Double Standards

Sri Lanka after the Tsunami


Biloxi Missipppi after Hurricane Katrina

Look Familiar?

Then why aren't we recieving aid? Why is it that America must support the rest of the world and itself?

Here's a message for everyone. Bush was NOT responasable for this. Repeat: NOT RESPONSABLE!

This is not a result of Global Warming. Or a massive right wing conspiracy.

Could we please put aside partisansip and bitterness for five friggin' minutes!

People are dead, others will succumb to disease. The death toll will rise to the thousands. And the states affected will not fully recover many, many months. Possibly years.

The price of Oil is up to 6 dollars in most places. We had to open the reserves to compensate.

There is looting in the streets. Policemen have been shot in the head, the same ones that are trying to recover survivers from under the debree.

OOps, I'm sorry....they've just been called off recovery duty, they have to control the crowds and the looting.

If this was any other country, including France, America would be in their helping no questions asked. America would be expected to help no questions asked. We would have been greeted with crossed arms. "Where have you been, it's been 3 hours since the distruction began. Just like you Americans, always late." Kid you not, it's happened before.

But where are they when we need help?

This is making me sick....What a double standard!!!

The Old, The Young, and The Media

I guess with the Michael Jackson trial over with, the Aruba case slowing down, and John Kerry and Howard Dean slipping slowly into the disinterest of the public, the next candidate for heavy media coverage is Cindy Sheehan.

Many on the left are thanking there lucky stars for this one. A woman who just happened to fall right into the laps of the left, saying exactly what they are to afraid to let slip out. They hate war and think that everything Bush does is evil.

Yes once again someone else is doing there bidding abroad so they can spend more time making life miserable on the hill with the Roberts confirmation.

But...I'm just curious...Because I like to ask silly questions....And she is my most favorite person in the world...

How's Jane Fonda taking this? Is she upset that Cindy Sheehan is taking the anti-war movement steam engine? Is there potential for a catfight?

Picture this: The fry smelling tour bus of Fonda stops in the middle of a desert road, a few meters in front the Sheehan bus stops. Out they come long hair and styles reminiscent of the 60s, then like a scene from the "Good, The Bad, and The Ugly" they start throwing soy eco-safe products at eachother hoping, just hoping the other will give up or hop on the others band wagon.

But little to their knowledge (yeah right) the media is watching with skycams and what not. As people become injured (o.k. just pretend injured) and fall to the waste side, Cindy and Fonda emerge center stage. Both look around horrified at what has been done.

"We're no better than the people we're trying to stop." Says Fonda teary.

"We have become the same monsters, let's show America that we can stop this senseless violence together!" whimpers Sheehan as they take eachothers hands and raise them triumphantly in the sky.

"TOGETHER!" everyone shouts as they all sing anti-war songs long into the night near a bonfire.

END SCENE

In the meantime the media finds other news, and moves on with their lives. Sheehan and Fonda remain a topic of blogsites and small dosages of t.v. coverage. But gradually the world sees the senselessness of these people, and notice how much more civilized things seem to be in Iraq. They find the courage to disagree with countries that think America and Britain are wrong, and find it refreshing to see the Iraqi people free. And thanks to rogue media outlets, they see how good change (democratic or otherwise) is in that part of the world.

And fallen soldiers are remembered, thanked, and honored by others continuing to fight for freedom and against terror.

But that's just my take...

Cindy Sheehan vs. Betty Skeen

This is a copy of a letter sent by one of our readers to the LA Times.

I would like to express my comments on Cindy Sheehan. My name is Cliff Newman. I was medically retired from the Army Special Forces after losing my leg in Vietnam after 10 years and 26 days. I would like to suggest your newspaper print an article about a lady I know. Her name is Betty Skeen. She is my girl friend’s mother. She, like Cindy Sheehan, is also a Gold Star Mother. Making my girl friend, and her sister, Gold Star Sisters. As it happens I met her and my girl friend through her son, Dale Dehnke. Dale was the One Zero of a MACV SOG Recon Team operating in Laos during the Vietnam conflict. He was a friend of mine. He is now buried in Oak Park Cemetery in Chatsworth next to his father who committed suicide over his grave when he was returned from Vietnam in a casket. Obviously he was a little distraught over his son’s death also. But, unlike Cindy Sheehan, Betty Skeen has enough common sense, character and dignity to realize that the President of the United States has a few more important things to do than to meet with her and explain why her son, who was a professional soldier, was killed in combat, which was an assumed risk of his job. Betty’s second husband, by the way, now gone also, was a veteran of the 101^st Airborne Division in WWII. He was a motor officer with the LAPD.

