Yearly Kos: Demotards venture into unhinged territory

Hillarious Clinton digging deep into the DailyKow
"I've always liked cow colons!"

Hate site DailyKos is hosting its annual Nutroots HippieFest later this week. Peculiarly, "mainstream" Democrats like Hillarious Clinton are scheduled to attend. I believe catering to this insane crowd of hippies and truthers will backfire. I mean, seriously. How important could the "progressive" bowel movement be, considering it is made up of women who don't shave their armpits and men who don't eat meat? A bunch of razors and steaks would make the movement a lot better.

The Feminine Democratic Party continues to amuse...

Poland regretting joining EU?

I think Poland is beginning to see the folly of joining the Socialist League European Union. Originally they wanted to be part of the EU in order to gain a mass, voluntary deportation of their lazy unemployed. Most of these are going to the UK, another country that should not have hitched itself to the EU yoke. This strategy mirrors Mexico's relations with the U.S. As a relatively impoverished nation, Poland also hopes to steer EU-level money into its coffers.

Reality is beginning to rear its ugly head for Poland, as this BBC story explains:

The European Commission is seeking a court order to prevent Poland re-starting work on a road through a protected wildlife area.

The road - which carries traffic from Warsaw to Helsinki - goes through the Rospuda Valley - a peat-bog area that is home to rare plants and animals.

Warsaw halted work for the bird-nesting season but plans to resume on 1 August.

It says environmental damage would be minimal, because the plan is for a viaduct not a road at ground level.

We must halt the progression of human civilization rather than ask a frog or two to relocate, the environmentalist whackos say. We mustn't distrub the butterflies.

New images in Da Vinci's Last Supper

There's a news story circulating across MSM about a computer analyst who found new images in The Last Supper. He claims to have taken a reverse image and superimposed it onto the original. From news.com.au:

When doing so, Pesci said the two figures on either end of the long table, for example, appear to become knights and another appears to hold an infant.

Two knights at the ends of the table, and one figure holding an infant, the guy says. I made the same reverse in Photoshop, and after about 10 minutes of fiddling, I found the three new figures. The guy is right; they are there. I believe it's a nonsensical coincidence, sort of like listening to old rock songs backwards and picking out pro-drug messages, but it is very interesting. Certain to fuel the interest will be Da Vinci's intellect. He was probably capable of doing something like this on purpose.

Below are my results, and following that is how I did it. Try it yourself. When you slide the images together to see the new characters, you'll smile. I guarantee it.

Left side figures, original and reverse image.


Reverse image on top of original.


Same, with outlines drawn around new figures.


And the right side knight.


Here's the whole thing. Tough to see anything at the width of this blog column (400 pixels).

Here's how to do it with Photoshop:

1. Fetch a decent image of the painting here.

2. Make a duplicate of the image, then drag-n-drop the duplicate onto the original, making a new layer. I realize there is at least one better way to do this, such as dragging a marquee around the original and using Layer via Copy.

3. Make a reverse image by flipping the new layer horizontally by using Image, Rotate Canvas, Flip Canvas Horizontal. This makes the "reverse" image.

4. Turn off Snap using the View menu.

5. Set the opacity of the new layer (it should be on top) to 57%, then slide it almost centered, using the central figure as a guide (Jeebus?).

I did my work at about 37% zoom, and after I had lined it up centered, horizontally, and perfectly in line vertically, I could sort of see the knights. It wasn't until I zoomed to 100% and looked at the far left of the image that I could fine tune the infant while keeping the knights in view.

And it is true: the figures at each end of the table look like armored knights, and the figure second from the left appears to be holding a baby, which is facing towards the right, or center of the table. The infant is cradled in the arms of the second figure from the left.

Death kitty

Have you heard about the cat who can sense when nursing home patients are just an hour or two away from death? He has been right 25 out of 25 times. WaPo:

When he curls up beside a frail, elderly patient in a Rhode Island dementia-care unit, Oscar the cat is telling the staff that death is near.

The two-year-old tabby has done so with almost perfect accuracy 25 times since he was brought into the ward as a kitten. He tends to ignore patients until the moments when his comfort is perhaps needed the most, staff members say.

If I had a cat like that I would become a life insurance salesman, or I'd toss him into the laps of liberals.

Drunken astronauts

al-AP:

At least twice, astronauts were allowed to fly after flight surgeons and other astronauts warned they were so drunk they posed a flight-safety risk, an aviation weekly reported Thursday, citing a special panel studying astronaut health.

The independent panel also found "heavy use of alcohol" before launch that was within the standard 12-hour "bottle-to-throttle" rule, according to Aviation Week & Space Technology, which reported the finding on its Web site.

