Monday, May 10, 2004

OUR FRIDAY NUZE POLL

The question was "Democrats are calling for Rumsfeld's resignation because they believe such a resignation would:

(A) Improve our chances of accomplishing our goals of creating a free and independent Iraq.
(B) Improve Democrats' chances of defeating Bush in November.

The winner was (B).  By a 98% to 2% margin Nuze readers thought that the motivation behind the calls for Pentagon Don's resignation was simply to hurt Bush's reelection chances.  Very astute.

JUST ANOTHER SKIRMISH IN THE WAR AGAINST THE INDIVIDUAL

I found another article for my "Individualism" file over the weekend.  This is a file where I'm keeping notes and articles detailing the continued attacks against the concept of individuality in America.  In that file you will find a story detailing the remarks of a local Democratic political to the effect that individualism is a sin.  Another article cites Ted Kennedy's approval of a war on individualism.  That's right ... an actual war! The file contains an email from a student at a high school in Montclair New Jersey.  His teacher told him that in our society "an individual can accomplish nothing.  Only groups can achieve."  There's also that letter to the editor of USA Today from one Chris Wolfe declaring support for school administrators who prohibit the organization of conservative groups on campus.  Wolfe says that the school officials are doing the right thing by " ... forbidding an environment where hate, individualism and repression are encouraged."  Interesting, don't you think?  Comparing individualism with hate and repression.

Well .. here's the latest.  This one comes from what some are now calling the Georgia Institute of Political Correctness, formerly known as Georgia Tech, where a professor chastised a student in class for believing in her individuality.  The professor told her "you are not an individual, you did not make it here on your own, but because of society."

I'm going to have much, much more to say about this in the future.  For now, let's just cover the main reason liberals are at war against the concept of individuality.  Remember ... liberals think in terms of groups, not individuals.  It's all about "the blacks" and "the poor" and "the underprivileged" and "the rich."  If you are going to recognize the concept of individuality, then it follows that you are going to have to recognize the existence of individual rights.  This means that at some point you might actually have to consider the idea that an individual has a right to property.  Does this mean that the individual's right to the property he has earned trumps any rights that society might have to that same property?  That's an easy question for a libertarian ... a difficult one for a liberal.

Keep 'em coming, folks.  Add to my collection.  When you see letters to the editor, columns, articles or anything dealing with the war on individuality, let me know.  It could make a good book someday.

BRILLIANT ANALYSIS

Now here is a great column from George Will.  Why do we produce so many incompetent 18-year-olds and so many competent 30-year-olds?  What happens between 18 and 30?  Please ... read this column.  Click on the link, read, and think.  Give this one some hard thought.  It answers a lot of questions. 

OK ... have you read it now?  If not ... go back and do what I told you. 

OK ... now that you've read it, there is one thing left out .. or at least not emphasized enough.  The role of government education.  What happens between 18 and 30?  Young people leave the protected environment of government education, where individualism and competition is discouraged -- even banned -- to a free market society where individual excellence and a competitive spirit is required for success.

Is it possible to even guess at the damage that has been done to our society by this system of government education we all love so much?

EVERY SINGLE MORNING ...

... I walk into my home office/studio and begin preparations for the day's show at about 4:30 or so.  And every day I turn on the television to see what has happened while I was asleep.  And every single morning all I seem to get is a steady diet of how bad things are going in Iraq.  Upside-down Humvees on fire ... prisoner abuse pictures ... reports of coalition deaths ... Iraqis angry at the US .... teenagers dancing on destroyed US military vehicles ... all negative images, nothing positive.  This morning on CNN in the space of 30 minutes it seemed that  I saw that picture of a burning American Humvee no less than six times.  That's about once every five minutes.

Are there no good things happening in Iraq?  Am I the only one who thinks that our esteemed media headliners are having all-too-good a time emphasizing the negative?

The truth is that war on terror and the liberation of Iraq is moving along rather well.  The Coalition is on target for handing over power to the Iraqi people on June 30.  However, there are some political opportunists on the left that want to use the Iraqi prisoner abuse situation as some sort of proof that the war has been lost. 

The war has been a success.  There is more electricity, clean water, people going to school, freedom and business than ever before.  Casualties, while tragic, remain low. This is no time to cut and run, as The Poodle would surely do.

