Brutally Honest

Alito now on the court...

... women and minorities hardest hit:

JESUSLAND — Western civilization collapsed into a smoldering, charred heap of denied rights, discriminatory policies, police brutality, unlimited surveillance, militarily-enforced jingoistic patriotism, and off-key Xtian hymn singing today after fascist right-wing extremist thug Samuel Alito was illegally “selected” for the US Supreme Court. Formerly the last desperate hope of the oppressed masses yearning only to breathe the sweet air of freedom in peace and without bothering anyone, the Court is now reduced to a chamber of unspeakable horrors, where mankind’s long-cherished dream of truth, justice, prosperity, and equality for all has now been ruthlessly flung down, danced upon, mocked, and burned to cinders.

Slavery was immediately reinstated as the law of the land by newly self-selected Chimperor for Life, the diabolical retarded genius George Bush, who also took steps to legally change his name to Adolf Halliburton in celebration of his newly-seized absolute power. Non-white-Christian subjects of the Hegemonic Demonic Empire of the United States (hereinafter to be referred to simply as Jesusland in nonformal settings) were being rounded up and sent to Slave Training Centers at undisclosed locations scattered all around the Empire, torn from the loving bosoms of their working-poor families in a gruesome tear-filled ritual repeated all across a heartbroken nation.

Women nationwide were required to turn in their uteruses to church-state Mandatory Childbirth Centers, where they were then issued several Colt & Wesson .37½ caliber rapid fire automatic machine gun pistol assault weapon handguns each — the most deadly weapon in human history, which is capable of singlehandedly murdering each member of a family of five starving children in their substandard burning ghetto prisons just by being in the same room with them — a lifetime supply of cop-killer ammunition, and a pamphlet on the new Federal Theocracy Department policy of mandatory random violence against minorities, the poor, the differently-abled, the poorly-groomed, and the oddly-sexualitied. In this way, some analysts fear, the Halliburton Empire Administration hopes to handily pervert Woman’s truly superior liberal nature, and replace the hope and joy of safely and legally aborted motherhood with the ugly tools of mass violence and death.

Mike's got more over at Cold Fury... but please, don't drink and read...

Governor Tim Kaine to provide the Democratic SOTU response...

... and initial reports are that it won't be loved much by the crabby moonbat wing of the party:

Why are so many liberal bloggers up in arms about Virginia Governor Timothy Kaine being picked to give the Democrat's reply to Bush's State of the Union? There's been fury in the blogosphere about everything from Kaine's looks, style, obscurity, his open talk about his faith and his inexperience in national security. Liberal writer Ezra Klein (no Brad Pitt, last time I checked him out) vented that Kaine is "a squat, squinty, pug-nosed fellow."

Even the invariably smart and strategic Arianna (Huffington) weighed in: "What the hell are they thinking?" She accused Democrats of picking "someone whose only claim to fame is that he carried a red state" when they need to make the case that "the GOP is not the party that can best keep us safe."

Republicans attempted to paint Kaine as a hard left liberal during the gubernatorial race unsuccessfully.  And although he seems to be anything but conservative, he's successfully portrayed himself as being more to the right than many in his party.  And he's promising not to engage in Bush bashing alone tonight:

"I think we have to be much more about an optimistic and positive message," Kaine said of his fellow Democrats, an assessment that will not be part of Tuesday night's speech. "I think sometimes we perfect the criticism without a positive, forward-looking message."

...

"I'm no shill or mouthpiece or posterboy for anybody," he said. "I'm going to do it in a way that I think it should be done."

Kaine said he has gotten plenty of advice from Washington. Some has been good. As for the rest: "I said, `No, thanks. I think I'll take it in another direction.'"

There might just be hope for a viable opposition party after all.  Time will tell. 

And hey, if Kaine's ticking off and picking at them crabby moonbats, he can't be all bad...

Heh...

File this under Things You Should Know...

... but won't find in the MSM:

On Friday, the New York Times released results from its recent, comprehensive poll done along with CBS News. The Times devoted an entire article to this poll, and put it smack dab on the front page. Yet, the article curiously left out a few details that the Times editors must have thought were unimportant. For instance, 52 percent of those polled approve of the way the president is prosecuting the war on terrorism. This is the highest approval the president has received in this regard from a CBS News/New York Times poll since before Hurricane Katrina hit. This is quite surprising given all of the attention given to NSA eavesdropping over the past six weeks, and last week’s release of the Osama bin Laden tape.

