Speedkill

Been meaning to comment on this:

Perle Cites Errors in Iraq, Urges Power Transfer

“Of course, we haven’t done everything right,” said Perle, according to the French text of the interview. “Mistakes have been made and there will be others.

“Today, the answer is to hand over power to the Iraqis as soon as possible,” he added.

Some people seem to be taking the second quote as we’re about to abandon Iraq. I don’t really think it’s a change at all. They’ve always stated that they wanted to hand over Iraq to the people quickly. I don’t think it’s that interesting. The admiting of mistakes is kind of new, but that could be taken as pandering to a foreign crowd (what!? I though only celebs did that!). Seems like an uneventful interview to me.

I am at college in Bozeman, all set up and everything. Apparently the network here is under attack by the Blaster worm, so I had to fend off that earlier. Exhausting.

Complaining about MTV’s “decadence,” O’Reilly gives us some Madonna lyrics:

MADONNA, SINGER: I guess, die another day / I guess, die another day / I guess, die another day / I guess, die another day / I guess I’ll die another day / Another day / I guess I’ll die another day / Another day / I guess I’ll die another day / Another day / I guess I’ll die another day / Sigmund Freud

Umm, wasn’t that the, uh, name of a movie? Are we really complaining about saying the name of a movie? Is he going to rail on the movie? Doubt it.

STERNHEIMER: Well, I think it is important to look at context here, and let me add that particularly for African-American girls, teen pregnancy rates have steadily declined. So that’s something that we really need to keep in mind.

O’REILLY: Wait. Look, you can decline from anything, but black girls between 15 and 24 who give birth — 80 percent of them are out of wedlock. So, if you’re going to make that case, you’re going to be laughed off the dais.

It’s MTV’s fault! The rates are declining, as MTV has become more a part of kid’s lives, but it’s still MTV’s fault! Sheesh, I could say MTV is making it better, and be more on base than O’Reilly.

Man wakes up after operation without penis

So, uh, what happens now when he sees this:

UPDATE: Good god, it’s a bad day for male genitalia:

Cambodian Dies After Attack on Testicles

TPM does a number on this article on Kay’s upcoming report on Iraq’s WMDs. Lots of paper, no chemicals. Maybe he was going to launch paper airplanes at us? No, he definately sprung for the deluxe version, those drones that were apparently meant to buzz around our heads until we gave up.

For the record, my opinion of Montana Senator Marc Raciot was slightly above many other Republicans (the position John McCain holds as well). But this (via TMW) is just stupid:

WASHINGTON – President Bush’s campaign � expected to dwarf Democratic hopefuls by raising $200 million or more for the primaries, with no GOP rival � is appealing for donations by portraying Bush as a fund-raising underdog who won’t have enough cash to defend himself against Democratic attacks.

“Democrats and their allies will have more money to spend attacking the president during the nomination battle than we will have to defend him,” campaign chairman Marc Racicot wrote in the fund-raising e-mail sent Wednesday night. “If you need more convincing the president needs your help, consider what the Democrats are saying. The race is just starting, but their rhetoric is already red-hot.”

That is absolutely insane. The AP writer does a good job of dismantling the argument:

Bush began fund raising for his re-election effort in mid-May and had taken in $35 million by the end of June, the most recent figures available.

The biggest fund-raiser among the nine Democratic hopefuls from January through June was Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry whose campaign collected $16 million.

Plus, Raciot says:

Among them, Racicot says former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean stated that Bush might suspend the 2004 election, called Bush “reckless” and “despicable,” compared him to the Taliban and said Bush was trying to destroy Social Security, Medicare, public schools and public services.

And then:

Asked if the comments attributed to Dean were accurate, Dean spokeswoman Tricia Enright was incredulous.

“Compared him to the Taliban? Absolutely not. Suspend the 2004 election? What is that about?” Enright asked. “He said his (Bush’s) tax policies were reckless. Obviously all this was taken out of context.”

Commending the media is not something I do often, but they seem to have shot this claim out of the air rather quickly (both the money and quotes claims).

As noted in an earlier post I made, Bill O’Reilly supported the fundamentalists in Alabama. I’m not surprised. I figure he makes the religious freedom argument, saying nothing out of the ordinary. He has bewildered me. Here’s what he said (no links, I can only find it on Lexis/Nexis):

My take on this is that Judge Moore is right in theory. The federal government has no legal basis to order any monument concerning Judeo-Christian philosophy to be dismantled. It’s absurd to think that the 10 commandments reflects a specific religion. It does not.

This is, quite honestly, insane. Too bad O’Reilly wasn’t there the last couple of shows where the issue was debated. This is all I have to go on.

Now, he plainly states that the 10 commandments are a “Judeo-Christian philosophy.” Now, what is Christianity? According to Webster’s:

the religion derived from Jesus Christ , based on the Bible as sacred scripture, and professed by Eastern, Roman Catholic, and Protestant bodies

What is Judaism?

a religion developed among the ancient Hebrews and characterized by belief in one transcendent God who has revealed himself to Abraham, Moses, and the Hebrew prophets and by a religious life in accordance with Scriptures and rabbinic traditions

So, if this a philosophy of two religions, how is it not representative of a particular religion (or two, in this case)? Is this followed by Muslims? Hindus? Buddhists? Some commandments are, of course, the ones that are pretty much followed by civilization everywhere. What the judge has done is made almost a shrine to Christianity. In a gov’t building, this amounts to a endorsment of a particular religion (or two). This is all very simple.

And why does Fox feel the need to post the 10 commandments on their web site? That’s just pointless.

Ala. Ten Commandments Monument Removed

MONTGOMERY, Ala. – A 2 1/2-ton granite monument of the Ten Commandments that became a lightning rod in a legal storm over church and state was wheeled from the rotunda of the Alabama Supreme Court building Wednesday as protesters knelt, prayed and chanted, “Put it back!”

….

“It is a sad day in our country when the moral foundation of our laws and the acknowledgment of God has to be hidden from public view to appease a federal judge,” he said.

There is no way we should have judges like that in this country. No way. It’s pathetic. He’s a fundamentalist; he’s blinded by his religion, unable to think critically about the law. He’s unfit for the bench.

What’s here? This is here:

First weapons to programs, now maybe a shift on terrorism? I watched Bush’s speech and there wasn’t any attempt to link Iraq to al Qaeda. There were basically two statemtents:

Because of our military, Iraq will no longer be a source of funding for suicide bombers in the Middle East.

a regime that sponsored terror

So, nothing suggesting a link to al Qaeda or 9/11. Is he moving away from the idea? Something to keep an eye on.