Brutally Honest

Deception is to leftists... (UPDATED)

... what water is to fish, feathers to a bird, what gas is to a vehicle.

Essence:

In the latest effort to target Rush Limbaugh, the left-leaning group Media Matters has manufactured yet one more false — and by now yet one more tiresome — controversy. This one has to do with Limbaugh’s use of the phrase “phony soldiers.” According to the Media Matters narrative, on his September 26 program Limbaugh accused troops who want to withdraw from Iraq of being “phony soldiers.” Once Media Matters published this charge, key Democrats dutiful echoed it. In a public statement, Senator John Kerry said this: “This disgusting attack from Rush Limbaugh, cheerleader for the Chicken Hawk wing of the far right, is an insult to American troops. In a single moment on his show, Limbaugh managed to question the patriotism of men and women in uniform who have put their lives on the line and many who died for his right to sit safely in his air conditioned studio peddling hate. On August 19th, The New York Times published an op-ed by seven members of the U.S. Army’s 82nd Airborne Division critical of George Bush’s Iraq policy. Two of those soldiers were killed earlier this month in Baghdad. Does Mr. Limbaugh dare assert that these heroes were ‘phony soldiers’? Mr. Limbaugh owes an apology to everyone who has ever worn the uniform of our country, and an apology to the families of every soldier buried in Arlington National Cemetery. He is an embarrassment to his Party, and I expect the Republicans who flock to his microphone will now condemn this indefensible statement.”

Do read the entire piece at National Review and understand the depths to which today's progressive will go to further their agenda and the absolute idiocy of someone like John Kerry who purports to make hay out of... well... smoke and mirrors.

Amazing.

UPDATE: WizBang highlights a hypocrite... The Hypocrite... on this subject:

Harry Ried officially bit off more than he can chew. He went after Rush Limbaugh saying he insulted the troops with his "phony soldiers" comments. That was a tactical mistake.

Reid has a long and storied history of insulting our troops, their commanders and being a lapdog of the anti-war left. His claims of support now don't ring true compared to past words and deeds.

Reid said the surge had failed and our troops had lost in Iraq. He said that by the way, before the surge even started. Reid called General Petraeus a liar. Which was very interesting considering he refused to meet with Petraeus for briefings on Iraq.

Harry Reid (the slimebag) himself supported the Moveon.org "Betray Us" ad.

When the anti-war left tells Reid to jump he asks, "How high?".

Reid even tried to cut funding for the troops he now claims he supports.

 

Cox & Forkum take a Final Bow

This is just too bad... I'll miss their work tremendously.

 

Let me start by saying that quitting editorial cartooning has been one of my toughest decisions. Having such a creative outlet for expressing my opinions is immensely satisfying. It's an art form I've admired for decades, so I do not take lightly having the opportunity to work in the medium and to have that work seen by others. One of my proudest moments came soon after 9/11 when I held in my hands our first published cartoon. It was easy to feel useless, even helpless, in the weeks and months following the attacks. But to be able to fight in the battle of ideas was empowering.

For better or worse, I've always had to approach the editorial cartoon work as a "part time" career. I never quit my "day job" as co-owner of a small newspaper publishing business. The editorial work, though intellectually rewarding, is not very rewarding financially. Furthermore, researching the cartoons, writing/designing them, managing the blog, publishing the books, marketing them, and running the business side all take an enormous amount of time.

All of that comes with the territory, of course, and John and I have done pretty well over the last six years. We're fairly well known on the Internet, we have a few newspaper and magazine clients, we've self-published four books, and we've made some money, if not a living. But lately, for reasons I won't go into here, I can no longer afford to divert so much time and attention away from my publishing business and other personal concerns, such as my family.

I also want to stop focusing so much of my creative energy on negative aspects of daily life. There's still an ideological battle to be fought, not to mention an actual war, and I will stay engaged in some form and medium. But at this point, anything seems more appealing than immersing myself in the sewer of daily politics.

That said, I imagine we won't be able to resist creating an occasionally editorial cartoon.  And if we do, we'll post it here.

