West Memphis Three: The Documentary

I just watched an old documentary film called “Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills.”

The liner notes for the DVD call it a “gripping documentary...of the West Memphis Three, a trio of boys arrested for the murders of three children…” The documentary was produced by HBO films and directed by Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky. It won a few awards and appeared on several top ten lists for 1996 when it was released.

It wasn’t so much gruesome as it was macabre. The version we saw had the look of home video. The gruesome opening sequence looks like a mini-Auschwitz with the three pre-teen boys strewn nude upon the banks of a shallow creek in Arkansas. One of the boys was sexually mutilated.

Most everyone interviewed in the documentary is from Arkansas. The victim’s families are ostensibly poor and marginally educated; so are the families of the arrested trio. Absent any other scapegoats, the viewer is presented with two choices. Blame it on the “crackers” or blame it on the “Goths.” The police blamed it on the Goths and all three of the alleged murderers are in prison, with Damien Echols sentenced to die.

Newspaper accounts and locals described Echols as an outsider type of individual accoutered in black trench coat, with black, chopped hair which he repeatedly combed on camera. One of his alleged accomplices is a bona fide borderline dysfunctional personality named Jessie Miskelly.

The third person imprisoned for the child murders is Jason Baldwin. Jason Baldwin is striking for his lack of personality. He smiles from a void. I suppose it’s a good thing that the documentary fumbles around a great deal in developing a point of view that begins with a belief in the arrested trio’s guilt and than tails off into a seeming belief that the convicts are innocent.

One fact that stands out in favor of the accused and convicted is that the case against them is entirely circumstantial. No blood evidence, no DNA, no eyewitnesses except the retracted statement of Jesse Misskelly who says his confession was coerced after a 12 hour endurance interrogation. It is that lack of evidence more than anything else that argues for a new trial.

The convicted youths are themselves were not of the type who would gain your sympathy. On many occasions afforded the filmmakers, Miskelly revealed himself to be stupid and vulgar, consistent with his IQ which is on the short side of room temperature. A videotaped film sequence of a conversation with his former girlfriend reveals his idiotic and somewhat perverse sense of sexuality. Miskelly was convicted and sentenced to life in prison.


Jason Baldwin and Damien Echols were tried together. The prosecution mustered three witnesses who heard one of the suspects brag he’d participated in the killing of the three elementary school children. Two of the witnesses were teenage girls supposedly unassociated with any of the principals. The third witness who testified against the alleged (and now convicted) murderers was a young man who had been incarcerated with one of the murder suspects.

The three men arrested for the murder of the three second-graders are still in jail. Defense funds have been established and celebrity concerts have been held to raise money to pay defense lawyers conducting the appeals. The case is widely known and continues to attract attention with videos on YouTube and concerts by Metallica, one of the favorites bands of the WM3, as they’re known. A website devoted to the defense has been visited nearly five million times.

Other recent and wrenching developments have taken place in the fifteen years the trio has been imprisoned. The families of two of the victims were never models of family values and cohesion in spite of the bible-thumping antics of some of the principal characters this documentary drama. Step-fathers have acknowledged beating their kids with leather belts for in-school misdemeanors.

“I spanked him three times with my belt with his pants up,” recalls the stepfather of one victim.

The remark is particularly notable because the marks were apparently still on the buttocks when the bodies were pulled from the shallow creek. Another disturbing recent development is that DNA from another step-father, Terry Hobbs, was found on one of the bindings that was used to restrain a murder victim. Mr. Hobbs confirmed in July of 2007 that he had again been interviewed by the police. Indeed, there is scant evidence of Mr. Hobbs whereabouts on the evening of the murders, and Mr. Hobbs estranged wife, Pamela Hobbs, suspects her former husband.

Suspicions and leads to other directions do not in themselves exonerate the three men who are in prison for the murders. It may well be that the three are guilty. But when a man is sentenced to die for committing a murder, and the circumstances of the investigation and the evidence are so questionable as they stand in this case, it would be reasonable and serve justice better to have a new trial for the three defendants.

This is especially important since the West Memphis police department so badly bungled the crime scene and subsequent investigation.

The Battle of Algiers: A 1966 film worth watching

The Algerian National Flag



From Netflix, I rented “The Battle of Algiers” exactly a month ago. I hadn’t had the chance to see it until last night, however, and almost returned the film without watching it. At long last, I found someone who didn’t mind watching a political film and so I finally watched this much recommended classic.

Circa 1956, the French must have been having hard time. They’d just had their butts kicked at Dien Bien Phu and their Indo-China venture was doomed. Now they were facing a growing uprising in yet another French colony, this one in Algeria. Pan-Arab nationalism had been ignited and wouldn’t stop until Algerian Independence in 1962. All of this occurring not too long after a Vichy government and the ravages of WWII.

In the crowded streets of Algiers, policemen are being shot in the back by terrorists and bombs go off in cafes, airport lounges, and dance halls. A hardened veteran of the French campaign in Vietnam is called in to disassemble the uprising by all means necessary. Colonel Mathieu knows how the guerilla insurrection game is played.

Colonel Mathieu is honorable enough but not squeamish about applying a measure of physical punishment to the terror squads. He dissects and analyzes the terror cells with methodical precision and eliminates them one by one. The problem posed by the film is that, even though Mathieu is successful in his anti-terror campaign, a later uprising forces the French to acquiesce to Algerian Independence.

The desire for independence and freedom strikes a chord throughout the western world. Yet, the very freedom that people seek is endangered by fundamentalist and extreme Islamist movements which represent submission to the Mullahs. Moderates in the Middle East have not failed to notice.

The Algeria government has battled the Islamic extremists for control of the government ever since achieving independence. Since the seventies, the Pan-Arabism which swept the Middle East has been seriously challenged by the religion-as-government mentality of the Islamic fundamentalists.

This has been an interesting inversion which has led neither to prosperity nor to stable governments. Tragically, this shift of emphasis has led to the widespread murder of moderates and to a perpetuation of violence and cruelty against men, women, and children.

Putin Assassination Plot Thwarted in Iran

Who on earth would want to kill a nice guy like Vladimir Putin?


Has Putin’s Iran diplomacy backfired? Iranian officials are sweating a report that Russian intelligence has uncovered a plot to assassinate Russia’s president Vladimir Putin. The source of the report is Interfax, a news agency with strong ties to the Russian government. A government spokeswoman also confirmed the report.

Two other recent plots intended to kill the Russian president were thwarted, and these were thought to be the work of Chechen Islamic terrorists. In this latest plot, Putin was to be assassinated by a team of suicide bombers in the typical pattern of not giving a damn who else might be killed besides the intended target.

The Iranian plot to kill Putin is ironic and embarrassing to the Tehran government. Putin has interceded on behalf of Iran with the international community. Russia is currently providing the technology and infrastructure for building a nuclear plant in Iran.

Maybe it’s time for Putin to rethink his position in doing business in Iran. Iranian moderates are not likely to keep the Islamo-nazis in check, and this latest assassination plot is just one example of the perils of a fatuous Russian “diplomacy.” But then again, the Russian president’s appetite for world power is uncontrollable and, like a fat man at a banquet, he cannot stop eating.

The New Mount Airy Casino Is a Pennsylvania Gamble

Casino Slot Machines are already in place in a famous Pocono resorts favored by vacationing urban dwellers from Philadelphia and New York. Clicking on the title (above) of this note will link to the complete article.

Sandy Berger Sanitation Hire: Hillarity and Hubris

Clintonite Whiz Kid Sandy Berger Gives How-To Advice to Hillary Campaign.


I’m astonished that Hillary Clinton chose to resurrect the disgraced former national security adviser Sandy Berger by appointing him as an advisor to her campaign. What the hell’s he going to do for Hillary? Show her how to properly sanitize a crime scene?

I guess Republicans should be glad of Hillary’s latest act of hubris (and indifference to law) in making the appointment. Berger’s not only a thief and a threat to national security; he’s a bungler as well. Here’s a brief outline of what happened:

1) National Archives employees spotted Berger stuffing documents into his socks, a classy and clever maneuver which would be too cheap to put into a trashy movie script. So was a later theft when he shoved documents into his pockets and stuck them under a construction trailer.

