Right Wing Nut House

The recent tragic murder of the husband and mother of a US District Judge here in Chicago had the left all atwitter because, at first glance, it appeared that the Republican party…er White Supremecist groups may have been responsible.

In the mind of a moonbat, there was, of course, no difference. The hate-filled goofballs on the right were considered by the clueless kool-aid drinkers on the left as part and parcel of (depending on who you’re reading) the Christian right or the Neo-cons.

Sorry to disappoint:

Investigators early Thursday said a man who shot himself in the head during a traffic stop in Wisconsin had a suicide note claiming responsibility for the slaying of U.S. District Judge Joan Lefkow’s husband and mother last week.

Members of the task force of Chicago police and federal agents said the man’s van was stopped in West Allis, near Milwaukee, about 6 p.m. As officers approached the vehicle, the man killed himself with a gunshot to the head.

Investigators said the man had a suicide note that included an admission that he shot the judge’s family. The note included details in the case that were not released to the public, investigators said.

While it was fitting and proper for the police and FBI to concentrate on looking for suspects in all logical places, including white supremecist groups where the judge was a marked woman, leftists all across the blogosphere (and in the mainstream media) saw the tragic murders as a way to bash conservatives by trying to connect the hate groups to conservative and/or Chirstian ideology.

It didn’t work out quite that way.

Sources close to the case said they were investigating whether the judge had ruled against the man in a civil matter. He was not immediately thought to have ties to any hate group.

The note indicated that the judgment had cost the man “his house, his job and family” one source said.

Chicago police and federal investigators were en route to West Allis late Wednesday to investigate. If the man’s suicide note is true, the investigation, which had moved heavily toward the organization tied to jailed white supremacist Matthew Hale, will have ended in a starkly different realm.

Comparisons will inevitably be made between this case and the case of the coptic Christian family in New Jersey who were murdered in December by, what was thought at the time, muslim extremists. When two men were arrested for the murder of the Armanious family with no apparent ties to islamofascists, the lefty apologists for the jihadists crowed that conservatives had jumped to conclusions.

Not so fast, One of the suspects had some curious relationships while in prison:

While incarcerated in the federal system, he reportedly associated with a group of inmates who were actively involved in Islamic counseling - receiving radical fundamentalist Islamic literature during his incarceration. The prison source told Northeast Intelligence Network director Douglas Hagmann that there is indeed a religious component to the murders….Investigators from this agency are continuing the investigation to determine the veracity of those claims.

And while it may yet turn out that the tragic murders of the Armanious family had no connection to terrorism, the on-going investigation shows that the idea has not been discounted.

As for the murder of the judge’s mother and husband, if this new development pans out and shows that the judge was the victim of a disgruntled defendent, I’m sure we’ll hear all sorts of effusive apologies from the left for sliming conservatives.

Jyah! Sure!

Pat over at Brainsters Blog has been doing yeoman work on an issue that’s hovered below the radar of the MSM in this country; the murder of Robert McCartney, an Irish Catholic, by the IRA .

The murder has caused a lot of problems for the terrorist group as it has highlighted other illegal activities carried out in the name of Irish independence including a bank robbery that netted the group $50 million.

Sein Fein leader Gerry Adams is going to make his annual fundraising pilgrimage to the US later this month. Given the still violent nature of the IRA and Sein Fein’s close ties to the group, Congress and the President should make it clear to Mr. Adams in no uncertain terms that continued progress towards peace on that troubled island will depend on the IRA’s adherence to the “Good Friday Accords” that disarmed the IRA and put the “troubles” on a firm political footing.

Read the updates on Pat’s blog and keep scrolling. He’s got some great links and good analysis.

Captain Ed has an excellent summary of the case along with some background.

Yes, I believe there are terrorists on both sides. But this kind of mafia-style justice has no place in a democratic society.

On Sunday, I went ahead and published what I was given to understand pictures of Italian journalist Giuliana Sgrena’s car after a run in at a checkpoint with the US military that resulted in the tragic death of an Italian Secret Service agent and wounding of Sgrena and another agent. The picture accompanied an Associated Press story of the tragedy. We found out later that the AP had casually placed a totally unrelated picture of another car with the story. Embarassed (and a little angry) I kept the post up but had to write an explanation of the mix-up.

Now we have some more pictures of Sgrena’s car, this time from the Italian daily La Repubblica.it courtesy of Little Green Footballs. I suppose I could wait and see if these turn out to be false as well, but this time they’re apparently the real thing.

