the things you believe you're seeing...

Someone should tell the British police that their treatment of these two individuals is very degrading and humiliating. GOOD!

Oliver Stone, who plans to make the first major feature film about 9-11 made this idiotic and uninformed comment; Stone says, "There was an over-reaction after 9/11. Bush was given enormous powers and misused them. He created a war in Iraq that has further helped bust the economy , and has led to civil war there. "He was the wrong leader at the wrong time. I always felt that. I wish I was wrong." Your wish has been granted. You are a moron! Here . WASHINGTON — The U.S. economy grew solidly at a 3.4 percent annual rate in the second quarter, the government reported Friday, just slightly below the first quarter's pace and with room to grow as stocks of unsold goods fell for the first time in two years. While second-quarter growth eased from a 3.8 percent rate in the first three months of the year, it nonetheless marked the ninth straight quarter in which gross domestic product (search), or GDP, increased at a rate exceeding 3 percent, Commerce Department figures sho...

The 7-7 London terrorist bombers bought round-trip tickets and did not leave suicide notes or videos for their families. This article suggests that perhaps they were duped into becoming suicide bombers.

Soldiers at Camp Murray in Tacoma, Washington were given a preview of the new Steven Bochco FX series "Over There" and it was not what Bochco expected. Of course you've heard by now how "true to life" and "gut-wrenching" this show was suppose to be. The media has been raving about it, so immediately I was suspicious. If the media thinks its realistic something must be afoot. A truck tire hits a flagged wire, a roadside bomb explodes, a handsome private with shredded leg screams in agony. In the bloody chaos of the moment, his soldier buddies panic. One pukes. Stop the cameras! Sir! "People don't act like that when an i.e.d. (improvised explosive device) goes off. They make us look like idiots. We're not idiots!" said a first lieutenant previewing "Over There," the new TV series from Steven Bochco ("NYPD Blue," "Hill Street Blues") that debuts tomorrow night on FX cable network. It's set in Iraq, hype...

See here ...

Upon reading the title of the link above to this story on the MeSs-NBC page I thought finally a story from the MSM that will portray the Iraqi people in a positive light, one that shows why the Iraqi people are continuing to join the dangerous police force in the face of suicide bombings, hostage taking and executions of many the brave Iraqi policeman. A story that shows that the Iraqis are bravely and actively trying to fight the terrorists to take back their country from the ruins that the terrorists and Saddam Huessein have left. And then I read the story...and returned to reality. What motivates Iraqi police recruits?

Yesterday I mentioned that record companies have found creative ways to skirt the laws while still benefiting from payola. In the LA Times today there is a brief paragraph that explains how its done; In September, investigators in Spitzer's office subpoenaed executives at the four major record corporations — Sony BMG, Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group and EMI Group — to request copies of billing records, contracts, e-mails and other correspondence regarding the [record] companies' relationships with independent music promoters who suggest new songs to radio programmers. Those intermediaries have long been suspected of passing payments to deejays in exchange for airplay of specific songs. Such payments would violate a federal statute known as the payola law, which prohibits broadcasters from taking cash or anything of value in exchange for playing specific songs unless they disclose the transaction to listeners. Radio airplay is considered the most powerful promotional ...

Now we know why all of those crappy J-Lo songs continue to hit the top of the charts, it obvious it wasn't the quality of the singing/song and now it looks like the wheels are coming off this latest version of payola that the record companies are involved in. "Please be advised that in this week's Jennifer Lopez Top 40 Spin Increase of 236 we bought 63 spins at a cost of $3,600." "Please be advised that in this week's Good Charlotte Top 40 Spin Increase of 61 we bought approximately 250 spins at a cost of $17K …" Ironically, it didn't help, as the memo notes that the company actually lost spins — or plays of the record — even though they laid out money for them. See above: The internal memos from Sony Music, revealed today in the New York state attorney general's investigation of payola at the company, will be mind blowing to those who are not so jaded to think records are played on the radio because they're good. We've all known for a l...

Al "Carson"

Wonder why the mainstream media has not reported this story ? GIs criticize Soldiers from Massachusetts and Hawaii who work at the U.S. military detention facility at U.S. Naval Base Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, gave visiting home-state senators a piece of their mind last week. Sens. Edward M. Kennedy, Massachusetts Democrat, and Daniel K. Akaka, Hawaii Democrat, met with several soldiers during a visit led by Armed Services Committee Chairman Sen. John W. Warner, Virginia Republican. Pentagon officials said soldiers criticized the harsh comments made recently by Senate Democrats. Sen. Richard J. Durbin of Illinois, the Senate's No. 2 Democrat, last month invoked widespread military outrage when he compared Guantanamo to the prison labor systems used by communist tyrant Josef Stalin, Cambodia's Pol Pot and Adolf Hitler. "They got stiff reactions from those home-state soldiers," one official told us. "The troops down there expressed their disdain for that kind of comment...

