I have to confess to being a bit disturbed by today’s developments in the whole Rathergate fiasco. I got bored with it sometime last week for a while. I mean, Jesus H, it’s all we heard. Yes, it’s no news that Dan Rather is a looney left wing hack, who spins every story on how to best place the Democrats in a good light and paint the Republicans as villains. I even didn’t blog much because that was the only thing being covered. But today’s news bothers me on a visceral level.

Lets take a look – we have a Partisan Democrat – Bill Burkett – with a personal axe to grind against George Bush, no less. He comes up with some questionable documents. He passes these to Max Cleland at Kerry Central. Later these wind up in the hands of Dan “Rather Biased” and the Sixty Minutes team.

We need to pause here. Danny-Boy has a long history of animus to Republicans, being a spin artist for Democrats, and fund raising for the Democrats. He too, is cut from the same Partisan Democrat cloth as Bill Burkett. So Mr. Blather, rather than vetting them, as he would if they impugned Kerry, is so eager to run them and smear Bush that he slaps them on Sixty Minutes II, where they are questioned within mere hours by Bloggers.

Bloggers.

Like myself. Rank, freaking amateurs sniff this out where professional journalists do not. We’re not talking a local news team here, folks. We’re not talking about the Bugtussle Tribune. This is Sixty-Freaking-Minutes, for Chrissake. C-B-Freaking-S. Not even WWW oriented Journalists like Mike LaSalle or Matt Drudge. This is like me scooping the Wall Street Journal, for crying out loud.

You know, I can hardly even begin to list the questions this begs.

Max Cleland had these for how long? How come he didn’t vet them? How come he and Kerry’s Campaign sat on them? How come when CBS said something about it (And don’t tell me they didn’t come to the Kerry Campaign for a reaction!) he wasn’t there saying, “Um, we’ve had these and sat on them because we thought they were bogus.”

I mean, they have had them – so they’re either dumber than CBS, or were planning to sit on them until the 11th hour and release them their damn selves.

This just stinks of election tampering, and with the complicit silence of Kerry and the DNC. The only thing which prevents me from thinking that the Network Media isn’t the Official House Organ of the DNC is that Kerry’s operatives kept silent rather than deliver marching orders to hold on to these till Hallowe’en. Yeah, there’s an October Surprise fo’ yo ass. But I’ll tell you what – they are about a frog’s pubic hair from being the unofficial house organ of the DNC, and I wouldn’t be shocked to learn if they (ahem) “suggested” holding on to this for a month or so. Bears watching, at least.

At the very least, I have lost all faith in CBS, and NBC and ABC aren’t all that far behind. I can only hope that people put them all under a microscope and hold them accountable during the remaining six weeks before the election. At least ABC and NBC.

CBS, so far as I am concerned, is on double secret probation and hasn’t done their penance yet. I trust them for sod all right now.

Well, isn’t that wonderful Nothing like Kerry’s Goons in the “Party of Sensitivity” making a little girl cry.

It seems to me sometimes that the old saying “Can’t see the forest for the trees” is one of the most profound utterances ever made. Case in point, all the hubbub surrounding the expose of forged documents so eagerly reported on by Dan “Rather Biased” on CBS.

Okay - here’s the question for you. What’s missing?

We have all kinds of commentary, both public and professional on the story. But there is something missing here, something you would have expected to hear if someone like Walter Cronkite or David Brinkly had been schnookered by such a blatant fraud. Anyone? Beuller? Beuller?

One word. Suprise.

You would think that it would suprise the hell out of people that a mega-news organization, and someone of Dan Rather’s experience would be suckered by this. But nobody is suprised. Nobody. There is not one peep of “Oh, my God. Who would have thunk?”

I mean, look here. People aren’t even suprised they got busted. Hell of a commentary on the state of the allegedly “fictional boogeyman” of “Liberal Media Bias.” Even the Liberals are so stuned that they aren’t even going through the usual pretense of being “shocked and appalled” at one of their own being caught with their hands in the cookie jar.

Chew on that for a spell and see what that tells you.

A picture is worth a thousand words.

So, from the “John Kerry Shoots Himself in the Foot - AGAIN” Department:

Could the man be any stupider?

Now, the Democrats in Congress very quietly backed away from the soi disant “assault weapons ban” because they saw extending it as politically stupid.

So what does “JFK” do?

Goes after Bush on it.

Who the hell is running that campaign, anyway? Sometimes I think they are throwing the game on purpose. Wake up, folks. You have the far left in your pocket. They will vote against Bush, well, because he is Bush. Hello? Clinton won by portraying himself as a MODERATE.

HELLO?!?!?! McFLY?!?!?!?!

Absolutely amazing.

It’s deja vu all over again.

I see a candidate hammering away at The Economy, Health Care, and ominously asking if we want four more years of this.