Betty Skeen was, and still is, extremely proud of her son, would not denigrate his memory by making a spectacle of herself and insulting his memory and those of countless millions who have died in the name of our great freedom, as taken for granted by all too many. There is an adage, ironically, by a 19^th Century British philosopher, John Stuart Mill that says, “War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling, which thinks nothing is worth a war, is worse. A man who has nothing, which he cares more about than is personal safety, is a miserable creature who has no chance of being free, unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself.”

Sadly, this poor woman who has now obviously been caught up in her celebrity and cause, is, along with those who are prodding her, one of those “miserable creatures.” God bless her for producing a son who obviously was a better person than her, however, if you are going to publicize mothers who have suffered losses, I would suggest locating ladies like Betty Skeen. There are a lot of them out there.

Vigils Calling for End to Iraq War Begin

Sounds like a story circa 1960

Hundreds of candlelight vigils calling for an end to the war in Iraq lit up the night Wednesday, part of a national effort spurred by one mother's anti-war demonstration near President Bush's ranch.

The vigils were urged by Cindy Sheehan, who has become the icon of the anti-war movement since she started a protest Aug. 6 in memory of her son Casey, who died in Iraq last year.

Sheehan says she will remain outside the president's ranch until he meets with her and other grieving families, or until his monthlong vacation there ends.

One or the other, we couldn't decide how long the stake out should be...

Bush has said he sympathizes with Sheehan but has made no indication he will meet with her. Two top Bush administration officials talked to Sheehan the day she started her camp, and she and other families had met with Bush shortly after her son's death.

More than 1,600 vigils were planned Wednesday from coast to coast by liberal advocacy groups MoveOn.org Political Action, TrueMajority and Democracy for America. A large vigil was also planned in Paris.

"Coast to Coast" is that the same as from Vacaville to Orange Coutny?

As the sun set in Crawford, about 200 protesters lit candles and gathered around a wooden, flag-draped coffin at Sheehan's growing camp, about a mile from the Bush ranch.

"For the more than 1,800 who have come home this way in flag-draped coffins, each one ... was a son or a daughter, not cannon fodder to be used so recklessly," Sheehan told the crowd, which then sang "Amazing Grace."

So we decided to stage a moke New Orleans styled graveyard to get our message out...

Before the vigil, Gary Qualls, of Temple drove to Sheehan's camp site and removed a wooden cross bearing his son's name. He said he supports the war and disagrees with Sheehan.

"I don't believe in some of the things happening here," Qualls said. "I find it disrespectful."

You and the rest of America Sir.

Near Philadelphia's Independence Hall, a few hundred people strained to hear the parent of another soldier killed in Iraq. "This war must stop," said Al Zappala, 65, whose 30-year-old son, Sgt. Sherwood Baker, died in an explosion in Baghdad in April 2004.

Karen Braz, 50, held a pink votive cup and a sign reading "Moms for Peace" as she stood shoulder-to-shoulder with about 150 other people outside the New Hampshire statehouse in Concord.

"My son is 26. It could've been him," she said

Some critics say Sheehan is exploiting her son's death to promote a left-wing agenda supported by her and groups with which she associates.

Before the Crawford vigil began, Gary Qualls, of Temple, walked to the protesters' memorial to fallen U.S. soldiers and removed a wooden cross bearing his son's name. Qualls said he supports the war effort even though his 20-year-old son Louis was killed in Fallujah last fall serving with the Marine Reserves.

Those backing Sheehan, though, voiced their support across the country.

While everyone else was busy trying to eat dinner or watch the news

In Minnesota, about 1,000 war protesters stood on a bridge linking Minneapolis and St. Paul. "This war has been disgraceful, with trumped-up reasons," Sue Ann Martinson said. "There were no weapons of mass destruction and the Iraqis didn't have anything to do with 9-11."

