Though the advent of Photoshop kind of dilutes its purpose and effect, no?

UPDATE: I mean, why bother?

Do you?

Giuliani then ripped into Democrats for treating Moore like a "rock star" at the convention.

While Moore was given no official role at the convention, he has been treated like a celebrity at many events — and even sat in ex-President Jimmy Carter's box Monday night.

Besides being one of the most effective public administrators that any city has ever seen and exhibiting tremendous leadership after September 11th, the man just plain rocks. Rawks! And he was also self-deprecating enough to don a dress on Saturday Night Live ... several times.

The Republican bench is deep in 2008.

(Via DW)

PS - To my socially conservative friends that don't find any of those picks "Ricky Santorum" enough: you might want to consider why many of these moderate Republicans have national appeal ...

"You have to make sure to lead the kids a little more before you squeeze one off ... they're squirrely ..."

Allah may have blogged the class incongruity and awkwardness of the Heinz-Kerry-Kerrys' spontaneous trip to Wendy's, but he missed the real story:

Earlier, their bus convoy pulled over at a Wendy's fast food restaurant for a photo opportunity lunch that provided an awkward moment.

Spotting a group of US Marines, Kerry, who has made his Vietnam War service a cornerstone of his campaign, went over to chat. The Marines, who all turned out to be staunch Bush supporters, were not impressed.

"He imposed on us and I disagree with him coming over here shaking our hands," one of them told reporters afterwards. "I'm 100 percent against" Kerry, he said. "We support our commander-in-chief 100 percent."

Semper Fi.

(Marines via Florida Cracker, whose got some really good stuff over there!)

Feel free to caption ...

UPDATE: The Captain gets to the heart of the matter, and I'll add my comments:

I've always thought that Kerry's post-Vietnam behavior ("reminiscent of Ghengis Khan ...") was despicable, but I also thought that some right-wing criticism of Kerry's record in Vietnam was cheap and unwarranted (the flesh-wound complaints). But you know what? That was months ago. And since then, I've watched this man base his entire resume on his actions during 4 months of combat in Vietnam. No senate record, no prosecutorial career, no lieutenant governorship, nothing. And it's ludicrous.

If he wants to merely rely on four months of his life so heavily, I can't really criticize individuals that decide to pick apart those same four months. I just wonder if the rest of America (or at least the swing voters) feel insulted by this shameless self-promotion as much as I do. And if they aren't angered by it, do they at least find it ridiculously funny?

I mean, Dubya prowling around in the flight suit was worth a chortle or two, but "My name is John Kerry and I'm reporting for duty?" "Viet-naam ... Viet-naaam, Viet-naaaaaaaam ..."

Oh, man ...

According to his daughter, he once gave mouth-to-mouth to a hamster.

UPDATE: In related news ...

(Special effects via Dorkafork, aka The Millenium Blogger*)

* Because he posts about once a millenium ...

ANOTHER UPDATE: Brilliance.

A FINAL UPDATE: Allah does it again.

Can be felt here:

The Main Event: John Kerry Hits it Out of the Park

If by "park" you mean Fleet Center packed with the Democratic Party faithful, sure ...

"I'm John Kerry and I'm reporting for duty."

We're here to make America stronger at home and respected in the world. Tonight I am home."

He's passionate. He clicks with the audience.

Howard Dean could streak the stage while screaming "BushhitlerMcShrubbenburton ... Bechtel! Bechtel! Yeeeeeearggghh! Look at my huge manhood!!!!!" and click with that audience ... for example, see here.

His delivery is perfect. We've never seem him this good. He's done it. He's over the top with this crowd:
...

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Pizza. Party.

Especially because I'm fully aware of what complete jerks some DC police officers can be ...

Stephanie Willett is a 45-year-old scientist for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency from Bowie whose skirmishes with the law had largely been limited to a couple of speeding tickets.

Until she was caught chewing inside a Metro station.
...

Curry-Hagler turned around and followed Willett into the station. Moments after making a remark to the officer, Willett said, she was searched, handcuffed and arrested for chewing the last bite of her candy bar after she passed through the fare gates. She was released several hours later after paying a $10 fine, pending a hearing

Ridiculous. Resources that could be dedicated to snagging a terrorist trying to enter the extremely porous subway system are diverted to detain a woman chewing a candy bar. I sleep well at night.

ABCNEWS: KERRY SPEECH WILL RUN 55 MINUTES...

I've seen this man speak in person twice, once in front of a rally, once in the middle of an intimate crowd at a fundraiser reception. It's like mainlining pharmaceutical grade tryptophan, but you only get sleepy after you get extremely irritated at the guy for wasting your time with painfully monotone, long-winded bloviation. Seriously.

55 minutes? Partisan bias aside, this is a poor decision by the Kerry camp. He needs to make a strong impression to bolster his softening poll numbers on fundamental character/personal issues, a cause which would be much better served by a relatively succinct, strongly-worded speech.

I don't think that there's any realistic possibility that I can sit through an hour of John Kerry.

UPDATE: The biographical film was effective and entertaining.

UPDATE: "I'm John Kerry and I'm reporting for duty!" Hilarious.

UPDATE: "Guess what wing of the hospital?" My immediate thought was the left wing, not the West Wing ...

UPDATE: Bush lies ... blah, blah, blah.

UPDATE: Our middle class is shrinking because the upper class is growing, and outsourcing is good for the economy, John.

UPDATE: He accepted the nomination! He accepted the nomination!

UPDATE: Cheney name reminder; nice tactical shot.

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Image Consultant #1: Ok, we're going to have to do our best with this ...

Image Consultant #2: To put it mildly! It's like trying to coach a rabid dog!

Image Consultant #1: Look she's prickly today, but I think she'll stick to the script, and Doc says he's gonna light 'er up with a Trifluoperazine/Fluphenazine speedball that will keep her smooth as glass ...

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"Ah will crush you, Al Qaedah ...

... and then I laughed some more, after John Edwards stirred up the typically bloodthirsty mob of Democratic National Convention delegates with this threat to Al Qaeda:

You cannot run. You cannot hide. We will destroy you.

It's good that he pays lip service to the concept, but something tells me that somehow, somewhere, terrorists were laughing as well.

For reference, let's flashback to 9-11, as Tom Clancy takes a shot at Senator Edwards' vague platitudes about confronting terror on the Charlie Rose Show:

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Based on another pleasant Michael Moore quote regarding the natural behavior of Republicans, Marc from marcland asks ...

Let's try an open thread - which minority would you screw?

I assume that he means "screw over," because I have trouble picking a specific minority group to "screw." Being an unmarried man with an egalitarian streak a mile wide, I suppose that I'm an equal-opportunity screwer. Viva la diversidad, si pudiera entenderme ...

But since I'm also a white Republican, and we're talking about oppression, I'll have to make a choice.

...

...

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Well, have you?

Don't let the moonbats win.

Why Do the Worst Things Always Happen to the Best People?

I fervently hope that Saddam Hussein is indeed fit enough to stand trial for his crimes. It's all too rare that history's genocidal maniacs are charged and punished for the full roster of their sins, and his show trial may be a pivotal element in Iraq's ultimate success and unification.

* A trial gives the government the air of authority

* A trial unifies various Iraqi factions

* A trial distracts the bloodsucking newsies from the tenuous security situation, and in effect buys time for Iraqi authorities that are trying to eliminate the terrorists before the US electorate runs out of patience and yanks the rug.

So hoist a glass to Saddam Hussein's good health and pray that the stroke rumor proves to be false. We need him rosy cheeked and all sexed-up for his date with a noose.

UPDATE: Nothing to see here, people. Move along.

This piece over at the Waterglass echoes my feelings on the election:

The point is that influential people like Moore, Kennedy, Carter, and Kerry are playing games with my family's personal safety in order to score political points. It's an old saw by now that "reasonable men can differ on how to fight the War on Terror," but show me a reasonable man in this bunch. I don't hate them, but I am worried at the prospect of their regaining power in this time of trouble.

We can no longer hide behind the fig leaf of ignorance when it comes to the threat of Islamic fundamentalism. Anti-semitism, anti-Americanism, anti-civilization is open and unconcealed among them. Their stated purpose is to destroy us all. We know that they don't fear death or injury, and that they contemn us for the very laws that make us civilized and moral. All they fear is failure. With that in mind, how can we ignore that we're still laboring under a Problem A situation? How can the biggest fear be four more years of President Bush?

I don't like Bush's stance on immigration or health care. I don't agree with many other domestic policies he's in favor of. But those issues are Problem B issues, and while they can't be ignored, they occupy a lesser area of concern in my mind. Call me simplistic, but I'm a Problem A voter, and because President Bush takes Problem A as seriously as I do, he's getting my vote this November.

I'm actually to the left regarding some of my disagreements with Bush ...

* Abortion
* Faith-based initiatives masquerading as effective domestic policy
* Stem-cell research

... but these are indeed 'B Problems.' None of it matters a whit if we can't head off the terrible intersection of terrorism and destructive technology.

Read the whole thing.

(Besides John Derbyshire, who disturbingly insists on referring to himself in the third person):

RE: BLACK-EYED PEAS [Tim Graham]
I think the Black Eyed Peas know their way around a groove -- I'd boogie, too, if I was a delegate -- but watch the lyrics, man. Mrs. Graham bought the CD for our son since we all liked their song "Hey Mama." But on the CD, it's marred by the old S-word. So much for positive rap.

Well hiddly-diddly-doo there, Tim! Sorry that the rap group isn't family-friendly enough for little Timmy, Jr.!

All INDC readers are directed to visit the WaPo's contest for the Best Political & Election Blogs. Once there, you must nominate INDC Journal in many categories.

