Wednesday, May 31, 2006

Michael Moore: “Using Me as Ammunition”

Those of you who saw Michael Moore's Farhenheit 9/11 might remember seeing a clip of a double amputee Iraq vet who complained about the pain while recovering at Walter Reed Hospital. It seemed as though he was not behind the war effort.


It turns out Sgt. Peter Damon wasn't complaining about the war, but was discussing a painkiller being used on him and other veterans.

And he's suing Moore for $85 million.

From the NY Post:

In "Fahrenheit 9/11," the bandaged National Guardsman is shown laying on a gurney complaining that he feels like he's "being crushed in a vise. But they [the drugs] do a lot to help it and they take a lot of the edge off it."

His image appears seconds after Rep. Jim McDermott (D-Wash.) says, "You know, they say they're not leaving any veterans behind, but they're leaving all kinds of veterans behind."

Damon - the dad of a 8-year-old girl and 4-year-old boy - doesn't come close to feeling that way.

"He couldn't have picked the worst guy to say that about," he told The Post.

"I'm the most fortunate disabled guy. I've even had a house built for me [by a nonprofit group, Home for Our Troops]."

Particularly outrageous to Damon is the fact that Moore never interviewed him or asked his permission to use the old clip.

"I was complaining about the pain I would've been having [if it weren't for the painkiller]," he said.

Get this:

Newsman Brian Williams ends the NBC clip by adding, "These men, with catastrophic wounds are . . . completely behind the war effort," according to the lawsuit.

That part, which wasn't shown in the Moore movie, is a far more accurate depiction of Damon's feelings, he said.

NBC is among those being named in the suit.

Somehow, it doesn't surprise me that Michael Moore not only used the clip without Damon's permission, but used it in such a way that it reflected Moore's view and the view he hoped moviegoers would walk away with. After all, Bowling for Columbine was riddled with out-of-context clips and interviews. Why mess with a winning formula?

Hat tip: My friend Jeanette

Tuesday, May 30, 2006

Is WND Lifting from Material from LLP?

This is a wierd "coincidence."

For the record, my post on Google was up three hours before theirs article was posted.

Monday, May 29, 2006

Memorial Day in Pictures

Stefano Paltera/Associated Press
People walk by nine coffins representing nine U.S. troops who were killed this week in Iraq at the Arlington West Iraq war memorial display on the beach next to the Santa Monica Pier in Santa Monica, Calif., Saturday, May 27, 2006.


President Bush, left, stands after laying a Memorial Day wreath at the Tomb of the Unknowns at Arlington National Cemetery near Washington, D.C., on Monday.


Jane "Zell" Pafenberg mourns her husband at Arlington National Cemetery on Memorial Day. (Melina Mara/The Post)


Michael Bloomer visits his wife's gravesite at Quantico cemetary on the 2nd anniversary of her death. He keeps up an online memorial website in part because his wife's job took her all over the county and "she had friends all over the place."


Maria Stokes visits the grave of her husband, Walter Stokes, a veteran of World War II and the Korean War, at the Beverly National Cemetery in Beverly, N.J.


The Memorial Bridge leading from Washington, D.C., to Virginia is lined with a joint-service cordon as the remains of the Vietnam War Unknown are taken by motor escort to Arlington National Cemetery for interment in the Tomb of the Unknowns.

Google Bias Strikes Again

They didn't forget Sir Aurthor Conan Doyle's Birthday:



They didn't forget Percival Lowell's Birthday:



They didnt forget Earth Day:



Nor did they forget Bastille Day:



I go to Google today, Memorial Day, and what do I find?



Very, very lame.

Lifelike Pundits want to thank all of the men and women who gave their lives for this great nation so that we can all live in freedom, security and prosperity.

We salute you.

More Evidence that Americans Don’t Need Democrats

Part of the Dems "Plan":

Pelosi also mentioned the Democrats' "Innovation Agenda" to maintain America's leadership role in the global economy.

America lags behind other countries that have universal broadband deployment, Pelosi said; but the Democrats' agenda "guarantees" that every American will have affordable access to broadband within five years.

"We also believe that the nationwide deployment of high speed, always-on broadband and Internet and mobile communications will fuel the development of millions of new jobs in the United States," Pelosi said.

But, alas, the economy moves ahead despite the Democrats:

Middle- and working-class Americans signed up for high-speed Internet access in record numbers in the past year, apparently lured by a price war among phone companies.

Broadband adoption increased 59 percent from March last year to March 2006 among U.S. households with incomes between $30,000 and $50,000, according to a survey to be released Monday by the Pew Internet and American Life Project.

