Ramblings' Journal

Ex-FBIer Felt says he's Deep Throat; Woodward confirms

30 years of pools are out the window. 91 year-old W. Mark Felt, a former FBI official, came out of the proverbial woodwork to announce himself as "Deep Throat," the near-legendary anonymous Watergate source.

Felt spoke to writer John O'Connor for a Vanity Fair piece in their July issue.

"I'm the guy they used to call Deep Throat," he told John D. O'Connor, the author of Vanity Fair's exclusive that appears in its July issue.

Felt, now 91 and living in Santa Rosa, Calif. reportedly gave O'Connor permission to disclose his identity.

"The Felt family cooperated fully, providing old photographs for the story and agreeing to sit for portraits," Vanity Fair stated in a press release.

Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, the two Washington Post writers who originally broke the Watergate saga confirmed Felt's identity as "Deep Throat." Also coming clean on Felt's identity is former Post executive editor Ben Bradlee.

The confirmation came from Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, the two Washington Post reporters who broke the Watergate story, and their former top editor, Benjamin C. Bradlee. The three spoke after Felt's family and Vanity Fair magazine identified the 91-year-old Felt, now a retiree in California, as the long-anonymous source who provided crucial guidance for some of the newspaper's groundbreaking Watergate stories.

In a statement today, Woodward and Bernstein said, "W. Mark Felt was 'Deep Throat' and helped us immeasurably in our Watergate coverage. However, as the record shows, many other sources and officials assisted us and other reporters for the hundreds of stories that were written in The Washington Post about Watergate."

Hmph. I had my money on someone actually inside the White House, and certainly someone much closer to Nixon.

Rome restauranteur may sue former President Bubba over missed reservation

The owner of one of Rome's trendiest eateries is considering a lawsuit after former President Bill Clinton was a no-show on a dinner reservation.

The owner is miffed because he stocked up on better food and drink, plus closed a section of his restaurant to accomodate Bubba and his Secret Service detail.

Whatever the reason for Clinton’s no-show, the restaurant owner is apparently none too pleased. According to reports, the owner may sue the former president who, the owner claims, didn't bother to cancel his reservation.

the former president has definitely resumed his frenetic pace, last week traveling to Rome to promote links between Africa and Europe. But when he's not pressing the flesh, he’s got to eat. And one afternoon Clinton's people reportedly booked a reservation at one of Rome's trendiest restaurants.

Having a president as your customer is obviously a big deal. And the restaurant’s owner reportedly went to town, spending nearly $2,000 on extra food and wine. He even closed off a section of the restaurant to accommodate Clinton and his secret service.

But the president never made it in, and the restaurant is reportedly considering its options, which might include a lawsuit.

Sorry. Contrary to some folks out there, while I'm no fan of the former Prez, I don't see his no-show as a problem. Schedules change, delays happen.

Not cancelling is certainly a breach of etiquette, but a lawsuit? C'mon. Be serious.

"A 35% chance of falling, flaming space debris is expected..."

The Baikonur Cosmodrome, in Kazakhstan, has been used for decades to launch space missions, including manned missions to the International Space Station.

In April, Russia announced that military Baikonur launches would end soon, shifting space shots to the Pletsnesk Cosmodrome in northern Russia.

All space-bound rockets consist largely of fuel tanks and booster stages that fall back to earth when spent, never reaching orbit. In landlocked Baikonur, Russia's primary launching complex in Kazakhstan, these spaceships crash to earth.

Apart from the fear of having a spaceship crash through their roofs, residents in the area complain of the ill effects of leftover toxic rocket fuel. With the relocation of Russian military launches, more than half of which currently take off from Baikonur, these people may get some relief. However, one group of people is probably sorry to see Baikonur lose business; the region's scrap metal dealers are getting rich trading metal from the rockets' titanium alloy hulls.

Commercial and manned missions will remain at Baikonur, so scrap dealers will still get a shot at some spare titanium, and the local cows still need to keep an eye to the skies -- lest a flaming hunk of rocket debris falls on 'em.

EurasiaNet has a photo essay showing some of the denizens of that part of the world, along with some of the space trash they collecct.

Anti-war moonbat Rangel wants to bring back draft

Congressman Charlie Rangel (Moonbat-NY), for the second year in a row, is pushing a new bill that would reinstate the military draft. Rangel tried to get a debate going over his bill last year, but was thwarted when House Republicans brought the measure up for a vote without the extended floor debate that he wanted.

Rangel said he is again calling for a draft because military recruitment is falling short.

"Everyone knows that we went into this war with an insufficient number of troops, but the problem now is filling the ranks of those units that are already on the ground," said Rangel.

Rangel has insisted that the burdens of the war in Iraq have fallen disproportionately on blacks and other minorities.

I would hope that everyone would be able to see through Rangel's hypocrisy.

Jesse Jackson, Democratic Party fined $200K for campaign finance violations

Jesse Jackson, his Rainbow/PUSH Coalition, and his Citizenship Education Fund, along with the Democratic Party have agreed to pay $200,000 in fines stemming from campaign finance violations in the 2000 elections.

At issue in the Federal Election Commission case was about $450,000 in election spending by Jackson, the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition and the Citizenship Education Fund using funds from the groups. The two non-profit groups were incorporated, making their money corporate and subject to restrictions under federal campaign finance laws.

According to the FEC, the money was used for a partisan get-out-the-vote effort and voter registration speaking tour that was coordinated with the Democratic National Committee and included appearances by Jackson and Democratic House and Senate candidates.

Anyone willing to take bets on how long before Jackson starts screaming that the FEC is being "racist?"

Simply a great opening line...

A new LA Times piece on the survivor of a Golden Gate Bridge suicide attempt has one of the best opening lines I've ever seen.

The very moment John Kevin Hines jumped off the Golden Gate Bridge, he knew he'd made a mistake.

Makes you shake your head and say "Just damn."

Colin Powell joins group trying to buy Washington Nationals

Former US Secretary of State Colin Powell has joined a Washington-based investment group looking to purchase the Washington Nationals.

"In Washington, we have the opportunity to reinvigorate this city and bring baseball back to a generation of youth who have lost their connection to our nation's pastime," Powell said in a statement yesterday. "I'm encouraged by baseball's efforts to diversify its ranks and its reach, and the Washington Baseball Club shares that commitment to making this team accessible to every Washingtonian."

Major League Baseball is set to receive bids from several groups on the former Montreal Expos. MLB is hoping to fetch $400 million from the sale of the team.

Other groups looking to buy the Nationals include one fronted by one of Jesse Jackson's sons, another includes former Seattle Mariners owner Jeffrey Smulyan.

The League of Conservatives - saving the world, one day at a time

I'm a huge comic book fan, and I don't believe this.

 

Members of The League of Conservatives include Ken Hamblin, Neal Boortz, Sean Hannity and Arnold Schwarzenegger in addition to the above pictured Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter.

The site's creators are taking nominees for the next League member.

They've also got shirts and posters for sale.

North Korea threatens pre-emptive strike against US

According to published reports, North Korea is threatening a pre-emptive strike against the United States, while simultaneously promising to go ahead with the six-party talks aimed at reducing tensions in that part of the world.

The North poured out anti-US rhetoric -- a tactic it has used in the past before entering negotiations -- claiming that Washington's "hostile policies" led it to develop nuclear weapons as a deterrent, and warning against any attack to dislodge its leadership.

"The United States should be aware that the choice of a pre-emptive attack is not only theirs," the North's official news agency quoted the Cabinet newspaper Minju Joson as saying. "To stand against force with force is our unswerving method of response."

North Korea on Tuesday repeated claims that its nuclear weapons protect regional peace.

"It is in the East Asian region, including the Korean Peninsula, where the US moves for vicious attacks and war ... are carried out most seriously," the Minju Joson said. "It is our nuclear deterrent that basically guarantees peace and stability."

Lil Kim Jong Il definitely needs to have his head examined.

"See we was talkin' 'bout light sabers and drinkin' tequila..."

You can't make this kind of stuff up!

Two Star Wars fans are in a critical condition in hospital after apparently trying to make light sabres by filling fluorescent light tubes with petrol.

A man, aged 20, and a girl of 17 are believed to have been filming a mock duel when they poured fuel into two glass tubes and lit it.

A police spokeswoman said the pair were taken to West Herts Hospital before being transferred to the specialist burns unit at Broomfield Hospital, Chelmsford, in Essex.

They are both said to be in a critical condition.

She added: "At this stage we are unable to confirm the exact circumstances, but glass tubes and traces of accelerant (flammable substance) were found at the scene."

These two sound like refugees from the moronic MTV show, Jackass.

Usually this type of thing is the result of a lot of drinking and one bright guy saying to the other, "Hey! Hold muh beer 'n watch this!"

A new guilty pleasure on the tube

Fox Reality, the newest channel from the Fox stable, hit the airwaves yesterday on DirecTV Channel 250.

The new channel will show reruns of past reality shows from the US and abroad. They started out with reruns of the original Joe Millionaire, and will run the first season of Last Comic Standing next week. Love Cruise, The Swan, Temptation Island, My Big Fat Obnoxious Fiance and Mad Mad House (the latter from SciFi Channel last year) will be on the schedule shortly.

Also, look for international versions of Temptation Island and Joe Millionaire, along with other imports from off-shore like the UK's Single Girls and The Villa. Negotiations are underway for the rights to The Bachelor, The Will and The Family.