"But I have to register," you say? Register then, you lazy bastard! It's the WaPo. Not like you shouldn't be reading it anyway.

(Via Ace, who has a great blog, but let's be serious here ... it's no INDC Journal.)

UPDATE: If INDC wins, we'll hold a big pizza party to celebrate.

Some of you may be wondering about the result of my recent Salon.com/Joe Wilson contest ... it's pretty much done (very few entries, though a couple of great ones) and I'll have a winner posted this weekend.

In related news, Cam Edwards is noting a problem with Wilson's "Restore Honesty" web site.

And speaking of distasteful Democratic affiliations, Wilson is still an advisor to the Kerry campaign ... despite being exposed as a partisan fraud regarding the deadly serious topic of nuclear proliferation.

Yes, I'm talking to you, Eileen. Please read this. That is all.

(The rest of you can read it too, if you'd like)

(Via PW)

It's brilliant and damning.

If you are too lazy to watch all of this riveting, 11 minute video, then please, please, please, at least skip to the interview with "This Week" that takes place at 9:18 in ... I couldn't have made a better case for invading Iraq.

PS - My God, he is such an absolute phony ... the RNC's mood music and the few quick edits actually detract from the case - the man's own soundbites are more than sufficient. Kerry's positions do not represent nuance; it's clearly naked opportunism.

Want to know why I've become a strident partisan? Pictured above is Michael Moore, sitting with Jimmy Carter in the President's Box at the Democratic National Convention. Let's revisit some quotes from this man that is embraced so warmly by the mainstream players of the Democratic Party:

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Love it:

"We felt really guilty about what our country had done to his country," says producer Peter Saraf. "And then, of course, he gets here, and it never occurred to me that he would say something like 'But I love George Bush--he changed my life!'"

(Via the Prof)

Right Wing News has completed another fun "list of right-of-center bloggers favorites," this one naming "History's Biggest Impact Players." I'm pleased to see that most of my choices made it to the top 20. John mentioned that the list contained some controversial choices, but I think that it's largely on point.

A few observations:

* The choice of Moses? Ah, nevermind. I'm not going to pick that fight.

* There is a bit of contemporary, sexy bias in the list (Winston Churchill higher than Johann Gutenberg? I don't think so ...)

* I think that it's interesting that the founders of American Democracy have no leaders that can claim enough individual credit to rank higher than Karl Marx (I don't disagree, as it's the nature of this country's founding)

* Poor Engels

* No women (I don't disagree, but this could spawn a whole discussion about natural differences between the sexes, as well as the judgment criteria)

* And finally, I bet it gets pretty annoying for Jesus to have to stand in line next to Hitler all the time.

Feel free to chime in your thoughts ...

My list (in no particular order) is below the fold:

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I'm starting to get the idea that "protein wisdom's Democratic National Convention coverage" is a dirty damn hoax, and that Goldstein is just making it all up while he sits and plays Mr. Mom in his suburban Colorado bungalow.

What tipped me off? Eleanor Clift doesn't have a Tweety Bird tattoo anywhere on her glorious naked canvas, my friend!

... the Llamas have provided a helpful, illustrative photoshop.

UPDATE: More fun with pictures - I knew that Kerry's spacesuit reminded me of something!

"Why your lips taste just like sweet lemonade in the summah time ..."

(Via Florida Cracker)

(pant, pant) ...

...

...

Democratic Icons Issue Ringing Call for Change
Convention opens with a rallying cry to convert bitterness into fresh energy aimed at electing Kerry and Edwards.

– Dan Balz

...

BWAA-HAhahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha ...

(No, I'm not laughing at the Dems, I'm laughing at the size of the Washington Post "reporter's" POM-POMS)

UPDATE: Egad, it continues with a caption ...

Sen. Clinton told delegates: "Together we can widen the circle of opportunity for all." (AP)

Look for similar headlines and captions at the RNC. Seriously, this is ridiculous. The WaPo usually plays it straighter than most of the big dailies, but lately they've caught election fever. If I want overtly slanted news, I'll read NRO or Slate. But this is the Washington Post, and that headline seems like it was lifted straight from a press release. Ridiculous.

Bill Clinton lies.

Does everyone else have trolls that are this stupid? Check out this comment left under my post with the picture of the Marines holding the sign that says "F Michael Moore:"

you fcukin prick, the pics a photoshop, and the other one you link to is as well. look at the position of the guys' hands, exactly the same

yet here you go

liberal media, liberal media

get a grip, hiding behind vitriol doesn't disguise your lack of intelligence. if you can't even critically analyze this rubbish, what chance have you got of being able to form a considered opinion on current affairs

that's right - none

Posted by michael at July 27, 2004 05:29 AM

In the bolded portion, he's talking about my link to Goldstein's photoshop that clearly altered the sign to say "Have Never Had Peter Fonda Inside Us."

Yes, dear Michael thought that I actually believed that they were different pictures. Stupid troll. Stupid, stupid troll. The LA Times sure brings in a special class of reader!

When Andy from World Wide Rant claimed to have a link to something cheesier than the Bridge for Peace antiwar song, I scoffed and thought, "What a hubristic fool."

But after visiting the link, I am shamed. Behold:

Remembering Laci, by John Strand.

That is some truly awful music.

UPDATE: And no, the subject matter does not inoculate it from ridicule.

"We contacted the Democratic National Convention and the people who are organising the convention. And then they said it has been removed, maybe for lack of enough space or something like that, although they approved originally the sign and everything on it. And every time we get different answers."

... I mean, except for the whole "support the murder of the imperialist infidel" vibe, but otherwise ...

Man, even when the DNCC does something right, they don't do it right.

(Via Bluemerle)

PS - Make sure you check out Al Jazeera's musical cartoon shout out to Micheal Moore, set to a jazzy version of Santa Claus is coming to town. (no direct link - go to the cartoon link on the bottom left portion of the page)

Not Ace. He's been sporting an erection for at least the last 48 hours. All it took was a little deluded rationalization from Andy Sullivan.

In related news:

Mr. Sullivan,

I used to consider you one of the most eloquent defenders of the realm and perhaps the most relevant pundit in the 'sphere regarding the war on terror. It feels like no less than a betrayal that your highly emotional attachment to a personal issue has caused you to abandon your prioritization of an aggressive strategy against terrorism. Given your previous statements on the absolute vitality of the matter, everything that you have ever written and everything that you will ever write will have its credibility severely questioned. Changing your mind is one thing; offering up a series of half-baked rationalizations that ignore the heart of your decision is another matter altogether.

Sincerely,

Bill from INDC

BREAKING UPDATE:

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Ok, pro-lifers. Have at the amazing stupidity of this product with (nearly all) the rhetoric in the world and I probably won't give you any crap.

Coming soon:

Rape shirts, incest shirts and shirts that declare pride for a whole host of private diseases, actions, family problems and mental conditions.

UPDATE: Planned Parenthood took the page down after getting Drudge-lanched. Score another one for the Google cache ...

I blogged this a few days ago, but I'm bringing it to the top because I want to make ABSOLUTELY SURE that you all listen to this song's REALLY SUPER-DUPER IMPORTANT and extremely complex foreign policy message. Thank you.

PS - If only Paul Wolfowitz could have heard this paean to peace ...

We can build a bridge for peace
Instead of aiming to destroy
Schools and farms and helping hands
Are a cause for joy!
Joy, joy, joy!

PSS - GET IT OUT OF MY HEAD! IT'S A VIRUS! WE HATESSS IT, WE HAATES IT!

But I'll take this pledge, something that I've already been thinking about in the event that Kerry wins the election ... somewhat. I'll still criticize his policies, but I will never cross the line to shadenfraude at missteps in his foreign policy. The left's current tendency to committ this sin is the most repellent thing about America's current political climate.

While making my regular cruise around the red light district of the blogosphere, I stumbled across this little exchange about the Atkins Diet:

How are the constant heart attacks? Annoying?

Posted by Russell Wardlow | permalink
on 07/24 at 04:21 PM

They burn calories, what with all the clutching and rolling around.

My cholesterol has dropped 87 pts, actually. Thank Zocor.

Posted by Jeff Goldstein | permalink
on 07/24 at 04:25 PM

Not so fast with the Zocor-love; Jeff also might want to thank Atkins.

No matter what your hidebound family doctor or cardiologist says, dietary cholesterol does not directly translate into the cholesterol that shows up when you take a fasting blood test. And the Atkins diet does not simply work because cutting carbs causes you to start winning the calorie equation (calories eaten - calories burned). In reality, it changes your body's metabolism and causes you to lose weight through a variety of factors. Despite the quarts of hollandaise sauce, Jeff G's cholesterol may have dropped because of the Atkins (in addition to the statin drug), not in spite of it.

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My first piece of fan mail from the cartoon that ran in the LA Times:

Date: 7/25/2004 15:17:08 -0500
From: Kent Hancock jkhancock0@netscape.net
To: bill@indcjournal.com
Subject: You Suck

What kind of moron are you? No wonder I had never heard of you until the
L.A. Times published your address. You suck man.

Thanks for reading and taking the time to write, Ken!

UPDATE: --

ANOTHER UPDATE: Update deleted. For the children.

Take The Pledge
Disagree with a blogger that you respect today.

And do so at least once a week.

Got it pretty much covered.

Man, a lot of people are sure giving this guy a bunch of shit because he's quitting football at age 27. So what? He made his money, he doesn't want to play football, he likes to smoke weed ... have at it. He's not your trained football monkey. Good for him.

PS - If I become incredibly wealthy and decide to retire from the world of marketing and advertising, I hope that these same folks won't be nearly as critical of me as I'm hanging up the Excel spreadsheets.

UPDATE: Arguing With Signposts takes a similarly nonplussed approach:

In his own convoluted way, Ricky Williams is following a path blazed by the late Pat Tillman: follow your star, not the world's.

