George W. Ain't No Ronnie

Steve Chapman , of the Chicago Tribune has an interesting take on George W., from Human Events, the mostly conservative site that features Pat Buchanan (yay!) and Ann Coulter (boo.....nah, hisssss):

"Ronald Reagan used to tell the story of a boy so optimistic that when he woke up on Christmas morning and was confronted with a huge mound of manure, he gleefully began shoveling. "There's a pony in here someplace!" he exclaimed.

For President Bush, when it comes to Iraq, every day is Christmas day. He's been shoveling for more than four years but still fully expects that pony to pop out at any moment. On Capitol Hill, though, even Republicans are starting to suspect that the malodorous pile is that and nothing more."

Even some (real) conservatives are starting to see that George W. ain't no Ronnie.

King George W, Imperial President

Robert Scheer has an interesting article about our current president up at Alternet:

"George W. Bush is the imperial president that James Madison and other founders of this great republic warned us about. He lied the nation into precisely the "foreign entanglements" that George Washington feared would destroy the experiment in representative government, and he has championed a spurious notion of security over individual liberty, thus eschewing the alarms of Thomas Jefferson as to the deprivation of the inalienable rights of free citizens. But most important, he has used the sledgehammer of war to obliterate the separation of powers that James Madison enshrined in the U.S. Constitution.

With the "war on terror," Bush has asserted the right of the president to wage war anywhere and for any length of time, at his whim, because the "terrorists" will always provide a convenient shadowy target. Just the "continual warfare" that Madison warned of in justifying the primary role of Congress in initiating and continuing to finance a war -- the very issue now at stake in Bush's battle with Congress."

It's been a while since I went off on Bush, mostly because I figure that anyone left needing convincing is a lost cause. 20-30% of folks drank the Kool-Aid, and they would certainly be following Hitler if he were in George W's spot. Congress would do well to reconsider articles of impeachment....I know that would not be best for the Democratic Party, but it would be best for our country. We don't need no stinkin' king!

1987 Hit Songs

JEB Stuart Class of 1987 has a list of downloadable hist from 1987, I thought some of my classmates would enjoy these, so here you go.

Doug Marlette will be missed

Doug Marlette died in a car wreck last week. I didn't care too much for Kudzu, but his political cartoons were second to none, and his wit and wisdom will be missed. What a shame! Here's a link to his website. And here's Daily Kos's take.

Lamb Lambasts Land Laws

Henry Lamb
Henry Lamb has an interesting article about property rights and climate change up at WND:

"An official delegation from the U.S. government actually signed a U.N. document that says:

"Private land ownership is a principal instrument of accumulation and concentration of wealth and therefore contributes to social injustice. ... Public control of land use is therefore indispensable. ..."

The document was signed by then-Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Carla A. Hills, as head of the U.S. delegation, and William K. Reilly, who became administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency. This 1976 Report of Habitat I: United Nations Conference on Human Settlements (subscription), contains 65 pages of specific recommendations about how governments can put an effective end to private land ownership and gain absolute control of land use.

Since then, virtually every land use policy adopted by Congress or the agencies of government has been designed to erode private property rights and grant to government the power to control all land uses. The Endangered Species Act has been hijacked and is now simply an excuse to prevent land development on private property. The Clean Water Act has been hijacked and is now another excuse to prevent the use of private land anywhere near a mud puddle. "Comprehensive planning" is another recommendation from the 1976 document that has recently come into its own, empowering government to prevent private landowners from using their own land."

I'm not one to think that the government should have no say in how land is used....zoning laws and environmental laws can be effective means to help create an orderly, sustainable society.
But look out! These draconian laws may be a distraction, and our property rights might be in more danger than the darter snail or the woolly-headed woodpecker! Click through for an interesting, succinct read from the William Burroughs look-alike. Dang badgers!

William Burroughs

Fleeting Expletives

From Wayne Friedman at TV Watch:

"From whom do you want to hear vulgarities?
From honored World War II veterans — or Bono, Cher, and Nicole Richie?"

Wait a minute Wayne! That should be: "From honored World War II veterans and Bono — or Cher and Nicole Richie?"

"...Even the FCC ruled that broadcasters shouldn’t be penalized for airing Steven Spielberg’s “Saving Private Ryan” movie about the invasion of Normandy during World War II, because of the repeated use of vulgarities.

