Dems Can't Ignore White Working Class

So says E. J. Dionne. But they probably will, as they have for decades.

Dionne laments the drop in real wages for high school graduates:

"Working class" seems an antique term, but it still exists, more now in the service industries than in manufacturing. Demographers often use education levels as a surrogate for class position, and the last three decades have not been kind to Americans who are not college graduates.
For white male high school grads, average wages stood at $18.44 an hour in 1979. They dropped to $16.06 an hour in 1995. There was then a brief upturn -- wages for such men hit $17.49 in 2002 -- but by 2006, their earnings had fallen to $17.31 an hour. (These numbers are in constant 2006 dollars.)
White female high school graduates have gained ground, but their wages have recently stagnated too. In 1979, such women earned $11.75 an hour. Their wages peaked at $13.42 in 2003, but dropped to $13.08 in 2006. Similar patterns, at somewhat higher wage levels, are visible over the years for men and women who attended college but didn't graduate.

So have either Clinton or Obama made any serious efforts to put a stop to illegal immigration, which threatens to drive wages for unskilled labor down to third world levels? Not that I have heard.

And of course, both Clinton and Obama favor racial discrimination against white working class people for college admissions, hring and promotion, and government contracts. Even more interesting is the fact that often a member of a minority group who comes from a privileged background will be given preference over working class whites. Examples include all four of Congressman William Jefferson's daughters, who were all admitted to Harvard Law School, likely over much more highly qualified whites.

I always chuckle to myself when hearing lefties lament the fact that many working class whites have voted for Reagan or Bush. They can't understand why someone doesn't want to vote for a politician who promises to discriminate against them because of their skin color or gender!

More Racist Crap from the Duke Rape Hoax Case

The three gentlemen of the Duke lacrosse team who were falsely accused and indicted for rape in 2006 are suing Nifong, the City of Durham, and several other people including some of the police officers who participated in the frame-up. One of the defendants they are suing is David Addison, the police spokesman who made numerous false and inflammatory statements against the three lacrosse players.

Addison has filed a motion to dimiss and in his memorandum, his attorney has the following to say:

[Plaintiffs accuse David Addison of] 2) engaging in a consipracy constituting an obstruction of justice to deny the Plaintiffs equal protection and/or their equal privileges and immunities based upon alleged racial animus in violation of the 4th and 14th Amendments to the United States Constitution and 42 U.S.C 1985(2)(3)

That's exactly what happened. The lacrosse players were falsely accused because they are white and the liar Crystal Mangum is black. Had the players been black, or the liar white, most of us would never have heard of this case. The attorney for Addison goes on to say that the cause of action is not valud because

In addition to the specificity requirements of section 1985 claims, it is required that the Plaintiffs be members of a protected class and subject to animus as a result of being members of that class. In this case, such a requirement applies to both the equal protection and equal privileges and immunities claims asserted by the Plaintiffs. Griffin v. Breckinridge (1971); Bey v. Celebration Station (2006). White male students at Duke University do not fall within any recognized protected class. As noted by the Fourth Circuit, the only protected class for section 1985(3) claims are those who are African American.

I am not an attorney, so I don't know if Addison's attorney is correct. But if he is, then the law should be changed. It is patently racist and unfair to give special protections to members of one race while denying them to another race, especially with regards to the false and malicious prosecution of innocent people.

And why hasn't Crystal Mangum been prosecuted for making false statements to police investigators? If Martha Stewart can do prison time for supposedly lying about her insider trading, why can't Crystal be prosecuted for lying about a much more egregious matter? This is yet another example of a racial double-standard.

How Not to Become President

Ever notice how the vice-presidential candidate of the losing ticket often assumes he is the nation's Anointed One, and tries to assert his entitlement to the oval office four years later? Unfortunately for him, the voters deny him his birthright:

1968 Loser: Edmund Muskie. Ran in 1972 and lost the Democrat nomination to George McGovern

1972 Loser: R. Sargent Shriver. Ran in 1976 and lost the Democrat nomination to Jimmy Carter

1976 Loser: Bob Dole. Ran in 1980 and lost the Republican nomination to Ronald Reagan

1980 Loser: Walter Mondale. Ran in 1984. Received the Democrat nomination and lost the general election to Ronald Reagan.

1984 Loser: Geraldine Ferraro. Did not run in 1988.

1988 Loser: Lloyd Bentsen. Did not run in 1992.

1992 Loser: Dan Quayle. Did not run in 1996.

1996 Loser: Jack Kemp. Did not run in 2000.

2000 Loser: Joe Lieberman. Ran in 2004 and lost the Democrat nomination to John Kerry.

2004 Loser: John Edwards. Running for 2008 Democrat nomination. Looks like he will learn the hard way.

It looks like Geraldine, Lloyd, Dan, and Jack recognized the futility but then Joe and John forgot. Will whoever loses in 2008 try to be president in 2012? Probably.

