Liberal Hypocrisy

You couldn’t make this up even if you tried. Isthmus, a Madison-based newspaper, is reporting that Grassroots Campaigns, a supposedly ‘nonpolitical’ canvassing company hired to raise money for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee based in Washington DC, has been found to be paying its employees below the minimum wage, a clear violation of Wisconsin state law. What makes this truly ironic though is that one of the talking points Grassroots Campaigns created for their employees to solicit funds was ‘Raising the Minimum Wage’.

Sit on Your Butts and Start Typing

I appreciate Julie Warner’s enthusiasm in this regard. Week after week last year I was disappointed in the Marquette Tribune student viewpoints which least of all ranted about people hogging exercise equipment at the Recreation Center rather then poignant political issues of the day. It took a person like Doug Zabrowski or myself (not to toot my own horn here) to shake up the school community and get people who normally wouldn’t write into the Tribune politically involved. This being an election year after all you can expect me to submit a controversial editorial or two before the November election, one of which will focus on the current state of the war against terrorism and the fifth anniversary of the September 11th terrorist attacks.

Carter Agrees to Hold Talks With Khatami

Let’s forget the fact that the last time he got involved in Iran and its relationship with the United States during his one and only term as president, he managed to get the Shah thrown out of power (releasing political prisoners worked real well there Jimmy) which in turn brought the ascension to power of one of the worst dictators the world has ever known and threw the stability of the Middle East region into a cataclysmic tailspin. Despite lacking the political authority to make such an arrangement, Jimmy Carter has agreed to hold talks with forner Iranian president Mohammad Khatami during his visit to the United States in the hopes of making the situation with Iran even worse.

Clinton News Network Airs Bathroom Girl Talk

Add another addition to the laundry list of CNN slipups. The latest addition comes from anchor Kyra Phillips who inadvertently left her microphone on as she slipped into the ladies room during the president’s speech on the one year anniversary of the Hurricane Katrina disaster. She was not however caught saying anything political in nature but instead herself embarrassed after calling her sister-in-law a control freak as audio of her conversation with another woman in the bathroom with her was broadcast live on cable television. You can either read the transcript of the conversation over at NewsBusters or watch the complete audio feed by clicking on the video below …

The Lesser of Two Moderates

I agree with Charlie Sykes in saying that if the 2008 GOP primary election were today I would more then likely vote for former-New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani. As liberal as Giuliani is on a variety of political issues, specifically abortion, his record on crime, his firm resolution in the aftermath of September 11th, his stance on the war against terrorism, and his pro-choice view of education, a speech of which he gave at a luncheon this past week where he endorsed Mark Green as the GOP candidate in the Wisconsin governor’s race, has me swayed. That doesn’t mean I will agree with him on everything. I was a resolute Bush supporter in the 2004 presidential election, everybody at Marquette University knows that, but I have criticized the administration on a number of issues, no more so then the Harriet Miers debacle, as well since then. But then again what else did you expect. Bush ran for a second term as president on the promise of compassionate conservatism and that is exactly what we have paid for over the past two years. You get what you vote for.

But in all honesty as much as Giuliani’s softness on key Republican political issues which matter most to me, particularly illegal immigration (having sued the federal government to protect illegal immigrants in NYC from having to cooperate with the INS) and gay marriage (he at the moment does support an outright ban), worries me, I would be less worried with him then I would if Senator John McCain was elected as the GOP presidential candidate. I respect the man as a veteran of the Vietnam War and for sticking with the president in the war against terrorism but I have serious issues with his loyalty (there was extensive discussion about the Arizona senator being selected as the vice-presidential candidate for Senator John Kerry in the 2004 campaign) not to mention his views on abortion (he would not if asked overturn the Roe v. Wade decision), illegal immigration (remember, he teamed up with Ted Kennedy in proposing a bill which reward illegal immigrants and did nothing to enforce immigration laws on the border), interrogation methods of foreign suspects, and the whole McCain-Feingold disaster (what a waste of funds and paper that was).

Van Hollen Receives NRA Endorsement

Read the press release about the Van Hollen for Attorney General Campaign receiving the endorsement of the National Rifle Association which will have a significant impact on the September 12th primary election.

Palestinian Witnesses Say 2 Israeli Missiles Hit Reuters Truck

UPDATE: It was determined that the Reuters news vehicle was NOT hit by an Israeli missile.

