Timing Is Everything

Up-talker Cindy Sheehan, like any good Leftist, never fails to miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity. Democrat Representative Lynn Woolsey gave the anti-war activist a ticket to attend President Bush's State of the Union address. Instead of waiting for the President to begin speaking before creating a scene, she prematurely got herself escorted out of the House chamber:

Cindy Sheehan, the mother of a fallen soldier in Iraq who reinvigorated the anti-war movement, was taken into custody by police in the House gallery Tuesday night just before President Bush's State of the Union address. Police escorted Sheehan from the visitors' gallery above the House chamber after she caused a disruption, said a Capitol Police official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because details of the incident were sketchy.

Timing, Cindy. Timing.

MN Politics Just Got Boring Again

Aspiring vampire and erstwhile gubernatorial (or should I say, guber-notorious) candidate Jonathan "The Impaler" Sharkey has proven he is qualified for political office. Anyone STUPID enough to run for governor as a vampire while they have outstanding warrants for stalking and escape, is certainly more qualified for public office than at least 40% of the US Senate. However, his political career has just suffered a set back:

PRINCETON, Minn., Jan. 31 (UPI) -- Self-described vampire and Minnesota gubernatorial candidate Jonathan "The Impaler" Sharkey has been arrested on Indiana charges of stalking and escape . . .

It's too bad, in a way. He had a pretty unique "tough on crime" platform:

Among his proposals was one that would use impalement to execute murderers, rapists and terrorists. "As governor," Sharkey said, "terrorists and criminals will live in fear of me, while the people of this state will be able to live fear free."

Which begs the question: How would he punish stalkers and escapees?

Alas, Jesse Ventura's place as the most ridiculous governor in Minnesota history appears to be safe . . . for now.

As Seen On TV . . . NOT!

In an AP story you are not likely to see in the Left-stream media, it turns out that Louisiana health officials rejected offers of assistance from the federal government . . . two days BEFORE Katrina hit:

Two days before the Aug. 29 storm, HHS was told by the state's health emergency preparedness director that the help was not needed, according to an e-mail released Monday by a Senate panel investigating the government's response to Katrina.

But wait! There's more! The article goes on to say that the federal government was helping Louisiana officials even before Katrina hit:

But in an interview Monday night, Louisiana Medical Director Dr. Jimmy Guidry said HHS was helping state health officials plan for evacuating hospitals and nursing homes by the eve of the storm. The federal department also stayed after Katrina hit to help the state coordinate transportation assets, like ambulances and military vehicles, Guidry said. "They sent people to help us out," Guidry said of HHS officials in Louisiana. "They helped us get all those assets lined up."

And that's not all! Apparently, state officials had been kicking the can down the road:

The committee also released a Senate interview of Louisiana Transportation Secretary Johnny Bradberry, during which he told investigators "we have done nothing to fulfill this responsibility" of ensuring evacuation plans are in place for at-risk populations. "We put no plans in place to do any of this," Bradberry said in the Dec. 21 interview, 12 pages of which were released by the Senate committee. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, chairwoman of the panel, called the documents "disturbing findings that our investigation will examine very closely."

It seems Louisiana's emergency preparedness policy was NIMBY .

Like Politics, Warming Is Local

Tim Blair's recent post titled Global Warming Actually Local highlights a report that won't make it into the "fact-biased" media. The data show that the Arctic is warming seven times faster than the lower two-thirds of the globe:

"It just doesn’t look like global warming is very global,” said John Christy, director of UAH’s Earth System Science Center.

"The carbon dioxide from fossil fuels is distributed pretty evenly around the globe and not concentrated in the Arctic, so it doesn’t look like we can blame greenhouse gases for the overwhelming bulk of the Northern Hemisphere warming over the past 27 years,” he said. “The most likely suspect for that is a natural climate change or cycle that we didn’t expect or just don’t understand."

There is one more possibility - the global warming activists have a political agenda rather than a scientific agenda.

What's All This I Hear About Diuretics?

Thanks to the Bogus One, here's another one of those quiz things. Believe me when I say that this quiz is NOT accurate.

L. Ron Hubbard You two would probably really get along!

Founder of Scientology "Freedom is for honest people. No man who is not himself honest can be free ñ he is his own trap."

My test tracked 4 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 9% on Intuitive You scored higher than 51% on Structured You scored higher than 16% on Mildness You scored higher than 87% on Traditional

Link: The Religion Founder You Resemble Test written by Stinkbot on Ok Cupid, home of the 32-Type Dating Test

All the News That's Fit to Twist

Black Five, 2005 Military Blogger of the Year, received a communication from a Marine in Iraq which explains why we're not hearing the good news in Iraq from the Left Stream media - and the Marine names names. Would you be surprised if I told you CNN is involved? I didn't think so.

Imagine What They'll Find Next

Stephen F. Hayes' cover story for the Weekly Standard reveals that there is evidence proving that Saddam Hussein's regime was indeed training terrorists prior to the fall of Saddam.

The discovery of the information on jihadist training camps in Iraq would seem to have two major consequences: It exposes the flawed assumptions of the experts and U.S. intelligence officials who told us for years that a secularist like Saddam Hussein would never work with Islamic radicals, any more than such jihadists would work with an infidel like the Iraqi dictator. It also reminds us that valuable information remains buried in the mountain of documents recovered in Afghanistan and Iraq over the past four years.

Who knows. Maybe we'll find out what happened to Saddam's WMD which everyone was sure he had prior to 2003.

Fecklessness From Cuba to Al Qaeda

A long time ago, I was fascinated by the notion that there was some vast government conspiracy behind the assassination of President Kennedy. Let's face it. Conspiracy theories are a lot sexier than a lone gunman. After reading Gerald Posner's book and seeing a few television specials featuring scientific research into the various aspects of the case, I have come to realize that the most reasonable explanation is that Oswald was the only gunman. I have no interest debating this point. I'm just stating my own conclusions. However, I always left open the possibility that Oswald was recruited to kill the President.

