Duthie On...

Abraham Lincoln, FDR, JFK, Reagan...what did all of these men have in common? A strong belief in God, and a willingness to pray for His guidance when it came to matters of state, and no sense of shame in invoking God's name and asking for His blessing on this country and her efforts at home and abroad.

It's clear that these traits are shared by Gov. Sarah Palin as well, and despite the clear desire by Charlie Gibson to make her feel shame for her past statements (which included a major omission that distorted her words), Palin doesn't bat an eye:

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This (via Drudge) just goes to show you how far some folks will go to accomodate their political views. Now, I'm not overly exercised by this. Oprah is a talking head, not a journalist, so there's no reason she needs to worry about providing balanced coverage, or anything like that. But it's fascinating that Oprah apparently does not want to have Sarah Palin on despite the fact that 40 million Americans tuned in to watch Palin's acceptance speech at the RNC. That is, BTW, about the same number that...

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So the Pentagon released a report that says, among other things: One question remains regarding Iraq’s terrorism capability: Is there anything in the captured archives to indicate that Saddam had the will to use his terrorist capabilities directly against United States? Judging from examples of Saddam’s statements (Extract 34) before the 1991 Gulf War with the United tates, the answer is yes . In the years between the two Gulf Wars, UN sanctions reduced Saddam’s ability to shape regional and world...

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Clearly, wishful thinking does not cause hurricanes : Unless a dramatic and perhaps historical flurry of activity occurs in the next 9 weeks, 2007 will rank as a historically inactive TC year for the Northern Hemisphere as a whole. During the past 30 years, only 1977, 1981, and 1983 have had less activity to date (January-TODAY, Accumulated Cyclone Energy). However, the year is not over... Click through charts and more. Once again, those who predicted a worse than usual hurricane season were wrong...

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Here's his deadpan take on the episode "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield" in which Frank Gorshin and another actor run around in half black, half white makeup on their faces for the entire episode: Some have speculated the episode may have been a commentary on racism. It's stuff like that that makes me so impressed with Lileks. No further commentary necessary. James Lileks on Star Trek Weekend 2007 on National Review Online...

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OK, they are letting him go...but they insist on a name change : Who remembers playing with G.I. Joe as a kid? For those of us who grew up with normal childhoods, instead of the moonbat-infested, politically correct childhoods forced onto kids today, G.I. Joe was the action figure to have. It was originally started in the 60s as a WWII soldier, with soldiers from other countries (Germany, England, and believe it or not, France), but saw its most successful sales during the resurgance in the 80s,...

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Apparently Freeman Dyson (yes, that Freeman Dyson ) doesn't buy into the hype on global warming: My first heresy says that all the fuss about global warming is grossly exaggerated. Here I am opposing the holy brotherhood of climate model experts and the crowd of deluded citizens who believe the numbers predicted by the computer models. Of course, they say, I have no degree in meteorology and I am therefore not qualified to speak. But I have studied the climate models and I know what they can do....

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James Hansen, of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies, has been a major critic of the Bush administration's response to global warming. Hansen has repeatedly claimed that he's being silenced for his outspoken views on the subject. Given that he's not an official spokesman for the government on climate change, it's not surprising that his public assertions that climate change is man-made and heading towards a point of no return would be viewed by the administration as unacceptable freelancing...

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It's so hard to find good help any more. First The New Republic has difficulty finding a decent embed for Iraq, and now Reuters gets pwn3d by a 13 year-old kid : The top-quality fact-checking that can only be achieved by large media corporations is on fine display today, as Reuters is caught by a 13-year old Finnish schoolboy representing still photos from the movie “Titanic” as pictures from the Russian North Pole expedition: Reuters gets that sinking feeling . lgf: Reuters Busted by a 13-Year Old...

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Clearly, the network news folks need a remedial course on conducting intelligence gathering operations…either that, or they need to get out of the spy business. Apparently, a reporter for NBC attempted to go undercover to secretly record attendees at the DefCon security conference , and apparently did so even after having been asked when she arrived if she wanted a press pass, or to review the rules and regs of the conference for press. She refused both, then excused herself to go to the bathroom...

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So The New Republic 's anonymous correspondent from Iraq is no longer anonymous : My Diarist, "Shock Troops," and the two other pieces I wrote for the New Republic have stirred more controversy than I could ever have anticipated. They were written under a pseudonym, because I wanted to write honestly about my experiences, without fear of reprisal. Unfortunately, my pseudonym has caused confusion. And there seems to be one major way in which I can clarify the debate over my pieces: I'm willing to...

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If you haven't been keeping up with it, the New Republic is under fire for some stories that they published by "Scott Thomas," who's supposedly a soldier serving in Baghdad. Thomas recently wrote a piece called "Shock Troops" that described soldiers engaging in a variety of abhorrent behavior, from mocking a woman disfigured by an IED, to running down dogs with a Bradley Fighting Vehicle. The Weekly Standard's Michael Goldfarb has kept an impressive roll call of the soldiers and bloggers calling...

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D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty on the decision to appeal the U.S. Court of Appeals ruling overturning the D.C. handgun ban: "We have made the determination that this law can and should be defended and we are willing to take our case to the highest court in the land to protect the city's residents," Fenty said in a press release. "Our handgun law has saved countless lives -- keeping guns out of the hands of those who would hurt others or themselves." Someone should remind Mayor Fenty of a couple of things...