Another finding of this poll that the Times omitted from its Friday article was that 50 percent of respondents said U.S. troops should stay in Iraq “as long as it takes to make sure Iraq is a stable democracy, even if that takes a long time,” compared to 45 percent who said we should leave as soon as possible. This stat bottomed in October with 36 percent saying “as long as it takes” and 59 percent saying “leave ASAP.” Moreover, this is the first time a majority said “as long as it takes” since last February. I guess these results were also deemed unimportant by the Times.

Finally, 39 percent of respondents said that America is safer from terrorism as a result of the war in Iraq. Only 19 percent said we were less safe. This is the highest number of respondents believing we’re safer since last February.

Regular readers know not to be surprised at what is or isn't printed by our unbiased and objective friends in the MSM.  Again and again you'll read me writing that it's all about the news that fits the template.  PowerLine has more:

A New York Times/CBS poll purports to find that support for the president's warrantless surveillance program is "mixed." But the poll is bogus. In addition to the usual MSM trick of over-sampling Democrats, including non-voters, etc., the pollsters asked misleading questions that do not reflect the actual nature of the NSA intercept program.

The Times finds that public approval of warrantless intercepts varies depending on how the question is framed. The Times already understood this phenomenon all too well. That, presumably is why it conducted a poll in which none of the questions asks respondents directly what they think about using warrantless surveillance in the case of suspected terrorists making calls from overseas to the U.S.

So not only are key components of the poll suppressed and questions framed in a manner that births suspicion but those being polled are weighted such that more of them are likely to disagree with pretty much anything this administration might be up to.

And serious minded people are wondering why the MSM is losing readership?

Blog on people.

H/T to PajamasMedia.

The Anchoress asks for prayer...

... for her friend Jane, dying of cancer:

Today at Mass, I looked around and did not see her. I heard her name in the request for prayers and discovered the situation. In the week between Christmas and New Years, Jane - never sick a day in her life - discovered she had cancer. My pastor said she is not expected to live out the week, and is in terrible pain, suffering greatly.

Yet another victim of this horrid disease.  Father, we ask that Your presence be made manifest tangibly in Jane's circumstance, we ask for comfort, assurance and ministering angels, we ask in Christ's name and for His sake.  Amen.

Saddam trial taken over by tough judge (UPDATED)

* SCROLL BELOW FOR UPDATES *

In what one hopes will be the beginning of the end of this trial, a new judge has been appointed and he's not taking any crap from Saddam Hussein and his henchmen:

Saddam Hussein’s trial turned chaotic shortly after resuming Sunday, with one defendant dragged out of court and the defense team walking out in protest. The former Iraqi leader was then escorted from the room after shouting “down with the Americans” and refusing his new court-appointed lawyers.

Seeking to assert tight control, the new chief judge Raouf Abdel-Rahman pressed ahead with the proceedings even after the opening drama, hearing three prosecution witnesses before adjourning the trial after 4 hours.

Abdel-Rahman said the trial will continue Wednesday or Thursday, depending on the date of the Islamic new year, which is set according to the sighting of a new moon.

...

Abdel-Rahman appointed four new defense lawyers. But Saddam stood to reject them and demand to leave the courtroom, holding a copy of the Quran and other papers under his arm.

“You do not leave, I allow you to leave when I want to,” Abdel-Rahman said.

“For 35 years, I administered your rights,” Saddam replied, referring to his time in power.

“I am the judge and you are the defendant,” Abdel-Rahman responded. Two guards pushed Saddam back into his chair, before they were ordered to lead the ousted ruler from the room.

Two other defendants also rejected their new lawyers and were allowed to leave.

The proceedings then resumed with the four remaining defendants and none of their original lawyers.

An anonymous female prosecution witness started the testimony, speaking for about an hour from behind a beige curtain, as several earlier witnesses have done to protect them from reprisals. The new defense lawyers declined the opportunity to cross-examine the witnesses or make statements.

