September 8, 2004 by s.z.

And In Non-Wingnut News . . .  As a break from all the stupidity, you might want to check out Frederick's BeatBushBlog today.  Recent stuff includes a heart-breaking letter from a woman whose brother died in Iraq -- after his release date had been extended; the story of how the former head of the Medicare agency, Thomas A. Scully, must repay seven months of his salary to the government because the Bush administration illegally withheld data from Congress on the cost of the new Medicare law; and fun with poll results.  And more! 9:43:22 AM

Townhall Vs Renew America (Now broken into two chunks, for easier commenting.) Not since Gamera Vs. Mothra has there been a battle this goofy.  So, let's start with the Goliath in this fight, the colossus known as Townhall. TheTownhall Reigning Champs Jonah Goldberg   Jonah explains that those who criticize Republican "average Joes" for voting against their own interests are wrong.  See, it's in everyone's interest to vote for policies that help the rich, because you'll probably be joining their ranks any day now.  And won't somebody think of the children? In the June issue of the American Prospect, Bartels summarizes his study "Homer Gets a Tax Cut." Here's the gist: Americans believe, by huge majorities, that income inequality is a problem that is getting worse. Yet by equally large majorities they support George Bush's effort to repeal the estate tax, even though it only affects estates worth more than $1 million. The fools! Bartels says these voters are operating on "unenlightened self-interest." Hence the reference to "The Simpsons." Homer thinks his taxes are too high, so he supports a tax cut for super-rich Mr. Burns. As Simpsons-o-phile, I salute the reference. Jonah salutes it, but believes that Homer SHOULD support a tax cut for Mr. Burns -- because since Homer owns a house, his interests align with those of Burns and Reiner Wolfcastle, rather than with slobs who merely rent, like Carl and Lennie. In an age when average Joes are in the stock market and own homes at unprecedented rates, it is not obvious to me that Republican policies are contrary to their bottom lines. See, everyone who owns their own house can benefit from the abolition of the "death tax" on $1 million-plus inheritances. Moreover, many of these people hope to be rich one day. Or they hope their children will be.  Therefore, it's in their best interests to make life easier for George Bush's friends.  And to kick out immigrants because the Bear tax is so high. Michelle Malkin Because the PC media refrains from saying that Islam is a murderous religious cult, we will never win the war on terrorism. Contrast the media whitewashing of our Islamofascist enemies with the press coverage of the Waco, Texas, siege in 1993  [...] A Nexis search of the terms "Branch Davidian" and "religious" and "cult" in The New York Times for the year 1993 yielded 151 hits. The vast majority of these references were in headlines and news articles, as opposed to editorials, letters or book reviews. A Nexis search of the terms "al Qaeda" and "religious" and "cult" in The New York Times for the year 2004 yielded just one article -- a magazine piece in March.  A Google search of the terms "Ku Klux Klan" and "racist" comes up with 33,600 hits, the vast majority of them making reference to the Klan's racism.  However, a Google search of the terms "Davey and Goliath" and "satanic" and "porn" comes up with only 9 hits, none which deal with the puppets allegiance to Satan, or the video they made for Rich Santorum.  I think this proves that Google is sanitizing information under orders from its master, Lucifer. How are we to win a war against blood-spattered enemies whom our own free press continues to protect through politically correct sanitization? It's obvious that we can't!  Therefore, we must intern the media until the war is over, for our own protection.  While not all of them are working for the enemy, this is no time to worry about individual guilt or innocence, so the internment must include those who write for Townhall, since some of them allegedly are journalists, and others look kinda non-Caucasian. Brent Bozell The media is not only keeping us from winning the war on terra (see above), it is also dedicated to electoral overthrow of George Bush, which is, by definition, treason. Tom Brokaw ended his special Sunday night anchoring duties with a little commentary charging that the Republicans' decision to feature "middle of the road" speakers, in contrast to the party's "hard right" positions, was "the political equivalent of a popular con game in this tough town, three-card monte." [...] But the real convention "con game" was the media's attempt to present themselves as "moderate" analysts when in fact they are hard-core liberals dedicated to the electoral overthrow of George W. Bush.  