It increased 40 percent in households making less than $30,000 a year. Among blacks, it increased 121 percent, according to the study.

Middle- and lower-income households still lag higher-income households when it comes to broadband adoption. Among the $30,000-$50,000 households, 43 percent now have broadband, compared to 68 percent for those making more than $75,000.

Overall, 42 percent of adult Americans, or 84 million people, have broadband, compared to 30 percent a year ago.

Saturday, May 27, 2006

THEY SAY IT’S YOUR BIRTHDAY!

Friday, May 26, 2006

Liberals Suck at both Ethics and Math

I read and commented over at the Huff Puff on this bizzare and silly article trying to separate out Democrats from the "culture of corruption." He offers a sacrifice (William Jefferson, Democrat, Louisiana), but then claims this:

But - does that mean that Democrats are just as mired as Republicans in wrong-doing?

No way. In the list of politicians now under investigation, the count is now: Republicans 15, Democrats 1.

No doubt which is the party of corruption.

Of course he is a liar, that is obvious, but it also shows how LAZY some of these writers are. He has no interest in looking up who else is actually under investigation, has been under investigation or who has been convicted since Bush took office. 15 to 1? BS:

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1. Senator John "No Taxes" Corzine: Senator Corzine's latest scandal involves a half-million dollar loan he gave his ex-girlfriend, Carla Katz, who just happens to be the head of one of New Jersey's largest state workers unions. Eventually, according to investigators, he forgave the loan giving the impression this was a payoff to gain union support for his election campaign and, if elected, future dealings between state workers and the Governor. Should New Jersey voters elect Corzine, he gets to appoint his own Senate successor, thereby continuing the cycle of bossism and abhorrent politics for which Jersey has become infamous.

Besides the half-million smackers he gave Carla Katz, according to investigators, Senator Corzine voted in favor of a "treaty between the United States and Japan that contains a provision exempting certain investors from paying capital gains taxes on their shares in a Japanese bank. The [public interest] lawyers say Corzine was among about 100 investors who benefited."

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2. Senator "the Torch" Toricelli: The New Jersey senator’s legal problems began with a local police investigation of political corruption in Bergen County, his home base. The probe led prosecutors to David Chang, the Korean-American businessman who had given Torricelli tens of thousands of dollars in gifts, including cash and appliances, as well as large sums for his 1996 Senate campaign. Torricelli admitted to having traveled with Chang to South Korea on several occasions, where he lobbied the South Korean government on behalf of his campaign contributor. Chang and six other men were convicted for giving illegal contributions to Torricelli, and US Attorney Mary Jo White in New York City began a formal investigation.

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3. Senator Charles "Shmuck" Schumer: Two of Schumer's staffers on the committee, including a former top researcher for David Brock's left-wing "think tank," obtained Steele's confidential credit report by using his Social Security number, which they had reportedly culled from court records.

Under federal law, it is illegal to knowingly and willfully obtain a credit report under false pretenses. The federal Fair Credit Reporting Act imposes a maximum two-year prison sentence for the crime.

Democrat spinners would have you believe that the two staffers involved in the apparent fraud, Katie Barge and Lauren Weiner, were young and inexperienced workers. They're soft-pedaling the incident as an "isolated" occurrence on par with a high school prank. But Barge has been around the block, including stints as a researcher for Sen. John Edwards' failed presidential bid and as research director for Brock's Media Matters for America.

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4. Representative Cynthia "Too Black for You" McKinney: McKinney allegedly hit the officer with her cell phone after he stopped her for identification at a security checkpoint. The officer, whose identity remains unknown, is likely to file assault charges against the congresswoman, two sources told The Hill, which could result in her arrest as early as next week.

Standing against a backdrop of two-dozen Georgia schoolchildren holding signs that read “God Bless Cynthia” and “Is Cynthia a Target?” McKinney told a dozen assembled TV cameras that the officer was at fault, implying that her race, gender and politics had played a role in the incident.


“Let me be clear, this whole incident was instigated by the inappropriate touching and stopping of me – a female, black, progressive congresswoman,” she said.

---

5. Representative Patrick "Ambien" Kennedy: On May 4, 2006, Kennedy crashed his 1997 Ford Mustang convertible into a barricade on Capitol Hill at 2:45AM. He had been operating his vehicle with the lights off in the early morning darkness. Officers at the scene said that Kennedy appeared intoxicated, smelled of alcohol and was visibly staggering, but Kennedy claimed that he was merely disoriented from prescription medications Ambien and Phenergan. A woman who works at the Hawk & Dove bar in Washington, DC said that he had been drinking there. A second report cites the capitol police have additional "witnesses" to Kennedy's drinking at the Hawk & Dove before the crash.