2) When Archives employees asked about the missing documents, Berger gleefully lied to them saying he did not take them.

3) When Berger realized that the Archives staff people were on to him, he “panicked” and cut up four documents into tiny pieces.
The Hillarity (sic) doesn’t end there. According to the Inspector General’s notes, Berger tried to contact the trash collecting company to retrieve the shredded documents but had “no luck”. Unh-hunh, again!
An inspector-general report in December 2003 described Berger’s theft of documents. The theft occurred while 9-11 Commission was getting ready to hear Berger’s testimony on the Clinton Administration’s policies concerning the terror attacks. By the time the IG’s office completed its final report on Berger, Berger had already pleaded guilty and received a slap on the wrist criminal sentence. Stealing classified documents from the national archives gets you a $50,000 fine if you’re a Clinton Democrat and a free press pass in the liberal indoctrinated media.

Berger and the Clintonites stick to the story that he was merely reviewing the documents to make sure the 9-11 Commission got the “correct” classified material. Unh-huh. So that’s it!

But I guess that’s a good enough reason, given the context of the surrealistic fiasco of the 9-11 commission in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks. After the gullible public was able to accept Jamie Gorelick sitting on the Commission side of the table rather than on the witness side, the stage was set for all manner of preposterous assertions, assumptions, and outright lies.




Now, I want you to testify honestly before the Commission, Sandy..(wink,wink)

Australia Prime Minister John Howard Pulls No Punches

Muslims who want to live under Islamic Sharia law were told on Wednesday to get out of Australia , as the government targeted radicals in a bid to head off potential terror attacks.

A day after a group of mainstream Muslim leaders pledged loyalty to Australia and her Queen at a special meeting with Prime Minister John Howard, he and his Ministers made it clear that extremists would face a crackdown. Treasurer Peter Costello, seen as heir apparent to Howard, hinted that some radical clerics could be asked to leave the country if they did not accept that Australia was a secular state, and its laws were made by parliament. "If those are not your values, if you want a country which has Sharia law or a theocratic state, then Australia is not for you", he said on National Television

"I'd be saying to clerics who are teaching that there are two laws governing people in Australia : one the Australian law and another Islamic law that is false. If you can't agree with parliamentary law, independent courts, democracy, and would prefer Sharia law and have the opportunity to go to another country, which practices it, perhaps, then, that's a better option", Costello said.

Asked whether he meant radical clerics would be forced to leave, he said those with dual citizenship could possibly be asked to move to the other country. Education Minister Brendan Nelson later told reporters that Muslims who did not want to accept local values should "clear off. Basically people who don't want to be Australians, and who don't want, to live by Australian values and understand them, well then, they can basically clear off", he said.

Separately, Howard angered some Australian Muslims on Wednesday by saying he supported spy agencies monitoring the nation's mosques. Quote: "IMMIGRANTS, NOT AUSTRALIANS, MUST ADAPT. Take It Or Leave It. I am tired of this nation worrying about whether we are offending some individual or their culture. Since the terrorist attacks on Bali , we have experienced a surge in patriotism by the majority of Australians."

"However, the dust from the attacks had barely settled when the 'politically correct' crowd began complaining about the possibility that our patriotism was offending others. I am not against immigration, nor do I hold a grudge against anyone who is seeking a better life by coming to Australia ." "However, there are a few things that those who have recently come to our country, and apparently some born here, need to understand." "This idea of Australia being a multi-cultural community has served only to dilute our sovereignty and our national identity. And as Australians, we have our own culture, our own society, our own language and our own lifestyle."

"This culture has been developed over two centuries of struggles, trials and victories by millions of men and women who have sought freedom"

how to survive college: a guide for parents

a half-serious look at a stressed parent of a recent college graduate.

read more | digg story

Angry Iraquis Reject Partitian Plan of Desperate Democrats

Clueless Democrats have once again found themselves caught flat-footed by the Iraq government’s angry rejection of Joe Biden’s plan to split Iraq into three parts. I think Biden’s intentions too much resemble the desperate attempts of other Democrats (including the presidential candidates) to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.

Democrats of character and standard intelligence should line up behind Connecticut’s Joe Lieberman. He’s one of the few Democrats who understands the implications of handing Iraq over to the insurgents. Lieberman’s a statesman, a man not afraid to stand up for what he knows is right, a man who has paid the price for standing tall and maintaining his integrity.

Iraq’s government may not be completely united but they sure stand together on this issue. Bringing up the idea of partitioning Iraq within the current milieu is just another example of the hapless defeatism which continues to characterize current Democratic party leadership. The notion that the U.S. congress should draw up such plans, inspired by congressional Democrats, smacks of colonialism and arrogance.

Somebody should tell congressional Democrats that a stable Iraqi government in the Middle East is more important to our soldiers and our people than Democratic Party chances for winning an election.

Dead In the A.M: Buh-Bye!

New Auschwitz Photos: The Ordinariness of Evil

 

The ordinariness of evil...or something to that effect. I recalled those words from long ago by Hannah Arendt when I saw these photos posted on the BBC. They were recently handed over to the US Holocaust Memorial Museum by a former US Army officer who found the album in Frankfurt in 1946. The pictures were in the collection of Karl Hoecker, a Nazi SS officer.

These frolicksome Nazi men and fraulein played while Jews were murdered in the Auschwitz death houses. According to Iran's President Ahmadinajad, such photos as these prove that nothing but smoke was going up the chimneys at the Nazi death camps.

The group of SS Officers in the foreground picture included handsome Doctor Josef Mengele. He's the one with folded arms, contemplating new atrocities and sadistic acts. Is it just me or is there a strong family resemblance with the late Abu Zarqawi?

Morning Joe:Scarborough, Brezinski, Burnett

Iran’s President Amadinajad gave a much-needed boost to the morning news/talk/social networking shows. At this point, I must concur with all the lofty talk about “free speech” which preceded the visit. I did learn two things from Amadinajad’s visit:

1) Iran has no homosexuals. (They are all sent to America or killed)
2) Women are highly prized in Iran, and completely free to operate within the restrictions imposed by Sharia. (They are all sent to America or killed)


I like Fox News, and tune into it as a matter of routine, just as I tune into all the others in a paroxysm of morning channel switching. Fox’s coverage of the visit was straight forward and negative toward the hirsute public face of Iran’s ruling Ayatollahs.

Sometimes I like to tune into the morning show called “Morning Joe” feature Joe Scarborough, Mikah Brezinski, and Willie Geist.

Willie Geist is the latest addition to the program and he is a welcome addition. Pulled down from the production staff, Geist has an intelligent and deadpan crossover manner which plays simultaneously to trend and tradition.

Scarborough is a Republican of some sort. I think he represents a disenchanted element of the “Reagan Revolution”. He’s all over the charts, but then what else could you be on a show that would identify itself as “center-liberal-left”, if that is a proper category.

Mika Brezinski, daughter of Zbigniew Brezinski (national security advisor under Carter’s failed presidency), was put on earth to make people feel uncomfortable, especially morning news guys. Mika found the lost chord of American television back in July of this year when she refused to do a story on Paris Hilton’s release from jail. Not only did Ms. Brzezinski refuse, but she grabbed a cheap plastic cigarette lighter from co-host Willie Geist’s pocket and proceeded to ignite the baloney script on live tv.

Willie Geist must have trained with Homeland Security because he defused the incident by snatching the torch from the hands of the rebellious Mika. Undaunted by the intervention, Mika proceeded to push the script through a paper shredder. You’ve got to admire a woman with that kind of determination.

Today, Mika Brezinski’s Carter state-department Old World mentality was piqued because Lee Bollinger introduced Amadinajad on the point of a pike. Mika Brezinski didn’t think that was polite. She said so too many times, and I expect she considers polity the weapon of choice against the blunt truths of a terrorist regime.

The “Morning Joe” went downhill from there except that now I must reveal a state secret and my strongest reason for tuning in: the appearance of Erin Burnett. In a bewildering blitz of information, wit, and sharp business instinct, Ms. Burnett righted the listing ship of morning news babble with the following news:

• The half-percent federal rate cut was not the “panacea” folks expected, as Burnett previously told viewers.