I can tell you which two times astronauts were plastered: the first trip after Challenger, and the first trip after Columbia. And good for them. If Russian cosmonauts aren't snockered on Vodka, I'm the Pope.

The crew of STS-91 step over Commander James M. Philmore

Pilot Jimmy Rogers prior to mission STS-114

Obesity is contagious

From al-AP: "If your friends and family get fat, chances are you will too, researchers report in a startling new study that suggests obesity is "socially contagious" and can spread easily from person to person."

So, if you have fat friends, you need to say, "Get lost." Or just shoot them.

Fake Indian, plagiarist, liar, socialist -- Ward Churchill unceremoniously fired from U of Colorado

The dumbass is finally fired.

Chief Churchill

Chicago Tribune:

The University of Colorado's governing board on Tuesday fired a professor whose essay likening some Sept. 11 victims to a Nazi leader provoked national outrage and led to an investigation of research misconduct.

Ward Churchill vowed to sue, saying "New game, new game," after the Board of Regents' 8-1 vote was announced.

Three faculty committees had accused Churchill, a professor of ethnic studies, of plagiarism, falsification and other misconduct. The research allegations stem from some of Churchill's other writings, although the investigation began after the controversy over his Sept. 11 essay.

Cowardly socialist hides anti-war views in lofty, historical guise

The cowards have been against the Iraq War since Bush first said he was considering it, way back in 2002. The socialists are anti-war, and always have been, regardless of the reason for fighting. They were against WWI, because any aggressive act, even if it thwarted a Kaiser bent on conquering Western Europe, was unacceptable. Better to lay down and sue for peace, they said. Socialists were advocating doing nothing about Adolf Hitler before and even during WWII. They protested the Vietnam War, which, had the war been waged without socialist harassment at home, could have allowed millions of people to live with freedom and prosperity instead of brutal oppression.

So when I checked The New York Times today to see what kind of socialist spew they were pushing, I was not terribly surprised to see one of their socialists invoking names such as Madison and Hamilton to further their "the Iraq War is illegal" and "Bush is an imperialist" agenda.

As opinion turns more decisively against the war, the administration is becoming ever more dismissive of Congress’s role. Last week, Under Secretary of Defense Eric Edelman brusquely turned away Senator Hillary Clinton’s questions about how the Pentagon intended to plan for withdrawal from Iraq. "Premature and public discussion of the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq reinforces enemy propaganda that the United States will abandon its allies in Iraq,” he wrote. Mr. Edelman’s response showed contempt not merely for Congress, but for the system of government the founders carefully created.

The author, a socialist named Adam Cohen, believes Bush is usurping the power of Congress because he's imperialist. Which empire in history has overthrown a genocidal tyrant and returned control to a democratically elected government? I'd like to hear Cohen answer that question. Even if Cohen had the stones to tackle that facet of his own idiocy, he would still be left with the central flaw in his socialist thinking: those of his ilk are against war for any reason. Cowardice is one of the central tenets of socialism.

Latching on to the writings of our founding fathers to advance a cowardly, hippie attitude is wretched. All of our beloved founding fathers believed making war to stop an oppressive tyrant was just; so it is really pathetic to find somebody using the founders as an argument against a war to stop an oppressive tyrant. If people like Cohen held sway in 1776, we would still be English subjects being oppressed by the descendants of King George -- and they'd be happy because even though we'd have no liberties, at least nobody would have gotten shot.

Interestingly enough, editors at The New York Times were extremely concerned about Saddam Hussein and WMD at one time. To be specific, they were concerned until the moment Bush was concerned.

NYT editorial, 1998:

If required, air strikes may not force full Iraqi cooperation or destroy Baghdad’s chemical and biological weapons and the capacity to manufacture them. But as Mr. Clinton said yesterday, military action will diminish those dangers and make Mr. Hussein less likely to threaten his neighbors. To do nothing in the face of Iraqi defiance will only embolden Mr. Hussein. The last time he believed the world was indifferent, he invaded Kuwait.

1998:

. . without further outside intervention, Iraq should be able to rebuild weapons and missile plants within a year. If inspectors are unable to resume work, future military attacks may be required to diminish the arsenal again. A purely diplomatic solution would be preferable, but no one has devised a workable plan for dealing with a dictatorial regime in Baghdad bent on terrorizing its neighbors as well as its own citizens. It is hard to negotiate with a tyrant who has no intention of honoring his commitments and who sees nuclear, chemical and biological weapons as his country’s salvation.