I didn't know they had Hula Hoops back in 1890?

knife-Honk Files for Bankruptcy

Former Durham County DA Mike Nifong has filed for bankruptcy

Jan. 15 (Bloomberg) -- Michael Nifong, the former North Carolina district attorney who unsuccessfully prosecuted Duke University lacrosse players for rape, sought bankruptcy protection from creditors including the athletes.
Nifong, listed debt of $180.3 million and assets of $243,898 in documents filed today in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Durham, North Carolina. The prosecutor stepped down last year. North Carolina officials stripped him of his law license for unethical conduct in the 2006 investigation of the allegations against the players.
The three former players who had rape charges against them dropped sued Nifong in federal court in Durham in October. Collin Finnerty, David F. Evans and Reade Seligmann were listed as unsecured creditors each owed $30 million.
``This looks like a smart move for Mr. Nifong,'' said Charles ``Chuck'' Tatelbaum, a Florida bankruptcy lawyer who has represented doctors who have used Chapter 11 to protect themselves from the fallout of lawsuits.
If a bankruptcy judge decides that the prosecution was willful and malicious, the debt to the players would not be erased under federal bankruptcy law.

Mikey's got assets of $243 thousand and debts of $180 million? He's a financial wizard!

OMG This is Soooooooooo Nice!

Sometimes good things do happen:

KOKOMO, Ind. — A man accidentally shot himself in the groin as he was robbing a convenience store, police said.
A clerk told police a man carrying a semiautomatic handgun entered the Village Pantry Tuesday morning demanding cash and a pack of cigarettes. The clerk put the cash in a bag and as she turned to get the cigarettes, she heard the gun discharge.
Surveillance video shows the man shooting himself as he placed the gun in the waistband of his pants, police said. The clerk wasn't injured.
A short time later, police found 25-year-old Derrick Kosch at a home with a gunshot wound to his right testicle and lower left leg. He was expected to have surgery at a hospital.
Police plan to charge him with armed robbery.

Got some pain in your pants, Derrick? Serves you right.

Say it Ain't So!

Could it be that enforcing the immigration laws is a good idea? Some say it is idiotic. Here are the results of the efforts by the Tulsa County Sheriff's office

Some people think it's a federal issue, but so is robbing a bank. You just don't ignore it when you see it happening, if you are law enforcement,” said Tulsa County Sheriff Stanley Glanz, who has 30 officers dually trained in enforcing federal immigration law. Since July, when training was completed, his department has been delivering an average of 85 illegal immigrants per month to the Department of Homeland Security for deportation.
Arrests made by Tulsa County Sheriff's deputies have resulted in a decline in the jail population of about seven percent, or 100 inmates. Glanz says federal immigration law gives him an additional tool to get undesirables off the street.
"We are identifying and removing what we call frequent flyers, people we consider major criminals,” Glanz said, adding that he has been surprised by hesitation from other law enforcement agencies.
"I don't think they understand the implications on the community of having a strong underbelly of illegal aliens. They end up working a lot of domestic violence cases, a lot of drug cases and shootings they wouldn't have to if they would just enforce immigration laws,” Glanz said. "When you have a bunch of illegals in a community, it spawns other types of criminal activity; it helps create an environment where that criminality can exist.”
One recent driving under the influence stop got Enrique Martinez-Mejia, a convicted sex offender from California, off the street. Mejia was originally booked under the name Salvador Sanchez-Espinoza, because he presented deputies with fraudulent documents to that effect. Mejia had tattooed dates for 10 of the last 14 years of his life, spent in prison in Chino, Calif. He has been deported from the United States, Glanz said.

Not surprising. Illegal aliens are, by definition, lawbreakers. Some of them might obey the other laws, but many will not.

Sourpuss

Why is that Hillary always looks like she just swallowed a lemon?

Bilious Brits Blowing Beets

The latest UK fad: Projectile vomiting.

Hillary: No Woman is Illegal

Translation: Only men can be illegal.

How about Some Renoir?

I have such fondness for the impressionist painters that I decided to go with Renoir for the Provocateur Galleries this time.

But one subject you won't see much of are Renoir's nudes. Not that I have anything against his portrayals of the bare female form. It is more his choice of models. I am not such a big fan of the Rubenesque look as he was.

Gold Hits Record Highs

The spot price of gold bullion recently broke the record price of $850 per troy ounce set back in January, 1980.

But that's just the nominal price record that has been broken. After adjusting for inflation, gold would have to go to about $2,300 per ounce to reach a record real price.

Hillary Claims to be the Savior of Ireland

Not content to be the future Queen of the USA, Hillary is now claiming to be the broker of the peace settlement in Northern Ireland

"And for the first time they actually saw each other not as caricatures or stereotypes, but as human beings who actually had common experiences as mothers and wives and people," Clinton said. "One of the reasons why I'm running for president is to be constantly reaching out to try to bring people together to resolve conflicts and not let them fester and get worse."
In her book, Clinton describes hearing very similar sentiments from Protestant and Catholic women in Belfast in 1995. The difference: The women were already peace activists, not enemies who didn't recognize their shared humanity. "Because they were willing to work across the religious divide, they had found common ground," she wrote.
The story she told Saturday took place at Belfast's city hall, while the story in her book took place in a fish restaurant.
Her book does describe an event at Belfast City Hall on the same trip, a Christmas tree-lighting ceremony with President Clinton. Afterward, she said, leaders of the various factions stayed on separate sides of the room.
John O'Farrell, a former journalist from Northern Ireland who covered Clinton's visits there, said in a telephone interview that she promoted the involvement of women in politics and in the peace process, but he doubted that she had met with enemies who otherwise would not have spoken to each other. Rather, he said, she was working with people who were already promoting peace.
"Her heart was always in the right place, no one doubted that," said O'Farrell, who edited a magazine and did some freelance reporting for the Globe. "But the idea of her bringing together fiercely opposed combatants is a considerable exaggeration."