I'm holding out hope for cancelled Fox reality shows Playing It Straight (the one with the gay cowboys) and Forever Eden (with the people living on a resort island). Both shows were dumped before their last episodes were aired.

Fox Reality is also airing extra content with behind the scenes info on the programs, and a fair amount of other shows like Arrest & Trial, The 5th Wheel and Cops.

Anyway, as the headline says, it'll be a guilty pleasure for me, at least.

Scare America ratings are in the crapper everywhere

Brian Maloney at The Radio Equalizer has an in depth look at the latest on the Arbitron ratings for several Air America markets, and the results are the same across the board. No one's listening -- at least not in any kind of numbers that anyone can appreciate.

Sounds like the writing may be on the wall at Air America.

To the Radio Equalizer, most telling is the recent report that Al Franken has purchased a home in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area, gearing up for a potential 2008 US Senate run. Franken's clearly making backup plans.

And contrary to the carping on Air America, there's no conspiracy. People just aren't listening.

Baptist preacher urges Koran flushing

The Reverend Creighton Lovelace from the Danielstown Baptist Church in Forest City, NC is urging that the Koran be "flushed," according to a radio broadcast sermon and a sign outside the church.

"I cannot change my position just because it may offend someone else," Lovelace said.

Lovelace said he put the sign up in response to a Newsweek article that falsely accused U.S.soldiers of flushing the Quran down a toilet at the Guantamo Bay detention center. Newsweek later retracted that story, but not before the article sparked riots in some Muslim parts of world, killing at least 15 people.

"Where is the desecration of the Quran? Because from the viewpoint of Christ -- the Bible -- 66 books is his revealed word to mankind. Any other book trying to state they are God's revealed message to mankind would be false," Lovelace said.

He said he has a right and responsibility to expose what he calls false teachings to the world.

"Our position is that we stand on the Bible -- God's word -- and that any other book that teaches a way to God that is not scripture is false. It is wrong. It is not correct," Lovelace said.

As you can imagine, CAIR and other Muslim groups are NOT happy.

Regardless, Lovelace promises to keep the sign up through Friday.

Moonbats in futile vote for filibuster

After the vaunted compromise yesterday, 17 Democratic Senators (along with Jumpin' Jim Jeffords (I-VT)) voted for filibuster in today's cloture vote (designed to limit debate on the Owen nomination):

Biden, Del.; Boxer, Calif.; Cantwell, Wash.; Corzine, N.J.; Dayton, Minn.; Dodd, Conn.; Dorgan, N.D.; Feingold, Wis.; Kennedy, Mass.; Kerry, Mass.; Lautenberg, N.J.; Levin, Mich.; Lincoln, Ark.; Murray, Wash.; Reed, R.I.; Sarbanes, Md.; Stabenow, Mich.

Their goal is to toss each and every Bush nominee under the bus. This is just to let everyone know that they are still alive and kicking.

Frist and his crew should have still lit the fuse -- just to show the moonbats who is truly in charge. Even though McCain handed the keys to the kingdom to the Democrats in order to both put the kybosh on Frist's Presidential hopes, and simultaneously trying to light the wet fuse on his own potential 2008 campaign.

Made Bonfire of the Vanities this week...

Made it into this week's "Bonfire of the Vanities" (hosted this week at Pajama Pundits), courtesy of Screaming Howard Dean's appearance on Meet The Press (and my off the wall post behind it).

TX girl in HS yearbook only identified as 'Black Girl'

From the idiots at work department, the yearbook staff at Waxahachie High School in Waxahachie, TX were so dumb that they actually printed the school's yearbook identifying one senior honor student as "Black Girl," because they were too lazy or stupid to find out her name.

A North Texas school district is having four pages of its high school yearbook reprinted to correct a photo caption that identified a student as "Black Girl."

Administrators in the Ellis County school district said they planned to talk with Waxahachie High School senior Shadoyia Jones to offer an apology and discuss exactly how she ended up listed that way in a photo of the school's National Honor Society.

"I am disappointed they didn't catch the error," Jones said. "I just felt like all my achievements, everything I have been working so hard for, went down the drain, basically."

District spokeswoman Candace Ahlfinger said Monday that administrators have asked the publisher to reprint the affected page, its companion page in a two-page layout, and those two pages' back pages.

"We will never be able to minimize this damage, but this will change it so that it is not a constant reminder, so it won't be a forever," Ahlfinger told the Waxahachie Daily Light.

Students will be asked to bring in their yearbooks so the old pages can be torn out and the new ones glued in, Ahlfinger said. The district expects to have the reprinted pages by Wednesday. The last day of school is Thursday.

Shadoyia will get beyond this mess, and I'm sure will do well, but this kind mess is inexcusable.

Just damn.

Six California Hare Krishna temples going bankrupt

Remember the Hare Krishnas in the airports years ago?

"Here. Have a flower..."

Six Hare Krishna temples in California are in the midst of bankruptcy proceedings.

A federal bankruptcy court on Monday approved a reorganization plan that will allow six California-based Hare Krishna temples and their affiliates to remain open while compensating members who claim they were abused at the society's schools.

The plan includes $9.5 million for alleged victims of sexual, physical and emotional abuse during the 1970s and 1980s at religious boarding schools run by the Hare Krishnas.

A similar reorganization plan was approved May 16 in West Virginia, where temples also filed for bankruptcy. The monotheistic tradition, also known as the International Society of Krishna Consciousness, was founded in 1966 by an Indian scholar.

Ninety-two people sued the Hare Krishnas in 2000 in U.S. District Court in Dallas, alleging they had been sexually, physically and emotionally abused at Krishna boarding schools in the 1970s and 1980s.

In the United States, schools were in Los Angeles and Three Rivers, Calif., Moundsville, W. Va., and Dallas. Other boarding schools were in India.

The federal suit was dismissed in 2001, but the plaintiffs refiled in Texas state court.

The Hare Krishnas filed for bankruptcy in February 2002 before the case went to trial.

I guess the airport donations weren't enough to cover the legal bills.

Wannabe-Moonbat McCain spearheads filibuster compromise deal

US Senator John McCain (R, but not really-AZ) was at the front of the line when more than a dozen Senators from both sides of the aisle came together on a compromise aimed at avoiding the "nuclear option" showdown set for tomorrow.

Fourteen Republican and Democratic senators announced this evening they had reached a compromise designed to prevent a showdown over President Bush's judicial nominations.

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), speaking for the group of seven Republicans and seven Democrats, announced the agreement at a news conference at 7:40 p.m.

Under the deal, the Democrats agreed to accept cloture votes on three of President Bush's judicial nominees. The Republicans pledged not to support the so-called "nuclear option" to end the ability of the minority to use filibusters to block nominees.

The group of senators, including Democrats Ben Nelson of Nebraska and Robert Byrd of West Virginia, said the Senate leadership had signaled it would go along with the compromise.

Looks like McCain is jockeying for position for 2008. After all, I'm sure he's thinking that he can't afford to piss off anyone from either side of the aisle. Not that he's gonna get any REAL traction.

Wimp.

Medicaid providing free Viagra to NY state perverts

When you think your tax dollars are finally being spent on good things, a story comes along that shatters all logical rationale.

A new government report, quoted in this morning's New York Post, says that nearly 200 of New York state's worst sexual predators are receiving free viagra thanks to tax dollars.

"The whole purpose of Viagra is to increase sexual performance, is to increase libido, is to increase blood flow, to increase the capacity of the user of the medication to perform sexually," said state Comptroller Alan Hevesi, whose office released the study.

"Some of them, as a condition of their parole, are required to take medication to do the opposite, and this contradicts it. The bottom line is that this is a category of patients that should not be receiving these drugs."

Those receiving the drug have been convicted of everything from first-degree rape to sexual touching, and are Level 3 offenders — who, under state criminal guidelines, are those deemed most likely to commit crimes again.

Some of the predators include a man who sexually assaulted a 2 year-old, and another man who attacked a 90 year-old woman.

Viagra costs ten dollars a pill, and the average monthly dosage is around six pills.

Your tax dollars at work.

Howard "YARRRRGH" Dean insists Osama Bin Laden wasn't responsible for 9/11

Democratic National Committee head and former Presidential candidate Howard Dean said on NBC's Meet The Press this morning that Osama Bin Laden had nothing to do with the 9/11 attacks.

But the thing that really bothered me the most, which the 9-11 Commission said also wasn't true, is the insinuation that the president continues to make to this day that Osama bin Laden had something to do with supporting terrorists that attacked the United States. That is false. The 9-11 Commission, chaired by a Republican, said it was false. Is it wrong to send people to war without telling them the truth.

The 9/11 Commission said no such thing.

The Commission certainly questioned the information regarding Iraq's role in 9/11. The Administration has answered that; they insisted that they operated based on faulty information provided by the CIA. But Dean neglects to address that point, only taking the President to task and repeating the party mantra that insists that Bush lied to the American people regarding Iraq.

And now Dean looks to extend that mantra by falsely exonerating Osama Bin Laden.

This makes Dean no better than the terrorists themselves. He's handing them the right to continue to attack Americans on a silver platter. At this rate, any future attacks should lie on Dean's shoulders.

Pepsico in damage control mode behind foot-in-mouth gaffe

PepsiCo president and chief financial officer Indra Nooyi, an Indian-born woman, shoved her foot deep down her throat last weekend during a speech to the graduating class at the Columbia Business School in New York. The speech included what many felt was an anti-American attack.

"I'm going to take a look at how the United States is perceived in global business," Nooyi told the audience, saying she'd use the human hand as a model.