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Bob Novak : I never spoke to Armitage again about Wilson. But he acknowledged to me nearly three months later through his political adviser, lobbyist Ken Duberstein, that he was indeed the primary source for my information about Wilson's wife. Shortly thereafter, he secretly revealed his role to federal authorities investigating the leak of Mrs. Wilson's name but did not inform White House officials, apparently including the president. After Patrick Fitzgerald, the U.S. attorney in Chicago named...

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The Times editorializes on the President's commutation of Libby's jail sentence: Mr. Libby was convicted of lying to federal agents investigating the leak of the name of a covert C.I.A. operative, Valerie Wilson. Mrs. Wilson's husband, Joseph Wilson, was asked to investigate a central claim in Mr. Bush's drive to war with Iraq whether Iraq tried to purchase uranium from Africa. Mr. Wilson concluded that Iraq had not done that and had the temerity to share those conclusions with the American public...

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Really good question : Forecasts for a busy hurricane season in 2006 were all dead wrong. This year, forecasters predicted a really busy year again. But with just two storms to date, and neither one a hurricane, you might wonder where all the action is. Although the article goes on to suggest that it's too early to tell how busy this hurricane season will be, it's still an important reminder that prediction ain't all it's cracked up to be. And it should remind us that if some of the best forecasters...

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The only surprise here is that a report commissioned by the Beeb came to this conclusion: The BBC has failed to promote proper debate on major political issues because of the inherent liberal culture of its staff, a report commissioned by the corporation has concluded. The report claims that coverage of single-issue political causes, such as climate change and poverty, can be biased - and is particularly critical of Live 8 coverage, which it says amounted to endorsement. I wonder if any of the U...

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Please tell me this is a joke: LOS ANGELES (AP) - Bob Barker endorsed his friend Rosie O'Donnell as a possible successor on "The Price Is Right," although the newly retired host isn't sure CBS wants a woman to take over the game show. "I believe they're going to have a meeting with Rosie," Barker said backstage Friday night at the Daytime Emmy Awards , where he won his 19th trophy. So from attempting to bully and shout down the lone conservative on "The View", Rosie might move to "The Price is Right...

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Time to fire up the fear engine: With another summer upon us, the media is again abuzz with news about the West Nile virus. News agencies across the nation are offering tips and advice on how to avoid contracting the disease. Advice ranges from the pragmatic (drain water on your property) to the impracticable (limit time outside at dawn and dusk, when mosquitoes are most active). Innumerable experts have been consulted and their consensus is clear: be afraid, very afraid. So begins a column from...

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This is an amazing story about a brilliant maneuver pulled off by one of the amazing folks serving in Iraq to avert a bloodbath in Anbar: The Final Option Read the whole thing, because it's surely a story that won't be told in the mainstream media. Source: Michael Yon : Online Magazine » Blog Archive » The Final Option...

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Apparently now we're to be scared of the common soda. In addition to scares about benzene formed by the combination of ascorbic acid (vitamin C) and sodium benzoate, apparently the sodium benzoate itself is dangerous: ...an expert in ageing at Sheffield University, who has been working on sodium benzoate since publishing a research paper in 1999, has decided to speak out about another danger. Professor Peter Piper, a professor of molecular biology and biotechnology, tested the impact of sodium benzoate...

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While celebrating this weekend, don't forget to take time out to remember the reason we celebrate Memorial Day...all the men and women who have sacrificed to make the United States what it is, and who continue to sacrifice to protect our lives and our freedoms. Day By Day cartoon has some observations on the subject, too:...

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In an otherwise fairly balanced Time piece on Fred Thompson , Mark Halperin had this to say: Thompson is most often compared to Ronald Reagan, and the comparison is apt. Neither would be mistaken for an intellectual , but both got plenty of mileage out of regularly concealing their smarts. Both placed an emphasis on grand, classic American themes, and both offered a folksy way of describing the holy trinity of conservative dogma (lower taxes, less government and a strong national defense). But unlike...

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The Associated Press demonstrates once again the serious bias on the part of the mainstream media when it comes to abortion, in a story that suggests the existence of a rift among pro-life groups on whether the ban on partial-birth abortion was a victory for pro-life advocates: Anti-abortion leaders are accusing one of their own, Focus on Family founder James Dobson, of misrepresenting a Supreme Court decision that upheld a ban on late-term abortions. In a full-page ad in Wednesday's editions of...

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Rich Karlgaard, in Forbes.com, discusses one of the most egregious cases of unintended (but utterly predictable) consequences in the brief history of the environmental movement, that of the banning of DDT in the wake of the release of Silent Spring, the book that is credited with starting the whole movement. It's author, Rachel Carson, has the status of a saint on the left, is lionized in the media, and even has schools named for her, such as this middle school in Herndon, VA (ironically, the location...

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In the absence of an announcement by Fred Thompson that he's running, the candidate I've been most interested in for the GOP presidential nomination is Mitt Romney. Alas, he's not been doing so hot in most polls, and this statement, in response to a question from Mike Wallace on 60 Minutes, isn't going to help: I must admit, I can't image anything more awful than polygamy. While I get that he feels the need to distance himself from the former Mormon practice of polygamy (mostly because the media...

