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May 31, 2005

Bonfire of the Vanities #100

Welcome to the 100th edition of the Bonfire of the Vanities, a festival of the blogosphere's worst posts of the last week. What's in the quotes after the submission is user-submitted comments. If there are no quotes, they didn't give me a comment so I get to mock them instead. :) The next stops are:

Week 101 (June 7) - Benedict
Week 102 (June 14) - Basil's Blog
Week 103 (June 21) - It'sAPundit

"If your post sucks and you know it send it in,
If your post sucks and you know it send it in,
If your post sucks and you know it and you'd really like to delete it, if your post sucks and you know it send it in.
(Sung to the tune of a kids song that I can't remember right now).

Here we go:

Thanks for trying, but military overspending jokes died with the cold war.

Charlie Quidnunc at Rip & Read Blogger Podcast presents Rip & Read #116 - 2005-05-31 "Get your blogosphere in your ear with Charlie Quidnunc's Rip & Read Blogger Podcast. Today he covers: The French "Non", Bush's Presser: "Absurd", and Unholy Alliance."

Two Dogs at Mean Ol' Meany presents Mean Ol' Meany's Treatise on Religion "Satire so subtle that no one gets it."

basil at basil's blog presents I'll Take Those Links! "In a blatantly transparent attempt to get more links, I tried to take advantage of many bloggers desire to not link to certain sites. This post offered instructions on how a blogger could offer their readers link access to a site without actually linking to that site. They'd link to me, and I'd redirect via JavaScript to the destination site. That way, even though the destination site got a hit, they didn't get a link. Does it work? Yes. Do people use it? No. Am I hoping such a lame plan might get extra exposure through a Carnival posting. Well, duh!"

Kelly Pearson at Time to Lean presents Nurse Kelly's answer to the low-carb craze "This is a picture of all the crap on the top of my fridge. Can't get more lame than that. I felt an itch to take pictures of stuff and I was hungry for a samich, so off I went to make a samich, camera-in-hand."

Gnotalex at Dodgeblogium presents Positive NO "Would you trust this guy with anything?"

Jody at Steal the Bandwagon presents Ugh, Dork Blogs Here "Excuse: All my posts had been so good, I didn't want all the other bloggers to feel bad, so I posted this... yeah, do you buy that? ;)"

Ferdinand T. Cat at Conservative Cat presents CSI Schaumburg Episode 18, "Wet T-Shirts" "I thought this was really funny, but apparently I was alone. Maybe people were so sad from the filibuster deal that they weren't very receptive to humor."

Jack Cluth at The People's Republic of Seabrook presents There is something horribly amiss when a nation is obsessed with an 18-year-old's breasts, no? "Does this make me a bad person? Why, yes...yes, it does...."

Beth at My Vast Right Wing Conspiracy presents Be Here Tuesday "Submitted due to its obvious coyness... ;-)"

Janette Stripling at Common Sense Runs Wild presents I Can Quit Any Time I Like. Don't ever trust tech support, Janette.

Mustang 23 at Assumption of Command presents Star Wars Bootlegged "Last week I was a dork about Star Wars, but this week I actully get to see it, but my only source is a bootlegged copy."

Will Franklin at WILLisms.com presents Congratulations To All The Graduates Of The Class Of 2005. "My little sister graduated on Saturday, but didn't think the post was all that funny."

Elisson at Blog d'Elisson presents WHAT KIND OF GUY "Elisson attempts a visual pun of sorts, but fails miserably when nobody gets the joke. Crap."

Kevin at Technogypsy presents Audie's work "If you are going to plug an artist, it helps if you are sure their
site is up. Duh."

a4g at Point Five presents Contest: Guess What Paris Hilton Smells Like! This post smells like all sorts of a bad idea. :)

Interested-Participant brings usDrug Dogs Taught to Detect Talcum. "Someone had switched the test package of cocaine with talcum powder at the beginning of the three month drug dog training program and nobody noticed. Consequently, seven police drug-sniffing dogs became proficient at finding talcum powder." Sounds like these dogs would be perfect for the TSA and about as good at keeping planes secure. :)

Multiple Mentality brings us multiple posts from multiple mentalities. Automated Voice Systems by Yoshi. "Yoshi laments the way automated voice-activated telephone systems are somehow programmed to be even MORE annoying than they used to be." Well, if they stop giving the customer what they want, maybe they'll stop calling. :)

and

Basic Courtesy by Jewboy. "Jewboy gets his bitch on about the way people behave. He starts with cellphones and goes from there." I hate cellphones too, not as much as my pager though.

RightWingNutHouse has praise for the New York Times?? Bartender, cut this man off.

Spirit Fingers is Sifting through the cutting room floor. "A glimpse of Bai Ling's scenes which George Lucas ended up deleting from the final version."

Practical Penumbra blames Harvey for yet another meme. Me, I blame France. :)

Pirate's Cove wonder's is it wrong to torment the Huffington Post for hotlinking... You may think it's evil, but rebuking the hotlinker is a work of fisking. (Let's see who paid attention in Sunday school)

The American Princess wonders who drinks a $20 martini. Well what did you expect you'd find when reading HuffPo?