Nooyi then went on to say the five major continents in the world can each be represented by a finger on the hand.

She said Africa was the pinkie, because of its place on the world's stage, having yet to catch up to her sister continents.

"And yet, when our little finger hurts, it affects the whole hand," Nooyi stated.

She said our thumb is Asia, "strong, powerful, and ready to assert herself as a major player on the world's economic stage."

Europe was compared to the index finger, the cradle of democracy which "pointed the way for Western civilization and the laws we use in conducting global business."

South America, including Latin America, was likened to the ring finger, symbolizing love and commitment to another person.

She said her analogy "leaves the long, middle finger for North America, and in particular, the United States. As the longest of the fingers, it really stands out. The middle finger anchors every function that the hand performs and is the key to all of the fingers working together efficiently and effectively. This is a really good thing, and has given the U.S. a leg up in global business since the end of World War I.

"However, if used inappropriately – just like the U.S. itself, the middle finger can convey a negative message and get us in trouble," Nooyi said, noting she would not demonstrate, nor was she looking for volunteers. "Discretion being the better part of valor, I think I'll pass."

She continued:

What is most crucial to my analogy of the five fingers as the five major continents, is that each of us in the U.S. – the long, middle finger – must be careful that when we extend our arm in either a business or political sense, we take pains to assure we are giving a hand, not the finger. Sometimes this very difficult. Because the U.S. – the middle finger – sticks out so much, we can send the wrong message unintentionally.

Unfortunately, I think this is how the rest of the world looks at the U.S. right now. Not as part of the hand – giving strength and purpose to the rest of the fingers – but instead, scratching our nose and sending a far different signal.

As you can imagine, the audience was shocked by Nooyi's statements.

Some quarters are calling for a boycott of Pepsi products, while Pepsico in general, and Nooyi in particular are left with tap dancing.

Unfortunately, my remarks at Columbia University were misconstrued and depicted in a different context as unpatriotic. Although nothing could be further from the truth, I regret any confusion or concern that I may have inadvertently created.

The "mea culpa" wasn't enough to staunch the criticism, so Nooyi was left to issue a formal apology.

Following my remarks to the graduating class of Columbia University's Business School in New York City, I have come to realize that my words and examples about America unintentionally depicted our country negatively and hurt people.

I appreciate the honest comments that have been shared with me since then, and am deeply sorry for offending anyone. I love America unshakably – without hesitation – and am extremely grateful for the opportunities and support our great nation has always provided me.

Despite the formal apology, the criticism continues. I'm guessing we'll hear more within the next week or so.

And now for something completely different...

Saddam in his BVDs....

Rapper turns himself in to police on suspicion of murder

25 year-old Radric Davis, who is known as the hip hop artist Gucci Mane, turned himself in to DeKalb County, Georgia police this evening on suspicion of murder.

Davis was notified Wednesday of the arrest warrant, while in New York, according to his attorney, Dennis Scheib.

Mane was in New York on Thursday for a show.

“He said, ‘Hey, I’ll come down’—he’s not trying to avoid it,” Scheib said.

The attorney said the shooting was in self-defense and that Mane did not even know anyone was injured in the gunfight.

Mane was in a DeKalb County home with a woman on May 10 when five men entered with guns and duct tape, his lawyer said. Mane traded fire with the men, who later fled, Scheib said.

Gucci Mane's first full-length CD, "Trap House," is set to be released this coming Tuesday.

US Senate: Filibuster proceedings, Day Two

The second day (the first full day) of Senate floor testimony on Priscilla Owen and Janice Rogers Brown is underway on Capitol Hill. The two sides are splitting time, an hour at a pop.

You can watch or listen to the live C-Span2 stream (WMP) online.

The filibuster vote (i.e., exercising the "Constitutional/Nuclear Option") is anticipated late thsi week or (more likely) early next week.

ForsakeTheTroops ass clown fakes death

What a moron.

Well, I suppose the cat's out of the bag, so....I'm not dead.

To those that sent heartfelt messages, and felt that this was a true story, I truly apologize. This situation quickly got out of hand, when national media outlets called looking for clarification.

I honestly thought people would shrug it off, and go on their merry way. I even got a kick out of the numerous hate messages from people

What moonbats will do for attention...

Just damn.

Keith Olbermann needs to quit drinking

That's gotta be the only explanation. He's turned into this rabid moonbat conspiracy buff that sees black helicopters and men in black everywhere we turn.

Olbermann's latest target is (no surprise here), as the majority of the time, the Bush Administration. This time he not only blames them for the Newsweek fiasco, but accuses them of treason.

Newsweek’s version of this story has varied from the others over the last two years — ones in The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Washington Post, and British and Russian news organizations — only in that it quoted a government source who now says he didn’t have firsthand knowledge of whether or not the investigation took place (oops, sorry, shoulda mentioned that, buh-bye). All of its other government connections — the ones past which it ran the story — have gone from saying nothing like ‘don’t print this, it ain’t true’ or ‘don’t print this, it may be true but it’ll start riots,’ to looking slightly confused and symbolically saying ‘Newsweek? Newsweek who?’

Whatever I smell comes from this odd sequence of events: Newsweek gets blasted by the White House, apologizes over the weekend but doesn't retract its story. Then (White House Press Secretary Scott) McClellan offers his Journalism 101 outdoor seminar and blasts the magazine further. Finally, just before 5 p.m. Monday, the Dan Rather drama replaying itself in its collective corporate mind, Newsweek retracts.

The real point, of course, is that you’d have to be pretty dumb to think that making a threat at Gitmo akin to ‘Spill the beans or we’ll kill this Qu’ran’ would have any effect on the prisoners, other than to eventually leak out and inflame anti-American feelings somewhere. Of course, everybody in the prosecution of the so-called ‘war on terror’ has done something dumb, dating back to the President’s worst-possible-word-selection (“crusade”) on September 16, 2001. So why wouldn’t some mid-level interrogator stuck in Cuba think it would be a good idea to desecrate a holy book? Jack Rice, the former CIA special agent and now radio host, said on Countdown that it would be a “knuckleheaded” thing to do, but “plausible.”

Or would somebody rather play politics with this? The news organization turns to the administration for a denial. The administration says nothing. The news organization runs the story. The administration jumps on the necks of the news organization with both feet — or has its proxies do it for them.

That’s beyond shameful. It’s treasonous.

Keith -- couple of things. First off, treason is, by definition, an act that provides aid and comfort to an enemy. I don't see anyone offering any aid here at all; on the contrary, the enemies (and our friends in that neck of the woods) are all pretty damn pissed off.

Second thing. Newsweek's editors took a look at their "evidence" and realized that they'd screwed up. Big time. Yeah, the White House was pissed, Republicans in general were pissed, we conservative bloggers were pissed. We not only had a right to say so, we actually did. Loudly. That is entirely different from "forcing" Newsweek to change anything. "Forcing" someone in the press to change hasn't worked before; what makes you think it would work now? Oh. I forgot. That whole conspiracy thing again.

Third -- lay off of the sauce, man. Your theories are getting wilder and wilder. Your face is starting to twitch.

Trust me on this. No one else would tell you, because next to no one else is watching MSNBC at that hour. Save maybe your relatives.

Nichols pleads "not guilty" in Atlanta courthouse shootings

Brian Nichols, the alleged assassin in the Atlanta courthouse shootings back in March, has pleaded "not guilty" to 54 counts, including murder, carjacking, armed robbery and kidnapping charges.

Nichols was present at an arraignment hearing in Atlanta today.

Defense attorney Chris Adams announced his client's plea of not guilty in the 54-count indictment charging Nichols with killing Fulton County Superior Court Judge Rowland Barnes, court reporter Julie Ann Brandau and deputy Sgt. Hoyt Teasley at the courthouse. In the indictment, Nichols is also charged with killing U.S. Customs agent David Wilhelm in Buckhead during a carjacking.

Nichols, dressed in a dark suit and light blue dress shirt, seemed to listen intently and answered Superior Court Judge Hilton Fuller politely with: "Yes, your honor," and "No, your honor" when asked if the defense team seated beside him represented him and if he wanted to discuss any concerns about his defense so far.

Nichols' attorneys, with the Office of the Georgia Capital Defender, asked Judge Fuller to move future pretrial hearings to DeKalb County. Fuller, on loan from DeKalb to hear the case, agreed.

Fuller said he doesn't have concerns about security at the Fulton Courthouse and that the move would be for other reasons, but he didn't elaborate.

The Fulton County DA, Paul Howard, has announced that he will seek the death penalty in the case.

The next hearing is scheduled for June 9 and 10, where Judge Fuller will hear defense requests for a gag order, and the recusal of Howard and his staff, since the shootings occured in their workplace, and they - the DA and his staff - were possible targets.

Former Emerge editor attacks Rice just as AQ calls her a "hag"

George Curry, once editor of the now defunct Emerge magazine, and who once endorsed and encouraged a cover of his magazine depicting Clarence Thomas as a "lawn jockey," has penned a screed that goes after Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. The new piece appeared in today's Chicago Defender.

Curry wastes no time in insulting all black conservatives -- so that we know where he's coming from in the first place.

Few things are as repulsive as Black conservatives trying to advance the Republican agenda by mischaracterizing the Civil Rights Movement or distorting history.

