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Friday, August 15, 2003
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Perhaps you've heard about the George W. Bush action figure (small choking-hazard parts included). Never mind that the AWOL-in-Chief saw more "action" in the Skull and Bones Society...
Now, finally, someone has come out with an action figure that truly represents Shrub's service to our great nation:
Texas ANG George W Bush Action Figure
Description:
Why wait until the redesign of Mount Rushmore?
Now you can own a piece of American history; the Texas Air National Guard George W Bush Action Figure.
This figure probably stands 14" in height, and is exactly as the future Leader of the Western World(tm) appeared during his service defending our Nation's borders from Mexicans and Bahamians.
Comes with detailed uniform (as imagined by base commander), sealed discharge papers, Coors Light keg, and "licensed to chug" bumper sticker.
Now you can have George in your home every day, even after November 2004!
This fully pose-able action figure of the Commander in Chief is likely correct down to the slightest detail. Our highly skilled Chinese craftspeople have been in the action figure industry for years, and trained under a generous re-education program. They make the best, most desirable action figures in the Free Market, or die tryin'!
Winning bidder will be notified of upcoming GWBANG accessories; pile of dried branches, action pretzel, overstuffed bags with "$" printed on them, blindfold, bible with real, highlighted passages, and earplugs.
The winning bidder will also receive TWO bonus gifts: the George W. Bush "Afternoon of September 11th 2001" tennis ensemble, and a genuine “First Lady Laura Bush Serving Sandwiches at a VA Hospital” action figure!
Supplies are limited; don't let yours disappear!
GOD BLESS AMERICA!
Hurry, bidding is already up to $58.00! (I'm not kidding!)
Whoops! Update: eBay, in all its wisdom, pulled the auction for violating Terms of Use, without telling the seller why.
Figures.
Posted 10:15:26 AM  Send comment
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Why does this not surprise me?
Air Force Drops Charges Against Officer Accused of Raping Academy Cadet. PETERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Colo. (AP) - The Air Force has dropped sexual assault charges against an officer accused of raping an Air Force Academy cadet last year, but he still faces administrative punishment, his lawyer said Friday. "We're pleased that the commander followed the advice of the investigating officer. We believe this is a fair and just outcome," said lawyer Frank Spinner. If Second Lt. Ronen Segal had been convicted of the criminal charges, he could have faced a life sentence and dismissal from the Air Force. He still could be disciplined by the academy because he allegedly provided alcohol to the cadet, who was under age. Segal, a 2002 Air Force Academy graduate assigned to the North American Aerospace Defense Command, was the second man associated with the academy to be charged with rape since February, when dozens of female cadets began coming forward to say they had been attacked. ... Segal was accused of attacking the cadet at his Colorado Springs home on Aug. 25 after a night of drinking. The charges were dropped after the investigating officer said the woman was capable of giving or withholding consent and "did not in any way object to or resist" sex, the Air Force said Thursday, according to The Gazette of Colorado Springs. ... At a three-day hearing last month, the woman testified she had become friends with Segal when she was a freshman at the academy and he was a senior. She said she went to his home after he sent her an e-mail asking to get together. She testified she didn't remember what happened after they drank wine and began kissing. She said she came to during the rape. [Associated Press, August 8, 2003]
So, let's see: If you get her drunk 'til she blacks out, then she's "capable of giving or withholding consent," and you can have sex with her before she regains her senses, so it's not really rape, right? And, hey, as long as she's out of commission, who's to know what she did or didn't say, right? And, anyway, you're an officer! How dare she accuse an officer (who's just liquored up an inferior too young to drink) of not having full rights to her body after she let you kiss her? Everybody know that automatically gives you the right to do anything you want. Never mind any silly, outmoded ideas about "responsibility" or "honor." This is the military, maggot! WE OWN YOU!
Is it just me, or is there something wrong here?