Here are the recollections of an Irish Protestant of the Clinton's 1995 visit:

I decided to go home for a visit. It happened to coincide with the Clinton visit in November 1995. I don't think I would have bothered going into Belfast to see the " IRA loving" Clintons but we had never seen an American President before.
It felt exciting with the Tv showing live coverage of his arrival and the Christmas Tree at Belfast City Hall had been donated from America.
Not many people on the Unionist Protestant side cared much for the Clintons or the Democrats as we knew they were Irish Catholic biased and never seemed to listen to our side.
Belfast was pretty crowded when we got there and the American security stood out a mile as they were all wearing long coats and were so tall and lots of them were Black which is a pretty rare sight in Northern Ireland!
Most of the crowds would have been Irish Catholic. Lots of street traders were selling two finger signs that lit up in red,white and blue, I bought one! {This is for the two-fingered salute many Irish Protestants gave the Clintons. A symbol of contempt similar to the more common middle finger}.
After waiting for ages Bill Clinton lit the Christmas Tree and gave a speech.
There was the usual Protestant child and catholic child brought out to read poems but at his reception in the City Hall the Unionist MPs and Sinn Fein/SDLP MPs wouldn't stand near each other or speak.
At other venues the Clintons were only met with Irish Catholics waving Irish Tricolours. Our Mps complained about their biased behaviour many times. They also attended other staged events.
In one of the towns was an effigy of Bill Clinton in a cage-to keep him away from Ulster women as he is a well known womaniser.
The comments in the Boston paper are correct she did not do anything to bring people together as the people she met were not enemies of each other.
The people of Northern Ireland are still "not together". There might not be any more car bombs but that is down to Tony Blair and his total appeasement of Sinn Fein. They don't need to kill to get what they want anymore,they can do what they like.
Banks still get robbed,people still get beaten and murdered but Sinn Fein are now above the law. Can't upset "the Peace process" by arresting any sinn fein/ira member.
Giving in to terrorism has collapsed the rule of law in Nothern Ireland, now there is no law for the {ex}terrorist but lots of law for everyone else.
It makes me cry that SinnFein are now ruling the country. Always remember, leopards never change their spots!
Keep another Clinton out of the White House.

If anything, the Clintons exacerbated the problems between Protestants and Catholics. Reminds me of when the PIAPS gave Suha Arafat a big kiss, right after the terrorist gave a speech denouncing the Israelis as baby killers.

In the Big Easy

Sorry about the hiatus. I am spending a few days in Nawlins. And having a gas. Regular posting will resume tomorrow.

Socialist Venezuela Still Sucking Air

Even though Venezuela is sitting on top of some of the world's largest oil reserves. And even though oil prices are record highs, their oil revenue has actually decreased over the last two years:

Vittorio Hernandez - AHN News Writer
Caracas, Venezuela (AHN) - Venezuela's oil industry shrank by 5.3 percent in 2007, according to the nation's Central Bank. In 2007 it contributed only $3.14 billion to the country's gross domestic product.
That was in sharp contrast to previous years when the oil industry yielded $3.3 billion (7.10 trillion bolivares) in 2006 and $3.38 billion (7.25 trillion bolivares) in 2005.
But despite the declining share of the oil industry Venezuela's economy still grew by 8.4 percent in 2007. The dip in oil contribution was made up by the non-oil sector which had a 9.7 percent growth.
The downtrend in oil revenues took place despite a 16 percent hike in the average basket price for Venezuelan crude oil. The price of crude climbed to $65.13 per barrel in 2007 from $56.35 per barrel in 2006.
Venezuela's oil industry is wracked by corruption and internal dissent. According to Venezuelan Energy Minister Rafael Ramirez, who serves concurrently as president of state-owned Petroleos de Venezuela, the company cannot hire enough rigs and that has resulted in a decline in oil production.

Is anyone surprised they can't hire enough rigs? What is surprising is that any foreign companies are doing business there at all, knowing that Thugo Chavez will likely steal their assets.

And now we learn that Thugo's central bank has devised a plan to reduce the high inflation rate: lop three zeros off the bolivar!

Venezuela is launching a new currency with the new year, lopping off three zeros from denominations in a bid to simplify finances and boost confidence in a money that has been losing value due to high inflation.
President Hugo Chavez's government says the new currency - dubbed the "strong bolivar" - will make daily transactions easier and cure some accounting headaches.
Officials also say it is part of a broader effort to contain rising prices and strengthen the economy.
"We're ending a historical cycle of ... instability in prices," Finance Minister Rodrigo Cabezas said, adding that the change aims to "recover a bolivar that has significant buying capacity."
Prices have risen as Chavez has pumped increased amounts of the country's oil income into social programmes, reinforcing his support among the poor and helping to drive 8.4% economic growth in 2007.
The Central Bank is promoting the new monetary unit with an ad campaign and the slogan: "A strong economy, a strong bolivar, a strong country."
Officials, however, have yet to clearly spell out their anti-inflationary measures.
Some Venezuelan critics, meanwhile, have dubbed the new currency the "weak bolivar", noting its predecessor, the bolivar, has seen its purchasing power suffer in an economy where inflation ran roughly 20% in 2007 - the highest in Latin America.
Venezuelan economist and pollster Luis Vicente Leon said that while the new currency may provide "the perception of stability" for some, it is largely a "cosmetic change".
Government officials say the change is overdue to bring Venezuelan denominations into line with those of other countries in the region. Instead of denominations in the thousands, the largest new Venezuelan note will be 100 strong bolivars.