Nearly 200 people gathered on the courthouse steps in Hackensack, N.J., with many saying they were angry about the war but were supporting U.S. troops.

"I'm a 46-year-old woman who, in my lifetime, has never seen the country so split," said Lil Corcoran. "My heart is broken."

Split? Never seen it? Let's try the last two elections

In Charleston, W.Va., a banner bearing the name, age, rank, hometown and date of death of all Americans killed in Iraq and Afghanistan was unrolled — stretching the length of a city block.

But did they want their name on that banner....Probably not

Kenny Jones brought his 6-year-old daughter, Scouten, to a vigil in Portland, Ore.

"I was raised to believe that war is no solution," Jones said. "Her mother and I are raising her that way, too. This war is illogical."

Starting them young. Remember that name about twenty years from now when they proclaim the next anti-war heir to the Fonda throne.

Meanwhile, a group called FreeRepublic.com held a pro-Bush rally in the same Washington, D.C., park where 300 people had gathered for a candlelight vigil. At one point, members of the two sides had a heated exchange over who was more patriotic.

"If they don't want to support it, they don't have to support it," said Iraq war veteran Kevin Pannell, who had both legs amputated after a grenade attack last year in Baghdad. "That's the reason I lost my legs."

Richard Viguerie Blasts GOP

Conservative icon Richard Viguerie has come out with all guns blazing against Washington Republicans, saying they've abandoned their conservative principles and risk defeat in the 2006 elections.

In an open letter addressed to "Conservative Leaders," Viguerie writes: "It has become increasingly clear that Republicans in Washington care little or nothing about grassroots conservatives and the values they hold dear.

"After we spent decades defeating the Rockefeller wing of the Party, it seems we have a new enemy - the Washington wing of the GOP. They're not just wasting money; they're actually massively growing government in direct contravention of everything Republicans purport to stand for."

Viguerie, a consultant and direct-mail specialist who helped elect Ronald Reagan in 1980, said Republicans are betraying conservatives who believe in limited government, lower taxes and modest spending.

"The highway bill just passed by our Republican Congress (with the president's blessing), at $286.4 BILLION is the most expensive public works legislation ever passed," he writes.

"The National Taxpayers Union put it best when describing one of the more offensive projects in the bill: ?$220 million for a 5.9-mile bridge connecting Gravina Island (population 50) to the Alaskan mainland. The cost of the bridge alone would be enough to buy every island resident his own personal Lear jet.'

"One can only be reminded of 1998 when the Republican Congress, just four years after taking power, went on a similar spending spree - only to watch grassroots activists desert them in November. The GOP lost House seats in the second midterm election of a Democratic president, a failure almost unheard of in American politics."

Viguerie urges conservatives to speak out about how Republicans have "betrayed" them, and "make clear that our interests, as conservatives, are being seriously undermined by this new political class: long-serving Republicans in Washington more interested in keeping power than doing right by the Constitution and the American people."

He asks: "When will the GOP learn that the party's success is directly tied to the level of commitment from its core base of conservative voters and activists?"

And he warns: "If these Washington Republicans continue to prove to conservatives that there really is no difference between them and Democrats ... they are headed for a disappointing election night in 2006."

Bush on Iran: Force Is Option

In a stern warning to Iran, President Bush said "all options are on the table" if the Iranians refuse to comply with international demands to halt their nuclear program, pointedly noting he has already used force to protect U.S. security.

Bush's statement during an interview on Israeli TV late Friday was unusually harsh. He previously said diplomacy should be used to persuade Iran to suspend its nuclear program and if that failed then the U.N. Security Council should impose sanctions.

The U.S. government and others fear Iran's nuclear work is secretly designed to produce nuclear weapons. Iran's leaders deny that, saying it is only for the generation of electricity.

In the interview, Bush said the United States and Israel "are united in our objective to make sure that Iran does not have a weapon."

But, he said, if diplomacy fails "all options are on the table."

"The use of force is the last option for any president. You know, we've used force in the recent past to secure our country," he said.

Iran's government resumed uranium conversion at its nuclear facility in Isfahan this past week. The U.N. nuclear watchdog agency, the International Atomic Energy Agency, responded by issuing a warning to Iran on Thursday that expressed "serious concern" about Iran's intentions.