Bullcrap! It does not appear as though even one missile, let alone two, hit this ‘armored’ truck. It seems as though poor maintenance and Mother Nature – the hole in the roof looks more like a rust stain then a missile strike – are the culprits, not the Israeli army. And even if it were hit by missile fire, the truck was in an active combat battlefield area and should never have been there in the first place. After the Red Cross Ambulance Incident which dramatically altered the course of the Israeli/Lebanese conflict you would think the mainstream media would have learned their lesson and taken Palestinian reports with a serious grain of salt but I suppose it is hard to teach a dying dog new tricks.

[Pictures Coming Soon - Library Computer Acting Weird]

Emmy 'Lost' Parody Illtimed

Ouch! Talk about bad timing. If you watched the Emmys last evening (yes, Kiefer Sutherland won for Best Actor in a Drama Series and 24 won for Best Drama Series – not to mention Tony Shalhoub who was born in Wisconsin won for Best Actor in a Comedy Series), you caught the opening introduction showing host Conan O’Brian crashing on a tropical island in an airplane (a parody of last year’s Best Drama Series winner LOST – the best show on television) which unfortunately aired hours after a commuter jet crashed in Kentucky, killing forty-nine people. Insensitive, yes, but not premeditated.

It's Not Racist, It's Progressive

Comic Fodder

Dump the New Milwaukee Admirals Logo

Although I am not a fan of the Milwaukee Admirals (personally I don’t find hockey to be all that invigorating), I do have to say that their recently redesigned logo is a significant step down from their previous one. I did not know they had changed it until I came back to Wisconsin two weeks ago and was checking the Bradley Center website for upcoming concerts and events. Real Debate Wisconsin has started an online petition to have the new logo dumped. Please take the time to sign it.

The Real ADHD Cure

South Park has the politically incorrect answer for everything. That's precisely why I love this show so much.

Best ... Speech ... Ever!

Pluto's in the Doghouse

Profiled

Originally posted on Cox and Forkum on August 24th, 2006

Thoughts on AG Debate: Part 3

Here are my thoughts on the Attorney General Debate: Paul Bucher vs. JB Van Hollen pt 3 as heard on the Charlie Sykes radio program …

Not much to say about this one. Both Bucher and Van Hollen appear to have taken the intensity down a notch (as Boots and Sabers said someone must have whispered in Bucher’s ear because he seemed somewhat restrained in comparison to the first half of the program).

Thoughts on AG Debate: Part 2

Here are my thoughts on the Attorney General Debate: Paul Bucher vs. JB Van Hollen pt 2 as heard on the Charlie Sykes radio program …

Score another one for JB! Bucher claimed that Van Hollen was running from a state-wide debate with him when in fact the two candidates have had at least sixty joint appearances together and nine debate forums this year with four more scheduled before the September 12th, 2006, primary. Van Hollen made a good point that this race should not be about which one of the two candidates gets a seat on the Republican ticket this November but to get the Democrats out of office. Bucher rather then be the bigger man chose to lob more attacks on JB.

I share Charlie Sykes sentiments that I am surprised at the level of hostility between these two candidates. Bucher’s argument that he doesn’t hate JB doesn’t quite add up particularly since he is saying things that would normally be lobbied against an opposing party candidate and not a primary candidate from within the same party.

Thoughts on AG Debate: Part 1

Here are my thoughts on the Attorney General Debate: Paul Bucher vs. JB Van Hollen pt 1 as heard on the Charlie Sykes radio program …

Paul Bucher does a good job of making himself out to be a real child. He makes JB Van Hollen out to be the next Joseph McCarthy. Problem is Joseph McCarthy was right. Bucher is accusing Van Hollen of using scare tactics claiming that terrorists are collecting funds and training in the state of Wisconsin. While I agree that Van Hollen has not been using the appropriate language for this statement – using ‘are’ instead of ‘may be’ or ‘could potentially be’ – I hardly consider what he said a form of ‘scare tactics’ and frankly I do find what he is saying to be quite conceivable. Bucher’s hounding of Van Hollen on this is low even by his juvenile standards. One of the reasons I am not voting for Paul Bucher as the Republican candidate for Attorney General in the September 12th primary is that he can not be controlled emotionally. While I applaud enthusiasm where it is necessary, this is hardly the time or place.

