Quote of the day - Ann Coulter

Democrats should run Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for president. He's more coherent than Dennis Kucinich, he dresses like their base, he's more macho than John Edwards, and he's willing to show up at a forum where he might get one hostile question -- unlike the current Democratic candidates for president who won't debate on Fox News Channel. He's not married to an impeached president, and the name "Mahmoud Ahmadinejad" is surely no more frightening than "B. Hussein Obama."

Ann Coulter

Barrack Hussein Obama floats a social security tax hike; Boomsday approaches

The very fact the Barrack Hussein Obama is floating the idea of a social security tax hike, no matter how dangerous or absurd the idea, is more proof that the social security system is in much greater danger than the MSM/DNC has been willing to admit. As soon as President Bush proposed his modest reforms, we began hearing the chorus of MSM/DNC voices assuring us that no problem existed with SS and that Bush was trying to whip up hysteria at the expense of seniors. In fact, the Democrats know that the system cannot survive. That is the only reason they dare to propose any SS changes, especially a tax hike.

Cox and Forkum 2004










The Democrats refused to acknowledge in 2005 what we all know - Boomsday is closer than we think.

Quote of the day - Mark Steyn

The story of the Western world since 1945 is that, invited to choose between freedom and government ‘security,’ large numbers of people vote to dump freedom – the freedom to make your own decisions about health care, education, property rights, seat belts and a ton of other stuff.

Mark Steyn

Quote of the day - Mark Steyn

We should beware anyone who seeks to explain 9/11 by using the words "each other."

Mark Steyn

Quote of the day - Ann Coulter

We know who the homicidal maniacs are. They are the ones cheering and dancing right now. We should invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity. We weren't punctilious about locating and punishing only Hitler and his top officers. We carpet-bombed German cities; we killed civilians. That's war. And this is war.

Ann Coulter - 9-14-01

Quote of the day - Mark Steyn

According to the [New York] Times, many of the bereaved are angry and determined that their loved one's death should have meaning. Yet the meaning they're after surely strikes our enemies not just as extremely odd but as one more reason why they'll win. You launch an act of war, and the victims respond with a lawsuit against their own countrymen.

Mark Steyn 9-9-07

Rathergate three year anniversary

Today is the three year anniversary of Rathergate.

Click here for last year's anniversary post and here for the one year anniversary in 2005.

This post contains numerous links to posts from Powerline and Little Green Footballs that explain the history of the scandal and how it unfolded.

Without recounting the history of the scandal, remember only that CBS broadcast the report based on the forged memos on September 8, 2004. Free Republic picked up the forgery almost immediately:

After 12 days of stonewalling CBS would grudgingly backtrack on the documents.

Within a few months, Rather would retire, the blogosphere would force out Eason Jordan from CNN, Newsweek would be exposed as having published lies about Korans in the toilet at Gitmo and the MSM/DNC would continue its long, slow tailspin. The final chapter on the whole MSM/DNC media monopoly has yet to be concluded. But the opening paragraph of that final chapter was written on September 8, 2004.

2005 anniversary post

My own observations from the first days of the scandal provide an example of how the world really changed at that time. I first began reading about the possibility that the memos were forged on Thursday, September 9, 2004 (the day after the broadcast). That evening (while driving to a dinner appointment), I heard Sean Hannity on the radio. In discussing the broadcast, he appeared agitated and angry. He did not raise the issue of the memos being forged. He seemed unaware of the discussion from Powerline and LGF (as linked by Drudge). He seemed to be handicapped by his lack of knowledge of the blog discussions.

When I arrived at my dinner, my leftist dinner companions seemed overjoyed by the previous night's CBS report. When I pointed out that the memos were forgeries, they merely laughed. They had not heard this accusation in the few hours since the story first aired. The idea of a "60 Minutes" document being forged was beyond their experience.



Within two days, the situation had changed completely. On Saturday, September 11, 2004, I attended a large outdoor picnic at which one of my dinner companions (from Thursday) was also present. By this time, the accusations of forgery had forced themselves into the mainstream. The dinner companion from two days earlier approached me and apologized for having snickered at my accusation. When I asked what had changed her attitude, she reported having seen the forgery story on some mainstream news program. I had read the initial reports regarding the forgery, but I was unaware that those reports had gotten to the point where mainstream viewers would see them. But apparently the two days between the 9th and the 11th had made a tremendous difference. Judging from my friend's change in awareness, it appears to me that those two days were the crucial days in the scandal. When average leftists become aware of a MSM/DNC outlet's perfidy, the result becomes almost inevitable.

One never knows when a few posts on one's blog can impact the opinions of those who pay little attention to blogs or media bias issues.

Quote of the day - Joe Sobran

An agenda of power underlies -- and belies -- most rhetorical appeals for variety. If we really want "diversity," centralizing power and outlawing local differences are the worst ways to achieve it. But the same people who most loudly insist on diversity usually want forced busing, race and sex quotas, compulsory integration and bureaucratic supervision to ensure hair-splitting "equality" in every facet of life. They are suspicious of -- no, downright hostile to -- private property, state and local government, popular traditions and, above all, religion.

Joe Sobran

Quote of the day - Thomas Sowell

Wise people created civilization over the centuries and clever people are dismantling it today. You can see it happening just by channel surfing on TV or hear it in rap music or read it in the pompous nonsense of academics and judges.