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...as if any more were necessary. Behold... Cooking with Bubba ! And as a side note, has there ever been another former elected official who was more of an attention junkie than Bubba? Really, I think he was always more interesed in being the Celebrity in Chief (thus the "boxers vs. briefs moment, playing sax on Arsenio, etc.) than in actually running the country. If only that were the case with Hillary...then we could just get her Rosie's slot on The View, and not have to worry about the disastrous...

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Is it the elite New Yorker, with the clipped, shrill phrasing, or the down-home Southern girl on display here ? Well, I guess since her husband has been lauded as the first black president, perhaps she feels entitled to insult a black audience with a little put-on drawl. Don't hold your breath for statements of outrage from Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson on this one. Hill will get a pass on this, thanks to her impeccable liberal credentials....

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Jeez, I'm not sure which of these guys is more irritating, but the specter of Imus apologizing on Sharpton's radio show was bad enough...now Imus is chiding Sharpton for not apologizing to the Duke Lacross players . While I'd certainly agree (and pointed out earlier this week) that Sharpton is hardly a model of racial probity, for Imus to be the one pointing this out after having attempted to use Sharpton to mitigate the effects of his foot-in-mouth disease is kinda pathetic. In fairness, Imus is...

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I haven't settled on who to support among the GOP contenders yet. Unfortunately, for someone like myself who identifies as a conservative first, and a Republican a distant second, the current field is largely disappointing. Giuliani, as I've noted in previous posts, probably won't stick with the race, as his negatives will weigh down his candidacy, and I don't think he'll want to stay in if he sees he won't win. Even if he does stay in, I don't see him winning, and I'd have trouble voting for him...

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...and other tactics to discredit those who don't toe the catastrophic global warming line: PowerLine blog has a great example of the full range . It says something about the poverty of argumentation on the side of the supporters of catastrophic global warming theory that they, and the media, must distort the views of those who oppose their doom-mongering. And worse, these tactics make it harder to have a reasonable debate on reasonable steps we could be taking today, at significantly less cost than...

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This story is pretty nasty. You have to wonder (or perhaps the answer is obvious) whether the cloak of anonymity (or even semi-anonymity), combined with a level of remove from the impact of one's actions, leads people who normally wouldn't think of threatening or attempting to intimidate others into doing so online. Regardless of the cause, it's foul, and I hope those responsible end up prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. As with the now-infamous Deb Frisch, who inadvertently made herself...

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Although I wasn't able to make it, my mother and brother attended the Gathering of Eagles counter-protest to the usual moonbattery organized by International ANSWER and funded in part by George Soros. Although many of the MSM stories would lead one to believe that there were either only a few hundred counter-protestors, or that the anti-war folks outnumbered those who rallied in support of our troops, the folks who were actually there say differently...and their story is bolstered by unofficial park...

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If you live in Loudoun County, VA, you should be aware of the activites of a group calling themselves "Mainstream" Loudoun. This is a group that fought against internet filters in Libraries (because we all know that the Constitution protects our right to download porn in public places), and is currently fighting tooth and nail to prevent abstinence from being a part of the sex ed curriculum in Loudoun County public schools. Barbara Curtis, who writes a monthly column for the Loudoun Times-Mirror...

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Victor Davis Hanson has some choice words for John Edwards' attempt to co-op Jesus in the service of his "two Americas" class warfare rhetoric. My favorite graf: Still, at the very least when Edwards says the following: "I think that Jesus would be disappointed in our ignoring the plight of those around us who are suffering and our focus on our own selfish short-term needs. "I think he would be appalled, actually," he could at least offer the homeless shelter for a few cold nights in his sports and...

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...not As I Do. Another fine example is Al Gore, who according to this post on the Planet Gore blog (referring to an item from the Tennesee Center for Policy Research), uses more than 20 times the national average in electricity. One assumes that at least some of that is not from renewable sources. Ah, but according to Greenhouse Gasbag Al, the rest of us plebes must conserve, conserve, conserve if we are to avoid the dire calamities of global warming. Thanks for the warning, Al. And for doing your...

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Once again, the New York Times demonstrates that they have no scruples, nor any sense of loyalty towards the country that makes their work possible. And that they have contempt for the armed forces that protect their rights. In this photo , the Times shows "[a] sniper loyal to Shiite cleric Moqtada al Sadr" firing on U.S. troops. Apparently photographer Joao Silva and the editors at the Times think it's just fine to allow someone to attempt to kill our troops while they go for a good picture. Even...

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Discover Magazine has a list of five lessons we should learn from the Avian Flu outbreak . Strangely enough, "don't buy into pseudo-scientific hype and doom-and-gloom stories" doesn't appear in the list. What's more, many of their "lessons" (#5 starts out "We are at the mercy of viral evolution.") could be construed as buying into the notion that we barely dodged a bullet in avoiding a major avian flu pandemic. The subhead of the article, "Work, Watch, Wait, Worry, and Wonder," only reinforces this...