ATTENTION YOU STUPID MOONBATS! Please look at these pictures and tell me that poor little Ms. Sgrena was “targeted” by the U.S. military when the windshield of this car is still intact not to mention that the condition of this car makes her out to be, as I said yesterday, a LIAR! First, the pictures:

This is the car that Sgrena told her editor had been hit by 300-400 rounds from “an armoured vehicle” or a tank, or…something! It’s obvious that the soldiers followed procedure here by firing at the engine block. It could also be that since the Italian driver wasn’t stopping that bullets went into the driver’s side window which could account for the tragic hit on the Italian Secret Service agent who was sitting in the backseat on the passenger side.

Kind of begs the question…How did Sgrena think she was going to get away with her lies and slanders? This is the 21st century baby! Ever hear of the internet?

If the Americans were truly interested in killing her she’d be…well, dead. They wouldn’t have gotten her medical attention. And after the car came to a stop they would have walked up to it and sprayed the car with bulletts until there was no one left alive to tell the story.

This is NOT a conpsiracy. You need two people for a conspiracy. This is simply the case of a publicity hungry far-left anti-American propagandist lying through her teeth to advance her political agenda.

Sickening…using the death of Nicola Callipari, the brave Secret Service agent who risked his life to make the pick-up with the terrorists.

For shame!

UPDATE

Rusty at My Pet Jawa has some good analysis using most of the quotes I used in this post of Sgrena’s version(s) of events and then contrasting the bloodcurdling descriptions of the communist propagandist Sgrena with the straightfoward description of the US military:

The 3rd ID issued a press statement last week saying the car was racing toward the checkpoint when they signaled it to stop, fired warning shots and finally shot the engine block of the car. The shots killed one and wounded two, including the journalist.

Wizbang has the original Italian Photo Gallery from La Repubblica-all six pics.

The Italian press should jump all over this moonbat. And while they’re at it, maybe they could investigate the strange circumstances of her kidnapping in the first place. Dr. Rusty has more on that here.

UPDATE II:

John Hawkins weighs in with a link to an ABC story that has a senior US Military official saying Sgrena’s car was travelling “in excess of 100 MPH.”

John also has a link to a story written by a Dutch journalist who used to write for a Dutch communist newspaper saying that Sgrena was warned to be careful while in Iraq but blithely said that because she was so anti-American, the insurgents would leave her alone.

More questions for the propagandist…

One more re-occurring theme of Bush-bashers bites the dust:

“In the first substantial shift of public opinion in the Muslim world since the beginning of the United States’ global war on terrorism, more people in the world’s largest Muslim country now favor American efforts against terrorism than oppose them.

“This is just one of many dramatic findings of a new nationwide poll in Indonesia conducted February 1-6, 2005, and just translated and released…

(Hat Tip: Chrenkoff)

Some of the findings in this poll are remarkable.

“- For the first time ever in a major Muslim nation, more people favor US-led efforts to fight terrorism than oppose them (40% to 36%). Importantly, those who oppose US efforts against terrorism have declined by half, from 72% in 2003 to just 36% today.

“- Indeed, 71% of the people who express confidence in Bin Laden are now more favorable to the United States because of American aid to tsunami victims.”

Clearly, part of the reason for this remarkable turnaround lies in the heroic work of the US military during the relief efforts to aid the Tsunami victims. Amazing what a little humanitarian relief will do to change the hearts and minds of people.

Chrenkoff ticks off the hundreds…er dozens…um several media outlets that have mentioned this poll:

This is a major development, a substantial piece of good news, and a vindication of the Administration’s policies, which means that of all the major media outlets in the world, only ABC , “Boston Globe”, and the “Washington Times” have carried the original Reuters story. No other American outlet, no European news provider, nothing in the Muslim world (except for the “Jakarta Post”), and only one mention in Australia.

If you don’t read Mr. Chrenkoff on a regular basis, you’re missing something important; good news on Iraq, Afghanistan, and other fronts in the War on Terror not covered by the MSM.

You’ve got to feel for FEC Commissioner Bradley Smith.

Called a “First Amendment Hero” by Professor Bainbridge, Smith has been targeted for character assassination by those who seek to control political speech. Bainbridge writes of Smith:

As a law professor before he joined the FEC, Smith wrote many law review articles condemning campaign finance regulation. As a result, when Smith was nominated to the FEC, McCain and Feingold orchestrated a massive smear campaign against him. Since then, even while faithfully enforcing the statutes his Commission oversees, Smith has consistently been on the side of free speech.