The FCC said deleting the expletives “would have altered the nature of the artistic work and diminished the power, realism and immediacy of the film experience for viewers.”

But somehow when Bono at the Golden Globes feels honored, or maybe drips with sarcasm, that’s not art. Because, as we all know, the FCC knows art.

As he might say, this is really, really great — f@#king brilliant."

Bono crosses the line between respected humanitarian and potty mouth rock star... It was OK for Nixon on 60 Minutes, OK for some movies on TV, but not others....looks like a judgment call...I know, let's start a new bureaucracy to look into and regulate this so-called "speech"!

I think he's purposely poking fun at our fear of swear words.

I dig the term "fleeting expletives", that is just so funny.... Bono got away with it because they thought it was genuine, from the heart, part of his art? ....and live. I think he slipped it in there on purpose, he's done it before (1993 Grammys). He can get away with it because he says the "f" word in a "fleeting" manner. And he's Bono. Not Cher or Nicole Richie for crying out loud. Can't we just get back to thinking about poor Paris in that cold jail cell....

Ilana Mercer Hates on Bono

Angelina Jolie isn't much help for Bono in my opinion. She's not quite as smart and saavy with her desire to help poor folks in Africa, and some people like Ilana Mercer put her and other do-gooders in the same category as Bono:

"Beavering away to shape public opinion – and policy – about Africa are the likes of Angelina Jolie and Bono.
In their capacities as U.N. goodwill ambassadors, or Time magazine "Persons of the Year," in the free access they enjoy to popes and presidents, Brangelina (Jolie + the pug-faced Pitt) and Bono, and their enablers in the media (CNN's Anderson Vanderbilt Cooper), are dictating the cultural and political script vis-à-vis Africa. To use a Peggy Noonan refrain, "These people have read an article and now want to tell us the truth, if we can handle it.""

C'mon Ilana! Bono's done a lot more than read the article, he's practically written it. I'll agree that a lot of aid money sent to Africa has been wasted and many of their problems are their own doing....so? So we as Americans, as Christians, should simply refuse to help the poorest of the poor? I imagine Jesus would have a different opinion. I'm amazed when folks like Ilana tear down people who are trying to help the poorest people in the world. And she doesn't even offer any alternatives....if you're gonna tear down people who are trying their best to help Africa's poor, at least take the time to make some suggestions yourself. What should we do? Seems to me she thinks we should let them all starve and die, that the world would be a better place without them.

Ilana mentions Jesse Helms saying foreign aid is "money down a rathole". Well, Ilana, even Jesse Helms agrees with Bono now, so you'll have to find another arch-conservative to quote next time.

Ron Paul, Patriot

Ron Paul, originally uploaded by ronpaul2008.

Pat Buchanan gets it right again on the recent Republican debate, and he spotlights the best underdog in the Republican field, Ron Paul:

"After the debate, on Fox News' "Hannity and Colmes," came one of those delicious moments on live television. As Michael Steele, GOP spokesman, was saying that Paul should probably be cut out of future debates, the running tally of votes by Fox News viewers was showing Ron Paul, with 30 percent, the winner of the debate.

Brother Hannity seemed startled and perplexed by the votes being text-messaged in the thousands to Fox News saying Paul won, Romney was second, Rudy third and McCain far down the track at 4 percent. ...

...Ron Paul is no TV debater. But up on that stage in Columbia, he was speaking intolerable truths. Understandably, Republicans do not want him back, telling the country how the party blundered into this misbegotten war.

By all means, throw out of the debate the only man who was right from the beginning on Iraq. "

Pat Buchanan may be my favorite pundit. I hope Ron Paul can get some traction, if only to anger Brother Hannity.

Another General Speaks Out

General John Batiste just couldn't take it anymore. He's speaking out about what's happened "on the ground" in Iraq and as one may imagine, it ain't pretty:

"“You (President Bush) continue to pursue a failed strategy that is breaking our great Army and Marine Corps. I left the Army in protest in order to speak out. Mr. President, you have placed our nation in peril. Our only hope is that Congress will act now to protect our fighting men and women.”
Those are powerful, inflammatory words from General Batiste, a retired major general who spent 31 years in the Army, a profession sworn to unflinching loyalty to civilian control of the military....
“I am outraged, as are the majority of Americans,” General Batiste said over sandwiches in a blue-collar diner here. “I am a lifelong Republican. But it is past time for change.”...
“In the Army, you communicate up the chain of command, and I communicated vehemently with my senior commanders while I was in Iraq,” he said. Of his departure from the Army, he said: “It was the toughest decision of my life. I paced my quarters for days. I didn’t sleep for nights. But I was not willing to compromise my principles for one more minute.”"