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In a post on the ever-obnoxious Ted Kennedy , I shared the Media Research Center's Quote of the year from 2003, which featured Boston Globe columnist Charles Pierce opining on Kennedy's career and Mary Jo Kopechne: “If she had lived, Mary Jo Kopechne would be 62 years old. Through his tireless work as a legislator, Edward Kennedy would have brought comfort to her in her old age.” Pierce's response , in the American Prospect, makes a pretty convincing case that he was taken out of context in a fashion...

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Question...why is it that it was imperative that we find out who in the White House "leaked" the identity of Valerie Plame to the media (I use the quotes because left unresolved has been the question of whether Plame actually had covert status at the time, and because of the fact that no crime has been alleged in the case relating to illegally leaking classified information), and yet attempting to discover who at the CIA leaked uncontestably classified information regarding the NSA wiretapping program...

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Julian Bond is a disgrace, and has an ugly soul. He should resign as chairman of the NAACP. If he won't do it voluntarily, honest people should demand it. Why do I say this? Because of the latest in a series of tirades Bond has aimed at conservatives and the GOP. I have no problem with critics who attack on the issues, and who disagree vehemently. But for Bond to assert that "The Republican Party would have the American flag and the swastika flying side by side" is simply disgusting, defamatory,...

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Here we go again. The New York Times (motto: All the Bush-bashing fit to print), published a silly global warming hit piece today featuring a NASA climate scientist whining about being warned not to make policy speeches or discuss policy with the media. The scientist, one James Hansen, has called "for prompt reductions in emissions of greenhouse gases linked to global warming," according to the article. Well, color me shocked. Hansen's supervisors have asked him to desist from making such calls publicly...

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A reminder of who was really responsible for dirty tricks in the 2004 presidential campaign (hint: it wasn't the GOP). You know if there were people who worked for the Bush-Cheney campaign on trial for vandalizing vehicles used to get people to the polls, the Democrats and the mainstream media would be screaming at the top of their lungs about how this was all a part of the conspiracy to steal the election and deprive people of their vote. I'm betting that the silence from the mainstream media on...

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In a remarkable, if not surprising, revelation of the arrogance of the management of the New York Times, Times public editor (i.e. - the guy who's job it is to keep the NYT honest in the wake of things like the Jayson Blair scandal) Byron Calame writes that he has been completely stonewalled by management in his attempts to get more information on the questionable timing of their story on the NSA domestic eavesdropping story. The timing is important for a couple of reasons, not the least of which...

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Very interesting speech from Michael Crichton (author of State of Fear , among others) on the way that our response to the fear industry (the touting by the media of the latest thing or things that will kill us) and our arrogant belief that we understand (and thus the government can successfully manage) natural systems such as national parks. He uses compelling examples such as the Chernobyl nuclear accident (claims of anywhere from 2,000-15,000 dead...in fact, only 56 died in the accident itself...

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Yet another case of moral idiocy on the part of the mainstream media. This time it's Katie Couric and Matt Lauer on NBC's Today show who, despite some discomfort, promoted an exhibition that includes 22 human corpses, some of whom had had their skin or other body parts removed. Despite on-air musings about the propriety of the exhibition, Couric and Lauer were shown on-set with one of the corpses, which had been posed to resemble Rodin's "The Thinker", only without any skin. Apart from the repugnant...

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Via The Corner , as this Newsweek article discusses, apparently hollywood is at it again. Specifically, several notables have teamed up to produce a special entitled "Earth to America!", in which. [sic] Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Hanks and Will Ferrell and other Hollywood A-listers urge people to join the Stop Global Warming Virtual March on Washington (StopGlobalWarming.org), an online petition. Get that? It's not just an online petition. Any idiot can create an online petition (and any idiot can sign...

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If you're a Republican, you can expect every word out of your mouth to be parsed carefully for any hidden racist meanings, and even innocuous birthday greetings can result in a fall from power (witness Trent Lott). If you're a Democrat, you can be the dean of the Senate, and a leader in your party, despite having been a member of the KKK (Robert Byrd). If you're a Republican, you can reach out to the NAACP, favor policies which would greatly benefit black Americans (social security privatization...

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From The Corner on NRO, this nasty little bit from an editorial in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: In losing a woman, the court with Alito would feature seven white men, one white woman and a black man, who deserves an asterisk because he arguably does not represent the views of mainstream black America. Could someone please explain to be why liberals get away with insinuating that Clarence Thomas (and other prominent black Republicans and/or conservatives) are somehow less black because they do...

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Buried deep within a Times UK story on the grossly corrupt Iraq 'oil-for-food' program , amid revelations that yet more 'oil-for-food' money has been traced to the estranged wife of British anti-war zealot George Galloway, is the following interesting tidbit: The report found that Marc Rich & Co financed oil purchases from Iraq and the associated kickbacks for the son of a French MP shortly after the company’s founder received a controversial pardon from President Clinton. One assumes that this...

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Several media outlets, both here and overseas, have taken the occasion of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita to assert that "global warming" is causing more severe hurricanes like these, and that this is proof that they were right all along. Give me a break. The historical satellite data that we have on hurricanes dates back to the 1970s, less than 40 years worth. If you include measurements from aircraft, you get back to the mid 1940s, which is still only about 60 years worth of data. From this, those...

