The Hypocrisy of the Self Righteous Left

Leftists, especially big name leftists, the ones who are always blabbering about how other people are too rich, use too many of "our precious natural resources", are too selfish, etc in the self righteous, finger waving manner we have all become accustomed to have been dealt an icepick into their ballon-like egos by the publication of Peter Schweitzer's book "Do As I Say, Not As I Do. Profiles in Liberal Hypocrisy." Herewith, a snippet from the "Carlson Tucker Show" detailing some of the hypocrasies of Barbara Striesand, Michael Moore, Al Franken, Ted Kennedy, and the Kennedy family.

You have these -- have amazing examples of hypocrisy. Barbra Streisand, you point out, and did I misread this? Could this really be true? This environmentalist, Barbra Streisand, spends 20 grand a year watering her lawn? How do you know that? SCHWEITZER: Yes, it`s public record; $22,000 a year is her water Bill. And she lives in a compound, just her and her husband, James Brolin, that has five homes, and a 12,000-square-foot air conditioned barn, if you can believe it. CARLSON: That`s -- that`s a major violation of the principles of ecology, it sounds like. Has she ever responded to this? SCHWEITZER: She hasn`t. And what is so funny about it, Tucker, is that, you know, she`s constantly lecturing the American people on what she calls excessive consumption and says that, you know, the American people need to give up their SUVs, and they need to hang their clothes out to dry instead of using the dryer. So it`s ridiculous, you know. The gap between what she claims she believes and what she actually does is huge. CARLSON: Yes, I`d suggest that she be quiet, but it`s so amusing when she talks, I hope she keeps yapping. Michael Moore, a hypocrite according to you. Give me examples. SCHWEITZER: Well, you know, Michael Moore has said at least half a dozen times in his books, on C-SPAN, and in interviews with newspapers and magazines, that he doesn`t own a single share of stock, because he considers Wall Street money to be dirty. Well, he may be technically correct, Tucker. He doesn`t own a single share; he owns tens of thousands of shares of stock. And a lot of people that listen to him would probably be interested to know that among the companies he`s owned shares in include pharmaceutical companies, off-shore oil drilling companies, defense contractors, and believe it or not, in recent years, he`s also been a shareholder in Halliburton. CARLSON: But he must have lost money on Halliburton. SCHWEITZER: No, actually he took a 15 percent capital gain on some of the stock in Halliburton that he sold. CARLSON: That is just amazing. You`ve got a portion of your book where you quote Michael Moore calling other people racist for not having diverse enough staffs. And according to Michael Moore in one of his books as saying he`s never going to hire anybody but black employees from now on. Has he lived up to that pledge? SCHWEITZER: No, he hasn`t. I mean, he and Al Franken both have abysmal records. They criticize conservatives and corporate America for a lack of diversity and say that they`re racists and bigots because they don`t embrace affirmative action. But if you look at the credited people that Michael Moore has hired since 1990, he`s hired 134 people. A grand total of three were actually black. For Al Franken, he`s hired 112 people during that time period. A grand total of one was actually black. So they both have abysmal records when it comes to what they profess they believe in. CARLSON: Ouch. Now, to be fair, I`m not personally all that against hypocrisy, because I think that everybody falls short of his own ideals. And if you live up to your ideas, you probably have pretty low standards. We`re all hypocrites? Are you making the case that liberals are more hypocritical than conservatives? SCHWEITZER: Well, I really -- I think there`s two differences. Yes, we are all hypocritical. That`s very true. But I think, first of all, you never hear about liberal hypocrisy. I mean, you hear about it with conservatives all the time. Liberals get a free pass. You know, they advocate taxes, but then they work to avoid paying the very same taxes. You never hear about that. But the second distinction I think is even more important, Tucker. When conservatives abandon the principles and are hypocrites, what ends up happening? They get hurt; they damage their families; they damage their lives. With liberals, you find something very interesting. I would argue their ideas are so bad that when they become hypocrites and abandon their principles, they actually improve their lives. CARLSON: Interesting. Now, Ted Kennedy, I mean, I was a little bit surprised to hear you call him a hypocrite. Sum that up for us, that case. SCHWEITZER: Well, in Ted Kennedy`s case, I mean, for 40 years, he`s been advocating higher taxes. His pet cause now is the inheritance tax. He says it`s socially just and fair for the American people to pay 49 percent when they die to the IRS. The irony is that Ted Kennedy and his family have been massively successful at avoiding paying that very same tax. According to the Kennedy family`s own numbers, they have transferred between $300 million and $500 million from one generation to the other. On that money, they`ve paid a grand total of $134,000 in taxes. Tucker, that`s less than 1 percent. So he`s not in any position to lecture anybody on the need to pay taxes until he starts doing it himself. CARLSON: Who is his accountant, do you know? Might be interested in signing up with that program. SCHWEITZER: Yes, he`s got a whole team of them. What they`ve done is they`ve set up trusts in estates all across the United States. In fact, Merchandise Mart, you know, the large real estate holding that they used to own, that was actually domiciled in a trust that was set up on the island nation of Fiji, if you can believe it. Yes, so very creative accounting, to say the least. CARLSON: So he`s one of those corporate Benedict Arnolds Kerry was always lecturing us about. Peter Schweitzer, author of "Do as I Say." Excellent book. Thanks a lot for joining us. SCHWEITZER: Thanks for having me, Tucker.

McCain Is Putting All our Heads In The Guillotine

Senator John McCain is trying to remove the option of torture from the arsenal of the American People in its war with the Islamist fanatics. He says that it leads to bad intelligence because the prisoner will say anything to make the pain stop.

