One of the reasons that we need those European style work weeks AK mentions below is so that we can continue to move towards the utopian ideal of a worker's paradise.

Why can't you people understand that?

Wasn't one of the reasons that 10,000 people died from a heat wave in France is bacause people were unwilling to give up their summer holiday to check on Grandma? Not all that interested in that, thank you very much.

There are many versions of Bush hater running around these days, people who dislike his conservatism, his religious statements, his families ties, or his vision onwhere to take America,........The newly open one, a total loathing of his face, manner and speech.

From Drudge, this article in the WP.

For some of his friends, Chait says at a corner table in a downtown Starbucks, "just seeing his face or hearing his voice causes a physical reaction -- they have to get away from the TV. My sister-in-law describes Bush's existence as an oppressive force, a constant weight on her shoulder, just knowing that George Bush is president."

Ramesh Ponnuru, a soft-spoken conservative at National Review, pays Chait a backhanded compliment, writing that "not everyone would be brave enough to recount their harrowing descent into madness so vividly."

It's enlightening, and while I can claim at least a couple of friends who fall into this camp, I have to say that while I detested Clinton and Carter, my reactions to them were nothing like this, not even close. I do fully agree with this statement.

"What drives them nuts is that people actually like Bush," she says. "Even if they disagree with him, they think he's a good person." But for many liberals, "Bush isn't just wrong, he's evil. The axis of evil for these guys is George Bush, Karl Rove and Donald Rumsfeld."

I think some people have their priorities all messed up, when Bush is Hitler, but they blink and mutter Saddam? Who's Saddam...........It's really really hard to continue listening to them. Actually, it's difficult not to just tune them out completely.

Hertzberg, whose friends openly disdain the commander in chief -- "The phrase 'President Bush' hurts their eardrums" -- is among those who proudly refuse to Get Over the high court's ruling in Bush v. Gore.

'President Bush'

'President Bush'

'President Bush'

'President Bush'

'President Bush'

'President Bush'

Sorry, (grin), couldn't help myself.

'President Bush'

Oh, did I mention........

'President Bush'

Madeleine Albright, Clinton's showpiece Secratary of State. Picked as a trophy to show how compassionate he was to advancing women in government, so bad at her job that Anthony Lake routinely sidelined her and excluded her from policy decisions. That Madeleine Albright. This tidbit from Drudge.

In an interview with the Europe 1 station Albright heavily criticised the actions of the Republican leadership that replaced the Democratic administration she worked for, and notably the "chaos" that reigns in Iraq.

For a second opinion,.......Brent Bozel.

Not every interview was supine. On "Meet the Press," NBC's Tim Russert read from Richard Miniter's "Losing Bin Laden." On "Late Edition," CNN's Wolf Blitzer brought up the conservative argument that if the Democrats were in power, "Saddam Hussein would die of old age before he were removed." Albright's answer: "Well, that might not have been bad either." After all the mass graves and children's prisons and horror stories, after all the revelations of Saddam sheltering terrorists and paying off suicide bombers, a continuation of all that "might not have been bad"? Thank God she's gone.

Powell may not be the best we've ever had at State, but at least he's competent. He also avoids the frequent verbal slips that causes you to think he really doesn't care how many people die as long as he gets face time on the news. You cannot say that about Maddy. She frankly sucked at the job. So her credibility here is highly suspect.

Of thought, that is.

Check out their account of the Kelly affair:

The Government's efforts to put aside the controversy by honouring the war dead - and to "pray for the people of Iraq" - will also be dogged by deep unease over Mr Hoon's and Downing Street's roles in events leading up to the suspected suicide of the weapons' scientist David Kelly.

Apparently no need at all to mention the BBC's role in Kelly's suicide. You can see where these lefty types get their completely inadequate debating skills - only present the side of the story that supports your position and then scream about being oppressed if someone disagrees with you.

But the real issue, apparently, is the fact that the Labour party wasn't given the final say, :

Mr Green admitted he felt highly emotional about Mr Blair's presence at the service. "I think he's a war criminal, it's as simple as that. The man, without any consideration to the Labour parliamentary party, elected to go to war with this scabby little friend in Texas [President Bush], and killed 51 of our men unnecessarily," he said. "If I have a chance to meet him on Friday, I will tell him to his face."