Bush welcomed the warning, which signaled that the West wanted to give diplomacy time to ease the standoff.

In Vienna, Austria, where the IAEA is based, diplomats said Iran faced a Sept. 3 deadline to stop uranium conversion or face possible referral to the Security Council, which has the power to impose crippling sanctions. The diplomats spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the IAEA board's proceedings.

Iran, which insists its nuclear program is peaceful, responded with indignation to the IAEA warning.

Virginia's Pledge law sustained

A federal appeals court yesterday upheld a Virginia law requiring public schools to lead a daily recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance.

Edward Myers of Sterling, a father of three, claimed the reference to "one nation under God" in the Pledge was an unconstitutional promotion of religion.

A three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals disagreed, ruling that the Pledge is a patriotic exercise, not an affirmation of religion similar to a prayer.

"Undoubtedly, the pledge contains a religious phrase, and it is demeaning to persons of any faith to assert that the words 'under God' contain no religious significance," Judge Karen Williams wrote. "The inclusion of those two words, however, does not alter the nature of the pledge as a patriotic activity."

Mr. Myers and his attorney, David Remes, said they have not discussed whether to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.

"If I don't move forward, what's my other choice? Withdraw from public school?" Mr. Myers asked.

Mr. Remes said the appeals court failed to examine the effect of the Pledge on children in a school setting.

"The problem is that young schoolchildren are quite likely to view the Pledge as affirming the existence of God and national subordination to God," Mr. Remes said.

Mr. Myers, a software engineer, belongs to the Anabaptist Mennonite faith, a Christian sect opposed to the mingling of church and state.

He challenged the Pledge law because of that belief and his fear that Loudoun County Public Schools was indoctrinating his sons with a "God and country" worldview.

"The combination of God and country approaches a civic religion that is in competition with my religion," Mr. Myers said.

Mr. Myers also originally challenged Virginia's requirement that public schools prominently display the national motto, "In God We Trust," but that portion of the lawsuit was dropped on appeal.

Two of Mr. Myers' sons, ages 11 and 9, attend public schools.

Their teachers know that he has instructed them to sit quietly while their classmates recite the Pledge, Mr. Myers said, but several times a year a substitute teacher or other school official compels them to participate.

"It's a difficult problem for them because I want them to respect their teachers, but at the same time they have to respect my religious beliefs," Mr. Myers said.

Virginia Attorney General Judith Williams Jagdmann said the appeals court's decision reaffirms the General Assembly's authority to direct the patriotic education of Virginia's children.

Quoting from Judge Williams' opinion, Mrs. Jagdmann said she was pleased that the court recognized that "acknowledgments of religion by government simply do not threaten to establish religion."

Judge Williams wrote that history is replete with government acknowledgment of God, from the Declaration of Independence to the current practice of opening U.S. Supreme Court sessions with the phrase "God save the United States and this honorable court."

Victoria Cobb, state spokeswoman for the conservative Family Foundation, praised the court for ruling that "simply recognizing that our nation was founded under the watchful eye of God does not violate the principles articulated by the Founding Fathers in the First Amendment."

Three years ago, a federal appeals court in California sided with another father who had argued that requiring students to recite the Pledge of Allegiance in public schools was unconstitutional.

However, the U.S. Supreme Court dismissed that case last year, saying atheist Michael Newdow lacked standing to sue on behalf of his young daughter because he did not have custody of her.

GOP Wants Arnold to Commit on '06

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger should quickly declare he's running for governor next year - primarily to shore up his unpopular special election schedule this November, declare some in the GOP, according to the Sacramento Bee.

"The best certainty he could provide is to say, 'Look, I'm not only supporting these initiatives, I'm running for re-election,'" said Ken Khachigian, a Southern California lawyer and longtime Republican strategist who was one of Ronald Reagan's senior advisers.

"You've got a handful of contributors who are going to be fine no matter what happens, so they don't have much exposure," Khachigian added. "But then there are the business community guys who contribute in the $10,000 to $100,000 range.