Hey, Brent, Michelle's internment camp plan for the media answer your complaints too. Mary Katharine Ham Mary Katharine, a young editor of the The Heritage Foundation's Insider magazine, meets a guy in a bar who horribly insults her. In my 24 years, I had never met a man who told me to my face I was inferior to him because I was a woman—until last weekend.     It happened in a Capitol Hill bar on Friday night. I was introduced to a friend of a friend. He asked where I worked, and his eyebrows flew up at the mere mention of  The Heritage Foundation. The nerve of his eyebrows, reacting to Mary Katherine's employment that way! Anyway, it turns out that he is a Democrat.  She, of course, is a God-fearing Republican, so they are complete opposites.  The sparks fly, just like between Sam and Diane on "Cheers."  “All right,” I said, “as a young person working on Capitol Hill, making a modest sum of money, what do you and the Democratic Party have to offer me? What are you gonna do to help me move from one class to another?”     Brad looked at me as if the answer were self-evident. I raised my eyebrows and waited for his answer.     “Well, you know, as a female…”  You can imagine Mary Katherine's outrage, because she does NOT need any special breaks, like equal pay for equal work, just because she is female.  No, she wants the RICH to get the special breaks, so when she moves to the upper class, she will be able to crush the little people (see Jonah, above).  I explained to Brad that I simply don’t believe I need the help of men like him and the government to make it in life, nor am I up for forking over my tax dollars to cheapen my achievements with a special set of girly rules. Are you as turned on as she is? Kathleen Parker  Everything is going badly for Kerry.  First, the Republican convention was perfect.  Then, he criticized Dick Cheney's deferments -- thus offending middle-aged, privileged guys who had other priorities in the war and who are now Vice President, a key demographic group.  And then Bill Clinton upstaged Kerry by arranging to have heart blockage just a couple of months before the election.  Kerry should just concede to Bush right now. Kerry is having a Groundhog Day of ineptitude. "W stands for wrong" is rubbing the cat's fur backward, a punch line without a joke. Um, Kathleen, the joke was "W stands for Women."  Which is pretty funny, I have to admit. Well, that was impressive.  But let's see what the Renew America team has to offer 8:18:04 AM

The Renew America Challengers Jen "Pinky" Shroder Jen, still leading her crusade against the 8th grade social studies book that covers Islam as part of the World Religions section, makes a citizen's arrest of California's school districts. Meanwhile, California's public education system insists on teaching the doctrine of Islam as peaceful, even as Islamists demonstrate patterns of slaughtering Americans and bombing the World Trade Center per the Koran and Sira. The Islamists have demonstrated a pattern of bombing the World Trade Center?  Why wasn't I told about this? THEREFORE, I charge that California school districts are guilty of California Penal Code: 186.20, the "California Street Terrorism Enforcement and Prevention Act." Islamists are no more than a unified street gang of international proportions. Then obviously we've been dealing with them all wrong -- we should have taken away their cigarettes, prohibited them from singing and dancing to jazzy Bernstein scores, and appointed an international Officer Krupke to bring them in. And not only are our school districts guilty of aiding street gangs, our teachers are terrorists. Obviously our teachers don't intend to actually engage in terrorist conduct, but they don't need to in order to violate their own code, section 422. California's Supreme Court has ruled "the threatener may have no intent actually to engage in the threatened conduct. The threat is sufficient if it induces a "sustained fear." In re David L. (1991) 234 Cal.App.3d 1655 Is America, with our elevated terrorist warnings and ramped up airport security et al., experiencing "sustained fear?" We sure are, pouring millions of dollars into security and calling for emergency congressional meetings And if people like Annie Jacobsen are terrified of Moslems, then under their own law, California's teachers are guilty of terrorism for teaching kids about Islam.  Prosecuting them should keep John Ashcroft busy until after the election. Judson Cox But Judson can top Jen's accusations, for, as the title of his column proclaims, "My college supports treason and terrorism!" On August 25th of this year, I went back to college. I chose Lees McRae College, a small, Presbyterian college in the mountains of North Carolina.  I guess he got kicked out of Liberty University for blaming his mother for that conservative dating scam.  But I wonder why he chose Lees McRae instead of Harvard or Stanford? Anyway, Judson says he knew going in that his new school, being a school, would be liberal, and therefore, anti-capitalist and anti-American -- and he's this confirmed already, despite being in class for only a week.  