Scabby little friend from Texas - ooooohh, that European sophistication is sure evident in this piece, eh?

If the t-shirt depicted a minority or Arabic target instead?

Don't get me wrong - I think political correctness has run amok in the US. However, I wonder about the ACLU's choice of battles to fight.

But, at the end of the day, the student in question will find out if his message is inflammatory or not, probably the hard way. If he gets his ass kicked by his fellow students, then I guess the assistant principal was right.

Hmmmm, I guess Bretton Barber isn't so convinced of the rightness of his position that he's willing to show his face......

Has riled our resident worshipper of St. Rachel, causing them to wax poetic about how mean spirited the "right" is.

Good thing the left is squeaky clean when it comes to things mean spirited. Because otherwise they might do things like

this,

or this,

or this,

but certainly nothing like this or, heaven forbid,

this.

Oh, Yeah, and not this, or this, or this, either.

Yep, the good old compassionate left. Everything's fine as long as you listen to your betters and do as you're told, right?

Sanctimony doesn't even come close to describing this. Nor does hypocritical. But I find the trifecta of sanctimonious, hypocritical, and jackass comes pretty close to describing this particular phenomenon.

Two versions, first the MSNBC one, then the purely honey covered BBC tribute on the same story. Hugo Chaves is exactly as he portrays himself, a hard left Castro best bud, with delusions of being a game show host. Even the EU is breaking with Castro, much as it pains them. Not Hugo though, him wanna grow up n be big and stwrong wike his hewro.

The gardening advisers are only one of several groups of Cubans here. There are also Cuban doctors living and working in Caracas's poorest neighbourhoods, and other Cubans assisting with a nationwide adult literacy programme. Altogether, more than 1,000 Cubans are said to be here working with government-organised programmes.

The opposition has another view.

Chavez critics charge that the Cubans' true goal is to teach communism, spy or even provide paramilitary training to pro-Chavez guerrilla organisations.

"[The Cubans in Venezuela] are persons prepared to indoctrinate," said retired Vice Admiral Rafael Huici, founder of an organisation of retired military officers.

Now considering that not too many nations call on the Cuban's to provide "advisers" since Angola, you gotta wonder if Hugo doesn't really have something unpleasant in mind for the 70% who went against him in the last survey. How does the BBC describe the fact that most of Venezuela wants the Cuban's gone?

Dr Fernandez said he and the other Cubans are well aware that they are in Venezuela thanks only to Mr Chavez, and that if he falls, the Cubans will surely go, too.

"We came here to help these barrios," Dr Fernandez said. "If we get kicked out, then [the barrio] will remain like it was before - marginalised. Because no Venezuelan doctor ever comes here."

Well darn, it's all about decent affordable healthcare! Never mind the secret police and instructers in Marxist dogma, it's the little people Hugo cares about....

If Cuban medicine is the same as Soviet, that means it's good for bandaids and condoms. For heart surgery you go elsewhere. But really, if Hugo wants his country to enjoy the fruits of quality medicine why put import controls in place like this?

The government�s response to the crisis�importing foods, in some cases with help from Cuban state importing company Alimport�has only escalated opposition cries that President Hugo Ch�vez�s goal is to install Cuban communism in Venezuela. There are already many Cubans here, teaching everything from urban gardening to sports, and Ch�vez�s recent announcement that he would bring in Cuban literacy instructors, despite high unemployment among Venezuela�s own teachers, raised protests that the Cubans are here solely to indoctrinate poor Venezuelans. A referendum on Ch�vez�s rule could take place as of Aug. 19.

Ingrid del R�o, 47, walks from pharmacy to pharmacy around Caracas carrying an empty bottle of her husband�s respiratory medicine. She had already visited five drug stores in vain, searching for a refill. �My husband takes it every night before going to sleep,� she says. �There are similar [medicines], but one wants the right one.�

It's obvious what Chaves is doing, to everyone except the BBC. Typical..........

Make Al Franken a lying liar who tells lies?

And, politics aside, has this guy ever done anything that anyone found to be even remotely funny?