Story Link McCain vows to add torture ban to all major Senate legislation

Speaking from the Senate floor, McCain said, "If necessary - and I sincerely hope it is not - I and the co-sponsors of this amendment will seek to add it to every piece of important legislation voted on in the Senate until the will of a substantial bipartisan majority in both houses of Congress prevails. Let no one doubt our determination." The ban would establish the Army Field Manual as the guiding authority in interrogations and prohibit "cruel, inhumane, and degrading treatment" of prisoners. ''Subjecting prisoners to abuse leads to bad intelligence, because under torture a detainee will tell his interrogator anything to make the pain stop,'' McCain said

Poor John, he does not understand. We are not Communist schmucks out to torture prisoners for revenge and fun. Our goal is to obtain data that can be used to prevent terror attacks. It is the threat of pain, discomfort, or death that prompts the terrorist to answer questions and carry on a conversation in the first place. The actual pain is administered if he lies. He will stick to the truth to avoid pain.

Sosphisticated interrogation techniques are capable of determining if he is lying by comparing what he is saying to what he has said and to other verified data. No human mind can construct, and keep track of a fabric of lies over a period of weeks or months. If the terrorist can be persuaded to talk, the truth can be ferreted out. And we will be able to prevent terrorist attacks. but the terrorist must always know that if we need to, we have the option of torture.

If McCain is successful, he will be putting us in deeper danger. It is the equivalent of baring all our throats to Al Quaeda.

He should be ashamed of himself.

President Bush should veto any legislation with this dangerous provision attached to it.

Valerie Plame Was NOT a "Covert Agent"

She was employed by the CIA but at the time of her "outing" she was NOT covert, just an employee. The subsequent two year hurricane of ink and pixels has been a deliberate attempt by the leftist Main Stream Media to create another Watergate. It has failed.

EDITOR'S NOTE

Due to DSL problems this blog will not be updated for about two weeks. See you in November.

List of Tom DeLay Related Posts

• 
  The Tom Delay Indictment(s) Will Go Nowhere.......October 8, 2005
• 
  Tom DeLay Indictment: No Direct Connection. Why Is That ?.......October 6, 2005
• 
  The DeLay Indictment: The Foreman Speaks out.......October 2, 2005
• Tom DeLay Indictment: Okay Ronnie, Now Prove it! September 28 2005
• 
  Take THAT! Tom Delay Haters.......September 12, 2005
• So Sorry! Tom Delay Haters.......September 10, 2005
• So Sorry, Again! Tom Delay haters.......September 10, 2005
• 
  Senator Clinton Must Come Clean About Her Involvement, Or Resign.......April 21, 2005
• 
  Proving a Negative, Tom Delay's Task, Set by the Left.......April 19, 2005
• Proof, Proof, Ya Gotta Have Proof!.........April 17,2005
• Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi Fined $21,000 by FEC........April 14, 2005
• 
  Barbara Boxer Funnels Money to Son, Media Fails to Notice..........April 14, 2005
• More Than 3 Million Paid to Congressional Family Members in Last Election Cycle.......April 14, 2005
• Newt,We Hardly Knew Ye!.......April 13, 2005
• New York Times, Others Scheme to Oust Tom Delay.......April 11, 2005
• Valerie Has Plamed Out..........April 08, 2005
• Moneybags Soros Funds Tom Delay Critics.......April 6, 2005
• Ronnie Earl, moralizing hypocrite and Nut........November 26, 2004
  

The Tom Delay Indictment(s) Will Go Nowhere

This is why the indictments against Tom DeLay will never see a jury. CNN runs this story online. The crucial information is contained in the box below.

DeLay, R-Texas, and two associates were indicted September 28 on a conspiracy charge that accuses them of illegally steering $190,000 in corporate donations to state legislative candidates in 2002 and disguising the source by sending the money through national Republican campaign committees. The indictment came as that grand jury's term was expiring. After questions were raised about whether the charge applied to state election code, Earle went to a second grand jury, which declined to bring a money laundering charge against the three. Earle then went to a third grand jury, and it returned an indictment on October 3 indicting DeLay and his associates, John Colyandro and Jim Ellis, with money laundering and conspiracy. Friday's motion was filed in Travis County District Court by DeLay's lead attorney, Dick DeGuerin. DeGuerin alleges that once Earle realized DeLay had been charged with a "crime that did not exist in Texas law," the prosecutor and his staff "engaged in an extraordinarily irregular and desperate attempt to contrive a viable charge" before the statute of limitations ended. The motion accuses Earle of trying to cover up that the second grand jury rejected the prosecutor's "new, contrived charges of money laundering."

Ronnie(I Just Enforce The Law) Earle does not have the evidence to support the charges. They are solely political in nature. The indictment(s) will be set aside by a judge.

Tom DeLay Indictment: No Direct Connection. Why Is That ?

Something funny about this graphic published in the Austin-American Statesman. It is billed as a timeline of facts behind charges against Tom DeLay but there are no arrows or mention of Tom Delay in the boxes. Funny, for a person to be as deeply involved as Tom is supposed to be, wouldn't it be appropriate to have at least one direct link between him and the crime?

It is fast becoming plain to any objective observer that Ronnie Earle is grasping at straws. He got the second indictment from a newly impaneled grand jury the within hours of the first meeting, before they were even given orientation. Do you think they had time to consider the evidence?

He had to scramble to get the second indictment, going before two Grand Juries to get one indictment, because he screwed up so bad on the first. A small detail like the law not being in effect at the time of the supposed crime. Hoohaaa Boy! How stupid can one man be?

Besides being a Leftist hack, Ronnie (I Just Enforce The Law, Except When I Don't) Earle is also an incompetent dunce.