1999:

Saddam Hussein would clearly prefer to have no U.N. arms inspectors snooping around as he tries to rebuild his biological and chemical arsenals and continues his pursuit of nuclear weapons. He has already had more than 13 months to work on these programs unobserved.

Go here to see a nice collection of NYT editorials indicating their opposition to Hussein and an acknowledgement of the threat he posed. Compare this to the anti-war, anti-Bush socialism we see today.

Former Guantanamo detainee blows himself up

Surprise, surprise, surprise, a former guest at the terrorist holding facility, Guantanamo, has blown himself up in Pakistan. From the Telegraph:

A former Guantanamo Bay prisoner who took up arms alongside the Taliban after he was released from detention has blown himself up to avoid capture, Pakistani security forces said today.

Abdullah Mehsud killed himself with a hand grenade after he was cornered by troops at a house in the south-western Pakistani town of Zhob. He was wanted for the kidnapping of two Chinese engineers in 2004.

"My information is that (he) killed himself," said Atta Mohammed, the head of the police in Zhob. "Thanks be to God that only he was blown up and our men were safe."

Mehsud, 32, was released from the US detention centre in Cuba after two years in 2004 but immediately went back to violence when the Pakistani government began an offensive against the Taliban in the troubled region along the border with Afghanistan.

Maybe we should have given him two Korans, or turned down the air conditioning stopped torturing him.

Fed minimum wage goes up by $.70 today

The minimum wage went up 70 cents today, to $5.85, according to Fox News. The nation's lazy poor will earn an extra $28 per week! They can enjoy a substantial increase in living standards because they can now afford one of the following:

1. Six bags of Bacon Puffs deep fried pork rinds.

2. 28 lottery tickets.

3. Another bag of pot.

4. One pay-per-view wrestling event.

5. Two wife-beater shirts.

6. One case of Bud Light.

I hope the derelicts thank socialists for this windfall.

How long before socialists blame UK flooding on themselves 'climate change'?

Socialists will blame the massive floods on 'climate change' . It will be done with a straight face. There will be a tone of "I told you so."

UPDATE: I was extremely naive to wonder how long it would take socialists to blame a natural disaster on themselves. It was instantaneous. I wonder if Jesse Jackson will declare that the UK looks like the hull of a slave ship, like he did with hurricane Katrina?

Gordon Brown, UK Prime Minister: "Like every advanced industrial country we are coming to terms with some of the issues surrounding climate change."

This guy proved he was an idiot when he said the UK gov was not to use the term "Muslim" when describing the Muslims who tried to commit terror across the country last month. Now he's at it again. I used to look up to the British. What happened to them?

Michael McCarthy, Belfast Telegraph: But the catastrophic "extreme rainfall events" of the summer of 2007, on 24 June and 20 July, are entirely consistent with repeated predictions of what climate change will bring.

"Entirely consistent," he says. It must have been hard resisting the temptation to scream, "So we need to demolish our economies and live in tipis."

Mark Henderson, Times of London: Global warming is generating heavier rainfall over Britain of the sort that has triggered this week’s floods, scientists have confirmed for the first time. [...] While it has long been suspected that climate change is contributing to increased precipitation over midlatitude countries such as Britain, research has now conclusively linked greenhouse gases to heavier downpours.

The sky is not only falling, it has fallen.

The BBC dares the impossible dream. I'm sure somebody will be fired for presenting a non-socialist view: But Jim Dale, a risk meteorologist at British Weather Services, says it's down to bad luck, not global warming. [...] "It's a sexy subject and people like to stick labels on things. Global warming is the latest bandwagon going past so whenever we get a heatwave or floods they blame it on that." [...] And while people have recalled the severe floods of yesteryear, such as 1912, 1947 and 1953, the 2007 events of June and July are just as bad, he says.

Precisely.

Here's more of what we expect from al-BBC: Human-induced climate change has affected global rainfall patterns over the 20th Century, a study suggests. [...] Researchers said changes to the climate had led to an increase in annual average rainfall in the mid-latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere.

Capitalists have killed us all. Put the gun to your head now.

David Leask, The Herald: They are the kind of floods that hit twice a century - but they have come twice this summer already. Some of England's biggest rivers were still rising last night, swollen by record rainfall. [...] Scientists used to expect such events once every 50 years. Now they are thinking again, thanks to global warming.

Mr. Leask didn't get the memo that clearly states the socialist slogan "global warming" has been changed to "climate change" because every catastrophe is related to industrialization, not just the warm ones.

