Three Senators Put Their Lives On The Line

Yesterday from the AP:

A military cargo plane carrying three senators and a House member was forced to take evasive maneuvers and dispatch flares to avoid ground fire after taking off from Baghdad on Thursday night.

The lawmakers said their plane, a C-130, was under fire from three rocket-propelled grenades over the course of several minutes as they left for Amman, Jordan.

“It was a scary moment,” said Sen. Mel Martinez, R-Fla., who said he had just taken off his body armor when he saw a bright flash outside the window. “Our pilots were terrific. ... They banked in one direction and then banked the other direction, and they set off the flares.

”Sens. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., and James Inhofe, R-Okla., as well as Rep. Bud Cramer, D-Ala., were also on the plane.

Cramer and Martinez said they had just begun to relax about five or 10 minutes after the plane took off under darkness.

Crew members apparently communicated to the pilots as they saw the initial RPG fired from the ground, Cramer said. After the first burst, the pilots maneuvered aggressively and set off flares used for drawing incoming fire away from aircraft.

Once the flares lit up the sky, lawmakers said, two more RPGs were fired as the pilots continued maneuvering.

Martinez said he quickly put back on his body armor.

“We were jostled around pretty good,” said Cramer, who estimated the plane had ascended to about 6,000 feet. “There were a few minutes there where I wondered: 'Have we been hit? Are we OK?'”

Capt. Angel Wallace, a spokeswoman for U.S. Central Command, said she was not aware of the incident, and military public affairs officials in Baghdad could not be reached immediately. [Emphasis added.]

Yeehah! Ride 'em Cowyboys!

But there are a couple of aspects to this story that have a fishy odor about them. All you have to do is sniff a little:

First, Bud Cramer "estimated the plane had ascended to about 6,000 feet."

Second, the Senators claim that their plane had been taken "under fire from three rocket-propelled grenades over the course of several minutes..."

Third, the Senators relate that "after the first burst, the pilots maneuvered aggressively and set off flares used for drawing incoming fire away from aircraft."

But if it was dark, how could these clowns 1) estimate that they were at 6,000 feet, and 2) determine that it was RPGs that were being fired at them?

The RPG is a dumb weapon. It has no guidance system. Therefore, had RPGs indeed been fired at them, the pilots would have had no need to employ countermeasures (the flares). If they did, indeed, employ the flares, it would have been because they suspected some sort of shoulder-fired surface-to-air weapon was being employed against them.

The absolute maximum horizontal range of the RPG-7 is 920 meters (3,018 feet). At that range, the weapon has practically no accuracy and would be used exclusively for harassment purposes against stationary targets. Trying to fire the weapon vertically at a fast-moving target 6,000 feet high would have been a fruitless endeavor. I'm quite sure no insurgent or al-Qaeda member would waste an RPG round in such silly way.

You would think that the media would stop interviewing these idiots and give us all a break.

Animals Were Killed In the Production Of This Film

From the Alaska Department of Fish and Game comes this article by Riley Woodford:

Lemmings do not commit mass suicide. It's a myth, but it's remarkable how many people believe it. Ask a few.

"It's a complete urban legend," said state wildlife biologist Thomas McDonough. "I think it blew out of proportion based on a Disney documentary in the '50s, and that brought it to the mainstream.

"Lemmings are a kind of short tailed vole, a mouse-like rodent that favors tundra and open grasslands. Three kinds are found in Alaska, including the collared lemming, the only rodent that turns white in winter.

In 1958 Walt Disney produced "White Wilderness," part of the studio's "True Life Adventure" series. "White Wilderness" featured a segment on lemmings, detailing their strange compulsion to commit mass suicide.

According to a 1983 investigation by Canadian Broadcasting Corporation producer Brian Vallee, the lemming scenes were faked. The lemmings supposedly committing mass suicide by leaping into the ocean were actually thrown off a cliff by the Disney filmmakers. The epic "lemming migration" was staged using careful editing, tight camera angles and a few dozen lemmings running on snow covered lazy-Susan style turntable.

"White Wilderness" was filmed in Alberta, Canada, a landlocked province, and not on location in lemmings' natural habitat. There are about 20 lemming species found in the circumpolar north - but evidently not in that area of Alberta. So the Disney people bought lemmings from Inuit children a couple provinces away in Manitoba and staged the whole sequence. [Emphasis added.]

THOSE HEARTLESS, CRUEL DISNEY BASTARDS!!!! The lemmings "were actually thrown off a cliff by the Disney filmmakers"?