Paul Bucher’s stance on illegal immigration is wrong or at the very least misinformed. While I agree that illegal immigrants should be deported after they have committed a crime (or even before unless of course they are working diligently and not simply leaching off welfare), it is not the authority of the state attorney general to deport illegal immigrants. Only the federal government has the power to do so.

Oh, and I love how Bucher railed on Van Hollen for ‘running’ from a state-wide debate when the two candidates for Attorney General were debating on a radio program heard throughout the state of Wisconsin.

Attorney General Debate on Charlie Sykes Show From August 10th, 2006

I have been unable to listen to all four parts of the podcasts featuring the Attorney General Debate between Paul Bucher and JB Van Hollen on the Charlie Sykes radio program (from August 10th, 2006) but I will provide commentary for each one as soon as I am able to. In the meantime, listen to them yourself by clicking the links below:

Attorney General Debate: Paul Bucher vs. JB Van Hollen pt 1

Attorney General Debate: Paul Bucher vs. JB Van Hollen pt 2

Attorney General Debate: Paul Bucher vs. JB Van Hollen pt 3

Attorney General Debate: Paul Bucher vs. JB Van Hollen pt 4

Blows Over Pluto

Disproportionate Response II

Originally posted on Cox and Forkum on August 23rd, 2006

'Tom & Jerry' Smoking Scenes to Be Cut

I hate Ted Turner now more then ever which if you have visited this site frequently would really be saying something. Turner Broadcasting recently made the decision to distort history by removing scenes of characters smoking from over 1,500 of their classic Hanna-Barbera cartoons including Tom & Jerry. This after one viewer – that’s right, one solitary viewer – took ‘offense’ to two Tom & Jerry cartoons viewed on the Boomrang channel, a cartoon network owned by Time Warner/Turner Broadcasting, in which characters were seen smoking cigarettes and cigars. This in turn prompted Turner Broadcasting to review their entire classic cartoon catelog. A spokewoman for Turner Broadcasting in Europe assured concerned viewers that the decision to remove scenes of smoking from their cartoons would only cover situations “where smoking could be deemed to be cool or glamorized” but the language is so vague as to be entirely confusing and unidentifiable to the average citizen. Furthermore, what’s to prevent Time Warner or any other movie studio for that matter from making this a stepping-stone and going one step further? How long are classic live-action feature films like Casablanca or Citizen Kane which feature smoking prominently safe from censorship?

Rupert Everett Calls Starbucks a 'Cancer'

I’m not a fan of Starbucks either (I just don’t like coffee in general) but if these little coffee shops you are trying to protect are as popular as you say they are then you will let the market dictate whether or not people go to them or Starbucks.

Iraqi Militant Group Uses Michael Moore Film to Mock Bush

Wow. Is anyone else really surprised by this? Not just that terrorists in Iraq are using Michael Moore’s anti-war ‘documentary’ Fahrenheit 9/11 as a propaganda tool against the United States but that the war in Iraq in general has progressed into a PR war.

Purchase Today: Debunking 9/11 Myths

Thanks to the Marquette Warrior for bringing this to my attention.

What's In a Word?

The Associated Press recently reported that “At least 842 people were killed in Lebanon during the 34-day campaign, most of them civilians”, insinuating that Hezbollah’s less technologically sophiscated band of guerilla fighters were more precise in their targeting capabilities then Israel since more then half of Israel’s one-hundred and fifty-seven deaths were military personnel. However a report from an IDF First Sergent contradicts this statement. He says that there were over six-hundred confirmed enemy kills, eight-hundred to one-thousand two-hundred enemy kills were unconfirmed (airstrikes). But you can’t blame the Associated Press really, can you? I mean, ‘most’ is such an ambigious term which could mean practically anything, right?

Disney Confirms 'Apocalypto' Distribution

It appears as though with Michael Eisner out of the picture the Walt Disney Company has finally grown a spine. The movie studio confirmed recently that in spite of the controversy surrounding director Mel Gibson’s DUI and drunken anti-Semitic remarks, they are still distributing the star’s latest historical drama, Apocalypto.

Amended

Originally posted on Cox and Forkum on August 17th, 2006

Liberal Cartoonist Jokes About Scalia Enslaving Thomas

Caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed are apparently offensive and too controversial to publish in newspapers but it is perfectly alright to print a cartoon by Wiley Miller in which conservative Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia enslaves fellow Justice Clarence Thomas. Makes total sense to me.

