Archive for June, 2007
Saturday, June 30th, 2007
It’s almost Independence Day. The most patriotic day of the year, and to help the American people celebrate, Congressional Democrats are once again trying to push forth legislation to raise the white flag in Iraq. Nothing helps commemorate the birth of our nation and the sacrifices made by our forefathers quite like the idea of running and hiding.
(Politico.com) — Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) are expected tomorrow to announce a new coordinated effort to force votes in July to end the Iraq war, according to Democratic insiders.
Reid has already publicly declared that Senate Democrats will offer four Iraq-related amendments to the upcoming 2008 Defense authorization bill, including a proposal by Reid and Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wis.) to set a firm timetable to withdraw U.S. troops from Iraq by next spring.
Pelosi is planning to announce that the House will also vote on a bill setting a new withdrawal timetable of April 1, 2008, although the details of the proposal were still up in the air at press time, according to Democratic sources. The House will consider this proposal as a freestanding bill, said the sources.
(For the full article from Politico.com, which is referenced throughout, click here.)
I don’t know how you celebrate the Fourth of July. Maybe it’s with a picnic, maybe it’s with fireworks. I hope you spend it with family and friends. Most of all though, I hope you take time to say a quick prayer of thanks to God for giving us this great land of freedom. I also hope you take time this next week to remember the sacrifices of our founding fathers, and of our veterans.
Many of us will never know first hand the pain and suffering that some of the signers of the Declaration of Independence went through. Nor will we know the true sacrifice soldiers who gave their lives storming the beaches of Normandy gave. What of our men who faced unspeakable horrors in the jungles of Vietnam? Lest we not forget our men and women at war right now in Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere fighting against radical Islam. May God bless them and their families.
We’ve always been a country of bravery fighting for our freedom, and democracy in the world. So it is with great disgust that I write this letter seeing the leaders of Congress ready to back down from the greatest fight of our generation. The issue is not the strategy in Iraq with these folks. They may want you to think they’re just upset with the way Iraq has gone. The truth is they don’t want us to fight at all. They want us to lay down our arms. In a perfect world, that sounds pretty good doesn’t it? The problem is we do not live in a perfect world.
We live in a world with real evil forces at work. We live in a world where radical followers of Allah and Mohammad are strapping bombs to their children in order to kill people. There is no room to tolerate that behavior. These terrorists kill without a second thought, and the strategy of appeasement and political correctness only emboldens them. You cannot reason with a mad man or in this case mad men. We did not choose this fight, but history will judge us on how we react to this menace. If we do not see this fight through, the fight will not go away. Ask the people in Great Britain, Spain, France, African countries like Sudan, Russia, and last but not least Israel. Do you want the chaos of Iraq fought on the streets of New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, and other cities within our great nation?
(Politico.com) — In addition, House Democrats will push proposals to prohibit the creation of permanent U.S. military bases in Iraq, as well as a “readiness” initiative similar to that authored by Sen. Jim Webb (D-Va.). The Webb proposal would limit deployments of U.S. soldiers and marines in Iraq by requiring the Pentagon to keep military units from being sent back to Iraq until they have been stateside as long as they were in the combat zone.
Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.), chairman of the powerful Defense subcommittee on the House Appropriations Committee and a leader of the anti-war movement, is planning to offer his own new measures as part of the Defense spending bill.
The left thinks that by ending the war in Iraq we will be saving the lives of our troops. While that may be true in the short term, how many more troops and American citizens will be lost when the battle comes closer to home? The insane notion that some Democrats would have us not even have a military presence in the middle east shows how little they think of the sacrifices already made by our men and women in the War on Terror.
(Politico.com) — Both Pelosi and Reid have come to the conclusion that President Bush’s plan for a “surge” in the number of U.S. troops inside Iraq, has failed and that Democrats, despite losing their showdown with Bush and the Republicans over the recent Iraq supplemental funding bill, must continue to force votes to end the war. Gen. David Petraeus is supposed to report back to Congress in September on the state of the “surge,” but Democrats have decided not to wait for his report.
“The surge is a failure, it isn’t working,” said a Democratic aide familiar with the new initiative. “We just can’t leave American soldiers out there dying and not do anything.”
One of the unfortunate truths of war is the fact that there is death. I don’t know if that is a truth that Democrats are aware of, or just choose to completely deny. I also don’t know if this attitude is a product of the “instant gratification” culture in which we live, or if some on the left just live in an alternate state of reality brought on by too many hallucinogenic drugs.