So don’t blame the messenger!

The attacks on Commissioner Smith-especially from the Campaign Legal Center-have been both vicious and personal. In effect, they’ve labled the Commissioner a liar for remarks made in a C-Net interview that’s sparked one of biggest blogswarms on both the left and right to date.

Captain Ed has some interesting information on the Campaign Legal Center:

One of the organizations pushing for the BCRA (McCain-Feingold) is the Campaign Legal Center, headed by Trevor Potter and fronted by PR spokesperson Mark Glaze, who ran Al Gore’s recount efforts in Florida.

And Democracy Project has another interesting tidbit on Potter:

The Campaign Legal Center, headed by Trevor Potter, former chairman of the Federal Election Commission and general counsel to Senator McCain’s 2000 presidential campaign, is a non-profit organization which is playing a pivotal role in the political and legal battle over campaign finance. The Center is a member of the legal team defending the future of campaign finance reform in the wake of challenges to the recent campaign reform law passed by Congress.

So here we have a group headed up by McCain’s former campaign lawyer and an Al Gore PR flack asking the blogosphere to “Remain calm…All is well…”

Why do I feel like the canary who just got an invitation to go out to dinner with the cat?

Commissioner Smith has responded to this attack on his character and credibility in an email. His main points:

1. The Campaign Legal Center press release basically argues that only paid ads will be covered for internet regulation. In fact, the FEC has already viewed paid internet ads as subject to regulation under FECA.

2. The court’s opinion that directs the FEC to regulate the internet does not limit the Commission to dealing with online ads.

3. Reps. Shays and Meehan, represented by Potter, also successfully argued that the FEC could not exclude unpaid broadcast ads from the reach of the law.

4. Smith adds that the internet is up for grabs, and there is no reason that republication of campaign emails or posts, or advocacy of candidates on blogs, or links to candidates web sites would be exempt from FEC regulation.

The entire sphere owes Commissioner Smith a debt of gratitude for both his advocacy of the First Amendment and his warnings about this latest McCain-Feingold outrage.

Thanks to Chris Muir for supporting bloggers today…and everyday.

Who says our colleges and Universities exist under some kind of stifling political correctness?

After some students were offended by Jada Pinkett Smith’s comments at Saturday’s Cultural Rhythms show, the Bisexual, Gay, Lesbian, Transgender, and Supporters Alliance (BGLTSA) and the Harvard Foundation for Intercultural and Race Relations have begun working together to increase sensitivity toward issues of sexuality at Harvard.

Students said that some of Pinkett Smith’s remarks concerning appropriate gender roles were specific to heterosexual relationships.

Jada, Jada, Jada…you should know better by now. How incredibly rude and insenitive of you! To make remarks “specific to hetrosexual relationships” even if you are one just isn’t done on college campuses today; especially, of all places, Harvard!

BGLTSA Co-Chair Jordan B. Woods ‘06 said that, while many BGLTSA members thought Pinkett Smith’s speech was “motivational,” some were insulted because they thought she narrowly defined the roles of men and women in relationships.

“Some of the content was extremely heteronormative, and made BGLTSA members feel uncomfortable,” he said.

The fact that this appears in the Harvard Crimson and not the Harvard Lampoon is probably an accident. How else can you explain the laughable way these poor schmucks twist themselves into knots trying to make an issue of of…what? Hetronormalcy? Is that a word? I can’t find it in my “Culturally Sensitive and Anti-Homophobic Guide to Surviving in a Politically Correct Environment” manual.

Calling the comments heteronormative, according to Woods, means they implied that standard sexual relationships are only between males and females.

“Our position is that the comments weren’t homophobic, but the content was specific to male-female relationships,” Woods said.

Margaret C. D. Barusch ‘06, the other BGLTSA co-chair, said the comments might have seemed insensitive in effect, if not in intent.

“I think the comments had a very strong focus for an extended period of time on how to effectively be in a relationship-a heterosexual relationship,” Barusch said. “I don’t think she meant to be offensive but I just don’t think she was that thoughtful.”

Poor Jada probably used the wrong code words one too many times. Plus, she didn’t use a stopwatch and time just how long she should have been talking about non”hetronormative” issues. I can’t imagine someone as nice as Jada Pinkett-Smith wishing to offend anyone much less a group known as the Harvard Foundation for Intercultural and Race Relations who had just given her the “Performer of the Year” award. So next time, I’m sure she’ll abide by the “equal time” provision in the political correctness handbook…that’s exactly equal time.