Classical Values brings us Carrying the Culture War to Far? "(Prosthetic penis in the highway as a proxy for the culture war.)" I'm not even going to touch this one.

Thank you all... I'll be here all week. Tip your webhosts.

Posted by John Bambenek at 11:30 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack

A Handbook to the Political Left

David Horowitz has launched Discover the Network, a roadmap to the individuals, groups, and funding agencies that make up the left and how the are de facto aligned with radical Islamic terrorists to not only destroy Israel but the social institutions that make up America. It's a good primer for those wanting to follow the money.

Posted by John Bambenek at 6:50 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

The Al Qaeda handbook

Why am I not surprised?

Posted by John Bambenek at 6:44 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

Sham Conviction Thrown Out - Too Late to Matter

Court Overturns Arthur Andersen Conviction

I've always thought the conviction of Andersen was a scam. The Administration wanted a high profile target to take out and they started with Andersen. I found it particularly absurd that instead of prosecuting people at Andersen they prosecuted a company. They got their guilty verdict with jury instructions that said "If you think what they did was wrong, convict independent of laws being broken". Well, now that the conviction is thrown out what happens? Absolutely nothing. Andersen is cooked and is done for good regardless. Even if they get their accounting license back, what CFO is going to stand up and say "Hey, let's hire Andersen to be our accountants!"

The destroyed a company because they needed a public takedown, and now that it was exposed as a sham, they still win anyway because the company has already been annihilated.

** Note to the trolls - this is not to say nothing was done wrong, but that the prosecution of a company as if it was a person is pretty stupid and was clearly done to appease the public.

Posted by John Bambenek at 6:18 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Why Health Care is Cheap in Canada - The Value of a human life is $1.33

Canada Red Cross used HIV blood

The gist is that the Red Cross up there messed up and distributed HIV positive and Hepatitis infected blood and 3,000 people died as a result. In the ensuing case, it was found they were negligent and they face a fine of $4,000. That means they are liable for $1.33 per person killed.

In the US if they did this, do you think they'd get by with only a $4,000 slap?

Posted by John Bambenek at 5:59 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

FEC To Regulate Blogs?

FEC treads into sticky web of political blogs

The FEC is looking into how to track political spending on the Internet. The problem is when lawyers write these laws unintended consequences always arise. (Think "Alternative Minimum Tax"). If the FEC wants to track blogs that are part of campaigns or that get campaign moneys, I'm not broken up about that. The Online Coaltion has more. You know it must be bad if RedState and DailyKos are fired up another the SAME thing and are on the same side.

As an aside, has anyone else noticed the big cases that Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly ends up on? She also was the judge for the Microsoft case. She certainly is drawing quite a few big name cases. Look for her to keep rising in the courts.

You have til Friday to make your comments to the FEC which they ARE soliciting. Send your e-mails to internet@fec.gov, they will require a real name and a real mailing address. You can also submit here.

For more detailed instructions take a look at:
http://fec.redstate.org/story/2005/5/20/122244/721
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2005/5/23/103820/231

Posted by John Bambenek at 5:45 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

May 28, 2005

The World's Most Rocking 92 Year Old Woman

First Ever Seattle Heat-Warning Issued

Phyllis Cameron, 92, planned to keep cool with lots of iced tea and a few gin-and-tonics. "I'm just going to enjoy it on the chaise on my deck," said the lifelong Seattle resident.

How many 92 year olds do you know that will be hanging out with gin and tonic?

Posted by John Bambenek at 12:42 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack

May 26, 2005

Stop the ACLU - Selective Rights Protection

"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it."-Voltaire

The right to express unpopular opinions, advocate despised ideas(NAMBLA) and display graphic images is something the ACLU has steadfastly defended for all of its history. Exception: in the case for pro-lifers.

The ACLU's Reproductive Rights Project has a lot to do with why the ACLU is so reluctnat to defend the rights of anti-abortion protesters.

"With a $2 million dollar budget and a staff of 17 employees, Janet Benshoof was the Union's most devoted activist for abortion rights.....she became so overextended in her approach that she advocated mob pressure on the judiciary; she pushed for "pro-choice" activists to march on court rooms where abortion cases were being heard."Twilight of Liberty

To the ACLU, anti-abortion protesters are not seen in the same light as civil rights demonstrators in the 60's, but as lunatic fascists out to destroy freedom.

"Hence, the reluctance of the ACLU to defend principle, that is, the excersize of First Ammendment rights by anti-abortion activists. Ironically, real facists-like the American Nazis and Klansmen-have had thier rights protected more often and with greater vigor by the ACLU than anti-abortion demonstrators.Twilight of Liberty

Of course there are loonies in the anti-abortion movement, but that was true of the civil rights movement, the anti-war movement of the 60's, and even today in the "pro-choice" demonstrators. Every movement has it's fringe element. But while the ACLU was right on top in defending any violations of the law for all of these movements, when it comes to the opponents of abortion having their First Amendment rights violated by the authorities, the ACLU is completely absent.

Not even having the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act(RICO) thrown at anti-abortion protesters moved the ACLU into action.