When asked her thoughts on gun control, Rice replied: “Well, Larry, I come out of a – my personal experiences in which in Birmingham, Ala., my father and his friends defended our community in 1962 and 1963 against White nightriders by going to the head of the community, the head of the cul-de-sac, and sitting there armed. And so I’m very concerned about any abridgement of the Second Amendment…”

Moments later, she added: “…We have to be very careful when we start abridging rights that our Founding Fathers thought very important. And on this one, I think that they understood that there might be circumstances that people like my father experienced in Birmingham, Ala., when, in fact, the police weren’t going to protect you.”

The Curry piece goes further, insisting that Rice exploits the history of the Civil Rights movement, since her parents were not an active part of the movement.

Speaking at the 2000 Republican convention, Rice praised her father as “the first Republican I knew.” She declared, “Democrats in Jim Crow Alabama of 1952 would not register him to vote. The Republicans did. My father has never forgotten that day, and neither have I.”

What Rice forgot was the truth: political parties don’t register voters in Alabama. Voters are added to the voting rolls by registrars. A profile of Rice written by Dale Russakoff, a reporter for the Washington Post and native of Birmingham, was even more telling.
After a White registrar asked Rice’s father a trick question to keep him from registering, according to Russakoff: “Rice says her father later learned of a Republican functionary in the registrar’s office who would register blacks secretly, as long as they registered Republicans – not the expansive grant of suffrage suggested in her speech.”

Rice’s exploitation of the Civil Rights Movement is even more notable because her middle-class parents, by her own admission, were not active in the movement. Her father, John Rice, was a minister and her mother, Angelena, was a school teacher.

Doesn't seem like exploitation to me. Sounds like she tells -- and has told -- the story of her father's experiences. A Republican helped him where a Democrat didn't. I don't see

Ah. But Curry deftly leaves out the fact that Democrats in that day, as a whole, were opposed to blacks voting and asserting their rights. Then again, that would be telling wouldn't it?

Mind you, also today, word has come up that a posting on an Al Qaeda-frequented Islamic internet message board, purportedly from Al Qaeda itself, refers to Rice as a "hag," and publishes a veiled death threat toward her.

"The hag wants the participation of the apostates and secularists who are claiming to be Sunnis. You should know that our [the Sunni] way is fighting you."

The statement griped that the Iraqi constitution "is written only by those who disavowed their belief in God's book."

In what sounded like an indirect death threat to Dr. Rice, the message continued, "Our belief entails that the sword and bullets are our way of holding dialogue with you."

Attacks from here at home, and attacks from overseas. Sounds like she can't quite catch a break, can she?

We still have to wait a year for them

This week is the annual E3 computer gaming trade show in Los Angeles.

Last week, Microsoft took the time to release images and specs of it's upcoming XBOX 360, the replacement for their current gaming console. It's due on store shelves next winter -- but you know how Microsoft can delay things, so I'll believe it when I see it.

Early this morning, Sony released information and images of the PlayStation 3, their next-generation console system. Sony says that their system will be fully backward-compatible, both with the PlayStation 1 and PlayStation 2.

The new system is very sleek looking with an aerodynamic controller. Sony showed off three colors -- white, silver and black.

Both systems boast full high defintion compatibility, and showed off some upcoming game titles and images for the new systems.

Both systems will be in the $300 to $400 range at full retail, with the Sony system coming to market in Spring 2006.

It's anticipated that Nintendo will make an announcement regarding their next-generation console system sometime before the end of the E3 show this week.

[KOSH] "And so it begins..." [/KOSH]

Senator Barbara Boxer (Moonbat-Granola State) is on the floor fo the US Senate as I type this, beginning the filibuster showdown.

Live streaming coverage is available from C-Span2 (via Windows Media Player).

Forsake The Troops website creator killed (UPDATE: confirm fake death)

Michael Crook, the creator of the reprehensible ForsakeTheTroops.info website died last night, according to a posting on his personal website.

Crook was allegedly beaten by persons upset with his site, and died as a result of those injuries.

As it mentions on the Troops site, today at 6:19pm EST, Michael Crook died at an area hospital as a result of head injuries sustained from an assault by people upset with his website.

Michael died with his wife, and baby present. He was 27. The assaulters are in custody.

I don't wish death on anyone, but it appeared that Crook sought confrontation - some of it violent - with his opinions and websites.

a Vietnam vet actually recognized me in public and approached me. He didn't threaten me, and was actually quite respectful. In all honestly, it seemed as if he was hurt by the site..he was blubbering some nonsense about losing friends in the conflict. I felt real good telling him off. He just slunk away. All talk, no action. Typical!

Oh, by the way..playtime's over..you'll notice that the contact methods are no longer available on the website. No more e-mail, no IM's, and the forums require my approval to join. You can no longer leave comments on this weblog, either. Playtime's over. I don't really care to hear about peoples' hurt feelings, nor do I care about anyone's opinion, really. What it comes down to is this: I am right, and everyone else is wrong on this matter.

Crook had just placed a new site up, ForsakeThePolice.info, with much the same sort of mean-spirited rhetoric, this time directed toward law enforcement across the nation. He apparently didn't have much opportunity to put much on that site before his demise.

His family has placed a contact telephone number on the site for media and condolences, and asks for privacy at this point (I won't post the number in respect for said privacy). But given Crook's attitude and mindset, I wouldn't be surprised if the family doesn't receive much in the way of sympathy.

UPDATE - 10:45A ET - No word of Crook's attack or death has been reported in local media in Syracuse, NY, Crook's home town. In addition, the telephone number listed on the website "has been changed" and points to a local web hosting service's phone number.

Could this be a publicity stunt on Crook's part?

UPDATE - 12:30P ET - Crook's personal website is still there, but mentions of his demise (notably the link above) have been removed.

His ForsakeTheTroops site still exists with the reports of death though.

No reports of the attack on Crook have appeared in Syracuse or New York state media outlets, which increases speculation that this is an idiotic, brain-addled attempt at faking his own demise.

UPDATE - 8P ET - Confirmed, via Marine Corps Times: "local police say no murder has occurred."

The site also says the two attackers were “taken into police custody.”

But officials with the Onondaga County Sheriff’s Office in Syracuse told Army Times Tuesday that they have no record or knowledge of any such attack in the region.

A message left at the phone number listed on the Web site was not immediately returned.

The Web site has repeatedly posted disparaging comments about the military. Crook, the alleged blogger of the site, has said his main intent is to inform Americans that soldiers are paid too much for what they do.

Recently the site posted this: “Don't military pukes learn anything? Nine more Marines bite the big one in combat. Stupid is as stupid does!”

Now, I can say this. I hope this puke gets what's coming to him. I don't wish death on anyone, but I do wish a great deal of pain and suffering on Mr. Crook.

NBC's Today suggests Bush Administration forced Newsweek to retract story

When you thought NBC's Today couldn't sink any lower in their tactics used to criticize the Bush Administration (all while hiding behind the veil of "journalistic impartialiaty"), this morning, they suggested that the only reason Newsweek retracted their false story was pressure from the Bush White House.

Again and again, Today floated the notion that Newsweek retracted the story due to pressure from the Bush administration, and went so far as to suggest the story might be true.

The focus was at least as much on possibly sinister motives at the "White House," as it was on any transgression by Newsweek.

Thus the story was introduced with this question: "Will Newsweek's retraction end the flurry of White House criticism?"

And again: "Did pressure from the White House impact Newsweek's decision to retract the story?"

Matt Lauer stuck to the marching orders in his interview of Dan Klaidman Newsweek DC Bureau Chief.

Lauer: "Did you get pressure from the White House?"

Klaidman flatly denied it: "The only pressure was our own sense of responsibility."

That wasn't good enough for Lauer. He was apparently more willing to believe the enemies of the US than he was the Bush administration or even Newsweek.

Lauer: "There is suspicion in the Muslim world. They say they've heard similar reports from released detainees. Why shouldn't we believe it and think that Newsweek retracted the story only because it was forced to do so by the White House to protect its image?" And just in case anyone missed the MSM message, Lauer sympathetically asked: "Is there piling on by the administration?"

Given that the propagation of a false story led to riots and deaths, you'd think the last thing Today would do would be to air other rumors. Yet incredibly, incredibly!, that's exactly what it devoted virtually the entirety of its next segment to.

NBC reporter Richard Engel reported from Baghdad, and his report consisted of retelling a variety of additional rumors:

1. "There are many rumors in Iraq and across Muslim world that this kind of thing happens regularly."

2. "There are rumors that US Marines while raiding a mosque abused a Koran and spray-painted it."

3. "Another one - during a search of woman, a search dog pulled a Koran out of the woman's handbag and Marines started laughing."

Engel claimed: "People believe this is not a war on terrorism but a war on Islam."

Lauer 'helpfully' filled in the blanks: "You're telling me people in that part of the world expect the worst from the US.?"

Engel somberly observed: "I'm not sure we're winning the battle for hearts and minds. There is still fallout from Abu Ghraib."

And just to pour the last measure of gasoline on the fire, Engel ended with this explosive allegation: "There are rumors women were raped at Abu Ghraib. One women claimed she was raped six times every night."

With partisan stories like this that border on propaganda, is there any wonder that Today is falling behind Good Morning America in the morning ratings race?

How long before Katie Couric accuses President Bush of eating children?

Fox apologizes to Sharpton & Jackson in phone calls

Mexican President Vicente Fox abruptly reversed course this evening, apologizing for racist statements against black Americans. Friday, Fox said that illegal Mexican immigrants did work that blacks wouldn't.

