it once in a while on WABC New York via satellite (I love my DirecTV system!). Atlanta residents couldn't have watched the show last night even if local affiliate WSB-TV weren't such sticks in the mud.

Kimmel got himself in hot water during halftime of the Pistons-Lakers NBA Finals game Tuesday night.

During an interview with ABC studio host (and Ann Arbor resident) Mike Tirico, Kimmel made an off the cuff remark about Detroit and riots.

Kimmel, when asked by ABC Sports commentator Mike Tirico who he was rooting for, replied, "Besides the fact I'm a Lakers fan, I realize they're going to burn the city of Detroit down if the Pistons win."

"What I said about Pistons fans during halftime was a joke, nothing more. If I offended anyone, I'm sorry," he said. "Clearly, over the past 10 years, we in L.A. have taken a commanding lead in post-game riots. If the Lakers win, I plan to overturn my own car."

The show is back on tonight, albeit later than it's usual 12:05AM slot, following tonight's NBA Finals game.

Will there be more contrition from Kimmel? Tune in and find out...

"Just an ol' sweet song..." Good night, Ray.

Ray Charles
1930-2004

Jesse Jackson continues to vilify Reagan, though stats show true story

Even though black Americans prospered significantly under the presidency of Ronald Reagan, Rev. Jesse "The Gypsy" Jackson continues to spread the mantra of "Republican bad! Democrat good!"

"As he left office, a Lou Harris poll found nearly 80 percent of blacks considered his administration oppressive," CNN correspondent Adaora Udoji noted to the Rev. Jesse Jackson Tuesday night.

Jackson readily concurred, acknowledging that Reagan's relationship with blacks was "very hostile." In an earlier CNN interview Jackson observed, "Reagan believed in states' rights and Jefferson Davis, I believe in the Union and Abraham Lincoln."

According to statistics gathered from a number of sources, including the 1990 US Census, black unemployment fell faster than white unemployment during the Reagan years.

Los Angeles radio host Larry Elder in a 1999 op-ed for the Ethnic News Watch. "Black teenage unemployment fell faster than did white teenage unemployment. And blacks started businesses at a rate faster than that of whites.

"In 1981," Elder continued, "the nation's poverty rate stood at 14 percent. It declined to 11.6 percent in 1988, Reagan's last year in office."

Other mainstream media sources, including the vaunted New York Times had to admit that poverty had lessened during the Reagan Administration -- which flies directly in the face of Jackson's claims this week.

In addition, high school graduation rates for black students increased, narrowing the education gap with white students.

All of this happened during the Reagan years; years when, according to Jesse Jackson and other professional peddlers of black victimhood (like the NAACP's Julian Bond, for example), black progress was turned back decades.

I talked about Julian Bond's predeliction for shoe leather yesterday. It seems that Jesse Jackson ought to join him in the "idiot statement" department.

Unfortunately, the members of the Soul Patrol, who thrive on keeping black Americans thinking they are victims of society; coupled with the useful idiots in the mainstream American press, won't let truths like this be heard other than by a miniscule number of Americans.

And after all, if CNN says that we've been victimized, then it must be true, right?

Yassuh. Right, boss. Anything you say.

The press has to choke on it's own bile this week

Frist: Rename Pentagon, "Ronald Reagan Defense Building"

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN) is planning on introducing legislation shortly that would rename the Pentagon the "Ronald Reagan Defense Building," in memory of the late 40th President.

This is the latest in a batch of measures to honor Reagan.

The Tennessee Republican plans to attach an amendment to the next defense appropriations bill, NBC-TV's Washington affiliate reported Wednesday.

Reagan is credited with the military's reconstruction and revitalization after being gutted under the Carter Administration.

Julian Bond: Reagan years are "a time best forgotten"

NAACP head Julian Bond, who seems to have a habit of shoving his Florsheim's into his mouth, did it again this week, when talking about the late Ronald Reagan.

"For many Americans, this was a time best forgotten," said Julian Bond, chairman of the NAACP and a longtime civil rights activist. "He was a polarizing figure in black America. He was hostile to the generally accepted remedies for discrimination. His appointments were of people as equally hostile. I can't think of any Reagan policy that African Americans would embrace."

Julian, how about programs geared toward small businesses that directly resulted in the largest increase in new black-owned businesses since the Renaissance? How about other tax programs that helped to move more black households into the middle class than anything else before or since?

Should I continue? You seem to like the taste of shoe leather...