Britain's Channel4 asks, "What caused the flooding?" It's a good sign when a media outlet dares to ask, rather than simply ram home the socialist line. Here's their analysis: The rains that are flooding the Severn and the Avon, and that threaten the Thames valley, are rare. But are they unprecedented? [...] History suggests otherwise. The Severn flooded severely in 1258 and 1483 and 1770. [...] But recent history may be best reflected in Tewkesbury, hit hard because it is where the Severn and Avon rivers meet. In February 1990 its two rivers overflowed.

I spent some time on the web looking for Medieval tapestries depicting human-induced "climate change" as the cause for the 1258 flood, but couldn't find anything. Oh, that's right! Karl Marx hadn't riled up the lemmings at that early date in history.

I look forward to the day when we can have a good, old fashioned flood without lunatics calling for a return to hunting and gathering.

Flying the Turd World

The International Federation of Air Traffic Controllers' Associations has offered to intervene in Brazil's failed air safety program. The response of the head of Brazil's national air authority is laughable; BBC:

"They're a bunch of idiots wanting to intervene in our affairs," Jose Carlos Pereira told reporters.

"Brazil doesn't need international help. They should care for their air space and we'll take care of ours."

Air travel in Brazil has been severely disrupted since last September, when a Boeing 737 clipped wings in mid-air with a private jet and crashed in the Amazon jungle, killing all 154 people on board.

Flight delays and cancellations have become routine, as air traffic controllers, fearing they were being blamed for the accident, have staged periodic work slowdowns to protest at what they say they are bad radar and radio equipment and poor pay.

Fly the Turd World at your own risk.

Idiots stand in line for bags at Whole Foods

I just saw a report on CNN Headline News about acerebral lemmings standing in line, in the rain, for grocery bags at Whole Foods.

Entrances to Whole Foods locations in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut swarmed with shoppers Wednesday morning who had lined up to buy limited-edition canvas bags designed by Anya Hindmarch.

Whole Foods' (Charts, Fortune 500) four New York City locations each had about 2,900 bags to sell to the first shoppers who arrived, according to a Whole Foods spokesman Fred Shanks. Suburban stores had only 300 bags available.

I'm tempted to say it's a publicity stunt by Whole Foods. The people who stood in line couldn't possibly be that dumb, could they? They must have been planted by the company, timed with a blitz of press releases? Unfortunately they are probably that stupid. There has to be some way to balance out the idiocy. I should buy a Whole Foods bag and relieve myself in it, then throw it out on the highway. I'd stand in line for that.

Plane crash in Sao Paulo

There was another horrendous plane crash in Brazil. From the BBC:

Rescue workers and crash investigators are searching the wreckage of a Brazilian passenger jet that crashed in flames at Sao Paulo's main airport.

All 186 people on board the Airbus 320 are believed dead, as well as many as 15 people on the ground.

Tam Airlines Flight 3054 from the southern city of Porto Alegre landed at Congonhas airport in driving rain.

The plane skidded across a crowded road before it crashed into a fuel depot and warehouse and exploded.

I wonder if the Brazilians will blame U.S. pilots for their fetid air safety problems? Remember the last time?

These people: Muslims who called for murder in public get jail time

It's official. There's a them. These people are Muslims, who seem to feel that calling for murder and terrorism in public should be A-OK. These people are not sane.

The latest example of Muslim insanity occurred during the sentencing of Muslims who got arrested during a protest at the Danish embassy back when cartoons of Muhammad appeared in a Danish newspaper. Remember that crap? This was my response to the cartoon flap. Anyway, during the protests I couldn't believe Muslims were in the streets calling for the overthrow of Britain and worse things.

From the BBC:

Four men have been jailed for their part in protests outside the Danish embassy in London, against cartoons satirising the Prophet Muhammad.

Mizanur Rahman, 24, Umran Javed, 27, and Abdul Muhid, 24, were each jailed for six years for soliciting to murder after telling a crowd to bomb the UK.

A fourth man, Abdul Saleem, 32, was jailed for four years for stirring up racial hatred at the protest in 2006.

[...]

Outside the sentencing hearing, a group of around 40 demonstrators waved placards with slogans including "Muslims Under Siege".

Several things caught my eye in the story:

1. Why do the media call Muhammad "Prophet Muhammad"? I'm not the first to ask the question. But why? Why not call Jesus "Jesus, Son of God?" Clearly the media is willing to take the word of Muslims for the prophet thing, but discard the Christian claim about Jeebus. As a staunch atheist, peace can be upon my ass.

2. Why would anyone get so bent out of shape over a cartoon in the first place? What is wrong with them?

3. Why would the protesters at the sentencing claim to be "under seige"? Well, it's because they feel their people should be able to call for murder and terrorism. That's just fine with them!