The ACLU is nominally opposed to the RICO statute, and there are some senior members, like Washington official Antonio Califa, who are truly opposed to the invocation of RICO against any protesters, including opponents of abortion. However, due largely to the influence of Benshoof, the ACLU's record is grievously stained in this area.Twilight of Liberty

It was actually her suggestion in a booklet titled, "Preserving the Right to Choose: How to Cope with Violence and Disruption at Abortion Clinics." The ACLU would not tolerate the use of RICO against nuclear weapons dissedents, but in the case of anti-abortion protesters the matter is quite different. In fact, the ACLU has actually used the RICO against them. When pro-life demonstrators were sued under RICO in Philadelphia, the local chapter of the ACLU filed an amicus brief on behalf of the plaintiffs, the Northeast Women's Center.

The ACLU missed another opportunity to defend civil liberties in 1989 in West Harford, Connecticut. It was on June 17 that 261 persons were arrested, and then physically abused by police, for staging a sit-in.

The police used "come-a-long" holds, or "pain compliance holds", with a result that many claimed permanent nerve damage. Some were denied medical care, and others were not allowed phone calls for over two days. One woman had to have surgery after the police damaged her uterus. The ACLU did nothing.

When John Spear, a publisher of a small New York newspaper, wrote an editorial against police brutality, he too was slapped with a RICO suit. He was charged with extortion. The ACLU did nothing.

"Why do they still call it a civil liberties union?" commented ACLU member and nemesis Nat Hentoff. When pressed about cases like the West Hartford one, the ACLU typically responds that it can't get involved with the defense of antiabortion protesters because it is already committed ot the ise of the abortion clinics. When John Leo asked Alan Dershowitz, "Can it be that the affiliates sometimes deliberately involve themselves early on one side so they will have an excuse not to help victims on the other?" the Harvard Law professor replied, "Absolutely. They go to the pro-choice people and say, "Get us in right away, "thereby giving them the excuse of conflict of interest in the event they are contacted by the anti-abortion side. And what does the ACLU say when asked specifically about its duplicity regarding RICO? Lynn Paltrow, who worked for Benshoof, explained the Union's attitude: "Its ACLU policy to oppose application of RICO, but there are those on staff who feel that as long as RICO exists, this kind of behavior (Operation Rescue tactics) does fit." "In other words," as John Leo puts it, "RICO is totally bad, but sort of useful."Twilight of Liberty,

It looks pretty clear to me. In the eyes of the ACLU you the First Amendment protects child molesters, perverts, and facists, but not Pro-lifers! Quite hypocritical in my opinion.

This was a production of Stop The ACLU Blogburst! If you would like to join, it is very simple.

Sites Already on Board:

Stop The ACLU
Freedom Of Thought
Mad Tech
Respublica
The Wide Awakes
Angry Republican Mom
Kender's Musings
American Patriots
What Attitude Problem?
Life Trek
Gribbit's Word
Def Conservative
An American Housewife
A Tic In The Mind's Eye
Cao's Blog
Regular Ron
Freedom Of
Is This Life?
Patriots For Bush
California Conservative 4 Truth
NIF
Obiter Dictum
PBS Watch
Xtreme Right Wing
Daily Inklings
Miss Patriot
Jack Lewis.net
Conservative Dialysis
Conservative Angst
Kill Righty
American Warmonger
Birth Of A Neo-Con
The Nose On Your Face
The View From Firehouse
Ogre's View
Fundamentally right
Conservative Rant
My Political Soap Box
Common Sense Runs Wild
Redstate Rant
Time Hath Found Us
American Dinosaur
Merri Musings
And Rightly So
Sweet Spirits of Ammonia
Smithereen's Files
Pulpit Pounder
Ravings of J.C.B.
Is It Just Me?
Blogtalker
Parrot Check
Stuff You Should Know
Rancher Blog
Christmas Ghost
Vista On Current Events
Musing Minds
Pirate's Cove
Mr . Minority
The Lesser Of Two Evils
RAGE
The Life And Times

We are trying to raise money for full page ads and eventually commercials exposing the ACLU's radical agenda. Help us out! Buy a bumper sticker! Click Below To See Our Store!

Posted by John Bambenek at 2:31 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

Friday Fax - Ok we lied, we really are trying to push abortion

This Friday Fax brings us a document that admits people are pushing for legalized abortion as a human right everywhere by abusing the Beijing conference that explicitly did not make abortion a human right. They continue to parrot the lie that strict abortion laws lead to higher maternal mortality despite the fact that even they don't believe that any more. Here it is.

===========================================================
New Report Shows How Beijing Document Promotes Abortion

Merely two months after the close of the "Beijing +10" conference at the United Nations, where pro-abortion lobby groups and delegates from several countries vehemently denied that the 1995 Beijing Platform for Action supports a right to legal abortion, a prominent abortion advocacy group has released two briefing papers admitting that Beijing promotes legalized abortion.

In "Abortion and the Law: Ten Years of Reform," the Center for Reproductive Rights, the world's only organization of human rights lawyers focusing exclusively on abortion, states that Beijing "provides vital support to advocates seeking abortion law reform in their countries."