Yesterday PM John Howard of Australia did what Tony Blair could not, bitch-slap the stupid press when one of them asked this idiotic question, watch it here , via Trey Jackson. Just love it! Both videos are must-see, especially the video contained in UPDATE II where the aforementioned bitch-slapping occurs.

The Washington Post must be having a hard time finding something to attack John Roberts on so instead they decide to attack his wife and kids in the Style section. Very class move... There they were -- John, Jane, Josie and Jack -- standing with the president and before the entire country. The nominee was in a sober suit with the expected white shirt and red tie. His wife and children stood before the cameras, groomed and glossy in pastel hues -- like a trio of Easter eggs, a handful of Jelly Bellies, three little Necco wafers . There was tow-headed Jack -- having freed himself from the controlling grip of his mother -- enjoying a moment in the spotlight dressed in a seersucker suit with short pants and saddle shoes. His sister, Josie, was half-hidden behind her mother's skirt. Her blond pageboy glistened. And she was wearing a yellow dress with a crisp white collar, lace-trimmed anklets and black patent-leather Mary Janes.

Especially for the "Blame Iraq" crowd check out the Anchoress .

John Howard, Prime Minister of Australia and a staunch ally in the war on terror, was in London to meet with Tony Blair today when the botched attacks occurred. Here is how he responded to a question from a reporter that implied the reason for the attacks was British, American and Australia's presence in Iraq; PRIME MIN. HOWARD: Could I start by saying the prime minister and I were having a discussion when we heard about it. My first reaction was to get some more information. And I really don't want to add to what the prime minister has said. It's a matter for the police and a matter for the British authorities to talk in detail about what has happened here. Can I just say very directly, Paul, on the issue of the policies of my government and indeed the policies of the British and American governments on Iraq, that the first point of reference is that once a country allows its foreign policy to be determined by terrorism, it's given the game away, to use the vernacula...

Michele Malkin has a good number of links related to todays attacks/incidents in London.

Bah, bye Michael.

James Doohan who played "Scotty" on Star Trek has died at the age of 85. He was one of my favorite characters on ST:TOS, "Star Trek: The Original Series" for you non-trekers out there. I will have to watch a few of my favorite Scotty episodes tonight in honor of James Doohan, "The Doomsday Machine" and "That Which Survives" to name a couple. See here and here for more on James Doohan.

From Matt Cooper's Time piece: "As for Wilson's wife, I told the grand jury I was certain that Rove never used her name and that, indeed, I did not learn her name until the following week, when I either saw it in Robert Novak's column or Googled her, I can't recall which. ..." Ah, wait a minute, if he got her name from Google, wouldn't that mean that it was on the Internet for everyone to see? Ya think maybe a followup question is worthy?

Father of Mohamed Atta has praised the London terror attacks.

So says CNN . It's John Roberts. And Chuck Schumer is not happy.

Funny but is this real? or a pretty good fake? or what Katie thinks of Good Morning America?

Looks like Dick Durbin needs to find another FBI agent's email to read from the next time he compares US soldiers to Nazis and Stalin and other upstanding individuals. Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John W. Warner, Virginia Republican, rebuked Mr. Durbin in a Senate debate for reading, as fact, a raw FBI report, the charges in which had not yet been investigated. That investigation was completed last week by Air Force Lt. Gen. Randall M. Schmidt, who commands the 12th Air Force, the air component of U.S. Southern Command, which oversees the 520-inmate prison at the U.S. Naval Base at Guantanamo. Gen. Schmidt wrote in his report, "Another FBI agent stated she witnessed a detainee short shackled and lying in his own excrement. The [investigation] was unable to find any documentation, testimony, or other evidence corroborating the third agent's recollection to this allegation or her e-mail allegation that one of the detainees had pulled his hair out while short sha...

Check this piece in National Review about an unreported but extremely revealing legal brief encouraged by the NY Times and joined by the Washington Post and 34 other news outlets in which they basically say that their reporters should not be imprisoned since "no crime had been commited" . Yes that's right, the same defense that supporters of Karl Rove are using, so does that mean that the MSM is on his side? Yeah right. Apparantly the MSM wants to have it both ways, trash Rove and the adminstration on a daily basis on the front pages of all newspapers and news websites but behind the scenes arguing in court in support of Rove.