4. I'm stunned there were any arrests at all. London is called Londonistan for a reason. That these Muslims were arrested, let alone charged, convicted and sentenced, is a case of porcine aviation.

Father-of-five and BT engineer Saleem was cleared of soliciting murder at his trial in February, but convicted of stirring up racial hatred.

Saleem, from Poplar, east London, chanted, "7/7 on its way" and "Europe, you will pay with your blood".

An engineer! How many stories about engineers, architects, and doctors will we have to see before "progressives" will begin to understand that poverty is not a trigger for terrorism? (And if it was, it's still wrong.)

The men had denied having extremist views and said they were simply following others rather than leading the protests.

Of course they denied having extremist views. Calling for murder and terror is moderate in their world.

Moore's 'Sicko' well received in Cuba

Michael Moore enjoys glorifying America's enemies almost as much as eating. In Fahrenheit 911 he showed kids flying kites along the banks of the Tigris river in Baghdad while ignoring the work of the Iraqi secret police and the likes of Chemical Ali. In Sicko he's extolling the virtues of Cuba's health care system while ignoring more than forty years of human rights abuses.


The commies running Cuba appreciate Sicko almost as much as Baathists and al-Qaeda and "progressives" enjoyed Fahrenheit 911. Jose Ramon Balaguer, Cuban Health Minister, quoted in Canada's Financial Post:

"There's no doubt that a documentary by someone of Michael Moore's stature will help the world see the deeply humane principles of Cuban society."

Here's how Human Rights Watch describes the "deeply humane principles of Cuban society":

While Cuba's domestic legislation includes broad statements of fundamental rights, other provisions grant the state extraordinary authority to penalize individuals who attempt to enjoy their rights to free expression, opinion, press, association, and assembly. In recent years, rather than modify its laws to conform to international human rights standards, Cuba has approved legislation further restricting fundamental rights. A notable exception to this trend is the partial restoration of religious freedom. But Cuba has consistently refused to reform the most objectionable elements of its laws. Cuba's concurrent refusal to amnesty political prisoners and its continued prosecution of nonviolent activists highlight the critical role that Cuba's laws play in its machinery of repression.

What may be worse than looking to Cuba as some sort of example for the United States is Moore's implication that health care in the UK is free. You'd have to be "progressive" to believe that, because stealing from the hardworking and giving to the lazy is progress.

Muslim congressman compares Bush to Hitler

Keith "Truther" Ellison, who is the worst kind of Muslim (Nation of Islam, see: white devils), has compared Bush to Hitler, via The Daily Telegraph:

"It's almost like the Reichstag fire, kind of reminds me of that," Mr Ellison said. "After the Reichstag was burned, they blamed the Communists for it, and it put the leader [Hitler] of that country in a position where he could basically have authority to do whatever he wanted."

Anyone who would make such a comparison is

1) extremely ignorant of history

2) grandstanding to pleasure the unhinged "progressives"

or

3) all of the above

Ellison must have skipped the chapter explaining how there is no evidence that Hitler ordered the Reichstag fire. None, as in nada. Ellison did manage to read about how Hitler blamed it on the commies. Compare that to 9/11, where we know exactly who did it and why -- adherents to a violent, Dark Age death cult lashed out against Western "decadence". These are folks who believe that music, of all things, is decadent.

Ellison is pathetic truther scum. He's the type who believes that steel has to reach its melting point before it begins to weaken. Hmmmm. Shame on Minnesota for electing such a turd.

The idiot leftists may not be clever enough to understand that

a) in times of war it is common practice for and even expected that a president take drastic measures to ensure security, and

b) there is actually a war going on

Worldwide broadband

The BBC says:

Broadband users in 30 of the world's most developed countries are getting greatly differing speeds and prices, according to a report.

The list of entry-level broadband prices:

Sweden $10.79
Denmark $11.11
Switzerland $12.53
US $15.93
France $16.36
Netherlands $16.85
New Zealand $16.86
Italy $17.63
Ireland $18.18
Finland $19.49

The prices swing from dirt cheap to sub-dirt cheap.

Water found outside solar system

According to an al-Reuters story, extrasolar water has been discovered. Michael Moore immediately tried to eat it.

Astronomers said on Wednesday they had discovered the best evidence yet of water outside our own solar system -- in the atmosphere of a giant planet 60 light years from Earth.

The Shaved Ape turns 2 today

Hillarious Clinton, political chameleon

Hillary is not even human. She'll say anything. Anything.


