A bit of a Fisking over the Handover

Over at Chrenkoff, Arthur has a nice little Fisking of a few media comments on the US handover of authority to the Iraqi Transitional Authority.

No one questions German or South Korean sovereignty, the economy was broken by Saddam and is now doing much better, thank you very much for asking, and the fact that people set off car bombs and behead hostages is of course America's fault. The situation is only dire if the media is there to report it - by this standard, Saddam's Iraq was a much better plece to live indeed. It's true that the media doesn't invent crises, it only reports them. The problem is the crises it doesn't.

I'd like to say I have noticed a sort of sad dissappointed tone in the media that comes accross to me as, "sure sure but it's no Disneyland yet so you've failed". And remember way back when we talked about them moving the goal posts all the time? We've removed one of the worst baddies ever, offered liberty to a people for the first time ever, done it all with an amazing low casuality rate and in 15 months for the first shots have setup a sovereign Iraqi government and in the proscess have had the oppertunity to kill quite a few terrorist. Yes that sounds like defeat to me.

I feel that a little bit of a nutty left rubs off on our objective media. So perhaps it's since the nutty left thinks that we really are a child murdering, resource stealing nation bent on colonizing the world with little American provences that anything short of the way Edward I colonized Wales can be viewed by the media as defeat for the US. Whether or not the goals of Operation Iraqi Freedom are met is meaningless to the media as deep down inside the never believed those goals cuase we all now Bush lies. Bush said they were their to free Iraq but the media knew we were there to steal oil. Now that Iraq is sovereign and we don't have their oil the feel ok to report the handover in a cynical negative tone since we failed to get the oil they knew we were after. The terro... er... "insurgents" bloodied the US so much we decided to cut and run without all the booty we came for in the first place.

And FOX is the fascist liars.

More on the Media

Both these are from todays Front Page Magazine. The first by William A. Mayer is a satirical bit on how today's media would be likely to report the Allied invasion on D-Day.

Casualties at day's end are nothing short of horrific; at least 8,000 and possibly as many as 9,000 were wounded in the haphazardly coordinated attack, which seems to have no unifying purpose or intent. Of this number at least 3,000 have been estimated as having been killed, making June 6th by far, the worst single day of the war which has dragged on now--with no exit strategy in sight--as the American economy still struggles to recover from Herbert Hoover's depression and its 25% unemployment.

To read this is to see how negetive and cynical out almost useless media has become. In the second link Thomas Patrick Carroll gives his take on why the media is unable to see the horrors commited in the name of Allah while obbsessing over our every mistep.

So why is the liberal media so gentle with our Islamist enemies? What is it about the mindset of contemporary liberalism that predisposes it to be circumspect toward a belief system that, by the left’s own traditional standards, is absurd and repugnant?

A great deal of the answer lies in ‘multiculturalism,’ the latest addition to the cluttered closet of liberal fads.

I think these are both worth a read.

Restoring a 2006 Chevy Cobalt SS

There's a fun little article in Road and Track about the prospects of restoring the cars of today in the future.

"How did you like the BMW 530i?" my friend, Lew Terpstra, asked.

"Nice car," I said, "if you can master the iDrive system for running the radio and heating system. It drives most people crazy."

Lew nodded. "That system seems to be a point of great controversy among BMW owners." He took a reflective sip of beer and said, "Can you imagine what it's going to be like, 30 or 40 years from now, trying to restore a car like that? Or any modern car, for that matter."

This concept brought a rare, sobering silence to the group.

They have a good point but while they seem to only be considering the ultra high end car the sad reality is that cheap everyman sportcars like the upcoming 205hp Cobalt SS are laden with almost as many electronics and sensors as the money cars are.

When I was 16 a kid with a set of wrenches and a test light could get a 18 year old Chevelle back on the road. Today I need a fancy electrical meter and a lot of beer to figure out what's going on in the Bosch Lufthies 2.2 fuel injection and the APC brains on my 18 year old Saab Turbo. 18 years from now no 16 year old will be able to work on the cars of today.

Today I have my first class as I go back to school for a degree in Electro-Mechanical Engineering. My fiance asked why that subject. I asked her how long she wanted to keep driving her 2003 Mini. She said "20 years" and I said, "Well there you go..."

More on Moore

Yes, I know there is too much on Moore out there right now but I think this article from 1998 on Moore by Matt Labash, "Michael Moore, One-Trick Phony" has a good way of giving info on him before Bowling For Columbine set him up as the #1 posterboy for the extreme Left.