Posted 10:11:45 AM Send comment
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"As you know I have been here a few months ago and I was here to promote fitness for our children (cheers) ... and I told you then already I'll be back (cheers), well I am back (cheers) ... and I am back here for the most important reason of all, which is to pump up the votes for George Bush (loud cheers), and of course, of course, we don't have to talk about the Democratic candidates. right? No (booing)... They all look like a bunch of girlie men, huh?"
Arnold Schwarzenegger
1992 campaign rally for George W. Bush
Want to hear it?
Seems the puffed-up muscle mutant really likes that phrase. He used it in a 1999 interview with Entertainment Tonight:
"If you have the right personality and if you really come across strongly on the screen, those things can never out-perform you. But let them be scared, those little girly-men in Hollywood."
And this is the "socially liberal conservative" who's "pro-gay," huh?
Methinks somebody is a bit insecure about his own steroid-inflated machismo.
Give it a rest, Arnie. You've grabbed enough ass to prove your heterosexuality, okay?
Posted 10:08:38 AM Send comment
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A miracle, yes, but one that seems to require force:
CNN's Cafferty pleads guilty to hit-run in New York. Like most journalists, CNN morning anchor Jack Cafferty would prefer to cover news than make it. Especially when it's bad news. But Tuesday, Cafferty was the story, being met by photographers as he entered a midtown court to plead guilty in a May 14 hit-and-run accident. According to the criminal complaint, Cafferty was made an abrupt turn and hit bicyclist Billy Maldonado. About five people tried to stop Cafferty by running after the car, according to the complaint, but the newsman continued through at least two red lights, while dragging the bicycle underneath the vehicle. Maldonado, 48, who was knocked to the ground, suffered bruises and some bone damage. Cafferty was charged with leaving the scene of an accident, reckless driving, assault and harassment. He was allowed to plead guilty to a traffic violation: Operating a motor vehicle knowing or having cause to know property damage had been caused. He was sentenced to 70 hours of community service, with six months to complete it, and a $250 fine. He also made restitution. ... [Karen Frefield, Newsday, August 6, 2003]
Who did he know to get such a light sentence? He says he was "unaware" he'd been in an accident. Oh, spare me!
I hope Maldonado sues.
Posted 10:05:02 AM Send comment
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My friends don't want me to mention Kurt's name, because of all the recent Nazi stuff and the U.N. controversy, but I love him and Maria does too, and so thank you, Kurt.
Arnold Schwarzenegger, as quoted in
The Unauthorized Biography, by Wendy Leigh
Schwarzenegger's Nazi problem
Will his ties to Kurt Waldheim hurt his bid for governor?
Timothy Noah
Slate via MSNBC
August 7, 2003
Here's a question Jay Leno forgot to ask Arnold Schwarzenegger when he announced his candidacy for governor of California on last night's "Tonight Show": "Will you renounce your support for Kurt Waldheim?"
A little refresher course may be in order. Kurt Waldheim, a widely esteemed former secretary general of the United Nations, was running for president of Austria in March 1986 when it came to light that he had participated in Nazi atrocities during World War II. Waldheim... had been an intelligence officer in Germany's Army Group E when it committed mass murder in the Kozara region of western Bosnia. ... (Waldheim's name appears on the Wehrmacht's "honor list" of those responsible for the atrocity.) In 1944, Waldheim had reviewed and approved a packet of anti-Semitic propaganda leaflets to be dropped behind Russian lines, one of which ended, "enough of the Jewish war, kill the Jews, come over." ...
One month after these revelations began to splash across the front pages of newspapers worldwide, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Maria Shriver exchanged wedding vows at the Kennedy compound in Hyannisport. Schwarzenegger, a native of Austria, had invited Waldheim to the wedding, which of course can't be held against him because the invitations surely went out well before the war crimes story broke. (Schwarzenegger, who held dual citizenship in Austria and the United States, had also endorsed Waldheim.) ...