Kennedy also stated to officers that he was "late for a vote." However, the last vote of the night had occurred almost six hours earlier. The standard field sobriety test was not administered. Kennedy was driven home by an officer. On May 5, 2006, Kennedy admitted he has an addiction to prescription medication and announced he would be re-admitting himself to a drug rehabilitation facility at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota where he has sought treatment for prior addictions. He has stated that he has no recollection of the car crash.

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6. Senator Hillary "Vast Right-wing Conspiracy" Clinton: The Justice Department is trying to secure the cooperation of an indicted businessman as it pursues Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's 2000 Senate campaign for possible fundraising violations, according to interviews and documents.

The FBI told a U.S. magistrate in Los Angeles two years ago that it has evidence Clinton's campaign deliberately understated its fundraising costs so it would have more money to spend on elections. Prosecutors contend that businessman Peter Paul made donations because he wanted a pardon from President Bill Clinton. [This is only the most recent ethical lapse, we all remember the others: cattle futures, whitewater, travelgate, filegate, etc.]

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7. Representative Alan "Slush Fund" Mollohan: Rep. Alan Mollohan, a West Virginia Democrat, faces accusations of funneling taxpayer money to nonprofit organizations he helped create -- and which support him with campaign contributions.

The Wall Street Journal and the New York Times last week published stories about Mollohan's questionable behavior; and in an editorial this week, the New York Times singled out Mollohan as something of a test case for corruption-fighting Democrats.

The New York Times noted that Mollohan, the ranking Democrat on the House ethics panel, "has emerged as the latest example of the sort of shady dealings that have sent Congress plummeting in the public's estimation."

---

8. Minority Leader Nancy "San Fran Nan" Pelosi: Two political action committees linked to House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi have been charged with attempting to circumvent to legal limits on campaign giving, the Federal Election Commission has ruled.

According to the March 2004 FEC finding, Pelosi appears to have violated the same kind of arcane campaign finance regulation that spurred the indictment of House Majority Leader Tom DeLay this week.

The San Francisco Chronicle explained at the time:

"The FEC ruled that two Pelosi political action committees created to help Democrats in the 2002 elections were related instead of being independent and therefore violated a rule against giving more than the maximum $5,000 annual contribution."

---

9. Representative William Jefferson (Democrat, Louisiana): In a 95-page affidavit used to obtain a warrant for the office search, investigators stated that an August 2005 search of Democratic Rep. William Jefferson's home turned up the cash sum in a freezer. The money was divided among various frozen food containers, according to the heavily redacted affidavit.

Agents told a judge the money was part of a $100,000 payment that had been delivered by an informant in the bribery probe, which already has led to guilty pleas by a Kentucky businessman and a former Jefferson aide.

The Justice Department has been investigating Jefferson's relationship to telecommunications deals in Africa and elsewhere, and the House Ethics Committee launched an investigation of him last week.

---

10. Representative James "Expelled from Congress" Traficant: A jury found flamboyant U.S. Rep. James Traficant guilty of bribery and all other charges against him Thursday [April 12, 2002] after a two-month federal racketeering and corruption trial.

The jury of 10 women and two men convicted the congressman on all counts against him, covering charges of taking bribes, filing false tax returns, racketeering, and forcing his aides to perform chores at his farm in Ohio and on his houseboat in Washington.

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11. Representative James "Baghdad Jim" McDermott: A federal appeals court ruled today that Rep. Jim McDermott, D-Wash., violated federal law by turning over an illegally taped telephone call to reporters nearly a decade ago.

In a 2-1 opinion, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ruled that McDermott violated the rights of House Majority Leader John Boehner, who was heard on the 1996 call involving former House Speaker Newt Gingrich.

The court ordered McDermott to pay Boehner more than $700,000 for leaking the taped conversation. The figure includes $60,000 in damages and more than $600,000 in legal costs.

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12. Representative Nydia Velazquez: Velazquez is accused of violating House ethics guidelines by using her congressional office to endorse Judge Margarita Lopez Torres as Brooklyn Surrogate Court judge.

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13. Representative John "Mock Impeachment" Conyers: Two former aides to Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.) have alleged that he repeatedly violated House ethics rules.

Deanna Maher, a former deputy chief of staff in Conyers’s Detroit office, and Sydney Rooks, a former legal counsel in the district office, provided evidence for the allegations by sharing numerous letters, memorandums and copies of e-mails, handwritten notes and expense reports with The Hill.

In letters sent separately by each woman to the House ethics committee, the FBI and the U.S. attorney’s office, they allege that Conyers demanded that aides work on several local and state campaigns and forced them to baby-sit and chauffeur his children. They also charge that some aides illegally used Conyers’s congressional offices to enrich themselves.