• Retail spending at stories like Target, Lowe’s, and some others had shrunk to worrisome levels.

• Home builder and financial services provider Lennar announced severe losses for the third quarter and a cut of 35% of its work force.

• G.M workers want job security, having lost 34,000 workers in the past year.


• The first new application for a nuclear power plant since 1968 was submitted today.

Purple is the new black which is the new brown. Or something to that effect. Having no fashion taste, and caught flat-footed by THE most intelligent and witty and well-dressed woman in the history of daytime television, I missed that.

All of this was delivered in less than 2 minutes along with some quick repartee arising from Joe Scarborough’s probe about Burnett’s television partner, the affable Mark Haynes. Unlike herself, Burnett wryly remarked, Haynes was probably not aware of the roadblocks near the United Nations home on the east side of Manhattan.

Ahmadinajead at Columbia: Free Speech or Hate Speech?

What a joke it is to hear Columbia University’s President defending the Ahmadinejad visit as a concern for Free Speech. If everything else can fall under the protective umbrella of free speech then I am free to denounce him as a Nazi Holocaust Denier and killer of American soldiers.

The despicable and toxic little dweeb has called for the extermination of Israel and has been one of the chief sponsors of terrorism around the world. It was through Ahmadinejad’s support of Hizbollah that hundreds of Marines were killed in 1983. Iranians are held in a condition of virtual slavery in a medieval state that will not permit women to show their ankles and wrists.

While Ahmadinejad conducts his charm offensive in the halls of a left-liberal elite academia fed on the milk-fat of left-wing pablum, his murderous robots are supplying terror weapons which are used in political assassinations, mass terror attacks, and political suppression around the world. Columbia University does not have to provide an additional podium for hate-mongering among nations. Ahmadinejad’s anti-semitic slime is peddled often enough and loudly enough throughout the Middle East.

The Islamo-nazis have not come up with an original thought in five decades, so what is there in a prepared speech at Columbia U. which must be protected as “free speech?”?

Kick his Nazi ass back to the U.N curb.

Potpourri and Stupidity: MoveOn, M.I.T, and Norman Hsu

It’s the You Tube effect. People are vying with each other to achieve greater stupidity. The virus has reached Congress which, to its credit, today issued some kind of censorious statement about the recent MoveOn ad sliming General Petraeus. That part is good, but you shouldn’t wonder why Hillary Clinton, Barak Obama, and Chris Dodd refused to condemn the scurrilous propaganda of left-leaning social elite and WALLs.

The reason is that MoveOn dumps millions of dollars into the campaign coffers of all three Democrats. Gee, I’m glad those people are promising to “reform” the politics of Washington. I guess Hillary might make good on giving back some of the campaign money which came from convicted felon Norman Hsu except that the feds could seize those moneys first. Hsu was the beneficiary of a multi-million dollars Ponzi scheme.

And did you hear the one about the M.I.T student who shut down Boston’s Logan Airport this morning? She was carrying a fake bomb on her sweatshirt, made of play-doh to resemble plastic explosive and wired for visual effect. That was funny, funny, funny…watching the police overreact. What would have been funnier, and really, really funny is if the cops put two .40 calibre holes in her forehead.

The Jena Six: Learning to be Stupid

I’m late to the party with anything to say about the Jena 6. Though I can no longer handle crowds, I have to be grateful for the Louisiana demonstrations for bringing it to my attention. I did a little review of background, consequently. The first dumb thing I encountered was that some idiots hung up some hanging nooses under the “white tree” of the campus after an African-American youth sat under it on sunny day.


School officials get the Giant Dunce and Bigotry Award for treating the issue like a schoolboy prank. Their idea of discipline was ISS, or in-school suspension. Nooses hanging in the summer breeze of Louisiana isn’t my idea of a prank. Treating it as a prank creates the impression that psychological intimidation is okay in the Jena schools. If the “prank” can’t be prosecuted under the hate crimes laws, then school officials should have levied the harshest punishment they could inflict, which is to kick the offenders out of the mainstream school permanently.

In the shadow of that stupidity and others which followed the incident, young man Mychal Bell gets a heavy jail term for participating in the beating of a white student in an altercation. There’s no reason for anyone to be beating on anyone and that needs to be punished but it seems as if that’s the only punishment that was meted out for anyone involved in the Jena 6 fiasco. People in the Jena schools seem not to comprehend that they have a great responsibility in dealing with America’s kids. What they do can teach valuable lessons or it can do great harm.

In this case, it did great harm. There ain't no "white trees" in America.

Zawahiri – Bin Laden Film Opens in Tora-Bora

Scene: Two rather comfortable caves in the mountains between Iraq and Pakistan. Split screen: UBL in one, Ayman Zawahiri in another.

UBL: So where is that little fat bastard, Gadahn? He was supposed to call my office this morning with a prepared statement for release.

Zawahiri: Gadahn!... Ah, don’t remind me. Every morning, when he should be praying, Gadahn goes down to the internet café to play that stupid computer game.

UBL: Dungeons and Dragons again? How many times have I told him the game is banned in the Holy World of Islam?

Zawahiri: But don’t worry, Usama….I have prepared today’s statement myself.

UBL: Read it to me, please, Zawahiri…

Zawahiri: Okay, here goes:

The Crusaders themselves have testified to their defeat in Afghanistan at the hands of the lions of the Taliban. The Crusaders have testified to their own defeat in Iraq at the hands of the mujahideen, who have taken the battle of Islam to the heart of the Islam world.

UBL: That sounds a little…how you say... mechanical… I like the idea, Zawahiri, but it says nothing of us.

Zawahiri: But the tape will begin with an audio taken from the cockpit where the admirable Mohammad Atta takes control of the plane which hit the….

UBL: But won’t that make the Crusaders angry?

Zawahiri: It will make only one-half of the Crusaders angry, by my own estimate. The other half of the Crusaders will be overjoyed at the prospect of defeating the Republicans at the American polls.

UBL: Polls? What is that again? Polls?

Zawahiri: Polls, I tell you again Usama, is the method by which the Westerners misjudge the direction of history. And having done so, they go on to choose a leader who will mismanage their countries in a way that most benefits their own enemies.

UBL: Which is us….

Zawahiri: Right again, Usama. And so now I must have your approval to release the statement.

UBL: Still, I still wish we could run it by that fat little pederast, Gadahn.

Zawahiri: But don’t worry so much, Usama. I too have been listening to the patterns of American speech among our Western allies.

UBL: Western allies?....my mind is not so clear these days….the bomb, the bomb….so close…. Tell me again, Zawahiri…..

Zawahiri: Let me read the entire list: John Murtha, Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, John Kerry, Howard Dean, Chuck Hagel, Wolf Blitzer, Keith Olbermann, and most powerful and might of all our friends, Dennis Kucinich.

UBL: Kucinich? Ugly little dwarf, that one.

Zawahiri: But we need him right now. And when the revolution is complete and you are head of the World Caliphate, I will personally cut off his head before a live audience on CBS-TV.





Opens September 20. Admission is Free to Adults. Children under thirty must be accompanied by their parents.

Boxing Impresario Don King: Only In America

Okay, I’ve got weird heroes. Don King, for example. I guess one of the reasons why I like Don King is because everyone was always trying to brainwash me so I’d hate the guy. The sportswriters from the most schmuck newspapers in the world would always have an unkind word to say about Don King. The only reason they could cite, as far as I could see, was that their fellow schmuck sportswriters also hated Don King. In calling such people “sportswriters”, I’m taking extreme liberties with the language. In reality, most of the sportswriter schmucks care nothing about boxing and do not have the intellectual curiosity to learn anything about it. Boxing coverage in most newspapers is about as interesting as reading the text on a box of Cheerios. Like cows accustomed to being fed and fattened, the schmuck sportswriters feed on a steady diet of what I call the “Beer Sports” (baseball, football, golf, etc.). The monotony and hum-drum of this rather thin fare is broken up by the occasional photo story about some high school tennis girl or hockey player who can be photographed in knickers.

