BunkBlog

And today we have another story of Israel spying on their supposed allies. Why do we treat Israel differently than other countries?

So as to avoid anyone claiming that I’m taking things out of context, the original quote here is from one of Mike’s Messages on his own web site.

bq. The Iraqis who have risen up against the occupation are not “insurgents” or “terrorists” or “The Enemy.” They are the REVOLUTION, the Minutemen, and their numbers will grow — and they will win.

I don’t think that Zarqawi is a) Iraqi or b) a good guy. It’s become a little easier to tell good guys from bad guys in the mideast these past couple months. The guys with the machetes sawing off heads on television? Not good guys. Not revolutionaries, not minutemen, not at all like John Paul Jones. Are the Moore fans going to equate the al Qaeda jihad with the Declaration of Independence next?

I agree with many things Moore says, I really do. I find it amazing how totally uninformed many Americans are about their own country and the world in general. Folks need to find many sources of information and make up their own minds. The parrots that babble Moore quotes without any hesitation get as much respect from me as the dittoheads with their Limbaugh crap.

Kerry, Edwards May Not Vote on Gay Marriage

bq. While Kerry and Edwards oppose gay marriage, they argue that it is an issue that should be left to the states to decide. Both senators support civil unions, which would give gay couples all the legal rights of married couples without letting them wed.

That ranks up there with “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” in the pantheon of stupid weaselly ways of having both sides of an issue. If you think gays can have all the rights of married couples, you think gays should be allowed to marry. Otherwise, it’s just semantics.

But, who has ever seen a politician with a spine?

According to this article on the Reuters wire service, the Bush administration is preparing a contingency plan to delay the November elections “in case of terrorist activity.” Yeah, right.

Look, there’s a terrorist! Did you see him, Dick? Sure did, George. Guess we’d better stay in power a while longer, then.

Republican positions:

# Being a drug addict is a moral failing and a crime, unless you’re a conservative radio host. Then it’s an illness and you need our prayers for your recovery.
# The United States should get out of the United Nations, and our highest national priority is enforcing U.N. resolutions against Iraq.
# Government should relax regulation of Big Business and Big Money but crack down on individuals who use marijuana to relieve the pain of illness.
# “Standing Tall for America” means firing your workers and moving their jobs to India.
# A woman can’t be trusted with decisions about her own body, but multinational corporations can make decisions affecting all humankind without regulation.
# Jesus loves you, and shares your hatred of homosexuals and Hillary Clinton.
# The best way to improve military morale is to praise the troops in speeches while slashing veterans’ benefits and combat pay.
# Group sex and drug use are degenerate sins unless you someday run for governor of California as a Republican.
# If condoms are kept out of schools, adolescents won’t have sex.
# A good way to fight terrorism is to belittle our longtime allies, then demand their cooperation and money.
# HMOs and insurance companies have the interest of the public at heart.
# Providing health care to all Iraqis is sound policy. Providing health care to all Americans is socialism.
# Global warming and tobacco’s link to cancer are junk science, but creationism should be taught in schools.
# Saddam was a good guy when Reagan armed him, a bad guy when Bush’s daddy made war on him, a good guy when Cheney did business with him and a bad guy when Bush needed a “we can’t find Bin Laden” diversion.
# A president lying about an extramarital affair is an impeachable offense. A president lying to enlist support for a war in which thousands die is a solid defense policy.
# Government should limit itself to the powers named in the Constitution, which include banning gay marriages and censoring the Internet.
# The public has a right to know about Hillary’s cattle trades, but George Bush’s driving record is none of our business.
# You support states’ rights, which means Attorney General John Ashcroft can tell states what local voter initiatives they have a right to adopt.
# What Bill Clinton did in the 1960s is of vital national interest, but what Bush did in the 1980s is irrelevant.
# Trade with Cuba is wrong because the country is communist; but trade with China and Vietnam is vital to a spirit of international harmony.

Democratic positions:

# A divorced, billionaire-heiress-marrying lifetime politician and an ambulance-chasing millionaire trial lawyer are the best possible representatives for the average, working-class American.
# The United States should obey all UN decrees, except when it comes to enforcing the resolutions regarding Iraq, where we should accept an infinite number of ‘just a few more months’ extensions.
# Government should crack down on Big Businesses who spend Big Money to research cancer treatments and pain relief, and ought to hamstring those working to alleviate human suffering with even more regulation.
# Multinational corporations (with competitors who are eager to seize their market shares at their slightest stumble) cannot be trusted, but the monopolistic Federal Government always acts in the best interests of its constituents.
# Americans must show the utmost respect for hate-spewing, murder-preaching Muslim extremists, but sneering leftists are free hold up the worst examples of those who call themselves ‘Christian’ to smear anyone who believes in a Judeo-Christian God.
# If we give free condoms to children and offer no moral education, they will use them with 100% efficacy and treat sex as a serious responsibility.
# A good way to fight terrorism is to try to ‘understand’ murderous dictators and make excuses for radical terror groups that sponsor and train suicide bombers.
# HMOs and Insurance Companies are irredeemably evil organizations that should be seized by the Federal Government and nationalized, so all Americans can get the same efficiency and great service in Health Care that we currently enjoy from the DMV and IRS.
# Promising that the Federal Government will pay all the medical costs every American citizen (and illegal immigrant) incurs is a good way to keep costs low and encourage innovation (“Universal Coverage”).
# Saddam was a good guy who headed an idyllic paradise until “the Great Satan” George W Bush deposed him from Baghdad and killed his wonderful sons.
# Suggesting that there may be conflicting evidence on the topic of global warming is heresy, and anybody who disagrees is obviously a stupid, Bible-thumping redneck.
# The Federal Government exists to enforce wide-sweeping social experimentation on its citizens; anyone who expresses reservations about it are considered enemies of the state and need to be sent to Inner-City Racial Re-Education Camps.