Over the years we've received many letters of encouragement from all over the world and from all across the political spectrum. The feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. Of course, we've received our share of criticism too, but surprisingly little of the hate mail so common on the Internet. We're thankful to all of you who have shared our work with others, bought our books and products, and stood beside us along the way, even if not on every issue.

There are many people we're grateful to for their support, from bloggers, to clients, to friends. I can't begin to list them all here; hopefully you know who you are. But there are two "firsts" I want to mention by name. Robert Tracinski was the first to publish one of our editorial cartoons (see the cartoon here) in the November 2001 edition of The Intellectual Activist.  And Charles Johnson at Little Green Footballs was the first major blogger to regularly post our work on the Internet (see the cartoon here).  They both saw value in our work, and we thank them for publicizing our cartoons when others wouldn't.

And finally, though John and I will continue to work together, I want to say that it's been an honor and great fun to work with him on these editorial cartoons. Though we had collaborated for years prior to starting the editorials, we discovered that there was a lot to learn about working together on a near daily basis, and from two different cities. There's been plenty of give and take. But ultimately we were able to say to one another "split the balloon with his head" or "make the worm neck longer" and be completely understood. John breathed life into the cartoons by giving the characters emotion and humanity. We simply could not have produced this work separately, and I will be forever proud to have the work bare our names.

And so, we take our bow.

Well... they do say they'll post occasionally... hoping so.

It's the stupidity stupid.

In our Sunday morning paper, the following brief letter to the editor caught my eye:

The Emmys were great.

A guy by the name of Gen. David Petraeus won best actor in a comedy series.

-Sam Weinberg

And yesterday, this comment left on the blog:

I don't agree with Ahmadinejad on many things. But that doesn't prevent me from objecting to Americans telling lies about him in order to further their ridiculous political agenda and foment war. He has some odd ideas, but he's certainly not the Satanic figure that all the right wing American throwbacks would like us to believe.

-Bush does no wrong

Those are but two recent comments thrust under my nose that give evidence for minds gone amuck.  The first besmirches a man whose history gives no evidence to support the charge, the second paints as simply odd those notions that disbelieve the holocaust and that loudly champion the destruction of a nation state.

If one desired to undertake the task, he or she could traverse the blogosphere and find countless other mutterings from leftists that equal or surpass the mindlessness I've focused on here.  And it brings me to my question. 

How does one get to thinking in this way?  How does one arrive at such shallowness?  How does one decide to believe  idiocy and shun what is substantiated by even a cursory glance?

These are questions I have no answers for.  Are these people merely idiots?  Are they brain-washed?  Are they deceived?  What in heck is going on?

It's one thing to be opposed to war on grounds steeped in a pacifist's Utopian mindset.  It's rational to decry a particular or two or three of Bush's leadership skills.  It's quite another to go on record believing that George W. had something to do with 9/11.

Critical thinking in this country is in need of critical care.  It's on life-support and the prognosis doesn't look good.  Take this scenario and couple it with an enemy committed to our destruction and we have much to worry about.

The number of Sam Weinbergs and Bush-does-no-wrongs out there is on the increase.  We need to understand the rationale of an open mind so open that brains fall out and no one notices. 

If anything needs to become the focus of the next election's candidates and the electorate that brings them to power it's this problem.

I'm usually suspicious of those who say "It's the place-your-issue-here stupid" while championing a particular candidate.

No longer... it's clear that in this coming election, It's the stupidity stupid that we need to focus on.

Islam is pagan

So sez Dr. Jeff Mirus in this piece @ Catholic Culture.  A teaser excerpt follows:

Revelation requires two parties, God and the people to whom He opens Himself. In a relationship of love, not only do we understand more fully Who God is, but we understand more fully who we are. For those who love must necessarily be both persons and free agents. Yes, they are mysteriously sustained in existence by God, but out of love, in a way that liberates from fatalism. We are real separate beings with our own freedom and our own purposes, not beings who are continually recreated as pawns in some theistic game of dice. It is precisely this stability and independence, in persons created in the image and likeness of God, which makes it possible for us to enter into relationships with each other and with God Himself.