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Yesterday, in one of the more ugly political hatchet jobs I've seen recently, the L.A. Times asserted in an editorial entitled "Bolton's Mischief" that actions by U.N. Ambassador John Bolton "would be a death sentence for millions." This remarkable assertion comes because among the hundreds of amendments the U.S. has proposed to a draft reform document, "[h]is most odious change was to delete all references to the Millennium Development Goals, which commit industrialized nations to cutting world...

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Well, it's back. No, not the actual SARS virus. I'm talking about the latest hyped threat to mankind, the Avian Flu, aka Bird Flu. Not since SARS have we gotten so worked up about a disease with such a relatively small impact on humans. One need only do a quick internet search to recall the breathless predictions of impending doom that accompanied the SARS virus as it attacked around the world. Only trouble was...it turned out to be a dud, relatively speaking. Without diminishing the sad loss of...

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One of the reasons I was motivated to get the blog back online was the recent contretemps involving DC station WMAL host Michael Graham, and his moderately over-the-top remarks about Islam and terrorism. I won't re-hash the entire thing, since other bloggers and writers have covered the topic well ( here , here , here , here , here , and here ), but in it's essence, the troubling statement (which is really only troubling when taken out of context) was Graham's assertion that "Islam has, sadly, become...

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...there's the news that the Sheehan 24x7 media blitz is being funded by a group called True Majority, funded by B&J's Ben Cohen. Also of note in the article is the fact that when the "Cindy you don't speak for me" tour of military wives and moms who support the Iraq war arrives in Crawford, Sheehan won't meet with them with reporters present: The "You don't speak for me" group is expected to be in Crawford on Saturday. Sheehan said today she'll welcome to meet with her without reporters present...

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This story in today's Washington Post is as fine an example of the stunning shallowness and lack of perspective that populates what passes for journalism today. Robin Givhan, the fashion reporter for the Style section, apparently believes that the most important thing to note about the ceremony that marked the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz was her opinion that the Vice President, who was there representing the United States, had (in her opinion) committed a fashion faux pas: At...

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Those of you who know me, know I'm a big fan of video games. I have mixed feelings about certain genres, such as first-person shooters, and there are some games that I think are simply beyond the pale. A good example of this kind of game is the Grand Theft Auto series, in which your goal in the game is to carjack, rob, rape, and murder. Another is a game series in which you play a professional assassin. Ick. In a furtherance of the trend towards pushing the envelope ever further, a Scottish game...

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That's a question I think we need to ask ourselves in the wake of the recent reporting on the Marine who is being accused of “war crimes” for shooting an insurgent who was apparently feigning death, perhaps in an attempt to ambush the Marine and his companions. And the question isn't about whether looking after an embedded reporter is a burden that endangers our troops. It's a question of whether the next Marine is going to hesitate when making a decision about whether to kill the enemy...

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If you have any doubts about whether the media is being misleading in its reporting on a Marine in Fallujah who killed a wounded (and, according to the embedded reporter, unarmed), you should read the letter from a Marine that was posted on Powerline blog. I'll be the first to admit that I don't know all the facts of what went on. But if it's true that these terrorists are in the habit of feigning surrender or death, only to blow themselves to bits in an attempt to take out those who fall for their...

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Take a look at all of the obnoxious cartoons linked from The Democracy Project , and tell me that there isn't something terribly wrong with the American left today. The President of the United States nominates as Secretary of State an enormously qualified woman, someone who rose up from poverty, who became one of the youngest university provosts ever, at Stanford University, who in addition to her foreign policy expertise is an accomplished classical pianist, and who happens to be both female and...

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despite the fact that CNN, et. al. refuse to call Ohio, which isn't close enough for their to be any likelihood of a Kerry/Edwards pickup. I suspect that if Kedwards put us through an attempted repeat of Florida 2000 when the winning margin for the President is more than a hundred thousand votes, they're going to end up looking remarkably petty and classless, not to mention doing worse damage to the Democrat party overall. With 100% of precincts reporting, according to CNN , the President is currently...

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In a result that will shock virtually no one, the staff of Slate has posted their presidential preferences , and the result is a landslide for Kerry. Nearly 87% of Slate's staff have declared that they're voting for Kerry. Out of 52 listed, 45 are for Kerry, while 4 are for Bush (two of the remaining three are for third-party candidates, while one is Canadian, and hence ineligible to vote), a grand total of 8%, including rounding up. As the ever-defensive Michael Kinsley was quick to point out after...

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That's the title of a CD due in stores today, according to a story in the Washington Post Style section (link may require registration). I'm sure that the timing of the article is coincidental and has nothing to do with the election (yes, that was sarcasm), but what's particularly striking about the article, and indeed the CD itself, is what it illustrates about the worldview of those who oppose President Bush. The basics of the story are that a Norwegian music producer heard Bush's “Axis of...

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...at least more forcefully: Kerry and Edwards have a demonstrated track record of treating foreign policy as a popularity contest. Cheney hit on this somewhat in his discussion of their Iraq policy in the face of the anti-war views of Howard Dean, but he did not adequately make the connection with Kerry's current statements on Iraq and the “global test” and Edward's insistence on defending this silliness. Despite both Kerry and Edwards' claims that they would not provide another country...