Good for him. But, it would have been better for us if he and others had been more outspoken about the possibilities in Iraq before the war. But I'm still proud of him for speaking out now, now that we KNOW.

Odom Says Bush AWOL

That's Odom as in General William Odom:

"General Odom has served as Director of the National Security Agency and Assistant Chief of Staff for Intelligence, the Army’s senior intelligence officer.":

"“To put this in a simple army metaphor, the Commander-in-Chief seems to have gone AWOL, that is ‘absent without leave.’ He neither acts nor talks as though he is in charge. Rather, he engages in tit-for-tat games.

“Some in Congress on both sides of the aisle have responded with their own tits-for-tats. These kinds of games, however, are no longer helpful, much less amusing. They merely reflect the absence of effective leadership in a crisis. And we are in a crisis.
“Most Americans suspect that something is fundamentally wrong with the President’s management of the conflict in Iraq. And they are right.
“The challenge we face today is not how to win in Iraq; it is how to recover from a strategic mistake: invading Iraq in the first place. The war could never have served American interests."

I thought Bush was ready to show some humility after the election, Rumsfeld ouster, and the Baker report, but he still seems as strong-headed as ever. Bush is a lamer lame duck than Tony Blair, and that is one reason why the election season kicked off so soon this time. We're ready for somebody new. Almost anybody new will do.

My Takes on Recent Pop Culture Events

Don Imus: A mass media lynching like I've never seen. I think "Nappy Headed Hos" is inherently funny, and an 80 year old geezer saying it on the radio makes it even funnier. Imus has been doing this type of degradation since he began, and only our PC culture has changed. We've become less tolerant and understanding, and we easily confuse humor with racism/sexism/whateveryougot-ism. In today's America, the only people we can still taunt as a class are white men and/or rednecks. I never thought Imus was all that great, but he was kind of an institution. When did we all get so thin-skinned? Amazing how all the folks who flogged their new books on his show ran like rats.

Cheryl Crowe: She advocates using less TP. A lot less. One square, unless you really need two or perhaps three squares, is a small sacrifice to make in order to save the planet.
Toilet paper is one of the human innovations that has made us more comfortable everyday, in a good way. I use what I consider a reasonable ammount. It's more than three squares. And that is one thing I'm not giving up.
My wife suggests that if Sheryl Crow really feels this way about TP, she should use a rag, and carry it with her wherever she goes. Toilet paper is what makes our culture worth fighting for, and I'm happy she got such a backlash.

Rosie O'Donnell: While I like her beating up Donald Trump (the WWF notwithstanding), she's off her rocker when she intones that 9/11 was "set up" by our own government. Rosie, you may be right that War in Iraq was a bad idea, but you defeat yourself when you start spreading this kind of BS. We all saw the planes hit the buildings, and yes, fire does melt steel (that's how we make things with steel....we melt it!)

Cho: Pop! There goes the culture. Freaking bastard. Stopping these mental defects is a lot like defeating terrorism. You never know when one of these wackos is going to show up, and their actions make no sense to rational people. We need to try to stop people like this, but at the same time, we need to realize that crazy, stupid sh*t like mental defects with guns, and terrorists with suicide jackets will always be around in some form, and we'll never stop them all.

Jon Bon Jovi: What concern he showed that a contestant on American Idol would change around a small bit of his tune: "You Give Love a Bad Name". Yeah, how dare he mangle that classic. Jose Feliciano where are you? Kudos to Simon for repeatedly saying that he was "not familiar with that song" after contestants sang Bon Jovi's "hits".

Hasta Lugie, Brandan

Brandan Wright goes pro. Good decision? Maybe, it's hard to argue with the bucks. Here's a look at all the Carolina guys who left early and how it turned out.
Thanks for the memories!

Wallace Carnival

P1030932b, originally uploaded by Watts4.

No, we didn't ride this one!

Museum-worthy?

dumprtest, originally uploaded by Watts4.

Cool little program makes you a master....
http://www.dumpr.net/