The ACLU is racist

Here we have the ACLU attacking a company for establishing a dress code.

The American Civil Liberties Union is objecting to a ban on sports jerseys, sleeveless shirts and backward baseball caps in Louisville's new nightclub district, saying the dress code is biased against blacks and poor people.

What a load of horse shit. The only way you can think that is if you believe that only people with lower incomes or higher melanin levels in their skin are the ones that wear clothing like that (and also it must be the only thing they have to wear otherwise couldn't they just wear something different?). It's nonsense race biating to say lies like that. Now in this situation the city of Louisville has granted a developement group the rights to create a dress code in an area of city streets that are blocked off. I think it's fair to argue that they can't create a dress code on public streets but that's not how the ACLU is approching it. They are coming at this from the racist and classist angle.

What's next for the ACLU? Attack dress code enforcing night clubs for being racist? Attcking Morton's Steak House or being biased against poor people? I know, they should go after the Catholic church for the dress code priests and nuns are forced to wear. It's so obvious the Church is trying to keep blacks and poor people out by not allowing preists to wear sports jerseys. Come see the racism inherent in the system!

Is the ACLU so blinded by racism that even when going after something questionable (a dress code on public streets) they are unable of presenting a rational arguement? The ACLU's greatest enemy is itself.

EU wants to outlaw Polack jokes

I have to wonder at what point the people of Europe will say no more with the ever growing an invasive regulations coming from Brussels. Declan McCullagh has a nice post over at CNET on how "Europe (still) doesn't get it.". His post starts with a new treaty on cybercrime from the Council of Eruope and goes from there into a general rip on European tendancy to over regulate. Some would say that I'm just a typical ingnorant American to say that the EU over regulates their economies. I would then say, "Score board, score board, score board!".

But that's not what I want to post on. I'm saying now that I find the idea of someone whatching my email looking for something that might insult someone infuriating. There is no arguement that can be presented to me that would for a flick of a second not think this is completely unconstitutional. It's an out and out voilation of the right to free speech.

This is one more illistration of the difference inherent between a society where the constitution lists what government can do vs. one where it lists what governement can't.

Smart For2 might not make it

The tiny Smart For2 city car that starts at $9,000 in Europe could sell in the US. In places like New York, Boston it could be useful as a second or third comuter car and you'd get sales elsewhere from people looking for something unique. Sales wouldn't be high but in a 16.5 million car market each year there room for everyone. Diamlier-Chrysler has stated openly that they have no intention of bringing the current For2 over to the US because they feel sales would be too low to warrent the trouble and expense. Enter ZAP Inc. and one Thomas Heidemann who are planning on their own to import the For2.

Diamlier-Chrysler's Smart For2

If they can get past all the issues listed in the AutoWeek article they have a huge issue on price. They are going to start the For2 at $15,000? $15k and with a few options it would be pushing $20k. That's Mini territory. That's a loaded Cobalt. That's a nice Civic. That's an AWD Impreza. No one looking at $20k cars is going to opt for a 60hp 2 seater with zero cubic ft. of cargo space over the giant field of "real" cars and many nice cars available at that price. At that price the only people buying will be the idle rich, Hollywoord elites and Greens trying to drive home a political point.

Right-wing Doomsday

This is an common event. We are all the time bombarded by the nagative nancy doomsday senerios of the Left but it's rare we see one from the Right. I hope you get a chance to enjoy, "The End of Power " from The Wall Street Jounal. Like many doomsdays from the Left there are interesting points to be made and also like many of the doomdays from the Left it is a possibility. There is however one large if and that is their prediction will only come to pass if a large number of factors all develope as they predict. And this one falls to the most base of junk science predictions, the "if this trend continues" school of thought.

In this doomsday senerio we have the polulation of Yemmen becoming larger than that of Russia all thanks to the hard work of continuing trends. I wonder if when people of this school of thought read that a Kia Sedona minivan can go 0-60mph in 8.5 seconds they then assume that it will break the sound barrier in under 2 minutes at full throtle.

The problem with these things is that people get so hung up on the few good points or the details of numbers that the miss the reallity that it's nothing more than a work of "what if" fiction. Niall Ferguson has created for us an interesting world where a decent author could live well off the series of books they could write but I don't think it or any other doomsdays need to be considered too hard when making policy decisions.