How long as “The Surge Strategy” been in place? Six months? They can’t even wait for the official report back to Congress to weigh evidence and make a decision. They’ve already made up their minds. Worse yet, they’re not just ready to abandon this strategy, but they do not have another strategy to put in its place. Instead of coming up with alternatives, they’ve done nothing but sit back, and eagerly watch and root for the United States military to fail. I am literally sick to my stomach and you should be too.
My prayer is that the American people would realize that this fight is bigger than an opinion of President Bush. This fight is bigger than Republicans and Democrats. This fight is bigger than Iraq or Afghanistan. This fight is a fight for democracy and freedom which faces a very real and very powerful evil: radical Islam, which seeks to murder, destroy, and enslave the free world as we know it.
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Saturday, June 30th, 2007
If people calling themselves Christians worldwide were blowing things up in terrorist attacks would you be outraged? Would you speak out against these so called “Christians” and denounce their behavior? I would, and I’d like to think the majority of those who call themselves Christians would do the same. In fact I know they would.
So why aren’t more moderate followers of Islam speaking out against these radical followers of Islam? Should we be concerned that this isn’t the case? I’m being absolutely 100% serious. I’m not trying to spin anything, I’m just talking straight with you. Let me expound upon this idea a little further.
If there was a global phenomenon where a radical group of people calling themselves followers of Christ using the name “Christians” preached violence and hatred toward those who do not believe, would you speak out and actually help do something about it? What if this same group trained people to carry out violent attacks in churches throughout the world, wouldn’t you want to stop that from happening?
If you call yourself a Christian, and this so called other group of “Christians” participated in this hypothetical worldwide terrorism would you be willing to sacrifice some of your civil liberties for the greater good? Would you be willing to go through a little more extensive background check? Would you be willing to be profiled more closely? Would you be willing to do these things to protect the innocent? Would you do it to also denounce the radical terrorists and at the same time save face for the image of true Christianity throughout the world? I think a lot of Christians would be willing to do these things. I know I would be willing to cooperate so that I could show the world that true Christianity is not like this group of radicals who destroy life.
So why won’t more Muslims do the same thing? Why do we have followers of Islam who are not open with the public about what goes on in Mosques. Why do we have entire organizations that get offended at the effort to protect freedom and democracy and won’t cooperate with authorities? Why aren’t there more people standing up to say “Islam is not like this, it really isn’t!” All I hear is a lot of silence for the most part. It scares the heck out of me. The more I hear nothing, the more confirmation and validity there is to the argument that, “There is no moderate Islam.” I hope everyone else is as freaked out about that being true as I am.
(By the way, if the United States does not continue its fight to confront radical Islam, we will see images like they are seeing in Great Britain today right here in America. Not only that, but it will become a common occurrence, mark my words.)
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Thursday, June 28th, 2007
Do you care that Norm Coleman once smoked Pot? Do you care that Al Franken did LSD and Cocaine? Is it fair to differentiate between the types of drugs used and how smart or stupid an individual must be to have tried them, even if it was in the past? Skeletons in the closet are a politicians worst nightmare, but should they be?
By Jake Sherman, Star Tribune - June 27, 2007
WASHINGTON - An open letter by a marijuana activist sparked a flurry of attention Wednesday about which candidates for Minnesota’s U.S. Senate seat experimented with illegal substances in the past.
Norm Kent, a former classmate of U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman at Hofstra University, posted a letter on a marijuana website about Coleman’s marijuana use in the 1960s. Kent, whom Coleman defeated in a student government race at the university, recalled an instance when the New York-born Coleman stood atop a building during a protest and smoked marijuana.
But Coleman is not the only politician with illicit substances in his past. Al Franken, the former actor on “Saturday Night Live” and DFL candidate for Coleman’s Senate seat, used cocaine, LSD and marijuana while working on the late-night show, according to news reports. Franken’s first stint on the show was in the late 1970s.
In a Los Angeles Times article from 1994, Franken admitted to doing his “share of recreational drugs” but said he never was addicted.
“There’d be cocaine around the show and if it was [mid-week] at 3 in the morning and I wanted to finish something I was writing I’d do some,” Franken said in the interview.
A Washington Post story from February 1986 described a scene from a book about “Saturday Night Live” that had Franken and co-writer Tom Davis using LSD while writing a sketch about former President Richard Nixon.
In a 2006 Playboy interview, Franken admitted to doing cocaine when he was “young and irresponsible.”
For the rest of the article click here.
It’s natural for both sides to try to dig up stuff from each candidates background. The question is, how does it affect you as a voter? I know some people would say, “Well they were young and did stupid things, I did too.” How far back do we look into a candidates past to judge them now? I think you can only take it so far. I think it is fair to look at the types of drugs for instance and say, okay, none of these drugs are good, they are all illegal, but some are worse than others. Does it say something about a persons character when they choose to smoke marijuana? Yes. Does it say something about a persons character when they do harder drugs like LSD and Cocaine? It certainly does.