I’ve noticed that the more insignificant and untalented the sportswriter is, the more he (or she) tended to pile on Don King. Truth to tell, it had just the opposite effect on me. I figured a guy who had so many insignificant and effete so-called sportswriters as enemies must be doing something right.

Okay, I get it that Don King is a player and that he woos fighters with an eye to making money. But how is it that different from the owner of a baseball team or team of NASCAR drivers? Don’t they all court the type of players or drivers who will make them rich? Or are we supposed to believe that there is philanthropy in the selection of football draft picks and ignominy when Don King goes after a fighter he thinks will make it big?

Anyway, I always had a soft spot for the rebel. Don King’s a rebel. He’s a guy who came up from nowhere, and he’s taken his own path to success and redemption. It’s true that boxing made Don King rich but don’t forget that Don King also made boxing rich. Don King and others like him pulled together multi-million dollar purses by seeing the opportunities presented in developing media like PPV and the cable companies. That type of effort benefited a large number of people in addition to boxers and their families. The broadcast media companies (HBO, ShowTime, etc) profited and so do the casinos, the newspapers, hotel chains, and just about everyone else who ever made money from sport.

In an age where so many celebrities are vying with each other to prostrate themselves publicly before a Hollywood film and music audience which doesn’t read books or know the difference between the butt end of a rifle and the butt end of an elephant, it’s kind of refreshing to see the legendary African-American boxing impresario enthusiastically waving the American flag, raising money for the 101st airborne, visiting the troops, visiting the death camps at Auschwitz, and following his great heart wherever it might lead him.

Y'all ought to take a look at his website.

Dweeb and Company: Reed, Reid, and Levin; Attorneys At Law

I guess I’m not telling state secrets when I say the New York Times has been afloat in a bog of left liberal bias. Now it comes out that the NYT gave a 60 percent discount to MoveOn, an organization dedicated to liberal toadyism and much worse. I wonder if billionaire America-hater George Soros will declare the New York Times gift as income on the organization’s tax records. By the rules which apply to the rest of us, we would have to declare it on our own taxes as “in-kind income” and it would be assigned a dollar value.

Maybe the laughable Democratic Party “fairness in media” crowd will demand that similar gifts be made to conservative social activists. Hell will freeze over before that happens.

Meanwhile, Diaper Dennis Kucinich, the appeasement dwarf, has been shown on Fox TV belly crawling through Syria with hat in hand talking about how embarrassed he is with America. Every time I see his pathetic mug, I think of that old David Bowie song “Earth to Major Tom” but I’m not so sympathetic as the singer. I’d like to see the leach Kucinich cut off from his lifeline to America and set adrift with his butt-buddy pal Assad in Syria if not in outer space with Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, and Carl Levin.

You know, Levin, don’t you? Chairman of the Armed Services Committee. That’s a danger for America more insidious than AQ. He was on TV yesterday with his own little assemblage of dwarfs (Reid, Pelosi, and the schmuck from Rhode Island (Jack Reed?) who’s supposed to give the Democrats’ counter to the impending Bush speech). They all begin their b.s. the same way, you know, with a nod to the troops they’re working so hard to undermine.

I know I’ve told you before how Levin hides behind those Ben Franklin goggles to make himself look statesmanlike. The real effect is to make him look like a fat little pederast. Or maybe he needs those bi-focals to see his….never mind!

Levin was bragging about his “conversation” with General Petraeus and how the general was a great guy and how Petraeus’ view contrasted with the President’s. Beside him were Reid and the schmuck from RI. If ever there was a need for a picture of bureaucracy, it was those three petty bureaucrats prating about legislation they’d pass to “DEMAND” a troop drawdown. Redundant and tautological. Yeah, and like it was punks like that who beat the Nazis in WWII right?

And since those dweebs are so fond of left-wing rhetoric, let me end this with a genuine 60s quote which seems tailor-made for the appeasement monkeys.

“If you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the problem.”

Adam Gadahn Posing as a Human Fat Pile

Video Clip Courtesy of Black Five

Happy September 11, Zarquawi!

Photos courtesy of U.S. Army, Navy, Marines, and Air Force

Most Annoying Television Advertisement Ever: Vonage

Vonage phone service is a good idea that can save you money yet their television ad is having a disastrous effect on my psyche. I'v nothing agains the content of the commercial except for the attention-getting sound effects. Whoo-hoo-hooo-hooo-wooo-hoooo ad infinitum. The creating ad agency is apparently of the fascist sort which doesn't care so much if the consumer buys the product as much as it cares that the consumer listens to the ad.

On that score, the ad is superb. If you have the tv on, you've got no choice other than to listen to it...who-hoo-hoo-wooo-hoooo....an insouciant, grating rhythmic nonsensical electronic noise which indelibly scars brain tissue and leaves listeners in a state of mind more suited to a session of obsessive weapons cleaning than buying a phone service.

It is only me? Let me know... post a short comment. Save me!

John Edwards' Purloined Email

Appearing slightly embalmed, Usama Bin Laden poses for his latest video.

Email to: John Edwards:

CC: Hillary Clinton

Bcc: Barak Obama


Dear sir or madam:

I’m writing to clue you in about something you should know. The terrorist cell recently busted in Germany was uncovered in part by American electronic surveillance of phone calls between two German nationals embedded in a terrorist network in Pakistan.

As you know, the would-be bombers had assembled a large batch of high concentration Hydrogen Peroxide which, when mixed with other material, makes the kind of bomb that was used in the London train bombings.

At the risk of sounding like a right-wing conspirator (one of Hillary Clinton’s favorite pejoratives) , I wish to inform you that I have been conducting my own surveillance of Al Quaeda email communications and have decided to release a verbatim excerpt of an email communication between American Adam Gadahn and UBL.

GADAHN: Hey, Usama!....Happy 09-11!...

UBL: Adam!...Word up, dude!...that was a great script you sent me to accompany my 9-11 photo greeting to your country.

GADAHN: Thanks, Usama…. …All I had to do was cut and paste some language from certain American newspapers…. And much of it came directly from the new presidential candidates.

UBL: Ha—ha-ha!... You crazy, guy, Gadahn!.... Always make jokes!

GADAHN: No joke, Usama…. John Edwards said Bushie’s War On Terror was a “bumper sticker.”

UBL: Ha-ha-ha!... that’s another good one, Gadahn! Where you get this stuff?

GADAHN: From the new Democratic Congress, boss. They help us plenty with all them lawsuits against electronic surveillance. That surveillance been killin’ us!...it’s got to stop. Arrests in Denmark, arrests in Germany, arrests in Pakistan…all over the world our peeps been getting busted.

(changes subject)

Hey, how about this one for a bumper sticker, Usama: “Piss on Patriots!”


UBL: Ha-ha-ha!... You killing me, Gadahn! That’s a good one. You think we can put one on Edwards’ car?

GADAHN: The new Democratic congress got you covered, Usama… So far we’ve got Dick Durbin, Harry Reid, Howard Dean, Nancy Pelosi…..We got a ‘maybe’ from the candidates. Understand how sensitive this is?….

UBL: What about that Kucinich?

GADAHN: Kucinich? You kiddin’? Slam dunk!

UBL: Ha-ha-ha….”Slam Dunk!” You killin’ me, Gadahn! What means that?

GADAHN: Slam Dunk? American basketball expression, UBL. Means how quickly Democrats likely to fold up tents, retreat, and give us time to rebuild and repair terror cells.

UBL: Ho-ho,ho!... You killin’ me, Gadahn! Ha-ha… Slam dunk!.... love those American expressions!... Reminds me of my college days at Beirut University…how you say?....party-boy Usama, ha-ha!.... (longingly) Those were the days, my friend: limousines, lackeys, booze, broads….

GADAHN(tearing up): Stop it, Usama. You’re making me homesick. Besides, we got work to do…

Hillary Clinton Fugitive Fundraiser Nabbed in Colorado

I wonder if Hilary Clinton will trot out the “vast right-wing conspiracy” line again now that her chief fundraiser, Norman Hsu, has been arrested on “unlawful flight to avoid prosecution.”