UPDATE

OK, so I was taken to task for failing to have a sense of humor over the "Fibbin' Franken" affair. One critic, Al Barger, even wrote a piece defending Fraken for Blogcritics, suggesting that anyone reading the letter should have known is was a joke, and doing his best to give Franken a free pass.

Go read the letter, and decide for yourself. Was it all just good, clean fun by Franken? Or a deliberate attempt to gain personal and intimate information for the sole purpose of embarrassing Ashcroft by, you know, lying? I think the signature says it all:

Al Franken
Fellow, Shorenstein Center for Press and Politics
Kennedy Center of Government
Harvard University

As a side note - using university letterhead for personal/political reasons is a cause for dismissal where I work. Universities tend not to have too great a sense of humor about such things.

So, the Democratic Candidates for President all got together (yes, they needed a big room) to let everyone know that, even if the Supreme Court ruled the University of Michigan Affirmative Action admissions policies unconstitutional, they would still do everything in their power to be sure affirmative action lives on. (note that the forum has sponsored by Reverend Jesse's Rainbow/PUSH coalition)

A few choice nuggets:

�When I�m president, we�ll have executive orders to overcome any wrong thing the Supreme Court does tomorrow or any other day,� said Rep. Dick Gephardt of Missouri.

Ahhhhh. So anything the Supreme Court does that little Dickie decides is "wrong" will just be executive ordered away. Wonder what would happen if Bush tried that with abortion? (as I've stated before, I do believe Roe v. Wade was the correct decision - nukevet)

�We deserve a president of the United States who doesn�t call fairness to minorities a special preference,� said Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry.

Hey, what about calling special preferences to minorities a special preference? If it was about being "fair", then perhaps we should do something about the level of education everyone receives, right?

Al Sharpton responded that Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas is a black man who may vote against the university�s affirmative action program. He said Democrats shouldn�t be talking about getting more blacks in high places, but getting the right blacks.

�If we doubt that, just look at Clarence Thomas,� he said. �Clarence Thomas is my color, but he�s not my kind.�

I fail to understand how Sharpton, one of the most bigoted men in America, is being taken seriously by the Democratic rank and file. This guy is a liar, a cheat, and a racist. But he hates white people, so I guess that makes everything OK.

Of course, I guess Sharpton might look pretty reasonable if you line him up against Carol Mosely Braun..........

Holy Sh*t.

Well, not in their minds.

"Flush Toilets Called 'Environmental Disaster'"

"Forget the convenience and sanitation of the flush toilet that industrialized nations have enjoyed for most of the past century. A growing number of environmentalists are now advocating the expanded use of compost or dry toilets worldwide to combat what they see as an international water crisis."

"Warnberg laments the widespread use of flush toilets in the industrialized nations of the U.S. and Europe, and he does not want to see the flush toilet adopted by the developing nations in Africa and South America."

What a crappy attitude to have

"After having decided that "Thomas Crapper's flush toilet was a fiendish invention," Keenan bought a dry toilet and initially "basked in the warm glow of having done the right thing for the environment" before encountering a problem. "No matter what I tried over the years, there were always times when one could not lift the lid without several flies lifting off and heading for the kitchen," Keenan wrote."

Can you say 'naassttyyyy'. I ain't going to his BBQ. Of course, he'd probably only serve veggie burgers.

"Another purported benefit of dry toilets is the ability to use the composted excrement for fertilizing human food crops. But not everyone sees the use of composted human feces on food as a panacea. "It's dangerous, dangerous, dangerous. You are talking about all kinds of bacterial issues; human manure has human pathogens in it."

So yet again the left wants the poor of the world to stay that way or die. First they won't allow starving people to be able to eat genetically modified foods because, even with no proof, they think it may make them sick. But they don't think anything is wrong with making them eat food grown in their own shit, which will more than likely kill them.

Found @ Right Wing News.

Read below if you want to see something funny.

Thirteen percent of Africans have a sewage connection; that is, a flushing toilet leading to a sewage system, while for North America, the figure is 100 percent and Europe 92 percent.

Yep, almost 1 in 10 europeans use an outhouse.

Who's white trash now?

And put them on my tukus.