Again, for the Muslim, the idea of a personal relationship with Allah which can be nurtured to grow in a consistent way is extremely foreign. Whatever will be will be, as Allah wills it. Rosenzweig argues that this has enormous implications not only for personal spirituality (which, theoretically, should be reduced to desperate obedience) but for society and culture. He suggests that the pagan’s personality cannot be formed by personal growth with God and is therefore left to be merely an extension of race and state, locked in a struggle for racial or national survival, a struggle which in the end must always be doomed. Hence while the distinctive mark of Christian or Jewish culture is its concern for the weak and vulnerable, the distinctive mark of pagan culture is war, the extension of submission. Hence too the common emphasis on personal suicide in the service of the larger cause. What we saw in Japanese warfare in World War II, we now see in Islam, in spades.

Read it all people and understand the deeper meaning.

H/T to Kathy @ Five Feet of Fury.

"Let's face it: Leftie girls are easy"

That from an Obama supporter:

My husband and I had a roaring good laugh at this article on Drudge: Singles will check out eligible candidates at Obama rally.  It's not really that funny -- if I were single, I too would rather meet someone at a political rally than a bar -- but some of the quotes were just hilarious.

Even the invite for the event reads like a singles bash:

"Hope hits the Big Apple! Join us at Jay-Z's 4-0/40 Club on Thursday as we ride the winds of change from the hottest rally in New York. Move to the music, socialize with friends, and let your voice be heard as we celebrate with audacity."

Lindsay Schaeffer, 25, may even skip the rally for the nighttime bash.

That cracks me up. Why would someone waste time on the silly politics when she can just skip ahead for the hook-up scene? I want to date an Obama supporter, without all that pesky Obama stuff killing my buzz.

One ardent Obama supporter (who declined to give his name because he works in politics) says he'll attend both the rally and the after-party, and he doesn't expect to be going home alone.

He's confident for a reason.

"Let's face it: Leftie girls are easy," he says.

H/T to Lori at WizBang who finds this as amusing as I do.

Reporting the news...

... as you see fit. Literally:

I think I've seen it all now. An story from Reuters reporter Noor Mohammad Sherzai quotes extensively from ... Noor Mohammad Sherzai.

And Sherzai claims U.S. troops opened fire on civilians in Afghanistan.

If this story is proven to be bogus, will he claim he misquoted himself?

U.S. fire scatters crowd after Afghan bomb
By Noor Mohammad Sherzai

BATI KOT, Afghanistan (Reuters) - U.S. troops opened fire on civilians near the eastern Afghan city of Jalalabad on Thursday after a failed suicide car bomb attack on their convoy, a Reuters witness said.

There was no immediate comment on the reported incident either from U.S.-led coalition forces or from the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF).

The witness said three suicide bombers in one vehicle attacked a convoy of U.S. troops in the village of Bati Kot, 15 km (9 miles) east of Jalalabad, but none of the soldiers was hurt.

Two of the bombers were immediately killed in the blast. The third, dressed in a police uniform, survived only to be shot dead by troops, the witness said.

A fire brigade vehicle arriving at speed at the scene then suffered brake failure and rammed into the U.S. vehicles. Troops inside then opened fire, wounding a number of bystanders.

"I saw everything," said Reuters correspondent Noor Mohammad Sherzai. "I saw the suicide bomb attack ...

"I saw the fire brigade vehicle rushing to the area at top speed, somehow its brakes failed and hit one police vehicle and coalition vehicles, then the Americans started firing at the people and everyone lay flat on the ground and then fled the area."

Sherzai said a number of people had been wounded in the attack, but he did not know how many. "I ran away to save my own life." 

Sherzai and other reporters at the scene said many shots were fired and Afghan police were among those fleeing the scene.

I guess one could say that the reporter had an unimpeachable source.

U.S. Senate sends message to Iran

The wrong message

Click on the cartoon or simply go here to further understand.

Makes me sick.

NPR: National Pathetic Radio

Bush Derangement Syndrome must be infectious and NPR's got the bug:

The White House reached out to National Public Radio over the weekend, offering analyst Juan Williams a presidential interview to mark yesterday's 50th anniversary of school desegregation in Little Rock.