The DeLay Indictment: The Foreman Speaks out

William M. Gibson Jr., the foreman of the Austin, Texas Grand Jury that recently indicted Congressman Tom DeLay appears to be spilling his guts to newspaper reporters. He does not get specific, no names or dates does he speak. Just "... stacks and stacks of papers — evidence of telephone calls from Mr. DeLay and everybody" Papers specifying what, phone logs specifying when and who are not given. Just generalities

This is quite puzzling. By Texas law, Grand Jury proceedings are secret and not to be divulged. This excerpt from the Texas Code Of Criminal Procedure states:

"... Art. 20.02.... Proceedings secret ...(b) A grand juror ... who discloses anything transpiring before the grand jury,... shall be liable to a fine as for contempt of the court, not exceeding five hundred dollars, imprisonment not exceeding thirty days, or both such fine and imprisonment."

Maybe Gibson is rich enough so that $500 is a trifling sum, and tough enough that a month in jail is no big deal.

Or maybe he thinks that Texas House Bill 462 has become law. HB462 is sponsored by Harold V. Dutton Jr., a Houston Democrat. It changes the Grand Jury oath so that Jury members are compelled to keep their mouths shut only while that particular Grand Jury is in session. When it disbands, they can blab all they want. If this is what William M. Gibson Jr. believes will keep him out of jail, then Harold Dutton, Democrat, should clue him in that HB462 is still in committee. It ain't law!

Or, and this is by far the most likely scenario, Willaim M. Gibson Jr. is secure in the knowledge that the DA of Travis county will not bring charges against him. That District Attorney is none other than Ronnie (I Just Enforce The Law) Earle. To understand just how this would have come about, focus your attention on the imaginary telephone conversation below.

Cell phone custom ring:" I fought the law, and the....law won..I fought the law and the.....law won......" Ronnie Earle: Hello, this is Ronnie Earle, I just enforce the law. William M. Gibson Jr.: Ronnie? Hey Ronnie? It's me Bill. Ronnie Earle: Bill? Bill who? How did you get this number? William Gibson Jr.: You know, Bill. The foreman of the Grand Jury. We indicted Tom DeLay. Ronnie Earle: Oh, sure Bill, what can I do for you? William Gibson Jr.: Well, I'm upset, Ronnie, you said, you promised that if we indicted him he'd curl up like a red worm on hot concrete and you'd scoop him up like roadkill. But he ain't backin' down! He just keeps comin' on the radio, and the TeeVee, smilin' that smile and sayin' over and over that you ain't got nothin'. He might as well be sayin' that we, the Grand Jury are a bunch of dumbasses, for indicting him on your say-so. Ronnie Earle: Yeah........Bill, listen to me for a minute, ole buddy. Are ya listenin'? I kinda, sorta told you all a tiny little white lie. The truth is I don't have nearly as much evidence against him as I let on to ya'll. But I figgered if I got him indicted and he saw what he was up against. He'd see reason and ask for a plea bargain. It's worked so many times before I didn't see why it wouldn't work now. Gibson Jr.: Well, evidently it ain't workin'! What are we going to do now? Ronnie Earle: Well, I got an idea. It involves you. And you'll have to talk to some reporters about some of the things I told you in the Grand Juty session, only you will make out like you actually saw it. Gibson Jr.: Reporters, huh? I don't know. I might say the wrong thing. I might do the wrong thing. What'll I say!?....... Earle: Don't worry about it! You don't have to remember any specific things to say, just generalities, buddy. They'll take it from there. Jr.: ..... and what about the oath I took to keep all that stuff secret? I could go to jail! Earle: Bill! Get ahold of yourself. I swear sometimes you are as dense as a fencepost. I am the guy who brings charges in this county! Do you think I would bring charges against you after all you have done for the Party? You just go ahead an do what I tell you, you ain't got nothin' to worry about. Jr.: Oh, OK! I guess I can expect a call from the news people, huh? Earle: Yeah. Give me a coupl'a hours to set it up with some of my reporter friends. I'll call you back and we'll go over what you're gonna say to 'em again. OK? Jr.: OK.

The foregoing conversation is speculation. But taking into account the low-life that is Ronnie Earle, and his history of political vendetta, it is probably true. Maybe not in the details but the broad strokes are right on target.

Tom DeLay Indictment: Okay Ronnie, Now Prove it!

Below is the indictment released today by Ronnie Earle, from the Travis County District Attorney's office. As can be seen there is no new info. Ronnie Earle just added Tom DeLay's name to a previous list of supposed bad deeds done by people associated with DeLay.

DeLay's name appears on the front page, then he is accused along with the others of conspiracy but the list of particulars does not mention him at all. He does come up when the document mentions he waived his rights to statute of limitations protection. And this must be how Ronnie the Rooter was able to come up with this bogus conspiracy charge.

It is not worth the paper it is printed on, much less the time it took, 3 years, and six Grand Juries to accomplish.

Tom Delay Indictment Text-Page 1 (Click to Enlarge)
Tom Delay Indictment Text-Page 2(Click to Enlarge)
Tom Delay Indictment Text-Page 3(Click to Enlarge)
Tom Delay Indictment Text-Page 4(Click to Enlarge)

This Just In: Cheney Planned 9/11, Impeach Bush!

Blogger Bonnie of "Kinder Gentler Brain" sent an e-mail in response to the post " Impeach Bush: The Popularity Approach" in which she cited "The Project For A New American Century"

Bonnie sez:

I have researched and listed several crimes that appear to have been committed by the current administration. But then again I was one of apparently a very few Americans that knew about the Project for the New American Century that was outlined in 1997 in which Mr. Cheney and his cronies have decided that a nation at peace is not very profitable.