From the Op/Ed page of the NYT (why do I let them keep sending these to me?), I think I found the the winner of the "Who Can Shove Their Head Up Their Ass the Farthest?" contest.

Oh, you didn't get notice of that contest? It is probably because you stop by here. Doing so has a tendancy to give your spine the proper stiffening so that you can't bend that direction.

Anyway, in an piece (of shit) titled "Read My Lips" Thomas L. Friedman uses a line he probably thinks is clever to talk about GWB's "Maniacal Tax Cuts". No, I'm not kidding. He actually uses that phrase.

"Democrats have been groping for a way to counter George Bush's maniacal tax cuts, which are designed to shrink government and shift as many things as possible to the market."

This first line is so telling. "Democrats have been groping", yes they sure have. And if they don't quit, they'll go blind. Oh wait, thats the other thing they do verbally.

And, silly me, I thought that this was the US where the "market" was given a shot at providing most everything. Europe is where "government" provides everything.

"When you shrink government, what you do, over time, is shrink the services provided by federal, state and local governments to the vast American middle class. I would suggest that henceforth Democrats simply ask voters to substitute the word "services" for the word "taxes" every time they hear President Bush speak."

What an ass. Oh, sorry. What a Marxist cocksmoking ass. Had to make sure I got my true feelings across.

"That is, when the president says he wants yet another round of reckless "tax cuts," which will shift huge burdens to our children, Democrats should simply refer to them as "service cuts," because that is the only way these tax cuts will be paid for � by cuts in services. Indeed, the Democrats' bumper sticker in 2004 should be: "Read my lips, no new services. Thank you, President Bush."
Whenever Mr. Bush says, "It's not the government's money, it's your money," Democrats should point out that what he is really saying is, "It's not the government's services, it's your services" � and thanks to the Bush tax cuts, soon you'll be paying for many of them yourself."

First of all tumbledickweed, it is MY money. And you know what, I don't mind paying for them myself. I get better service at a cheaper price than if I let the Feds take care of me.

Asprin has been consumed, I will be fine shortly. Thank you for reading.

Senator Clinton?

You gotta read this (third from the top). Found at Curmudgeonly And Skeptical

"Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, New York Democrat, paused for a moment in the Senate chamber yesterday to contemplate the vote on the judicial appointment of Assistant Attorney General Michael Chertoff � once a vocal member of her 'vast right-wing conspiracy'."

"She was the sole vote against Mr. Chertoff, who was confirmed 88-1 to a seat on the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Before joining the Attorney General's Office, Mr. Chertoff led the Senate investigation into the Clintons' failed Whitewater land deal. At the Democratic policy table on the Senate floor, Mrs. Clinton appeared to clench and release her fists several times as she prepared to vote. Then she turned to the Senate clerk and jabbed a single finger downward."

And to the junior Senator from the State of New York, I jab a single finger upward.

a stained blue dress.

It is just before 6am here in Seattle and the wife is watching the local news while she gets ready for work. They are showing highlights of today's "Today Show" and, of course, they had to show the clip of Hillary talking to Kaitie Couric.

Just to let you know, according to Hillary, "The Vast Right Wing Conspiracy" is still alive and kicking and it is the only reason that "Monicagate" even happened.

Oh yeah, and the only reason Bill was impeached was because of the sex.

As hard as I try to not care, it just doesn't work.

People who know nothing about war are talking about "the rules of war".

You may remember the two journalists that were killed in the Palestine Hotel in Baghad when a U.S. tank fired at what it thought was a sniper/spotter. And you probably know about the lawsuit being leveled in Spain by one of the journalists' families.

Well, now we have the loonies coming out and telling all who will listen about "the rules of war" as per the Geneva Convention. And their campaign is becoming an underground success with the usual suspects. Causing much chatter in the IMC and DNC worlds.

The trouble is, is that, per usual, those doing the reporting haven't the foggiest idea about what they are sqwaking about.

Take this quote, "Under the Geneva Convention, firing on media facilities is unequivocally illegal. In a court of law, be it international jurisprudence or otherwise, neither accident nor the perception of nearby threat stands as just cause or sufficient excuse for such action."

Ok, which one of you said "bullshit"? All of you? Good.