The report explains that Beijing, while not directly calling for legalized abortion, provides a "global commitment to stopping unsafe abortion." The report highlights Beijing's call upon governments to "to deal with the health impact of unsafe abortion as a major public health concern." According to the report, Beijing thus "link[ed] women's health to abortion law reform" and "affirmed what has become increasingly clear to governments and advocates worldwide: that removing legal barriers to abortion saves women's lives, promotes their health, and empowers women."

In its second recent briefing paper, "Beijing and International Law: UN Treaty Monitoring Bodies Uphold Reproductive Rights," CRR explains how Beijing supports the activities of other UN bodies that are pressuring countries to legalize their abortion laws. CRR states that Beijing "focuses primarily on the impact of unsafe abortion," and various UN treaty monitoring bodies have found illegal abortion to be unsafe.

According to CRR, such committees have "made the important connection between illegal, unsafe abortion and high rates of maternal mortality." According to these committees, "maternal mortality caused by unsafe abortion [is] a violation of women's rights to health and life." Thus, these committees argue that women's rights to life and health mandate legalized abortion.

CRR highlights activities of the Human Rights Committee (HRC), which monitors implementation of the 1966 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. The Covenant, created at a time when most countries banned abortion, does not refer to abortion in any way. However, HRC has nonetheless frequently used its ICCPR mandate to pressure countries to liberalize their abortion laws.

For example, in March 2005 HRC told Kenya that it is concerned about the "maternal mortality…caused, inter alia, by a high number of unsafe or illegal abortions," and stated that Kenya "should review its abortion laws."

In 2004 HRC told Poland that it "reiterates its deep concern about the restrictive abortion laws in Poland, which may incite women to seek unsafe, illegal abortion…the State Party should liberalize its legislation and practice on abortion."

Copyright 2005 - C-FAM (Catholic Family & Human Rights Institute).

Permission granted for unlimited use. Credit required.

Catholic Family & Human Rights Institute
866 United Nations Plaza, Suite 427
New York, New York 10017
Phone: (212) 754-5948 Fax: (212) 754-9291
E-mail: c-fam@c-fam.org Website: www.c-fam.org

Posted by John Bambenek at 2:03 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Carnival of the Vanities Up / Bonfire of the Vanities Hosted Here

The 140th Carnival of the Vanities is up at Alarming News.

I will be hosting #100 of the Bonfire of the Vanities on June 1st, looking forward to the entries when they come.

Posted by John Bambenek at 1:32 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Lashing Out

My friend over at Papa Familias pointed out some interesting MSM bias by classifying Cardinal Keeler's statement not going to Loyola's graduation as "lashing out". It's obviously ridiculous when you read the letter, but to show you what lashing out would be, I'll provide an example.

[Satire mode on]

Dear Doctor Haddad,

By inviting and honoring pro-abortion politicians you make clear that you have cashed in your spiritual inheritance in heaven and have chosen the way of the prodigal son. You have thrown your lot in with whores, idoloters, and drunkards. We pray that like the prodigal son you will return but until then we commit your body to satan that your soul may be saved."

THAT would be lashing out.

Posted by John Bambenek at 11:27 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

May 25, 2005

The Death of Democracy in the EU

EU call to re-run treaty referendums

"The countries which have said No will have to ask themselves the question again. And if we don't manage to find the right answer, the treaty will not enter into force," he said in an interview with the Belgian Le Soir newspaper.

The EU Treaty is not going to pass the referenda in France on the 29th. (It will also probably fail in the Netherlands and later in the UK). There is a large amount of public apathy and disdain for the EU and the response is hardly enthusiastic in any country when it comes to the UN. Every poll has shown that the public doesn't feel any connection to the EU and that the EU is not concerned for them, so in France they are going to reject it. Valéry Giscard d’Estaing who wrote the EU Constitution has said there can be no renegotiation of this treaty.

In a democracy, usually the government molds to the will of the people. If the EU were democractic it would mold to the will of the people. Instead the current President says that the poll should be re-run until the people answer correctly. It isn't the EU that needs to change, it's the people that need to change. That is no democracy.

The European Union Constitution is over 300 pages long, as opposed to the US Constitution which can fit in your pocket. People have no idea and no desire to read this entire document, they'll reject it because it takes a lawyer to decipher. The EU could have drafted a small document and passed laws instead, which is what the people wanted, but instead the EU went their own way and blame the people for voting against it. The EU is dying and the project is on life-support. It may come back later, but that depends on whether the bureaucrats listen and recognize that they need to be the Union the people wants them to be, not that the citizens need to be the citizens the bureaucrats want them to be. Time will tell whether they embrace democracy, try to impose the EU despite the objections, or abandon it all together.

Posted by John Bambenek at 10:49 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Traffic Generation for Your Blog - Get Traffic NOW!

I've been asked by several people how to generate traffic to their blogs. I'm on track to have 100,000 hits this month alone and I'm surprised by that also. There are two ways I did this, one posts and two traffic exchanges.