Geely wants to sell cars in US

Chinese car company says it will sell cheap sedan in U.S.


The Geely Uliou.

Can they copy the success of the Koreans everyone is asking. Of course people seem to be forgetting that Deawoo and Daihatsu were abject failures or that Kia was doing so well it had to be bought out by Hyundia to stay afloat. Well I'm not going to make any predictions on a car that's not even yet for sale but I know I'll enjoy watching them try. Besides now that the Korean cars are not rolling junk anymore we need a new kid to kick around and make fun of.

Who's lying?

The left leaning press seems to be willing to lie through ommission to support those claiming Bush is the liar. From USA Today...

Bush and Cheney also have sought to tie Iraq specifically to the 9/11 attacks. In a letter to Congress on March 19, 2003--the day the war in Iraq began--Bush said that the war was permitted under legislation authorizing force against those who ''planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001.''

However that's not the full quote there is it? Wonder what he really said? Here you go... (click HERE for the full letter)

Acting pursuant to the Constitution and Public Law 107-243 is consistent with the United States and other countries continuing to take the necessary actions against international terrorists and terrorist organizations, including those nations, organizations, or persons who planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001.

The law authorizes force against all terrorist including those involved with 9/11 not only those involved. Only by lying can the left and Democratic leadership being to create a fictional world where Bush claimed Saddam was in on 9/11.

Prepetuating Lies of the Left

Nice. Here we have the 9/11 commission catching Bush in the act of trying to paint a connection between Al Qaeda and Saddam over 9/11. Now he has been caught in his "Sky High Lies" and with it his justification for removing Saddam is gone as well. Guess we should restore Saddam to power then. Only there's one problem with this... Bush never claimed any Saddam - Al Qaeda link over 9/11. Bush did claim Saddam had links with terrorism and I'd say if nothing else paying suicide bombers would qualify as such but the left has twisted that into him claimnig Saddam and Osama were in on it together.

Roger and Jihad

According to a report in the UK Gaurdian, "Fahrenheit 9/11 gets help offer from Hezbollah ". I don't know what more can be said. I think once Hezbollah starts to offer to support your work it's safe to say your work is nothing must anti-American propaganda and need not warrant any further thought. And remember he won the award for "documentary" at Cannes.

For info on refuting Moore's lies check out, Moorelies.com

UPDATE I have added this blog to the list. It's a well done blog. Very well done. Plus with Moore's new film coming out very timely. Enjoy.

Bush's biggest failure

What is it? He never refutes lies. David Horowitz has a good piece of the lies of the left regarding the reasons for removing Saddam. This is a MUST READ

Prior to the inception of hostilities in Iraq in March 2003, the Democratic Party with honorable exceptions like Senator Lieberman and Minority Leader Gephardt was a party of appeasers, demanding more time and more offerings to the Baghdad butcher to avoid a military conflict. From the day Baghdad was liberated in April 2003 and continuously through the present, the Democratic Party and its willing press have constituted a chorus of saboteurs, attacking the credibility, integrity and decency of the commander in chief, exaggerating, sensationalizing and magnifying every American setback or fault -- with the guilt orgy over Abu Ghraib the most egregious example – effectively tying the hands of American forces in the field and encouraging the enemy’s resistance. The hard left actually celebrates this resistance. The soft and cowardly left merely encourages it while pretending not to notice what is doing.

But lies about the war are only the half of it.

There are lies on education, lies on the environment, lies on social security, in fact there is very little debate at all. Any area the Democratic leadership feels they can wedge in a lie to hurt Bush they start firing with both barrels.

The Left and Dem leadership has spent months liying about how Bush is destroying the environment but never give a single example. Why no example? Well see there are none. They talk about how Bush's No Child Left Behind Act is tantamount to a life sentence of poverty for our nations childern. Now we can debate the merits of the NCLB Act but what do the Dems - who are in the pay of the teacher's union - offer to counter Bush's education proposal? The status quo, that's what and we all know how good our schools are. Why they're perfect. Propose a change to Medicare or SSI and the Dems scream you are out to kill the poor and starve seniors. Do the Democarts offer an alternative? Nope just more status quo. I guess SSI and Medicare are running as well as our schools then. Don't forget the economy. The Democrats have been liying about the economy for well over a year now. Just this week while in Columbus Kerry stated that he had, "the leadership needed to get America working again.". Just what America is he talking about? It can't be the United States after all the US economy has been growing for the last 2 and a half years and for the last 3 quarters has been growing fast, gained 1.2 million new non-seasonal jobs in the last 3 months in fact the US economy is now larger than is was before the 3 month recession in 2001. The Dems though seek out people that have lost a job and exploit them to paint a picture of a Depression era economy mindless of the fact that economic growth is so strong once again companies are feeling pressure to increase wages.