On Friday, German television will broadcast a documentary which suggests that the Cubans recruited Oswald. You can read the Telegraph's article for yourself.

What I found interesting was the following excerpts from the article:

One of the main witnesses is a retired FBI agent, Lawrence Keenan, now in his eighties. Keenan was sent after the assassination to trace Oswald's footsteps in Mexico . . . Mexico City was considered a "Pandora's Box" by the Johnson administration, which feared a war with Cuba were the truth to be revealed to the American people. "They were afraid of what will happen. They didn't want to. . . know the truth for fear it would mean we go to war. Johnson sincerely feared for his own life." It was convenient therefore for the administration to paint Oswald as a loner.

It seems curious that Johnson feared going to war with Cuba for assassinating a U.S. President, but had no problem escalating the war in Vietnam. The second explanation (that he feared for his own life) seemed to make more sense. Then, I read the following which, I think, is the best explanation of all (emphasis is mine):

Alexander Haig, a military adviser to Kennedy and Johnson who became secretary of state in 1981, said in the film that Johnson was terrified his people would learn the truth. "He [Johnson] said 'we simply must not allow the American people to believe that Fidel Castro could have killed our president'. And the reason was that there would be a Right-wing uprising in America, which would keep the Democratic party out of power for two generations."

So, it is better to let a Communist dictator get away with assassinating our President than risk losing political power. It certainly puts the Democrat Party's opposition to the GWOT in an historical context, doesn't it?

Unheard: Cheney On the NSA and GWOT

The anti-defense, left-wing media will not report the following quotes from VP Cheney's speech at the Heritage Foundation lest you get the idea that defending your homeland is a good idea:

"The enemy that struck on 9/11 is weakened and fractured yet it is still lethal and planning to hit us again. Either we are serious about fighting this war or we are not . . ."

"There are no communications more important to the safety of the United States than those related to al Qaeda that have one end in the United States. If we'd been able to do this before 9/11, we might have been able to pick up on two of the hijackers who flew a jet into the Pentagon . . . They were in the United States, communicating with al Qaeda associates overseas, but we didn't know they were here plotting until it was too late . . ."

"America has been protected not by luck, but by sensible policy decisions, by decisive action at home and abroad, and by round-the-clock efforts on the part of people in law enforcement, intelligence, the military and homeland security."

National defense doesn't just happen. You have to make it happen. Get it? Got it? Good.

Source: Reuters

A Toast to Professor Tolkien

It has come to my attention that January 3rd is the birthday of J. R. R. Tolkien, author of the Lord of the Rings. The Tolkien Society is encouraging fans around the world to join them in a toast to Professor Tolkien:

On January 3 rd Tolkien fans around the world are invited to raise a glass and toast the birthday of this much loved author at 21:00 (9 pm) your local time .

The toast is "The Professor".

For those unfamiliar with British toast-drinking ceremonies:

To make the Birthday Toast, you stand, raise a glass of your choice of drink (not necessarily alcoholic), and say the words 'The Professor' before taking a sip (or swig, if that's more appropriate for your drink). Sit and enjoy the rest of your drink.

So, offer a toast to the Professor, if you are so inclined.

Facts Are Stubborn Things

You probably didn't see this reported on your favorite nightly news program. Reporters John Simerman, Dwight Ott and Ted Mellnik of Knight Ridder News Service reported on December 30, 2005 that the early data of Hurricane Katrina runs counter to the perception presented by the media coverage:

"...a comparison of locations where 874 bodies were recovered with census tract data indicate that the victims weren't disproportionately poor. Another database, compiled by Knight Ridder, of 486 Katrina victims from Orleans and St. Bernard parishes, suggests they also weren't disproportionately African American..."

Of course, Kanye West would be the first to point out that this does not refute his claim that President Bush doesn't care about black people. The article continues:

"The one group that was disproportionately affected by the storm appears to have been older adults. People 60 and older account for only about 15 percent of the population in the New Orleans area, but the Knight Ridder database found that 74 percent of the dead were 60 or older. Nearly half were older than 75. Many of those were at nursing homes and hospitals, where nearly 20 percent of the victims were recovered. Lack of transportation was assumed to be a key reason that many people stayed behind and died, but at many addresses where the dead were found, their cars remained in their driveways, flood-ruined symbols of fatal miscalculation...."

So, people died because either they didn't leave when they could have or their caretakers failed to evacuate them. How is that FEMA's fault? And finally:

"The separate Knight Ridder database of 486 Katrina victims was compiled from official information released by state and federal authorities and interviews with survivors of the dead. It cataloged deaths according to location, race, age, name and cause of death. In that database, African Americans outnumbered whites 51 percent to 44 percent. In the area overall, African Americans outnumber whites 61 percent to 36 percent. In Orleans Parish, 62 percent of known Katrina victims were African American, compared with 66 percent for the parish population. In St. Bernard Parish, 92 percent of victims were white. Census figures show that 88 percent of parish residents identified themselves as white."

Statistically, whites were disproportionately represented in the Katrina deaths. Apparently, there was racial discrimination in the Katrina disaster after all.

T'aint Necessarily So

Steven Milloy's article at FoxNews.com lists the Top Ten Junk Science stories of 2005. If you are overweight, your chances of survival went up from 2004. Should PETA change their name to PUTS (People for the Unethical Treatment of Students)? Has radiation been given a bad rap? Can product labels be believed? Global temperatures: Lone-Tree theory? Read the article to find out.

Milloy is the publisher of JunkScience.com and CSRwatch.com.