The MSM is breathlessly (my new favorite word) reporting today that President Bush has changed his stance on what action he would take against Karl Rove; Reuters is proudly trumpeting this quote from June 2004; Asked on June 10, 2004, whether he stood by his earlier pledge to fire anyone found to have leaked the officer's name, Bush replied: " Yes." He did not add the qualification that the person would have to be found to have committed a crime . That's not quite what he said, this is from CNN , February 11,2004 (although the President said this on 9/30/2003); "If there's a leak out of my administration, I want to know who it is," Bush told reporters at an impromptu news conference during a fund-raising stop in Chicago, Illinois. "If the person has violated law, that person will be taken care of. So the President's answer of "YES" to the June 10, 2004 question "do you still stand by what you said several months ago" was rel...

Now we know why Chucky Schumer and Joe Wilson had their big press conference yesterday, they knew all of this information was coming out today in the NY Times , Washington Post , AP and Washington Times . They needed to distract. The NY Times is reporting today that Karl Rove spoke with Robert Novak about Valerie Plame some days before Novak's column outed Valerie Plame as a CIA "operative." However, the Times says it was Novak who called Rove about a different matter and then changed the subject and asked Rove about Valerie Plame. Novak identified her to Rove using her maiden name and also informed Rove of the circumstances surrounding her husbands mission to Niger to investigate Iraq yellowcake claims. Karl Rove, the White House senior adviser, spoke with the columnist Robert D. Novak as he was preparing an article in July 2003 that identified a C.I.A. officer who was undercover, someone who has been officially briefed on the matter said. Mr. Rove has told investigat...

In an interview that is a complete embarrasment Jamie Gangel of NBC's Today Show asked former Ambassador Joe Wilson and current liar the following deep and probing questions; What do you think of Karl Rove? What does your wife think of Karl Rove? What does she think of all this week? ( huh? ) Are you a Democrat? (he couldn't even answer this question) Do you and your wife believe the perpetrators of this will ever be punished? What do you think the White House should do now? Do you think even though what Karl Rove did may not have broken a law, do you think from what you know he should be fired? Wow! What a tough interview. I can't believe that Joe Wilson agreed to put himself through this. How about these questions Jamie; Why did you lie when you said that VP Dick Cheney and CIA Dir Tenent sent you to Niger? Why did you lie when you said your wife had nothing to do with you being chosen to go to Niger when the Senate Intelligence Committee report says that your wife ...

A fascinating article from Byron York of the National Review who spoke to Karl Rove's attorney Robert Luskin about the latest feeding frenzy in Washington over Valerie "Vanity Fair" Plame. It turns out it was Matt Cooper who called Rove about a completely different matter of welfare reform before changing the subject to Wilson near the end of the conversation. Luskin told NRO that the circumstances of Rove's conversation with Cooper undercut Time's suggestion of a White House "war on Wilson." According to Luskin, Cooper originally called Rove — not the other way around — and said he was working on a story on welfare reform. After some conversation about that issue, Luskin said, Cooper changed the subject to the weapons of mass destruction issue, and that was when the two had the brief talk that became the subject of so much legal wrangling. According to Luskin, the fact that Rove did not call Cooper; that the original purpose of the call, as Cooper tol...

Isn't anybody wondering why Judith Miller is still in jail? After all, Karl Rove gave Matt Cooper a general waiver in order for him to disclose what he and Rove discussed in order for Cooper to avoid going to jail. Well the MSM seems to be assuming or implying that if Rove gave Cooper permission to reveal his source he must have given Miller the same waiver. But yet Miller remains in jail choosing not to reveal her source of the Plame leak, which the MSM seems to think is Karl Rove, or maybe thats what they want everyone to think. Doesn't anyone find that curious? Let's suppose that her source is not Karl Rove. Perhaps her source is someone that her employer the NY Times does not want revealed because it could be embarrasing to them or to the Washington news media? Maybe that's why the White House press corp is on a feeding frenzy right now looking to pin the entire episode on the evil Karl Rove and keep the attention off of Judith Miller for fear that someone migh...