Fox repeatedly refused to back away from his Friday comment, saying his remark had been misinterpreted. But later, in telephone conversations with the Rev. Jesse Jackson and the Rev. Al Sharpton the president said he "regretted" the statement.

"The president regretted any hurt feelings his statements may have caused," the Foreign Relations Department said in a press statement. "He expressed the great respect he and his administration has for the African-American community in the United States."

Jackson then suggested a meeting to discuss "joint strategies" between blacks and Mexican immigrants in the United States.

Did I miss something, or shouldn't Fox be more concerned with people in his own damn country, as opposed to taking care of illegals in THIS country?

Closing the border militarily has more and more appeal the more I hear of and from Fox. And then President Bush has the audacity to suggest a damn "guest worker" pseudo-amnesty program. I hope this mess wakes Bush up -- but I'm not holding my breath.

NYT to charge for reading editorials online

The New York Times plans to charge online readers an annual fee of $49.95 to read their editorial pages beginning in September.

The heck with 'em. I don't need 'em to charge me money just to tell me what they want me to think.

Newsweek update: Newsweek On Air cancelled in Boston, endangered elsewhere

Newsweek On Air, a weekly radio newshour (also available via podcast), has been cancelled by Boston affiliate WRKO on the heels of the revelation of their untrue story that claimed Guantanamo Bay interrogators flushed the Koran down a toilet in an attempt to secure cooperation from prisoners there.

Newsweek On Air senior editor and host David Alpern says that the program (broadcast Sundays in most markets) avoided the print publication's error, and in next week's show will examine what went wrong in the editorial process.

Other stations that carry Newsweek On Air include WNYC/New York, WTOP/Washington, KCBS/San Francisco, WSB/Atlanta and the Armed Forces Radio Network. No word about the show's status on any of those outlets presently.

UPDATE - 7:45P ET - Newsweek On Air's David Alpern insists that the WRKO cancellation was already in the works, and was not related to the current controversy

Newsweek has completely retracted the story, as opposed to "suggesting" that it "might be erroneous." Tapscott's criticizes Newsweek asking "Was Newsweek's Sin That The Koran Flushing Story Was Too Good Not to be True?"

Vicente Fox update: Racist Fox won't apologize; Jackson & Sharpton joins upset voices

Mexican President Vicente Fox refused to apologize for racist statements he made late last week about black Americans -- when he said that illegal Mexicans in the US do work that blacks won't.

Officials at the US Embassy in Mexico City had raised the issue with Fox's government.

Fox's spokesman, Ruben Aguilar, said Mexican and foreign news media have misinterpreted the remark as a racial slur. He said the president was speaking in defense of Mexican migrants as they come under attack by the new U.S. immigration measures that include a wall along the U.S.-California border.

Jesse Jackson & Al Sharpton both offered sharp criticism of Fox's statements today.

"His statement had the impact of being inciting and divisive," Jackson said Monday, noting that in many U.S. cities tensions are already high between blacks and Latinos because they compete for scarce jobs and often have children crowded into underfunded schools.

"President Fox should issue an unequivocal apology," Sharpton said, "explaining the offense only adds insult to injury."

"The words are offensive," the civil rights activist said. "The words he used confirm the stereotype that blacks are the lowest peons in the workforce of this country."

Sharpton said the comment was especially disturbing because Fox was educated in the United States, and "he is not unaware of the racial sensitivities here in the United States."

Fox's statement comes as he tries to influence American lawmakers who want to crack down on illegal immigration from Mexico.

Newsweek fallout: Muslims don't believe apology, still upset

Muslims in Afghanistan and Pakistan are still upset with the United States on the heels of Newsweek's apology for their false contention two weeks ago that Guantanamo Bay interrogators flushed the Koran down a toilet.

The apology, released on the 'net yesterday and in print today, included an apology to those directly affected by violence caused by the erroneous report, as well as to US troops put in greater harm's way as a result of the false statement.

Muslims said they suspected that pressure from Washington was behind the magazine's climbdown, Reuters reported Monday.

"We will not be deceived by this," Islamic cleric Mullah Sadullah Abu Aman told Reuters in the northern Afghan province of Badakhshan.

"This is a decision by America to save itself. It comes because of American pressure. Even an ordinary illiterate peasant understands this and won't accept it."

At least 16 deaths and more than 100 injuries can be directly linked to the violence stemming from a reaction to the Newsweek report.

Other bloggers are looking for Sgt. Eric Saar, former Guantanamo Bay guard and co-author of a new "tell-all" book (Inside The Wire) on so-called abuses. It looks like Saar may be the source of the report that Newsweek relied on to support the false story.

George Lucas didn't know what he was missing

Chinese actress Bai Ling (Red Corner, Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow) was yanked from Revenge of the Sith when she chose to appear nude in June's Playboy">Playboy.

Looks to me like ol' George didn't know a good thing when he saw it. (link not work-safe)

Newsweek lied, people died --Turk 182

Newsweek printed a story two weeks ago about supposed desecration of the Koran at Guantanamo Bay.

The story insisted that military interrogators at the prison there desecrated the Muslim holy book, with one supposedly flushing a copy of the Koran down a toilet. Islamic clerics demanded apologies from the United States, riots broke out in parts of the Middle East, and at one count, more than 16 were killed in Afghanistan alone. Clerics promised to call for an Islamic holy war against the United States if the interrogators were not turned over to them.

The only catch is that the Newsweek story is not true.

Although other major news organizations had aired charges of Qur'an desecration based only on the testimony of detainees, we believed our story was newsworthy because a U.S. official said government investigators turned up this evidence. So we published the item. After several days, newspapers in Pakistan and Afghan-istan began running accounts of our story. At that point, as Evan Thomas, Ron Moreau and Sami Yousafzai report this week, the riots started and spread across the country, fanned by extremists and unhappiness over the economy.

Last Friday, a top Pentagon spokesman told us that a review of the probe cited in our story showed that it was never meant to look into charges of Qur'an desecration. The spokesman also said the Pentagon had investigated other desecration charges by detainees and found them "not credible." Our original source later said he couldn't be certain about reading of the alleged Qur'an incident in the report we cited, and said it might have been in other investigative documents or drafts.

Translation? Newsweek lied. And in their haste to either get the story in print, they didn't follow up.

So now, a dozen and a half Afghanis are dead, and scores are injured.

Is Newsweek objective here, or are they playing with their own agenda. I'll let you be the judge of that.

Survivor 11 location revealed

Our of deference to West Coast folk, I won't reveal the winner of Survivor Palau, which came tonight live from the Ed Sullivan Theatre in New York City (and will be broadcast in several hours out west).

But the next edition of Survivor, contrary to rumors of Madagascar, the Yukon and Peru, will be in the jungles of Guatemala, and embrace the Mayan culture: Survivor The Maya Empire premieres this fall on CBS.

UPDATE - Mon 9:15A ET - 41 year-old FDNY firefighter Tom Westman claimed his $1 million prize on CBS' The Early Show this morning, after winning the final tribal council last night in New York.

Vicente Fox: Mexicans do jobs "not even blacks will do"

Mexican President Vicente Fox tossed a not-so-veiled insult at black Americans yesterday when he insisted that the US should admit illegal immigrants because they do jobs that "not even blacks will do."

"There is no doubt that Mexicans, filled with dignity, willingness and ability to work are doing jobs that not even blacks want to do there in the United States," he said in a speech broadcast in part on local radio and reported on newspaper web sites.

Fox said recent, tougher measures against immigrants do not represent "the road we should be building between friends and partners."

Mexico has been seeking an accord with Washington for years to make it easier for millions of illegal Mexican immigrants to live and work in the United States. The country expects to repatriate this year more than 250,000 foreigners, mostly Central Americans headed for the U.S. border.

Fox would do better by trying to better economic conditions in his own country as opposed to making it easier for people to slip across the US border to live and work here illegally.

If people have skills and a desire to enter this country to work, then they should apply for a visa and come here legally. But Fox prefers the illegal route - less hassle and headache for him; plus he doesn't have to pay for things like health care and education for those people. We're saddled with it.

Senator Robert "KKK" Byrd's senility comes out on Senate floor

I got a chance to watch this exchange (MP3) on the Senate floor yesterday (Thursday) on C-Span2.

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN) and Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) were going back and forth over the Constitutional or Nuclear option regarding an up-or-down vote on judicial nominees, when the so-called dean of the Senate, Senator Robert "Sheets" Byrd (Shakey 'N Senile-WV) stepped up and began a rambling story of the Bible, and American history and God knows what else until Frist & Reid left Byrd talking to himself on the floor.

"Didn't you also say as the other part of that statement to the president of the United States, being critical of the potential legacy I might have to leave in order to stand up for fairness and principle, didn't you also say you would give all of these nominees up-or-down votes?" asked Frist.

"I don't remember what I said," Byrd replied, "a few or all or three or four, I don't remember."

Former KKK Grand Kleagle Byrd is 87 years old. And he sounds like it. He sounds like he gets his meat loaf, mashed potatoes & corn through a straw. Or at least he should be.

Mind you, he continues to rail on -- pocket version of the Constitution in hand -- against the Constitutional option, claiming that this would limit speech, and that changing the rules would "go against tradition."

Uh... Senator... Last I checked, you yourself changed the rules of the Senate in the past to suit your own agenda in the past.

Perhaps you should consider taking up residence at a senior citizens community.

Judges now packing heat

After the Fulton County Courthouse shootings in Atlanta back in early March, more judges in Georgia are carrying weapons.

