Okay, these guys are awesome...

(Via Michelle Malkin)

A new website devoted to blubbering Sen. Voinovich.

Watching this guy, I couldn't help but think, "There's no crying in baseball!" Literally crying on the floor of the Senate, about Bolton. What a freak. So we had crying, and then Thune's defection, all in one Friday. I have written my Senators, to ask what the freak is going on, and to ask them to please not cry on live TV. I mean seriously, this is absolutely embarrasing. Do Republicans have a majority in the Senate or not? I'm thinking not. And I'm sure Harry Reid is thinking the same thing.

Calling Dr. Frist...I'm not sure the patient (GOP majority) is going to make it.

Gitmo detainees sold?

From the headline you'd think that the U.S. military took a bunch of detainees and sold them into slavery. The article reads like a horror story: cowboy Americans show up in Afganistan with loads of cash to trade for terrorists, and the locals just grab every innocent person they can off the streets to sell them to the Americans.

We were just running wild, apparently, just taking them, not caring about questioning them, just wanting to lock them all away in the Gulag--or Gitmo...

Strange...I seem to recall that on September 11 a group of terrorists killed 3000 people on American soil. I also seem to recall that the military fought the most humane war in history to go after Osama. I watched it on TV...didn't everybody? In fact, that Gulag in Gitmo was on TV too, and I've read articles about it. Not the Koran flushing story--the one where Newsweek tried to blame the U.S. soldier for desacrating the holy book, when instead it was actually prisoners who were ripping off pages of the Koran and flushing them down the toilet in protest...no the one where soldiers have to wear surgical gloves to even touch the Koran. Seems fairly respectable to me.

Nope, sorry Washington Post. I don't believe you anymore. Try again. You may think the worst of the U.S. military, but I do not. You may believe terrorists, but I do not. You may trust America-haters to tell the truth, but I do not. Good day.

Arthur Andersen conviction overturned.

I'm sure the firm will rejoice and everyone can now get back to work...oh wait... Oh that's right, the firm went out of business, because the prosecutors couldn't figure out what the freak Enron did, so they went after the only people they could, the 20,000 employees at Anderson, so they could convict the one bad partner...who had already been fired... Was Andersen innocent?--not sure, the trial was a haze of bad reporting and obfuscation, and the government had to get a conviction.

They say justice is blind, but honestly this part of the jury instruction I found ridiculous:

But in his opinion, Rehnquist noted that jurors were instructed to convict Andersen if the accounting firm had an "improper purpose," such as an intent to impede or subvert fact-finding in an "official proceeding." He noted jurors were instructed to convict, even if Andersen mistakenly thought it was acting legally.

Anyway...glad we got all that cleared up...

The Danica Patrick show

Saw the Danica Patrick show this weekend...otherwise known as the Indy 500. I've never seen the press so enamored. Leave the girl alone, I say. Let her race. I'm certainly a fan, but I'm sure Dan Wheldon would agree with that assessment. Who's he, you ask? Oh, just the guy that WON THE RACE.

Reading the headlines, you might get that. But the ratings were up, and Danica was the reason.

Personally I think she did great, and if she helps bring racing up another notch, I think that's awesome.

I am curious though, who's David Letterman going to have on his show first?--the winner, or his racer?

Return of the Blogger

Star Wars...

yep, I'm a fan, or was a fan... Saw the latest, Episode III, Revenge of the Script Writer. What's happened over the last few years that its now become fashionable to roll your eyes at these movies? As a kid I could spout dialogue from Han and Obi-wan and Luke and Yoda in my sleep...okay I can STILL spout dialogue from Han and Obi-wan and Luke and Yoda, but that's besides the point. It was dialogue like:

Obi-wan: "Vader was seduced by the dark side of the force."

Luke: "The force?"

Obi-wan: "The force is what gives a Jedi his power. It is an energy field, created by all living things. It surrounds us and penetrates us, it binds the galaxy together."

Contrasted with dialogue from Episode III..."Hold me Annakin, hold me like you did on Naboo!" and the perplexing "I love you!"--"No, I love you!"--"No, I love you more!" banter between Padme and the nascent Vader. I laughed at that one--and felt ashamed to have laughed at Star Wars--but of course that set the guy in the seat next to me laughing, and then others. The guy's wife promptly smacked him in the arm.

And of course, the Movie Reviewers' ink-blot viewings all came out the same on the political front. They looked at Palpatine and Vader and saw George Bush. Is the political message there?--only if you want it to be, as the movie reviewers did. The movie has so many contradictions in it it's hard to take any political message seriously.

Vader: "You're either with me or my enemy."

Obi-wan: "Only the Sith deal in absolutes."

So I guess John Kerry led the Jedi Council, for his nuance allowed them to see EVERYTHING in...black and white. Either you follow the Jedi order or you're out, all other paths lead to the dark side, and the bad guys wear black outfits. Lucas doesn't have nuance in him--and neither do fairy tales. They always tell a moral. Remember, "A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away..." sounds a little like "Once upon a time..." Right?

Anyway, if one REALLY wanted to insert a political message, you could liken Palpatine to Hitler, or...if you wanted to show a parallel between democracy in wartime...to FDR. Think about it.

Depression, national crisis...enacted broad sweeping new laws, Social security, welfare, government works projects...all social programs to consolidate federal power, the same ones that are dragging the US down today. Then came the war. (some crazies even suggest that FDR knew Pearl Harbor was going to happen--I DO NOT. But it was a national crisis, took no time at all to declare war.) Huge expanded war powers, INTERNMENT...(let that one soak in for a second...he put Japanese people in camps, in the US. Gitmo is a walk in the park next to that one.), he was in office longer than any other President, built the Death Star--I mean the atomic bomb... Anyone else seeing the parallel here? Anyone? *crickets*

So maybe Lucas is right...depending on your point of view...

Obi-wan: "Luke, you're going to find that many of the truths we cling to depend mostly on our own point of view."

Maybe that's the true genius of Star Wars...everybody is entertained.