God! I’m glad I’m not in college today.

I feel for this poor schmuck who, after posting a long screed at Daily Kos on why the Democrats lost in 2004, had to post an update:

Update [2005-2-25 17:33:16 by Armando]: HProf points out my brain lock - the most important difference between 1996 and 2004 was the reemergence of national security as the single most important Presidential issue.

“Ooops! I knew I forgot something…” Like 9/11.

I feel for him because first, Democracy Guy got a hold of this and let the moonbat have it right between the eyes. And if that’s not bad enough, Blogdaddy weighs in just to make sure the entire planet knows what a numbskull this guy really is.

What this boils down to is simple: When is someone going to hit the Democratic party with a two-by-four upside the head to wake them out of their stupor?

Maybe in their heart of hearts, the liberals agree with Ward Churchill. Maybe they really believe that America had it coming and that any effort on our part to defend ourselves is somehow immoral. Perhaps this is why liberals do not believe that 9/11 changed anything and that anybody who mentions that tragic day or tries to formulate policy on the basis that it should never happen again is “playing politics.”

Honest, decent people can disagree on what to do to make us safer. But to start from the premise that we are at bottom, an evil nation that deserves to have our citizens slaughtered like cattle just so that some ephemeral satisfaction can be gleaned from seeing the United States brought down on the world stage is, well…sick.

The left has deconstructed its way into political oblivion. It remains to be seen if there’s enough sense left in the Democratic party to keep it from following lemming-like over the cliff into the abyss.

NORTH KOREA TO REJOIN 6-WAY TALKS

What do Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush have in common? The ability to make their political opponents look like idiots:

TOKYO (Reuters) - North Korea has told officials in South Korea it is willing to take part in six-party talks on its nuclear arms program in June, a Japanese newspaper reported.

Pyongyang also said in its message, which was conveyed to South Korea by unofficial routes and then to Japan by Seoul, that it was willing to sign a treaty with the United States by October, the conservative Sankei Shimbun said on Monday.

(Yahoo News: 2/27/05)

If John Kerry had been elected, it’s an absolute certainty that this would not have taken place. Kerry believed that initiating bi-lateral talks with North Korea was the way to get them back to the six-party negotiations.

He, like opponents of Ronald Reagan’s “Zero Option” strategy for eliminating medium range nukes in Europe during the 1980’s, didn’t have the patience to negotiate with tyrants. Back then, Walter Mondale and liberals in the press were screaming at Reagan to go back to the Russians and grovel, beg the Soviets to come back to the negotiating table. Instead, Reagan patiently built up the military, pulled off a diplomatic coup by getting our medium range missiles deployed, and then watched the Russians slink back to the bargaining table. The result was the elimination of an entire class of nuclear weapons.

Makes Dubbya look like a prophet.

PUTIN IS ONE KLUELESS EX-KGB KOMMIE

I don’t know whether to laugh or be scared to death about this:

George Bush knew Vladimir Putin would be defensive when Bush brought up the pace of democratic reform in Russia in their private meeting at the end of Bush’s four-day, three-city tour of Europe. But when Bush talked about the Kremlin’s crackdown on the media and explained that democracies require a free press, the Russian leader gave a rebuttal that left the President nonplussed. If the press was so free in the U.S., Putin asked, then why had those reporters at CBS lost their jobs? Bush was openmouthed. “Putin thought we’d fired Dan Rather,” says a senior Administration official. “It was like something out of 1984.”

That’s not all. During the joint press conference, Putin called on a reporter who asked Bush the very same question (an obvious plant).

While this would normally be the stuff of a Cox and Forkhum cartoon, it’s also enormously worrisome. I don’t know where Putin is getting his information about how things work in the United States, but whoever is giving it to him is pretty much of a loon. It makes Russia look more and more like some exotic third world country rather than a nation with 10,000 nuclear weapons.

Kind of scary that.

SYRIA “CAPTURES” SADDAM’S HALF BROTHER

Hey kids! Look who we found!

CAIRO, Egypt - Iraqi officials said Sunday that Syrian authorities had captured Saddam Hussein (news - web sites)’s half-brother and 29 other officials of the deposed dictator’s Baath Party in Syria and handed them over to Iraq (news - web sites) in an apparent goodwill gesture.