I believe in forgiveness but public figures are held to a higher standard than most Americans and I think it’s not entirely inappropriate to consider the decisions they’ve made in the past and how that will affect their decisions in the future.
More important of course is how they feel about illegal drug use now, and how they feel about the issues. After examining the two candidates I think some could reasonably argue that Norm Coleman is a little too much of a pot smoking hippie still when it comes to some issues, and Al Franken by all accounts is still using LSD and Cocaine!
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Thursday, June 28th, 2007
If the Government is going to get involved with steroids in baseball, shouldn’t they do the same thing with Worldwide Wrestling Entertainment? The WWE (formerly the WWF) promotes bad language, disrespect for women, trashy behavior, violence, and illegal drug use. The disgusting and tragic situation with wrestler Chris Benoit has brought the WWE into the light and it’s about time we started talking about this organization.
For those of you who haven’t heard, professional wrestler Chris Benoit murdered his wife, and his son, and then hanged himself afterwards. Now everyone is blaming “roid rage” an angry state of mind that comes from steroid use. First of all I don’t care what the so called cause is, this is just a disgusting act and this guy was a pathetic human being. Second, if there is some sort of link between steroids and anger wouldn’t you think the WWE would crack down on steroid use? You’d think they’d do so simply because of other negative health effects documented, and because it’s an illegal substance. However they obviously do not enforce it, and in fact they may even promote it! As more information comes to light about wrestlers using steroids it’s time the WWE be scrutinized and possibly penalized.
Where do you draw the line on obscenity and free speech? Where do you draw the line between entertainment and trash? I’m not sure how you define the line, and I think it might be a situation where you need to take things on a case by case situation. The WWE has long drawn my ire as being irresponsible and just plain dumb. Now however, they’ve been identified as a dangerous organization that promotes illegal behavior and is in fact a danger to society. How arrogant and evil is the WWE? Immediately after the Chris Benoit incident they aired a three hour tribute to the wrestler. They did this for a cold blooded murderer. Since then they have tried to deny steroids had anything to do with this incident, and have tried to hide the fact that they have a steroid problem.
It’s time for public outcry and possibly even the government to step in and deal with these scum bags!
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Wednesday, June 27th, 2007
If you caught two 14-year-old girls making out on a bus, would you consider them sickos? I would. I guess it’s a good thing I’m not a bus driver in “highly advanced super progressive” Portland, Oregon. Otherwise I’d be thrown under a bus (no pun intended) by the media, the bus drivers union, the gay and lesbian community, and the city!
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) - A transit agency chief apologized Wednesday to two lesbian teenagers who were kicked off a bus when a passenger complained about them kissing. “Removing the girls from the bus was not consistent with our policy,” said TriMet General Manager Fred Hansen. “I want to reiterate that we welcome all riders on our system.”
The 64-year-old bus driver will face disciplinary action for removing the two 14-year-old girls during a June 8 incident aboard his bus, TriMet officials said. But no details about the discipline were released. The driver, an 11-year veteran, violated several agency procedures and policies, officials said.
The girls said the driver called them “sickos” after a female passenger complained about their kiss. He then stopped the bus along the street and forced them off.
The actions by the girls did not warrant being removed from the bus, and TriMet policy requires operators to call for assistance before removing any minors, TriMet said in a statement released Wednesday. “TriMet sincerely apologizes to the girls and their families for this incident,” Hansen said in the statement.
The mother of one of the girls, Ronnda Zezula, welcomed the apology.
“The only thing I had a problem with is they didn’t really address why the driver broke those policies,” Zezula said. “He knew it was wrong. He’s been a driver for 11 years.” She also said she wished the agency had made the extent of the disciplinary action public to show it will not “be just a slap on the wrist.” Zezula said the family has been encouraged to consider a lawsuit, but they will “have to mull it over.”
Melissa Chernaik, spokeswoman for Basic Rights Oregon, said the gay rights group has been in contact with Zezula and “we share the same set of concerns.”
But Chernaik said the chief concern was that the girls were put in an unsafe situation. “The fact that they were possibly singled out because they were two girls is obviously problematic,” Chernaik said. “But the big issue is that teenagers were put at risk and they should not be. Keeping kids safe is really the problem, and it sounds like TriMet is dealing with that, as they should be.”