Hsu’s troubles stem from 1991 charges of felony theft. Hsu plead “nolo contendere” to those charges and then skipped out. Court and law enforcement authorities in the state of California were apparently too busy to follow up on the matter because the charges were left to float until the Wall Street Journal wrote a story about two weeks ago detailing how Mr. Hsu was one of Hillary Clinton’s chief fundraisers. The WSJ reports also that Mr. Hsu was a fund-raising dynamo for Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell who describes Norman Hsu as a long-time personal friend.

In the strictly subjective sense, I would say that acknowledgement of a friendship with the shady Pennsylvania governor casts more of an aspersion upon Mr. Hsu than the other way around. Governor Rendell, in typical lawyerly fashion, crafted a careful statement that, although Norman Hsu was still his friend, “his failure to appear casts a new light on his assertions regarding the original case.” Well, duh! As an amateur and dilettante in the world of journalism and political highjinks, I am bewildered that the Wall Street Journal’s quote of Mr. Rendell’s statement came before Norman Hsu’s arrest. How does that stuff happen? Was it only last week that Rendell began keeping such a sharp eye on Mr. Hsu’s fortunes and misfortunes? Rendell’s latest statement is a transparent attempt at redemption. Just last week, Rendell said he’d planned to keep the $40K he’d got from Hsu even though Hsu pleaded “no contest” to charges he’d ripped off a million bucks from investors.

Apparently the California authorities had a change of heart after reading about Mr. Hsu’s activities in the WSJ and decided to pursue the 1991 matter. Mr. Hsu dutifully surrendered himself to California authorities, posted a two million dollar bail, and then skipped out again, failing to appear at his scheduled hearing.

When Hsu took his latest bounce, California law enforcement requested the help of the FBI which located and arrested him toute-de-suite. Hsu’s arrest has worried other Democratic big-wigs including prez candidate Chris Dodd who issued a statement about refusing to take campaign contributions “raised, solicited, or delivered by fugitive from justice.”

It should be clear from all this that the current administration’s greatest critics are making good on their pledges to clean up sordid Republican politics.

Terrorist Arrests in Germany and Denmark: The Peroxide Bomb

I can just about hear the pundits on Sirius’ TalkLeft radio kibbutzing about the one ton cache of liquid hydrogen peroxide found in Oberschedorn, a quaint little vacation spot in West Germany. Like maybe those people arrested for being terrorists were actually intending to dye a lot of hair or use it for strictly humanitarian purposes. Perhaps they were intending to ship it to Darfur as a bacteriological defense. Can anyone prove otherwise? I guess detonators and other electronic components, also discovered in the German cottage, were planted by the American CIA.

That amount of hydrogen peroxide could have been turned into a powerful batch of explosive materials in a matter of days. It’s not the stuff you find in your medical cabinet. Hydrogen Peroxide gives off a vapor that can detonate when exposed to a temperature of only 158 degrees. It was the stuff used by the terrorists in the deadly London bombings of 2005. It may explain the term “unstable explosives” mentioned in news stories about the terrorists arrested in Denmark.

I wonder why many Democratic presidential candidates are rendered speechless when terror plots are uncovered. Aren't we being too conspicuously timid?

Larry Craig and the Lead Balloon

Pennsylvania Senator Arlen Specter


Everybody's talkin' about faggots, faggots....



It’s a line from an old Beatles song. Weren’t they prescient? I suppose there are free speech advocates out there who would prosecute me for using the “other” f-word. Let me say right now that I love my gay brothers and sisters as much as a misanthrope could love anyone. But with the media all hyped up about Idaho Senator Larry Craig, I think it’s only fitting to focus on the general identity confusion and hypocrisy which extends well beyond the obvious family values hypocrisy of the aforementioned Senator.

Glad (Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders) will be wasting their time pillorying Jerry Lewis for using the “faggot” word while trying to chide a member of his staff. The long-time advocate of Muscular Dystrophy victims apologized almost immediately:

"I apologize to anyone who was offended. Everyone who knows me
understands that I hold no prejudices in this regard. In the family atmosphere of the telethon, I forget that not everyone knows me that well."

Nothing more needs to be said on the subject but plenty will be, I’m sure.

As for Larry Craig, the lead balloon has been given new air by Pennsylvania’s increasingly dodgy Senator Arlen Specter. In typical lawyerly fashion, Specter jumped to the cameras to begin a parsing of words that would tempt your eighth grade English teacher. The only kind of “sense” revealed by the Specter statements in defense of Craig is legal sense. If Specter believes so much in defending Craig, then he should take up the case in his own legal offices and not in the court of public opinion. You’d almost think he was hired by Hillary’s campaign manager.

Of Hillary, she’s clearly honed in on the gay vote and her comic appearance on TV with Ellen DeGeneres was witty. And while it may not pass the legal and ethical tests, I find it churlish that the suddenly appearing highly indignant moral Democrats find it politically acceptable for Barney Frank to cavort with a seventeen-year old Senate page. And I marvel at the married-with-children former NJ Governor Jim McGreavy’s decision to join the Episcopalian Seminary. Whatevah…

The real tragedy of all this is that every breath, every utterance, every painful sigh becomes political to the degree that the truth is abandoned. A U.S. congressman shouldn’t be trolling for sex in a public bathroom or in a Senate cloakroom. Those people are where they are to conduct the business of the people.

Barney Frank, no matter his indiscretions, has a kind of moral authority by being who he is and not pretending to be anyone else. Jim McGreavy pretended to be someone else for a long time. I might feel greater empathy for Larry Craig if he dropped the charade and went quietly into that good night. Americans will forgive nearly anything except being lied to.

Senator Patrick Leahy: Lawyer di Tutti Lawyer

The Republicans are at war with the terrorists and the Democrats are at war with the Republicans. It’s understandable, under the circumstances, that the Democrats would be gloating over the resignation of Attorney General Gonzalez, but the country needs an Attorney General and it’s not likely to get one soon considering that Patrick Leahy is chairman of the powerful Senate Judiciary Committee.

Patrick Leahy, a world-class dunderhead, loves the procedures of law more than he loves the law because, if he didn’t, he’d realize the President has the constitutional authority to appoint a new Attorney General and not stand in the way of the best interests of the United States. It’s likely that the blockheaded Leahy will strangle any appointment that Bush makes without regard for the constitution. His smug conceit of pretending to be defending rights when really he is a diabolical power monger degrades the process of government.

I don’t see any relief in sight. Leahy won’t be happy until every person in the U.S. has his/her own personal special prosecutor. It’s a wonder he didn’t recommend one for Dick Cheney who told Leahy what we’d all like to tell him, that is, to eff off and give us some breathing space. Leahy’s such an imperial nuisance that he had to “remind” Fox News’ Chris Wallace just this evening that he was the “chairman” of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Apparently, Wallace wasn’t suitably impressed or fawning enough.

I do wish that my forever hero Dick Cheney would apologize for his “eff you” remark. Then maybe they could go off hunting together with Cheney wearing a blindfold.

It Takes A Village (Idiot) Or Two

Comment of the day is from Nouri Al-Maliki, the embattled Prime Minister of Iraq who was recently on the receiving end of criticism by Democratic Senators Carl (Ben Franklin) Levin and Hillary Clinton. Sensing that any and all upheaval in Iraq favors Hillary’s chances for the presidency, Clinton and Levin have both called for Al-Maliki’s resignation. Al-Maliki feels that Clinton and Levin have but a tenuous grasp on the political realities of the region and bluntly said so. He wished that certain WALL Democrats would “come to their senses” and stop treating Iraq like “one of their villages.”

Perhaps the time is right for Hillary to come out with the sequel to her book about child-rearing entitled “It Takes A Village.” The sequel could feature a cover picture of herself arm-in-arm with Levin and the title: “It Takes A Village (Idiot)” Or two of them.

(Photo credit to Amazon.com, the best source for books.)

A Litvinenko - Politkovskaya Connection? Ten arrested for the journalist's murder...

The dying man is struggling to say something. With the last bit of strength in his body, he grabs at the hand of his friend, pulling him closer so that he can hear.

"Putin....It was Putin who did this to me..."

The voice withers away finally and completely, as does the man.