There is no substitute for high-quality posts and getting linked at high-volume sites (I've been linked at Instapundit and Michelle Malkin). You can do this by being the first to a story and doing just a little more digging and being first to a twist. The blogger that called "bullshit" on the Newsweek story got crazy traffic and many people, including myself, had the same amount of skepticism, he was just first. Also, posting and advertising your BEST posts (this is important) is key. Bulletin boards, mailing lists, etc. If the posts are crap, you'll get tuned out. If it's good, you'll get traffic. And good titles are key.

Below are links to traffic exchanges I use. There are three ways to generate traffic using these exchanges. (1) You can pay for it (and I'm assuming you won't so that's all I'm going to say about it). (2) You surf member blogs and get credit (usually 2 blogs visited gets you 1 blog visitor plus whatever bonuses they have). (3) Refer people and you get referral credits. I find that if you refer about 10-20 people, you'll have as much traffic as the maximum you would get if you did all the surfing yourself. These blog specific exchanges help you get an idea what's out there and gets you decent quality traffic to yours. You can also earn or buy banner ads and on some sites text ads. Because text ads don't seem to work well and my banner design skills are reputably poor, I get no traffic that way and have stopped trying.

You don't want to spend all day on just one of these. Most you will only get 50-100 visitors a day from regardless of how many credits you have (the credits do carry over though). You want to sign up for all or at least a handful. You can surf using all of these services at the same time however. For instance, if you did only BlogSoldiers, you could get 1.5 visitors a minute. If you did Blogsoldiers, BlogClicker, and BlogXChange simultaenously, you get 4.5 visitors a minute. You want to sign up for all you can and surf using as many as you can at once. Some of the people visiting will become permanent readers and that is your goal. Not everyone uses all of them, so being on all of them gives you the widest exposure.

Here are the exchanges (please follow links if you sign up so I get referral credit):

BlogExplosion is the gold standard for blog exchanges. You have a 30 second wait on sites and it seems to have the best blogs on it. They also have a blog rocket which allows you to get some traffic that is independent of your surfing.

BlogSoldiers is new but I've had very good luck with it. It's a good place to get noticed. It only has a 20 second wait on the sites. You can get text links and banner ads, I find the text links aren't as effective.

BlogClicker I like less but still works. I seem to get the most referrals out of this one for whatever reason. Also a 20 second timer.

Blogxchange has a nice new look. You also get 100 credits just for signing up and viewing some minimum of sites. 20 second timer.

BlockCrowd also has a 20 second timer and only works when the blog is maximized and the active window.

BlogAzoo is also popular with many sites out there. Has a 20 second timer.

Blog Mad is new and just released. It has a snazzy interface and is very easy to earn credits with. Highly recommended.

Blogadvance is new and is probably the best collection of good blogs of any of the exchanges. The make an effort to keep a good variety of blogs in circulation so that you don't get the same 5 blogs 15 times an hour.

Posted by John Bambenek at 1:12 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack

May 23, 2005

No Restriction is Too Small - How the Supreme Court Enables Child Rapists

No restriction is too small for the Supreme Court to rule unconstitutional if it prevents a raped 9 year old from getting an abortion to cover up for her rapist. No restriction can be allowed to prevent minors from having abortions.

In all things, until you are 18, you are a child with parents who make decisions for you. You can't get a tattoo, you can't choose your school, you can't get a credit card, you can't even go on a school field trip unless your parents say ok. But if you want an abortion, and only if you want an abortion, are you suddenly charged with power to make your own decisions. This is the kind of judicial stupidity imposed upon society by the juristocracy.

Of course, the ACLU is trying to overturn this law. The heroes of freedom at the ACLU want to make sure that all child predators are free and clear when it comes to impregnating kids and getting away with it (* see footnotes). Planned Parenthood even glorifies young girls dating (and having sex with) older men on their own website for kids.

- Sources that indicate as the age of the impregnanted girl goes down, the age of the father goes up.

· Males M, Chew K, "The Ages of Fathers in California Adolescent Births, 1993," American Journal of Public Health, 1996, 86(4):565-568

· Males, "Adult involvement in teenage childbearing and STD," The Lancet, 1995, 346:64-65.

· Montfort, Sue, Brick, Peggy. Unequal Partners, Second Edition. The Center for Family Life Education, Planned Parenthood of Greater northern New Jersey, Inc.: Morristown, NJ, 2000.

Posted by John Bambenek at 9:04 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Google worth more than GM and Disney Combined

Drudge has been following the outrageous valuation of Google. You can see the charts here, but in essense, the market values Google more than GM and Disney combined.

The dot-com boom isn't over folks, not with insane valuations like this. Google is a search engine, they have no theme parks, no factories, and so on. The dot-com bust was caused by crazy valuations that were realized to be myths. This valuation is that much more of a myth.

Posted by John Bambenek at 9:00 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

You Knew It Was Coming

Senators Avert Showdown Over Filibusters

You knew this was coming. 14 Senators (7 from each party) got together and decided how the filibuster thing was going to play. Many of the nominees will now get their nods and head to the bench. It's unclear who will not get the nod, and the 7 Dems agree not to filibuster except in extreme circumstances. (Would that be if Clearance Thomas gets appointed to Chief Justice, what about if Alberto Gonzales gets nominated, who knows). I don't blame them for cutting the deal, it was too easy for so few to get that many more cookies for having that kind of power on a heated issue. Not to mention the press time the GOP centrists will get with the liberals swooning over them, and both sides having what could be a face-saving out.