But what he didn't expect was that his college would be using his tuition money to support terrorism! Hezbollah, the terrorist organization responsible for the most American deaths prior to 9/11, has offered to distribute Michael Moore's propagandist work in Muslim countries. Hezbollah recognizes "Fahrenheit 9/11" as a tool to recruit terrorists to kill Americans. Moore, whose hatred of America is as extreme as any member of al Qaeda, is pleased to fill the role of propagandist for our enemies. By blatantly providing aid and comfort to our enemies, Michael Moore is committing very high profile treason. Using student funds to pay for a College Program that includes "Fahrenheit 9/11" is comparable to writing a check to Osama bin Laden. Let's follow Judson's logic: Michael Moore made a movie which Hezbollah has allegedly offered to distribute in Muslim countries, reportedly because Hezbollah hates Bush.  This means that Moore provided "aid and comfort to our enemies," which is treason.  So, by showing Moore's movie, Lees McRae college is guilty of terrorism and treason -- just like how Amazon.com is guilty of genocide for selling Wagner CDs, since Hitler was a big fan of Wagner's music.   I cannot tolerate my tuition being used to support America's enemies. I support academic freedom, the free exchange of ideas and a healthy debate, but I should not have to compromise my loyalties just to gain a diploma. It may be too late for me to withdraw from college and receive a refund of my tuition. Wow, that's the best excuse yet I've heard for dropping out of college after realizing that one can't cut it. Judson Cox is a political columnist from the mountains of North Carolina. He is quickly gaining recognition as one of the most popular and influential voices of his generation.  You know, in the year I've been following his work, I haven't yet heard somebody from his generation claim that he's both popular and influential. His fiercely independent style and pugilistic wit make for a column that is always entertaining, often inspiring, and frequently "laugh out loud" funny.  But I do agree that his work is frequently "laugh out loud" funny -- I just don't know if I'm laughing at the parts he intended to be humerous. Carey "Gramps" Roberts Carey uses the dismissal of the case against Kobe Bryant to talk about (other) false rape charges. Rape, of course, is a horrific crime. And the act of rape is just as terrible as making a false accusation of rape. The study which Carey cites to show that false rape charges are common, also shows that none of the men falsely charged were convicted of rape -- and, in fact, these men were only suspects for day or two before the women recanted their claims.  So, using the information Carey provided, it's obvious that there is no comparison between what the victim of a false accusation suffers compared to what a rape victim does, and only a complete moron would claim that making a false rape accusation is just as bad as raping someone.  (Of course, men actually have gone to jail because of false rape claims -- and in these cases, the women should be prosecuted.  But more commonly, women who have actually been raped rely on the police to find their assailants, and the police and prosecution have identified the wrong person, and men have spent years in prison for crimes they didn't commit -- which is a horrible miscarriage of justice, and those men are indeed victims deserving of our sympathy.  But since Carey chose a study where nobody was greatly inconvenienced by the false rape charges so he could claim, "One study found that 41% of women who had reported rape to the police later admitted the allegation was false," then he should have to make his point, using the data from that study, about why making a false accusation is as terrible as rape.) For years, the law defined rape as "forced sex without consent." All that changed in 1979, when New Jersey passed the so-called N.O.W. act. Under that law, "sexual assault" was defined as "an act of sexual penetration with another person [when] [t]he actor uses physical force or coercion." Imagine that being parsed in front of a sympathetic jury. With such an expansive and ambiguous definition, many, if not most instances of non-marital intercourse could be construed to constitute rape. It's a good thing that Carey is not part of the dating scene these days if he thinks that most instances of non-marital intercourse involve physical force or coercion (which is defined as "compulsion by force or threat"). And that's our Renew America demonstration for today.  I think it's pretty clear that Michelle Malkin would be more at home playing on their team than Townhall, and that if she switched sides, Renew America would win the wingnuttery championship hands down.   5:56:00 AM