Why on Earth didn't Schwarzenegger... speak out against Waldheim? It surely isn't because Schwarzenegger himself had any Nazi sympathies (though during the filming of the documentary Pumping Iron, he reportedly once made a foolish comment praising Hitler). Rather, Schwarzenegger was likely playing politics — to be more specific, Austrian politics and family politics. For years it was rumored that if Schwarzenegger didn't run for governor of California, he would run for president of Austria. Because Austrians have long resented what they see as Waldheim's pointless scapegoating, any firm denunciation would have ruled the latter possibility out. In addition, Schwarzenegger's mother had for many years lived with Alfred Gerstl, a prominent Austrian politician who rose to the top post in the upper house of Austria's parliament. Schwarzenegger reportedly addressed him as "Uncle." (Schwarzenegger's father, who died three decades ago, was a police official who had belonged to the Nazi party.)
Rather than confront his Waldheim problem head-on, Schwarzenegger has proclaimed his disgust for Nazism, raised money for education about the Holocaust, traveled to Israel (where he met with then-Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin), and given generously to the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles, which in 1997 bestowed on him its National Leadership Award. "He wants no truck with … Waldheim," the Wiesenthal Center's Rabbi Marvin Hier told the Jerusalem Post. "He probably did not have any clue as to the seriousness of the allegations against Waldheim at that time [i.e., 1986]. To suggest that Arnold's an anti-Semite is preposterous. He's done more to further the cause of Holocaust awareness than almost any other Hollywood star."
Clearly, though, that won't be enough. If Schwarzenegger doesn't renounce Waldheim in a highly public way, he can forget about ever becoming governor of California.
And if this is true: "if Schwarzenegger didn't run for governor of California, he would run for president of Austria," one must ask:
Where does Schwarzenegger's true loyalty lie -- with America, or with Austria?
I don't know about you, but I don't like the idea of Ah-nold's implied view of America as -- how shall I say it? -- sloppy seconds.
Posted 10:00:25 AM Send comment
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This is encouraging news! Well worth the whole read:
A Debate Over U.S. 'Empire' Builds in Unexpected Circles. At forums sponsored by policy think tanks, on radio talk shows and around Cleveland Park dinner tables, one topic has been hotter than the weather in Washington this summer: Has the United States become the very "empire" that the republic's founders heartily rejected? Liberal scholars have been raising the question but, more strikingly, so have some Republicans with impeccable conservative credentials. ... The stirrings among Republicans are still muted. Most in the GOP -- as well as a large number of Democrats -- support bigger military budgets and see no alternative to a forceful U.S. role abroad. But those leading the debate say it is, at the very least, bringing in voices across the ideological spectrum for a long overdue appraisal of what the nation's role should be. ... [Dan Morgan, Washington Post, August 10, 2003]
Posted 9:56:57 AM Send comment
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I blogged the under-reported (and quickly scrubbed) story of U.S. forces dropping napalm on Iraq back in March, just two days after the invasion begin (see Related Articles, below) -- and now the deniers have been forced to admit yet another lie:
US admits it used napalm bombs in Iraq. American pilots dropped the controversial incendiary agent napalm on Iraqi troops during the advance on Baghdad. The attacks caused massive fireballs that obliterated several Iraqi positions. The Pentagon denied using napalm at the time, but Marine pilots and their commanders have confirmed that they used an upgraded version of the weapon against dug-in positions. They said napalm, which has a distinctive smell, was used because of its psychological effect on an enemy. ... [Andrew Buncombe, The Independent, August 10, 2003]
Related articles:
We're dropping... napalm?!
doublethink, March 21, 2003
Napalm Update
doublethink, March 22, 2003
Posted 9:55:03 AM Send comment
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Radio Userland barfed. And now that it appears to be working, I'm outta town for a couple of days on a much-needed respite from the insanity that is Modern America (or at least, Modern California).
And since all my new news was new before Radio went down, I'll have to leave you with some old news in my absence.
I hate technical difficulties, especially when they're not under my control. Oh, well, at least I'm not on the Northeast power grid.
Which, right now, is about the best thing I can say for living in California.
See you in a few days. Or, rather, you'll see me. Or... Never mind.
Posted 9:49:37 AM Send comment
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