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14. Former NSA Sandy "Honest Mistake" Burg(l)er: Former national security adviser Sandy Berger will plead guilty to taking classified material from the National Archives, a misdemeanor, the Justice Department said Thursday.

Berger is expected to appear in federal court in Washington on Friday, said Justice spokesman Bryan Sierra.

The former Clinton administration official previously acknowledged he removed from the National Archives copies of documents about the government's anti-terror efforts and notes that he took on those documents. He said he was reviewing the materials to help determine which Clinton administration documents to provide to the independent commission investigating the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks.

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15. Governor James "Truckstops and Videostores" McGreevy: McGreevey's term was mired in controversy, from the credentials of several of his appointments to pay-for-play and extortion scandals involving many of his backers and key New Jersey Democratic fundraisers. On August 12, 2004, faced with reports that his former homeland security aide Golan Cipel would file a sexual harassment suit against him in Mercer County Court, McGreevey announced at a press conference that he was "a gay American," that he "engaged in an adult consensual affair with another man" (whom his aides immediately named as Cipel), and that he would resign effective November 15, 2004.

Even though McGreevey's sexual orientation was reportedly well known to some New Jersey Democratic Party bosses, this announcement made McGreevey America's first openly gay governor. The Star-Ledger won a Pulitzer Prize for its coverage. After only eight months in office, Cipel resigned from his homeland security post amid persistent complaints about his lack of qualifying experience for the position. Cipel lacked any relevant prior experience that would warrant such an appointment and could not gain a security clearance from the federal government, given that he was not a U.S. citizen.

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16. Representative Frank "Me and My Son" Ballance: In September 2004, a Federal Grand Jury indicted Frank Ballance and Garey Ballance. Frank Ballance was charged with diverting more than $100,000 in state funds meant for the John A. Hyman Memorial Foundation. The funds went to his son, daughter, mother, church, and law firm while he was a state senator. Frank Ballance was chairman of the foundation and also chairman of the board of deacons of Greenwood Baptist Church in Warrenton, where the Hyman offices were situated.

Garey Ballance was charged with willful failure to file a federal income tax return for the year 2000, a misdemeanor that has a maximum punishment of a year in prison and a $100,000 fine. He failed to report receiving $20,000 from the foundation. He used the money as a down payment on a sports utility vehicle.

In November 2004 Frank Ballance pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit mail fraud and money laundering. According to the terms of the plea agreement, he could receive up to five years in prison. [Funny how we never heard much about this US Representative!]

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Now, that's 16 right there...and I didn't cover any of the Democrats linked to Abramoff's clients. So I am going to email this the writer of that really stupid piece of self-denial will actually admit his poor math and issue a correction.

Did Matthew Cooper Perjure Himself?

I wonder if HuffPuff sprawl this title across it's headlines? Don't think so:


Walton said Time magazine must provide Libby's lawyers with drafts of first-person stories that reporter Matthew Cooper wrote about his conversations with Libby because the judge said he noticed inconsistencies between them.

All of the news organizations had asked Walton to review the materials sought by Libby _ including e-mails, drafts of articles and reporters' notes _ in hopes of convincing him that they were not relevant and that the defense was on a "fishing expedition."

During that review, Walton said, he found "a slight alteration between the several drafts of the articles" Cooper wrote about his conversations with Libby and the reporter's first-person account of his testimony before a federal grand jury.

"This slight alteration between the drafts will permit the defendant to impeach Cooper, regardless of the substance of his trial testimony, because his trial testimony cannot be consistent with both versions," Walton wrote.

Matthew Cooper always appeared a little slimy to me on television (that whole melodrama about his crying son not wanting him to go to jail). He did gain notoriety from this case (I'd never heard of him before).

I've worked with Scooter for about 6 months at Dechert in DC and he and his attorneys will smoke out any liars for sure!

And, as a man of character, he has resigned his position, like DeLay, instead of holding onto power until the last possible minute like Mollohan, McKinney, Kennedy and William Jefferson, Democrat, Louisiana.

Thursday, May 25, 2006

Corporate Cheats Going to Jail

Remember how they tried to blame Bush for all the corporate malfeasance that lead to numerous companies' management jumping ship? The connections were too blatant to ignore:

George W. Bush supports entrepreneurship and business; Enron, Worldcom, Tyco, etc., were all businesses.

And just like al-Queda, all the planning and scamming went on during Clinton's term and blew up in Bush's face.

Funny how that worked out. All these suckers are going to jail for a long, long time. Kudos to the Bush Justice Department.

Janet Reno could not be reached for comment.