Project 21 members remember Ronaldus Maximus

A new release by Project 21 (of which I'm proudly a member of), highlights comments by several members on the passing of President Ronald Reagan.

• Ak'Bar Shabazz (Atlanta, Georgia): "We all mourn the passing of a great leader. As Americans, we bask in the freedoms that Reagan had the clarity of vision to secure. All future presidents will be measured by the great examples that he provided."

• James Coleman (Los Angeles, California): "I spent my youth as a leftist radical after becoming disillusioned with what I saw as the hesitant policies of the civil rights mainstream. Ronald Reagan convinced me that the conservative movement was my home. As for African-Americans, we can only hope that someday we all recognize the benefits we experienced and continue to experience from the Reagan legacy. Black businesses and businesses owned by women prospered greatly in the 80s. There is a national purpose that was solidified and set the basis for the optimism that sustains our youth and keeps our military vital in such dangerous times. Whether we realize it or not, Ronald Reagan set a philosophical tone that lasts to this day and may indeed sustain us through the hard times ahead."

• Donald Scoggins (Springfield, Virginia): "Through his determination and forward thinking, President Reagan paved the way that saw the destruction of communism abroad, as well as here at home. After decades of paralyzing government social programs, Reagan was instrumental in establishing a national climate that allowed for the elimination of welfare as we know it."

• Mychal Massie (Zion Hill, Pennsylvania): "Leaders such as the late President Reagan can only be fully appreciated in their passing. While they are admired and referenced in life, it is history that ultimately provides their legacy. I believe that history will reward Ronald Reagan with the honor he justly deserves. He reminded America that ours was a country to be proud of and that our way of life was the envy of the world. And this he did in a way few have before him and none have since him."

Reagan will become more appreciated -- especially by many here at home -- now that he is gone, and a more objective eye can be cast on his work.

Reagan was the architect of the fiscal recovery of the 1980s, and helped to fuel the entrepreneurship that fueled the advances of the biotech, internet and real estate sectors that began during the latter years of the Reagan Administration and continued nearly to the end of the century.

Reagan, contrary to the whining that has gone on by pundits far and wide the past few days, was the architect and driving force that caused the fall of the Soviet Union.

And though many on the left get upset by Reagan's cuts of some social programs, the dollars saved from those cuts allowed the nation to recover from a recession that the Carter Administration left the nation in, and restored the adventurous spirit of all Americans.

Civil rights critics, then and now, go out of their way to claim that Reagan set civil rights for blacks back more than fifty years, yet cannot point to any one thing that he did -- outside of eliminating a number of social programs. Reagan put in place programs that allowed and encouraged entrepreneurial growth for all people, black, white and otherwise. Black businesses flourished in this country as a result of this, at an unprecedented rate.

After a decrease in black owned and operated businesses in the 60s and 70s, those businesses -- in all economic sectors -- began to grow at a rate that continues unabated to this day.

Stepford Wives ad shows morphed nude Rice

A new ad for the upcoming remake of The Stepford Wives, due later this month, goes over the line.

The ad shows National Security Director Condoleezza Rice nude from the waist up, covering her breasts with her arms, and Hillary Clinton as a "Stepford" housewife baking cookies.

The pictures move across the screen very quickly, but they caught the eye of a Kansas City woman, who recorded the spot to make sure of what she was seeing.

Becky Reynolds said when she taped and watched the ad again, she "realized it was even worse" than what she'd suspected.

"It's just inappropriate, and it needs to be stopped," Reynolds said.

Reynolds says the less-than-perfect images in the advertisement for the new film will keep her out of the theater. Hillary Clinton and Condoleezza Rice in 'Stepford Wives' ad Pat Gray, who works with Northstar Marketing Group, said the ad shows bad taste toward Rice and Clinton.

Rock has-been Morrissey: "Bush should have died, not Reagan"

The headline says it all.

The solo artist was on the last leg of his European tour in Dublin, when he announced -- to much cheering and applause -- the death of President Ronald Reagan. Then the singer said something downright offensive (to which he got even bigger cheers and applause from the crowd).

"Bush should have died, not Reagan..."

Then again, there are quite a few moonbats in THIS country with the same view.

G8 Summit: Leave it to the moonbat British press to paint Georgia as backward

St. Simons Island, GA is quiet this week; many of the locals having shipped out to parts unknown.

Nearby Sea Island is hosting leaders from across the world as a part of the G8 Summit.