“Removing the girls from the bus was not consistent with our policy” - Why on earth not? Shouldn’t any form of ridiculous PDA (not to mention something as controversial as homosexual PDA) be banned from public transportation? If I’m going to pay to ride a bus I better not have to sit there with my kids and witness that sort of open sexual distortion shoved in my face. You heard me right, I think that homosexuality is sexual distortion. In my opinion so is sleeping around. So is having sex with someone other than your wife when you’re married. Am I not entitled to that opinion? Next time maybe these girls should just get a room!
“I want to reiterate that we welcome all riders on our system” - Who said all riders weren’t welcome? Anyone is welcome, and anyone can misbehave! If you misbehave you’re off the bus. Sounds simple enough to me! Why are they identifying people by behavior now? Isn’t this exactly what the gay and lesbian community wants to fight against: being labeled by their behavior?!?
So now the family is considering a lawsuit! What a great American tradition that is! What’s the big deal? The driver called them sickos. People get called mean names every day, if you can’t deal with that, good luck living the rest of your life! This is just another case of political correctness run amok. Combine that with an unwillingness to follow certain social guidelines and rules and we have this screwed up case in Portland!
Here’s a quick summary of how I feel about this case:
1 - Public Display of Affection (PDA) is not something you should be doing on a mode of public transportation. That was a mistake. If you want to behave like that, do it in private and not around innocent kids. This goes for homosexuals, heterosexuals, bisexuals, and weird green martian alien-sexuals!
2 - The bus driver should have every right to kick them off the bus for what he deems disorderly conduct, end of story.
3 - The bus driver said they were sickos. So what? He could have said the same thing to a heterosexual couple making out on the bus. Maybe he does think homosexuality is a form of sexual perversion (IE; sick.)
Isn’t he entitled to his opinion about a behavior? Some people find drinking wrong, but you don’t go calling them bigots for criticizing drunks! Some people might find those who don’t recycle to be environmentally unfriendly and hate their behavior… Should we call in the PC police? No! People should be entitled to their opinions when it comes to the behavior of other people. I’m sick and tired of my rights being trampled on for having an opinion. This bus driver is a sacrificial lamb to further the cause of intolerance by the tolerance crowd.
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Wednesday, June 27th, 2007
A lot of conservatives have long been singing the praises of Fox News because it was the first of its kind. The first mainstream news, albeit cable, to not slant to the left in everything it does. Fox News has also provided some great champions of conservative causes like Sean Hannity, and Bill O’Reilly. The straight forward news provided by Brit Hume is also refreshing because of that lack of apparent liberal bias you find in almost every other mainstream news program. I have been a Fox News fan for a long time because of these facts and because I knew it was a breath of fresh air from the very beginning. Now that I have prefaced this article with that tid bit of information I can start my rant.
Fox News does have its negatives. It tends to sensationalize the news (as do most mainstream news sources now) it also is very lax when it comes to keeping offensive material that many would consider “not family friendly” off of the air. Some conservatives are upset when they turn on programs they’ve come to enjoy such as the O’Reilly Factor or Hannity & Colmes and they are exposed to videos of half naked women because of a story dealing with a teacher having sex with a student, or college spring break stories, or mardi gras stories, or whatever the subject is. I think to understand why Fox News would do that even though it’s going after a more conservative minded audience has to do with their owner Rupert Murdoch.
Mr. Murdoch, a native Australian, is a very rich man. He’s made his money as a media mogul. He is the owner of the News Corporation which owns broadcast and print media throughout the world. Fox, Fox News, the New York Post, Direct TV, and various other national and international entities. The man is a business man who is concerned with the bottom line. He knows that sex sells and so he sells it.
Now the real reason I’m writing this is because of an article out today on Mr. Murdoch and his dealings in China. I want to pose this question to you: Is Rupert Murdoch a good man who brought us a news network, Fox News, that isn’t as liberal biased and stands up for conservative values more than other news entities? Is Rupert Murdoch a savvy business man who isn’t interested in anything but money? Is Rupert Murdoch a bad man who exploits groups of people just to feed his pocket book and should we be concerned? Read this story below and you tell me what you think…
BEIJING, China (NYTimes.com) — Many big companies have sought to break into the Chinese market over the past two decades, but few of them have been as ardent and unrelenting as Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation.
Murdoch has flattered Communist Party leaders and done business with their children. His Fox News network helped China’s leading state broadcaster develop a news Web site. He joined hands with the Communist Youth League, a power base in the ruling party, in a risky television venture, his China managers and advisers say.