Sabawi Ibrahim al-Hassan, a former Saddam adviser suspected of financing insurgents after U.S. troops ousted Saddam, was captured in Hasakah in northeastern Syria near the Iraqi border, two senior Iraqi officials told The Associated Press by telephone on condition of anonymity. Hasakah is about 30 miles from the Iraqi border.

(Yahoo News: 2/27/05)

So let me get this straight. Thirty or so Iraqi nationals are planning and carrying out terrorist activities for more than a year and a half in a country where if a flea sneezes without giving obiesance to Baby Assad it’s promptly arrested and thrown in jail. And we’re supposed to believe the Syrians just now discovered this network of terrorists on its soil?

It’s clear that Assad is running scared now, backtracking furiously in hopes of placating America long enough to salvage something out of his rapidly deteriorating position in Lebanon. If he can make his withdrawal from Lebanon seem like some kind of triumph, he has a chance of surviving. Anything less and its curtains for him, as the military as well as opposition in his own Baathist party would likely band together to oust him.

WELCOME BACK RICHARD NIXON

After taking a hiatus to serve our country, Richard Nixon is back! If you haven’t checked out his excellent blog Dead Republican Presidents, please do so.

Welcome back Dick…and THANK YOU FOR YOUR SERVICE!.

SPONGEBOB’S T-MOBILE HACKED: WASHINGTON TENSE

Cross-eyed Bear has the details of why the nattily pantalooned Porifera could very well be the next scalp hanging on the lodgepole of the blogosphere.

Since rumors of the impending release of Sponge Bob’s T-mobile address book began on Saturday night, the Washington scene has been buzzing, particuarly in the wake of the blogger induced “outing” of Jeff Gannon by left wing bloggers and the anticipated right-wing blogger response. At Large has learned that response may be at hand.

MOONBAT UPDATE

Van Helsing has the telling story of a moonbat standing in the way of progress by hanging on to his decreipt condo while trying to extort more money from the developer. Funny how moonbat’s get all rabid about “private property rights” when it’s their private property that someone wants to fool with.

Unemployed “peace studies” major Dan Goldstein is the only resident of a converted warehouse in a crappy part of Brooklyn. Everyone else unfortunate enough to have lived in the building has taken advantage of an extremely generous offer by Forest City Ratner, the development company that is trying to convert this particular slum into a new home for the New Jersey Nets, in addition to office and apartment towers — a project that will draw significant revenue into a community in sore need of it. It’s believed that residents were given double what they paid for their condos. But Goldstein apparently doesn’t need the money, having socked away more than his share back when he worked for a living, for AOL during what calls “the go-go 90s.”

THE CASE FOR LIFE

Sunnye from “The Sunnye Side of Life” relates a story with a strong message for why choosing life can be a glorious choice:

In 1996, I became pregnant during a rape. Due to complications, I was
advised to terminate my pregnancy. I refused all the way through. He
was born dead after being trapped in the birth canal and strangled by
the umbilical cord, but they resuscitated him. The social workers
told me that he needed to be institutionalized, that he may have
cerebral palsy after being deprived of oxygen. He needed a
craniectomy at 2 months to stop his seizures. They tried everything
to make me give up my son. I kept him, prayed for him every day, and
believed that my God could work a miracle.

Read the rest of this remarkable story.

As you may or may not already be aware, members of the Watcher’s Council hold a vote every week on what they consider to be the most link-worthy pieces of writing around… per the Watcher’s instructions, I am submitting one of my own posts for consideration in the upcoming nominations process.
Here is the most recent winning council post, here is the most recent winning non-council post, here is the list of results for the latest vote, and here is the initial posting of all the nominees that were voted on.

My own post from last week received 2/3 of a vote…better than I’ve done in a while. I didn’t get any votes at all the week before…deservedly so because I sent the wrong post! I mixed up the post I sent to Carnival of the Vanities with the one I was sending to the Watcher’s Vote!

I’m a dummypuppen.

Actually, if you’re not entering as many of these “Carnivals” as possible, you should be doing so. It’s a great way to get good exposure for your writing.

Another linkfest I’ve recently found is “The Best of Me Symphony.” Run by Gary at the Owners Manual, the Symphony accepts posts that are at least 60 days old. So, if you have a post that’s a couple of months old that yopu feel didn’t get the exposure it deserved, you can submit it to Gary’s excellent linkfest.

The Watcher has a post every week with a link to the current linkfests.