As I understand it, the vast majority of you who stop by RNS have either military experience and/or common sense. So this seems to be a no-brainer, right? Oh no, not for this crowd.

Check out this quote, " Of course, American soldiers do not operate under these (Geneva Convention) concerns. They are exempt from such battle-field limitations."

It must be opposite day. Because in my recent memory, the U.S.A was the only country who gave a rat's ass about that rule book?

Go see this list now. It contains 52 points of PC Theology. I was very surprised to find this it at the Seattle IMC site. I hope that it will be left up long enough for y'all to read it.

Highlights include:

#7. The fact that Marxism caused a conservatively-estimated 100 million deaths in the 20th century does not mean that Marxism is bad or a failure.

#13. If one country is rich and another poor, it must be because the rich one stole all the wealth away from the poor one.

#24. The bombing of Hiroshima did not save any lives and was done because Americans are racists.

#32. Louis Farrakhan, Al Sharpton, and their friends are thinkers and idealists.

#34. If one tribe in Africa oppresses another tribe, it is all the fault of white people.

#35. The United States does not need any army at all, other than as a laboratory for social engineering involving women and gays.

#38. If there are proportionately more blacks in prison than whites, it is because the courts and police are racist.

#42. Hollywood actors are more sensitive and caring than the rest of us.

#46. Slavery was always practiced exclusively by white people.

And many more. I will be copy and pasting this into word and printing it out. The moment I believe one of them, I will have to stay away from IMC sites for a week

I am sure you all heard about the President's respectfull visit to the Nazi death camps, Auschwitz and Birkenau last week. Well, so did the Indymedia folks. I'll give you the headline, you yell explicatives, then continue to read.

"Brainstorming for Guantanamo, Bush Visits Auschwitz"

This could almost be funny. If you take into account that a large number of these folks are Holocaust deniers and believe that these camps were built by the US Army under orders of the ZOG. And add to that how well the guys actually in Gitmo are treated.

But I don't want to do that. Instead, I want to throttle the next hippie I see. The post has a photo of the Gitmo prisoners on the cargo plane on their way over with the black hoods on and cargo straps binding them. They are essentially comparing that to being loaded into a rail car with over 100 other people for at least a 4 day trip. No food, no where to relieve yourself and exposed to the elements. Whereas whole families were herded up in ghettos and taken to a guaranteed death sentence, these 18-40 year old men were captured as enemy combatants in a war zone. And when we are sure they have no more useful information, we fly them home.

The main body of text consists of an AP story. But then the freaks start doing the old "Bushitler" comparisons. Including this line of fiction "Yes, George Bush became a master propaganda artist and one can tell that he took extra time studying Hitler's book, Mein Kampf, which got him his best C at Yale ever."

Pure emotion, absolutely no thought. The only thing that the Nazi death camps are to these folks is a propaganda tool, just like Hitler. They don't see the significance.

I don't know how many of you buy books on a regular basis, but those of you who do have probably experienced stickershock at the Barnes and Noble. I, myself go to a small set of chain stores that sell used books, called "Half-Priced Books" because of the prices being charged these days.

This article in the Herald Tribune talks about these issues from the perspective of the publisher, the author and the buyer. It also has a story from the most recent American Booksellers Association get-together that walks into the subject liberal vs. conservative authors. It talks about a lunchtime forum where Bill O'Reilly and Tucker Carlson were to go up against Al Franken an Molly Ivins.

Long story short, Carlson cancels at the last moment and the moderator of this forum, former Colorado Democratic Congresswoman, Pat Schroeder borrows the Fox byline and says "This is my idea of fair and balanced."

How sad. Ol' Schroder unknowingly admits that her sides' bitching and moaning do not a solution make.

Thanks to Right Thoughts for pointing it out.

Why do 48% of Americans oppose George W Bush?

This was the line in bold print that caught my eye. It was an ad on the back page of one of the local weeklies that the wife brought home this week. It has a web address, so you know I'm going there.

It contains your typical "Patriots for Peace" junk, a transcript of a Howard Dean speech and articles on "Dangerous Military Policies" and "Bushonomics for the Wealthy". It also has a "Beating Bush" discussion list that reads like an Indymedia website. I may have to do a report on just this list. I am amazed how people can hate so deeply, and then turn around and talk about peace.

