Just in time for Halloween

Michelle Malkin, amongst others, posted these pictures from USA Today. You might notice a little difference between the two:

Halloween Condi









Whoo, pretty scary, eh?

Then, there's "unpossessed" Condi here











Oh man, the lights went off! I actually sent an email to USA Today. They blamed it on a 'new guy' that went a little too far lightening up the picture. Hmmm, wonder why nothing else got 'lighter' than the whites of her eyes? Halloween joke? Maybe, but how about doing Hillary while we're at it? Balance...

And for fun, Donald Rumsfeld

So which was it?

As you can see, ABC news wasn't quite so clear the first time. If you didn't catch it over the weekend, a Nazi group was going to march in Toledo, Ohio. With all the hubbub, the local police canceled the march. They didn't take one step. On the other hand, protesters definitely did take certain steps. Breaking windows, looting, burning, vandalizing...sigh.

Some more of what's out there...Beer and Jesus

Well, here was a post from that same site that I was getting the 'kudos' from. I don't think its much of a stretch to say that there's a correlation between ultra liberal, " bush planned 9/11" genre of blogs, and Godlessness. My take is in Italics

the top ten reasons why beer is better than jesus:

number ten: no one will kill you for not drinking beer;

I would guess that this reference goes back some 500 years to the Spanish Inquisition. Considering we've operated under the First Amendment for the last 200 years, I've not read of non-Christians being burned, lately.

Ironically, you can even in the year 2005 be killed for being an infidel by refusing to convert to Islam. So, in that regard, I would submit that beer is better than beheading someone.

number nine: beer doesn't tell you how to have sex;

Now here, I would heartily disagree. After all, how many instances are there of people having sex in situations they ordinarily never would have, without beer? What made you do it with that coyote ugly gal you met at the bar, your best friend's wife, your wife's best friend, underage teenagers at a party, and on and on...beer.

number eight: beer has never caused a major war;

Ok, so again we're going back a thousand years. In the twenty odd years I played in bars and nightclubs, I never once saw fights break out with Bibles flying back and forth with people yelling, "Immersion! No, sprinkling!". On the other hand...you get the picture

number seven: they don't force beer on minors who can't think for themselves;

Oh really? How many minors have been pressured into underage drinking by older folks (see sex reference above) or by their peers?

number six: when you have a beer, you don't knock on people's doors trying to give it away;

Of course not! Why be generous to strangers with YOUR beer? You keep giving it away, and eventually you'll run out. Now Jesus, on the other hand...

number five: nobody's ever been burned at the stake, hanged, or tortured over his brand of beer;

For the third time....how many hundreds of years ago?

number four: you don't have to wait 2000+ years for a second beer;

Assuming the 'non-believer' perspective behind this top ten list, its a good thing we're still waiting. You folks wouldn't like how it would turn out when He does come back.

number three: there are laws saying beer labels can't lie to you;

Yeah? I don't guess that all the advertising that equates beer with drop dead gorgeous super-models being around ordinary looking guys is 'dead-on' truth in advertising.

number two: you can prove you have a beer;

Depends on how many you've had. At some point, you may have difficulty proving that you exist.

and the number one reason why beer is better than jesus:

if you've devoted your life to beer, there are groups to help you stop.

Considering all the destructive behavior associated with alchohol and alchoholism, you're right.

I'm not sure we need groups to stop people from feeding, clothing, and housing the poor, healing the sick, and even helping alchoholics quit drinking.

Sheesh, this was too easy....

Well, at least Al Qaeda understands its not about oil

This from the WaPo...

Now, I'm always hammering the left for quoting articles with 'unnamed sources', so I'll be circumspect here. However, considering the Post's left-of-center posture, I'm thinking I'm on pretty solid ground.

So, what do we have here?

"The United States has obtained a letter from Osama bin Laden's deputy to the leader of Iraq's insurgency that outlines a long-term strategic vision for a global jihad, with the next phase of the war to be taken into Egypt, Syria and Lebanon, according to U.S. officials."

That's nice...he's sharing a vision. So why is OBL's number 2 sharing with Zarqawi?

"The letter of instructions and requests outlines a four-stage plan, according to officials: First, expel American forces from Iraq. Second, establish a caliphate over as much of Iraq as possible. Third, extend the jihad to neighboring countries, with specific reference to Egypt and the Levant -- a term that describes Syria and Lebanon. And finally, war against Israel."

There's your answer: Iraq is the first step...but wait, there's more.

"I want to be the first to congratulate you for what God has blessed you with in terms of fighting in the heart of the Islamic world, which was formerly the field for major battles in Islam's history, and what is now the place for the greatest battle of Islam in this era."
(emphasis mine).

So, I guess we can call Iraq "Jihadist Central", eh? Huhwuzzat? Bush just told us Iraq was the central part of the war on terror. He must have put those bad, bad Al Qaeda guys up to saying the same thing with some of those billions of dollars earmarked for Halliburton.

Boy, that Karl Rove is some kind of genius. Who would of thought of bribing those guys to back up W?

Or, maybe going to Iraq was the uh, ummm, right thing to do?

Now, here's the best part...