The delayed television feed of the proceedings—which is controlled by the judges and broadcast throughout Iraq and the Arab world—was cut off after Ibrahim’s initial outburst. It resumed later, cutting out the removal of Ibrahim and the subsequent fight with the lawyers but showing the judge’s arguments with Saddam.

Abdel-Rahman obviously came into the session aiming to impose control on a trial that has been plagued by delays, the killing of two defense attorneys and the resignation of two judges, including Amin, since it began on Oct. 19.

The new judge stressed in an opening statement that “political speeches” were not allowed and “if any defendant crosses the lines, he will be taken out of the room and his trial will be carried out with his absence.”

Abdel-Rahman’s strong hand impressed some Iraqis.

“His seriousness shows that he is an efficient and controlling judge who refuses to turn the court into a field to exchange slanders,” said Tariq Harab, an Iraqi lawyer not involved in the trial. “This is the right approach that should have been adopted right from the beginning.”

Let's find this thug guilty, hang, shoot or electrocute him, and get on with it.  Seems this judge may have the same mindset.

One can hope.

UPDATE 2/1/06 @ 1648 EST: Hussein a no show today in court:

BAGHDAD - Saddam Hussein and four other defendants refused to attend their trial Wednesday, and their defence lawyers boycotted the proceedings, demanding the removal of the chief judge they claim is biased against the former Iraqi leader.

Chief Judge Raouf Abdel-Rahman pressed ahead with court-appointed defence lawyers and only three defendants present, hearing five prosecution witnesses. After a 4 1/2-hour session, the trial was adjourned until Thursday.

I'm liking this judge.

UPDATE 2/13/06 @ 613AM: Hussein forced to attend proceedings:

Saddam Hussein was forced to attend the latest session of his trial Monday, looking haggard and wearing a robe rather than his usual crisp suit as he shouted, "Down with Bush." His top co-defendant struggled with guards bringing him into the court.

Saddam and his seven co-defendants had vowed not to attend the trial until the return of their lawyers. The defense team have said they are boycotting the proceedings until chief judge Raouf Abdel-Rahman is removed, alleging he is biased against their clients.

Saddam entered the courtroom on his own at the start of Monday's session, but he looked weary and argued immediately with the judge, shouting slogans against U.S. President George W. Bush.

Hats off to this judge. 

UPDATE 2/14/06 @ 1212PM: Hussein to go on hunger strike:

Saddam said he had not eaten in three days, while his former intelligence chief, Ibrahim Barzan, said he had been on strike for two days. Their claims of a hunger strike could not be independently confirmed. The defendants are being held in U.S. detention, and U.S. officials could not immediately be reached to comment.

Investigative judge Raid Juhi did not deny the defendants were refusing food when asked about the strike after the day’s three-hour session. “This is an administrative problem that the court is working to verify and it will work also to solve it... with the responsible parties in the custodial authorities,” he told reporters.

Let's make sure he doesn't get any water either...

UPDATE 2/28/06 @ 10:05PM Hussein linked to killings:

Prosecutors presented documents Tuesday they said show Saddam Hussein approved executions of more than 140 Shiites in the 1980s, the most direct evidence yet against the former Iraqi leader in his four-month trial. Among those sentenced to hang was an 11-year-old boy.

The most significant document featured a signature said to be Saddam's on a court list of people to be executed, though it was not clear he was aware of their ages. The list on that particular document only had names.

About 50 of those sentenced died during interrogation before they could go to the gallows. One man, his brother and two sons were executed by mistake, and Saddam allegedly ordered them declared "martyrs" to cover up the error.

The noose is tightening around this dictator's neck.

UPDATE 3/01/06 @ 12:22 PM Saddam asks a most stupid question:

A defiant Saddam Hussein admitted in court Wednesday that he ordered the trial of 148 Shiites eventually executed in the 1980s, but he insisted that doing so was legal because they were suspected in an assassination attempt against him.

"Where is the crime? Where is the crime?" Saddam asked, standing before the panel of five judges.

"If trying a suspect accused of shooting at a head of state - no matter what his name is - is considered a crime, then you have the head of state in your hands. Try him," Saddam said...

Better yet Mr. Hussein, why not simply execute your butt and get this trial behind us?