It's almost like watching an NBA game, who watch the last 5 minutes of the games and you know the story, go to the end of this piece in the NY Times and you find this about the last on Rove Mania; The e-mail message from Mr. Cooper to his bureau chief describing a brief conversation with Mr. Rove, first reported in Newsweek, does not by itself establish that Mr. Rove knew Ms. Wilson's covert status or that the government was taking measures to protect her. Based on the e-mail message, Mr. Rove's disclosures are not criminal, said Bruce S. Sanford, a Washington lawyer who helped write the law and submitted a brief on behalf of several news organizations concerning it to the appeals court hearing the case of Mr. Cooper and Judith Miller, a reporter for The New York Times. Ms. Miller has gone to jail rather than disclose her source. "It is clear that Karl Rove's conversation with Matt Cooper does not fall into that category" of criminal conduct, Mr. Sanford said....

The BBC is afraid offending any terrorists , oh sorry, bombers. The BBC has re-edited some of its coverage of the London Underground and bus bombings to avoid labelling the perpetrators as "terrorists", it was disclosed yesterday. And furthermore labeling anyone a terrorist just puts up more barriers to understanding why these people want to strap bombs to themselves and then board subway trains and buses in order to blow themselves to smithereens and take any man, women and child with them. Consequently, "the word 'terrorist' itself can be a barrier rather than an aid to understanding" and its use should be "avoided", the guidelines say. I really need to understand this way of thinking.

AOL is notorious for very misleading headlines on their front page, here is a perfect example. The headline appears today on their website and on the front page when logging on; Rove Was Time Reporter's Source When clicking on the graphic you are taken to the actual article with the somewhat less but still misleading headline of "Rove Spoke With Reporter About CIA Agent" but it is not until the second to last paragraph of the article ( one sentence ) that says the following; The e-mail did not suggest that Rove used Plame's name or that he knew she was a covert agent, the article said. So what does all of this mean? Well it doesn't prove didly has far as I can tell. And as for Ms. Plame being an undercover agent why the hell is she posing for Vanity Fair like the one above or more recently like this one; And was it even much of a secret? Andrea Mitchell reluctantly admitted on MSNBC that is was generally known by the news media, before @#$% hit the fan, that V...

Blogs are linking to this site that is accepting pics with "we're not afraid" messages of support to London...

AP incorrectly reported this so now the terrorists will undoubtedly seize on this. Then 27 minutes later they changed the story to this . NOw which version do you think will be picked up by news services all over the world? It has since been debunked but the AP has not corrected their story yet...

Mark Steyn in the UK's Telegraph lays it all out for ya. I especially like this; Or as Dave Gilmour of Pink Floyd put it: "I want to do everything I can to persuade the G8 leaders to make huge commitments to the relief of poverty and increased aid to the Third World. It's crazy that America gives such a paltry percentage of its GNP to the starving nations." When compared to this from the NY Times; But the fact is that Mr. Bush has done much more for Africa than Bill Clinton ever did, increasing the money actually spent for aid there by two-thirds so far, and setting in motion an eventual tripling of aid for Africa. Mr. Bush's crowning achievement was ending one war in Sudan, between north and south. And while Mr. Bush has done shamefully little to stop Sudan's other conflict - the genocide in Darfur - that's more than Mr. Clinton's response to genocide in Rwanda (which was to issue a magnificent apology afterward).

And of course the media is very, very quite ...look here .

From the mind of Dick Durbin, here ...

The NY Times, of all places, provides a very interesting perspective on just how much of a friend to Africa President Bush reaaly is and how little the previous office holder did; Those who care about Africa tend to think that the appropriate attitude toward President Bush is a medley of fury and contempt. But the fact is that Mr. Bush has done much more for Africa than Bill Clinton ever did, increasing the money actually spent for aid there by two-thirds so far, and setting in motion an eventual tripling of aid for Africa. Mr. Bush's crowning achievement was ending one war in Sudan, between north and south. And while Mr. Bush has done shamefully little to stop Sudan's other conflict - the genocide in Darfur - that's more than Mr. Clinton's response to genocide in Rwanda (which was to issue a magnificent apology afterward). So to those screaming idiots at Live 8 accussing Bush of not doing enough, perhaps they didn't do enough homework on the issue, and does that r...

So this morning I hear an excerpt from last nights NBC News broadcast where apparently Brian Williams said that some of the Founding Fathers could be described as terrorists. Williams to Andrea Mitchell during last nights broadcast while discussing if the new president of Iran was in fact one of the American hostage takers back in 1979; "What would it all matter if proven true? Someone brought up today the first several U.S. presidents were certainly revolutionaries and might have been called 'terrorists' by the British crown, after all." Mitchell: "Indeed Brian" Michelle Malkin is all over this . And this was an entry in Williams blog earlier in the day previewing the the broadcast for that night.