Ok, maybe his particular star is less noble and a little hazy through all of the ganja smoke, but it's his life.

Please send me a copy of today's LA Times ... e-mail me for my address. I'll hit your Paypal or something.

UPDATE: Nevermind. I found a Borders that sells the LA Times and found my cartoon. Frankly, it's so downsized that I'm having trouble telling if it's a drawing of John Kerry or just an inkblot with poofy hair. So much for my burgeoning career in cartooning. Back to the writing board ...

I looked for my cartoon on the LA Times web site, but all I found was this (the story with no graphics). During the course of reading the piece, I spotted this gem:

10 "Bush made no mention [in his attack on Castro for encouraging sex toursim] of the influx of prostitutes … expected in New York during the week of the Republican Convention."

Dave Pell, writing on electablog.com

My first thought was that this is one of the most predictable cases of selective anti-Bush nutbaggery that I've seen in some time. It assumes at least one of the following points:

A. Bush is somehow loosely associated with the influx of prostitutes?
B. That the same influx isn't happening in Boston for the Democratic National Convention (it is)
C. That by virtue of this fact, any Democrat or Republican that speaks out about a dehumanizing sex trade in Cuba is a hypocrite
D. Or that we have to laugh at tee-hee incongruities because they involve policy speeches, politicians and sex.

Of course, Mr. Pell is credentialed for the Democratic National Convention. No word on whether he's planning on using the services of a prostitute.

Then I realized that the LA Times may have chopped the quote and used the most incendiary post that they could find his site (like they did with my Kerry cartoon), in order to fulfill the narrative of the blogger story. So I checked out the full quote from his blog:

Sex Tourism
In what could turn out to be the biggest Spring Break boost in Cuba's history, President Bush offered an out of context misquote from a 14 year-old old Fidel Castro speech:

"The dictator welcomes sex tourism. Here's how he bragged about the industry. This is his quote: 'Cuba has the cleanest and most educated prostitutes in the world.'"

Bush made no mention of the influx of prostitutes (one hopes clean, educated is fine too) expected in New York during the week of the Republican Convention.

Not much different, but after scanning the rest of the site, I realized that it's a just a snarky, throwaway joke. Mr. Pell defends Castro's quote as "out-of-context" and then doesn't bother to provide the context, and takes a hee-hee cheap shot at Bush because he had the gall to speak out about Cuba's sex trade, which flourishes particularly well on the island as a result of Cuba's heavy economic dependence on foreign tourism and currency, coupled with the collapse of lucrative employment opportunities in more traditionally noble professions.

Nice cheap shot, buddy. Leave the semi-humorous faux-incongruencies sculpted to fulfill cheap joke narratives to Wonkette. Oh, also leave her the prostitution angle, will you? She's an expert.

I also spotted this snippet regarding the Berger case:

Would any voter really reconsider a voting choice because one of the candidates's advisors (and in Kerry's case, there are hundreds of them) was involved in something this odd? Probably not.

The selective cognition is killing me. Imagine if one of Bush's advisors (and in Bush's case, there are also hundreds of them) got busted stealing code word documents on the eve of a report designed to assign potentially politically destructive blame for the 9-11 attacks.

Do you really think that no one would care? Or that the media would bury the story? Or that Mr. Pell would blog about the matter as something to be merely regarded as "odd?"

Disturbingly selective cognition, I tell ya.

Sometimes I employ dismissive partisan language during the course of blogging, like snide references to "left-wing," or "liberal." Sometimes I feel bad for this; after all, noble and reasonable people can represent both conservative and liberal ideologies, and I have a liberal streak a mile wide: I'm not religious, I generally support gay marriage, I'm pro-choice, etc., etc., etc. And casually throwing around derogatory terms, while economical, can also sound unthinking and ignorant.

But you know what? Here's the face of the Democratic Party:

Moulitsas, who will be blogging from Boston, Massachusetts, site of the Democratic convention, works closely with the party. He says he has raised more than $400,000 for Democratic candidates.

This awkward, self-loathing font of conspiratorial hate is a popular Democratic activist and fundraiser. He is the poster boy for Dem National Convention blogging. His name is Kos, and he sees a profit motive behind every Bush Administration action and expresses shadenfraude at American difficulty in Iraq, largely because such paranoid unthinking reflexes validate all of the fundamental assumptions that make his world spin.

He can shower, shave, slick himself down with Loreal styling gel and put on a nice brown suit, but that will never change the fact that this respectable face of the Democratic establishment had the instinct to say "screw them" after the murder and dismemberment of Americans in Fallujah, just because the men that were killed were well-compensated and worked for large corporations.

And I can cite many, many other examples of unsavory left-wing behavior that aren't merely associated with far leftist ANSWER and Democratic Underground moonbats, rather the legitimate representatives of the Democratic party, including the Democratic National Committee Chairman and the Democratic Senate and House leadership.

By virtue of siding with the Republicans, I have to indirectly embrace loose associations with some far-right elements that I don't agree with (vehemently) on many issues, but nowhere in the official hierarchy of my chosen party can I find such examples of depraved, frothy extremism. I'll take 10 Rick Santorums or Tom Delays over one Kos, Terry Mcauliffe, Jim McDermott, Robert Byrd, Al Gore or Maxine Waters, any damn day of the week.

So from now on, let's get something straight: whenever anyone reads INDC Journal and sees me derisively employ the terms "left-wing," "Democrat" or "liberal" as a dismissive throwaway, please, please understand: I don't unconsciously employ these terms as an ignorant partisan automaton ...

I employ these terms out of a carefully considered disgust for the official representatives of the Democratic Party's establishment.

The results from this week's Watcher's Council are in, and the winners are ...

Non-Council Link:

Gray Lady Spins It Hard For Kerry, Berger, by Captain's Quarters

Council Link:

Government Health Hell Care, by The SmarterCop (My pick - a nice piece on the lessons learned from the Canadian healthcare system)

Congrats to the winners. My amateur Kerry sketch got buried this week! Damn you Watchers Council, damn you all! At least the LA Times likes me ... or just wants to use my incendiary cartoon to fulfill a partisan media narrative ... or something.

The full results and scoring of the voting can be found here.

Also, if you bloggers have a post that you are particularly proud of, you can enter the Watcher's contest by sending him a link to your crowning post and following these rules. Great way to get exposure; don't complain about no one linking you if you don't bother to write something good enough to compete in this contest!

"It's an improvement in the method of approaching the Tour de France -- more professional, more rigorous, more methodical," race director Jean-Marie Leblanc said. "In a word, more American."

Damn skippy.

Spotted in his comments to the Urban League:

See, our most solemn duty is to protect the American people. That's our most solemn duty. It's a duty brought upon us not at our asking, because we were attacked unmercifully by people who hate what we stand for. They hate the fact that we can have free dialogue just like this. They hate the fact that there's open discourse. They hate the fact that we're a free society where people can worship any way they see fit.

They hate the idea that we welcome people who worship God and we welcome people who don't worship God. They can't stand the thought that we're a society that says, if you choose to worship, you're equally American, if you're a Christian, Jew, or Muslim.

But, but ... I thought that Bush is on a crusade to eliminate the Christian unbelievers? This must be a cynical ploy to woo the 6% atheist vote.

Also not to be missed is his suprisingly candid pitch to black voters:

Do you remember a guy named Charlie Gaines? Somebody gave me a quote he said, which I think kind of describes the environment we're in today. I think he's a friend of Jesse's. He said, "Blacks are gagging on the donkey but not yet ready to swallow the elephant." (Laughter and applause.)

Now that was said a while ago. (Laughter.) I believe you've got to earn the vote and seek it. I think you've got to go to people and say, this is my heart, this is what I believe, and I'd like your help. And as I do, I'm going to ask African American voters to consider some questions.

Does the Democrat party take African American voters for granted? (Applause.) It's a fair question. I know plenty of politicians assume they have your vote. But do they earn it and do they deserve it? (Applause.) Is it a good thing for the African American community to be represented mainly by one political party? That's a legitimate question. (Applause.) How is it possible to gain political leverage if the party is never forced to compete? (Applause.) Have the traditional solutions of the Democrat party truly served the African American community?

Has a star-studded guest panel on NRANEWS.com coming up shortly at 4 PM ...

... syndicated columnist Michelle Malkin, Kerry Spot reporter Jim Gerahty, and Jake from Smack My Booty. Is it wrong of me to hope that both Jim and Michelle say the name of Jake's blog on the air?

Heh.

I'm not really sure:

"Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden tied for fourth place on a list of most admired world leaders. Jacques Chirac of France was first on that list, despite a ban on Muslim headscarves in French schools. Gamal Abdel Nasser, the long-deceased Egyptian nationalist who went to war with Israel, was No. 2, followed by Hasan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah in Lebanon."

Chirac must be truly proud.

Very possible.

(Via the bandwith-deficient Cam Edwards)

Date: 7/23/2004 16:31:41 +0000
From: "Bridge for Peace ..." bridgeforpeace@hotmail.com
To: bill@indcjournal.com
Subject: article

Did you write this?

http://www.indcjournal.com/archives/000485.php

That's it. Interesting.

UPDATE: Could the e-mail be from these intrepid musicians?

(Thanks to the comment from reader Tmarcell - It's actually pretty catchy - and it does sound like a slow motion version of Cum on Feel the Noize!)

Bridge for Peace?

Let's compare:

Cum on feel The Noize (scroll a third of the page down and listen to the sample track)

vs.

Bridge for Peace

Good ear!

Lyrics:

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Mort Kondracke's wife Millie has died of Parkinson's disease. He wrote about their struggle in a book titled Saving Millie, and has been a tireless champion of the search for a cure.