But back to the 48% figure. According to a Quinnipiac University poll, 48% of Americans would vote for an unnamed Democratic candidate, compared to 44% saying they would vote for Bush. Their number one candidate is... yup, Hillary with 37%. In fact they they dedicated an entire section of the poll to her. But when they removed her from the running, Lieberman got 21%, Kerry got 12%, etc. But I found it particularly funny that Moseley-Braun and Sharpton were not at the bottom of this list.

So, we have here a poll which is half based upon a person who is not even a candidate. That is funny enough. But then you look way down at the bottom at the date of the poll. March 6th, what the hell? Why is this nearly three month old poll news?

Oh well, the democrats hold onto the memory of JFK as if it were their last welfare check. Even though, thanks to McGovern, he wouldn't recognize the party of today.

Here in Washington we had a little problem with road rage. A couple of different sets of numbnuts got mad at each other a few years back and at some point in the argument got out and went at it. To try to curb this from becoming a regular occurance the legislature did the stupid thing and enacted an "Aggressive Driving" law. They could have made the crimes committed during a road rage incident carry a heavier sentence or they could have fixed some of the roads to better manage the traffic which helps create road rage (we're always in the top 5 cities in the country, by the way).

But nooooo, they enacted a law that is completely open to interpretation of what is aggessive. If you kill some one, that is murder. Punch someone in the nose, that is assault. But not this "vague" turd of a law. And the fines on this thing are nothing to sneeze at. Think "reckless driving" on your insurance bill.

The law was sold as a way to ticket those ding-dongs you see weaving in and out of lanes, cutting people off, and generally acting stupid. But today I got to see it used questionably.

A friend gives me a call one morning with a car question. I tell him to stop by later that afternoon and I'll take a look. His boost guage is stuttering but the power is smooth. Good guage, good sender, ghost in the machine, let's go for a drive. We get out onto I-5 in a stretch that isn't busy and give it run. We move into the far left general purpose lane as the haunting continues. We roll up behind someone going 50-55mph and decide to pass. Now there are 5 GP lanes and a carpool lane that needs 2 people in the car to be legal. So we can probably all agree that the guy ahead of us is a total asshat, right?

We signal to the left, switch lanes, go from about 55mph in 6th gear, down to 4th and up to around 85-90mph. We pass the slow guy and two others in front of him and then signal back to the right and into the left GP lane and back down to 60-65mph. All of this was done safely, without compromising anyone's following distance.

Well, about 4-5 miles down the road we notice an unmarked state patrol car has moved in behind us and we can tell he is running the plate. My friend has never gotten a ticket that I can remember, and did not profess to having any while we were waiting for the patrolman to remove himself from behind us. Cars like this one always get rolled up on by the police. They run the plate and then the driver. If you don't have an extraordinary amount of traffic violations and your car looks like it complies with the rules, they roll up, run your plate and move on.

Surprise! Blue lights. Move carefully, but quickly to the right, come to a complete stop, turn off the car and remain inside. The officer comes up and explains to us that he saw what we did when we passed the asshat. We kindly agree that we did make the pass and he tells us that he believes that what he saw was "aggressive driving". No bickering, the side of the road is not the place for adults to argue. The officer goes back to his car, writes the ticket. My friend signs the ticket, takes his green copy, and back to my place we go.

If it isn't obvious, here is my beef. If you are on a 2 lane highway and roll up behind someone going under the speed limit, you are going to wait for a safe place to pass and the do so as quickly and safely as possible, right? Why does this count as being "aggressive" when on the interstate?

Let me state that I have no ill feeling toward police officers. I often go on ride-a-longs with Seattle PD or the local county sheriff and generally believe that they are folks with a need to serve who just happen to have a job that sucks. They work long hours, get paid crap wages, and very few, if any, of the people they talk to want to talk to them. They get their hands tied by whatever agency they work for, but when the tied hands cannot fix something, they get kicked in the teeth. And those are just some of the reasons I never became one.