Protesters and much of the press, alike are about 60 miles north of there in Savannah. But many protesters appear to have stayed home, which leaves the press taking pictures of each other.

Well, at least with one exception.

E Jane Dickson of the UK's Independent, apparently with nothing good to say, is having fun inventing negative spin on the gathering and the setting.

...it was announced a year ago that President Bush would be hosting the 2004 G8 Summit on Sea Island (Sea Island as in cotton, as in slaves)...

...around half the islands' residents have evacuated, scared silly by the double, and largely undifferentiated, threats of international terrorism and violent protest.

He has just heard a rumour that 2,000 body bags have been delivered to the clapboard Chamber of Commerce across the road from the bookstore. This intelligence is passed around like a joint at a fortysomething party, a delicious whiff of recreational danger. Five minutes later, one of the island's fire chiefs drops by, fresh from a briefing. It's not a rumour. The body bags are here, together with a refrigerated lorry to take away the corpses. "I liked it better when it was a rumour," says Larry.

The entire Independent article reads like that, chock full of quotes and anecdotes, carefully crafted to make Georgia and Georgians look like backwoods hicks.

The article quickly glosses over the fact that St. Simons is a high-end resort community, and that many of the residents are not full-time residents. The article goes out of it's way to suggest that the community is "under siege" by the confab, when, if anything, it's under siege by reporters like Dickson, desperate for some kind of controversy or action to report on. All that's left is to either report on the sea turtles of the coastal beaches, or make stuff up.

Guess which one Dickson chose?

Reagan on the $10? (Or the $20?) It could happen...

Democrats in Congress aren't happy with the notion, but Republican Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky is set to introduce a bill which would replace Alexander Hamilton's face with that of President Ronald Reagan on the ten dollar bill.

The decision as to who is on the face of money ultimately resides with the Secretary of the Treasury, but currently, Democrats on the Hill are opposed to the notion of their long-time political nemesis being on the ten-spot.

"Ronald Reagan did many things during his presidency that deserve to be remembered," says Todd Webster, a spokesman for Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle, "and Democrats and Republicans will discuss how best to honor his legacy."

After this week's ceremonies mourning Reagan's death, leaders of the Ronald Reagan Legacy Project plan to begin lobbying Congress to make the Reagan ten dollar bill a reality.

UPDATE 2P ET: US Rep Dana Rohrbacher is also sponsoring a bill to replace Andrew Jackson's face with Reagan's on the $20. This is a measure that will probably get even wider support, as Jackson is more widely despised than 'co-founding father' Hamilton.

Bubba heartbroken to be left off Reagan funeral speakers' list

From Drudge:

Controversy develops over Reagan funeral speakers...

'President Clinton really held out all hope the funeral would be a nonpartisan event, like Nixon's was,' a top Clinton source said on Tuesday morning. 'He's angry and disappointed neither he nor President Carter have been asked to speak, as of yet'...

The top source says Clinton has been critical that both Bush presidents will address the crowd gathered at National Cathedral.

Former President George H.W. Bush, former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and former Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney will join President Bush in eulogizing Ronald Reagan, Reagan's office announced. Presiding over the service will be former Sen. John Danforth of Missouri, who is an ordained Episcopal priest. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor and the Rabbi Harold Kusher will give readings, while Irish tenor Ronan Tynan will sing.

What would he do: "I'm sorry Reagan's dead...Oh, by the way, buy my book! It's coming out next week at a bookstore near you!"

Of course, he'd follow it with a Nelson Muntz-like, "HA! Ha!"

Bush NOT on Illinois election ballot

As of now, the name of George W. Bush will not be on the November ballot in Illinois.

The reason for this is that Illinois state law requires the names for the November ballot be submitted by the end of August -- a full week and a half ahead of the Republican National Convention, as scheduled this year.

The state legislators have been trying to work on a solution, but Illinois Democrats are doing their level best to forstall any opportunity to alleviate the dilemma.

Barring legislative action, a federal court may have to step in to force election officials in the state of Illinois to place President Bush's name on the November ballot.

Illinois has 21 electoral votes up for grabs this fall; in 2000, Al Gore won Illinois handily, 55% to 42%.

Black conservative in Netherlands Parliament challenges Islam head on

Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a Nigerian-born member of Parliament in the Netherlands, has strong views on Islam, much as many do in this country.