Michelle Malkin has an excerpt from a feature written about Mort and Millie's struggle:

In his book, Saving Millie, Kondracke said that, after the diagnosis, he determined to be a loving husband and help Millie fight the disease. "I decided that my career was now secondary as the purpose of my life. I did not know what helping Milly fight Parkinson's might involve, and I did not want to know. . . . I was afraid that if I had a forecast of how bad things could become I might shrink from the ordeal. I figured I would simply deal with whatever happened, as it happened.
...
I will, I must, play the hand that's dealt me and trust in God to help me do the right thing." Mort prays repeatedly throughout the day and reports that he asks God, "What's my purpose here?" He admits to hoping each time that there will be a new and important mission for him, but the answer, he says, is always, "Take care of Millie." In the process, Mort says, "I've become a different, better person -- someone I never expected to be. I have put someone else's happiness ahead of my own advancement."

Here's hoping that he continues his vital mission in a new way. R.I.P Millie, and my sincere condolences to the man that I have long considered the fairest and most respectable pundit on TV.

UPDATE: From the WaPo report:

Mrs. Kondracke, who counseled clients in private practice during the 1980s and 1990s and later turned to political activism to wrest medical research money from Congress, was the subject of the book "Saving Milly: Love, Politics and Parkinson's Disease" (2001).

In it, her husband, Roll Call executive editor Morton Kondracke quoted her testimony to the Senate Special Committee on Aging in 1995 about the ravages of the disease.

"I want to tell you that I live in fear every day that I won't be able to talk or walk, that I'll fall, that I'll be unable to move. I fear that my face will be frozen, that I won't be able to swallow. . . . I was never sick. I was always healthy. I didn't drink or smoke or eat too much. I exercised. But now I live in fear every single day of my life," she said.

Joan I. Samuelson, director of the Parkinson's Action Network, said Mrs. Kondracke had flashing brown eyes and the ability to project the personal toll exacted by the disease. She was "enormously consequential" as a lobbyist for increased funding for research into Parkinson's disease through the National Institutes of Health and for federal support for stem cell research, Samuelson said.

(Via Bit'sBlog)

In the wake of my DNCC disinvite, I've done interviews with CBS Marketwatch, AP, NYT, Wash Times and others. In every interview, I've made sure to mention the fact that the Dems are holding forth Kos as their convention-blogging poster boy, even though he was very publicly delinked from the Kerry campaign web site after his disturbing "Screw Them" comments regarding the private security contractors that were killed and horrifically dismembered in Fallujah last March.

Well thankfully, James Taranto and some others have picked up the ball and run with the story. In Kos's dishonor, let's take a stroll down memory lane and look at some previous INDC blogging that took place during the heart of the scandal ...

E-Mailing Kos: Part 1 (Successful attempt at dialogue)

E-Mailing Kos: Part 2 (Unsuccessful attempt at dialogue)

Open Season (Gloves off)

INDC Presents Heroes of the Fifth Column: Markos Moulitsas Zúniga (INDC Cartoon)

Delusional, Messianic Ass**** Watch (Fisking of creepy messiah/victim complex)

My brief involvement in the scandal (getting Kos to e-mail me back) was my first blogospheric break. Enjoy.

(Thanks to readers madmark and Toby for pointing me to the Taranto piece)

UPDATE: And no, none of the media outlets were interested in the Kos link (perhaps the WaTimes reporter, haven't seen his article yet). The NYT reporter predictably answered enthusiastically "Oh yeah, I know Kos!" Why, of course you do ...

You mean there are more? Another generation? Well I hope they worked the bugs out of this version. Looks pretty good so far ...

Congrats and good luck to the beta testers.

* Alternately titled, "Oh Those Poor Unwitting Brainwashed Killbots That Have Been Suckered by the Lies for Oiiiiil of Chimpy McShrubbenBush and His Hallibechtel Cronies" ... for my left-wing reader.

(Via Daleks via the Llamas)

UPDATE: WOW! Jeff Goldstein just found a picture of the very same guys holding up a different sign! And from the looks of it, they've read INDC's "Moonbats in the Mist." Awesome!

Ace deconstructs Josh Marshall's thought process (or unthinking, self-deluded instinct) rather well:

Even Joshua Micah Cougar Mellencamp Marshall admits that Berger's behavior is "inexplicable," which is partisan, defensive way to say "his behavior cannot be explained by anything other than deliberate and premeditated criminal intent, and that his motives for engaging in such willfully, knowing criminal behavoir are frankly too embarassing and damaging for me to even speculate about, so I'll refer to all this top-secret-document-thieving-behavior under the gauzy, vague, and even slightly cute rubric of being 'inexplicable.'"

Yup. And "inexplicable" is such a pensive word. Just the type of adjective that suits a man that sports a prominently-employed middle name and post-post-ironic Lisa Loeb eyewear.

The rest of the post analyzes Berger's potential motivations for boosting the top secret documents. I choose this theory:

5. He took the documents for the simplest reason, and the only one which seems to make sense, given the risks he was running: He took the documents so that others wouldn't see them.

Stealing information is one thing; subsequently losing or destroying it is another matter altogether.

I'm quite comfortable with this.

Headline on the homepage of WaPo.com:

Documentaries Still Turn Left
It's the one form of media that liberals continue to dominate.
–Tommy Nguyen

Well thank goodness for that one bastion of liberal bias! And while we're on the homepage ... does anyone see a follow-up news story about former Clinton NSA and Kerry advisor Sandy Berger stealing top secret code word documents from the National Archives? Let's check:

No? That's on Page A06 you say? What about the Joe Wilson scandal, was that ever on the homepage? No? Ok, just checking.

I recorded this special message for Tommy Nguyen and the online editor of the Washington Post.

Sources inform me that INDC's pleasant Kerry sketch (why DNCC, why?!) is going to be printed in the editorial section of the Sunday Los Angeles Times, in a feature about bloggers. It's not high art, but I guess it helps fulfill a narrative. If anyone in the SoCal region can send me a copy or whathaveyou ... I have no idea if it will be published in the online edition, and they scoff at West Coast newspapers at our elitist DC newstands.

I just googled my name to see where the DNCC blogger story has popped up, and it seems that Adult Video News Online picked up the story ... what the Hell? I'll excerpt it so you don't have to click and get outed as a perv by your job's omniscient tracking software.

Ruh-roh. The Democrats made a boo-boo, having to rescind national convention coverage invitations to 20 bloggers, saying – as convention spokeswoman Peggy Wilhide put it – that they "accidentally" accredited more people (50) than the Fleet Center in Boston had space to accommodate. And at least two of the disinvited smell a rat. "If my guess is correct," said INDCJournal.com editor Bill Ardolino, "an after-action review of the content of my site caused them to disinvite me. I always expected they would review the political leanings of the bloggers." The official Democratic National Convention blogger, Eric Schnure, denies the accusation. "Our error," he said, "was one of pure logistics and not political leanings. Take us at our word."…

If any porn stars are reading, I'd like to welcome you to INDC Journal! For the record, I've defended you from overwrought socially conservative hyperbole in the past. And I'm perfectly willing to write film reviews, if you'd like to send me product.

Wizbang is all over this story, in case you're looking for a nice round-up of details.

Well, this is certainly titillating:

Third, it appears that Berger's "inadvertent" actions clearly aroused the suspicion of the professional staff at the Archives. Staff members there are said to have seen Berger concealing the papers; they became so concerned that they set up what was in effect a small sting operation to catch him. And sure enough, Berger took some more. Those witnesses went to their superiors, who ultimately went to the Justice Department. (There was no surveillance camera in the room in which Berger worked with the documents, meaning there is no videotape record of the incidents.)

I mean, if you're the type of person that gets off on political shadenfraude, that is ... (yes, that describes me)

I see that someone else shares my sick fetish:

Did you take those doc-u-ments?
Did you hide them, Sandy-man?

I did not hide them, Justice Man

Did you take them just by chance?
Did you stuff them in your pants?
Perhaps I took them ... just by chance.
Mayhap they ended in my pants.

UPDATE: More brilliant Sandy Berger poetry here. A "must-read."

Celebrities from across the land mourn freedom of speech as a chill wind continues to crush dissent in "John Ashcroft's Amerikkka." Note to idiotic celebs: People may get angry at you for what you say; this does not mean that you are somehow being denied the right to say it.

In what's shaping up as one of the nastiest presidential races in decades, Bush-bashing is turning into an en vogue celebrity sport.

But unsolicited anti-Bush rhetoric, which appears to be spinning out of control, is alienating both Republicans and Democrats.

Correct. I can barely turn on the damn television without absorbing some form of incessant Bush-bashing. In a recent channel-surfing expedition, I watched Seymour Hersh spew incendiary rhetoric on CNN and changed the channel ... which led me to a Fahrenheit 9/11 commercial, followed by an MTV Choose or Lose vignette with a clear spin against the war ... at which point, I flipped to HBO, and (phew!) watched a nice behind the scenes special about the making of Spiderman 2. About 5 minutes into it, Doc Ock and Kirsten Dunst made a pitch to defeat George Bush when queried about what they might wish for if they could ask anything of a real Spiderman.

- Click -

TV off.

''Artists like to see themselves as anti-war,'' he says. ''Being a pacifist comes with the territory.''

Fahrenheit 9/11 has further rallied celebs, many who "'aren't deep intellectual thinkers,'' Brinkley says.

Hear that, Jon Stewart? Brinkley is talking about you, dumbass.

On a brighter note, do go check out Comedy Central's new show, Crossballs. Duped real pundits spar with comedians faking outrageous punditry. For a sample, watch this real pundit begin to lose her mind as the comedian talks about teaching children to smoke pot.

And is Pac-man really homophobic?