WILL THE DEMOCRATS SUCCEED IN LOPPING OFF A FEW HEADS?

The push to deliver a crippling campaign blow to George Bush by obtaining the resignation of his Defense Secretary apparently hasn't abated.

The weasel was heard from this morning.  Weasley Clark said "I think it would be very patriotic if Rumsfeld resigned."  You see the set-up here, don't you?  This means that if Rumsfeld doesn't resign than that must mean that he's unpatriotic. 

Democrats are very fond of accusing Republicans of questioning the patriotism of Democrats.  They did it with Max Cleland, they're doing it now with The Poodle.  The truth is, however, that you can search far and wide and you will not find any news story from any legitimate publication quoting one Republican leader calling Cleland, Kerry or any other prominent Democrat unpatriotic.  Scan those same publications only over the last week and you'll find The Poodle's owner calling Vice President Cheney unpatriotic, and now this clever little ploy from Weasley Clark. 

The push, of course, is for the resignation of Rumsfeld.  Other heads on the chopping block are Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Richard Myers and CIA Director George Tenet.  Heads are going to roll over the Iraqi abuse photos and videos ... the question is, which heads?

The reason is simple:  President George W. Bush's chances for re-election are now in jeopardy.  Once the rape and torture videos hit the nightly news (and they will) the heat is going to be turned way up.  The one thing Bush has going for him is there is 6 months left until the election.  It's a long summer, and people tend to forget.  Plus, polls don't mean anything at this stage.  Zogby says the election is Kerry's to lose.  God help us if that's true.  As long as there is no wrongdoing demonstrated by President Bush directly, and he deals with the problem decisively, people will forgive and forget.  That's provided things don't get any worse than they are now.  All indications are we are in for a rough road ahead.  The latest photo showing the naked detainee surrounded by dogs isn't helping either.

And that's the problem...on a daily basis it's a new photo, and Rumsfeld himself said there are sadistic videos...and the White House is considering releasing them to Congress.  The minute that happens, they will leak, and be all over TV.    Where does it end?  How many pictures are there?  Since they're going to leak anyway, the White House and the Pentagon should just release them to the public.  Put 'em on a public website.  Get all of the shock and outrage out of the way now.

In the beginning, this was just a few pictures, and maybe 6 bad apples.  Now we're seeing and hearing about more pictures, naked prisoners being taunted by soldiers with dogs, and about the existence of torture videos.  We cannot be seen engaging in the very practices we went to Iraq stop.  We're losing the moral high ground...and all of this is doing is playing right into the anti-American sentiment in the world.  The terrorist-appeasing axis of weasels, not to mention the Democratic party and The Poodle are going to have a field day with this.  Expect it to be in their campaign commercials. 

This is by far the worst of times for George Bush's reelection, and it's only just begun.  The good news is The Poodle's campaign is so inept they'll probably still lose.

ABOUT INTERROGATION

There is a story in the Washington Post about how the United States pressed detainees for information as the insurgency in Iraq grew.  Americans were dying, and if some in the prison had information that could stop it, then officials were trying to gather the information.  Sounds like a plan to me.  If you knew someone had information that could save the lives of your fellow Americans, wouldn't you turn up the heat?  Of course, what we're seeing now is that they went way, way, over the line.  But discomfort, sleep deprivation, aggravation...that's all fair game. Just keep that in mind the next time you hear  the Democrats and the media howling about interrogation tactics.

If we have to give them a wedgie and send them to bed hungry in order to get them to talk and save American lives, then so be it. We just shouldn't take pictures or videotape it.

ISLAMIC TERRORIST SAVAGES

Just in case you may have lost sight of what the whole war on terror was about, and needed a refresher, this should do it.  Remember Daniel Pearl?  He was the Wall Street Journal reporter that was murdered by having his throat cut in Pakistan in January of 2002.  The Islamic terrorists that actually did it videotaped it, and it would up on the Internet for all to see, including his pregnant wife.  Well, now there's new information about the circumstances surrounding his death, and it's not pretty.

Turns out Pearl tried to escape once from his captors, but was unsuccessful because his hands were bound together, and he couldn't jump over the wall.  He also refused to be sedated when offered before his throat was cut.  He knew for hours that he was going to die.  Can you imagine the horror?