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Via Drudge , in today's Fort Worth Star-Telegram , Bill Burkett is quoted as follows: During a single phone conversation with Lockhart, Burkett said he suggested a "couple of concepts on what I thought [Kerry] had to do" to beat Bush. In return, he said, Lockhart tried to "convince me as to why I should give them the documents." Now, I'll be the first to say that Burkett's credibility is on par with CBS', which is to say, not good. But if, in fact, Lockhart and Burkett did in fact discuss the documents...

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A must-read commentary on Captain's Quarters details the knee-slappers that Burkett is now peddling, including the fact that he only has photocopies of the fake memos because he burned the originals at the behest of his source, the mysterious Lucy Ramirez. I predict that the more reporting is done on Burkett, the more people will realize that he is a world-class nutcase, and the more credibility CBS will lose (assuming there's any left to lose) as people wonder why on earth CBS took him seriously...

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The Associated Press is reporting that Kerry adviser Joe Lockhart spoke with CBS fake document source Bill Burkett shortly before the airing of the CBS report, at the behest of CBS producer Mary Mapes . Lockhart denied any connection between the Kerry campaign and the memos, but how stupid does he think we are? We already knew that CBS thinks it can get away with insulting our intelligence. Now the Kerry campaign obviously thinks the same thing. What's hysterical is that Lockhart employs the same...

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Looks like CBS will attempt to lay the blame for the fake memo scandal on Bill Burkett, who's been widely reported to be the source of the documents. According to the New York Times (link via Drudge ), CBS is preparing to announce that they were misled on the memos, and that the story was too flawed to have aired. Apparently, they're still sticking by the 'fake, but accurate' story line, though, despite every major source and living figure other than Ben Barnes (a major Kerry fundraiser) having denied...

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As noted by Power Line , CBS is once again flipping the proverbial bird to its viewers and, for that matter, to anyone who cares about journalistic integrity (or is that an oxymoron today?). The latest comes in the wake of ABC's interview with General Staudt, the officer who (according to the now-discredited memos offered by CBS) purportedly pressured Lt. Colonel Jerry Killian to “sugarcoat” then-Lt. Bush's service record. Never mind that Staudt had been retired for over a year and a...

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The Captain, over at Captain's Quarters, reports on an analysis by Jim VanderHei in The Washington Post, in which VanderHei discusses Kerry's habit of making gaffes when lamely attempting to discuss sports like a “regular guy.” Of particular note was Kerry's goof up in Wisconsin, where he called the Packer's Lambeau Field “Lambert Field”. Apparently, the cheeseheads weren't amused, and the Bush/Cheney campaign has spent some time pounding Kerry over the incident. Does this...

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Via Hugh Hewitt , an interesting article from the Dallas Morning News describes the views of Marian Carr Knox, who was the secretary for the late Lt. Col Jerry Killian, of the CBS memo fame, on the subject of the memos. What's very interesting is that she describes herself as a clear anti-Bush partisan, and says that she's sure that the memos are fake, but that they represent the true feelings of Killian at the time: Marian Carr Knox, who worked from 1956 to 1979 at Ellington Air Force Base in Houston...

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CBS and Dan Rather's continued denials that their story on the Bush National Guard memos is hopelessly flawed reminded me of something, so I decided to spend a little time in Photoshop to represent it graphically: UPDATE : Heh. Looks like I'm not the only blogger inspired to artistic interpretation of Rather's dilemma. Here's another . And another . UPDATE II: More funnies here ....

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This story in today's Washington Post is devastating to CBS (and those on the web who are still insisting that the CBS documents are authentic). This should really end any further question of whether the documents are authentic, particularly given that the WaPo is hardly a part of the Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy. The money paragraphs: The lead expert retained by CBS News to examine disputed memos from President Bush's former squadron commander in the National Guard said yesterday that he examined...

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So apparently, as a part of the story by Dan Rather about ‘new’ questions about Bush’s National Guard service (which I noted here ), CBS News released several documents purporting to be memos from Bush’s commanding officer, Jerry Killian (now deceased). Unfortunately for CBS and its credibility, it is looking increasingly likely that some or all of the 4 documents may be forgeries . Prompted by a post at Little Green Footballs , in which the author described the results of...

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Apparently, AP ran a story claiming that attendees at a Bush rally booed Bush’s well-wishes for former President Clinton’s recovery from heart surgery, and that Bush didn’t try to stop the booing. Only problem is that it appears that it never happened. I’ve listened to the audio clip , and it’s pretty clear there’s no booing. Is there any explanation for this, other than an obvious attempt to make Bush look bad? The MSM is doing their level best to destroy their...

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…from a famous former Olympic athlete . In an article (link above) in the UK Guardian, Olympic gold medalist Carl Lewis makes the following asinine assertion regarding President Bush’s ads noting that Afghanistan and Iraq are now competing in the Olympic games as free countries: “I felt that was disingenuous. It is funny that we boycotted the 1980 Games [in Moscow] in support of Afghanistan, and now we're bombing Afghanistan…” Once again, celebrity trumps good judgement...

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…when a group of clothing merchants band together to prevent a competitor from selling products to “their” customers, merely because of the color of his skin? When the spokesman for the competitor quits and goes to work for the aforementioned group instead because of pressure from this group, saying: “I can’t look over my shoulders over no clothes…I don’t need nobody killing nobody over [these clothes].” I’d say it certainly looks a good deal...