But NPR turned down the interview, and Williams's talk with Bush wound up in a very different media venue: Fox News.

Williams said yesterday he was "stunned" by NPR's decision. "It makes no sense to me. President Bush has never given an interview in which he focused on race. . . . I was stunned by the decision to turn their backs on him and to turn their backs on me."

Ellen Weiss, NPR's vice president for news, said she "felt strongly" that "the White House shouldn't be selecting the person." She said NPR told Bush's press secretary, Dana Perino, that "we're grateful for the opportunity to talk to the president but we wanted to determine who did the interview." When the White House said the offer could not be transferred to one of NPR's program hosts, Weiss took a pass.

Because Weiss is an ass. 

This simply makes little sense unless you factor in Bush hatred.  Amazing.  Your tax dollars at work folks.

 

Free the Jena 6

I'm not so sure that's such a good idea:

So how bad was that beating in Jena?  Pretty bad.  This is an old article, but it has more detail than anything else I’ve seen yet:

Investigators from the LaSalle Parish Sheriff’s Office have gathered statements from more than 40 people — a number of them students — who told investigators they saw everything that happened. Many of these statements were included in court documents.

“When I heard a black boy say something to Justin, I turned my head and I saw somebody hit Justin,” one student wrote in a statement. “He fell in between the gym door and the concrete barricade. I saw Robert Bailey kneel down and punch Justin in the head. … Then Carwin Jones kicked him in the head. … Theo Shaw tried to kick him so I pushed Theo Shaw down. I also saw Mychal Bell standing over him.”

Phrases like “stomped him badly,” “stepped on his face,” “knocked out cold on the ground,” and “slammed his head on the concrete beam” were used by the students in their statements.

In the mean-time, you might consider how bad the beating was by viewing this video of something that took place this past week in nearby Norfolk:

They'll arrest the suspects soon enough.  Will Jackson and Sharpton want to free these punks too?

Ahmadinejad delivers a sermon at the U.N.

To think that this guy may soon have nukes is frightening.

Why?

Check out the end of his rant today before the U.N.:

Humanity has passed a perilous precipice, and the age of monotheism, purity, affinity, respecting others, justice and true peace-loving has commenced.

 

It is a divine promise that the truth will be victorious and the Earth will be inherited by the righteous. You who are free, believers and the people of the world, put your trust in God.

 

You who crave high values, wherever you are, try to prepare the grounds for the fulfillment of this great divine promise by serving the people and seeking justice.

 

The era of darkness will end. Prisoners will return home. The occupied lands will be freed. Palestine and Iraq will be liberated from the domination of the occupiers. And the people of America and Europe will be free of the pressures exerted by the Zionists.

 

The tenderhearted and humanity-loving governments will replace the aggressive and domineering ones. Human dignity will be regained.

 

The pleasing aroma of justice will permeate the world, and people will live together in a brotherly and affectionate manner.

 

Striving in this way to surrender rule to the righteous and perfect human, the promised one, is indeed the final cure for the wounds of humanity, the solution of all problems and the establishment of love, beauty, justice and a dignified life all over the world.

 

This belief and endeavor is the key to unity and the constructive interaction among nations, countries, the people of the world and all the true justice seekers.

 

Without any doubt, the promised one who is the ultimate savior, along with Jesus Christ and other holy saviors, will come. In the company of all believers, justice seekers and benefactors, he will establish a bright future and fill the world with justice and duty.

 

This is the promise of God, therefore it will be fulfilled.

 

Come, let's play a part in the fulfillment of all this glory and duty. I wish for a bright future for all human beings and the dawn of the liberation of and freedom for all humans, and the rule of love and affection all around the world, as well as the elimination of oppression, hatred, and violence, a wish which I expect will be realized in the near future.

 

Thank you very much.

He is, quite literally folks, a madman.  And he and those who think like him may soon enough, if they don't already, have nukes.

War with Iran is inevitable.  Prepare yourselves.

God have mercy.