Daniel Pearl was savagely murdered for no reason while several people watched.  This is what we're dealing with, just in case you needed reminded. And John Kerry thinks this is a law enforcement problem?

INTEMPERATE THOUGHTS

California is considering a ban on drivers under 18 using cell phones while driving.  Considering the fact that 330,000 people are injured every year due to cell phone use while driving .. not a bad idea.  How about just keeping them from driving altogether?

A poll released today says that 51% of Americans say that our economy is getting worse.  Where in the hell are these people getting their news?  Our economy is growing strongly, and barring another terrorist attack, or California sliding into the sea (a tragedy from which America could surely recover) our economy is poised for another growth period rivaling the '80s and '90s, without the phony dot-com element.  This poll should  really report that 51% of Americans don't know beans about our economy and are probably going to vote Democratic, since that's what uninformed and stupid people generally do.

CNN's senior political analyst Bill Schneider said this morning that this election is a battle between two centrists, Bush and Kerry.  Kerry ... the most liberal Senator in the U.S. Senate, now being called a "centrist" by CNN.   Agenda at work?

READING ASSIGNMENTS

As you know, The Poodle is always whining that evil Republicans are attacking his patriotism.  The truth is, you can't come up with any examples of leading Republicans suggesting in any way that The Poodle is or was unpatriotic.  But, how about The Poodle's keeper?  Teresa Heinz Kerry says that Vice President Cheney is unpatriotic .. and she used that very word ... unpatriotic because he had some questions about Kerry's actions following his return from Vietnam.

The forecast was for 150,000 new jobs in April.  The reality?  Over 288,000 new jobs in April.  For those of you who attended government schools or who vote Democratic, that's almost double the forecasts.  Are you going to pay attention to the 51% of uninformed Americans who think the economy isn't doing well?  Or are you going to pay attention to the real numbers?

Officials are grappling with how to release the other Iraqi prison abuse photos.  Just do it.  It's going to be tough .. America is going to take hits ... but just get it done now while there's still time to repair the damage before the election.

William Safire says Rumsfeld is an effective Secretary of Defense and should stay.  Time will tell.

When it comes to politics, people will boldly ignore or deny reality if it serves their political ends. 

An L.A. Times editor is whining about the rise of what he calls 'pseudo-journalism.' I guess he believes that if you're not doing it the way the leftist L.A. Times is doing it, you're doing it wrong.  And who would he target here?  Why, the Fox News Channel of course!  It's a wonderful thing to watch ... liberals getting outraged over the fact that their monopoly on the media is in danger.

Other troops serving in Operation Iraqi Freedom are outraged about the prison-abuse scandal.  Remember who blew the whistle on this whole thing: another American soldier.

Escaped hostage Thomas Hamill says he would go back to Iraq, and that President Bush is doing the right thing in liberating Iraq. 

Senator Joe Lieberman is sounding the alarm that the nation is not ready for a bioterror attack.  This is a guy that understands the war on terror and what it takes to win.  Too bad the Bush-haters in his party won't listen.

The Democrats are giddy that the prison abuse photos are going to hurt Bush's poll numbers.  That may not be so, says Michael Barone, who thinks most people -- Democrats and Republicans -- may view what happened as an aberration.

This column is both hilarious and pathetic at the same time.  Mark Steyn tells us that John Kerry now has a new scapegoat for his changing political positions and campaign trail screw ups.  It's all his speechwriters' fault. 

Suzanne Fields explains why is the Arab world so upset about  "humiliation?" 

Abu Ghraib is the Vietnam the media never had.  And we all know how much the media has been dying for something like this to come from the war.  Diana West says that the media is lovin' it so much we won't soon hear the end of it.

In baseball there are earned runs, and unearned runs.  In electoral politics there are earned and unearned advantages.  Yes, the abuse stories for Abu Ghraib are a disaster, and Jay Bryant. says they are resulting in the biggest unearned political bonanza for a presidential candidate ever in an election year.

Oral sex lessons could combat the high teen pregnancy rate in Great Britain.

Former Gov. Neil Goldschmidt had sex with a girl for nearly a year, beginning in 1975 when he was the 35-year old mayor of Portland and she was 14.

French policeman arrested for driving under the influence in nothing but a pair of fishnets.

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