The PNAC statement of principles are:

Our aim is to remind Americans of these lessons and to draw their consequences for today. Here are four consequences: • we need to increase defense spending significantly if we are to carry out our global responsibilities today and modernize our armed forces for the future; • we need to strengthen our ties to democratic allies and to challenge regimes hostile to our interests and values; • we need to promote the cause of political and economic freedom abroad; • we need to accept responsibility for America's unique role in preserving and extending an international order friendly to our security, our prosperity, and our principles. Such a Reaganite policy of military strength and moral clarity may not be fashionable today. But it is necessary if the United States is to build on the successes of this past century and to ensure our security and our greatness in the next.

These are crimes? It seems to me that the PNAC's goals are to strengthen our military, promote democracy, promote freedom both political and economic, and preserve order. All laudable goals in light of subsequent world events. (bombing of American embassies, attack on the U.S.S. Cole, 9/11, etc.)

Bonnie sez:

Part of their plan is to create a situation like Pearl Harbor to get the American people behind the idea of going to war. If you start back in 1997 with this plan and then follow the progression of the administration, it becomes hard to think that this war was for profit only.

The only fly in that particular ointment is that Islamic terrorism against the U.S. began in 1979 with the taking of hostages in Tehran. According to Bonnie's timeline Cheney and company did not even began planning their grand conspiracy until 1997.

Bonnie is hereby invited to cite the so-called crimes in the PNAC documentation that Cheney, etal are plotting to foist upon an innocent, unsupecting world.

Impeach Bush: A Collection Of Nonstarters Named " Articles Of Impeachment"

To actually impeach a president, articles of impeachment must be brought against him by the House Of Representatives. In the 1980s, Congressman Henry B. Gonzales(D-Texas) prepared "articles of impeachment" against Ronald Reagan on a regular basis. Henry B. met with about as much success as this bunch of Don Quixotes will ultimately see.

It would also seem that these people live in the perpetual twilight of a September 10, 2001 world. Any event that occured after that day does not appear on their radar. They acknowledge the occurence of such events in order to use them bolster their own case, but any re-assessment of worldview in light of such events is completely missing.

Below are the "articles of impeachment" posted at Impeachment.org and refutations of them [in breackets]. Purely catchall phrases thrown for good measure, or outright propaganda has been deleted.

The President, Vice President and all civil Officers of the United States, shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors. ... (propagandandistic preamble snipped)... 1) Seizing power to wage wars of aggression in defiance of the U.S. Constitution, the U.N. Charter and the rule of law;[Authorized by Congress] carrying out a massive assault on and occupation of Iraq, a country that was not threatening the United States, resulting in the death and maiming of tens of thousands of Iraqis, and hundreds of U.S. G.I.s. [Authorized by US Congress and UN resolution 1441] 2) Lying to the people of the U.S., to Congress, and to the U.N., providing false and deceptive rationales for war. [If President Bush lied, so did President Bill Clinton, Senators Joe Lieberman, Dianne Feinstein, Barbara A. Milulski, Tom Daschle, John Kerry, Bob Graham, Tom Harkin, and Barbara Boxer. These are only some the Democrats who have said exactly the same thing, years before President Bush repeated it. Were they lying too?] . 3) Authorizing, ordering and condoning direct attacks on civilians, civilian facilities and locations where civilian casualties were unavoidable. [The attack on Iraq was conducted, and American soldier's lives put at risk, in order to minimize civilian casualties.] 4) Threatening the independence and sovereignty of Iraq by belligerently changing its government by force and assaulting Iraq in a war of aggression. [Enforcing UN resolution 1441] 4) Deleted, 5) Deleted 6) Violations and subversions of the Charter of the United Nations and international law, both a part of the "Supreme Law of the land" under Article VI, paragraph 2, of the Constitution, in an attempt to commit with impunity crimes against peace and humanity and war crimes in wars and threats of aggression against Afghanistan, Iraq and others and usurping powers of the United Nations and the peoples of its nations by bribery, coercion and other corrupt acts and by rejecting treaties, committing treaty violations, and frustrating compliance with treaties in order to destroy any means by which international law and institutions can prevent, affect, or adjudicate the exercise of U.S. military and economic power against the international community.[More catchall phrases, except for the reference to the UN in which case, resolution 1441 was being enforced.] 7) Acting to strip United States citizens of their constitutional and human rights, ordering indefinite detention of citizens, without access to counsel, without charge, and without opportunity to appear before a civil judicial officer to challenge the detention, based solely on the discretionary designation by the Executive of acitizen as an "enemy combatant."[Passed by Congress, subsequently confirmed as legal by the Supreme Court] 8) Ordering indefinite detention of non-citizens in the United States and elsewhere, and without charge, at the discretionary designation of the Attorney General or the Secretary of Defense. [Some of these scuzballs were let go whereupon they went right back to conducting terrorist acts against the US] 9) Deleted, 10)Deleted 11) Refusing to provide public disclosure of the identities and locations of persons who have been arrested, detained and imprisoned by the U.S. government in the United States, including in response to Congressional inquiry. [Congress passed and the courts affirmed this practice. Safeguards were put in place to prevent abuse.] 12) Use of secret arrests of persons within the United States and elsewhere and denial of the right to public trials. [Congress passed and the courts affirmed this practice. Safeguards were put in place to prevent abuse.] 13)Deleted, 14) Deleted, 15) Deleted, 16)Deleted 17) Rejecting treaties protective of peace and human rights and abrogation of the obligations of the United States under, and withdrawal from, international treaties and obligations without consent of the legislative branch, and including termination of the ABM treaty between the United States and Russia, and rescission of the authorizing signature from the Treaty of Rome which served as the basis for the International Criminal Court. [The treaty was with the USSR which no longer exists]

Impeach Bush: The Popularity Approach

Impeach Bush Blogger, Bonnie has written a post titled "Impeach Bush:Reasons Republicans Should Join" in which she holds forth to republicans on the reasons to impeach President Bush.