Is it 1992 - or 2004? I’m not sure.

Oh yeah. The candidate in question has all the personality of a bowl of stale oatmeal. That would be John Kerry. John F. Kerry, or the “New JFK.”

Forget it, Johnny. Not only are you no John Kennedy - you’re no Bill Clinton either. Clinton had the Charisma to pull of something that tranparent. You, sir, do not.

Yahoo is supplying a lot, today.

Well, there’s one good reason to support Bush.

From Yahoo News, I am treated to a breath of fresh air and plain speaking; shame on us that it had to come from a Russian. Of course, maybe now the Russians are seeing why George Bush did what he did; though I take no joy in them learning their lesson.

“Why don’t you meet Osama bin Laden, invite him to Brussels or to the White House and engage in talks, ask him what he wants and give it to him so he leaves you in peace?” Putin was quoted on Tuesday by Britain’s Guardian newspaper as saying. “You find it possible to set some limitations in your dealings with these bastards, so why should we talk to people who are child-killers?” said Putin, who spoke to foreign journalists and academics late on Monday.

Oh yeah, baby.

This is the kind of no-nonsense, no bullshit response that will, I predict, wind up in Al Quaeda all but ceasing operations in Russia, and giving the Russians a wide berth in years to come. It’s pretty unsuprising that cheese eating appeasement-monkeys like the French are the ones whining that it’s the “get-tough policies” causing this, when such get tough policies are going to be the ones which end it in a big hurry.

For far too long there has been way too much in trying to “understand” terrorists, and make excuses for them. Putin, however, is pulling no punches, and it’s high time someone, somewhere, called a spade a spade. This is the murder of children. This isn’t accidental. You don’t take explosives or guns into a school full of kids, and “accidentally” kill them.

It’s the intentional waging of war against children by grown men, and it’s cowardly, reprehensible, and an atrocity on the level of the Holocaust. You don’t get pushed to this. This is the conscious embracing of evil, and anyone who would engage in even weak apologetics for behavior like this is unfit to be numbered among the human race - let alone those who would actually perpetuate it.

“Just imagine that people who shoot children in the back came to power anywhere on our planet. Just ask yourself that, and you will have no more questions about our policy in Chechnya,” Putin said.

Yeah. What he said. Good words, Vlad.

Well, I’m back from my long hiatus, and after several months of looking around, I’m relieved to know that some things never change. Of course, this also depresses me, not so much, however, because I never really expected any change.

Today is the traditional start of “The Campaign.” I have to confess to mixed feelings on this, as a Libertarian, I’m not optimistic about our chances of winning, nor am I particularly thrilled with the LP’s candidate. Mr. Badnarik is a decent and good man, but like most of the Party faithful, he has a Foreign Policy blind spot. One of these days the party will grow up, and realize that if we want to be isolationist, we have to colonize Mars to do it. Wake up, fellow Libertarians. We got attacked. We did not initiate aggression. We are at war, and our enemies wear turbans and bow to Mecca.

In a larger sense, though, I’m more of a libertarian than a Libertarian, please note the change in case between the two. While I’m non-aggressive, I’m not a pacifist. I believe that if there is a clear and present danger, you don’t give them the sporting first shot, nor do you wait for them to come and hunt you down.

On my more cynical days, I might tend more towards the viewpoint that government is at least an unavoidable evil if not a necessary one. It’s not that I mind government per se, I mind busybodies who can’t leave peaceable people, who are minding their own business and keeping their hands to themselves, alone. Unfortunately, the government seems to attract such people into their employ like manure attracts flies.

I’m free-market, but not capitalist. There’s a proper opposition between government and big business or corporations. While some Libertarians may argue that it is just and proper that an employer be able to do things that would get the government sued for civil rights violations, I disagree. While I don’t use drugs, I think mandatory drug tests are an abomination in 90 plus percent of all cases. I don’t care who sponsors them. I really don’t care if the guy at McDonalds who is bagging my food is a pothead. He doesn’t need that many brains. The guy who works on my brakes, maybe. The pilot of my plane, yes. My open heart surgeon, absolutely. The janitor?

Give me a break. Either it’s a big “Nunya Bidnez” all the way around, or it ain’t. I work for Joe. Joe writes me a check. That’s it. Joe doesn’t own me. Joe can regulate my parking in his parking lot, run me through a metal detector as I enter and leave his building, and tell me what I can have in my office. When I am at home, on my time, it’s a different story. It’s proper for Joe to have a say in how I look, and how I speak when I represent his company. When I’m on my own time, Joe is just another schmuck. It’s no more his business in what I do, what church I attend, what beer I drink, or what books I read than it is my next door neighbor’s. Employment is not a property right. If I won’t let the government do it, it’s because it’s wrong for one human being to have that say over another’s private life. If it’s wrong for Uncle Sam, it is wrong for Joe. Period.