UPDATE 3/15/06 @ 6:25 AM Saddam's half-brother takes the stand:

Saddam Hussein's half-brother, former intelligence chief Barzan Ibrahim, denied he took part in crackdown against Shiites in the 1980s as he testified Wednesday for the first time in the trial of the former Iraqi leader and members of his regime.

Ibrahim is the latest of the eight defendants in the trial to undergo direct questioning by the judge and chief prosecutor. Saddam is expected to testify later Wednesday.

The former Iraqi leader and his regime officials are charged with killing 148 Shiites, illegal imprisonment and torture in a crackdown launched after an assassination attempt against Saddam in the Shiite village of Dujail in 1982. They face possible execution by hanging if convicted.

Hang 'em high.

UPDATE 3/15/06 @ 7:25 AM Saddam takes stand, calls trial "a comedy", judge puts him in his place:

Saddam Hussein on Wednesday testified for the first time at his trial on charges of killing, imprisoning and torturing Shiites in a crackdown in the 1980s.

The former Iraqi leader, wearing a black suit and standing before the chief judge, called the trial a "comedy."

He then addressed the Iraqi people about the bloody wave of sectarian violence that has rocked the country since the bombing of a major Shiite shrine last month.

...

Chief judge Raouf Abdel-Rahman interrupted saying he was not allowed to give political speeches in the court.

"I am the head of state," Saddam replied.

"You used to be a head of state. You are a defendant now," Abdel-Rahman said.

UPDATE 4/05/06 @ 6:10 AM EST One day after Saddam is indicted on charges of genocide, he accuses Interior Ministry of killing thousands:

In court Wednesday, Saddam demanded an international body examine signatures alleged to be his on documents the prosecution has presented concerning the crackdown, including an order approving the death sentences. Some of Saddam’s co-defendants have insisted that signatures said to be theirs are forged.

“You should resort to an impartial, international body” and not a body “that kills thousands people on the streets and tortures them ... the Interior Ministry,” Saddam told Abdel-Rahman, referring to the now-Shiite-controlled ministry, which some Iraqis accuse of backing Shiite militias that have assassinated Sunni Arabs.

Honoring the fallen digitally

PJMedia brings us to this Wall Street Journal piece, via Stryker Brigade News, that puts faces and personalities to those serving, and giving the greatest sacrifice, on our behalf:

The night his buddy was killed by insurgent gunfire in Iraq last March, Army Spc. Mitchell Bass hopped out of his bunk and grabbed his laptop. He searched his computer for every digital photo he could find of the friend, Staff Sgt. Juan Solorio, and then wandered around the camp in Mosul with his portable hard drive asking other soldiers whether they had any photos or video clips.

They gave him shots of Sgt. Solorio sporting a newly shaved head and leaning against a burned-out truck on an Iraqi roadside. They found footage of Sgt. Solorio reaching for his pistol, dropping it in the mud and laughing. Spc. Bass strung all the images together into a video and added a soundtrack, "The Night That the Lights Went Out in NYC" by punk band the Ataris. Then he played it at a memorial service in Iraq.

"As a joke he grew this huge, disgusting mustache," Spc. Bass said of his friend. "I made sure to add a few of those photos in there."

Digital photography, video and Internet access have let soldiers in Iraq stay closer to distant friends and family than troops in any other war. Now, these electronic records are also creating a powerful and raw new wave of war memorials.

A dusty tent in Mosul served as Army Capt. Kevin Latham's studio, where he made videos to honor the four soldiers in his unit who had died just before Christmas 2004 when a suicide bomber detonated explosives in the camp's mess hall. Mortars boomed in the distance as he worked long past midnight to carefully select music to go with the videos.

Paul Rieckhoff, who served in the Army National Guard in Iraq in 2003-2004, said that in the early days, soldiers in his unit made action videos of themselves raiding insurgent hideouts and carrying out other wartime tasks. "It was kind of like the ESPN highlight reels -- the music is pumping and everyone was running around," said Mr. Rieckhoff, who founded the advocacy group Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America.

When a fellow soldier, Spc. Robert Wise, a 21-year-old from Tallahassee, Fla., was killed in Baghdad in November 2003, his friends used a laptop to create a digital slideshow, set to music, of photos of Spc. Wise. It was projected onto a screen at his memorial service in Baghdad.