Yeah, that's gonna work real well, Thugo. Just like your nationalization of foreign oil company assets managed to decrease your oil revenue during a period when oil prices have skyrocketed.

And there are many leftwing idiots, of the Michael Moore/Cindy Sheehan/Dennis Kucinich/Ralph Nader variety, who believe that Thugo's policies are good ideas.

2008 !!!

New Direction for Provocateur Galleries?

Having posted the last of the Gauguin pics, I am pondering which artist to immortalise on this blog.

Perhaps its time for Picasso?

Anyone with suggestions please drop me a line.

Enforcement of Immigration Laws

Who woulda thunk it? Enforcement of immigration laws leads to a decrease in illegal immigration on the Texas border:

A strict policy to arrest, prosecute and jail illegal aliens who cross into the U.S. has shown significant success in reducing crossings and crime along the Texas border, U.S. Customs and Border Patrol officials said this month.
The first 45 days of Operation Streamline — a collaborative effort of local, state and federal agencies in Texas — has resulted in decreased illegal border crossings and crime since its implementation Oct. 31 compared with last year's numbers, said Laredo Border Patrol Sector chief patrol agent Carlos X. Carrillo.
"As more and more illegal aliens are prosecuted and incarcerated under Streamline-Laredo, the word is spreading quickly that illegal entry has its consequences," Mr. Carrillo said. "Those found guilty of violating this statute face penalties that can include fines and up to six months in prison."

And even more bizarre, this has led to a decrease in other types of crime in Laredo:

The Laredo Police Department's crime data for Oct. 31-Dec. 15 indicates a year-to-date reduction in reported crimes of approximately 30 percent, and a 36 percent decrease in major crimes during the 45-day Streamline-Laredo reporting period.

Could it be that keeping out illegal aliens, people who have already shown a contempt for the law, also decreases the overall crime rate? Say it ain't so!

Stupidest Blog of the Week

The award for the stupidest blog I have read in a long time goes to journalist David Lindorff at This Can't Be Happening. A sampling of some of his better posts:

Global Warming Will Save America from the Right...Eventually

Say what you will about the looming catastrophe facing the world as the pace of global heating and polar melting accelerates. There is a silver lining.
Look at a map of the US.
The area that will by completely inundated by the rising ocean—and not in a century but in the lifetime of my two cats—are the American southeast, including the most populated area of Texas, almost all of Florida, most of Louisiana, and half of Alabama and Mississippi, as well as goodly portions of eastern Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina.

Of course, Mr. Lindorff does not mention, and he is probably not even aware at all, of the compelling evidence that human-induced global warming is a myth.

Imagine a Campaign that Called for Slashing Military Spending by 75%

While the Democratic and Republican candidates for president blather on about non-issues like who will be meaner to immigrants, who will use the most water on torture victims, who wanted to be president at the youngest age, who’s the best Christian and other such nonsense, and while Congress and the president dance their meaningless dance of pretend conflict, let’s for a moment ponder something more momentous.
What if the US just packed up and left Iraq and Afghanistan, and brought the troops all home, shut down the 750-odd overseas bases we operate around the globe, and slashed our military budget by 75 percent?

Ah yes, and when we leave the people of Iraq and Afghanistan to the tender mercies of al Qaeda, what then?

Lindorff claims to be a journalist who has written for Businessweek, Salon, The Nation, Los Angeles Daily News, and many other outlets. And that's probably true, the crap he writes is politically indistinguishable from the crap we hear from the lamestream media every day. All that he and his brethren do is parrot the fashionable PC line. There is no critical examination of dogma like global warming. There is no independent thinking.

Benazir Bhutto 1953 - 2007

Merry Christmas to You and Yours!

We might as well enjoy Christmas while we still can. The left will probably outlaw it as being insensitive to muslims.

Thugo Chavez Wants Help From Foreign Oil Companies

This is so hilarious I can't stop laughing. The state-owned oil company of Venezuela, after having seized the operations of foreign-owned companies, now is seeking help from them!

CARACAS, Dec 22 (Reuters) - Venezuela aims to more than triple output from its Orinoco heavy crude reserve in five years and will start looking for companies that can help achieve that goal from January, the national oil company said on Saturday.
State-owned oil company PDVSA said it would develop new projects to produce 2 million barrels per day from the Orinoco region within five years.
Recently nationalized projects in the Orinoco now produce a little more than 600,000 barrels a day, PDVSA said.
"Given the success obtained in the Orinoco oil belt, a process of selection will start in January to select partner companies with minority participation in integrated improvement and production developments," PDVSA said in a statement.
Venezuela's left-wing government took over several Orinoco oil projects earlier this year, forcing companies like Chevron and BP to accept minority holdings under new terms.
Exxon Mobil and ConocoPhillips quit the OPEC nation over the takeovers.

One of the things about the left that has long left an impression on me is how readily they assume that everyone they deal with is completely stupid and will fall for anything. Does Thugo think that oil industry executives are complete dimwits? They have to earn a profit, or else they lose their jobs. They're not going to do business with the government of Venezuela if they think they will get screwed again.