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In the latest evidence that even the obvious is beyond the liberal media without “scientists” telling them, the BBC is reporting on an analysis by the Institute for Astronomy in Zurich that suggests that sunspot activity is greater than at any time in the past 1,000 years, and that the historical record suggests a correlation between sunspot activity and the earth’s temperature, with warmer temperatures correlating with higher sunspot activity. Of course, the “scientists”...

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…why it is that the Right is always being characterized as being the origin of hateful speech? I always have to ask myself that question when I see columns like this one from Jimmy Breslin: Reagan should be on a $3 bill Not only is the column chock-full of rather vicious slanders of President Reagan, such as asserting that “Reagan hated children” and was “callous”. But for it to appear on the very day that Reagan was laid to rest speaks to a degree of contempt and viciousness...

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The funeral ceremonies for President Reagan today (Friday) at Washington National Cathedral, and at the Reagan Library were both moving and beautiful. I doubt that I shall see the like again in my lifetime, which is appropriate since I doubt that we’ll see another president like Reagan again (though I wouldn’t mind being proven wrong on that one). The eulogies this morning from former Canadian PM Brian Mulroney and Lady Thatcher were both moving tributes to the man they called their ally...

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...and this from a theatre review by a Michael Feingold. The first paragraph reads: No U.S. president, I expect, will ever appoint a Secretary of the Imagination. But if such a cabinet post ever were created, and Richard Foreman weren't immediately appointed to it, you'd know that the Republicans were in power. Republicans don't believe in the imagination, partly because so few of them have one, but mostly because it gets in the way of their chosen work, which is to destroy the human race and the...

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…and it’s obvious that it’s in part because they don’t really listen to him. A prime example is a recent article on Salon.com (requires either registration, or watching a brief ad to view the full article), in which the writer reveals that the discovery that her therapist is a Rush fan created huge problems for her. While I can sympathize with her concerns about sharing very personal discussions with someone who’s worldview is different from one’s own, I think...

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An article in National Review on Kerry’s stance on terrorism provides some interesting food for thought. For example, the article recalls Kerry’s claim some weeks ago that President Bush had “exaggerated” the threat of terrorism. Now, however, in the wake of Richard Clarke’s testimony before the 9-11 commission, Kerry is jumping on Clarke’s testimony to claim that the Bush administration didn’t take terrorism seriously enough, and hasn’t done enough...

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In what should be (but of course won’t be) an embarrassment to the Democrats and media outlets hounding the President about “questions remaining” about his service in the National Guard, the Boston Globe is now reporting that the man who started it all by making accusations that Bush’s service record had been “sanitize[d]”, may have been lying. Retired Lieutenant Colonel Bill Burkett, who has been pressing his charges in the national news media this week, says...

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According to a story in the New York Daily News , it looks like some on the Left won’t be satisfied with accusing the right of trying to illegally suppress Democratic votes, or with Michael Moore’s obnoxious and insulting (not to mention untrue) assertion that the President was a “deserter”. No, now we have Moby, a Kerry supporter (and modestly musically talented pop musician) who suggests ways that the Left can “keep the other side home on Election Day.” No, he’s...

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With the recent news that the chemical weapon ricin was found in a Senate office mailroom, in a letter addressed to Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, it’s been interesting to watch the media dance surrounding the issue. Early this morning (before anyone could possibly know one way or another) came reports from unnamed “government officials” who said they think it’s probably a domestic group that’s responsible, because ricin doesn’t bear the signature of al qaeda...

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So hot are they to impugn the Bush administration’s actions in going to war in Iraq, Congressional Democrats (as reported uncritically by the Associated Press in today’s Washington Post) are asserting that because of inaction by the U.S., “Iraqi women are in danger of losing rights,” according to the headline on page A2 of the Post. The most ridiculous assertion of the brief article is as follows: Although former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein has been criticized on many grounds...

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OK, so I’ll admit up-front…with MTV producing it, I should’ve expected the Super Bowl halftime show to reach new lows in trashiness. I should’ve expected trampy, trashy costumes. I should’ve expected grinding, sex-simulating (and yet somehow not the least bit sexy) choreography. I should’ve expected gratuitous crotch-grabbing (an unfortunate trend popularized by another Jackson). I should’ve expected horrible lip-synching. What I didn’t expect was that...

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President Bush has announced that he will push for a 15% boost in the budget for the National Endowment for the Arts, which would be the largest funding boost the agency has received in two decades. It appears to be yet another attempt by the Bush administration to appease his critics on the left, while apparently ignoring the impact on his base. Conservatives like myself object to the NEA for a number of reasons, not the least of which is the fact that the NEA has a checkered history at best in...

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John Stossel’s got a new book out called Give Me a Break that looks pretty promising as an antidote to the pervasive Nanny State, or at least as a sound argument against same. Given the new book, Stossel is making the rounds of radio, etc., and I happened to catch him on the Laura Ingraham show this morning. As I understand it, Stossel’s political leanings can best be described as libertarian, and since I’m a libertarian-leaning conservative, I don’t think there’s much...

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In the latest knee-slapping news on the planned all-Liberal, all the time, radio network, as reported in today’s Washington Post, Al Franken has been signed (as expected) as the flagship talking head. And what timeslot are Progress Media’s honchos planning to put Franken’s liberal radio genius in? Why noon to 3pm, of course, the same timeslot that Rush Limbaugh occupies. I guess the author of the hard-hitting journalistic tome “Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot” thinks...