Those clips aren't really the best highlights, but they'll give you a good grasp of the show. Good stuff. Certainly more relevant than Crossfire.

The DNCC stopped answering my e-mails after telling me that they'd "see what they can do," about my travel cancellation fees, but a couple of days ago, I get this:

Date: 7/19/2004 13:29:22 -0700
From: "Democratic National Convention News" newsletter@dems2004.org
To: bill@indcjournal.com
Subject: Convention Countdown: 7 Days to Go!

Convention Countdown: 7 Days to Go!
July 19, 2004

Visit our web site:
http://www.dems2004.org

In this issue...

From East to West: A Note from Convention Chair Bill Richardson (#1)
From Coast to Coast, Latino Delegates Ready to Shine (#2)
DNCC Grants Coverage Access to Bloggers (#3)
Six Hundred Attend Media Walkthrough (#4)
Local Youth Groups to Perform at Convention (#5)

Etc., etc., etc.

They invite me, they disinvite me, they lead me around by the nose about reimbursement, and they can't even take me off their distribution list? Talk about adding insult to injury.

So you want to talk about Vietnam, eh John?

At times they had personally raped, cut off ears, cut off heads, taped wires from portable telephones to human genitals and turned up the power, cut off limbs, blown up bodies, randomly shot at civilians, razed villages in fashion reminiscent of Genghis Khan, shot cattle and dogs for fun, poisoned food stocks, and generally ravaged the countryside of South Vietnam in addition to the normal ravage of war, and the normal and very particular ravaging which is done by the applied bombing power of this country.

-- John Kerry

vs.

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A father searches for his son's killer:

The father of a young man gunned down in front of his college buddy's Lower East Side apartment nearly two years ago has launched a Web site and upped the reward for finding his son's killer.

Check out the man's web site.

Watch the July 20th TV special about the case.

Read Catalano's thoughts.

... and spread the word. You never know who might have pertinent information about the case.

And he's in fine form. Long live Minitruth!

This is a quick, unedited stream-of-consciousness post (it may be sloppy).

Ok, I thought that this piece in the NYT was chilling and in horrible taste (the comments about Costco are a particularly disturbing brand of humor), but am I the only right-leaning blogger in the 'sphere who is pro-choice? Or at least doesn't refer to someone who has an abortion, even in an offensive manner, as a "modern day Mengele?"

ASV first delivers a pretty common-sensical fisking, righteous, but largely free of irredeemably incendiary rhetoric.

Allah lets a quote from the article do all the damage.

Malkin uses the term "pro-death camp."

OTB uses the term "monstrous."

This woman's case is of course somewhat indefensible because she toyed with pregnancy and then casually offed two of the fetuses because they were inconvenient. I agree that it's offensive; her attitude is detached, disturbing and indicative of a certain cliched selective moral dissonance that seems to commonly manifest itself in the classic urban uber-liberal. But what is really offensive is the fact that her flippant attitude works against what may be valid pro-choice arguments that are made on behalf of people who are painfully young, poor and desperate.

I know that pro-choice Republicans exist, but I have to wonder ... do any of them write blogs or newspaper columns? Am I some sort of monster because I'm a utilitarian that believes that abortion can be the right thing to do in certain cases? Am I the reincarnation of Hitler? Mengele? Do any of the folks on my blogroll think that I dream of turning fetuses into lampshades and stylish 5th Avenue couture?

You know who else uses rhetoric like "Hitler," "Mengele," and "murderer?" Those moonbats that I take pictures of at anti-war rallies, that's who. To them, everyone who supports a military action, no matter what the reason, what the cause, or what the potential impact, is a "modern day Hitler." Why? Because these people have such an uncompromising personal (and selective) aversion to violence, big business, positions of authority, government, that they have a fundamental inability to objectively measure the costs and benefits of the use of force by a Western government, and cannot fathom how someone else can support such an action.

Continuing the moral calculus metaphor: the US pulled the trigger on a war in Iraq that killed innocents? "Fascist Nazi oppressors!" Even though the action liberated 25 million people and came after a long list of carefully considered relative risks and benefits? Still "fascist Nazi oppressors!" It's like talking to a wall, because they're deaf absolutists. Think about the parallels; those for military action view launching a war as an exercise in self-defense and human liberation. Killed and maimed civilians are unfortunate, but acceptable because of the specifics of the situation. In contrast, that moonbat screaming in Lafayette Park obsesses over an individual family in Baghdad that huddled around their dining room table as a 2000 lb bomb struck close enough to wipe them out. They feel that anyone that could support the actions that are responsible for such a travesty is a monster. A "Nazi." They are absolutists.

Well, I see the same rhetoric out of the pro-life crowd. Absolutist rhetoric. Many are so enamored with the concept of fully realized life with equal rights at the very moment of conception, that they refuse to accept the idea that in certain cases, some may consider abortion to be the best course of action. Or at the very least they refuse to avoid terms like "holocaust," "murderer," etc., when they describe someone who is desperate and scared and decides to agonize over that choice. Or when they describe someone that supports the right of an individual to make their own moral decision on the matter; we are merely "holocaust enablers," like the Vichy French that carted off 75,000 Jews to death camps, right?

"But this is an innocent child, and the person who has the abortion is directly responsible," you say. "In war, civilian casualties are accidents. Your metaphor doesn't hold up, Bill." I say, "bullshit." Individual incidents are of course accidental, but when we use moral calculus to determine that war is the best course of action, we know beyond a shadow of a doubt that thousands of innocent people are going to die. And we accept that choice, because on balance, it's the best course of action. And in some cases, in some ways, abortion can be considered the "best course of action." And even if one doesn't agree that this is possible, there's no reason that strident pro-lifers need to casually employ extreme rhetoric that dehumanizes everyone on the other side of the issue. I understand the passion and find much of it morally consistent, but reasonable, moral people can disagree on this issue. And as it does with the anti-war protestors, extreme language undermines your case.

I know that I'm picking the wrong point in time to plant a flag; I'm not going to defend Amy Richards, because by all indications, she is a creepy extremist asshole that views abortion as something that should be available at a McDonalds drive-thru up to the 40th trimester - BUT - folks on the extreme pro-life side of the issue might also want to be careful with their rhetoric. After all, 2/3 of the country disagrees with you about first trimester abortion. And we can't all be psychopathic murderers, can we?

UPDATE: Michele's postscript mirrors some of my own thoughts on abortion, though I'm slightly to the left of her on this.

ANOTHER UPDATE: I don't mean to get too nasty in singling out James, Spoons or Malkin (writers that I respect a great deal), it's just that I've been absorbing many casually employed extreme pro-life terms for awhile, and I guess it came to a head. I guess this highlights some of the inherent fragility in the the post 9-11 alliances on the right side of the fence. For example, I don't consider most pro-choice supporters or even the disturbingly nonchalant woman who wrote the NYT article to be analogous to Josef Mengele.

UPDATE: Pennywit and Stacy have some thoughts on the matter that I find relevant.

LAST UPDATE: Jeff Harrell nails my take on the matter (emphasis mine):

The difference between a zygote and a human being with all the rights and privileges thereof is just a question of time. So to me the question of whether a fetus is alive or not is academic, akin to counting angels on the head of a pin.

Does the fact that a fetus is a living thing mean that we must never kill one? No. We kill people all the time. We kill people in self-defense or in defense of others, we kill people in war, we kill people as a part of the justice system, we kill people when we believe their quality of life isn't up to some arbitrary standard. Heck, we even kill ourselves sometimes. Killing a person is neither absolutely right nor absolutely wrong. It depends on the circumstances.
...

Because there are circumstances under which abortion really is the best option—cases where the life of the mother is in jeopardy, or where the baby-to-be is stricken with some kind of grave malady—I don't think abortion can ever be absolutely prohibited. Even if somebody were to argue that it should be, I just don't think it's practical. There will always be exceptions to the prohibition, and we need to allow for that.

So for me it comes down to this: abortions for some, miniature American flags for all. Abortion has to be legal because sometimes it's necessary. But abortion shouldn't be ubiquitous because it would diminish the value of life in our culture. It has to be somewhere in between.

I wanted to excerpt the whole thing.

The Queen of All Evil is really, really mad at Governer Schwarzenegger's recent comments.

(Via Dean)

I've only had a few entries in this contest, thus, your odds of winning a nifty book are pretty damn high if you enter. All you have to do is fire off a short e-mail ...

Ex-Astronaut Buzz Aldrin displays his own special technique for dealing with a particularly aggressive species of moonbat. Keep in mind, Aldrin was 72 years-old at the time of the incident. My favorite part?

The Los Angeles County District Attorney's office has declined to file charges.

To the moon, moonbat ... to the moon!

(Via Flea)

The results from this week's Watcher's Council are in, and the winners are ...

Non-Council Link:

Some classic Lileks: Believing In Bush’s Perfidy

Council Link:

The truly excellent UN Admits Saddam Had WMD, by Alpha Patriot

Congrats to the winners.

The full results and scoring of the voting can be found here.

Also, if you bloggers have a post that you are particularly proud of, you can enter the Watcher's contest by sending him a link to your crowning post and following these rules. Great way to get exposure; don't complain about no one linking you if you don't bother to write something good enough to compete in this contest!

I figured that I'd blog about this minorly interesting event, since the blogosphere is abuzz with Annie Jacobsen's seriously frightening story, including ASV, Malkin, Ace, Volokh, etc. My story in no way compares to the severity of what Ms. Jacobsen's article describes, but ...

On Sept. 11, 2002, I was at Reagan National Airport here in the nation's capital, waiting to board a plane bound for Florida. I was already surprised by the relative lack of tight security for such an auspicious anniversary, and now I was sitting at my gate, watching this sweating, twitchy man of Middle-Eastern descent pace back and forth down the concourse. His behavior was strange, his body language was strange and the look on his face was strange. Several times, he slightly nodded or waved to another Middle Eastern guy that for some reason consistently stood at least 30 feet away.