Why has the Bush campaign and Republican leadership done squat show the Dems to be nothing but lies and empty rhetoric designed to stop debate by labeling the current administration as evil heartless warmongering idiots? I have no idea. Perhaps Bush is dumb, perhaps they have a master plan that like Pericles no one else can see. Time will tell.

Victor knocks one out

I don't agree with Victor on everything but there are moments when he gets in the grove. Victor's "Feeding the Minotaur" is one of those occasions.

I think the Islamists and their supporters do not live in an alternate universe, but instead are no more crazy in their goals than Hitler was in thinking he could hijack the hallowed country of Beethoven and Goethe and turn it over to buffoons like Goering, prancing in a medieval castle in reindeer horns and babbling about mythical Aryans with flunkies like Goebbels and Rosenberg. Nor was Hitler's fatwa — Mein Kampf — any more irrational than bin Laden's 1998 screed and his subsequent grainy infomercials. Indeed, I think Islamofascism is brilliant in its reading of the postmodern West and precisely for that reason it is dangerous beyond all description — in the manner that a blood-sucking, stealthy, and nocturnal Dracula was always spookier than a massive, clunky Frankenstein.

If only out leaders could be as clear and Victor in their words.

Delenda est Islam

People need a Definition Check

In the past few weeks I have had things said like, "It's not bragging if you can back it up" and "I'm not being cocky if I'm right.". I have ripped into both parties that said these two false statements. The first appearently can be atributed to Kid Rock - now there's someone to quote - but the second was home made by an otherwise average person. Where is this attitude coming from? Perhaps it's the depth to which the thugishness of hip hop has penitrated mainstream culture. Perhaps something else but either way I'm here to say No. Whether or not you are a braggart has nothing to do with what you can or cannot accomplish. Nor does being cocky have anything to do with having the correct information. It all has to do with humility. You can climb Mt Everest and brag about it. You can get 15 out of 15 in trivia and be a cock in the process. Both people that said those lines to me got a speech on humility. I hope everyone who reads this will do their part to snuff out this distructive "I can be a shit as long as I'm right" attitued as well when they are confronted by it.

Ted sinks even lower

Right when you think someoen has gone as low as they can go is the momment they are apt to show you just how depraved a person can be. Witness Ted Rall's lastest cartoon.



How souless and lacking of compasion must a person be to publish a cartoon impling that President Reagan is in hell on the day of his funeral? Ladies and Gentlemen, Ted Rall... the most hate filled man in America.

UPDATE:
Ben Johnson wieghts in on Ted, The Left's Dunce of Death

Lech Walesa has a differing view of Reagan in In Solidarity. Now let me think of who's views I respect more, Lech... Ted... Lech... Ted? Tough call.

Harry III

Movie Reveiw: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

First let me say, thumbs up. A very well done film in many ways and I give it a hearty recommendation. I might just see it again before it leaves the theaters. Cinematography is excellent. Directing and screenplay are solid, especially getting across that Harry is no longer a small kid to be pushed around (in one scene Harry is screaming that he wants Sirius to find him so that he can kill Sirius - not the unsure youth of the pervious films). Acting is great and having Emma Thompson is a nice touch as Professor Trelawney and Gary Oldman... well he's just Gary Oldman. John Williams score is wonderful. A solid 4 stars.

But...

The film is too short. Azkaban is the longest of the first 3 books and is the shortest of the first 3 movies. They do a great job of condensing it into 142 minutes of film but they should have done of great job with 172 minutes.

The first book/movie is nothing more that the setup. This is Harry, this is Hogwarts, this is Albus Dumbledore, this is "You Know How", etc. While Harry does have a run in with his arch nemesis Lord Valdemort he is just a lost kid that wins only by protection left behind by his mother. In #2 the Chamber of Secrets there is a great amount of further back story and while Harry again "wins" his fight with Valdemort is only because he is pure of heart and not because he's the better wizard. After these two you might think you have the formula down; Harry goes to school, hi-jinks ensue, he bubbles / lucks his way past Valdamort yet again and then school ends. However you'd be wrong.