The Los Angeles Times says what everyone is thinking:

...Clinton is a particularly poor spokeswoman for that idea, as her husband displayed the same cavalier regard for equal justice under the law. With the sand running out on his administration, President Clinton hustled through pardons for 141 people and commutations for 36 more. Among those who received pardons were 27 men and women convicted of drug crimes, deserters from the military, a former member of the Clinton Cabinet who pleaded guilty to making false statements to authorities, and various perjurers and obstructionists. Clinton's half-brother walked away that day with a clean record, as did Patty Hearst and financier Marc Rich — at the time a fugitive from justice on charges of violating the embargo against trade with Iran, tax evasion and other unsavory deeds. Clinton's pardons were particularly offensive because they were issued just as his presidency ended, so there was no way for him to be held accountable for his misuse of power.

I wonder if Hillary was using a southern accent while criticizing the Libby pardon. I guess that depends on the audience.

New iPhone commercial

Independence Day, liberal style

The Shaved Ape braves the hippie wasteland so you don't have to

Daily Kos

Some nutjob calling himself "meteor blades" sings about his hero on the 4th of July:

My number one personal hero is Frederick Douglass, the runaway slave whose persistent eloquence was one of the leading factors persuading Abraham Lincoln to bring black soldiers into the Union Army. On July 4, 1852, he delivered a speech in Rochester, N.Y., that both roused and riled those who heard it or read it later.

Of all the heroes to choose from...

Crooks and Liars

Nicole Belle must have a program that reworks the same material again and again:

I find it so ironic that today we celebrate the independence declared by our Founding Fathers against King George, only to find ourselves 231years later chafing under the all-but-crowned King George W. Bush. I can’t lie; it’s taken much of the sense of celebration out from me this year.

Talk Left

More of the same. (yawn)

Given our President's stunning disregard for the rule of law this week, and that it's the Fourth of July, I'm wondering what thoughts you all have on patriotism and liberty and on how this Administration has driven a stake in the heart of both.

For opposing the war, we're called unpatriotic. Our civil liberties have been disregarded by everything from the NSA warrantless monitoring program to no-fly lists, the Real I.D. Act and federal immigration raids on workplaces.

The Democratic Daily

Self-loathing rules the day:

Here we are, 894 days into Bush’s second term, and just one day shy of our Day of Independence and, you know what? I have to admit, I’m not feeling it this year: like a wet brick of fireworks, that old patriotic flame has been kind of tough to light. Let’s face it: it’s hard to love one’s nation when disgust and embarrassment is all that one feels for his leader. It’s sad when even the simple thoughts of sparklers, snakes, stink bombs and fanciful flame seem nearly pointless and almost entirely devoid of fun. The truth is, I sincerely long for the day when I can once again be proud of who we are and what we stand for. In fact, I can’t help but to wonder where we’d be right now had Senator John F. Kerry taken his rightful place in history as our 43rd President of the United States.

Firedog Lake

Bush bashing still hasn't gone out of fashion for the hard left:

If you need a reminder on how the President, Cheney and Libby’s obstruction are all tied together, read the experts: see Christy’s “Marcy was right.”. We probably just witnessed obstruction of justice, right before our eyes. Here’s Sidney Blumenthal’s summary from his article, “Bush and Cheney walk too”.

[...]

The men who signed their names to the Declaration and pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor knew what to do with such scoundrels.

"...right before our eyes." Such poignancy, I might tear up.

White Noise Insanity

The chubby leftist running this blog isn't clever enough to be angry:

Our nation is in the hands of people who have worked in government for years, but who haven’t spent an ounce of time serving the people of our country. They’ve served themselves and their evil agendas. They’re an abomination to the history of our country. In 1776, our country prevailed over a monarchy, but fast forward to today and we have a new form of it, but it’s laced with oil, greed, lies, deceits, killing, torturing, raping, and not an ounce of patriotism at it’s core!

Liberal Values

This blog cracks me up, especially the title. Liberals have no values. Don't be mistaken, though, Republicans haven't figured it out yet, either. They think Jeebus handed out the morals. The first post for July 4 at Liberal Values is a YouTube video of Keith Olberman bashing Bush for commuting Libby's sentence. Those are liberal values for ya.

AmericaBlog

This fool stops just short of making a Declaration of Dislike for his country on the day we honor the Declaration of Independence:

Yes, it's the Fourth of July. That whole idea of declaring independence was pretty ballsy back in the day. And, the American revolutionaries were basically an insurgency fighting the most powerful military in the world. Course, the Americans were fighting on their turf and the Brits were half a world away. We know how that turned out. History is full of valuable lessons -- some of them are right before our eyes.

Celebrating the 4th of July

How could anyone not love a country that considers "the pursuit of happiness" a self-evident, unalienable right?