And to think that I've believed that mass-suicide lemming crap my entire life.

Disney sucks.


Animals were, indeed, harmed in the making of that film.

More Whining About Profiling

From NEWS.com.au:

The largest civil rights organisation of American Sikhs has expressed outrage with a new US airport security policy that it says allows arbitrary searches of turbans, a sacred headdress for members of the religion.

The Sikh Coalition said it had been informed by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) that under its new guidelines, turbans could be subject to manual pat-downs even if their wearers had passed a metal detector test.

"Telling screeners to search people in turbans is the same as telling them to search black people or Arabs or Muslims," Amardeep Singh, executive director of the Sikh Coalition, said.

"The policy allows screeners to single out travelers on the basis of their religion."

TSA spokeswoman Lara Uselding acknowledged that on August 4, the agency that oversees security at 450 US airports as well as railroads, ports and mass transit systems revised its screening procedures for head coverings.

But she denied the changes that would be carried out by all 43,000 US airport screeners had anything to do with religious beliefs espoused by travellers.

The turban is a sacred headdress in the Sikh religion given to its followers by the religion's founding gurus, or prophets.

Obligatory for men and optional for women, it is worn to underscore the distinct Sikh identity and full commitment to the faith, according to members of the religion. [Emphasis added.]

Well what the hell? Someone in the TSA should inform old Amardeep that telling screeners to search people in turbans is NOT the same as telling them to search black people or Arabs or Muslims. It merely tells screeners to pat down igloo-sized cloth headdresses on people going through airport security. After all, who's to say that there isn't a hunk of Semtex or C-4 stuffed up under the igloo-hat? Or some sort of plastic or wooden weapon? Something that metal detectors would miss....

And who's to say that old al-Qaeda Abdul from Al Madinah or Damascus won't grow a curly beard and moustache, wrap an oversized paper towel around his head, and try to pass himself off as a Sikh? While carrying explosives onto a plane....

Try wearing a baseball cap, Amardeep. They're easier to take off.

Hypocrisy

But let's get serious. This is from Fox News:

Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards says he wants people to give up their sport utility vehicles. Edwards told a labor group Tuesday that Americans should drive more fuel-efficient vehicles and called the U.S. "the worst polluter on the planet."

Edwards' campaign concedes he does own a hybrid Ford Escape SUV, along with a 2004 Chrysler Pacifica midsize SUV, but says he uses that less often now.

Edwards was also asked about the apparent contradiction of asking Americans to sacrifice while he lives in a 28,000 square foot mansion in North Carolina. He replied that he came from nothing and worked hard all his life — saying, "I have no apologies whatsoever for what I've done with my life."

Translation: Y'all shut up, you toothless unwashed bastards, and buy a Prius!

Meanwhile, here's a picture of Hair Boy getting ready to climb into a....

More Fresh Spinach Recalled

From the Associated Press:

WASHINGTON - A California produce company recalled bagged fresh spinach Wednesday after it tested positive for salmonella.

There were no immediate reports of illness linked to the tainted spinach, distributed by Metz Fresh LLC of King City, Calif.

The recall comes nearly a year after an outbreak of another pathogen, E. coli, in fresh spinach killed three people and sickened another 200.

The recalled spinach was distributed throughout the 48 states and Canada and sold in both retail and food service packages. It covers 8,118 cases of spinach, although the company said more than 90 percent of that was on hold and would not be released.

While only a single sample from one of three packing lines tested positive for salmonella, the company said it moved to recall all the spinach packed that same day as a precaution.

If I remember right, the last spinach recall had something to do with animal feces getting into the spinach fields from adjacent pasturage.

Our Heroine

And it has absolutely nothing to do with shitty ratings.

You Decide

Yeah. What He Said.

New Orleans -- Two Years After Katrina

Any part of any American city that:

1. Lies directly on the coastline
2. Lies in a hurricane threat zone
3. Is 10 feet below sea level

should be condemned--marked as off limits to human habitation.


And the most important lesson learned from the disaster that was Katrina?

We need lots of busses.

Puleeeeeeeeeez!

Would Americans please stop swooning over the fact that it's the 10th anniversary of the death of Diana Spencer? Please?

Don't you think we've heard enough about the death of the Royal Skank?

Besides, it reflects poorly on modern Americans to fawn all over Diana and her two twerp puppies after so many Americans died in the Revolutionary War to throw off tyrants like King George III.

I know it's been over 200 years, but it's too soon to forget.