Greensburg Kansas is Rebuilding

I went hunting near Greensburg, Kansas earlier this week. This is the town that was leveled by a 1 1/2 mile-wide F5 tornado last may. The town was almost completely demolished except for the grain elevator and the county courthouse. Here are two 12 inch steel beams near what used to be a Pizza Hut that were bent by the wind.

I saw a great deal of debris such as pieces of insulation and roof shingles out in the fields where I was hunting, up to several miles away.

But the good news is the people of Greensburg haven't given up and the town is being rebuilt. I always liked how friendly and welcoming the people of the town have been towards out of state hunters. And now that I see their grit and determination in the face of tragedy, my admiration for them has no limits.

College Employees Favor Democrats in Donations

I'm glad that the Einsteins at the Chronicle of Higher Education were kind enough to grace us with this amazing discovery:

Judging by their campaign contributions thus far in the presidential election season, people who work on college campuses in America lean to the left.
Or perhaps, as Sheila Krumholz, executive director of the Center for Responsive Politics, told the Chronicle of Higher Education, they are simply tired of Republican President Bush and want a Democrat in the White House.
That assessment emerges from a review of campaign donations by the Chronicle, which follows higher education matters. Using data from the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan research group, the Chronicle found that more than three-fourths of the $6.2 million in donations went to Democrats, with Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., receiving by far the most, $2.1 million.
Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., came in second with $1.6 billion.
Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney ranked third and topped the field of Republicans, pulling in about $564,000 from faculty members, administrators and others.
Republican Rudy Giuliani, the former New York mayor, came in fourth at about $462,000, followed by Democrat John Edwards, a former North Carolina senator, at $351,000.
Among higher education institutions, no Texas college cracked the list of 10 whose employees were the most generous donors, according to the Chronicle. The top three were Harvard University, whose employees gave $281,000; Stanford University, $135,850; and Columbia University, $120,350.

I'm shocked, I tell you, shocked! I thought that college employees were all diehard Republicans and NRA members.

But the best part of the article, concerns the Center for Responsive Politics, a "nonpartisan" research group, whose executive director Sheila Krumholz says "perhaps they are simply tired of Republican President Bush and want a Democrat in the White House."

Yeah Sheila, if you were any more nonpartisan, you would be Hillary Clinton.

Singer of the Week: Agnetha Faltskog

Gimme Gimme Gimme Agnetha after midnight!

Four Bolivian Provinces Threaten to Secede to Avoid Socialist Redistribution of Wealth

Bolivian Socialist President (and friend of Thugo Chavez) has begged European diplomats to intermediate in a dispute with the governors of four provinces that are threatening to secede:

SANTA CRUZ (AFP) — Bolivian President Evo Morales met European diplomats about possibly mediating a crisis between the government and provinces threatening to declare autonomy, his spokesman Alex Contreras said Saturday.
Morales spoke with ambassadors from the European Union late Friday in La Paz as the country's four wealthiest provinces threatened to break away from central government control Saturday, a move Morales warned could provoke the army's intervention.
Amid fears that the tense political showdown over Morales' efforts to rewrite the constitution could tip into civil unrest, demonstrations were due to take place Saturday in the eastern states of Santa Cruz, Tarija, Beni and Pando, in which the governors were to formally announce greater self-rule.
"There was an exchange of views and (discussion of) the possibility that they could be monitors of a possible dialogue with the provinces and President Evo Morales," Contreras told local press of the meeting.
The European ambassadors passed on to Morales the views of the leaders of the rebel provinces, and Morales told them his government was willing to launch a dialogue, according to Contreras.
"It was a positive meeting," he said, adding it was crucial to establish a dialogue that could reach a compromise to ease the mounting crisis.
The leaders of the regions are protesting Morales's moves to overhaul the constitution to boost the president's powers and to redistribute much of the eastern provinces' wealth to the poor Andean highlands.

I can just picture what the limousine marxists in the USA and Europe are thinking about this. Those awful eastern province Bolivians must be racist, sexist, homophobic lackeys of Rush Limbaugh, and are probably on the payroll of Halliburton while being manipulated behind the scenes by Karl Rove.

Good Riddance to the Mike Nifong of Texas

Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle has announced he won't seek re-election next year. It's about time this loser hung it up.

Earle made a career out of prosecuting his biggest political rivals like US Senator Kay Bailey Hutcheson and US Congressman Tom Delay on phony charges. He couldn't stand the fact that the first woman senator from Texas was a Republican, so he pressed false charges against her. Likewise, he couldn't stand the fact that Delay engineered a redrawing of the congressional districts in Texas that gave advantage to Republicans, so he has prosecuted him on false charges.

Listen to this crap from Amber Moon:

Texas Democrats defended Earle as a fair prosecutor.
"Voters returned Ronnie Earle to office time and again because he conducted his office with fairness and integrity. Ronnie Earle wasn't intimated by political bullies and treated Republicans and Democrats alike without regard to politics or ideology," said Texas Democratic Party spokeswoman Amber Moon.

Hey stupid, the only reason why Earle prosecuted any Democrats at all was because he wouldn't have had anything to do with his time if he hadn't. You can't throw a brick in Austin without hitting a Democrat.

Goodbye and good riddance, Ronnie. You should have been tarred and feathered and run out of town on a rail long ago.