Murdoch’s third wife, Wendi, is a mainland Chinese who once worked for his Hong Kong-based satellite broadcaster, Star TV. Her role in managing investments and honing elite connections in China has underscored uncertainties within the Murdoch family about how the family-controlled News Corporation will be run after Murdoch, 76, retires or dies.
Regulatory barriers and management missteps have thwarted Murdoch’s hopes of big profits in China. He has said his local business hit a “brick wall” after a bid to corral prime-time broadcasting rights fell apart in 2005, costing him tens of millions of dollars.
But as he seeks to buy Dow Jones, the parent company of The Wall Street Journal, his track record in China has attracted attention less because of profits and losses than for what it shows about his management style.
Murdoch cooperates closely with China’s censors and state broadcasters, several people who worked for him in China say. He cultivates political ties that he hopes will insulate his business ventures from regulatory interference, these people say.
In speeches and interviews, Murdoch often supports the policies of Chinese leaders and attacks their critics. A group of China-based reporters for The Journal accused him in a letter to Dow Jones shareholders of “sacrificing journalistic integrity to satisfy personal and political aims,” a charge the News Corporation denies.
For the rest of the story click here.
So what does this tell you about the man? He’s obviously a business man interested in the bottom line. I also get the feeling that he exploits whoever and whatever to make money. He doesn’t seem to mind that he’s dealing with communists. He doesn’t seem to mind that he’s dealing with a government with one of the world’s worst human rights records. He doesn’t seem to mind it one bit as long as he’s lining his pocket book. I wonder if this guy has any stake in Al Jazeera? Hey, if it makes money why not right?
This is why I encourage friends and colleagues to not depend wholly on Fox News for their information. While they’ve done a fine job in breaking the trend by much of the mainstream media, I have my suspicions about their motives at times. I know some people are just saying “Andy they’re just out to make money, what’s wrong with that?” When you sacrifice principles be they journalistic, or just moral standards when it comes to content I think you have to be very wary. That’s not to say there’s any perfect news source out there, but I know a lot of people who watch Fox News and think it’s the only thing worth watching. I’m just writing this to encourage you to evaluate news and information with a grain of salt.
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Tuesday, June 26th, 2007
On Hot Talk we like to talk about Hot Issues, and one hot button issue that people get passionate about is the issue of homosexuality and society. This last weekend was the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender Pride Parade in Minneapolis.
In this parade, you had streets blocked off, police force on call at the parade, all for a public display of sexual orientation. Now this parade had a wide variety of people in it, some of which included men and women in under garments or nearly nude with parts of their bodies hanging out. You had some displaying obscene gestures and showing off very in your face sexual imagery including signs with messages that many, myself included, would consider vulgar and offensive. One sign read “Firm Members Wanted” and it was held by a man almost completely nude. Frankly a lot of it was “in your face” offensive stuff.
This morning we invited Michael John Smith, host of the Saturday Morning Eye Opener and a member of the BLGT community to talk about issues surrounding the parade and other relevant issues.
We discussed the stuff at the parade, and he sort of agreed with me that there doesn’t need to be all this in your face sexual material. My big beef is that it’s in a public place and it’s done where families and kids can witness it. If someone else was doing this sort of stuff on a normal afternoon they’d probably be arrested or at least ticketed for lewd behavior.
Kids are already exposed to sex in more ways than any other generation ever. We have a serious problem with over exposure to sexual imagery in our culture with pornographic images and thoughts hitting us from all sides. Whether it be television, or the Internet, or billboards or the movies it clearly exists. I address this because I think it’s simply got to stop and someone has to speak up about it.
Beyond the parade, we turned toward the issue of special interest groups. Why does the gay community want to be recognized as a special group? You don’t see pride parades for those who are celibate or those who commit adultery or those who are polygamists or those who sleep around or those who have sex only on Tuesdays or choose any other type of sexual behavior!
That’s when the issue turned toward whether or not homosexuality is a lifestyle choice or due to genetics. The old nature or nurture argument. Mike believes it’s something you’re born with. I believe it’s a lifestyle choice. I come to that conclusion because there is no scientific evidence to back up the fact that homosexuality is hereditary.
I’ve also talked with several friends including one with a doctorate in marriage and family therapy who have discussed the effects of a child being sexually abused or having an absent father during the early years of life. There are many factors that contribute to struggles with homosexuality in my opinion.
While we clearly had our differences of opinion, and still do, it was nice to have a civil discussion about the issues and to see where both sides are coming from when it comes to how homosexuals relate to heterosexuals and the rest of society. We agreed to disagree about the origin of homosexuality but I believe we came to a consensus which is this: In your face sexual imagery in the public arena needs to stop and it doesn’t do any good to families, children, or anyone else.
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