I must say, this is a novel approach. Impeaching a president primarily because you think the American People don't like him, not because of anything he has done has never been tried before.

This of course, begs the question of offending the Republican base and the people who think he is the last, best chance for Western culture.

... Republicans though need to be looking hard at poll numbers and thinking about the 2006 elections. ...According to a poll by the Cleveland Plain Dealer 46% say he should step down from office while 44% think he should stay. ... If Republican leaders would listen to their constituents ... If Republicans want to come out of the Bush Era somewhat intact ... Instead of allowing Bush and his cronies to take down the whole party over the coming months or years, ...the Republicans could very well have a mess on their hands that may take years to clean up. So if there are Republican leaders in Washington that would like to maintain some dignity within the party, they should take the initiative into demanding accountability from Bush and Company.

The Bloggers Who Would Impeach Bush

The bloggers who are attempting to impeach President Bush have got to be one of the angriest, most out-of-touch group of people, outside of a lunatic asylum, that has ever existed. This group is Moveon.org squared.

Using Technorati and Google, the following strange fish can be brought up from the depths of the Internet.

Rambler Joe Snitty, the neo-hippy . This guy thinks that the only thing necessary to Impeach President Bush is influence the Senate. Guess his civics lessons didn't cover details like the House of Representatives, who must actually bring forward articles of impeachment before the Senate can act. That's right Joe, you are going to have to convince a majority of that august, 435 member body to impeach. but then you are only half way. You still have to convince more than half of the Senate that he is a rat. And, as if that isn't enough, the guys you are tasked with convincing are Republicans!

Then there's the Impeach Bush Coalition. A veritable treasure trove of hard hitting reasons to impeach President Bush. Reasons like "George Bush and his officials are derelict in their duty" Because they didn't turn Katrina away from Nawlins. Or "George Bush and his officials lied to the American people" because President Bush, ever the nice guy, tried to cover for Mayor Nagin and Governor Blanco by offering the opinion, on the Today Show, that they probably did not anticipate the levees breaking. The list goes on....and on in this same vein of complete and utter crap. It makes amusing reading though.

A Google search for "impeach bush" site:blogspot.com yields 53,600 pages that contain the phrase "impeach bush". This covers only the free webpages offered by Blogger. Only 84 of them are relevant though, the rest are repeats.

A Google web search for "impeach bush" yields a whopping 1,100,000 pages.

One more thing, this effort appears to be headed, in part, by former US Attorney General Ramsey Clark, who has been in the middle of every crackpot movement since the American people threw Jimmy Carter out of office.

Have any of you guys ever read Don Quixote?

Murdered Over Lifestyle, Courtesy of the Religion Of Peace

We, in the West, believe women should have the freedom to choose, have the freedom to determine their own destiny insamuch as possible. Not so in the Muslim world. A woman's fate is determined by her male relatives. If they are lucky, wise and benevolent, she has a fairly good life. If they are malevolent and stupid, she does not have it so good. In either case if she asserts herself, attempts to steer her own ship, she is liable to be killed. REUTERS has this story of honor killing in Germany.

September 15, 2005 German Turk admits to shooting his sister in honor killing BERLIN -- A young Turkish immigrant accused along with his brothers of killing his sister on a Berlin street confessed on Wednesday to the crime that has sparked a debate about Islamic honor killings in Germany. "I killed my sister. Nobody else in the family helped me," 19-year-old Ayhan Surucu told a packed court in Berlin through his lawyer.... Hatun Surucu infuriated him by saying that she had the right to live as she pleased and to sleep with whom she wanted, he said.... Their sister was forced to marry her cousin in Turkey when she was 15 years old. She left him and returned, pregnant, to Berlin and gave birth to a boy at the age of 17. She lived as a single mother, kept away from her family and swapped her headscarf for makeup.... According to Papatya, a Berlin-based organization that seeks to help young Turkish women, there were 45 known honor killings in Germany from 1996 to 2004, of which 13 took place in Berlin.

Nagin: I Need You Back Here, Baby!

I have figured out why the Mayor of the toxic mudhole formerly known as New Orleans is encouraging people to return even though there are not nearly enough resources to support them. Even though to return will mean certain death for some if another storm just grazes the fragile levees and causes them to break again.

But the Mayor cannot be concerned with that. He knows if he does not have his patronage system rebuilt soon, then most of the greenback rain coming from the Federal moneycloud will not fall in his backyard, he might not even get wet!

If he does not have any people in Nawlins, how's he going to be in any position to distribute the goodies. You cannot have a patronage system without patronees.

At this posting he has rescinded his call for move backs. I wonder what he will come up with in its place.

Nagin: N.O. should get most aid dedicated to hurricane recovery New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin speaks at a news conference Thursday about support from the National Conference of Mayors and his plans for returning residents to the city. At left is conference president Beverly O'Neill. New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin says some cities are trying to use Hurricane Katrina to grab federal aid even though they were not affected much by the storm. Nagin said Thursday that New Orleans should get the bulk of the $100 billion or more he expects the federal government to spend rebuilding areas devastated by the storm and its related flooding. "Maybe let a little bit go to the cities that were less affected," he said at a Baton Rouge news conference, without naming any of those cities. As Nagin spoke, East Baton Rouge Parish Mayor-President Kip Holden was in Washington, D.C., to present federal officials with an $11.2 billion wish list for improvements ranging from roads to housing to help handle the massive influx of evacuees from the New Orleans area. Nagin was asked if his statement about other cities applies to Baton Rouge. "The city of New Orleans was hit by a Category 5 storm" and "80 percent of the city was under water," Nagin said in comparing the damage to his city versus others seeking federal aid. ... By JOHN LAPLANTE and GERARD SHIELDS, Advocate staff writers