Today is the day we celebrate our declaration of independence, so I thought I would read it, word for word, for the first time in my life. Many think July 4 is the day we celebrate our independence, and it has become that, but we did not become independent on that date in 1776. We only declared it. I would argue that our independence began on Oct. 19, 1781, when the French navy was largely responsible for forcing the British surrender at the Battle of the Chesapeake. Another possible date is Sept. 3, 1783, when a formal peace treaty was signed in Paris. Or it could be April 1784, which was, arguably, the first time Britain recognized our independence.


Declaration of Independence

The Declaration is mostly a list of grievances against King George of Britain. We really didn't like the guy. From the text: "A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people."

Here are my favorites from the list:

+ "He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance."

+ "For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent."

+ "He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions."

Full text of the Declaration of Independence, from ushistory.org:

IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America

When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. — And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

— John Hancock

New Hampshire:
Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton

Massachusetts:
John Hancock, Samuel Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry

Rhode Island:
Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery

Connecticut:
Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott

New York:
William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris

New Jersey:
Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark

Pennsylvania:
Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross

Delaware:
Caesar Rodney, George Read, Thomas McKean

Maryland:
Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll of Carrollton

Virginia:
George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton

North Carolina:
William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn

South Carolina:
Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton

Georgia:
Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton

al-AP obfuscates again

The Associated Press are willing dhimmis. It's pathetic. Check out their latest story on the murderous Muslim doctors in the UK.

al-AP headline: Diverse group allegedly in British plot

They had diverse backgrounds, coming from countries around the globe, but all shared youth and worked in medicine. They also had a common goal, authorities suspect: to bring havoc and death to the heart of Britain.

Hello, AP? Can you please tell the unwashed masses about the colossal similarity uniting all of the murderous cockroaches? Could it be......(Islam)? AP waited until 2/3 of the way through their lengthy story to give us this:

Dr. Shiv Panbe, former chairman of the British International Doctors Association, said the two Indian nationals in custody were Muslims.

There is no other mention of Islam, Muslim, or religion, other than to say one of the murderous bastards was "not religious". This absurd example of spin reminds me of the "broad strata of society" claimed for Canadian would-be mass murderers, who were all Muslims, of course. From the Canadian Press:

From an unmarried computer programmer to a university health sciences graduate and the unemployed, the 17 suspects charged in a foiled terrorist plot represent a "broad strata'' of Canadian society.

The names of the adults among the 17 suspects:

1. Fahim Ahmad, 21, Toronto;
2. Zakaria Amara, 20, Mississauga, Ont.;
3. Asad Ansari, 21, Mississauga;
4. Shareef Abdelhaleen, 30, Mississauga;
5. Qayyum Abdul Jamal, 43, Mississauga;
6. Mohammed Dirie, 22, Kingston, Ont.;
7. Yasim Abdi Mohamed, 24, Kingston;
8. Jahmaal James, 23, Toronto;
9. Amin Mohamed Durrani, 19, Toronto;
10. Steven Vikash Chand alias Abdul Shakur, 25, Toronto;
11. Ahmad Mustafa Ghany, 21, Mississauga;
12. Saad Khalid, 19, of Eclipse Avenue, Mississauga.

Calling these people, and the new spin attached to the UK terrorism story, a "broad strata of society" is dhimmitude.

Doctors as terrorists

Didn't Waylon Jennings sing about terrorists?

Mamas, don't let your babies grow up to be terrorists.
Don't let 'em pick guitars or murder civilians.
Let 'em be doctors and lawyers and such.
Mamas don't let your babies grow up to be terrorists.
'Cos they'll never stay home and they're always at the mosque.
Even when killing someone they love.

Despite the "progressive" effort to depict terrorists as people not affiliated with any religion, kept in a state of poverty by evil U.S. foreign policies (see the movie Syriana), we continually find that they're Muslims, and they're doctors (as in this case), engineers, architects, and other professionals who are anything but poor. In fact, most terrorists are middle or upper class, not downtrodden fools scratching out a meager existence in the desert. Do you think that, upon learning that the British would-be murderers were mostly doctors, "progressives" will begin to understand the root cause of terrorism? I doubt it, because facing the truth wouldn't fit their fetid worldview -- something about all cultures being equal.

al-AP:

The general public often is shocked to see that doctors — the world's healers — can become militants or even terrorist killers. But some experts believe it is part of a socio-economic trend in which wealthy families highly educate their sons, who sometimes become radical and have the education they need to become leaders.

"People often assume that terrorists are poor, disadvantaged people who are brainwashed or need the money. But the ones who actually perpetrate violence without handlers and manipulation are highly intelligent by necessity," said Magnus Ranstorp, a terrorism expert at the Swedish National Defense College in Stockholm.