She was raised as a Muslim but has recently become agnostic. She has an incredible command of the Dutch langue and is a sharp debater. She abhors woolly, placating rhetoric, which is so typical of Dutch politics. According to a recent poll she ranks second among the most popular politicians in Holland. And her political star is still rising. Yet her political message stirs a lot of controversy, especially among Muslim radicals.

It was the criticism by the late Pim Fortuyn (the Dutch politician who was killed by an animal rights activists) of the impact of Islam on Dutch society which sharpened her awareness of the threat of Muslim radicalism. Fortuyn openly qualified the Islam as a backward religion and Ayaan Hirsi Ali shares this view. When she was still in the socialist party she wanted to put the issue high on the political agenda. But the party did not support her view, because it was afraid that it would play into Fortuyn's hands. Ayaan Hirsi Ali is especially critical of the lack of tolerance for dissenting opinions among Muslims, as well as their oppression of women.

According to Ayaan Hirsi Ali, the emotions incited by her statements, especially among radical Muslims, underscores the state of the Islam. (Radical) Muslims are incapable of self-reflection. Consequently, any critical remark is perceived as an offense.

Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a member of Parliament, recently offered a guy a knife and invited him to stab her when he told her he hoped the "Mojahedin" would kill her due to her sharp and very public criticisms of Islam (he backed down).

Hirsi Ali — who once wrote Islamic prophet Mohammed was a pervert for taking a 12-year-old girl as one of his wives — has frequently been the target of death threats.

The politician wrote in her latest column that she often received death threats by phone and in the mail, but this incident made the biggest impression on her.

Two years ago, she had to hide out in the US for months and these days she is accompanied by bodyguards when in public.

Leave it to Allah to come home and offer appropriate humor...

Allah's back!

After a hiatus, AllahPundit returns to the fold with....with.....well, you've just gotta see it for yourself....

Ted Rall blames 9/11 on Ronald Reagan

When I thought moonbats like Rall couldn't go any lower, I get a look at his blog entry from yesterday.

How Sad...

...that Ronald Reagan didn't die in prison, where he belonged for starting an illegal, laughably unjustifiable war against Grenada under false pretenses (the "besieged" medical students later said they were nothing of the sort) and funneling arms to hostages during Iran-Contra.

Oh, and 9/11? That was his. Osama bin Laden and his fellow Afghan "freedom fighters" got their funding, and nasty weapons, from Reagan.

Anyway, I'm sure he's turning crispy brown right about now.

Jesse Jackson: 'Right Wing Is Not That Popular'

Jesse Jackson spoke at the closing luncheon of the Take Back America conference in Washington last Friday, and continued his ongoing attack on conservatives.

"The right wing is not that popular. It is sustained by big money. We can have a poor campaign, a rich message, we can outwork [conservatives] because we have a higher sense of purpose, mission and need," Jackson told the crowd.

"One reason why America has been so slow to react [in opposition] to this war is because of misinformation and disinformation. Europeans have reacted with much greater reaction [opposing the war] because they have more options in the media. Our media gets in the bed with the military in wartime," Jackson told a reporter after his speech.

"The whole media got suckered into the [Bush administration's] disinformation campaign and therefore was disseminating misinformation," Jackson said.

"Their journalism is unabashedly political. The more people who see it for what it is worth, the more they look for a more fair, accurate, balanced reporting. There are facts and there is context and there is truth," Jackson said.

"George Bush campaigned as a compassionate conservative, implying that he was less dismissive of civil rights and labor than [former president Ronald] Reagan was and more open than his father (former president George H. Bush). But [Bush] has been a closed-door conservative," Jackson said.

"We can do better than George Bush as president," he added to loud applause.

Jackson also addressed some of the liberal activists' disappointment about Sen. John F. Kerry's stance on the Iraq War.

"For us, the issue is not should be we be on Kerry's ticket -- put Kerry on our ticket, we need him as president," he said to applause. A petition circulating among the liberal activists at the event asked for signatures to pressure Kerry to "present a plan to withdraw from Iraq." Kerry, the presumed Democratic presidential nominee, has been accused by some fellow Democrats of straddling the Iraq war issue.

Leave it to Danny Glover to piss on the flowers at the funeral home

Danny Glover, still ticked off at conservatives for raining on his personal parade (i.e., Aristide's Haitiaan Adventure), has elevated the aforementioned mudslinging into the mainstream.