Owen Wilson Hospitalized -- Rumored Suicide Attempt

From the Sydney Morning Herald:

Actor Owen Wilson is in a California hospital being treated for a suspected suicide attempt, according to reports.

Gossip website PerezHilton.com quoted National Enquirer editor-in-chief David Perel: "Owen Wilson has now been transferred from St. John's to another Los Angeles area hospital. His brothers Andrew and Luke are with him.

"Andrew found him after the suicide attempt and called an ambulance. Both of Owen's wrists were slashed superficially and Owen had taken an overdose of pills.

"Owen was found with a nearly empty bottle of pills next to him. He was at his house in Santa Monica."

Another gossip website TMZ.com said it had confirmed that a call to Santa Monica police overnight was for Wilson, who starred in Zoolander and Wedding Crashers.

The department would not reveal the subject of a media release but said the person was taken to hospital for treatment.

That's a shame. He has everything going for him, and he's one of the funniest bastards I've ever seen on film.

Breaking News -- AGAG Resigns!

From the New York Times:

WACO, Tex., Aug. 27 — ­ Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales, whose tenure has been marred by controversy and accusations of perjury before Congress, has resigned. A senior administration official said he would announce the decision later this morning in Washington.

Mr. Gonzales, who had rebuffed calls for his resignation, submitted his to President Bush by telephone on Friday, the official said. His decision was not immediately
announced, the official added, until after the president invited him and his wife to lunch at his ranch near here.

Mr. Bush has not yet chosen a replacement but will not leave the position open long, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because the Attorney General's resignation had not yet been made public.

Mr. Bush had repeatedly stood by Mr. Gonzales, an old friend and colleague from Texas, even as he faced increasing scrutiny for his leadership of the Justice Department, including his role in the dismissals of nine United States attorneys late last year and questions about whether he testified truthfully about the National Security Agency's surveillance programs.

"We're watching a political exercise," Mr. Bush said at a news conference this month, dismissing accusations that the Attorney General had stonewalled or misled a congressional inquiry. "I mean, this is a man who has testified, he's sent thousands of papers up there. There's no proof of wrong."

Mr. Gonzales's resignation is the latest in a series of high-level departures that has reshaped the end of Mr. Bush's second term. Karl Rove, another of Mr. Bush's close circle of aides from Texas, stepped down two weeks ago.

The official said that the decision was Mr. Gonzales's and that the president accepted it grudgingly. At the same time, the official acknowledged that the turmoil over his tenure as Attorney General had made continuing difficult.

Well, I guess it was to be expected. His continued presence in the cabinet must have been proving too much of a distraction for the administration. On the other hand, when Karl Rove resigned, it was widely reported that anyone in the cabinet who didn't resign before a certain date in September would be "stuck" in their position until the end or their term.

But the Gonzales resignation begs the further question:

Who in the hell are the Congressional Democrats gonna pick on now?

Gun Control

This is a Photoshop re-make of a poster I found on the Web yesterday.

Dog Bites Vick

From the Associated Press and Atlanta's WXIA-TV (NBC Channel 11) comes a story of slimy justice:

Take some trading cards picturing a disgraced NFL superstar. Add some dog slobber and teethmarks. What do you get?

The most valuable Michael Vick cards—by far—on eBay, that's what.

Collector Rochelle Steffen of Cape Girardeau, Mo., gave every Vick card she owned to her dogs and let them go to town on the images of the Atlanta Falcons quarterback who is scheduled to plead guilty to a federal dogfighting charge Monday.

Once Monte, her 6-year-old Weimaraner, and Roxie, her Great Dane puppy, were done worrying them, nearly two dozen $1-$10 cards were crumpled, crimped, chewed, torn and generally in a sorry state. Some even had corners missing.

As of Thursday evening, the highest bid on the lot of 22 cards had risen to $455 and more than 2,000 people had viewed the posting. Seventy-seven people already have bid on the auction, which ends Sunday.

The next-most expensive Vick cards—well-preserved specimens from his rookie year—were going for less than half the price of the gnawed ones. [Emphasis added.]

Ha! Great idea! Give that woman a milk bone.

And while I'm on the topic of Mike "Kill Doggy Dogg" Vick, here's a hilarious video from National Lampoon's Lemmings Productions:



BIG ASS CHUNKS OF LITTLE DOGS!!!!!

Wild Fire Horror In Greece

From the Indo-Asian News Service and the Hindustan Times:

Raging wildfires in Greece have killed over 50 people and destroyed hundreds of houses as firemen were largely forced to wait for sunrise on Sunday before renewing the battle against the massive blazes.