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The op-ed section of Saturday’s Washington Post contained an opinion piece by Ellen Goodman, entitled “Oops! Help for Same-Sex Unions” in which Goodman argues that the shameful antics of one Britney Spears in getting married and having her marriage annulled in only 55 hours provides an argument for supporting gay marriage. This is an awfully slender reed on which to hang her argument, IMO. The argument, which I’ve heard from a number of media outlets, goes something like this...

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Ole notes another instance of: Want to see an example of CNN anti-Israeli bias? Check out this headline: Israelis kill Palestinian, another dies in explosion. Read the story to find out the Palestinian in question was lighting a Molotov cocktail, and the explosion was a suicide bomber whose explosives detonated prematurely. Horrible. The bias is so evident, it probably backfires. I hope so. [ Critical Section ] I hope Ole’s right about the bias backfiring, but unfortunately, I don’t think...

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A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines. With consistency a great soul has simply nothing to do - Ralph Waldo Emerson Let me start this off by saying that it’s not what you think. This is not a Dean-bashing blog post. In fact, it’s almost (but not quite) a defense. Which may seem a little odd because I’m perfectly happy to admit that I don’t like Dean, and I think he’d be a disaster as President...

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Iain Murray, of TechCentralStation , body-slams the recent Nature study whose lead author has been claiming more than a million species could be irrevocably headed for extinction by 2050. He also highlights the fact that while most news organizations say nothing about the limitations of the study, a New York Times reporter, of all things, was the one to note that the actual study only claims that 15 to 37% of the 1,103 species that were studied could be headed for extinction. In other words, the...

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You be the judge… Page A2 of today’s Washington Post carries an article on Secretary of State Colin Powell’s statement that “What we need is, I believe, more responsible action on the part of the Palestinian Authority in order to bring terrorism under control, make sure that violence is being brought to an end,” a fairly reasonable statement given the facts on the ground. But the Post is apparently dissatisfied because Powell failed to engage in moral equivalence by...

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Howard Dean makes his debut as a theologian on the front page of today’s Washington Post, with an article that describes his newest claim: that his decision to sign civil unions for homosexuals into law was “influenced by his Christian views.” The article quotes dean as saying the following: The overwhelming evidence is that there is very significant, substantial genetic component to it. From a religious point of view, if God had thought homosexuality is a sin, he would not have...

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The story I discussed yesterday regarding the projected impact of global warming on habitat and the resulting predicted extinction of “millions of species” hit the front page of The Washington Post today. As usual with stories like this, the liberal bias is obvious. For one, the Post article gives the study complete credence, offering only token reporting of any skepticism of its results. The one critic of the study quoted is identified as a the “president of the George C. Marshall...

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Yes, it’s the very latest in global warming hysteria… According to this article from the BBC web site, a “scientific study” published in the journal Nature predicts that “a quarter of animals and plants living on the land could be forced into oblivion,” among other dire predictions. The culprit? Why mankind’s thoughtless use of fossil fuels that produce greenhouse gases, of course. Before you park your SUV for good, however, you might want to note the following...

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According to this opinion piece by someone named Neal Starkman in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer (perhaps less-than-aptly-named, in this case), the reason that George W. Bush enjoys the “astonishingly high” popularity “given the state of people's lives now as opposed to four years ago” is, to put it bluntly…that “[s]ome people -- sometimes through no fault of their own -- are just not very bright.” Now, to call this arrogance would be to insult the arrogant...

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I’ve got a bone to pick with Steve Irwin. As discussed in today’s Washington Post , and as shown in a photo in the Aussie Herald Sun, it would appear that Steve Irwin has decided to fight Michael Jackson for the title of world’s worst media dad. Irwin, for those who have been away from a TV or radio for the last few days, apparently decided that, in the interest of making his one-month old child “croc savvy”, it would be a good idea to hold the child in one arm, while...

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...from the Washington Post op-ed pages. First, credit where it's due. The Washington Post is right on the money in their editorial criticizing the attempts by Democrat presidential hopefuls John F#$% Kerry and Howard "Dr." Dean to politicize the recent appearance of mad cow disease in the U.S. The editorial rightly points out that only a single infected cow has been discovered, and that all evidence suggests that there is close to zero risk to humans from the meat that was recalled (since the nervous...

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The Washington Post published a piece today that leads me to believe that the Post (and probably other papers as well) needs desperately to rein in the use of anonymous sources. The piece in question , by Post staff writers Mike Allen and Dana Milbank, discusses the "news" that a fourth prosecutor has been added by the Justice Department to the team investigating the leak of the identity of Valerie Plame, a supposedly undercover CIA employee who is married to the anti-war gadfly Joseph C. Wilson...

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Jonah Goldberg of National Review Online asked today for suggestions of the most overreported stories of the year, both in the “political” category, as well as the “pop-culture” category. He also asked for suggestions for the most overreported story of the year. While I'm sure there are many good candidates for underreported stories of the year, nothing occurred to me immediately, but I was hit with (figuratively) the answer to the most overreported story of the year: SARS. Unless you were living...

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