Stolen from , who stole them from , who got them from here and Pjammer. It’s a long and illustrious chain of theft. 🙂

Yahoo! News – Bush Wins; House Leaves Patriot Act As Is

Zach Wamp, R-Tenn., said he switched his initial “yes” vote to “no” after being shown Justice Department documents asserting that terrorists have communicated over the Internet via public library computers.

Now, the example stated did not include anything that we in the real world like to call verifiable facts, mind you. It was a statement from the Justice Department (who have *never* lied before) claiming that some people who are closely related to Al Qaeda have used public library computers for some messages at some time in the recent past – location and dates unlisted. And these records were not subpeonable prior to the Execrably named USA PATRIOT(Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism) Act? Oh, wait…

Without [PATRIOT Act], investigators can get book store and other records simply by obtaining subpoenas or search warrants. Those traditional investigative tools are harder to get from grand juries or courts than orders issued under the Patriot Act, which do not require authorities to show probable cause.

Oh, that troublesome probable cause. Yeah, we want to get rid of that requirement. Instead, every time the long arm of the law is employed to invade privacy and search through records, we just need to have a promise from Ashcroft et al that they really need to do it. Yep, that’s all. That Constitution sure is a pain to have around, isn’t it?

The O’Reilly Factor – Talking Points – The Most Liberal Ticket, Ever

The Bush administration has had a very tough time in Iraq. And the media is heavily weighted against them.

The media is weighted against Bush? Which media is that? Is it the media that refuses to ask him about reports that he paid for a girl’s abortion before they were legalized in the early 70s? Is it the media that doesn’t talk about the giant gaping holes in the explanations for most of his choices while in power? Is it the media that lets him get away with making some of the most egregiously nonsensical statements ever, because he’s a folksy guy? Which particular piece of the media is weighted against Bush?

I’m not saying that everything Bush does is bad (some would find plenty to support that hypothesis, though). I’m just amazed that Bill O’Reilly, one of the most-watched correspondents in the media, who is on the most-watched news channel in the media, can pretend that the media of which he is a huge part is anti-Bush. Hasn’t the “liberal media” myth been blown apart by now?

Just caught a piece of the Fox News commentary on Kerry’s selection of a running mate. They were questioning his experience, since he has only been in the Senate since 1998, never holding an elected office prior to that. Gee, let’s see now…How many elected offices did the current President hold prior to becoming the highest-ranking person in the country? Oh, just the one? And how many years did he serve there? Five? Hmmm… I can see how the Fox folks would question the ability of a U.S. Senator with six years of experience in national politics but think a governor with five years of local politics is acceptable. Sure.

Oh, and for those of you outside Texas, the governorship here is largely ceremonial, except for all those death penalties they get to sign (152 in five years for Governor Bush).

Disney is counterattacking Michael Moore, releasing a movie which is about one degree removed from being a campaign film for the incumbent.

bq. Telephone callers to its advance ticket sales office may order a free bible study guide designed to go with the film.

A patriotic movie with a bible study guide? Does our devotion to the country really depend on one religion? I guess those Hindus, Sikhs, Jews, and others just don’t get to be as patriotic as the Christians.

This article (or more accurately, book review) raises some interesting points about the Democratic party leaving the traditional economic stance they were built on, and ending up with no platform at all beyond, “We’re not Republicans.”

When you remove economics from political platforms, all you’re left with is culture and morality. Certainly the once-married teetotaling born again Prez beats out that other guy pretty handily, if that is the measure of the man. I sure hope that’s not the only way people determine their new leader, but history shows otherwise.

Gotta love this new helper object which installs itself into Internet Explorer. If you think your connection is secure because it has HTTPS in the address and the little lock is clicked shut in the status bar, you may be wrong. You could be sending your bank account information to a scriptbot that uses the “helper object” structure that Microsoft so *helpfully* added to IE.

Reminder to all, IE is not the only browser.

“Firefox”:http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/
“Opera”:http://www.opera.com

Just a thought.

Supreme Court Affirms Detainees’ Right to Use Courts

Justice Sandra Day O’Connor wrote that the campaign against terrorism notwithstanding, “a state of war is not a blank check for the president when it comes to the rights of the nation’s citizens.”

What a concept. So, just because we are at war against a concept, we can’t just go arresting people willy-nilly, or looking at their library lending history, or poking cameras in their faces, or telling them they can’t fly because they’re on some secret list they aren’t allowed to challenge? Wow. How revolutionary.