Newspaper Stories Citing Hidden Poll, Facts Sifted Out

Posted below are excerpts from some of the stories published recently who cite the Scripps Howard Texas Poll. As I noted here there is no way to check the facts or interpretation of the poll since it is hidden behind a subscription wall and has not been published at large. At the bottom of this post I have listed the facts of the poll, as the newspapers have interpreted it

Fort Worth Star Telegram September 19,2005 Unease rising on Iraq, terror AUSTIN - Support for the war in Iraq is slipping in President Bush's home state, with only 28 percent of Texans saying the conflict is going well, according to poll results released Sunday. The Scripps Howard Texas Poll, which surveyed 1,000 randomly selected residents from Aug. 22 through Sept. 3, also shows that Texans are increasingly uneasy over the wider war on terrorism, with three out of four respondents saying another attack on the United Stated is at least somewhat likely during the next year. "There is a lot of concern about how the war is going," said poll director Ty Meighan. "You can see it in our poll, just as you can see it in the polls that are coming out nationally."

Fort Worth Star Telegram Sep. 18, 2005 Texans growing uneasy over Iraq AUSTIN _ Support for the war in Iraq is slipping in President Bush's home state, with only 28 percent of Texans saying the conflict is going well, poll results released Sunday show. The Scripps Howard Texas Poll, which surveyed 1,000 randomly selected residents from Aug. 22 through Sept. 3, also shows that Texans are increasingly uneasy over the wider war on terrorism, with three out of four respondents saying another attack on the United Stated is at least somewhat likely during the next year. "There is a lot of concern about how the war is going," said poll director Ty Meighan. "You can see it in our poll, just as you can see it in the polls that are coming out nationally."

Fort Worth Star Telegram, Sep. 12, 2005 Most in favor of 'Robin Hood' By John Moritz, Star-Telegram Austin Bureau AUSTIN - The state's often-maligned school finance system, which has been nicknamed the Robin Hood plan, enjoys more support among Texans than many of the political leaders who for years have vowed to end it, a new poll shows. The Scripps Howard Texas Poll of 1,000 residents found that nearly six in 10 support the funding plan, which requires the state's wealthiest school districts to share the property tax revenues with poorer ones to ensure equitable funding. By contrast, Gov. Rick Perry, who has called three unsuccessful special legislative sessions urging lawmakers to scrap the plan, enjoys the support of only about four in 10 Texans, the poll shows....

Fort Worth Star Telegram, Sep. 11, 2005 Texans back current school finance plan, poll shows By John Moritz, Star-Telegram Austin Bureau AUSTIN -- The state's often-maligned school-finance system, which has been nicknamed the Robin Hood plan, enjoys more support among Texans than many of the political leaders who for years have vowed to end it, a new poll shows. The Scripps Howard Texas Poll of 1,000 residents found that nearly six in 10 support the funding plan, which requires the state's wealthiest school districts to share the property tax revenues with poorer ones to ensure equitable funding. By contrast, Gov. Rick Perry, who has called three unsuccessful special legislative sessions urging lawmakers to scrap the plan, enjoys the support of only about four in 10 Texans, the poll shows....

Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Mon, Sep. 19, 2005 Poll shows concern on economy for Texans By Jim Fuquay. Star-Telegram Staff Writer Texans have growing concerns about the national economy and their own finances, with 60 percent saying the economy is doing fair or poorly and 40 percent saying they are worse off than a year ago, according to a new Scripps Howard Texas Poll. Worries about rising energy prices colored results of the poll, which was conducted between Aug. 22 and Sept. 3, said Ty Meighan, the poll's director. The poll surveyed 1,000 adults by phone and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points....

Corpus Christi Caller-Times, September 18, 2005 Poll shows Texans not optimistic about Iraq Many say they expect terror attack in the next year By TIM EATON Scripps Howard Austin Bureau AUSTIN - Nearly 80 percent of Texans believe a terrorist attack in the United States is likely in the next year - a 15-point increase from February, according to the Scripps Howard Texas Poll. Seventy-eight percent say an attack is very or somewhat likely, compared with just 19 percent who say an attack is not very or not at all likely. "This is absolutely normal and traditional. The better a government is at preventing terrorism, the less credit they get for their success," said David McIntyre, director of the Integrative Center for Homeland Security at Texas A&M University. "The better you are at counter-terrorism, the less people think it is required. It's just a terrible dilemma." Sixty percent of Texans rate the United States' war on terrorism as going poor or fair - the highest level of dissatisfaction since the question was first asked last year....

Houston Chronicle, Sept. 8, 2005, Texans shift cash to cover fuel prices Many report eating out, driving less, but few plan to trade in SUVs By DAVID IVANOVICH Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle Washington Bureau WASHINGTON - A growing number of Texas motorists say higher gasoline prices are forcing them to drive less, eat out less often and trim their spending at the grocery store. But the latest Scripps Howard Texas Poll found drivers are no more likely to consider buying more fuel-efficient vehicles than when pump prices were lower. "Some people simply ... don't care," said Ty Meighan, director of the poll. "They have their truck or their SUV or whatever it is, and that's the vehicle they're going to have." Surveying 1,000 Texans by telephone between Aug. 22 and Sept. 3, the Scripps Research Center found 63 percent of respondents said gas prices were causing them a financial hardship. That was up from 60 percent last May and 42 percent in October 2004