Senator Suckers?

Could this be the plan? The Republicans are showing not only a difference between Democrats and Republicans, but between conservative Republicans and leftist Republicans?

Our biggest vunerability is losing the House and, right now, the House is positioning itself to inspire people to go to the polls for them because they have been more true to conservatism than the Senate.

If you get the base fired up to go to the polls to keep the House, they'll probably also pull the lever for the Senate candidate as well.

Fake Robbery

For all this talk of the rolling back of civil rights that have happened under the facistic, theocon Bush administration, what exactly could gay people do during the Clinton administration that they cannot do now? If the FMA passes, what changes for gays? Nothing.

And what exactly could illegal aliens in America do during Clinton's administration that they cannot do now? If this border bill passes, what "rights" will be trampled on?

Dire Warnings of Things that Weren’t #2

Question: What happened to the "Four More Wars?"

Amen, Boehner

More of this, please:

"Later this week, the House will consider ANWR legislation which will create American jobs by authorizing environmentally safe energy production on just 2,000 of ANWR's 20 million acres. Using 21st Century technology that is environmentally safe, we can create more than a million American jobs, strengthen American energy security, and increase our energy independence. Had President Clinton not vetoed ANWR in 1995, the U.S. could be getting nearly 1.5 million barrels of oil per day from the arctic - an amount equal to the daily production lost in the Gulf after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

"While Republicans offer solutions, the Democrats' chronic negligence on energy solutions continues to impact working Americans every day. The Democrats have shown that their energy policy runs on nothing but hot air. They are on the wrong side of the issue of American energy independence with regards to the policy AND politics. Even their supporters in the labor movement recognize that Democrats are standing in the way of increased American energy production."

While the Senate Republicans are wandering further down the "Democrats-but-Better" whole over immigration by offering solutions that are counterintuitive, the conservatives in the House make complete sense. Thanks to Don for this gem.

Wednesday, May 24, 2006

Diversity Strikes in Wisconsin

This is just utterly ridiculous:

The University of Wisconsin System is changing its admissions policies to consider race, income and other non-academic qualities of applicants with the explicit goal of boosting student diversity.

Until now, all campuses with the exception of UW-Madison have used set academic requirements such as grade point averages and test scores to make the majority of admissions decisions. The change means no student will be guaranteed admission to the system no matter how good his or her grade point average, test scores or class rank - although these measures will continue to carry the most weight. “There will be no automatic admission, even for top students,” said Larry Rubin, the system’s assistant vice president for academic and student services.

The matter-of-fact and proud way he states that merit will no longer win a student anything in his school system shows the utter bankruptcy of modern leftwing liberalism. What an outrage. Thanks to Owen at Boots and Sabers for catching this.

PC Goes to the Next Level in Michigan Schools

Things are going too far:

In perhaps a well-intentioned, but pernicious example of political correctness, the Michigan Department of Education is attempting to ban the "America" and "American" from our public schools. Even though the word "America" appears in the department's own civics and government benchmarks, the department's style protocol for the Michigan Education Assessment Program requires that "America" and "Americans" be expunged from our testing and grade level expectations. Last week, the department ordered that our hard-working teachers not utter the words.

Why?

The Department of Education asserts that "Americans" includes Mexicans, Canadians and others in the Western Hemisphere, so referring to U.S. residents as Americans is inappropriate. In the department's view, "America" happens to include South, Central and North America. Accordingly, when referring to the colonial period, the state bureaucracy requires teachers to refer to "the colonies of North America" or "North Americans." After the American Revolution, the nation is called the United States (not of America).

Last I heard, Canadians would rather wither away and die before being referred to as Americans. (Heck, those who sneak over from Mexico don't even want to be Americans, even while working here and accepting free education and medical care). How about all of the other citizens from around the world who call people from the United States "Americans"? How does the Michigan school system plan to educate them regarding the appropriate term?

This is absolute garbage. Banning the terms America and Americans from usage in Michigan schools isn't educational, nor does it make a heck of a lot of sense. When people worldwide hear the word America, they don't think of Mexico, Canada, or any of the Central American or South American countries. They think of the United States of AMERICA -- where millions of people have come throughout our nearly 300-year history in search of a better life. And even if citizens from other countries don't like us, they still think of us as Americans...perhaps with the qualifier "ugly" in front of it.

But what else can one expect from a public school system that has been hijacked by PC moonbats who seem to be more concerned with nitpicky phrasing than actually improving educational standards?

And what about national pride? Oh right, I forgot. National pride is not allowed in the PC universe.

I wonder how long it will take for other school systems around the country to adopt this policy?


Crossposted to Blogmeister USA.