"When soldiers are killed in Iraq, all you see in the paper is name, rank and age," said Mr. Rieckhoff, a first lieutenant. The videos, he said, are "cathartic and a way to eternally honor their memory."

Watch the memorial videos for Sgts. Juan Solorio, Zachary Wobler and Christopher Pusateri. (Windows Media Player required).

God bless and comfort the loved ones left behind, God allow us to recognize and remember these heroes.

Framing the abortion debate...

... in a manner that ought to give today's feminist pause... but won't.

It's exactly what Leslie has done with this thought provoking post:

Eliminating girls before or after birth for reasons of gender, expense or status seems deplorable, yet in many cultures it is a common practice.

So why does it revile me? I suppose it counters my own culture's values. I work in the public school system where we are mandated to give every child a fair chance to learn to read, write and learn. We have no choice. Like them or not, they all must learn. More than that they are to become life long learners, as though learning is in fact life itself.

And so we teach.Or try to.

Let’s carry this thought further. Place yourself in the shoes of the school child for a minute.

“You’re too expensive. You are weak. You are inconvenient. Away!”

We never say this. Instead we establish expensive special education departments & allot funding to those children who, for whatever reason, enter under special circumstances and with that publicly funded money we try to strengthen their weaknesses. Not only that, we also shell out cash to try and raise awareness amongst the other, more typical schoolmates so they will learn to see the value in these people who don’t readily fit the mold.

Isn't it odd to think about the fact that the most dangerous place a female might be today isn't in the war torn areas of Iraq or Afghanistan or under the oppressive regimes of your typical Islamofascist dictator or even walking alone late at night in one of America's most dangerous inner city neighborhoods, that instead it's in the womb?

Where are the real feminists today?

Where are the Iraqi WMD's?

Georges Sada, an ex Iraqi Air Force big-wig, says that Syria has them:

The man who served as the no. 2 official in Saddam Hussein's air force says Iraq moved weapons of mass destruction into Syria before the war by loading the weapons into civilian aircraft in which the passenger seats were removed.

The Iraqi general, Georges Sada, makes the charges in a new book, "Saddam's Secrets," released this week. He detailed the transfers in an interview yesterday with The New York Sun.

"There are weapons of mass destruction gone out from Iraq to Syria, and they must be found and returned to safe hands," Mr. Sada said. "I am confident they were taken over."

Mr. Sada's comments come just more than a month after Israel's top general during Operation Iraqi Freedom, Moshe Yaalon, told the Sun that Saddam "transferred the chemical agents from Iraq to Syria."

I think this warrants at least as much attention as the Bush lied, people died meme or the No blood for oil mantra or other oft repeated leftist harangues aimed at the current administration.

But don't think for a minute that the MSM will give any serious air-time to this story or to the book from which it comes...  you see, it's still the news that fits the template... and this doesn't qualify.

Check out Michelle, the good folks over at RightWingNuthouse and Powerline for more, much more.

Looking forward with hindsight

Dr. Bob has a way with words matched only by a handul of people in my less than expert view. 

Check out his piece he's called Apollyon Appears-I:Looking Back, what appears to be the first of a series.  Here's a teaser:

The curtain was ripped back one crisp morning in September 2001, as pretensions of peace and safety collapsed with the twin towers that dark day. The response was swift–and surprised those accustomed to hollow verbal threats unbacked by power. First in Afghanistan, and shortly thereafter in Iraq, the forces of terror sponsors and Al-Qaeda were dealt sharp and striking defeats, decapitating their leadership and decimating their ranks.

But the beast had many heads, and Al-Qaeda was but one .

History presents many ironies, and the defeat of Al-Qaeda was truly one–for in its defeat, slaughtered in remote mountain caves and on Iraq’s desert killing fields, lay the beast’s reincarnation, for its greatest foe was vanquished in its very victory. For Iraq had constrained the Great Satan, tying up valuable and limited resources in a task which was necessary but insufficient both in timeliness and extent. For secular tyrants–while always a threat, and happy to bed down with the zealots of Islam for their own ends–nevertheless always proved more interested in their own grandiosity and power–and hence proved feeble warriors, useful idiots, propitious diversions which bought valuable time.