Was that how it will happen in the movie? Probably not, and it's not exactly how it happened in real life either. Alexander Litvinenko died in a London hospital on November 23, 2006. Near death, former Russian intelligence officer Alexander Litvinenko offered a written statement condemning the Russian president and blaming him, among other things, for his own impending death.

Three principals in this grim tale were all ex-KGB. The Soviet KGB was legendary for its intrigues, its subterfuges, its diabolical cold-war activity in a game of spy upsmanship with the Central Intelligence Agency and the British MI6. KGB tactics were the stuff of James Bond films as victims were felled with pinpricks from poisoned umbrella tips or dispatched with bullets fired from fountain pens.

It's grimly like that old folk tale of Hansel and Gretel leaving a breadcrumb trail through the dark forest. Instead of breadcrumbs, however, these Gretels left behind lethal doses of Polonium 210, a radioactive substance to which few could gain access. Traces of the powerful poison were left from Moscow to London.

Litvinenko became mysteriously ill after a meeting in a London restaurant with Dmitri Kotvun and Andrei Lugovoi, both former spies and Russian intelligence agents turned businessmen. All three men had known each other during their days with the KGB. Litvinenko had become a bitter critic of current Russian president Vladimir Putin, also a former KGB agent.

After months of investigation, British prosecutors charged Andrei Lugovoi with being a participant in the murder. Russia refuses to hand Lugovoi over to British authorities and says it is conducting its own investigation. Putin's critics say that his dismissive attitude toward public suspicions and his disdain for domestic critics is part of a grand scheme of consolidating power in the hands of a powerful few.

It is not uncommon in modern-day Russia for business people, news reporters, and political critics to meet violent ends. Litvinenko was himself concerned with investigating the death of a Putin critic, journalist Anna Politkovskaya, executed by point blank gunshot to the head as she entered her Moscow apartment. It was just announced August 27, 2007 that ten people had been arrested for Anna's murder and the details have yet to be released.

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Scattershot: Legal Marxism and the Deutsche Bank Building

The road to hell is patrolled by lawyers. Legal Marxism penetrates to the very core of our existence, overturning the electoral and democratic processes we prize so highly. Europe long ago reached the choke point of modern bureaucracy, something that Kafka prophesied in his book called “The Trial.” No matter what decisions are reached, there is always another layer of bureaucracy requiring approvals, committee meetings, fact-finding missions until you attain Legal Nirvana in the form of a perpetual motion stalling machine at public expense, fact-finding studies at public expense, impact studies at public expense, court challenges at public expense.

To those fanatical believers in Legal Marxism, we are all useful idiots. Why? Because we believe in clean water, clean environments, clean energy, safe cars, clean air, clean, better and newer everything. And because we do, we allow our society and its best interests to be strangled by chokeweed parasites who make millions of dollars by focusing on one single aspect of it which, by its rightness and our general acceptance, is able to thwart all necessary action for the overall preservation and protection of constitutional liberties and freedoms and the larger good.

Well, don’t you believe in “due process?” Of course I do, idiot, and I believe in the snail darter too, and the little rivulet minnows, and the disappearing frogs, and OSHA and the EPA and the tons of regulatory slag which unnecessarily killed three firemen in New York City within the past month.

What’s set me off on this rant was the tractor I use for mowing and other outdoor things. I went to a John Deere dealer to get advice about getting new blades—the others were no sharper than a baseball bat and worn to nubs. This was in Pennsylvania farm country. Think farm people. Think tractors and silage and grain and machinery and people accustomed to being independent and free and doing much for themselves.

“But these new blades are dull! “ I exclaimed.

About three farmers looked at me with that special glint in their eyes reserved for the uninitiated. They waited and stared, too reserved to disillusion me. Then it came to me, the Great Revelation of modern existence: lawsuit! So the damn John Deere Company has to ship dull blades to its farm customers because one moronic person (or an entire group of them) found an equally moronic lawyer (or entire group of them) to sue the corporation because its tractor mower blades were as sharp as the farmers needed them to be.

Lest you think the problem is a rural one, think of the Deutsche Bank building in lower Manhattan, New York City. Several of the major East Coast newspapers carried the story of the sixteen trillion layers of bureaucracy spawned by OSHA, EPA, the Downtown Development Dunces, the Committee for Dissolute Resolution, the Citizens Representatives for the Advancement of Recycled Toilet Paper, etcetera.

Look, I’m for all that citizen involvement and for worker protection and for all of those handy one concept banners about which everyone nods their head approvingly because they’re too busy to think of the consequences. Apparently, there was only one company which was willing to put up with all that (for the paltry sum of 150 million). It also cost two brave firemen earlier this month when the building, which should have been down about five years ago, caught fire and burned. And almost cost another life when an equipment hoist dropped about thirty stories and landed on another fireman or worker who thankfully survived. Now that company has been fired and there will follow a New Series of Dropped Materials Accidents. And lawsuits added to existing lawsuits.

The lucky lawyers—just imagine! We are not quite yet at the moment when every breathing individual is ensnared in one lawsuit or another but we are fast approaching it.

We voted for a government to chart a new direction American energy independence but would-be successful efforts are stalled in a miasma of special interest group lawyering.

Our coffee is served warm to us at McDonald’s.

America can no longer conduct surveillance of its enemies without barreling through the flak generated by a Democratic Congress hell bent on governing not by democratic processes but by legal fiat.

Am I getting warm? Are we a healthier society or are we laboring in the fields of national self-delusion? Shakespeare was a smart guy and he had it right long ago. Pondering the question of how to create a truly utopian society, he said:

“The first thing to do is kill all the lawyers.”

Or something to that effect.

Chris Dodd, Mario Bartiromo, Erin Burnett Redux

8/22/2007


Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd held a meeting in his office with Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke and sidekick Henry Paulson. Is it a bit strange that the Fed Chairman and his deputy should have to humble themselves by appearing at Dodd’s office instead of neutral turf? Yah, I know… government officials are the servants of the people, yada, yada, yada….except for elected officials who are only pimping the people. The Bernanke meeting was a great photo op for Senator Dodd, a bright fellow, bright enough to calculate the political points added to his flagging presidential campaign. Behind this politics of the dollar is the hit on the economy posed by the mortgage credit crunch and fallout. Dodd has to appear to be doing something about all those people who risk losing their homes, and for all those others who want mortgages on homes costing more than $417,000. Dodd’s position is suitably triple-fold:

• He must chastise the lending establishment for “predatory” practices in the granting of sub-prime loans.

• He must support sub-prime loans as a means of getting poor people who could not otherwise afford homes without sub-prime lending practices.

• He must create the impression that it is within the Democratic Senate’s power to engineer a fed rate cut even while just about everyone else knew (except me) that, by his public grandstanding, he made the Fed’s job a great deal more difficult by undermining its credibility.

It’s true that I discovered just last week that economics was at the root of so much human activity, but you’d expect someone like Chris Dodd would have discovered it a few weeks (or even months) earlier. Apparently, this sub-prime lending has been going on for quite some time. Erin Burnett mentioned “years,” I believe. This was confirmed by Maria Bartiromo later in the day on CNBC. Mark Haines and David Faber acknowledged the truth of it. I think it was Bob Pisani who called Dodd’s after meeting presser statement a reflection in a “hall of mirrors.” Could it be?

I close this extended missive with high hopes:

• We hope Fed’s recent move of pouring liquidity (money) into the economic by lowering the “discount window” rate will continue to work. It does seem to have stabilized the markets, at least for the past few days.

• We hope that politicians like Chris Dodd will not meddle and play politics with what the Fed does best.

• We hope that the poor will buy nice houses for their families and be able to support the obligations associated with that by participation in a strong and vibrant economy.

• We hope that no one ever takes a loan deal that carries “prepayment penalties” and offers “interest only” loans.

You Choose: Chris Dodd, Erin Burnett or Maria Bartiromo

Don’t hold any of this against me—I just discovered that money rules the world. It’s all about the Benjamins. I should have paid attention to it a little sooner. Economics and Finance 101, I mean. You’ll have to take whatever I say about it with a grain of salt, as they say. Two grains if your blood pressure can handle it.