I'm not broken up about this too much. We'll see how it plays but I would rather have actually SEEN a filibuster take place before all this went down. The true test will be what happens when there are Supreme Court vacancies, then we'll see what this deal really means.

Posted by John Bambenek at 8:51 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

May 20, 2005

Where Can I Find the "With us or Against Us" Speech by Bush

I'm trying to find the actual transcript of that speech... where can I find it?

UPDATE: Found it, missed it the first time I looked through the 9/20 speech.

Posted by John Bambenek at 9:48 AM | Comments (5) | TrackBack

May 19, 2005

Friday Fax - Racist UN Continuing To Try To Exterminate Africa with AIDS

There is one thing that has proven to work to stop AIDS, sexual fidelity. Condoms and sexual education programs have only INCREASED the AIDS infection rate in Africa. The UN knows this but still supports sex education, more abortion, and more condoms. Is it because they want to kill off Africans?

====
FRIDAY FAX

May 20, 2005
Volume 8, Number 22

UN AIDS Conference Threatens to Push for Increased Access to Abortion

On June 2, the UN will host a high-level conference to evaluate the
progress achieved in combating HIV/AIDS since 2001, when countries adopted
the Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS. An emerging strategy by
abortion advocates has been to seek liberalization of abortion laws as
what they claim is a necessary step to HIV/AIDS prevention. The conference
threatens to result in further pressure on governments to forge linkages
between access to abortion and efforts to halt the spread of HIV.

A discussion paper for the conference advocates the "integration of
sexual and reproductive health and HIV/AIDS" and states that "sexual and
reproductive health services is a clear strategic entry point for
maximizing the impact of HIV prevention efforts." The paper also ties
abortion rights to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the UN's major
current initiative, stating that "ensuring access to sexual and
reproductive health information and services...is essential for achieving
the Millennium Development Goals."

"Reproductive health services" and similar expressions are understood
by the UN to include abortion. For example, the UN Millennium Project
study on ways to increase progress towards the MDGs states in a report,
under the subtitle "Full access to sexual and reproductive health
information and services...," that " A comprehensive district health
system...includes safe abortion services."

The discussion paper for the June 2 conference cites the Millennium
Project study to recommend that "Governments incorporate universal access
to reproductive and sexual health services as an integral part of their
response to AIDS."

The paper also cites as authoritative two recent manifestos produced by
the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) together with abortion activists and other
UN agencies. The Glion Call to Action urges countries to "strengthen
commitment to achieving universal access to reproductive health services,
including family planning, and recognize and support the contribution of
these services to HIV/AIDS prevention efforts."

The New York Call to Commitment further calls for "strengthening of the
policy and programme linkages between HIV/AIDS and sexual and reproductive
health" and states that the MDGs "will not be achieved without ensuring
universal access to sexual and reproductive health services and
programmes."

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, in his preparatory report for the June
2 conference, also approves of the New York Call to Commitment, saying
that it "articulates a comprehensive framework to maximize the use of
sexual and reproductive health services to strengthen the global AIDS
response." Earlier, in a report for the Conference on Population and
Development, Annan had stated that "The United Nations and its partners
are expected to intensify programme linkages between HIV programmes and
sexual and reproductive health services."

Copyright 2005 - C-FAM (Catholic Family & Human Rights Institute).
Permission granted for unlimited use. Credit required.

Catholic Family & Human Rights Institute
866 United Nations Plaza, Suite 427
New York, New York 10017
Phone: (212) 754-5948 Fax: (212) 754-9291
E-mail: c-fam@c-fam.org Website: www.c-fam.org

Posted by John Bambenek at 6:05 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

StopTheACLU BlogBurst - The ACLU wants legalized and unregulated prostitution

The ACLU wants free and clear unregulated prostitution. There's one minor problem. Aside of the high-end ones, most prostitutes are there because (1) they are beaten into submission to do it, or (2) are drug addicts, or (3) both. So instead of dealing with battered women or drug addictions they suggest that we just legalize the whole thing. Who cares if the woman is getting beaten by her pimp... two consenting adults right?

The blogburst is below.

====
The ACLU’s Policy 211 is straightforward.

“The ACLU supports the decriminalization of prostitution and opposes state regulation of prostitution”.

They
base their argument on several points, including that existing laws are
discriminating against women, and the right of individual privacy. They
argue that what two consenting adults in private do is their own business.

Prostitution is private? But isn’t the prostitute engaging in a business, isn’t she providing a service?
Would we not regulate and license a business? You wouldn’t want a
general contractor to work on your house without a license would you?
That would be unsafe as is an unregulated prostitute.

However,
the ACLU doesn’t believe in that philosophy. The question of privacy
comes in if the government is allowed to regulate the oldest profession.

The ACLU, in the name of “privacy rights,”
also opposes such things as curfew ordinances for juveniles (Policy
#206), sobriety road checks (#217), locker searches in high schools for
illegal drugs (#76), and searches of people boarding airplanes (#270).
The ACLU wants to remove all metal detectors in airports.