"In the back of their minds, they're thinking, if the governor doesn't run and we lose the governor's office and we've just put a chunk of change down to screw the unions and the Democrats and everything else on all these issues, we're going to pay a penalty with the Legislature if there's a Democratic governor. And it's going to cost us double that to get back in good with the Democratic leadership."

But Schwarzenegger spokesman Rob Stutzman says only that the governor will announce "when he's made a decision and he's prepared."

Meanwhile, Schwarzenegger's so-called reform agenda has incensed Democrats and public employee labor unions, who already have spent millions opposing him.

Schwarzenegger has over time advocated a host of initiatives, including:

• pension overhauls;
• a crackdown on bad teachers and adjusting the voter-approved formula for education funding;
• Proposition 75, which seeks to make it harder for public employee unions to raise money for political campaigns;
• Proposition 74, which would make it harder for teachers to get tenure;
• Proposition 76, which would give a governor new powers to cut spending; and
• Proposition 77, which would change how legislative districts are drawn, is pending in the courts.

According to the Bee report, Jack Stewart, president of the California Manufacturers and Technology Association, conceded that some of his more than 800 members have been slow to write checks for Schwarzenegger's special election campaign.

Stewart, however, noted that once Schwarzenegger starts campaigning in earnest and there's no longer any question about what's on the ballot, the money should come.

Indeed, Republican Jim Brulte, a former leader in the state Senate who supports Schwarzenegger's agenda, said the governor continues to enjoy strong backing from California's business community.

"There are a lot of people in the business community that are happy to follow the governor into battle," Brulte said. "They just want to make sure that he's prepared to be the commanding general the next five years."

Schwarzenegger can raise what he needs for November even if he doesn't declare beforehand that he's running again, Brulte added. But if he does, "it would just be easier."

Warning: Hillary Can Win the Presidency

A new report from a top financial services company has a
warning for those who dismiss Hillary Clinton's chances
of gaining the White House: Underestimate her
at your own peril.

"We're not making a flat prediction, but a plausible case
can be made that she will become president on Jan. 20,
2009," writes Greg Valliere, chief political strategist
with the Stanford Group Company, a research group.

Here's Valliere's year-by-year scenario.

Her 2005 plan: Keep moving toward the center on national
security and social issues. A litmus test will be the
senator's vote on the John Roberts nomination - if she
votes to confirm the Supreme Court nominee, it would be a
sure sign that she plans to run.

Her 2006 plan: Pull out all the stops for a landslide
win in her Senate re-election bid. "Will any Republican
of note be suicidal enough to take her on? We doubt it,"
the report states.

Her 2007 plan: Raise tons of money. Clinton and her
husband have access to tens of millions of dollars in
campaign funding from a range of party activists.
"She'll probably set a record for the most money raised
by any candidate for a nomination - and in the process
will scare off most serious challengers."

Her 2008 plan: Wrap up the nomination by early March,
then watch a furious fight between mainstream Republicans
and the religious right. If Sen. John McCain's campaign
gains steam, it could send "horrified" religious
conservatives to the sidelines.

"Therein lies the heart of our analysis that Sen. Clinton
could win the presidency: If McCain or another mainstream
Republican wins the nomination, the religious right -
so crucial in providing votes for George W. Bush - may
sit at home," Valliere writes.

When it comes to the general election, the report points
out that if Clinton were to win all the states that
Sen. John Kerry won last year, she would already have
252 of the 270 electoral votes needed to win.

She could then win the election by taking one big state
that Bush won in 2004, such as Ohio or Florida, or a
combination of several smaller states that Bush carried.

The report concludes: "Hillary is too polarizing to
win, you say? People said that about her husband
but he won twice."

But the report also predicts that even if Clinton gains
the White House, both houses of Congress are likely to
remain under Republican control, which means "any
activism by a President Hillary Clinton would be blunted
by gridlock."

Jane Fonda's Greenie Anti-War Bus

Great, here we go again

Jane Fonda claims that war veterans she met on her nationwide book-signing tour have motivated her to speak out on the Iraq war.

Fonda will begin an anti-war tour, which will kick off in March and travel via bus.

"I've decided I'm coming out," Fonda said. "I have not taken a stand on any war since Vietnam. I carry a lot of baggage from that."
Bored are we? Or maybe just a little on the broke side.