A while back people were talking about a “housing bubble” and I thought they were talking about the inflated price of housing. I discovered just yesterday afternoon that what they meant was not a “housing bubble” per se, but a housing bubble caused by a mortgage financing bubble. Personally, if it were up to me, I wouldn’t call it a bubble at all. I’d call it rubble inside of a trouble.

Sometimes things don’t sink in if you’re not affected. Once in a while I wondered why nobody got put in jail for offering interest only mortgages with incredibly low monthly payments. And I always believed that nobody was stupid enough to sign something carrying a “pre-payment penalty.” I used to live in a neighborhood where that type of thing would get you aerated.

But last week I decided to study economics and financing because, while happy, I felt there was something missing from my life. Mario Bartiromo and Erin Burnett had something to do with that for sure. Both women are brainy market watchers you can really appreciate even when they’re wearing Wallstreet-smart outfits with conservative jewelry. Neither of them are glamorous women in the Hollywood tartlet sense of the word, yet both are alluring and classically beautiful. And smart. Smart lights up beauty and naturalness with nearly radioactive brilliance and these dolls glow like the Bikini Atoll before the Test Ban Treaty.

Who else could hold you in thrall with stories about Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd making the grandstand play with Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke or the euphemistically titled “mortgage crisis” which pulled the Dow down 1000 points from its 14k high? Now I will go to look for some pictures from my files. It’s too late today but tomorrow, you will have your choice: Maria Bartiromo, Chris Dodd, or Erin Burnett. You decide.

The "Conspiracy of Fear"

WALLs are frequently heard saying on cable tv and sat radio that "right wing" conspirators are trying to manipulate American opinion by an excess of zeal in pursuing anti-terrorism strategies. They sure weren't doing that prior to Sept. 2001 and one wishes there were a spasm of attention getting anti-terrorist rhetoric at that time. Perhaps someone would have noticed Mohammad Atta sweating or trembling when he boarded that plan in Boston. The WALLs, of course, have convinced themselves and now try to convince others that 9-11 was a one-off deal. Anyone with a contrary view belongs to a conspiracy of "right-wing nuts" trying to terrify the country for political reasons. I think the WALLs are the real "wing-nuts." The WALLs would have you believe that anyone with a view differing from their saccharine one-world-hold-hands-and-dream are trying to put one over on us.

That would include FBI (government conspirator) Robert Mueller who was recently interviewed by NewsMax Magazine (also part of the right-wing conspiracy):

FBI Director Robert Mueller said al-Qaida's paramount goal is clear: to detonate a nuclear device that would kill hundreds of thousands of Americans.

John Edwards' Sub-Prime Lending: Su Casa es Mi Casa Ahora

It was the Wall Street Journal which first reported the story of John Edwards supposedly unwitting foray into the murky world of sub-prime lending. It seems Edwards had a spare 16 million dollars he didn’t know what to do with so he put it into an investment company he consulted for. Edwards’ former employer and investment firm Fortress Investment Group LLC has sent out thirty-four notices of foreclosure on New Orleans Katrina victims, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Fortress Investment Group LLC is the parent of other sub-prime lending institutions which are foreclosing on the homes of poor hurricane Katrina victims. Edwards says he worked for Fortress to learn all he could about international finance, and says he didn’t know anything about the sub prime business Fortress and its affiliates were conducting. Wouldn’t you like to have him for your lawyer?

The Wall Street Journal article gave a few examples of what sub-prime lending was all about. Apparently, it’s a sort of ass-backward way of getting the hard-working poor like the Monteses (depicted in one of the Journal articles) into housing they can’t afford at high interest rates, piggyback loans, and prepayment penalties.

Common sense tells you that poor people should have lower interest loans, one at a time, and with no prepayment penalties. What’s the purpose of a prepayment penalty except to provide a windfall to greedy mortgage brokers and lenders? You should be financially punished for paying off your debt early?

Right now, just about everyone in government wants to crack down on the “deceptive practices of predatory lenders”. The irony of it is that the same people who want to crack down on sub prime lenders are the same people who have pressured government and banks to relax responsible lending practices to help the poor buy houses. Their constituents in the banking, investment, and financial areas were all for it so long as they were making money. Now that the bubble has burst, you have candidates like John Edwards and Hillary Clinton proclaiming their renewed fervor as “champions of the poor and downtrodden”

To avoid the appearance of bottom-feeding, populist candidate Edwards has now promised to assist all the homeowners being foreclosed due to involvement with the company Edwards consulted for. Part-time work at Fortress Investment Group LLC provided Edwards with a salary of approximately $476,000 for the year 2006. In addition, Fortress Investment Group personnel were heavy contributors to the Edwards presidential campaign to the tune of $150,000.

Clearly, populism has rewards that are both political and financial. However, when brazen hypocrisy masquerades as populism, people are rightly disgusted.

Heart of a City: The Newark Murders

In a Newark, NJ neighborhood recently, a trio of college bound post-teens are told to kneel down facing a brick wall and executed with bullets fired point-blank into their brains. A female companion, shot first, survived and bravely pointed out the murderers to police from a hospital critical care ward. The story was slow to get wheels but then it began to get wider circulation. Will it lose momentum just as quickly when a violence benumbed television audience begins to rationalize and dismiss it as just another case of thug life in the ‘hood.

The classical liberal answer is to decry gun violence. Nobody should doubt the sincerity and conviction of Mayor Cory Booker in trying to rid his city of people who are destroying it but he’s got to do better than to recite the customary bromides about hangun proliferation. Doesn’t New Jersey already have some of the toughest handgun laws on record? There’s no point in emulating New York’s Mayor Bloomberg who faults neighboring states for selling handguns to the thugs who, Bloomberg suggests, would not be committing violent crimes at all if the guns had not fallen so easily into their hands.

Tough gun laws, like tough drug laws, don’t work. You’ve got to change the human equation and that’s a little bit more difficult than citing convenient anti-gun slogans to please the liberal electorate.

Booker knows exactly what he’s up against but he’s painted himself into the liberal corner paved for him by Democratic stalwarts like Governor Jon Corzine. Sure, Corzine will play the great humanitarian, appearing at funerals to wring his hands and say predictable things like the murders were "cold-hearted and cowardly." Or that the murders were “beyond comprehension.” Really? Beyond comprehension? Perhaps in Corzine’s neighborhood, but not in the heart of the city Cory Booker swore to clean up.

If Corzine really wants to help Booker help the city, he might want to get real about his support of the “Sanctuary Cities for Illegals Who Commit Violent Crime.” Newark is one of the cities where cops are told by their Governor not to get involved with issues involving illegal immigrants. I’m referring to one Jose Carranza, who had been previously arrested in separate incidents for assault and for rape of a five year old. Corzine should answer for why this guy was out on the street and for why there was no attempt to notify Immigration authorities he was on the streets.

Another wizard is Essex county prosecutor Paula Dow who offers the specious argument that she didn’t direct ICE to be notified because she feared that Immigration officials would whisk Carranza off to the deportation dock. That’s about as screwy a story as you’re likely to hear. Immigration’s not going to deport an accused rapist and murderer with a prosecution pending. How stupid does Dow think people are?

It’s all some screwy politically correct shell game and people are rightly angry. Cory Booker’s a guy who wants to do the right thing but he needs help from the Honkeys on High and that means the governor. Bust chops. Kick the tires and light the fires. Tell the cops they must report illegals involved in violent crimes to immigration authorities. Is the weak drivel offered by the political pimp-daddies of political correctness worth even one hair of those murdered kids heads?

Changing Tastes

I can remember the number of near traffic fatalities I was involved in while driving fast rolling metal during the reckless days of my youth. Spinning out and surviving at speeds in excess of 100 mph is a kind of message that it took me a while to decipher. This happened more than once, more than twice, and I thought it was just a matter of time before my guardian angel got fed up and decided to walk.

I still like fast cars but not on the highways where I'm putting other people at risk. My tastes for highway driving these days can be summarized in two words: safety and dependability.

On the dependability scale, I was glad to read in the Wall Street Journal that GM's American Buick scored as high as the Toyota Lexus in the JD Power study of dependability.