As
for it being a privacy issue, it seems a contradiction to me when they
also state that the “public” solicitation of prostitution is “entitled to the protection of the First Amendment”.

“It’s not just the bedroom that the ACLU wishes to make
off-limits to public censure, but also the local street corner,
presumably even if that corner is regularly used by school children
crossing the street.” source

Privacy
applies to two consenting adults when no contract is involved; a date
with no expectation of performance is a far cry from paying for a
service.

And what good would it do for women’s rights to
decriminalize this? One could argue that women should not be punished
for their own exploitation. But how does decriminalizing pimps, buyers,
procurers, brothels or other sex establishments offer any solution to
this? Decriminalization would do nothing but expand the sex industry
and send a message to society that it is acceptable. And a system
unregulated would do nothing for women’s health, and would only promote
the spread disease.

The more I learn about the ACLU, the more
I am convinced that they want to establish a new society based on
everything immoral. They are blinded by their elitist ideology to the
point they can’t even conceive of the possible consequences that will
result if they are enacted. The scary thing is that they hold so much
power, and lack so much responsibility. They must be stopped.

Sort of Cross posted at Stop the Aclu

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The Great Illinoisian Tax Swap

Cal Skinner sent me a link to this calculator that will show you based on where you live how much the average tax payer with an average home will pay in taxes compared to the old system. Here's the catch... don't own a home? You will pay 60-67% MORE in Illinois income tax. You do own a home? The offset in property tax relief will be less than the income tax relief except in very specific circumstances.

So here you have doublespeak at its finest where there is a 60-67% income tax hike, a 30% rate cut for ONE PART of property taxes, almost everyone pays more, and our Illinois politicians call it a TAX CUT. Hint... when you pay more, it's not a tax cut.

Posted by John Bambenek at 5:23 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

May 18, 2005

Blaming Karl Rove is so 2004 Apparently...

The press has demonstrated why a growing number of people don't believe in the free press. In response to the Newsweek controversy of reporting a false story about Koran flushing (KoranGate), you'd think they'd be apologetic. Oh no, the MSM went on full offensive against the White House, despite the fact the truth is on the President's side.

The press corps became unhinged when Scott McClennan suggested Newsweek help repair the damage. "Who made you the editor of Newsweek?"

Today, MSNBC's own blogger suggests that the proper way to quell the controversy is for Scott McClennan to resign. Somehow Scott is responsible for Jeff Gannon getting a pass into the news room. But the most damning thought of the whole post is that somehow Gen. Myers and Scott McClennan's statements are irreconcilable. He admits the absurdity of desecrating a Koran in order to get people to talk.

Gen. Myers said the riots were related to the ongoing political reconciliation process, Scott McClennan said the Newsweek story lead to the loss of lives. Let me check something.

Those look like Koran's they are holding in a peaceful protest against the Newsweek article. Here's a phrase that might help; "fueling the fire". Sure, there were riots before the Newsweek article ran, but once that article did run the radicals took it and showed it to the people saying "the Americans really ARE desecrating our Koran's, even the American media says that".

Apparently though, because Jeff Gannon was in the press room (hint: I can get a press pass into the press room) the administration can no long complain about Newsweek running false and inflammatory articles that provide aid and comfort to the enemy. How many people died because of Jeff Gannon again? It's as if Keith Olbermann is asking us to boycott Newsweek's advertisers, or for that matter, boycott GE itself.

Blaming Scott McClennan for Newsweek running a false story that shouldn't have passed the smell test was like CBS blaming Karl Rove for running forged documents to prove Bush didn't do his Guard duty. The public is watching, and the trust in the MSM has just gone that much lower. There is no point to having a free press in this country if the press, instead of informing the public with real information, is going to be a sounding board for Al Qaeda. At least of we outsource the media to Al Jazeera we know what to expect.

This article first appeared at Ravings of John C. A. Bambenek

Posted by John Bambenek at 9:16 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

COTV #139 Up

Check it out. Here.

Posted by John Bambenek at 8:56 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Handler Diary up

Many hours late, I've finally gotten the Handlers Diary up for today over at the Internet Storm Center. It's late not, so I'm not going to post on some more Newsweek stuff now, maybe tomorrow.

Posted by John Bambenek at 1:10 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

May 17, 2005

On Dealing Seriously With Journalistic Fraud

In the light of KoranGate and the meme of "Fake but Plausible" we should take a moment to reflect on the story that blew the top on fraud in Journalism, RatherGate. Yes, that story where obviously forged documents were used to try to discredit the President during an election (you know, the ones that had P.O. Box 12345 in the header). CBS took seriously the allegations as well did the rest of the journalistic community.

Today, the journalistic community has expressed its righteous indignation that one journalist has so given into the Democrats that he ran a false story by awarding Dan Rather the Peabody Award. It's good to know that media organizations take bias and fraud seriously.

Posted by John Bambenek at 4:13 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Newsweek Kills People, Tells the World To Piss Off

The hubris, the absolute hubris of Newsweek over this... From Drudge:

"Mike was told he would not be sacrificed, we are stading behind him 100%," a top magazine source told the DRUDGE REPORT. "We do not, I repeat, do not let this White House, any White House, make our staff decisions for us." The top source claims an emotional Isikoff offered to resign from the magazine over the weekend....