Residents of the Peloponnese peninsula, in southern Greece and on Euboea island hunkered down for another night of horror Saturday as an early loss of daylight caused firemen to shut down helicopters and planes working to contain the blazes.

At least 190 fires were burning across the region, countless still uncontrolled.
Authorities fear that the death toll will rise as hundreds of people were trapped in remote villages encircled by flames on the Peloponnese peninsula.

Prime Minister Kostas Karamanlis on Saturday declared a state of emergency and three days of mourning. Flags on all public buildings would fly at half-mast until Monday.

Karamanlis blamed arsonists for the horrors of the last few days as police arrested seven people in connection with the blazes. It could not be "coincidence" that the fires broke out in such a short time, Karamanlis said in televised remarks, adding that his government would do everything to bring the perpetrators to justice.

About 70,000 hectares of land and hundreds of houses have burned to the ground over the past three days, media reports said.

Coming from a western state as I do (Arizona), this cuts close to home. A wild fire death toll of over 50 people is simply horrendous.



I wish the best for those poor people.

While On The Topic Of Ted Nugent

How about a little Saturday morning Cat Scratch Fever? From 1977, when I was still a young 'un:

Ted Nugent--Delicate Political Sentiments

Ah. This little onstage rant by the Motor City Madman is causing a huge stink in Moonbat circles. It seems Mr. Nugent has "threatened" Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton with murder (among other liberal lights such as Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer). He even started his rant with a thinly-disguised suggestion directed at California Governor Arnold Alois Schwarzenegger.

This little bit was apparently recorded by a concert-goer in Oroville, California on 22 August. Thus, the rant's focus on California politicians.



Here's a transcript of his rant:

(Brandishing two automatic rifles.) Hey, Arnold! Suck on this one time, you putz.

I was in Chicago last week. I was in Chicago, I said, "Hey, Obama! You might want to suck on one of these, you punk."

You don't get that? Obama. He's a piece of shit. And I told him to suck on my machine gun. Let's hear it for him.

And then I was in New York. I said, I said, "Hey, Hillary. You might want to ride one of these into the sunset, you worthless bitch.

And since I'm in California, how about Barbara Boxer? She might want to suck on my machine gun.

Hey, Dianne Feinstein! Ride one of these you worthless whore.

Any questions?

Freedom!

Actually, he didn't threaten to murder anyone. He did suggest, however, that certain Democrats do all of us a favor and commit "the deed" themselves....

Needless to say, this little exercise of First Amendment rights has caused quite the stir among the nutroots. The Moonbat-O-Sphere is all a-twitter, as it were.

And how terrible of that Ted Nugent fellow to "threaten" those poor people, like that!

But here's how one o' them "kinder, gentler" Moonbats responded to the YouTube video:

Ted Nugent is a period stain on this planet. I'd love to cock my gun in his mouth and do the world a favor. This crack smoker and all people who think like him should be carted away to a death camp, and put on the short list to go first! I wish he was one of Michael Vick's pit bulls!!! [Emphasis added by moi.]

Yes, of course! That little bit was much more reserved and reasonable than Nugent's was, you stupid little prick.


Of course, a ruckus ensued on Hannity and Colmes:



I'm with Ted on this one. Bob Beckel and Alan Colmes can suck on one of those machine gun thingies, too, as far as I'm concerned.

Street Justice In Tehran

Or at least justice as it occurs on the street. Gleaned from the Daily Mail via Snoop at politicalpartypoop.com:

His face covered by a balaclava, an official brandishing a cane repeatedly lashes the back of a man found guilty of breaking Iran's morality laws.

Two police officers hold the legs of 25-year-old Saeed Ghanbari and another his arms to ensure there is no escape from the punishment of 80 lashes handed down by a religious court.

Traffic was brought to a halt in Qazvin, 90 miles west of the capital Tehran, as more than 1,000 men gathered behind barricades to watch the public flogging.

So why was this terrible thing happening to Saeed? The Daily Mail continues:

It was unclear exactly what his offence had been as the country's strict morality laws cover many areas, but it was reported he had been convicted of abusing alcohol and having sex outside of marriage.

The public lashings have been endorsed by the judiciary as a way of deterring alcohol abuse at a time when it is on the increase among young men but some religious leaders are said to be questioning their validity, fearing they have an adverse impact on the country's image abroad.

Although men and women convicted of flouting public morals are routinely flogged in detention centres, public floggings are considered rare.