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Digital Brownshirt via Sharp As A Marble

Long-time INDC Journal readers might know about my Salon.com bashing fetish. A while ago, before I really hit my stride with any moonbat pictorials, I enjoyed semi-regularly fisking the various idiocies and maniacal ravings of the formerly relevant leftie e-zine. Before I even had a blog, I used to spend vast amounts of time arguing for intervention in Iraq on Scott Rosenberg's blog. Why? Because I used to like Salon; in fact, I used to be a paid subscriber. And I slowly watched in disgust, as the once left-leaning, hip online magazine first slid into the abyss of frothing, virulent, barking-mad moonbattery, and then went even further, embracing a pretty good approximation of treason. Salon has featured writers that glorify terrorists, humanize and render sympathetic the "Iraqi resistance," and published reader forums that celebrated the deaths of 9-11.

I haven't collected the worst of it, but type the word "Salon" in my search box over there on the right, and you'll get a pretty good idea of what I'm talking about.

I despise Salon. I actually hope that Salon folds. I believe that Salon is a media organ that is not merely featuring innocuous dissent, rather, providing a supportive forum for people that are actively working against the best interests of the United States in an overt, disturbing way. But I digress ...

One thing that Salon is doing to stave off the persistently drooling dogs of bankruptcy is staging a Salon Celebrity Cruise, a la the NRO Cruise. I've previously blogged about it here and here. And guess what leftist darling is their featured guest of honor?

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Bullwinkle adjusts his drunken moosegoggles: "Hey ... Rocky?"

The United Nations has decreed that Norway retains its crown as the country with the highest standard of living in the world.

Avg. tax rate of 40%? Killer drunken Meeses? Moonbat Ronald McDonald impersonators?

The Love That Dare Not Oink Its Name? Try that with a drunk moose, Constable Hjalmar ...

... nominate the most overrated blogs in the 'sphere. My nominations are in the comments section ... I bet regular readers can guess at least one of them ...

(Via Dean)

Fuck Ozzy Osbourne.*

PS - Fantastic job raising those kids, Ozzy.

* Hey man, he swears a lot.

Jeff Harrell looks at the "two Americas:"

Did you know that 74% of poor households own a VCR? That 64% of poor households pay for cable or satellite TV? Let's flip it around: in 1970, 13% of homes lacked a telephone, while today it's 2.4%. In 1970, 13% of homes lacked a stove and 17% got by without a refrigerator. Today the stats are 0.3% and 0.1% respectively.

People like to talk about how the middle class has vanished. It's true, but only to the extent that the poor have become middle-class. The middle class isn't really middle any more because there aren't enough people living below it to constitute a lower class.

And this older post:

I looked and looked, and I can't seem to find the America that that person, the author of that unsigned editorial, was talking about. I can't seem to find the place where "the American people have had the threat of terrorist attacks hovering over them and a gun held to their heads by the Bush administration." I can't seem to find the place where we "have an administration that shamelessly uses terrorism to scare and frighten its own population in order to achieve political goals and reward their campaign contributors."

I guess I live in some other America.

That's some great stuff, Jeff.

The QandO boys get into a little debate over the seriousness and likelihood of the threat posed by suitcase nukes. Lots of interesting things to learn from that discussion ...

First, it is certainly possible to build such a device. The smallest nuclear device ever created by the US, was the W-54 warhead, which was created for use in the Davy Crockett nuclear bazooka. There was also a backpack version of this device, the Mk 54 SADM. This warhead weighed 51lbs, or 23kg. This was a 1-kiloton warhead, which compared to the 13kt Hiroshima bomb, makes it pretty weak in nuclear terms.

I would personally like to get a statement from Cam Edwards of NRA News regarding the potential application of a nuclear bazooka for the purposes of home defense, hunting or sport shooting.

"A maggot that eats the dead."

Yep. The dead, and cheesy-poofs, and Hardees' Big Ranchers, and baked/broiled/fried/poached/steamed/raw/live small mammalia, and ...

Allah and Ace were right: this newsmagazine glamour "glow" campaign for John-John is out of control ...

(Special effects via INDC's newest photoshop contributor, Sarah over at Bluemerle, who tells me that she was inspired by the "dew-dappled" strawberry lips mentioned in my winning caption over at Wizbang's contest)

PS - And yeah, I'd probably hit that.

Once again, the Llamas "get me," they really do ...

Top 10 Reasons Why the Democratic National Committee Revoked Its Press Credential Invitation to INDC Bill

PS - Item #4 may or may not be true:

4. The Bitch that set Marion Barry up? INDC Bill in drag!

The rest of that post is pure gold. Go read it.

This post defends John Kerry.

This post defends John Kerry on the topic of abortion.

If your head is beginning to split or liquefy at the mere mention of such concepts, or you are an intolerant maniac regarding abortion (like some of the fine folks on my blogroll that I tend to agree with on many other issues), please skip this post.

Thank you.

Many folks have been highly critical of John Kerry's nuance on the abortion issue, citing it as a morally inconsistent position that affirms Kerry's incredible waffleisciousnessosity. Let's review Kerry's recent statement on the matter:

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The new Kerry-Bush animation making the rounds made me cackle like a loon; I had to watch it three times in a row, it's so damn funny.

People of all political stripes can unite behind this cartoon.

(Via Right Wing News)

Some sleazy shipping company is trying to steal $30,000 from Chief Wiggles' Operation Give, an effort designed ship toys to Iraqi children. $30,000 of donated money. Bastards.

Read the sordid story. If you know anyone in media or any law enforcement officials in the Atlanta area, you know the drill ...

Pissed off Dean Esmay:

Operation Give, the blogosphere's effort to help U.S. service members and Iraqi children, has had $30,000 (THIRTY THOUSAND) dollars stolen from it by a company in Atlanta!!! Please. We have shipped tens of thousands of toys to Iraq, but now one shipping company has made off like bandits with enough money to buy a small house in some parts of the country. They took it as a deposit for shipping and did not return it or make good on it. Money you gave, money I gave, and toys you shipped to our warehouse have evaporated into thin air because a shipping company in Atlanta made off with money we gave them in good faith to pay for their shipping services.

This isn't funny. This is money we gave to help Iraqi children and to help our brave and noble service members serving over there. WE GOT RIPPED OFF, AND WE NEED TO GET THESE PEOPLE AND GET THAT MONEY BACK.

Via Jane, who urges us to "rip back."

UPDATE: Wizbang reports that things may get squared away ...

Michele presents a rather convincing proposal to restore our nation's geometric food sanity.

Got a blog? Blogroll this justifiably outraged guy.

Read blogs? Just read him.

PS - I always knew that that Michelle Malkin was bad news ...

... why Jeff from Protein Wisdom likes to compare people to glazed hams (or other round, meaty foodstuffs) when he goes off on one of his descriptive tangents, see the picture above ...

UPDATE: I mean, look at him ... tell me if you punctured that noggin with a BBQ fork, a clear stream of translucent juice and pineapple sweat wouldn't run down that squishy grin ...

Winds of Change has an amazingly comprehensive post that should help clear up some of the more misguided anti-war conventional wisdom ... read it if you want to be a smart voter. Don't read it if you want to stay stupid. Mistakenly righteous and stupid.

(Via Dean, who has some thoughts on the matter that you ought to read as well)

UPDATE: Clifford May tastes sweet justice:

I was the first to suggest, here on National Review Online a year ago ("Scandal!" and "No Yellowcake Walk"), that Wilson should not have been given this assignment, that he had no training or demonstrated competence as an investigator, that his inquiry had been obviously superficial and that, far from being a "centrist," he was a partisan with an ax to grind.

But my complaint was really less with Wilson than it was with the CIA for sending him, rather than an experienced spy or investigator, to check out such an important and sensitive matter as whether one of the world's most vicious killers had been trying to buy the stuff that nuclear weapons are made of.

For this, I received a couple of dishonorable mentions in Wilson's memoir. He has a chapter called "What I Didn't Find in Africa," which might be used as a case study for CIA trainees and others who need to understand the fundamental principle of logic that "the absence of evidence is not evidence of absence." In other words, Wilson fails to grasp that because he didn't find proof that Saddam was seeking African uranium does not mean that proof was not there to be found.

In reaction to his "fearless candor" and "disarming insight" about the "sixteen-word lie," Wilson writes that "right-wing hatchet men were being wheeled out to attack me. More ominously, plots were being hatched in the White House that would betray America's national security.

He writes: "Clifford May was first off the mark, spewing uninformed vitriol in a piece in National Review Online blindly operating on the principle that facts, those pesky facts, just do not matter."

I never took a break last week, what with this whole DNCC screw-up and all. Now leave me alone and go read the following blogs that I forgot to thank for their assistance during the pledge drive ...

Shape of Days

Armies of Liberation

Florida Cracker

Fine blogs, all.

Also, Rebecca Eggers left this note in the comments section of the Pledge Drive Total, in case you missed it:

Bill and Friends:

JJ, Billy and I are very moved by how all of you have opened your hearts and wallets to help our children. We couldn't have imagined you would raise so much money and we are sincerely thankful and very touched. May God bless all of you for your generosity.

Sincerely,
Rebecca

You guys rawk.

For the bloggers who were kind enough to help me with the pledge drive to benefit the trust fund set up for the children of Dan Eggers, a green beret that was killed in Afghanistan last month. Here we go ...

Chris from O'Donnell Web was kind enough to rustle up G-Mail invites to spur along donations, and now he's trying to organize a poker tournament consisting of DC-area bloggers. Being an inveterate gambler, I might ante up for some of that action.

