All According To Plan

I see another member of al-Queda is claiming torture at Guantanamo:

WASHINGTON (AP) -- A suspected Saudi terrorist told a military hearing that he was tortured into confessing that he was involved in the bombing of the USS Cole, according to a Pentagon transcript released Friday.

Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, a Saudi national of Yemeni descent, said he made up stories that tied him to the 2000 Cole attack, which killed 17 U.S. sailors and nearly succeeded in sinking the $1 billion destroyer in Aden harbor, Yemen.

"From the time I was arrested five years ago, they have been torturing me. It happened during interviews. One time they tortured me one way, and another time they tortured me in a different way," al-Nashiri said, according to the transcript. "I just said those things to make the people happy. They were very happy when I told them those things."

Gee, what a surprise considering this is part of their training!

Look for the useful idiots, lead by that intellectual giant Rosie O'Donnell, to pick this one up and run with it. And then enemies such as the Iranian mullahs will talk about how well they're treating their British "guest" compaired to the evil Americans.

Oh The Humanity!!

No wonder they hate us.

Guantanamo Bay - "War on terror" detainees at Guantanamo are avid Harry Potter readers and eagerly await the next book in the series featuring the schoolboy wizard, the camp librarian says.

While religion tops the reading lists of the overwhelmingly Muslim detainees, Harry Potter was a big favourite, said the chief librarian at the US-run prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

(via Michelle Malkin.)

What next, Korans for everybody and culturally sensative meals? Oh, never mind.

What Do The Troops Think?

Well, now that the Democrat Congress has officially voted for retreat and defeat, what do the troops think? Blackfive asked the question and sums up the responses:

Previously, I had asked for and received a lot of email from troops around the world (but mostly in Iraq and Afghanistan) about the Democrat resolutions for retreat...especially, in the face of the surge and a new Commanding General that the Democrats unamimously approved of...

I haven't received one troop email that supports the Democrat position of cut and run.

Needless to say, the troops (which the democrats claim to support) are pretty disgusted, especially given the fact that notable improvements are occuring with the new leadership of General Petraus. But, the democrats are so heavily invested in the defeat of our country (George W. Bush in their eyes) they must turn their predictions of defeat into a self fulfilling prophecy. They've been claiming defeat for so long they must now insure that that happens.

Vileness at the Huff

I read today with heavy heart that Tony Snow is going to have to battle cancer once again. Tony Snow has always been one of my favorites and I was one of people cheering when he decided to take the job as White House Press Secretary. So, after saying a prayer for his recovery I turned my attention to The Huffington Post. After all of the vile comments wishing Dick Cheney had been killed in an assassination attempt and the uproar that followed, I wanted to see how the Huff would handle this one. Alas, it didn't take long to find the vile hatred that consumes so much of the Left these days. Here's a pleasant chap named Charles Karel Bouley and some of what he had to say:

I admit my bias shows with these stories. I hear about Tony Snow and say to myself, well, stand up every day, lie to the American people at the behest of your dictator-esque boss and well, how could a cancer NOT grow in you. Work for Fox News, spinning the truth in to a billion knots and how can your gut not rot? I know, it's terrible. I admit it. I don't wish anyone harm, even Tony Snow. And I do hope he recovers or at least does what he feels is best and surrounds himself with friends and family for his journey. But in the back of my head there's Justin Timberlake's "What goes around, goes around, comes around, comes all the way back around, ya.."

Thank goodness he makes it clear he hopes Tony recovers.

What is it with these people and their hatred? It is well known that in a town of cut throat ruthlessness, Tony Snow is one of the genuinely nice guys. Widely admired and even liked by the Washington Press Corp, some of the most jaded people on Earth. But to the Left, because you disagree with his political viewpoints you think cancer should be a natural occurrence? And the Right is supposed to be the one dividing the country, spreading hatred, and intolerant? Go figure.

R.I.P., Larry "Bud" Melman

Calvert Deforest, better known as Larry "Bud" Melman from the David Letteran show, has passed away. He was 85.

Here's one of his classic skits (via American Spectator) handing out hot towels at a bus station. This is back when Letterman used to be funny.

I can remember watching Letterman as a kid and I always loved his show. It's a shame he's such a ass now, but nothing stays the same. Larry "Bud" Melman was always one of my favorites because I never could tell if he was an actor doing a skit or just an ordinary guy. Of course, he was an ordinary guy and seemed like a sweet fellow with a great since of humor.

See you on the other side "Bud" and thanks for the laughs.

This Just In...

Administration grows a pair:

If subpoenas are issued damanding White Houe aides testify on the firing of eight former U.S. attorneys, then President Bush will have no choice but to withdraw his offer to have his staff meet with congressionial lawmakers informally, Press Secretary Tony Snow said Wednesday.

I'm no fan of Gonzales, and I think this whole affair has been handled ham-handedly. However, there doesn't appear to be an wrong doing on the part the White House and it's nice to see them finally stand up to the Democrats bullying. If the Administration doesn't stand-up for itself now in the face of the Democrats strategy of throwing mud at President Bush for the next two years, it never will. They've got to nip this in the bud, now.