Hmmmm. It seems to me that if our own judicial system called for public floggings for people who got drunk and had sex outside of marriage, there'd be a whole shitload of public floggings going on.

Lesson to be learned: Don't move to Iran.

Kinky Friedman Cigars

From KinkyFriedman.com:

Kinky’s newest venture - Kinky Friedman Cigars is officially open for business. The new company just unveiled the first five sizes to the tobacco world at the Retail Tobacco Dealers of America Trade Show in Houston and it was an over-whelming success as were both the events at Cigar Cigar! in Sugar Land and Downing St. Pub in Houston.

[...]

The five sizes - The Governor, Kinkycristo, Texas Jewboy, The Willie and Utopian....

Texas Jewboy?

Hooooooooooot! Gotta love it.

A Disingenuous Witch

Witch wasn't the first word that came to mind when I saw this video. It pretty much speaks for itself:



"The United States is the one who broke the law first. By letting people cross over without documents," she says.

By letting people cross over without documents? Letting? LETTING?

Yes, Ms. Arellano, I'm quite sure you sauntered up to the U.S.-Mexican border in plain sight and crossed under the watchful eyes of checkpoint personnel. Who cheerfully waived you through....

Ah, but that's not how it happened, is it? You SNUCK in, didn't you, you conniving little bint?

Ex-Military In Congress

This morning on MSNBC's "Morning Joe," Colonel Jack Jacobs said that only 23% of Congress has served in the military. Until only recently, he added, the number was as low as 15%.

He went on to point out that among the 23% who actually served, a number had slept through through their time in uniform and had therefore learned nothing of military value that they might bring with them to Congress.

A leading example of the latter, said Colonel Jacobs, is Jack Murtha of Pennsylvania.

Go figure.

Bush's "Vietnam" Speech

From CNN.com:

KANSAS CITY, Missouri (CNN) -- President Bush drew parallels between the aftermath of the Vietnam War and the potential costs of pulling out of Iraq in a speech Wednesday.

"Three decades later, there is a legitimate debate about how we got into the Vietnam War and how we left," Bush told members of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, at their convention in Kansas City, Missouri.

"Whatever your position in that debate, one unmistakable legacy of Vietnam is that the price of America's withdrawal was paid by millions of innocent citizens, whose agonies would add to our vocabulary new terms like 'boat people,' 're-education camps' and 'killing fields,' " the president said.

The White House billed the speech, as it did next week's address to the American Legion, as an effort to "provide broader context" for the debate over the upcoming Iraq progress report by Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. military commander, and Ryan Crocker, the U.S. ambassador in Baghdad.

Well, it's the first time that I've seen this guy give any reasonable historical context to his reason for clinging to the war in Iraq. Apart from his comments on Vietnam, his allusions to the Korean War--and how our sacrifices there enabled South Korea to grow into a prospering Democracy--were particularly well taken.


I served 10 years on the Korean Peninsula when I was in the military, and the fruits of our sacrifices in the 1950s are plainly evident there today.

In 2007, we still have more than 30,000 troops in Korea. Some folks in American need to consider that inconvenient little fact before they rush us into headlong retreat and inevitable defeat in Iraq.

Christiane Amanpour

Gag:

"There are some situations one simply cannot be neutral about, because when you are neutral you are an accomplice. Objectivity doesn't mean treating all sides equally. It means giving each side a hearing."

A quote from Ms. Christiane "Holier Than Thou" Amanpour.

But wouldn't the inability to remain neutral preclude one from calling oneself a "journalist"?

A reminder: Ms. Amanpour was born to an Iranian father. She moved to Tehran upon her birth and didn't return to the West until she was 11 years of age.

Neutral? No more than you or I....

Don't be a dumb-ass American. Don't mindlessly mistake a British accent for intellectual superiority.

Number One News Story

And since the Michael Vick saga seems to be the number one news story today, here's a little photoshop I did of him the other day:

I don't care what those Vick defenders are saying, dog fighting is not the same as legitimate hunting.

New Blog; First Post

Hi.

This is my first post on Bebop Nirvana. It's been several months since I had a working blog, and I'm looking forward to having a place where I can vent my spleen.

My old blog--No Man's Blog--fell by the wayside after I started working as Contracts Manager for my brother's company. Besides, it was a hard core WordPress affair that required way too much maintenance--especially on the Web hosting side. It also consumed way too much money (again on the Web hosting side).

I'll see if I can get this thing formatted to my liking while I keep track of the news and find things to get pissed off about.

And then I'll post....