Azcaban is where the series turns for a much darker bend. It's longer than the first to but in ways just a setup for the 4th book, The Goblet of Fire which is approaching epic at 752 pages. I few reviews I read mentioned that so much was cut it took away a lot of the explanation for why certain things where happening. They seemed befuddled by the sudden cutting of so much when compared to the earlier films but I think I see why. Azkaban isn't 142 minutes vs. 172 because they are afraid 172 is too long for a "family" film it's because if they don't start cutting now then Goblet of Fire is going to be 4 hours long and while it's a good story it aint Hamlet.

Harry Potter is not just a line of Children’s books. Each book is darker, richer with an ever increasing complexity in plot. By the 8th and last book I feel it will simply be beyond the reach of 10 year olds. The upside is we readers get a book series that will honestly grow and mature with the protagonist while the downside is that we viewers will get movies that have a harder and harder time covering the material.

Ted Rall is an Asshole

Generally speaking Editorial Cartoonists are a fairly even handed bunch. They will happily ridicule whoever is making news. They spent 8 years tearing Clinton to shreads and now are happy to rip on Bush. There are a few though that have a noticable leftish lean to their work, Doonsberry and Ed Stein come to mind however they all pale compared to Ted Rall. Ted Rall isn't evel Leftist, he is simply working for the enemy. He will publish any crack ball theory that the islamists press forward. He paints Bush as an unshaven bannan republic dictator that is more evil than Hitler. He shows all Americans to be evil fatsos that deserve to be killed. Now though he's crossed the line...



Just what is this a "commentary" of? Ted Rall is a sick twisted imp of a man that justifies the murder of thousands of innocents and defends the actions of militant Islam that is out to conquor the world in the name of Allah. He has the right to his opinion but I don't think his insane view has a place on Yahoo. He is not a legitimate Editorial Cartoonist, he is an asshole.

Spirit of America

Please visit: Spirit of America

Now after visiting this site ask yourself why not once ever have you heard a single one of the mainstream media outlets report on any of this. A media so enthralled with peddeling evil as ours can only be counted on to tell half the story.

The Left doesn’t get it – again

What is a commencement speech? What is its point? I was always under the impression that it server two purposes, first to give credit to those graduating for the hard work they have performed to get to that point and to give them direction as they go forth to make their mark on this world. According to the Left it seems the purpose is to bash the Bush administration.

As we go through this season of graduations there is story after story of commencement speakers grandstanding over their opposition to the Bush administration. On of the worst examples is that of Author E.L. Doctorow, who gave the commencement address at Hofstra University.

In a 20-minute address to graduates at the Long Island school on Sunday, the novelist criticized Bush's tax cuts, anti-terrorism policies and the Patriot Act, but focused mainly on what he called Bush's "untrue" stories about the war in Iraq

That is not a commencement speech that is a political speech. If you want to use the part of the speech where you charge the youth graduating with the responsibility of leadership to espouse Leftists ideas that's fine but spending your time berating the current White House administration does not cut it. The graduating class at Hofstra agrees with me as, "...a torrent of boos and catcalls that forced Doctorow to stop talking."

Doctorow response?

"I thought we were all supposed to speak out," he told The Washington Post in Tuesday's editions. "Isn't that what this country is about?"

The good author sees nothing wrong with using a commencement speech as a political soap box, which he can "speak out" against what he feels is wrong with America. But in a great feat of hypocrisy while he has the right to bash politics that he doesn't agree with – during a commencement speech no less – that it's wrong for those who disagree with him to speak out. Like many in the Left today that feel they can say whatever they want while any voice of opposition can be classified, or rather demonized as "hate speech", "racism", "censorship" etc.

The Left is intellectually bankrupt and this is just another example.

Muslim Student Group at odds with Western Liberalism

Not that anyone is that suprised by the Muslim Students' Association (MSA)is devoted to the over throw of the US Constitution and the establishment of Sharia Law throughout North America but it's intresting to read this piece, Islamism's Campus Club from over at Middle East Quarterly.

At a meeting in Queensborough Community College in New York in March 2003, a guest speaker named Faheed declared, "We reject the U.N., reject America, reject all law and order. Don't lobby Congress or protest because we don't recognize Congress. The only relationship you should have with America is to topple it ... Eventually there will be a Muslim in the White House dictating the laws of Shariah."

Nice.

Delenda est Islam