I think the Democrats are making a mistake in picking this fight, but the media has blown this thing so out of purportion they almost have no choice but to persue it. It'll be interesting to see how it plays out with the Democrats and the media going full bore against the President. Personally I'd like nothing more than to see Pat Leahy lose this one big time. My sentiments about Leahy are in line with Cheney's when he told him to go "f*** yourself."

Mathews Not Completely Nuts

Chris Matthews is a blow hard who has an unhealthy obsession with Dick Cheney. But in this piece by Stephen Spruiell of the Media Blog, Matthews shows he hasn't completely gone nuts. I love the last line:

...Paul Krugman, struck dumb, assumed the kind of look a dog might get if you tried to teach it how to light a cigar[.]

Now that's a funny line.

Killer Confesses, Left Frets

Anne Applebaum laments that fact the confession by Khalid Sheik Mohammed to masterminding the attacks of September 11th along with many other terrorists attacks was greeted by the "world" with skepticism and indifference because of the suppossed tactics used to get the confession:

Here is one thing nobody predicted back in 2003: that when the notorious Mohammed eventually stood before a Guantanamo Bay military tribunal and took responsibility for not only for the Sept. 11 attacks, the deadliest crime ever carried out on American soil, but also for the horrific death of the journalist Daniel Pearl and some two dozen other operations, the world would greet the confessions with skepticism and indifference.

Well, guess what, Anne: I don't give a damn what France, or Germany, or even England thinks. The information gathered from Mohammed most certainly prevented more attacks and saved many more lives. It's a crying shame when liberals such as Applebaum seem to care a hell of a lot more about what the "world" thinks of us than potentially saving thousands of innocenct lives. She can take a long walk off a short pier as far as I'm concerned.

Even the Times Can't Ignore It

The New York Times, yes the New York Times, today runs an article critical of Al Gore and his global warming hyperventilating. You know the wheels are about to fall off when the Times starts running stories critical of the global warming crusaders. My favorite part:

Other critics have zeroed in on Mr. Gore’s claim that the energy industry ran a “disinformation campaign” that produced false discord on global warming. The truth, he said, was that virtually all unbiased scientists agreed that humans were the main culprits. But Benny J. Peiser, a social anthropologist in Britain who runs the Cambridge-Conference Network, or CCNet, an Internet newsletter on climate change and natural disasters, challenged the claim of scientific consensus with examples of pointed disagreement.

“Hardly a week goes by,” Dr. Peiser said, “without a new research paper that questions part or even some basics of climate change theory,” including some reports that offer alternatives to human activity for global warming.

Geologists have documented age upon age of climate swings, and some charge Mr. Gore with ignoring such rhythms.

“Nowhere does Mr. Gore tell his audience that all of the phenomena that he describes fall within the natural range of environmental change on our planet,” Robert M. Carter, a marine geologist at James Cook University in Australia, said in a September blog. “Nor does he present any evidence that climate during the 20th century departed discernibly from its historical pattern of constant change.”

In October, Dr. Easterbrook made similar points at the geological society meeting in Philadelphia. He hotly disputed Mr. Gore’s claim that “our civilization has never experienced any environmental shift remotely similar to this” threatened change.

Nonsense, Dr. Easterbrook told the crowded session. He flashed a slide that showed temperature trends for the past 15,000 years. It highlighted 10 large swings, including the medieval warm period. These shifts, he said, were up to “20 times greater than the warming in the past century.”

Getting personal, he mocked Mr. Gore’s assertion that scientists agreed on global warming except those industry had corrupted. “I’ve never been paid a nickel by an oil company,” Dr. Easterbrook told the group. “And I’m not a Republican.”

Ouch! I've always been fascinated with the weather and have been skeptical of the claim that global warming is caused by humans. I don't doubt we play a factor in some shape, form, or fashion -- but how much is of course the 64 Million Dollar Question. Unfortunetly the debate has become too politicized and so much money is at stake for research, that many claims by scientists with a vested interest in proving the existence of man-made global warming are dubious at best. We simply do not understand enough about how our atmosphere works to make such unequivocal conclusions.

It appears as though Al Gore may have reached his high water mark with his Oscar for An Inconvient Truth. When global warming's True Believers start viewing skeptics as the equivalent of Holocaust deniers, thankfully that's when cooler heads begin to prevail.

Kudos to the New York Times for this fine article, something I don't get to say often enough.

Miller Time

I'm a big fan of Dennis Miller. While a lot of people don't find him very funny, he's always tickled my funny bone. I like a comedian with wit and brains. Here he is taking it to one of the dimmest bulbs in Hollywood, Rosie O'Donnell.

My favorite line:

If we want to check Ramney al-Kaboom because he took 4 bomb cook books out in a month all of the sudden it’s wrong.

"Ramney al-Kaboom," classic Miller. Rosie tries trotting out one of Ben Franklin's most misquoted lines, "If you sacrifice liberty for perceived security you don’t deserve either" (her words, poor grammar and all.) But as somebody notes in the comments section, Franklin's full quote is actually "Those who would give up an essential liberty for temporary security deserve neither liberty nor security." Those few words make a big difference in his meaning. It's almost as bad as the bogus quote attributed to Thomas Jefferson that dissent is the highest form of patriotism. Sorry, he never said it. Oh well, I've never accused liberals of not being afraid of putting their ignorance on display.