"We all know Reagan's legacy, from the Iran-Contra affair to the funding of the Nicaraguan military in which over 200,000 people died. The groundwork for the move steadily to the right happened with the Reagan administration. People want to elevate him to some mythic level; they have their own reason for doing that." -- actor Danny Glover, at an anti-war rally in Los Angeles.

Only a few actors can make the transition from acting to national politics without coming across as a jackass.

Reagan. Fred Thompson, and Arnold come to mind.

Danny doesn't. Maybe he's just still pissed over Paul Robeson or something.

Both of 'em on the rebound...

We all know about J-Lo's love live, thanks to E! & Entertainment Tonight, but most people don't know as much about Anthony.

Anthony just got a quickie divorce in the Dominican Republic from his prior wife of four years, former Miss Universe Dayanara Torres.

Considering that Lopez is the contemporary version of Elizabeth Taylor, hopping from beau to beau with the frequency of a locust in heat, I suppose that Anthony's being on the rebound shouldn't be much of a surprise.

New Wayans Bros. Movie: "White Chicks"

Why!?!!???

Let the mudslinging begin...

The left has lost little time in beginning their smearing of Reagan.

CNN: Reagan will be remembered for his action against the air traffic controller's union

Reagan not only fired the controllers but also refused to negotiate with the union while it was on strike. "You can't sit and negotiate with a union that's in violation of the law," he said.

ABC blamed Reagan for the deaths of the Marines in the barracks bombing in Lebanon in their highlight reel.

Iran Contra came the cry from CBS, followed by sneering highlights of Reagan "capitolizing financially" after leaving office.

The only positive note to come from the "alphabet networks" on Reagan was that he was responsible for the end of the Cold War. No mention of the beginning of the upward trend for the economy; no mention of the surge in jobs; no mention of America's excellence under Reagan.

I won't even mention the cheering coming from places like Democratic Underground.

No matter. Rest well, Gipper. God has a wonderful place prepared for you.

More coverage from Wizbang, Zygote, VodkaPundit, Useful Fools, Lopsided Poopdeck (in their new location!), Spot On, Kevin McCullough, Ipse Dixit, Incite, Oliver Willis, Outside the Beltway, DC Thornton, and a bazillion other folks...

Ronald Wilson Reagan; 1911-2004

Smarty Jones' picture a year from now...

CNN touts Bubba for VP, despite Constitutional prohibition

From CNN's profiles of Democratic Vice Presidential contenders:

Bill Clinton
Few vice-presidential possibilities boast the accomplished resume -- or political baggage -- of former President Bill Clinton. Clinton studied at Georgetown, Yale and Oxford (as a Rhodes scholar) before returning to his home state of Arkansas. He taught at the University of Arkansas' law school for three years before, at 30, being elected the state's attorney general. Clinton later served six terms as Arkansas' governor (he won in 1978, lost a 1980 race, then was re-elected two years later), before defeating incumbent George H.W. Bush to become U.S. president, starting in January 1993. While federal law prohibits a person from seeking a third presidential term, the Constitution does not specify whether or not a former commander in chief can become vice president.

...no person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall be eligible to that of Vice-President of the United States.

Sounds more and more like impartiality is not part of the vocabulary down at the Death Star downtown.

CNN getting caught in it's own lie

As expected, crowds of protestors have greeted President Bush in Italy, where he is on a state visit ahead of this weekend's D-Day anniversary ceremonies in France.

CNN is reporting that protesters are numbering around a half-million.

Protesters swarmed the streets of central Rome after Bush met with Pope John Paul II, one of the strongest critics of the war. Police estimated the number of demonstrators at 500,000.

Organisers say 150,000 people have turned out for the protest, while police put the figure at 25,000.

CNN has the billboard now...

Remember that billboard facing CNN Center and Centennial Olympic Park in downtown Atlanta from a few weeks back? You know the one, that said, "Come Home Connie, CNN Needs You."

The billboard had been the subject of a dispute between the sign's owner and Fox News Channel, the primary tenant of that billboard since 1999.

FNC wanted to place a message that, like it's predecessors, poked fun at CNN, but at the end said "Send resumes to 'Resumes-AT-foxnews.com.'"

The sign's new owners didn't think the message was funny and refused to place the billboard. Fox threatened to sue, claiming that the new owners were in cahoots with CNN.

The story went quiet for awhile; the new FNC billboard went up late last week without the resume line, only to be replaced with a CNN billboard early this week.