Dr. Rusty Shackleford over at MyPetJawa introduces us to the Seven Deadly Sins of Blogging. Lessee, here ... guilty ... guilty .... guilty ...

And make sure you check out Gordon over at Cranky NeoCon, author of such classics as Victor Davis Hanson Makes An Omelette, and his heart-tugging appeal to help my pledge drive, Trotsky's Kids.

Thanks to these guys and all of the other blogs that have helped raise $4600! If you author a blog that assisted in the drive, and I haven't linked you, please don't hesitate to e-mail me. Thanks!

That's how much I'm out from cancellation fees on the travel that I booked for the DNC.

The Dems hinted that they'd "see what they can do," but what are the odds?

UPDATE: OTB discusses the rise of blog profitability via BlogAds. INDC Journal is the opposite of profitable. And what pushed INDC really far into the red? You guessed it: bureaucratic mismanagement by Democratic Party officials.

I won Wizbang's weekend caption contest.

During my e-mail exchanges with the DNCC, I've stressed three points:

1. Transparency and full disclosure

2. The possibility of reimbursement for travel cancellation fees

3. Re-credentialing the disinvited

In my last e-mail, I sent samples of my work and indicated that we're bloggers - we don't need box seats, gift bags with stuffed donkeys, docking ports, WiFi or complimentary breakfast; just access. Here's what looks to be the final brush-off from Eric Schnure, official DNCC blogger:

I know you're frustrated that this didn't end up the way you had hoped. We made an error. We tried to notify people of our error as soon as possible. That's it. There's really no more to say.

Eric

A couple of observations out of this whole deal:

1. The DNCC made an error with members of the new media; expecting us to take you at your word instead of offering process transparency is extremely naive and/or arrogant, exactly the type of attitude that routinely roasts politicians.

2. The bloggers that were invited are largely too busy basking in their anointed glow to even make the case for their fellow independent journalists. I e-mailed Patrick Belton from Oxblog, asking him specific questions about the timing and nature of his invite, and he didn't even bother to respond. In the AP report, Patrick is "tickled pink" that he was invited. Way to go Patrick; perhaps you can parlay that tickled pinkness into a career in the East Coast media establishment, as you may be coming close to embracing their elitism.

Am I bitter? Not especially. I will reiterate what I've said all along: I'm not surprised or particularly angry that the Dems used subjective criteria to pick bloggers for this brand new, experimental process, but I am certainly annoyed that they would committ the atrocious gaffe of inviting and then rejecting, especially when we are talking about literally only twenty bloggers. With the notable exception of Jeff Jarvis and a few others, the fact that no larger, cohesive blogger outrage has arisen is a bit surprising and certainly disappointing.

Instead of making it right, the Dems are just battening down the hatches until the mini-outrage blows over. Looks like their strategy may work.

UPDATE: John Tabin has an update, including an e-mail from Patrick Belton that sticks up for the DNCC based on the timing of his invite. Belton thinks that Tabin may have been too accusatory in his American Spectator column because of an hour's difference in timing. I fail to see what importance an hour represents when Belton was invited via phone, a full day after we were rejected because of limited space.

In addition to Jarvis, Pennywit also nails it:

"Class" means that you don't rescind an invitation once you give it. "Class" means that if you screw up, you find a way to make it right. "Class" doesn't mean that you say "sorry" and move on.

Jeff Jarvis absolutely nails it regarding the DNCC blogger screw up. His conclusions at the end mirror my feelings exactly:

: I won't buy any excuses from the DNC until I see complete lists of:
1. Bloggers invited
2. Bloggers not invited
3. Bloggers disinvited.
Until then, we cannot know whether this was a matter of slant or space.
We demand transparency. That's what bloggers do. And we bloggers should be standing together to demand this information -- and also to demand that the DNC reinvite the disinvited bloggers. They wouldn't dare treat mainstream press that way. How dare they treat citizen journalists that way?

And it doesn't really matter what the cause is. Having f'ed up this badly, the thing to do is to fix it by inviting all the disinvited bloggers to assure that there is no exclusion on any basis and also to reveal the complete lists of bloggers so we can judge the DNC's process.

: And, by the way, the reason I don't buy the excuses from the DNC: The number of applicants has nothing to do with the space available. Surely, they sat down at the beginning and decided how many they could let in and what the criteria were. Simple logic.

RTWT.

The results from this week's Watcher's Council are in, and the winners are ...

Non-Council Link:

The fantastic Small Party and Great Hopes, by Iraq the Model

Council Link:

Bringing ... home ... the ... gold ... is INDC's own, INDC Interviews "Military Families Speak Out" - Part Two

Congrats to Iraq the Model and thank you to all of the Council members that voted for my post. Be sure to also check out the second place entry, "Straight Up Nigger," where Alpha Patriot explores the historical roots of the distasteful term.

The full results and scoring of the voting can be found here.

Also, if you bloggers have a post that you are particularly proud of, you can enter the Watcher's contest by sending him a link to your crowning post and following these rules. Great way to get exposure!

Go wish IMAO a happy birthday at the new Sekimori-designed digs. You have to hand it to Frank; it's an impressive feat of comedic skill to give regulars a belly laugh almost every single day for two years. Congrats.

"I've been covering Washington and politics for 30 years. I can say I've never seen this much touching between two men, publicly," e-mailed one wire photographer.

Heh. Nothing wrong with a few man-hugs on the campaign trail ...

UPDATE: Much, MUCH more here.

(Via Ace)

UPDATE: And more ...

I've been interviewed by CBS Marketwatch and the Associated Press today, so who knows, perhaps this story has legs. Teeny-tiny, itty-bitty legs. Then again ... when you consider the fact that the media has largely ignored the discovery of chemical weapons shells and enriched nuclear material in Iraq ... I doubt it.

UPDATE: Here's the CBS story. No mention of the fact that Oxblog was invited AFTER we were uninvited.

DEMOCRATS BLUNDER WITH BLOGGERS

WASHINGTON (CBS.MW) -- The Democratic National Committee has rescinded
invitations to 20 Web loggers to attend its national convention in
Boston late this month.

"It's purely a space issue," said Peggy Wilhide, a spokeswoman for the
convention. "We accidentally accredited more people than we have space
for in the Fleet Center." Slightly more than 50 Web loggers were
originally cleared for passes, she said.

Bill Ardolino, one of the rejected, received an e-mail from the
Democrats calling his credential acceptance letter "not properly
authorized" by convention planners. "Upon further review of the overall
site capacity at the Fleet Center, we are no longer able to issue your
organization a DNCC Press Gallery Credential," it said.

The publisher of INDCJournal.com said it didn't sound right. "If my
guess is correct, an after-action review of the content of my site
caused them to disinvite me," Ardolino said. He told MarketWatch.com, "I
always expected they would review the political leanings of bloggers."

A similar on-again/off-again situation faced John Tabin, a columnist
for the American Spectator. Tabin wrote that " many in the blogosphere
... conclude that the DNCC Press Gallery was eliminating bloggers by
ideology."

Eric Schnure, the Democratic Convention's official blogger, denies the
charge. "We screwed up. We credentialed more bloggers than we have space
for," he wrote on the convention's Web log. "Our error was one of pure
logistics and not political leanings. Take us at our word."

Wilhide said that about 20 bloggers had their credentials canceled.
She said 18 of them could be considered liberals, while two were
conservatives. About 200 applications for passes were received, she
said.

"The vast majority of those applications came from left-leaning or
progressive bloggers," Schnure said. "Therefore, the vast majority of
credentialed bloggers are left-leaning and progressive. Likewise, the
vast majority of bloggers who received a credential in error are also
left-leaning and progressive."

UPDATE: AP story in the Boston Globe. Note that I am not really "out nearly $1,000," (more like $150-$200) as I will likely only have to pay the cancellation fees. Still a bummer.

Other outlets that picked up the same AP or Marketwatch stories:

USA Today

Investors Business Daily

Forbes

... and many others. And what's interesting about this? I can't find any examples where these online stories actually LINK MY SITE. Traditional media is clueless. Even blogger Matt Margolis didn't bother to link! It's the internet, kids ... we can actually link to relevant items in the story to enhance the information in the article ...

Bryan from Arguing With Signposts pointed this phenomenon out to me.

All of the donations collected to benefit the trust fund set up for the children of Dan Eggers have been tallied, and the total amount we raised is ...

$4,589.30

NOTE: This amount is adjusted from the totals provided below, subtracting PayPal surcharges from the gross donation total.

I am deeply moved by and appreciative of the generosity exhibited by so many readers. With years of compound interest, 4.6 grand will help put a fine jumpstart on the trust fund set up for Dan's kids. Thank you all very much.

Shout-outs to the blogs that helped promote the effort will also continue ... thank you everyone!

For accounting transparency, below is an official log of all donations, with date, amount and initials. If you donated and can't find yourself on the list, please e-mail me or leave a comment.

Read More »

This Wired article really encapsulates why I've been feeling burned out lately.

"I never can post something and say I'm done for the day," said Zuniga, "because I'm always thinking about the next post. I'm always feeling like I'm letting people down if I don't have any new stuff up on the site."

For bloggers like Zuniga, this is where burnout begins to creep in.

"I definitely get burnt out," he said. Sometimes "I'll go through the week and I'll go, 'Wow, that was a really bad week.' ... I haven't found a way to control it, to be honest. Either I'm on or I'm not on. I can fake it and maybe people don't notice it, but I know it when I'm not at my best."

Amazing. I actually agree with Kos on something.

(Via Instapundit)

PS - Wasn't I supposed to be on break this week?

Ace has something that everyone who plans to vote should read.

It seems that John Tabin, the other right-leaning blogger who was issued, then denied credentials to the Democratic National Convention, may have caught the Dems in a lie.