But Iraq proved valuable in one other, more critical way: it exposed the soft underbelly of American will, fattened by wealth, pleasure, and materialism, weakened by those with whom the desire to govern a cowering giant trumped any sacrifice needed to assure her survival. America could throw a deadly punch–but could be trusted to leave the ring should the fight drag on.

The rest is worthy of your time and simply chilling and brings to life the related cartoon put forth by the talented duo of Cox and Forkum.

Is Joel Stein trying to be funny?

I'd like to think so... I'd like to hope so given his bio... only I don't find any of this laughable:

I DON'T SUPPORT our troops. This is a particularly difficult opinion to have, especially if you are the kind of person who likes to put bumper stickers on his car. Supporting the troops is a position that even Calvin is unwilling to urinate on.

I'm sure I'd like the troops. They seem gutsy, young and up for anything. If you're wandering into a recruiter's office and signing up for eight years of unknown danger, I want to hang with you in Vegas.

And I've got no problem with other people — the ones who were for the Iraq war — supporting the troops. If you think invading Iraq was a good idea, then by all means, support away. Load up on those patriotic magnets and bracelets and other trinkets the Chinese are making money off of.

But I'm not for the war. And being against the war and saying you support the troops is one of the wussiest positions the pacifists have ever taken — and they're wussy by definition. It's as if the one lesson they took away from Vietnam wasn't to avoid foreign conflicts with no pressing national interest but to remember to throw a parade afterward.

Blindly lending support to our soldiers, I fear, will keep them overseas longer by giving soft acquiescence to the hawks who sent them there — and who might one day want to send them somewhere else. Trust me, a guy who thought 50.7% was a mandate isn't going to pick up on the subtleties of a parade for just service in an unjust war. He's going to be looking for funnel cake.

Besides, those little yellow ribbons aren't really for the troops. They need body armor, shorter stays and a USO show by the cast of "Laguna Beach."

The real purpose of those ribbons is to ease some of the guilt we feel for voting to send them to war and then making absolutely no sacrifices other than enduring two Wolf Blitzer shows a day. Though there should be a ribbon for that.

I understand the guilt. We know we're sending recruits to do our dirty work, and we want to seem grateful.

I was all set initially to fisk the mucus out of this snot-nosed sorry excuse for a compassionate leftist but I'm simply not in the mood.  If you are, go see Uncle Jimbo over at BlackFive... he does the kid some justice.

And he has to be a kid... this would only sell to the MTV or VH1 crowd, all of which would have to be high or drunk to find this fecal matter funny.

You can also see Michelle, who finds Stein to be loathsome and insufferable.

The only word that I can come up with is pathetic.

UPDATE: Stein has made Reverend Sensing simply emote.  Reynolds thinks it definitely ok to question Stein's patriotism.  And Protein Wisdom sums it up for me:

... it is easy for me to look at Stein’s pseudo-philosophical bit of puffed-up provocateurism and call it what it is:  the nadir of the me generation, and the ultimate passing of the buck.

MORE: Juliette has chimed in with words I enjoyed:

I want to thank you, Joel—may I call you Joel?—for taking the decidedly un-wussy option to display the thoughts that many others of your profession attempt to obfuscate in order to ward off criticism of their actual position. May this open attitude of yours result in many more of your ilk coming out from behind the bogus “we-support-the-troops-but-not-their-mission” shield.

None of your fellow travelers will get a beating from me; well, as long as they don’t spit on me, that is. However, they--and you--should be prepared for the returned verbal contempt dished out. It’s our right also.

And Radio Blogger has the transcript of Hugh Hewitt's interview with Mr. Stein that makes me want to change my one word description of him from "pathetic" to simply "clueless".  Check the whole thing out and understand what I mean.

Sigh.

YET MORE: Gerard at American Digest has not only read the Radio Blogger transcript mentioned above but has listened to the audio and reacts:

What is of interest to me here is not what Stein writes or says. His own words damn him more decisively than a thousand bloggers blathering blithely What interestest me is how he speaks.

If you focus on it, you realize that you hear this voice every day if you bounce around a bit in our larger cities buying this or ordering that, and in general running into young people in the "service" sector -- be it coffee shop, video store, department store, boutique, bookstore, or office cube farm. It's a kind of voice that was seldom heard anywhere but now seems to be everywhere.

It is the voice of the neuter .

Read it all.  Please, just go and read it all.