No one's talking about how it played out, but I'm sure some dollars exchanged hands across the board. And now that CNN's got the billboard, I'm sure no one else will get to put a message on it anytime soon.

OJ's talks about a new tv gig and about Nicole on anniversary of murder

OJ Simpson, in an television interview with Greta Van Susteren to be broadcast this week on Fox News Channel, says that he's working on a new television show.

Simpson said, "It's a takeoff on something called 'Punk'd,' " an MTV hidden-camera show featuring Ashton Kutcher pranks on celebrities. "It's me doing gags as Juice ... what they call 'juicing' people."

"There are times I am angry at her," the NFL Hall of Famer said in comments Fox News Channel aired last night. "There are things that she could be doing with the kids better than I, you know? When it's emotional stuff, especially with my daughter, I am angry with her. I am angry that she found herself hanging out with the group of — who are these people?"

Since families of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman were awarded $33.5 million in damages in 1997, Simpson and his children have lived quietly in Miami on a $4 million pension that is exempt from civil-court judgments.

MayahMar'nBar' is gonna run for DC City Council

Everyone's favorite former mayor-turned-druggie (remember "The bitch set me up!"), former DC mayor Marion Barry is floating suggestions that he's going to run for a city council seat in the Nation's Capitol.

Barry was forced out of office after an undercover drug arrest in 1990.

Barry is not saying he's running himself; he seems to enjoy playing coy with the local press.

No, the most recent rumblings come from Council member Sandy Allen. Allen told reporters this week that Barry said that he was definitely going to run against Allen for her 8th Ward seat in the September 14 Democratic Primary.

A showdown between Barry, 68, and Allen, 53, in the Sept. 14 Democratic primary would make for fascinating political theater. Barry is, of course, the former "mayor for life" who was disgraced after being videotaped smoking crack cocaine in an FBI sting at the Vista Hotel in 1990.

Barry was convicted of one misdemeanor count of drug possession later that year and served six months in prison. But he ran for and won the Ward 8 council seat in 1992 and was reelected as mayor in 1994. Three years later, he announced that he would not seek a fifth term, opening the door for the election of Mayor Anthony A. Williams (D).

CIA Director Tenet is out, and it's about damn time!

George Tenet, director of the CIA, has finally figured out how to use the doorknob.

I hope it doesn't hit him in the ass on the way out.

More coverage from Herr Puppy Blender, Smash, A Small Victory, AlphaPatriot, Bushblog, Mon Capitain, Crow, Bill Hobbs, that Other King guy, Oliver Willis, Rob Bernard, Wizbang and damn near everybody else on my blogroll...

Who says the press doesn't have a sense of humor?

From this morning's NY Post:

NAACP calls Republicans "terrorists" against blacks

At the "Take Back America" conference in Washington yesterday, NAACP Chairman Julian Bond compared Republicans to the Taliban, the terrorists who used to rule Afghanistan.

"Their idea of equal rights is the American flag and the Confederate swastika flying side by side," Bond told a cheering audience. "They've written a new constitution for Iraq and ignore the Constitution here at home. They draw their most rabid supporters from the Taliban wing of American politics. Now they want to write bigotry back into the Constitution."

Bond called the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Voting Rights Act of 1965 two of America's greatest achievements. Of course, he neglected the simple fact that the Republicans of the day were instrumental in pushing both Acts through. Had the Democrats of the 1960s prevailed, neither act would have become law, and blacks would have continued to be relegated to the "back of the bus."

"The passage of these two laws in 1964 and 1965 marked the beginning of the dependence of the Republican Party on the politics of racial division to win elections and gain power," Bond said. "By playing the race card in election after election, they've appealed to that dark underside of American culture, to that minority of Americans who reject democracy and equality. They preach racial neutrality and they practice racial division."

"We have a president who talks like a populist and governs for the privileged," Bond said. "We were promised compassionate conservatism; instead, we got crummy capitalism."

After similarly partisan statements by Bond at their convention last summer, a number of critics of the civil rights organization called for the removal of their tax exempt status. In an interview on MSNBC's Scarborough Country last July, I pointed out (much to the chagrin of fellow guest Roland Martin) that Bond's statements would make it easy for the federal government to withdraw that exemption.

Bond's statements make it crystal clear that the NAACP has no desire to work together with Republicans to make things better for all people.

The NAACP's 2004 National Convention is July 10-15 in Philadelphia. I'm sure we will hear much more in the way of venomous rage and true hate speech from Bond and his cohorts then.