Houston Chronicle, Sept. 10, 2005, 10:21PM More Texans say they favor sharing the wealth EDUCATION FUNDING An income tax, other proposals draw responses along party lines By CLAY ROBISON Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle Austin Bureau AUSTIN - Although a growing number of Texans believe their local property taxes are too high, most support the controversial law, dubbed "Robin Hood," that requires property wealthy school districts to share tax revenue with poorer schools. But there are sharp differences between Republicans and Democrats over the share-the-wealth law, the Scripps Howard Texas Poll shows, underscoring one reason for the Legislature's prolonged inability to overhaul the school finance system and cut local school taxes. ... According to the Texas Poll, 65 percent of Texans believe their property taxes are too high, compared with 60 percent in May and 54 percent in February. 'Makes a lot of sense' But despite the Republican attacks against Robin Hood, 57 percent of the survey's respondents agree that rich districts should share their money with poorer schools. Some 38 percent disagree, and 5 percent don't know, reflecting similar polls earlier this year. ... Only 44 percent of Republicans favor the law, while 49 percent oppose it, and 7 percent don't know, according to the survey. Democrats, however, approve of Robin Hood by a 72 percent to 23 percent margin, with 5 percent undecided. Independents support the law, 59 percent to 36 percent, also with 5 percent unsure. ... Even on income tax Although leaders have vowed to find a tax trade-off that is "revenue neutral," 61 percent of the Texas Poll respondents believe their overall taxes will increase if the Legislature ever enacts a new school finance plan. Some 25 percent of respondents blamed the school finance impasse on lawmakers, 24 percent blamed it on lobbyists and special interest groups and 14 percent blamed the governor. Only 3 percent specifically blamed House Speaker Tom Craddick and 1 percent blamed Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst. But 17 percent said "all of the above." Texans, the poll indicates, are about evenly divided on whether the Legislature should enact a state income tax to reduce property taxes and increase education funding. Some 45 percent support an income tax, 47 percent don't and 8 percent are unsure. But there were significant partisan differences over an income tax. Only 35 percent of Republicans like the idea, and 57 percent oppose it. Democrats support it by 60 percent to 31 percent, and independents are evenly divided at 48 percent. The telephone poll of 1,000 Texans was conducted Aug. 22-Sept. 3 by the Scripps Research Center. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

Let's try to devine the facts through the published stories. Shall we?

What can be ascertained from the stories:
The poll was conducted among randomly chosen telephone exchanges over the period of August 22 thru September 3.
The number of respondents was 1000
28 percent of Texans say the War is going well.
Three quarters of respondents expect a terror attack within the year.
Nearly six in ten support Robin Hood.
Governor Perry is backed by four in ten respondents.
40 Percent think they are worse off than a year ago.
60 Percent think the economy is doing fair to poor.
79 percent expect a terror attack within a year.
19 percent do not expect an attack at all.
60 percent think the War on Terror is going poor to fair.
63 percent think gas prices are causing them financial hardship.
65 percent think their property taxes are too high.
57 percent think that rich school districts should share the wealth.
38 percent think that rich school districts should NOT share the wealth.
44 percent of Republicans favor Robin Hood.
49 percent oppose Robin Hood.
72 percent of Democrats favor Robin Hood.
23 percent of Democrats oppose Robin Hood.
59 percent of Independents support Robin Hood.
36 percent of Independents oppose Robin Hood.
25 percent of respondents blamed the school finance impasse on lawmakers.
24 percent blamed it on lobbyists/interest groups.
14 percent blamed Governor Perry.
17 percent said "all of the above"
3 percent specifically blamed House Speaker Tom Craddick.
1 percent blamed Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst.
45 percent support a state income tax.
47 percent do not want an income tax.
35 percent of Republicans want an income tax
57 percent of Republicans do not want an income tax
Democrats support an income tax by 60 percent to 31 percent.
Independents are evenly divided on an income tax at 48 percent.

A telephone conversation with Poll Director, Ty Meighan, confirmed that the poll is indeed behind a subscription wall and will not be released. Also elicited: the fact that the phrases "Robin Hood" and "share the wealth" do not appear anywhere in the poll, 942 of the 1000 respondents were registered voters, no questions were asked to determine the likelyhood of voting by the respondents.


A fact worthy of a separate post has emerged from this exercise: it appears that the Fort Worth Star Telegram uses the same story more than once. They just change the headline and publish it again.

Raw Data For The Scripps Howard Texas Poll Hard To Find

The Fort Worth Star Telegram, The Dallas Morning News, the San Antonio Express-News and others have published stories citing the results of a Scripps Howard Poll of Texas citizens. This would ordinarily be fine except that when one tries to find the particulars, the raw data, methodolgy, etc., one runs into a stone wall of Internet silence on the subject. It is unusual, to say the least, that when newspapers cite the results of a poll, not a single one of them posts a link to that poll.

A call to Scripps Howard Inc. elicited the information that it was, most probably, still behind a subscription wall. A message was left on the Scripps Howard Poll Director's phone, but had not been returned at the time of this posting.

It will be interesting to see if the poll text is eventually published. And if the stories published in today's newspapers actually fit the facts of the poll.

Low Carb Cereal/Trail Mix Recipe

It ain't cheap. And it requires about 45 minutes of preparation but it is tasty and a batch lasts a month to 5 weeks. Plus it appears to smooth out of one of the downsides of a low carb lifestyle. I leave it to you to guess which one. Hint: It's sometimes chunky, and begins with S.

Material:
12 oz walnuts
12 oz almonds
12 oz pecans
16 oz cashew nuts
12 oz dry roasted peanuts
10 oz dried banana chips
14 oz sunflower seed
14 oz flaked coconut
2 oz cinnamon

Equipment:
Food Processor
Very large mixing bowl
Stiff stirring tool

Procedure:
Load processor 2/3 full with ingredients and run it until largest particle is about 3/8" diameter then dump into mixing bowl. Do Not process coconut. Eventually you will be able to determine when to stop just by listening to the sound of the processor.

After all ingredients are processed, sprinkle coconut flakes and mix with tool, making sure to break up any coconut balls. Then sprinkle the cinnamon on top of mixture. Mix until cinnamon is evenly distributed throughout mixture, this assures complete mixing of the other ingredients.