Limousine Marxists

Don't you just love it when someone like Jane Fonda espouses marxism yet lives the lifestyle of a wealthy capitalist? She and her father made fortunes from acting in movies. She made another fortune from her exercise videos, and she also lived it up as the wife of billionaire Ted Turner.

But Jane did not want to allow the people of Indochina to pursue prosperity. She gave moral support to brutal dictators who denied the people of Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos their basic freedoms. Millions were senselessly slaughtered by the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia while many Vietnamese died trying to escape communism, bravely going out to sea in tiny, overcrowded boats.

Now we are witnessing the spectacle of another despot in Venezuela who may end up causing as much or even more misery than occurred in Indochina. One of his henchmen, Interior Minister Pedro Carreno, was recently questioned about wearing expensive designer clothes while espousing socialism:

CARACAS (Reuters) - A video of a Gucci- and Louis Vuitton-clad politician attacking capitalism then struggling to explain how his luxurious clothes square with his socialist beliefs has become an instant YouTube hit in Venezuela.

Venezuelan Interior Minister Pedro Carreno was momentarily at a loss for words when a journalist interrupted his speech and asked if it was not contradictory to criticize capitalism while wearing Gucci shoes and a tie made by Parisian luxury goods maker Louis Vuitton.
"I don't, uh ... I ... of course," stammered Carreno on Tuesday before regaining his composure. "It's not contradictory because I would like Venezuela to produce all this so I could buy stuff produced here instead of 95 percent of what we consume being imported."

You can say the same about any member of the left, in any country. They want to live the privileged life of the nomenklatura, while most people are denied their basic rights and have to struggle just to survive.

Does Charles Johnson Have a Copyright on the Killian Memo Forgeries?

In the latest epidose in the war of words between Little Green Footballs and Gates of Vienna. Charles Johnson demanded that GoV remove his 'copyrighted' image of the forged Killian memo.

Before I say this, I want to make it clear that I am not denigrating Charles' brilliant contributions in unmasking the Killian memo forgeries. But Charles do you really have a copyright for the forged memo? Just because you showed how they can be easily replicated in Microsoft Word doesn't give you a copyright. If anyone has such a copyright, it is whoever forged them. Or can anyone have a valid claim to a copyright of a forgery? I doubt it.

Stupid Op-Ed of the Week:

You always get to read some really awful BS in the lamestream media. This essay by Jonathan Leake in the Times online is a gem:

For Al Gore revenge really has proved to be a dish best served cold. Seven years after losing the American presidential elections to George Bush on a legal technicality, Gore is turning his vanquisher into an object of global ridicule for his refusal to act on climate change.
He's already written The Assault on Reason, a lacerating attack on Bush, and laced his speeches on climate change with references to the president's refusal to accept the science of global warming.

Notice how Leake smugly refers to the "science of global warming", as if the matter is settled among climatologists. And how he asserts that Gore lost to Bush in 2000 on a 'legal technicality', as if the electoral college, which is the only recognized authority for the presidential election in the US constitution, is merely a 'technicality'.

Gore had crystallized the anger and frustration that is spreading through the Bali meeting over what is seen to be American intransigence over cutting emissions.
Earlier, the EU had also accused the United States of failing to act on the climate and threatening to boycott a U.S.-hosted conference of major economies next month.

So what if that doesn't work, Jonathan? Are you going to hold your breath until you turn blue? Or is Al going to take the internet back from us?

Bush has just 140 days left in office and is looking for a lasting legacy. Could Gore be trying to ensure that his presidency will instead forever be linked with climatic disaster?

Bush's term will end on January 20, 2009. That's 404 days from now. You'll have to deal with that evil climatic disaster-maker just a little while longer.

Climate Change Not Man-Made

A new, refereed article in International Journal of Climatology of the Royal Meteorological Society disputes the myth that global warming is caused by human CO2 emissions:

The report was written by David Douglass at the University of Rochester, John Christy at the University of Alabama, and Benjamin Pearson and S. Fred Singer at the University of Virginia.

"Our findings basically are that fingerprints - that is to say the pattern of warming - that's predicted by greenhouse models does not match the fingerprints of observations, so there is a disconnect between greenhouse models and the actual reality of observations," Singer told Cybercast News Service."This means that the greenhouse effect - while real - is not very important in producing climate change," he said. "It's a lot smaller than what the models calculate."

Singer said the reason why the models "overestimate the effectiveness of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases is that the models ignore what are called negative feedbacks which occur in the atmosphere, such as clouds, which reduce the effect of the greenhouse gases.""Their models just don't consider them properly," he said.

But Bracken Hendricks, a senior fellow at the liberal Center for American Progress, told Cybercast News Service, that the study is "radically out of step with the complete scientific consensus."

Notice how Hendricks doesn't make reference to any data, nor any theories concerning climate change. He merely repeats the mantra of the 'complete scientific consensus' (that doesn't exist).

But Singer said, "We have to remember that the climate has always been changing ever since we have records, and we have geologic records going back millions and millions of years. We know that there have been huge climate changes on the earth long before human beings actually came into existence.

"We are fairly sure that what's causing the warming are changes in the sun," he said. "These are very subtle changes that are very difficult to observe. The sun is really a quite variable star."

Hendricks, however, said because of the IPCC report, "the assertion that this is caused by increased solar activity or these sorts of things is out of step with the vast consensus."

"It's dangerous to get into a game of dueling science," he added. "We don't want to be gambling with the fate of the planet."