Wild lynx on the loose in Atlanta

Residents of the Atlanta north side neighborhood have been seeing what they have nicknamed "Sasquatch" for the past week or so now.

Fulton County Animal Control Director David Smith says it's probably a lynx, a wildcat native to Canada and the northern US. It's diet is mostly rodents.

"It's a really big kitty cat," said Fulton Animal Control director David Smith. "They do have real sharp teeth and real big claws and they can hurt you if they want."

This one appears tame, Smith said, but could be dangerous because wild animals are unpredictable. People should not approach it, nor should they run away from the animal since that could provoke a chase. The best thing to do is ignore it, keep away from it and call the authorities, he said.

It can chase me if it wants. But I don't think it'll catch me.

It's like outrunning a dragon when you're walking with a hobbit. You don't have to beat the dragon -- you just have to run faster than the hobbit.

Judge: Kobe Bryant's accuser cannot be referred to as "victim"

Colorado state District Judge Terry Ruckriegle agreed with defense attorneys in the Kobe Bryant sexual abuse trial that using the term "victim" to describe the woman who has accused the LA Lakers' star of rape implies guilt on Kobe's part.

"Its use under these circumstances could improperly suggest that a crime had been committed such that the presumption of innocence might be jeopardized," Ruckriegle said. He said the 19-year-old woman must be referred to by name at trial and as a "person" in jury instructions.

And a trial date still has not been set.

Judge rules against partial-birth abortion due to "undue burden"

U.S. District Court Judge Phyllis Hamilton in San Francisco, has struck down the partial-birth abortion law on the grounds that it is unconstitutional. How, you might ask? Because it is vague and creates an "undue burden" on abortion rights.

Hamilton sided with Planned Parenthood in its suit against the federal government, in relation to the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003. The act was signed into law by President Bush late last year, and bans the controversial method of late-term abortion.

Pro-choice defenders claim that the measure is an overall assault on abortion rights in this nation.

The National Abortion Federation, the Center for Reproductive Rights, and the American Civil Liberties Union praised Hamilton's ruling, saying they were "pleased that the court in San Francisco recognized that this ban is a broad attack on abortion beginning as early as 13 weeks in pregnancy."

Dr. LeRoy Carhart, the lead plaintiff in the Nebraska challenge to the federal law, said, "The court in San Francisco recognized this federal ban for what it is: a threat to women's health. The court understood that the government has no business trying to come between doctors and their patients and telling doctors that they can't put their patients' health and safety first."

On the other hand, Judge Hamilton, in her reasoning, makes me question her judgement. The US District Court in San Francisco seems to come up with plenty of decisions that cite "feelings" and "emotions" as opposed to logic and reasoning.

Is this how judges are supposed to work?

Crawford, TX mayor supports Kerry

Crawford, TX is well known as where President Bush owns his ranch.

It pisses off the press that they've had to go to the hinterlands of Texas (actually about 20 miles out of Waco) every year during the heat of the summer.

Some people actually criticize the location of Crawford in their bashing of the President -- not realizing how stupid they sound. After all, all other presidents have had "western" or "southern" or other "vacation White House" type retreats for themselves.

Now you can add the mayor the sleepy little town to the list of those who don't like President Bush.

Robert Campbell was recently named by the John Kerry campaign as one of 100 black mayors across the nation that will be supporting his candidacy for the nation's highest office.

"I don't see where I'm better off than I was four years ago," Robert Campbell said Tuesday. "I don't see where the city is any better off."

Some people simply don't think before they open their mouths to spew their hatred. They can't -- otherwise they'd realize how stupid they sound.

"I have the right to vote for who I want to be president," he said. "If some people around here don't like it, they can vote for someone else for mayor."

"Game Over, Man!"

Yassir Arafat has been given a deadline of June 15 -- by EGYPT -- to clean up his act.

...or else his future will be "left in the hands of Ariel Sharon."

"Go ahead. Make my day."

Terrorism cuts close for Texas Conservative

The Texas Conservative is dealing with Islamic terrorism rather close to his heart this week.

My cousin Owen, and his wife Dianne, live in the Khobar compound that was attacked in Saudi Arabia today. Al Qaeda has claimed responsibility for the attacks.

Dianne was shot.

She survived, but has serious wounds to her legs. The gunshots broke both bones in one leg, and she suffered a flesh wound in the other.