As a personal matter, though, I do take issue with the JD Power generalizations about the Ford line. I know Ford has its financial troubles (and I think Mulally will succeed in taking care of those) and I know that Ford has had its dogs, but it also has had its great cars, some of which were indestructible. I drove my 1968 Shelby Mustang across country from New York to San Francisco several times in the same year with pedal to the metal and no holds barred. The only problem with that one is that the heater fuse blew out on a cold day in Wyoming. The Ford I have now is a bulletproof throwback with adequate power, decent mileage, and five-star crash ratings from every angle. It's nearly impossible to flip, according to law-enforcement types I've talked to. Guess what.


Another automobile review (Wall Street Journal by way of Russia) by a Russian auto research company appeared also in the Journal, that one about a Chinese car which....well, see for yourself.

Hot Air Blasts Northeast: Another Democratic "Debate"

The hot air blasting the Northeast could be coming out of Chicago where the Democratic Presidential candidates “debated” under the friendly auspices of the AFL-CIO confederation of labor unions. Newt Gingrich might not be your type of guy but his comments at a recent National Press Club talk were right on the money. How could anyone call this kind of format a “debate”? Gingrich suggested a mano-a-mano “direct conversation” of leading candidates over a 90 minute format.” A conversation. A frank back and forth would eliminate a great deal of the bilious clouds of smoke applied to just about every issue as the candidates play to the camera under the solicitous attentions of their handlers.

Joe Biden was booed in that crowd for mentioning some compelling facts, the most compelling of which is that they are no easy answers. Telling hard-core union types the truth apparently causes the popularity meters to go down, not up. Biden was undeterred as the other candidates huffed and puffed popular generalities about health insurance, trade, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The distinguishing characteristic of the August 7 “debate” was that important “questions” were skirted, bloviated, panegyricized, circumvented, ignored or any other adjective describing political minds rendered dead or inoperative in the face of hard realities.

Somebody asked the question: “If you get out of Iraq and Al Qaeda takes over, what will you do?”

I imagined a silent scream from the behind-the-scenes puppet-masters shouting “NO!... DON’T ANSWER THAT!”

Richardson was astoundingly clueless. Obama wandered aimlessly without answering the question and revisited the possibility of bombing Pakistan. For Dodd, the answer was diplomacy, diplomacy, diplomacy. Edwards said he’d get right out of Iraq but if “genocide breaks out…(he would)….prepare for that.” Thank goodness! Biden, at least, pointed out the bitter results of any course of action. Hillary, as usual, placed herself squarely on all sides of the issue, ending with Aunty Nanny’s perpetual all-purpose bromide: “Stay focused and keep them on the run.” Gee, isn’t that the Bush doctrine? Was President Bush there? I must have missed that part.

The “post-forum” analysis with Chris Matthews provided a high moment of the ridiculous when Chris Jansing explained the boos that followed on one of Hillary Clinton’s comments as “voicing displeasure with the Bush policy.” Was President Bush even there? I didn’t see him, did you?

Newsweek editor Jonathan Alter blanched at Jansing’s comments and quickly moved to reign her in. He said that Hillary’s comments presaged a lack of “openness about foreign policy” and that Americans expected that transparency from their leaders.

What was most transparent about this sorry offering of candidates (with perhaps the exception of Joe Biden) was that they were more concerned with exploiting dissatisfactions in order to gain power than with dealing with the harsh realities of leadership.

Will the Real Slim Shady Please Stand Up?

I think one could make the case individually that the Democratic candidates are just as interesting as any others but, in the debate format, there is a tendency to see them as a sort of collective. As if they’d all lived at the same kibbutz or commune. Or were embryonic companions of an enormous Democrat incubator. A mass of undifferentiated verbiage. Boring.

Fortunately, Hillary is a woman and does not have to don the same uniform as Messrs. Kucinich, Dodd, Biden, or that third-place guy with the great hair. Hillary can distinguish herself from the pack in a variety of ways unavailable to other Democrats. Hillary can wear pink, signaling femininity and a veiled feminism in one single brush stroke. One could make colorful remarks about Barak Obama but Democrats are fond of saying that America, especially Democrat America, is color-blind. Settling the nomination upon a white woman from a privileged background can be explained as the only kind of revolution worth making to a constituency concerned more with winning than with telling the truth.

Perhaps the Democrat candidates are consciously contributing to the uniform geopolitical view in marching lock-step on the War on Terror and chanting anti-Bush slogans to a choir of similar thinking people. Hate the Republican candidates or love them, at least their debates are not as boring as the Democratic contender’s debates.



Having settled on McCain early for a variety of sound personal reasons, I had scarcely looked at the other Republicans vying for the nomination. Of course, how could any person living in the Northeast not have ingested a little bit of Giuliani? The guy that saved New York. The guy that married his nurse. The guy who made New York habitable again after a decade of pious and studiously empathetic mismanagement. Imagine my surprise last night when I returned from a harried road trip and discovered there were other candidates standing alongside my man McCain and Rudy Giuliani.

Mitt Romney looked the charming stalwart and exhibited a wit to match in describing Senator Obama as a guy “willing to have tea with our enemies while bombing our friends.” Or something to that effect. A combination of “Jane Fonda and Doctor Strangelove,” he said. It might be fun to hang out with him for a couple of hours sometime. So far as Mormonism goes, I think all the world’s great religions are mostly good and a little bit spooky, too.

That Tancredo guy looked tough and smart. I don’t think a guy that tough could be elected. Remember Bob Dole? Dark, dark, very dark. I’m afraid that the difference between Dole and Tancredo may be that Tom only looks and talks tough whereas Bob Dole was for sure the kind of guy to give somebody a much needed smack down.

Sam Brownback was just perfect, so perfect that I couldn’t be sure just what he was thinking. If I had to hang around with that guy, I’d feel I’d have to wear long sleeves to cover my tattoo. Keep away from beaches and swimming pools.

Huckabee? What a likeable man! I would be comfortable with him as my doctor but not in hunting down Al Qaeda.

The Big Surprise for me was the California Representative Duncan Hunter. Surviving California means you’ve got to be a player and a hitter and a nut-buster, too. But being a House Rep has not exactly been a springboard to the presidency—it happened maybe…once?

I guess there were some others, too. Ron Paul was entertaining and had the most amazing face, a natural and not unpleasant caricature of itself. So far as faces go, Tommy Thompson has a great face, too. Thompson has a Jake LaMotta ex-pug’s face. He’s an unfancy man who knows that Presidential debates are merely superficial but essential beauty contests required by the Fourth Estate.

Will the real slim shady please stand up?

In Search of a Culture War Correspondent

I've decided I need a Culture War Correspondent and have begun interviewing. Blogs need variety. Moeursalen has a strong tendency toward solipsism. It would be nice to have a Left Coast Culture War Correspondent. I received a brief resume from a candidate named "Amy" who lives alternatively in Nevada and California. She calls that a "full spectrum living arrangement." I would like to know what readers think of her resume offerings:

Dear Mr. Moeursalen:

I've replied to you in some format approaching sequential, but my usual format in any expression is non-sequitur. English teachers refer to this as "rambling.” Psychologists call it "Attention Deficit".

Believe what you want to believe, see what you care to see, think what you think is righteous, ethical, harmless. Nothing is harmless.

I'm good with 2-word expressions only. I'd be okay working for a teenage tee shirt company. But I usually don't like to complete the ESSAY so to speak. It is very boring and futile to make attempts at completion in Life. Nothing gets DONE.

I remember prayers- and use them in Emergencies. The saints must have a huge backlog of rantings from people, huh? They just aren't jumpin’ in like they used to...

My husband likes to visit California Mexican Padre Missions. But you can't get him inside of any church. He's good at praying in emergencies though.

My dog, Mia is here with me. She has just ripped her latest toy (stuffed animal) to bits. David calls Mia's stuffed animals "dummies". I told him that is a little offensive and politically incorrect. He still calls them "Dummies".

You may think I have forgotten the original intent of my application as Left Coast Culture War Correspondent, but I haven’t. Drifting is merely the usual form of conversation in a state divided by the San Andreas fault. Should you give me the job, I’m sure that your perverse politico-literary pretensions would be requited. Nobody in Hollywood today can lose a train of thought like I can!