Guys, you ran a false story you didn't even bother to fact check and 17 people died because of it. 17 fathers, mothers, sons, and daughters won't be coming home to their families because of YOUR failure to do basically journalistic work. Isikoff appears to have a conscience in this story and I do feel sorry for him because it's obviously a horrible thing to realize what you have caused but the management of Newsweek sticking their middle-finger up at the world and to America only demonstrates that treasonous and seditious nature of the MSM (and Newsweek in particular) over KoranKate

Posted by John Bambenek at 9:59 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

May 16, 2005

Desperation Sets In - Fake but Plausible

Andrew Sullivan (who I am loathe to link to) has the fake but plausible accusation. The left is SO desperate to believe that George Bush is the devil and we are imperialist wackos they'll grasp to any illusion and claim it is true, or if it is not true that it should be.

Seymour Hersh, Naomi Klein, and others were saying at IIMPR that civil war is beginning in Iraq, even though many insurgents aren't even Iraqis. This is not to say we are doing brilliantly in Iraq, but let's be honest, Syria, Iran, and Saudi Arabia are all anxiously sending people across the borders to fight us.

The left in this country has become disconnected with the truth and they are willing to grasp to any lie that supports their point. "Fake but plausible"? Hardly. This isn't a gift "from the administration to Osama Bin Laden", this was a gift from the liberal media and Newsweek to Osama Bin Laden.

Posted by John Bambenek at 6:37 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

International Webloggers Day - June 14th

International Webloggers Day is coming up on June 14th... watch this space for more details.

Posted by John Bambenek at 6:09 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

KoranGate: What did they know and when did they know it?

I first got wind of the flushing Koran story at IIMPR when Naomi Klein was talking about strategic leaking and how torture is meant to cause fear and not effective at interrogation which is largely correct ( read more here). She then mentioned the flushing Koran story. My first thought was that any chump would know fear wouldn't be the reaction to a desecration like that, rage would be. If someone flushed a Bible I wouldn't be afraid that someone would grab me in the middle of the night, I'd be outraged. And that's exactly the reaction that took place. We learn that it WAS strategic leaking, but of a different kind.

Read the news here, here, here. and so on. A retraction was finally published. It was revealed that the accusation came from one solitary anonymous source who couldn't corroborate his claim. I think this guy knew full well what the reaction would be and he strategically leaked it to cause the riots and realized that Muslims would be skeptical of any backtracking. Newsweek is investigating, but just like Rathergate, heads really need to role. Dan Rather just made a false run at a sitting President with crap. This time people died because of MSM politics (as Michelle Malkin puts it Newsweek lied and people died. They're so desperate for ANYTHING, they'll run with it with shobby reporting. They'll take any accusation from any disgruntled government figure who wants to beat on the man. There needs to be a real investigation here.

This story is just another episode in a long trend of the seditious liberal media. We had the false story that all the Iraqi museums were looted only to find it was more like a few dozen pieces probably by museum workers. We found Dan Rather ran with forged documents. We find Newsweek ran with a spotty source. We had Seymour Hersh take evidence of an ongoing criminal investigation where people were already indicted and publish it in the press as breaking news. We've had plagarists and we've had circulation number embellishments.

At IIMPR people complained about the lack of trust in the media. That lack of trust has been earned by these high profile stories where it turns out the reporters lied, misrepresented, or didn't do their job. Newsweek needs to be held accountable that's why I'm asking that everyone link (i.e. Googlebomb) to Newsweek with the word "Korangate" in the title.

More here.

Posted by John Bambenek at 5:26 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Mind & Media Reviewer

I was notified over the weekend that my application to become a Mind & Media reviewer has been accepted. Essentially I review books that people submit to be publicized and blog about it. The books on there look pretty good, and the first one I'll be reviewing is:

If interested in applying to be a reviewer yourself, see this entry.

Posted by John Bambenek at 11:38 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

May 13, 2005

Military Base Closings in Illinois

From CNN

Illinois:

Armed Forces Reserve Center, Carbondale
Navy Reserve Center, Forest Park

Those two bases are going to be closed in Illinois. Blagojevich and Madigan have threated to file lawsuits to stop any base from closing in Illinois in attempt to waste not only Illinois tax dollars, but federal tax dollars in the litigation.

It. Is. Not. Up. To. You.

Posted by John Bambenek at 11:08 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Divisiveness

People (usually the Left) complain about the divided country and how Republicans are wedging groups against other groups. But then you hear Democrats refusing to visit family in red states and so on.

The next time a Democrat complains that Bush is promoting divisiveness, point out Buy Blue which is a website dedicated to getting people to buy only to "approved" companies that donate only to their candidates.

Now I have no problem with this. People SHOULD exercise their consumer choice, but I'm just pointing out the irony. The only reason the nation is so bitterly divided is because THEY made it so.

Posted by John Bambenek at 8:57 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack

Stop the ACLU : Count Every Felon's Vote (for Democrats)

From Stop the ACLU ACLU Wants To Extend Voting Rights To Felons