According to this article in the Washington Post, the US Computer Emergency Readiness Team is recommending that web surfers stop using Microsoft browsers entirely, at least until the latest virii and worms have been clobbered.

So there, all you Mozilla-doubters!

How is it that it took 3 months before I heard about Reverend Moon’s Coronation at the Capitol? Moon claims to be the Messiah, back for the Second Coming. Yeah, right. But, we’ve got Senators and Congresscritters helping him with crown and scepter. WTF?

Here’s an example of the dissembling and absurd lengths our elected representatives will go to in order to suck up to Moon while claiming that they don’t even know who he is.

bq. CONGRESSMAN CURT WELDON (R-PA) – When first contacted by investigative reporter John Gorenfeld, Weldon’s press secretary stated: “I’m telling you, he didn’t go.” When Gorenfeld sent her some links showing Weldon was listed as a primary sponsor of the event, she stated that Weldon “planned to attend this awards show, but couldn’t make it due to his schedule.” When Gorenfeld next produced a photo of Weldon standing with a group of Moon associates at the event, she said that Weldon’s participation was apparently “limited to his attendance.” Soon after, Gorenfeld found a photo of Weldon actually giving the welcoming “congratulatory remarks” from the stage — as a photo was displayed of himself giving a pin to Libyan dictator Moammar Khadafy. Gorenfeld, who has extensively covered Moon’s involvement in US politics, said that pin presented last year by Weldon to Khadafy was apparently one of Moon’s peace pins. Okay, back to Weldon’s staff for version #4 of Weldon’s explanation. Weldon’s chief of staff told Christian Challenge that Weldon “was at the banquet for ‘5 or 10 minutes’ to speak about his recent trip to Libya; Weldon neither saw Moon at the event, nor witnessed the coronation, nor heard his Messianic speech … [and] ‘in no way does Congressman Weldon share that belief.'” That he did not know of Moon’s involvement strains credibility (see yesterday’s story) as he and Davis also co-hosted Moon’s Capitol Hill event in 2003 and they praised him by name in the Congressional Record. Weldon later added — not that he has any remaining credibility on this issue — that he did not give Khadafy a Moonie peace pin but, rather, pinned a US flag to the anti-American dictator’s lapel.

You just have to love the understatement of the cop in this story.

bq. We consider these deaths to be very suspicious

Yeah, suspicious. They’re bound together with nylon cord and tied to *sandbags.* That’s suspicious. Wow. He must have been tops in his class at State the Obvious U.

I got another great Faux News Alert moment just a few minutes ago. First, some background. When I was a G.I. here, we watched CNN Headline News in the break room, or History Channel or the occassional South Park episode on swing shift. Now, they invariably have the Fox News Channel on. Could there be a more blatantly biased network? Fair and Balanced, my eye.

Anyway, this morning the news anchor was talking to another journalist by remote. The remote journalist was discussing the recent polls in Iraq which indicated that the average Iraqi would really like the U.S. troops and _coalition_ to leave so they could get on with their sovereign government work. The anchor interrupted (!) the remote so he could burst in with, “How reliable is this poll?” The answer: It was conducted by the coalition authority, so it can’t be much more reliable. “Well, the next question you have to ask is if the Iraqis would prefer to have Saddam back in power.”

No, that’s *not* the next question, unless you’re a simpleminded twit. The next question is, “How quickly can we get out of Iraq while not leaving the country in anarchy or civil war?” Of course they don’t want Saddam back, they’re not children. That doesn’t mean we need to be just a little better than a psycho; we need to be near-perfect. We haven’t been.

CNN has a quick article about a fresh challenge to ‘Fahrenheit’, Michael Moore’s anti-Bush movie. One person who is trying to get people to write movie theaters protesting the movie’s release says he’s in favor of free speech. So why not let the market be the speech? If nobody agrees with the movie, nobody will go see it and it will close faster than a J-Lo and Britney double feature.

Of course, what the Move America Forward (blatantly neocon group) spokesman really meant to say was, “I assume my neighbors are idiots and I must tell them what they are allowed to see or hear. Political comments which disagree with me are wrong.”

Somali Native Charged in a Bomb Plot, Ashcroft Says

bq. “Current credible intelligence indicates that al-Qaeda wants to hit the United States and to hit the United States hard,” Ashcroft said.

That required some real top-notch intelligence gathering, I suppose. In case we were wondering if perhaps al Qaeda had decided to lay off the U.S., since we’re not fun to pick on any more.

Looks like General Karpinski isn’t going to just go away and be a good little scapegoat. She actually spoke to BBC News and spilled some fun little details.

She claims that she was ordered to treat the prisoners like dogs. Nice, eh?

This still doesn’t take away any of her responsibility. The buck doesn’t get passed along so easily in the Army. I’m ashamed to be a veteran associated with people who let these kinds of things happen, no matter how proud of my service I may be otherwise.

In a widely awaited decision, the Supreme Court has rejected the Pledge of Allegiance challenge. Of course, they rejected it not on its merits as a case, but because the man who brought the suit was not legally allowed to do so. So no actual resolution of the issues involved, as is par for the Court it seems.