The sheriff of one county said since then officers have given guns to eight Superior and State Court judges. Police said some judges have also asked for some firearms training.

State law allows judges to carry guns in court. And one judge said while a few of his colleagues have always carried weapons, more are now bringing their own guns to work.

One judge said he likes having his gun with him because it gives him "a great deal of confidence" that he'll complete the day.

After all, as Dredd likes to say, the Judge IS "The Law."

Nuclear option on the horizon

Sounds like that backbone replacement operation on Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist has taken hold, and he's ready to rip.

The Majority Leader will continue to discuss an appropriate resolution of the need for fair up or down votes with the Minority Leader. If they can not find a way for the Senate to decide on fair up or down votes on judicial nominations, the Majority Leader will seek a ruling from the Presiding Officer regarding the appropriate length of time for debate on such nominees. After the ruling, he will ensure that every Senator has the opportunity to decide whether to restore the 214-year practice of fair up or down votes on judicial nominees; or, to enshrine a new veto by filibuster that both denies all Senators the opportunity to advise and consent and fundamentally disturbs the separation of powers between the branches.

There will be a full and vigorous Senate floor debate that is too important for parliamentary tactics to speed it up or slow it down until all members who wish have had their say. All members are encouraged to ensure that rhetoric in this debate follows the rules, and best traditions, of the Senate.

It is time for 100 Senators to decide the issue of fair up or down votes for judicial nominees after over two years of unprecedented obstructionism.

All hands on deck! Red Alert! Shields Up!

Last word is that we should look for the fireworks to begin Monday or Tuesday.

Splash damage will get you every time

A CIA Predator drone has killed Al Qaeda operative Haitham al-Yemeni in the remote northwestern portion of Afghanistan.

"The debate was over whether to hit him individually or wait until he was part of a bigger group," NBC analyst Roger Cressey reported. There was no clarification if the actual strike was against just al-Yemeni or targeted a gathering of suspected militants.

Information leading to the hit is thought to be connected to the recent capture of Abu Faraj al-Libbi, described as al-Qaida's No. 3, in northwest Pakistan on May 2.

The CIA will neither confirm nor deny the operation -- NBC News is quoting well-placed Defense Department sources. Sounds like they may be on the trail of other bad guys in that neck of the woods.

Good hunting.

Dyson attacks Cosby on Today while interviewer Roker does nothing

After pointing out rabid moonbat Michael Eric Dyson's rampage on personal responsibility by black America in general, and on Bill Cosby's message of personal accountability in particular in the form of Dyson's new book "Is Bill Cosby Right," I've received a number of e-mails, some just plain calling me stupid, others telling me that I don't know what it means to be black, and yet others telling me that I'm going to hell for selling out my birthright. There were precious few who agreed with me, even in part.

Larry Elder agrees with me, and pointed out how it was open season on Cosby during a recent interview on NBC's Today where Dyson railed on in his foaming-at-the-mouth fashion, unchecked by interviewer Al Roker (yes, they got the weatherman to do the interview instead of the show's anchors; no offense to Roker, but Al's forte is usually much lighter fare).

Al Roker: "Do you think there's any validity in some of the things he said?"

Michael Eric Dyson: "Oh sure . . . there's validity always. Tim[othy] McVeigh had a point. The state is over-reaching. But the way you do it, dropping bombs and castigating of human beings, that's terrible. . . . Let's hold the larger society accountable for creating the conditions that lead to some of the downfalls of the poor people." Roker said nothing.

Roker then read three quotes from Cosby: "Those people are not Africans; they don't know a damn thing about Africa. With names like Shaniqua, Shaliqua and Mohammed and all of that crap, and all of them are in jail." Next, "All this child knows is 'gimme, gimme, gimme.' These people want to buy the friendship of a child . . . and the child couldn't care less. . . . These people are not parenting. They're buying things for the kid. $500 sneakers, for what? They won't . . . spend $250 on Hooked on Phonics." And finally, "You can't land a plane with 'why you ain't . . . ' You can't be a doctor with that kind of crap coming out of your mouth . . ."

Dyson: ". . . Black people have always been creative in naming their children. Africans name their kids after the days of the week, after conditions of their birth. Black people in 1930s gave their kids names after consumer products, Cremola, Listerine, Hershey Bar. So black naming has always been creative. I'm not worried about Shaniqua and Taliqua, I'm worried about Clarence and Condoleeza, who can hurt us in high places of power in America." Roker said nothing.

Dyson then accused Cosby of hypocrisy. After all, Cosby was a "pitchman" for "Jell-O Puddin' Pops. . . . He created artificial desire in people to spend beyond their means . . . "??!! Roker said nothing.

Huh!?

Dyson is so wrapped up in trying to attack black conservatives, that he goes after Bill Cosby for doing commercials for Jello? Mind you, in the midst of this entire exchange, Al Roker (whom I have a great deal of respect for in general) literally sits there and says nothing. My presumption -- rightly or wrongly -- is that Roker agrees with the mindless bilge that Dyson is spewing.

Near the end of the interview, Dyson tried to dress himself up as the "homeboy made good" who's trying to "protect" all the other "homeboys."

Dyson: So I'm speaking forth . . . on behalf of those people who are poor, because, after all, I was a teen father, lived on welfare until I was 21, then went to get a Ph.D. at Princeton, now I'm gonna have Afro-nesia [sic] and forget the people from which I've emerged? No, bro, I ain't the one." To which Roker "fired back" with this show stopper: "You know, you gotta come out of your shell."

And of course, thanks to the mindset of soul patrol charter members like Dyson, the only way one can help the black community is to blame the white man and not demand personal accountability -- and to trash anyone who says otherwise. The implication is that he is trying to help, and anyone else with an alternative view, including Cosby, is trying only to hurt black America.

Please. Spare me.

If you want to see more of Dyson's ad hominum attacks on Bill Cosby and black conservatives, you can tune into C-Span2/BookTV's AfterWords this Sunday (6P ET/PT & 9P ET/PT), where Dyson will wax poetic with author Debra Dickerson ("The End of Blackness").

And to reiterate my earlier headline, yes, I think Dyson has completely lost his damn mind. His view is irresponsible and potentially more damaging than anything anyone outside the black community could ever do, simply because he promotes a victimhood based on a second-class status as a people. We are not second-class people, and we need not accept that attitude or mindset, contrary to what Dyson is peddling.

Atlanta missing & murdered children case being reopened

The missing and murdered children case, which gripped metro Atlanta a generation ago is being reopened.

Five murders from the spree more than 20 years ago are being reopened by the DeKalb County Cold Case squad. DeKalb Police Chief Louis Graham announced the reopening of the case today, flanked by relatives of the children.

Wayne Williams was convicted in the murders of two young men, and tied peripherally to the cases of 20 others (the victims were all black, as is Williams) between 1979 and 1981.

Graham announced that five murders thought to have happened on DeKalb County soil and originally linked to convicted killer Wayne Williams will be reopened. He said that no tip was too small and every piece of evidence will be re-examined.

Graham, who worked on the original task force investigating the murders, said the cases have nagged him for years and he wants to bring justice to the family members of the victims.

"I have always felt their pain," Graham said. "You have to feel their pain and you try to do the best you can to help them."

Relatives of many of the remaining 20 victims felt that Williams was not the only person murdering youngsters during that timeframe, and expressed relief that these five cases were being reopened.

Miami weatherman-child molestor Kamal faults others for troubles

 

Former Miami TV weathercaster Bill Kamal, convicted earlier this year of child molestation after being nabbed in an FBI sting, gave a jailhosue interview to Miami television station WPLG-TV/DT, which is being aired this week. Kamal refused to accept blame for the arrest, and though he pled guilty to charges of child molestation, blamed others -- particularly an AOL chatroom called "Dads & Sons" -- for his troubles.

"(The Web site) was dads and sons, or sons and dads, and I said, 'Well this is an odd chatroom.' I mean if I were a child molester, if I were a sexual predator, how do you become one at 48 years old? As I was driving up (to Fort Pierce), I thought, 'Could this be a trap? Could this be that?'"

The interview is being carried in multiple parts on WPLG-TV and their web site (what do you expect? it is May sweeps after all).

Kamal, formerly with Miami's WSVN-TV and Washington's WUSA-TV, is serving a five-year sentence in the federal medical center in Deven, MA. His story has been all over the media: Veteran TV weatherman goes on the internet and chats up what he thinks is a fourteen year-old boy (though in part two of the interview series, Kamal insists that he thought the "teen" was an adult playing the part of a teenager, and that he didn't do anything wrong), and sets up a meeting in Ft. Pierce, FL. When he arrives, he is nabbed by an FBI team who has set Kamal up.

Is five years enough time for someone like that? Even if you do believe his story, you have to admit that he belongs in jail. But is that long enough? What about after he gets out? Stick a "lojack" on him the rest of his life? Chemically castrate him? How else do we protect our youngsters?

Time will tell.

(Kamal interview Part I / Part II / Part III / Part IV)

DC Comics unveils new logo

After 25 years, DC Comics has changed their logo as seen in the upper left corner of their comic books from the DC bullet logo (which itself is directly descended from the original circular Detective Comics logo) to a new stylized logo which retains circular elements of the older logo. The new logo was introduced in a memo from Publisher Paul Levitz.

we've decided this is the moment to do something we've debated for the last few years and introduce a new DC logo. The symbol that graces DC SPECIAL will be spinning onto the whole line in June, and as fast as we can, onto all our films, TV shows, video games, licensed products and the DC DIRECT line as well. Look for the launch of the film version on BATMAN BEGINS, and keep your eyes peeled to play art detective as you watch.