So why are you so afraid of debating the point, Hendricks? If you are so sure of yourself, the facts should speak for themselves.

But Singer said because global warming is a natural event. "There is little point to try to control emission of greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide, which means that all of this legislation and all of these efforts to find substitutes for fossil fuels are pointless, useless and very, very expensive," he said.

Hendricks countered, saying that alternative energy will be a multi-billion dollar industry and "an opportunity to revitalize our global competitiveness" through innovation and job creation.

Hendricks sounds like a walking advertisement for al-Gore's "carbon credits" company.

Stupid Men and Brave Men

I just read two articles about Iran. The differences are striking. The first is by Mustafa Dominic, a financial analyst at a London hedge fund:

The American intelligence reports’ recent assertion that Iran halted its nuclear weapons program in 2003 does not change anything about the current situation as long as it does not fundamentally change the minds of American policymakers. Judging from President Bush's dismissive response, this doesn't seem to be the case. The truth is, Americans do not need a pretext to continue their bullying of Iran, which is precisely why Iranians want to and in fact should build nuclear capacity.
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Because recent headlines in the American press about Iran usually revolve around her nuclear ambitions, the American public tends to forget the background of the conflict with Iran. It started roughly in 1953 when a coup d'état backed by America and Britain removed the elected Prime Minister Mosaddeq in favor of America-friendly Shah of Iran.

This clown is still whining about something that happened 54 years ago, when Bush was 7 years old. Mossadeq would have been overthrown with or without American help, but the lefties still can't get over it.

Mustafa, instead of living in a capitalist democracy like the UK, why don't you try living in Iran? Then tell us if you think that you want to trust the rulers of Iran with nukes.

Read about Iranian students protesting at Tehran university:

Holding banners demanding freedom and chanting slogans denouncing President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Iranian students on Sunday smashed through Tehran University's main gate.
In a two-hour demonstration, they called for the release of three students sentenced to prison on charges of printing anti-Islamic images in student newspapers — allegations they deny. For months, students have been protesting the regime's removal of professors who aren't sufficiently Islamist.

I recall during the cold war we had these armchair Marxists like Hanoi Jane, Jean Paul Sartre, etc., who praised the communist countries while living in comfort in a capitalist democracy. Now we have armchair islamists like Mustafa Dominic, who praise an 'islamic republic' while living in the comfort of a secular democracy.

Brrrrrrrrrrr......

Stuck in an ice storm. My internet has gone out at home and worst of all, I had to cancel my hunting trip this weekend. It's been raining all morning and I'm surprised that it hasn't turned into a solid sheet of ice, because it's certainly cold enough. (Maybe it's raining salt water? LOL). At least my electricity is working at home. Over 270,000 people in the state are without power.

I had to go to a Panera to use their WiFi. Fortunate that their baked goods are so good.

December 7, 1941

Rock and Roll at its Very Finest

After reading Andrew Goodwin's brainfart, in which he proves without question that he is the stupidest man on the planet earth, I had to get my fix of the band that took Rock and Roll to its highest level.

This is Communications Breakdown from Led Zeppelin's first album. Amazingly, Plant and Bonham were only 19 years old when they recorded the album. Page and Jones were in their late twenties.

Andrew Goodwin: EAT DEATH SCUM.

A Load of Horseshit

Andrew Goodwin, writing in Slate, claims that the song Stairway to Heaven almost "destroyed" Led Zeppelin:

Led Zeppelin, which is reuniting for a one-off charity gig in London on Dec. 10, appears to be positioning itself to make the Biggest News in the History of Rock: a new album and world tour—a prospect described by Billboard's Ray Waddell as "like twenty Super Bowls rolled into one." While there are still many obstacles to a Zeppelin tour, the most vexing may be that Robert Plant will have to overcome his reluctance to sing the song that has done the most damage to the band. Yes, "Stairway to Heaven."
Variously described as "a song of hope" (Plant), "an optimistic song" (Jimmy Page), and "a wedding song" (these words popped into Plant's mind as he was finishing the lyrics—his unconscious muse tipping him off to the mixed blessing that he had just received), "Stairway to Heaven" remains the closest thing Zeppelin has to a hit, as it was their policy not to release singles. In 1971, when the band refused to edit the song into four minutes of radio-friendly pop, stations simply started playing the whole track, and it soon became the most requested song on rock radio.
It also turned Zeppelin into a joke. It was "Stairway" that branded Zeppelin as spaced-out mystics. It was "Stairway" that drove them to the madness of the absurd fantasy sequences in their movie The Song Remains the Same. It was "Stairway" that sold them to a mass audience that found it amusing to hold lighters aloft throughout the song, perhaps under the understandable impression that they were attending a concert by the Moody Blues. Plant has disowned "Stairway." But "Stairway" would be an essential component in any set list constructed by a band calling itself Led Zeppelin.

Goodwin does not proceed to explain how Stairway 'almost destroyed' Zeppelin. And the clown projects his music tastes on to other people by claiming they found it 'amusing' to hold lighters aloft during a song, even though I have seen it done at many different music concerts of many different genres of music.