Thomas Sowell

Thomas Sowell - circa 1980 h/t crainium . net

Robert Fulton steamboat anniversary; Clermont

While the MSM/DNC spent the past few weeks memorializing the Katrina tragedy, another, more important, anniversary went almost unnoticed.

200 years ago last month [August 17, 1807], Robert Fulton began the maiden voyage of the Clermont up the Hudson river. This voyage has been recognized as the first successful test run of a steamship. [Others, including Fulton, had tested steamships before, but those tests were not entirely successful.] [The unreliable Wikipedia contends that the Clermont was not the actual name of Fulton's steamship, but that name stuck through the years.]

Clermont - H/T Gutenburg. org

On September 4, 1807, Fulton began the first commercial voyage of any steamship in history. Charging $7.00 per passenger, Fulton made a profit on that first journey. It was that voyage that proved that steamships could be a commercial success. Fulton's work revolutionized transportation. Before long, Fulton was operating ships on the Hudson as well as the Ohio and Mississippi rivers.

Fulton's activities produced a few ironies:

• The first Fulton steamship to sail the Mississippi was named the New Orleans.
• Fulton's attempts to build and operate steamships on the Ohio and Mississippi met with interference from floods and earthquakes - yet no one claimed that global warming was about to destroy the planet.
• Fulton also attempted to invent a submarine. He believed that the introduction of the submarine would make naval warfare difficult and would be an instrument of peace. Apparantly, Fulton did not get the MSM/DNC memo that disarmament is the only way to achieve peace. While Fulton's submarine was not successful and while later submarines did not have the effect of ending war, the submarine did vastly reduce the old method of fighting wars on the surface of the water.
• More progress in steam transportation had been made in the 20 years prior to Clermont's maiden voyage than in the multiple centuries since steam power was first discovered in the ancient world - thus demonstrating the value of the capitalist system.
  

Fulton's invention came only after much trial and error and many failures (Fulton's failures and those of his predecessors). Fulton learned the difficulty in conquering the water with man made steam power. But apparently today's political establishment has not learned the difficulty or foolishness of trying to construct and preserve an underwater city.

Quote of the day - Joe Sobran

Recent events in Genoa remind us, once again, that
the "international community" comprises more
organizations than you can shake a stick at: the United
Nations, NATO, the G-8 nations, the International
Monetary Fund, the World Bank, the European Union, et
cetera. Can anyone keep track of them all, or follow
their workings? Clearly we are inching toward world
government of some sort; and just as clearly, we aren't
meant to understand it. We won't know just who our rulers
are, or who (if anyone) elected them; in most cases they
will be, for all practical purposes, unelected. Under
"globalization," it appears that self-government,
democracy, national sovereignty, and constitutional law
will all become tenuous, problematic, and eventually
meaningless. The old story will be recapitulated: what
begins as loose federation will end in centralized,
anonymous rule, which it would be rude and benighted to
call tyranny.

How eerie, to covet power without glory! The Roman
emperors expected deification; it was part of the job
description. Today's rulers don't want us to know who
they are. What terrifying pusillanimity!

Joe Sobran - September 2001

Random Thoughts on Larry Craig (R - ID); hypocrisy; gay marriage; television programming; restroom gay sex;

• This past weekend's resignation by Senator Craig (Idaho) will not stop the MSM/DNC from talking about the scandal for quite some time.
• More people have died in Senator Kennedy's car than in Senator Craig's restroom stall, yet Kennedy remains a hero to the left and to his party.
• The Republican party is not the place to be if you are a pervert looking for somewhere to hide.
• It is not "hypocrisy" to oppose homosexual marriage (civil unions, etc.) while practicing homosexuality. Opposition to gay marriage is not the same as opposition to homosexuality or opposition to gays themselves. Opposition to homosexual marriage is based on the desire to preserve the insurance industry, creditor rights, property rights and as much of the legal system as has become intertwined with marriage over the millenia. (That is the subject of a much longer post in the future.)
• In future MSM/DNC references to this scandal, the word "Idaho" and the name "Larry Craig" will be scarce. The MSM/DNC will begin referring vaguely to a Republican Senator and the Minneapolis airport. The words "Republican Senator" and "Minneapolis airport" will be much more common than "Idaho" or "Larry Craig." The MSM/DNC hopes that marginal voters in Minnesota will mistakenly associate this scandal with Republican Norm Coleman, who faces a reelection battle for U.S. Senator from Minnesota in 2008 (and whose record is thus far spotless).
• One day last week, I heard Sean Hannity speculate on the nature of these bathroom homosexual encounters that led to the sting operation that ensnared Senator Craig. Hannity wondered if these encounters are common and if, in fact, there is an entire subculture centered on restroom gay sex. Whoever the undercover police are waiting for when they sit on toilets all day anticipating homosexual solicitation are the same people who decide what our families see on television.

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update
Michelle Malkin covers Craig's resignation and the immediate fallout.

Quote of the day - Ann Coulter

Reno's military attack on a religious sect in Waco, Texas, led to the greatest number of citizens ever killed by the government in the history of the United States. More Americans were killed at Waco than were killed at any of the various markers on the left's via dolorosa -- more than Kent State (4 killed), more than the Haymarket Square rebellion (4 killed), more than Three Mile Island (0 killed).

Ann Coulter

Quote of the day - Mark Steyn

Any day now, the senator (Larry Craig - Idaho) will announce OJ-like that he's redoubling his efforts to track down the real homosexual.

Mark Steyn