Cover and let stand overnight. This allows nuts and cinammon to absorb the oil from the coconut.

Makes 53 ea., 2 .oz servings. 1/3 level cup equals 2 ounces.

A no carb milk substitute can be made by mixing heavy cream with water on a one part cream to two parts water ratio.

To make Trail Mix, don't proccess ingredients quite so much. Largest particle should be 1" to 3/4". However, be sure and process banana chips as finely as with cereal. This is what gives the mix it's sweetness and needs to be spread throughout mixture. The cinnamon gives it a kick and is good for you.

See the carbohydrate to ounce breakdown below.

Dry Roasted peanuts.........454g 16oz 80carb
Dried banana ...............284g 10oz 147carb
Cashews.....................454g 16oz 112carb
Sunflower seed..............397g 14oz 65carb
Pecans.....................340.5g 12oz 60carb
Walnut.....................340.5g 12oz 45carb
Almond.....................340.5g 12oz 90carb
Coconut flakes..............396g 14oz 162carb

total carbs............................ 761
total oz............................... 106

carb/oz= 7.18

Nawlins Mayor Nagin: Chicken Little or Walter Mitty?

Last week he was predicting 10,000 deaths, poisonous floodwaters, and six months to dry it out, now he is encouraging people to move back in, even though only a small amount of water and electricity has been restored.

Mayor Nagus oscillates between gibbering despair and overreaching optimism . Is this guy bi-polar? Nagus needs to be removed from any decision making capacity for the safety of the population of the city. Hopefully, cooler, more sane heads will eventually prevail.

For those of you who are too young to know, this explains (Ckicken Little) and (Walter Mitty).

The Fort Worth Star telegram has this AP story, Link.

New Orleans mayor defends return plan NEW ORLEANS - Mayor Ray Nagin defended his plan to return up to 180,000 people to the city within a week and a half despite concerns about the short supply of drinking water and heavily polluted floodwaters. Coast Guard Vice Adm. Thad Allen, head of the federal disaster relief effort, said Saturday that Nagin's idea is both "extremely ambitious and "extremely problematic." But Nagin said his plan was developed in cooperation with the federal government and balances safety concerns and the needs of citizens to begin rebuilding. "We must offer the people of New Orleans every chance for a sense of closure and the opportunity for a new beginning," he said. Nagin said the Algiers, Garden District and French Quarter sections would reopen over the next week and a half, bringing back more than one-third of the city's half-million inhabitants. City officials later backed off setting a specific date for reopening the famous French Quarter - the city's main tourist draw. Allen said a prime public health concern is the tap water, which in most of the city remains unfit for drinking and bathing. He said he was concerned about the difficulties of communicating the risk of using the water to people who return and might run out of bottled water. Another concern is the risk of another storm hitting the region, threatening an already delicate levee system and possibly requiring residents to be evacuated again, he said. Allen, who planned to meet with Nagin on Monday, said federal officials support the mayor's vision for repopulating the city, but he is concerned about the mayor's timeline. "Our intention is to work with the mayor ... in a very frank, open and unvarnished manner," he said. Business owners were allowed back in to some sections of the city to begin the long process of cleaning up and rebuilding, part of Nagin's plan to begin reviving the city by resuming a limited amount of commerce. But confronted with damage that could take months to repair, many said hopes for a quick recovery may be little more than a political dream. "I don't know why they said people could come back and open their businesses," said Margaret Richmond, owner of an antiques shop on the edge of the city's upscale Garden District that was looted. "You can't reopen this. And even if you could, there are no customers here." The Wal-Mart store in uptown New Orleans, built within the last year, survived the storm but was destroyed by looters. "They took everything - all the electronics, the food, the bikes," said John Stonaker, a Wal-Mart security officer. "People left their old clothes on the floor when they took new ones. The only thing left are the country-and-western CDs. You can still get a Shania Twain album." If the store had not been looted, it could be open in two weeks, Stonaker said. Now he doubts it will be open by January. "They'll have to gut it and start over," he said. Algiers, a residential area located across the Mississippi River from downtown New Orleans, is scheduled to reopen Monday, the first neighborhood to welcome back residents. Uptown, including the historic Garden District neighborhood, also is scheduled to reopen this week. All the areas to be reopened this week were spared Katrina's flooding. Electricity and clean water have been restored to some sections. In the French Quarter, the hum of generators, the thumping of hammers and the whir of power tools cut through the air Saturday as business owners were allowed in to survey the damage and begin cleaning up. Some threw an impromptu street party, complete with a traditional feast of red beans and rice. At the famous French Quarter restaurant, The Court of Two Sisters, director of food and beverages Andrew Orth was removing plywood from the windows on Saturday morning. "We couldn't open even if the electricity was on," Orth said. "First we've got to clean the rotted food out of the coolers and probably replace them." Orth estimated it would take several weeks to get the restaurant ready to serve diners....

If Thine Eye Offends Thee, Pluck It Out!

And If Thy Finger Offends Thee, Cut It Off!
LINK

SYDNEY, Australia - An Australian professional football player said Tuesday he plans to have one of his fingers amputated in an attempt to improve his game. Brett Backwell, who plays Australian rules football for Glenelg, a suburb of the city of Adelaide in South Australia state, told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. he has suffered from pain and restricted movement since he broke his left ring finger three years ago. Doctors had suggested fusing the bones in the finger, but Backwell rejected the proposal. He said he believed that amputating the finger was the only way to stop the pain and allow him to keep playing. "To chop a finger off, that's a bit drastic," Backwell told the ABC. "But I love my footy (football), and love playing sport, and if that's going to help me to succeed at this level then it's something you've just got to do."