All this essay by Goodwin accomplishes is his disdain for Zeppelin's music. That band have almost never received positive reviews from music critics. I went to see their first performance in Dallas during their final tour in 1977. I loved the concert and came home enraptured. The next morning I read the reviews in the local papers and wondered if the critics had gone to the same concert I had attended. All they did was criticize the performance up, down, and sideways, often without any supporting facts and often by getting the facts completely wrong. Reading their reviews one would think the audience would have booed and left early. But they didn't and the critics didn't bother to mention that the entire audience were dancing on top of their chairs.

Goodwin is stupid and he knows nothing about Led Zeppelin whatsoever. He is merely projecting a bunch of ridiculous nonsense onto people whom he knows nothing about at all.

Stamp of the Week

Scott #63. The one cent issue of 1861. These were used for drop letters.

Life in an Echo Chamber

I have complained in the past about the extreme leftwing bias of the "mainstream media". Their continually biased reporting gives the Democrat party a strong advantage in the US political arena. However, there are disadvantages to this near-monopoly, because Democrat politicians get very little critical feedback on many of their ideas and activities. Thus, they often find themselves completely out of touch with broad segments of the American voters. Then, to my considerable amusement, they express shock and dismay when their candidates for office lose to Republicans.

The Anchoress comments on this echo chamber phenomenon, in a recent post about the recent faux pas of Her Thighness:

Perhaps this is the danger of surrounding yourself with loyal “yes” people and with press members who only write what is pleasing to you: you have no one to tell you that some gags just won’t work, that some one-liners are simply out of the question for you, and that some remarks - already of questionable taste - uttered from your lips border on the tawdry and almost make your presidential campaign look like a parody on MAD-TV.

I can think of many examples when Democrats relied too heavily on feedback from their ideological comrades in the "mainstream media". The most obvious example occurred during the events leading up to Bill Clinton's impeachment, and the subsequent victory of W during the 2000 election. I could personally care less who Clinton has sex with, but there are many other people, some of whom were lifelong Democrat voters, who were not amused by Clinton's white house liason with Monica Lewinsky. And the Democrats' vicious attacks on Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr were nothing short of stupid.

In the 2000 presidential election, W won the electoral vote by carrying states that had voted reliably Democrat for years, including West Virginia. This was due in part to the Lewinsky affair, and also to Democrat's support for gun control, that has much support in the mainstream media but very little support in some states, especially those with large rural areas.

Will we see a realingment in the media due to the increased popularity on Fox News Channel vs. CNN and other lefwing outfits? Good question.

Good Things Do Happen

Amazing that Chavez and his gang of thugs even allowed this to happen

CARACAS, Venezuela - Humbled by his first electoral defeat ever, President Hugo Chavez said Monday he may have been too ambitious in asking voters to let him stand indefinitely for re-election and endorse a huge leap to a socialist state.

"I understand and accept that the proposal I made was quite profound and intense," he said after voters narrowly rejected the sweeping constitutional reforms by 51 percent to 49 percent.
Opposition activists were ecstatic as the results were announced shortly after midnight — with 88 percent of the vote counted, the trend was declared irreversible by elections council chief Tibisay Lucena.
Some shed tears. Others began chanting: "And now he's going away!"
Foes of the reform effort — including Roman Catholic leaders, media freedom groups, human rights groups and prominent business leaders — said it would have granted Chavez unchecked power and imperiled basic rights.

Chavez reminds me so much of the Clintons. Anyone who opposed anything they did or wanted to do was branded an "extremist". Anyone who criticized them or felt that they had brokken the laws was branded a "hater". Newt Gingrich and Kenneth Starr were singled out for especially ferocious treatment.

The left are no friends of democracy. They CAN'T STAND it when someone disagrees with them.

What is the Hidden Agenda of Global Warming Zealots?

As has been discussed in this blog and elsewhere, the evidence that humans are causing global warming is scanty. So why do so many influential people buy this load of blarney? One of the motives may be discerned from a report from the UN, that debating society for third world despots:

The report says the rich nations will need to cough up $86 billion per year by 2015 to "strengthen the capacity of vulnerable people." Half the money, ostensibly, would go toward "climate-proofing" developing nations' infrastructure, whatever that means, while the other half would help the poor cope with related risks. Of course, the ambiguity is on purpose. You and I know that the bulk of this money will be skimmed off by tinhorn dictators, the same rabble that runs the U.N.
The report was conveniently released just a week before the world's nations gather in Bali to hammer out yet another Kyoto-style climate treaty. This will be another attempt to shame the developed world into turning over their hard-earned gold and silver to the rest of the world.

But shouldn't they include the Martians in this boondoggle? The polar icecaps on Mars have been shrinking. That must be Bush's fault.

One in Six Brits Over 50 Turned Down for Treatment

The British National Socialist Health Service, which many US leftists want to emulate, has turned down one in six of their citizens over the age of 50 on the basis of cost

One in six said they had been denied treatment on the NHS on the basis of cost.

A poll of 6,000 over-50s, carried out by Saga and Populus, found that 52 per cent would be prepared to meet the cost of treatments for diseases such as cancer.
The findings showed that they would be willing to pay an average of about £1,500 a year for medicines. One in 10 would be prepared to spend more than £5,200 a year.

And this is what will happen in the USA, if the Oinkubus and other lefties get their way. People over 50 will be denied treatment. Women and minorites (even those who are illegal aliens) will be given priority over white men.

Moreover, the overall quality of health care will decline. Our federal government has proven time and time again to be completely incompetent. Putting something as important as health care under its complete control will be a disaster. Better hope you stay healthy!