About the tour, she said, "I can't go into any detail except to say that it's going to be pretty exciting."
Publicly criticing a war gets me up and going in the morning

This is, of course, the same "concerned" citizen who in the 1970s headed over to Hanoi, played into the hands of the communists and accused POWs of committing war crimes.
making friends with communists, terrorists, and reporters from al-jazeera. That's our girl!

With concern this time for the environment as well as tanks, Fonda assures everyone that the bus will not waste gasoline.

The anti-war touring vehicle will be powered by vegetable oil.
Is that a Mcdonalds near by mommy?
No, its Jane Fonda and her lemings! RUN!!!

The Left Coast Report hears that for the leftover fuel Martha Stewart suggests a spring salad mix with a sprinkling of lemon vinaigrette.

Official: Bush to Name Bolton to U.N.

Frustrated by Democrats, President Bush will circumvent the Senate on Monday and install embattled nominee John Bolton to be ambassador to the United Nations, a senior administration official said.

Bush has the power to fill vacancies without Senate approval while Congress is in recess. Under the Constitution, a recess appointment during the lawmakers' August break would last until the next session of Congress, which begins in January 2007.

In advance of Bush's announcement, Democrats said Bolton would start his new job on the wrong foot in a recess appointment.

"He's damaged goods. This is a person who lacks credibility," Sen. Christopher Dodd (news, bio, voting record) of Connecticut, a senior Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said on "Fox News Sunday." Bush, he said, should think again before using a recess appointment to place Bolton at the United Nations while the Senate is on its traditional August break.

But Republicans appearing on Sunday's news shows said Bolton is the man the White House wants and he's the right person to represent the United States at the world body.

Bolton's appointment ends a five-month impasse between the administration and Senate Democrats.

The battle grabbed headlines last spring amid accusations that Bolton abused subordinates and twisted intelligence to shape his conservative ideology, and as White House and GOP leadership efforts to ram the nomination through the Senate fell short.

In recent weeks, it faded into the background as the Senate prepared to begin a nomination battle over John Roberts, the federal appeals judge that Bush chose to replace the retiring Justice Sandra Day O'Connor at the Supreme Court.

At Bolton's April confirmation hearing, Democrats raised additional questions about his demeanor and attitude toward lower-level government officials. Those questions came to dominate Bolton's confirmation battle, growing into numerous allegations that he had abused underlings or tried to browbeat intelligence analysts whose views differed from his own.

Despite lengthy investigations, it was never clear that Bolton did anything improper. Witnesses told the committee that Bolton lost his temper, tried to engineer the ouster of at least two intelligence analysts and otherwise threw his weight around. But Democrats were never able to establish that his actions crossed the line to out-and-out harassment or improper intimidation.

Separately, Democrats and the White House deadlocked over Bolton's acknowledged request for names of U.S officials whose communications were secretly picked up by the National Security Agency. Democrats said the material might show that Bolton conducted a witch hunt for analysts or others who disagreed with him.

The top Republican and Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee received a limited briefing on the contents of the messages Bolton saw, but were not told the names.

Democrats said that was not good enough, but later offered a compromise. After much back and forth, with the White House claiming Democrats had moved the goal posts, no other senator saw any of the material.

Last week, the administration telegraphed Bush's intention to put Bolton on the job.

White House press secretary Scott McClellan said the vacancy needed to be filled before the U.N. General Assembly's annual meeting in mid-September. Former Sen. John Danforth left the post in January.

In the face of objections from most Democrats and at least one Republican, Bush has steadfastly refused to withdraw Bolton's nomination — even after the Foreign Relations Committee sent it to the full Senate without the customary recommendation to approve it.

Though the debate over Bolton had largely faded from the headlines, critics raised fresh concerns this week when it surfaced that Bolton had neglected to tell Congress that he had been interviewed in 2003 in a government investigation into faulty prewar intelligence on Iraq.

In a letter released Friday, 35 Democratic senators and one independent, Sen. Jim Jeffords of Vermont, urged Bush not to give Bolton a recess appointment.

"There's just too much unanswered about Bolton, and I think the president would make a truly serious mistake if he makes a recess appointment," Sen. Joseph Biden (news, bio, voting record) of Delaware, the top Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee, said in an interview.