And I will give you that 80+mph doesn't sound safe. But if you knew this guy, knew the car, and had seen their race roster, you'd feel safe at 100+ with him. And I am picky as hell as to whom I ride with. The trooper said he was too far back that there was no way he could have gotten any idea about our actual speed. All he saw was a light blue metallic 1993 Toyota Supra pass three cars really quickly.

But, I'm not really worried about my friend getting stuck with this. Favors will be called up. My money is on 10 over with a $55 fine. And in case you're wondering, the guage works fine now.

That's having problems with their writers.

But you don't have any standards - self. Oh, right, then I guess everything will be OK>

Makes a disturbing amount of sense.

We heard tons of criticism from the left about how the US was "acting unilaterally" by defying the UN in pursuit of Saddam Hussein. Apparently, this was the most horrible thing imaginable to those opposing the war - that the US didn't listen to the sage advice of the UN security council, thereby defying that holiest of holies, "International Law".

Since the state of Israel was created in 1948 after the adoption of UN resolution 181, aren't the Palestinians guilty of the same horrible transgression? Resolution 181 called for the creation of 2 states - Israel and Palestine. If Palestine would have accepted UN resolution 181, they would already HAVE an independent state that would be about to celebrate it's 55th birthday. Instead, the Palestinian leadership rejected UN 181, and attacked Israel. They lost, and Israel and JORDAN claimed the land that had been set aside by the UN for the independent state of Palestine. How come there are no suicide bombers in Jordan, trying to reclaim the land of the Palestinians?

Palestine does not want an independent state with peaceful co-existance. They want to obliterate Israel. They rejected UN 181 (rather unilateral of them, wouldn't you say?), and missed their chance to have an autonomous state of their own. They lost more land in the 6 day war - a war waged with the sole purpose of destroying Israel.

If arab forces had overrun Israel in 1967, would people be talking about an Israeli "right of return"?

The Palestinian people have been betrayed, time and again, by their leadership. They can rage against Israel all they want, but the real culprit for their woes requires nothing more than a mirror for identification.

This is a fair, mostly apolitical, summary of the Israel/Palestinian conflict.

UPDATE:

Things that make you go hmmmmmmmmmmm. Thanks to Instapundit for the pointer.

So Harmonia offers us, again, a link to the satire site Whitehouse.org to bolster some point she is trying to make. I peruse this site from time to time, primarily to see how nasty the "enlightened" left is being. Well, today they're being pretty damn nasty. If you follow the link, you come to the "Civilian Warmonger Armchair Medal of Valor" awards. It's not surprising that Sean Hannity is in for some vitriol and nastiness, but what about Joe Lieberman? The text from Joe's "nomination":

Joe Lieberman: For being so pumped-up on laughable delusions that real Americans (not Connectazoids) would ever vote for a raisin-faced Jew dwarf who won't even eat bacon or drive a Ford F-150 on Saturdays, that you supported my little wargasm every step of the way. Hey Joe! What's it like looking in the mirror and seeing Mike Dukasis in a yarmulke?

Raisin-faced Jew Dwarf? Yep, the left - the side of compassion, goodness, and light. As long as your not a Jew Dwarf, that is.

Has a "Socialist" perspective of May day, and a bit of weather prognostication to boot. Besides, anyone from Estonia that can reference Cletus the Slack Jawed Yokel in my comments section is always welcome at RNS!

Instapundit reports that the Boycott-Hollywood website is being shut down with threats of litigation.

Let's see now - Hollywood airheads regurgitate vapid anti-American sentiments, finds out the general public doesn't care for such, and starts the TV talk show rounds screaming about stifling of dissent.

Some American(s) start up a website to show how stupid and vacuous they feel the comments of these actors are, and pretty soon they are shut down by someone with money threatening them with litigation.

Which side, exactly, is trampling on the first amendment?

If you're so inclined, stop by the Boycott-Hollywood website and visit the tip jar. But hurry, they only have 24 hours before their website host shuts them down and trashes their domain name.

Can't keep Cuba off the UN HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION.

You know, the same UN body that voted the US off because of our poor human rights record? Have Robbins and Sarandon been executed? What about Alterman, the Dixie Chicks, or Martin Sheen? Hmmmmmm, maybe we better round a few of these guys up and at least torture them a bit if we want to get back into the good graces of the UN.