It seems like it was only a moment ago (could it really be over 25 years?) when legendary designer Milton Glaser's DC logo went up in the corner of our comics, just as my first LEGION story was being published. It went on the famed DOLLAR COMICS, DARK KNIGHT RETURNS, WATCHMEN and on to IDENTITY CRISIS, with literally thousands of issues between. It marked years in which we expanded the creative reach of comics, changed how talented people could be rewarded and recognized for their efforts in comics, and had some great times that we shared with our readers. I'm confident that when we look back on the era of this new DC symbol, lovingly created by designer Josh Beatman of Brainchild Studio under the care of our design wizards Richard Bruning and Georg Brewer, it'll have just as awesome a run.

The new logo will not only appear on the printed page, but also as an identifier on television and motion picture projects, as well as on their web site.

Wilbanks enters treatment program

Runaway bride Jennifer Wilbanks has entered a "voluntary medical treatment program."

According to a statement from the family's church, "Ms. Wilbanks entered a highly regarded, inpatient treatment program on her own volition to address physical and mental issues which, she believes, played a major role in her 'running from herself' as she described in a public statement last week."

Wilbanks entered the program late Monday. The location of the program and suggested duration of treatment was not disclosed.

Is she truly seeking help, or is this something to clean up her image and get her out of the collective doghouse with folks in Gwinnett County?

Nichols arraignment to be streamed on web

WXIA-TV/DT Atlanta will be streaming live video of the arraignment hearing of Fulton County Courthouse shooter Brian Nichols this afternoon from Atlanta.

Once a live link goes up, I'll link to it here.

UPDATE 1P - Here you go (WMP).

Atlanta courthouse shooting suspect Nichols converts to Islam

According to broadcast reports this evening, Brian Nichols, the suspect in the Fulton County Courthouse shootings in Atlanta on March 11, has had a jailhouse conversion to Islam.

Nichols, who was indicted last Thursday on 54 charges, including four counts each of murder and felony murder, has requested -- and received -- permission to talk to a local Imam. Nichols will be allowed to pray in accordance to the tenants of Islam as well.

The indictment includes 18 counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, 7 counts of kidnapping, and five counts of hijacking a motor vehicle.

As you'll remember, Nichols was being readied for a rape trial when he overpowered and severely injured his guard, entered the courtroom and shot to death Judge Rowland Barnes and the court stenographer. Nichols subsequently escaped the courthouse, killing a Fulton County Sherrif's deputy, and later killing a US Customs agent before his capture in Gwinnett County.

Fulton County DA Paul Howard has stated that he plans on requesting the death penalty in Nichols' case.

Terrorists in Iraq nab Japanese hostage

The so-called Army of Ansar al-Sunnah claims to have grabbed Japanese national Akihiko Saito. They claim he is "severely injured," and have released a photocopy of his passport.

Iraqi militants claimed today they took a Japanese security contractor hostage after ambushing a convoy of foreigners and Iraqi troops in western Iraq.

The Ansar al-Sunnah Army identified the Japanese hostage as Akihito Saito, 44, and posted a photocopy of his passport, including his picture, on the group’s official website. It said Saito was “severely injured” in the fight.

The report could not be independently confirmed. Junji Gomakudo, First Secretary at the Japanese Embassy in Baghdad, said officials were trying to confirm a report of a kidnapped Japanese citizen but said they did not know if the claim was true.

The group posted other photo ID cards allegedly belonging to Saito, with one identifying him as a security manager of Hart GMSSCO, a British-based firm that provides security in Iraq. Another document seemed to be a weapons permit....

Japan’s Kyodo News agency said Saito was employed by a security firm from Cyprus and may have been working as a security officer at a US facility.

If all goes according to the terrorists' regular script, they'll kill the hostage as soon as they get a chance. More details as they become available, and full coverage can be found at The Jawa Report.

Q&A with the RNC's Tara Wall

New RNC Director of Outreach Commuications, Tara Wall, is the subject of a new Q&A over at New Leadership Blog this morning.

I think we should be proud of RNC Chairman Ken Mehlman’s aggressive, bold and comprehensive approach to reaching out to our community, by forming an African American Advisory Committee. In addition to his on-going series of “Conversations With The Community,” which has taken him to communities across the country, Chairman Mehlman has tapped the expertise of numerous African-American leaders with diverse backgrounds, talents and experiences (grassroots, business, faith, elected officials) – to act as a sounding board for the Party’s goals in reaching out, deepening and growing our Party, while increasing our share of the black vote. Quite frankly, I’m not familiar with the specific kind of criticism you’re referring too – but I can tell you that we as a people are not monolithic. Even within the GOP, the face of black Republicans come in many shapes, sizes and backgrounds. We should champion that. The Advisory Committee, which meets with the Chairman monthly, is continuing to grow as we add new faces every day. And I encourage you to stay tuned for what’s to come.

The Advisory Committee has come under fire from some, most notably, fellow Project 21 member Mychal Massie in his World Net Daily column in late March.

Outreach is a necessary and laudable goal with the Republican Party -- the GOP needs to show that black conservatives are not this ideological anomaly who has lost connection to black America. On the contrary, the GOP in general, and we, in particular, need to demonstrate to the "man on the street" in black America, that outside of politics, we are no different -- we are all looking for the same things. We want lower taxes, we want cheaper gas, safe streets, better schools, and are struggling with getting our yards just right, fertilizer notwithstanding.

I applaud the strides the GOP has taken thus far and encourage them to continue to move forward, and to add other voices to the fray.

Jennifer Wilbanks' crinimal record

"Runaway Bride" Jennifer Wilbanks has had more than one brush with the law.

She has a prior criminal record -- which should make it easier for the local DA to charge her with filing a false police report (if she actually DID file a false report).

Court records show that Wilbanks was arrested three times in that county on shoplifting charges from 1996 to 1998.

In 1996, as district attorney, (Wilbanks' lawyer Lydia) Sartain prosecuted Wilbanks for allegedly shoplifting $1,740 in merchandise from a Gainesville mall, court records show. Sartain dropped the felony charge after Wilbanks, then 24, completed a pretrial diversion program, the records show. Wilbanks performed 75 hours of community service and paid restitution, according to court records.

Months before that felony arrest, police had charged Wilbanks with misdemeanor shoplifting for allegedly taking $37.05 in merchandise from a Gainesville Wal-Mart. Court records show that officials dismissed the case after Wilbanks completed "Project Turnabout," a six-week counseling program for shoplifters.

She was arrested again, city court records show, in April 1998, when Wilbanks, then 25, was charged with shoplifting $98 worth of merchandise from a store. She pleaded guilty and served two weekends in jail. A judge also sentenced her to probation, a $400 fine and 50 hours of community service.

In addition, John Mason is not the first man that Wilbanks left standing at the altar. She jilted one other suitor several years ago when she backed out of an engagement.

Sounds like she needs some serious help from the local shrink.

An iPod vending machine in Atlanta

A vending machine full of Apple iPods for sale at Atlanta Hartsfield.

Figure you need lots of quarters for this machine.

Of course, my teenaged daughter wants to know how long before one gets installed at the mall.

Suburban Atlanta teacher fired for flunking sleeping football player

Dacula High School science teacher Larry "Doc" Neace was fired by the Gwinnett County School Board last night.

Neace was found insubordinate after failing a football player who fell asleep in his class, and refusing direct orders to change the student's grade. District rules prohibit teachers from using grades as a punitive measure.

Neace, a 23-year veteran of the suburban Atlanta school system, cut the grade of said football player in half after observing the student sleeping. The student whined to his daddy, who in turn whined to the school administration.

"What we have in this case is a case of a pampered football athlete sleeping in class and being given favored treatment on an academic grade," said Neace's lawyer, Michael Kramer. "What we have here is the principal essentially attempting to coerce and intimidate a teacher."

School officials said they gave Neace a chance to restore the football player's grade. When he refused, they sent him home. He has not been allowed back at school since April 14, when he was told he could resign or face being fired.

School officials on Thursday argued their case before the Gwinnett school board, which weighed the teacher's fate into the early morning hours. The hearing at school district offices in Lawrenceville lasted more than five hours.

Superintendent J. Alvin Wilbanks recommended to the board that Neace be fired. "He cannot have a policy that supersedes board policy," Wilbanks said. "He had no right to do that."

Neace said he had a practice of reducing the grades of students who waste time or sleep in class. His course syllabus warns that wasting class time can "earn a zero for a student on assignments or labs." No administrators had previously complained about the practice, which he adopted more than a decade ago, Neace said.

School officials said Thursday that it appeared Neace allowed students to sleep in class. "He said it was not his job to wake up students," Assistant Principal Donald Mason said.

When asked Thursday if students sleep in his class, Neace responded, "Very rarely."

Very rarely, indeed -- if you know that sleeping will cost you your grade, you won't sleep in the man's class. Sounds pretty simple to me.

This is a case of a pampered football player and a school administration whose priorities are completely screwed up. Mind you, the parents of the spoiled football player have taught their brat kid a valuable lesson. If you whine loud enough and long enough, hand-wringing administrators will give you whatever you want.

So much for personal responsibility.

Neace, in an interview on Atlanta radio station WSB this morning, said that he only wants to get back in the classroom. He loves teaching and he won't let this sour him on it.