'Osama' Obama: Iraq is a 'Dumb' War

He then went on to refer to President Bush and Vice-President Dick Cheney as ‘doody heads’.

Shut Up and Do As He Says

Senator Barack ‘Osama’ Obama warned Illinois citizens at his fiftieth town hall meeting about the dangers of ‘gas guzzling’ vehicles and their role in promoting global warming, encouraging them to switch to more environmentally-friendly ‘higher mileage’ cars. The Illinois senator insisted that this would do more for the sake of the nation and the world at large then any drilling in Alaska would. He then left the meeting in a GM Envoy. He of course only left the meeting after he had admitted to a local news reporter to ‘favoring SUVs himself’. Don’t freight though, Obama’s press secretary insists. The senator’s Envoy is a ‘Flexible Fuel Vehicle (FFV), which can run on e85, a blended fuel made of 85 percent ethanol’. It must be specially designed exclusively for the senator’s use however because as of now General Motor’s Envoy is not E85 ready. This does not make the senator from Illinois a hypocrite though. No, he’s a motivator for people to become something better then himself. Barack Obama, a man of the people and shining example to the rest of the world to become more environmentally active. Just like his partner in crime Al Gore, right ‘Osama’ Obama?

Undeniable

Originally posted on Cox and Forkum on August 16th, 2006

Democrats Answer to Alaskan Oil Field

Pandering to Paranoia

The five-year-old girl on the left had her passport rejected at a local post office in Sheffield, England because according to the clerk who handled the form her exposed shoulders might offend Muslims. No where are there restrictions on exposed shoulders. A post office spokesman responded by apologizing for the incident and insisting that it is not the policy of the post office to reject passport photographs on the basis of exposed shoulders. This is exactly why we can’t let paranoia control our lives simply because we’re afraid of offending someone.

Satellite Radio Runs Into Static

I have never been a true believer in satellite radio, whether it is Sirius or XM. I do not oppose it, mind you. Like any true-hearted free-market conservative I welcome the competition, particularly in the radio market. What I have objected to is the idea that satellite radio was the next ‘big thing’ and would leave everything else in the dust. So far things have failed to pan out that way. For example, Sirius Satellite Radio in their latest earnings announcement lost more in this recent quarter then they did the same quarter one year ago. But as Business Week’s February 2006 article points out, this is nothing new for the company. And while both satellite radio companies are continuing to bleed money – Sirius, for example, paying exorbitant amounts for shock-jock Howard Stern and the NFL – by driving up costs and earning very little in return for their tremendous investment, Sirius seems to be the one in more dire straits. A number of Sirius’s current subscribers signed onto a one-year trial period. Needless to say Sirius believes that many of them will not be renewing their subscription. I have always wondered what the big deal was about satellite radio. I just could not imagine paying for something that was already free to begin with (normal radio) or paying a little more to invest in an iPod which I could then use to more freely listen to the songs I wanted to listen to. And now with podcasts it is much easier to listen to talk radio programs whenever you want. I agree with Jeff Wagner that there is certainly a market niche for satellite radio and that it won’t be going away any time soon, or ever for that matter, but I am not part of that niche.

Scammers or Terrorists?

What to make of the three Palestinian-Americans (normally I prefer not to use this sort of PC-terminology but it is still up in the air whether they were terrorists or simply scammers, neither of which is good although one certainly outbalances the other) from Texas who were arrested this past Friday in Caro, Michigan after having purchased eighty cell phones (TracFone Wireless Phones to be precise which are virtually untraceable) at a local Wal-Mart. When they were apprehended by the police, the three men were found to have been in possession of over one-thousand cell phones. They claimed that they bought the cell phones to resell them on the black market. What makes this argument suspicious however is that they had separated the battery packs from the cell phones and discarded the battery chargers. Furthermore, what are doing purchasing hundreds of cell phones in the Midwest if you live in Texas? Of course the wife of one of the men who was arrested is playing the race card, saying they were apprehended simply on the basis of their ethnicity. Whether they were white, black, Asian, Hispanic, etc. I would find it suspicious that three grown men were purchasing nearly a hundred cell phones at one time. The fact that they were Middle Eastern is just an added bonus (TracFone Wireless Phones, besides being untraceable, can also be used as remote detonation devices). Hopefully this will all be sorted out soon enough but in the meantime I believe these men can endure a little inconvenience for the sake of national security. This is the post-9/11 world people, get use to it.