"In one indication of tensions between the al Qaeda leadership and its Iraqi division, U.S. officials said, Zawahiri writes about the need to maintain popular support. He is critical of Shiite Muslims and says a clash between the Sunni-dominated movement and the Shiite sect is inevitable, officials said, but he rebukes the leader of Iraq's insurgency for its brutal tactics -- noting that hostages can just as effectively be killed with bullets rather than by beheading, officials said."

Yeah, bullets are better. Not near as inflammatory in imagery. I mean, innocent people are just as dead, but without all those negative connotations. Yeah, lets 'ix-nay' the 'eheading-bay' from now on.

Boy, if this document is real..

So, what started all the hubbub?

Some of the reactions you see below concern the anti-war protest over the weekend.

Democracy Now!, a group that considers CNN part of the corporate media conspiracy that supports the evil aims of the current government(now that's leaning left, buddy!) advised that the anti war protest brought in somewhere between 100,000 and 300,000 participants. They had no basis in fact for coming up with that number, or more precisely, that wildly exaggerated estimation. I called the bloggerators at 'Skippy, the Bush Kangaroo' that linked to D.N. out on that number, and the discussion got pretty lively, and in some cases, pretty tasteless. Considering I was outnumbered, I did the best that I could.

This is what you get from 'progressive' blog sites...

Been commenting over at some other blogs with 'other' perspectives than mine. This doesn't happen all the time, but often enough. Here's the latest...

Uhm, let's start over, right wing troll. You're stuck on stupid. That's right. You're stuck on stupid. You're spewing million gillion billions of words to justify some stupid political idology of some sort or another. Well I got news for you. Reality don't give a shit what your ideological bullshit is. Anybody who calls themselves "liberal" or "conservative" rather than simply *AMERICAN* is literally STUCK ON STUPID. I'm not going to addres syour bullshit because that's just what it is -- bullshit. All I gotta say is this: When you're interested in figuring out what's right for America and Americans rather than in scoring ideological bullshit points, I'll be happy to address any concerns you have. But right now, you're stuck on stupid, and you wouldn't listen to me anyhow so why waste my breath? - Badtux the American Penguin

Oh and this one too...

Why do any of you want to deal with this piece of filth? Why respond? You can't win an argument with a schizophrenic. You can't change the mind of a True Believer -- and I don't want to. I just want to know how to flatten them into the ground.

Update: I just now figured out that Badtux follows an offshoot of Existentialism referred to as "Excrement(It really exists! Check out Wikpedia.) Existentialism", hence the multiple references to that material, bless his heart.

"It don't mean a thang without that transcendental swing"

I came across this article from http://www.lashawnbarber.com/ this evening. The link to the article is set below. Charles Murray, co-author of The Bell Curve, advises that our level of human accomplishment for the last 1200 years or so can be tied pretty much to our relationship with God. Interesting reading. When one looks back at all the great things written in ages past, it begs the question, "what have we done lately?" That might explain why things have pretty much gone to heck in a handbag since WW I, the rise of Communism, and pretty much every breakdown in civilization one could think of. To do a 180 on Rick Warren, its what we get when we have purposeless lives, eh?

So much for Hillary playing both ends against the middle

Courtesy of Michelle Malkin's post, here's the latest. In a New York Post article here We have Sheehan going after Hillary, who's going after Bush for not putting enough Military in Iraq. Poetic justice for all involved...

Crocodile Tears

Remember when we got this story and this video? This guy, Mr. Broussard was crying his eyes out in front of Tim Russert and a national TV audience. The gov'mint had abandoned New Orleans. He was crying over a woman that died at a nursing home. The son (not Mr. Broussard, BTW) kept hearing from her mom day after day after day asking if she would be rescued. Well, come to find out she died at the nursing home on August 29th, when storm came in. How in the heck was the mom calling day after day if she had already passed away? Now, the nursing home owners are facing charges that they did not act to evacuate the nursing home. Oddly enough, the owners made it out. Why not the residents? What does Mr. Broussard have to tell Tim Russert about now? Is he crying over that? Forget about the other part of the interview where he said FEMA turned away the Red Cross (It was the locals, actually). If I were a conspiracy theorist, I'd say that this was part of it, but you don't have to have marching orders from the DNC to take your own shots at Bush. Too bad they don't take shots at the real problems like border control and out of control spending. Cry me a river Mr. Broussard...

UPDATE: Per Cookie Jill's request, here is the link to the most comprehensive breakdown of the Brossard breakdown, with tip of the hat to Wuzzadem.

UPDATE: NBC has now issued a correction:

"New details and interviews with the son whose mother died in the flood show that the tragedy unfolded from Saturday through Monday, Aug. 29 — not Monday through Friday, Sept. 2 as recounted by Broussard. The owners of the nursing home were indicted Tuesday for the deaths of more than 30 residents, which officials say occurred on Aug. 29."

How in the world can this guy have provided so much detail, and ALL of it wrong?

Help! Somebody? Anybody?

I'm not saying there isn't any help coming from the international community, I just haven't heard of any other country stepping up to help us like we help everyone else. If I do, I'll be sure to put up a list. Waiting...

Ah, here we go. Lots of telegrams and expressions of sympathy. The Swiss people are asking where they can donate. That's one. Jihadists expressing glee...to be expected. Debate in Vienna on whether they should donate to such a rich country. Environmental groups blaming the United States for the global warming that created the conditions for the hurricane. Netherlands, and rightfully so, wondering why we haven't got things done like they have. Anybody else want to actually help? Still waiting...