Neace has plenty of support from students throughout Dacula High School, with signs and shirts being made in his favor. When the principal got up to speak at an assembly, the students chanted, "We want Doc!" The principal ignored them.

The principal is obviously a hand-wringing idiot more concerned about this football player than about education and commensurate discipline in his school.

Feh.

Jawa Report gets terrorist caught

The esteemed Rusty Shackleford over at The Jawa Report printed an e-mail from a supposed terrorist (who was here in the US illegally) awhile back. An astute reader forwarded the info to the FBI who finally got off of their hind quarters (after much harranguing), investigated, and arrested the sorry SOB.

From time to time we like to do something called post the terrorist's e-mail. It's not just great fun to sign up for gay porn using a terrorists e-mail, it also pays off from time to time.

I'm not at liberty to give all the details yet. I'll post the rest of the story when the reader gives permission. I've been holding back on this one for a month. I can't anymore, though.

The basic story is we posted a terrorist's e-mail. A reader with an Arabic sounding e-mail address sent off a message to the terrorist. The terrorist responded. The FBI was informed. The FBI didn't do diddly-squat. The reader kept bugging the FBI. The FBI finally investigated, and ...... drumroll please ..... the FBI now has said terrorist locked up in a jail.

Works for me.

Whatever we need to do to get those scum-sucking terrorists caught and tossed. Good work, Rusty!

CafePress shop: "Save America, Kill Republicans"

Only a few weeks ago, CafePress.com had to pull a shop off of their site for encouraging violence against President Bush (the plainly named "Kill Bush" page).

Today, there's another shop, this time going after Republicans: "Save America, Kill Republicans." The shop sells shirts, baseball caps, thongs, aprons, and other things with the offensive saying on it. The site is sponsored by the blog "NaughtyGirlsX.com."

If past performance is any clue, the site will disappear within the next few hours. But this makes me wonder about motives.

Columnist Sneed: FBI to exhume body of Emmitt Till

According to Chicago Sun-Times columnist Michael Sneed, the FBI is planning to exhume the body of Emmitt Till, the 14 year-old black Chicago boy who was killed in Mississippi after allegedly whistling at a white woman. Till's body is buried in Burr Oak Cemetary just outside Chicago in Alsip, IL.

Till's body, which is buried next to his mother's at Burr Oak Cemetery in Alsip, will be exhumed within the next few weeks, and an autopsy will be conducted by Cook County Medical Examiner Ed Donahue, according to a source.

"The FBI wants to know who killed Till, and due to the brutal beating he received, an exhumation may provide the evidence they need" to make a case, said the source.

The murder of Till, an unsolved case standing at the center of the American civil rights movement, gave meaning to the term "Mississippi Justice."

Then, last year, a new chapter was added to the Till story.

The U.S. Justice Department reopened the case following a documentary by African-American filmmaker Keith Beauchamp, 32, who claimed to have uncovered new evidence. The documentary, "The Untold Story of Emmett Louis Till," chronicled Till's nightmare death and the sham trial of his alleged murderers.

Beauchamp believes that there are five people still alive who can shed light on who actually murdered Till. The FBI feels that they can solve this case once and for all.

"Bring me the head of Osama Bin Laden"

Right after 9/11, former CIA officer Gary Schroen was sent to Afghanistan to help the Northern Alliance in their fight against the Taliban, who was harboring Osama Bin Laden.

He told National Public Radio in an interview broadcast on Monday and Tuesday that he stopped by the office of then-CIA counterterrorism director Cofer Black for final instructions.

He said he was told: "'your basic marching orders are to link up with the Northern Alliance and get their cooperation militarily and they will take on the Taliban.

"'When we break the Taliban, your job is to capture bin Laden, kill him and bring his head back in a box full of dry ice.'"

He said he told Black, '"Sir, those are the clearest orders I have ever received, I can certainly make pikes out in the field but I don't know what I'll do about dry ice to bring the head back but we will manage something."

As we now know, the mafia-esque mission didn't succeed, but the notion of Osama's head in a duffle bag isn't the worst idea I've ever heard.

Two different flicks come to mind: Joe Pesci's "8 Heads in a Duffel Bag," and the legendary Warren Oates flick "Bring Me The Head of Alfredo Garcia."

VW Popemobile bringing big bucks on eBay

A VW Golf which once belonged to Pope Benedict XVI while he was still a cardinal, is fetching big bids on eBay Germany.

The car, a 1999 VW Golf in mint condition, started at $16,500. As of Tuesday night, the current bid was more than $100,000.

The car is offered for sale by 21 year-old Benjamin Halbe, who got the car in January from a used car dealer, not knowing that Joseph Ratzinger would shortly be elected the new Pontiff. Halbe says the car is a "heavenly ride."

There's no word whether the exhaust gives off white or black smoke.

It's official. Michael Eric Dyson has lost his damn fool mind

Loud-mouthed author, moonbat bomb thrower and defender of the soul patrol, Michael Eric Dyson has completely lost it. His new book, Is Bill Cosby Right? Or Has The Black Middle Class Lost It's Mind, continues the hand-wringing that the so-called black leadership uses to absolve the mediocre behavior by so many in black America.

Dyson has a background mired in the brick-tossing and name-calling that comes about whenever anyone black dares to step outside of the "blame Whitey" mindset that so many subscribe to. His new book continues in the same direction.

Dyson showed up on NPR's Talk of the Nation today to continue his blather. The interview is streamed on NPR's site - listen for yourself, if you can stomach it.

911 transcript: Runaway bride made up story as she went along

The time? 11:37 MT last Friday night. The place? 7-Eleven on Solano Street in Albuquerque, NM. Who? Jennifer Wilbanks, the now-legendary runaway bride that has been plastered all over the news this past week. What? The 911 phone call where Wilbanks concocted her half-assed story of kidnapping.

Dispatcher: Alberquerque 911. Operator 45. What is your emergency?

Wilbanks: I'm at the ... I don't know where I am. I'm right here beside Solano Street at the 7-Eleven.

...

Dispatcher: What is your name, ma'am?

Wilbanks: Jennifer.

Dispatcher: Were you hurt, Jennifer? Do you need any medical attention?

Wilbanks: No I don't need any medical attention. [inaudible] I told them my name.

Dispatcher: Do you know who did this to you?

Wilbanks: No.

...

Dispatcher: Do you know where your location is?

Wilbanks: At some street ... I, I don't even know who I am. And I'm just sitting here.

Dispatcher: Did they hurt you in any way? Jennifer, do you need medical attention?

Wilbanks: No, they didn't hurt me. I'm talking to them right now...

...

Dispatcher: Who did this to you?

Wilbanks: I don't know.

Dispatcher: Did they just drop you off right now?

Wilbanks: I don't know how long ago it was. They didn't drop me off here. Away from here. On some street, I don't know where I am...It was a Hispanic man and a Caucasian woman. It happened in Duluth.

Wilbanks' story vascillated even over the course of her 911 call.

Other evidence indicates that Wilbanks had purchased a bus ticket several days prior to her disappearance last week. So she planned this thing -- at least the runaway if nothing else -- in advance. Mind you, this isn't the first time she's bailed out of the engagement.

She's a stupid, spoiled brat, and that, certainly isn't a crime. And arguably, she didn't actually file a false police report (which would actually have been a crime). But she was the root cause of time, effort, energy and money being spent to find her -- even though that wasn't a crime in and of itself, what it does do is leave her open to a civil suit. And that's what the local officials are contemplating.

I'd leave her be -- until she signs the contract for the inevitable Lifetime Made-For-TV, "ripped from the headlines" movie and book deal. Then I'd sue her for every single penny of that money.

Crews of two F/A 18 jets missing in Iraq

Crews of two F/A 18 Hornet jets are missing in Iraq.

The jets were flying a routine mission in what was termed "bad weather" from the carrier USS Carl Vinson.

The Navy believes the jets collided with each other as a result of the bad weather. It is not known whether the jets were over land or over sea when the incident occured.

The crew of the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson lost contact with the planes about 10:10 p.m. (2:10 p.m. ET), a U.S. military statement said.

"There was no indication of hostile fire in the area at the time contact was lost," the military statement said.

The Boeing-built F/A-18 Hornet is an all-weather fighter and attack aircraft, versions of which can carry either one- or two-person crews.

The crews have not been identified as of yet.

They will be included in my prayers tonight.

"LA, Mexico" billboard update the second

LA talk radio giant KFI has fired their own salvo in the "Los Angeles, Mexico" billboard mess started by Spanish-language television station KRCA with their news billboard last week.

Just to clarify, you are here: Los Angeles, CA USA
Gracias, KFI AM640

How long before people start to whine about the billboard being hateful toward Spanish-speaking people in Southern California?

"Los Angeles, Mexico" billboard altered

Remember the bruhaha about the television station billboard in Los Angeles last week?

Well, the billboard has been altered.

While we wait for the MSM (Main Stream Media) such as CBS, NBC, ABC, and CNN to show America the offensive billboards in LA to America, concerned citizens and activists protested outside of the TV 62 KRCA studios today to demand they remove the Los Angeles, Mexico billboards. Now we have a new breaking story!

SaveOurState.org and Americans for Legal Immigration PAC (ALIPAC) have worked with other organizations to arrange the protest. During the peak of the protest a supporter of both groups raced with his camera to the billboard (located at Orangethorpe and State College in Fullerton) to take the picture presented below.

I suppose I shouldn't have been surprised that Clear Channel owns the billboard in the first place.