"It's only the smart ones who will survive security pressures in a subversive existence. Sometimes they are doctors, a profession that provides a brilliant cover and allows entry to countries like Britain," he said in an interview Tuesday.

At least five of the eight suspects in the failed terrorist attacks in London and Glasgow, Scotland, were identified as doctors from Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and India, while staff at a Glasgow hospital said two others were a doctor and a medical student.

Only leftists with a strange instinct to blame themselves for every bad thing that happens in the world are surprised to find that most terrorists are not poor. People who aren't overwhelmed by a socialist agenda know exactly who the terrorists are, and why they perpetrate their horrendous crimes. I'll give you a hint: it starts with "i".

Libby sentence commuted

This is great news, considering this was a witch hunt involving a case where no crime was actually committed -- the Plame leak case. I hope Bush pardons Libby, and predict he will when he leaves office. AP:

President Bush on Tuesday refused to rule out an eventual pardon for I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, leaving open the chance he may wipe away the former White House aide's criminal record after already erasing his prison sentence.

"I rule nothing in or nothing out," Bush said when asked about whether he might pardon Libby before leaving office in January 2009.

The president's stance, on one level, was merely practical. When he commuted Libby's 2 1/2-year prison term in the CIA leak case on Monday, a court ruling had made jail time imminent. Bush has plenty of time to consider a pardon, depending on how Libby's appeals go.

Gordon Brown already a disaster

It only took a week for Brown to emerge as a fool. He has ordered his inner circle to avoid using the term "Muslim" when discussing the atrocities attempted by Christians Buddhists atheists Muslims.

UK Daily Express:

Gordon Brown has banned ministers from using the word “Muslim” in ­connection with the ­terrorism crisis.

The Prime Minister has also instructed his team – including new Home Secretary Jacqui Smith – that the phrase “war on ­terror” is to be dropped.

The shake-up is part of a fresh attempt to improve community relations and avoid offending Muslims, adopting a more “consensual” tone than existed under Tony Blair.

However, the change provoked claims last night that ministers are indulging in yet more political correctness.

The new British government is appeasing a violent minority with twisted, stone-age morals. Shame on them. Brown is taking the advice of Tasnim Aslam, Pakistani foreign ministry spokeswoman, who spoke during the Pope-comment uproar:

"Anyone who describes Islam as a religion as intolerant encourages violence."

Michael Moore exposed, again

The first story I've ever read at mtv.com is a good one. I'm not 13, so I usually don't like anything associated with MTV. Check out this review of Sicko:

Unfortunately, Moore is also a con man of a very brazen sort, and never more so than in this film. His cherry-picked facts, manipulative interviews (with lingering close-ups of distraught people breaking down in tears) and blithe assertions (how does he know 18 million people will die this year because they have no health insurance?) are so stacked that you can feel his whole argument sliding sideways as the picture unspools. The American health-care system is in urgent need of reform, no question. Some 47 million people are uninsured (although many are only temporarily so, being either in-between jobs or young enough not to feel a pressing need to buy health insurance). There are a number of proposals as to what might be done to correct this situation. Moore has no use for any of them, save one.

As a proud socialist, the director appears to feel that there are few problems in life that can't be solved by government regulation (that would be the same government that's already given us the U.S. Postal Service and the Department of Motor Vehicles). In the case of health care, though, Americans have never been keen on socialized medicine. In 1993, when one of Moore's heroes, Hillary Clinton (he actually blurts out the word "sexy!" in describing her in the movie), tried to create a government-controlled health care system, her failed attempt to do so helped deliver the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives into Republican control for the next dozen years. Moore still looks upon Clinton's plan as a grand idea, one that Americans, being not very bright, unwisely rejected. (He may be having second thoughts about Hillary herself, though: In the movie he heavily emphasizes the fact that, among politicians, she accepts the second-largest amount of political money from the health care industry.)

People not spellbound by Moore's chatty, near-clever attempts to push socialism have known about him for a long time. He takes the worst possible statistics, then twists them like a pretzel, then invents some from scratch, and throws everything on screen in an almost whimsical way. The only thing more comical than his formula is watching the people who fall for it. Shortly after Fahreneit 911 came out, I was sitting at a coffee shop hearing lefties speak of the film like it triggered some sort of awakening in them. "I knew Bush was a bad guy, but I didn't know the full extent of it!" It was funny and nauseating at the same time.

A little while ago a pair of documentary filmmakers tried to make a nice documentary on the Rotund One himself, but didn't like what they saw, so the film was titled Manufacturing Dissent. See my post about it here.