7/9

12:13 - 12:25 PM -
Tabin speaks to Francesca Gage and is told that the rejections really were based on the limited space of the facility, and not ideology. Tabin wonders what conservative bloggers were approved ...

1:45 PM
Oxblog (a particularly staid and thoughtful right-wing blog) posts that they've just been invited to cover the convention ... via phone, not letter.

Which begs the questions:

Read More »

I'm going to be on the Cam Edwards Show today at 3:20, to discuss this whole DNCC kerfuffle. You can listen live at NRANEWS.com or Sirius Satellite Radio, stream 141.

UPDATE: Sirius stream information corrected.

Here's a look inside the blogger credentialing process for the Democratic National Convention:

5/15 -
I apply for credentials for the Democratic National Convention, providing my name, web site address and other pertinent information requested for security requirements.

6/07 -
I receive the following e-mail:

Date: 6/7/2004 18:37:43 -0400
From: "Mike Hurlbut" m_hurlbut@dems2004.org
To: bill@indcjournal.com
Subject: DNCC Press Gallery Response

Dear William:

Read More »

"Oh goodness gracious, mother; can we buy it? Can we, can we, can we?!!"

UPDATE: Is this the post that got me uninvited to the DNCC?

Would you believe, that after reviewing the applications and sites of the 60 some-odd bloggers that applied, the Dems issued me credentials for the convention?

That's funny.

I don't think I'm going to go; at this stage in the game, travel expenses are outrageous.

UPDATE: Working on it.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Had made travel arrangements, but ...

I'm kind of burned out. The pledge drive is over, it's been 6 months of photography, interviews and steady, daily writing, and I've got a bad case of Summer Blogging Malaise Syndrome (SBMS). In an attempt to cure myself, I'm going to post a lighter schedule this week, so readers may consider themselves warned. I think it's best to take a mild break when writing becomes more work than fun.

As for the results of the pledge drive, sit tight. I'm going to wait a few more days for straggling checks to come in, and then I'll post the total, and continue the thank-you's to all of the blogs that were kind enough to help me out.

I've got to say, when I started the pledge drive, I was frustrated that so many regular readers could skip by without throwing a few bucks in the kitty, but in the end about 125 of you came through with donations ranging from $2 to $250. Before revealing the exact total later in the week, I think that I can confidently declare this effort a great success. Thank you very much. It means a lot for me to be able to do something, and I sincerely appreciate everyone's help.

Now do me another favor and answer this question.

UPDATE: Any regular readers that think I'm unfairly calling you out as cheap-asses: please read my third comment.

Now here's a Michael Moore movie that I can get behind.

And to any of my liberal friends that dismiss the end as sensationalistic ... while John Kerry mercifully hasn't directly endorsed Michael Moore's claptrap (a la Wesley Clarke), Democratic National Committee Chairman Terry McAuliffe HAS. Let's repeat that title:

DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL COMMITTEE CHAIRMAN ...

... endorsed the film.

It's disgusting, and it doesn't get much more mainstream than that. Square the quotes in my linked featurette. Go ahead, square 'em.

The results from this week's Watcher's Council are in, and the winners are ...

Non-Council Link:

Fahrenheit 411 -- Watching Michael Moore, by BuzzMachine.

Council Link:

Compendium of 'Fahrenheit 911' Lies, Mistruths, and Exaggerations from The SmarterCop.

The winning entries were very impressive and very handy. Study them well so you can debunk the moonbat claptrap overheard at your local coffee shop.

Congrats to the winners!

The full results and scoring of the voting can be found here.

Also, if you bloggers have a post that you are particularly proud of, you can enter the Watcher's contest by sending him your link and following these rules. Great way to get exposure!

Another Saddam courtroom parody.

As if Slate's strained "Kerryisms" and "Bushisms" weren't bad enough, Spartacus issues another needed spanking for a sloppy piece of spin in their regular "Whopper" feature. Good catch.

(Spinsanity link via the Prof)

I have to admit; I always find it difficult to keep track of the public figures that I should actively dislike for their particularly frothy, outspoken Bush-hate. That's why I'm thankful that I found this site. It's certainly incomplete, yet helpful.

PS - The Cusack siblings? Say it ain't so! The rest of the list I can live with.

PSS - Tell me Cornell West isn't the most annoying Ivy League professor on planet ... Earth.

Some quick hits from more of the blogs that were kind enough to assist me in this week's pledge drive for the Eggers family:

* Matt at Overtaken by Events has some thoughts on the predictible leftie blogger carping about the handover of sovereignty to the new Iraqi government.

* Ubique Patriam Reminisci points out that Al Qaeda isn't stupid, but many of the more vocal anti-war advocates are. Key quote:

…"DERRRR…TEH MEDIA IZ CORPROATIONS. TEHY R EVAL RIHT WING FA$ISTS!!!!11 TEHY R PRO WAR.”

Right.

* Chris at American Liberty Journal points out what may be a key endorsement for John Kerry.

* TacJammer talks back to his the comment spam; the transcript is amusing.

* On the Third Hand reveals "the problem with Islam." I think she may be on to something, though I'd point out that this was also a problem with Christianity, until the modern era. In at least a few places in Africa, it still is.

* And seldom sober is looking for some TTLB ecosystem linkage to help fulfill his birthday wish to become a "Lumholtz Tree Kangaroo," or some other form of "Marauding Marsupial." He's already on my blogroll; help this brother out.

I'd like to thank these fine blogs for helping with this week's pledge drive, which looks to have been a success. I'm still tallying checks and PayPal, so look for more results (and grateful linkage) to follow.

Thanks everyone!

I'm going to be a guest pundit on the Cam & Company radio show this afternoon at 4 PM. Also guest-opining will be Kevin from Wizbang, Dean from Dean's World and Chuck from You Big Mouth, You.

You can watch via the Internet at NRAnews.com. Shows are rebroadcast in AM drive time on Sirius satellite radio. It might be entertaining, as I have no idea what the Hell I'm going to say.

UPDATE: If you missed the show, you can watch the replay at NRAnews.com, probably for the rest of the weekend. FFWD to about 75% of the way into the show.

I'm guest judging a caption contest at Captain's Quarters that's sooooo damn good that .... wait for it .. wait for it ... that it's the MOTHER OF ALL CAPTION CONTESTS! (guffaw)

Captain Ed has been kind enough to offer the keys to his blog for one post, any topic, to the person that gives the most to benefit a worthy cause: the trust fund set up for the children of Capt. Dan Eggers, my high school friend that was killed in Afghanistan last month, while serving as the leader of a team of Green Berets. Dan leaves behind two small children, ages 3 and 5, and I've been told that the older boy is taking it pretty hard. Show this little boy how much his dad's sacrifice means to you by helping to guarantee that he gets a great education.

If you think that you'd like to post on the world famous Captain's Quarters Blog (he's a Playful Primate, you know), please e-mail me, and I'll see if your donation qualifies. I'll put forth the same offer as well. I've also got a G-Mail invite to give away via the wonderful blog, Seldom Sober, so the first person to give $10 or more can get their hands on that; just respond with "I want G-Mail," after I respond to your donation with a "thank you."

For more information:

Read about Dan's funeral here.

Read my tribute to Dan here.

C'mon folks, please pony up a few dollars if you like my original journalistic efforts, Captain's Quarters, brave Green Berets who die while fighting terrorists that are intent on killing you, small children who will grow up without a wonderful father, or any of the above. I will consider it a personal favor and you will have my sincere gratitude. Truly.

No PayPal? Send a check made out to Rebecca Eggers to the following address:

INDC Journal
1260 21st St NW
Suite 803
Washington, DC 20036

Remember, all donations will be listed with initials, date and amount at the end of the drive to ensure accounting transparency.

As of 7:18, the total in my PayPal account is (drumroll, please) ...

$2,793.41

The donation momentum has officially left the building, and tomorrow was scheduled to be the last day. Please ... if you like original INDC photos, interviews, etc., reward my efforts by dropping a few dollars in the PayPal for a worthy cause, the trust fund to benefit the children of Capt. Dan Eggers, a green beret who was killed by an IED in Afghanistan last month.

During the International ANSWER anti-war rally two weeks ago, I spoke to two members of Military Families Speak Out, an organization comprised of anti-war parents of US Military personnel that serve or have served in Iraq. The first interview with Larry Syverson is here. This second interview is with a woman named Sue Niederer, whose son Seth was killed while trying to defuse an IED on February 3rd. Ms. Niederer was already giving an interview to an unidentified reporter as I approached and began recording ...

Sue Niederer: … the fact that, how could you vote for somebody that has lied and deceived us? Get your blinders off, open your eyes and come out and realize what Mr. Bush is. I can’t even call him President, because as far as I’m concerned, he is the most dishonorable, disrespectful, outrageous, disgusting person you could possibly ask for. That’s why I’m here.

Unidentified Reporter: How long was your son over there?

Sue Niederer: My son was there from Sept 3rd … he arrived, he came home January 1st, returned January 17th, and he was killed February 3rd. So he was there on a mission … again, he should not have been there. He should not have been in the lead, he should not have been defusing bombs, neither should his platoon. I’m talking about his platoon also, and now at least three are dead and 4-5 have been very seriously injured.

Unidentified Reporter: Did you speak to him about defusing bombs?

Read More »

Watch this video and smile.

(Via Dean)

It's not often that the mainstream media gives you the perspective of Iraqis that are actively rooting for the success of the new Iraq. So here's your chance:

If you could ask any question of ...

1. An Iraqi citizen living in the United States

2. An Iraqi government official

... what would it be? What are you curious about that you're not getting from the news?

Please leave your questions in the comments section.

PS - This is not a rhetorical exercise.