Superman tops Supremes

The latest Zogby poll indicates that seventy-seven percent of Americans surveyed (1,213 people) could identify all seven of the handy-capable little persons from the classic Disney animated film ‘Snow Caucasian’ but only twenty-four percent were able to name all of the justices currently sitting on the United States Supreme Court. While one might feel saddened and embarrassed for American society as a whole by this news, at the same time you can’t help but admit that you didn’t see this one coming. For anyone who has watched The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and the host’s ‘Jay Walking’ segments this has become all too common knowledge. By no means am I however advocating that we simply sit down and take it. Pick up a newspaper, watch CNN … umm, scratch that … watch C-SPAN or Headline News, search the internet for blogs from both sides of the political spectrum – do something, anything, to stay more informed about the world around. I realize popular culture is more relatable for the average person but that doesn’t mean that everyone, yourself included, should fall in line with the herd.

Incoming

Originally posted on Cox and Forkum on August 16th, 2006

Combined Trailer for Flags of Our Fathers and Red Sun, Black Sand Online

I was not too fond of director Clint Eastwood’s Academy Award-winning boxing-drama Million Dollar Baby which I found to be supporting the practice of euthanasia. I have not back down from that opinion though I do intend one of these days to review the film a second time and see if my opinion has changed since early 2005. In the meantime, Eastwood has moved on to a far grander project, two to be precise, focused on the epic World War II battle of Iwo Jima, one of the pivotal points in the war in the Pacific – one entitled Flags of Our Fathers is from the American perspective and the other [Red Sun, Black Sand] is from perspective of the Japanese. Furthermore, the individual storylines for each film are based on true events and real people – Flags of Our Fathers follows four brothers from Easy Company and Red Sun, Black Sand centers on a Japanese general who fought on the island of Iwo Jima for forty days and somehow survived. The website for the Japanese release of the film has provided a combined trailer for both films.

Originally posted on The Hollywood Blacklist on August 15th, 2006

The Passion of the Mel

Back 2 School 2006

Castroectomy

Originally posted on Cox and Forkum on August 2nd, 2006

Snatching Defeat

Originally posted on Cox and Forkum on August 8th, 2006

Usual Suspects

Originally posted on Cox and Forkum on July 30th, 2006

Cowardly Blending

Originally posted on Cox and Forkum on July 25th, 2006

Helter Shelter

Originally posted on Cox and Forkum on July 20th, 2006

Rock'em Sock'em

Originally posted on Cox and Forkum on July 15th, 2006

I'm Back!!

Hello everyone!

First off, no, I have not given up on The Office of Homeland Security – MU Division, nor will I in the foreseeable future. If you have not checked in lately, I have been in Orlando, Florida for the past three months interning at the Walt Disney World resort. While I occasionally had some unfortunate setbacks, one of which involved my original roommates – two of whom had just moved in less then two weeks before this broke out – wanting to kick me out of the apartment for something that shouldn’t have been a big deal in the first place, overall I had an enjoyable experience. I made some new friends, some of whom I plan to keep in contact with during the new school year, and had a good time. Oh, and earning some money along with it didn’t hurt either.

But because of this blogging on this site has essentially come to a halt, at least for the past month (prior to July 15th I was able to squeak in some time to post but not as often as I would have liked to). I was working long hours (forty to fifty hours may not seem much to some people – for them it is a steady full-time job – but keep in mind that as a student during the school year I am usually working between sixteen to twenty-five hours which allows for more time dedicated to this site) and I did not have the sufficient time or resources to properly maintain this site during those three months. I meant to post a notice saying that this site would return to normal operations at the end of August but things kept on coming up so it never quite happened. Well, here it is now. Better late then never I suppose.

Now that I am back, at least for the most part (I have several appointments to make and things to do before the new school year starts in less then two weeks), I can concentrate some time on catching up on the political events of the last month, if not more. For the next week or so I will be posting some things that may seem old news to some of you but I feel that I should bring myself, and perhaps some of my readers, up to speed. Again, I apologize for the inconvenience.

Thank you.