I used to be a devout Republican, but I felt, and still feel more than a little betrayed by the “Contract with America.” It didn’t make government smaller. It didn’t balance the budget. I still have the same, and even more, Federal Busybodies poking their nose in my life. All the things they promised were wind – and if I hear one more Republican Apologist talking about how “The only thing the agenda promised was to bring it up on the floor of Congress” I don’t know what I will do. That contract was presented as an agenda of convictions. If you have convictions, you keep championing them, year after year, session after session. That’s what Ronald Reagan did. Even when he got stymied and gridlocked, he kept hammering away at it – even when it was obvious he was tilting at windmills, he still tried.

This crap about “Well, we brought it up, and it got voted down, so back to political business as usual” is just that – crap. It’s weaselspeak. Even after a dozen years, it still disgusts me.

And the Democrats are no better; but the hugest gaping hole the Democrats have is a lack of a moral compass. And if nothing else, the hypocrisies of the Republican Party are at least finite.

I don’t know, sometimes. Dear God, but almost anyone else but John Kerry. That’s the stuff which nightmares are wrought of.

Even after a couple of days, I’m utterly shocked at the carnage and photos of that school in Russia, which as you may recall, was taken over by Islamic terrorists - well, I suppose it’s redundant, but - and a thousand children held hostage under threat of death.

That’s right. Children. These are they same Muslim rat bastards who like to detonate bombs, and put their own children’s bodies near the blast zone, and try to make political hay by blaming the Israelis.

I have waited long for denunciations from the Muslim world for this utter and barbaric atrocity, but thus far we have heard nothing but deafening silence from them. Fine. So be it. You know, far as I am concerned this now makes their children legitimate targets.

They’ve set up these rules. They have sown the wind, so they can shut the hell up if they wind up reaping the whirlwind. I officially no longer give a damn about Muslim children.

Since it has been announced recently that Ol’ Slick Willie Clinton is going to be having heart surgery soon, I’ve scoured the news and the airwaves for all the expected right wing sentiment of wishes for a speedy succumbing to his medical problems.

Thus far, zilch. The meanest thing I have heard is comments that all that McDonald’s is finally catching up to him.

Seems I remember left-wingers hoping for Clarence Thomas to fall victim to the black tendency towards higher rates of heart disease, chortling at Ronald Reagan and Charlton Heston’s Alzheimer’s Disease, and much glee over Rudy Guiliani’s prostate cancer. And we’re not talking from fringe leftists, we’re talking mainstream folks. But from the Right - no attacks. Wishes for a speedy recovery.

Hm. Which side of the political spectrum is it that often gets rubricized as “mean-spirited?” Uh huh. Yeahsureyabetcha.

Once again, I’ve had to sit by and watch another man stupidly self destruct.
It seems that cupcake is, in all likelihood, having an affair. All the signs are there. She goes out alone, before he comes home, and comes home all dolled up; she is hiding her cell phone bill - hell, why am I reciting the litany to you all? You know the drill as well as me. Sorry.

Anyway

Cupcake has been cold, short, distant, and snotty; nagging, refusing to be mollified or pleased, and hyper-critical of everything. So I says to him, “Tom,(not real name) she’s trying to push your buttons. Don’t lose your temper. And don’t move out.”

Yeah, Gonzo. I know. Don’t worry. I know what I am doing. I’ve got me under control. Yeah. I know what my priorities are.

Tuesday, Tom comes home. Cupcake isn’t home. She has left two matchbooks from a local motel around. He calls there and asks for her. No such registered. So he asks for the room of the guy he thinks she is fooling around with. He is registered. His room is rung. He hears her voice in the background.

Can you say set up and played for a sucker? Can you say “Wanted to be discovered?” I knew you could.

Tom goes berserk. He goes to the garage, smashes her car to bits with a baseball bat, pisses on her clothes in her closet, loads up his truck, and leaves; worse yet, he writes a incoherent note cussing her up one side and down the other, and doesn’t pick his kid up from football practice.
Guess what? You bet. Wednesday morning, Cupcake gets a restraining order and police report on him. He calls that afternoon. I found this out when I went to get him out of jail yesterday where he has been arrested for - Guess What? - violating a restraining order.

*sigh*

Will we ever learn not to roll over and play dead on command when the buttons get pushed?

Ay, carrumba.

Well, I’ve been out for a while due to personal reasons. Those who know me know why. Go see your friendly MND Forum if you want to know that bad.

Kobe’s mostly out of the woods, John Kerry has stepped on his schlong time and again, and the enemies of God and Man are alive and kicking. Good. They squeal louder when I dig into them.

Fun to be alive. Now I only wonder where to begin?