Liberal media

So I'm watching the RNC on MSNBC and these interviewers are just becoming ridiculous. They keep harping on the fact that many of the speakers are not pro-life or against gay marriage. They keep pressing for one little slip up that will make it seem like these delegates reject the speakers and therefore throw doubt onto the whole convention. You can actually see the frustration in these interviewers faces that none of the super-right delegates will reject any of the speakers. They won't accept the fact that although many of the speakers disagree on abortion and gay marriage they are, in every other aspect, a republican. Watching this thing one would come to the silly conclusion that there are only two issues to a republican, abortion and gay marriage.

Where were these interviewers during the DNC when non of the speakers actually said Iraq was a mistake. The majority of democrats oppose the war, why weren't these interviewers pressing them on how they felt Kerry or others weren't speaking out against Iraq.

This actually gives me hope for the republican party. This convention will attract people that are against the pro-life and anti-gay agendas of the far right christian coalition type and their agendas won't have a chance of passing with opposition from their own party.

Well, enough of that rant. Dutch is about to speak.

"Anywhere I am standing is a free-speech zone."

Yay for libertarian protesters.

Michael Moore fun

Well, Michael Moore sure took it well when he was singled out at the convention last night. He didn't even mention it in his column in USA Today. He did, however, show that he is a moron.

We have a Republican mayor and governor, a death penalty and two nuclear plants within 30 miles of the city.

I will never understand why liberals dislike nuclear power. If anyone actually takes the time to look at the facts, they will see that it is far, far safer and cleaner than coal or natural gas. This country has seriously been hurt because of the fear of nuclear power that the liberals preach.

The Wall Street Journal is based here, which means your favorite street is here. Not to mention more Fortune 500 executives than anywhere else.

Ahh... good ol' Michael Moore's hatred of business. Does he ever wonder how New York became the capital of the world?

And now for Moore's defining questions of what being a liberal is:

Do you think we need strong laws to protect our air and water?
should [women] have equal rights, including the same pay as men.
Would you discriminate against someone because he or she is gay?

I've often found that if I go down the list of "liberal" issues with people who say they're Republican, they are quite liberal and not in sync with the Republicans who run the country.

Sigh... this is so ridiculous. How about following up the first question with "Who should make these laws? The federal or state government?" The second question is ridiculous. no republican is going to argue that women should not be paid as much as men. Although, a follow up question should be "Should an unskilled woman be paid as much as a more qualified man, or an unskilled man as much as a more qualified woman?" Now, I can't argue with that third question, that's something the religious screwballs have caused. And how about some more questions like:

1. Should the government pay everyone's healthcare?
2. Should the government get rid of the failing social security?
3. Should the government create laws that restrict law abiding citizens to purchase guns?
4. Should business be forced to hire minorities to fulfill quotas even if it means hiring less skilled workers?
5. Should we really worry what France thinks of us when we decide to defend our nation?

Well, I could go on and on, but you get the idea. I could also give many questions to republicans that would make them realize they were actually libertarians, but that's not the point. Moore's questions hardly focus on the real differences between republicans and conservatives.

They blame Democrats for wanting to take their money. Never mind that it's Republican tax cuts for the rich and billions spent on the Iraq war that have created the largest deficits in history and will put all of us in hock for years to come.

See my previous post commenting on these "taxes for the rich."

The Republicans know it. That's why this week we're seeing gay-loving Rudy Giuliani, gun-hating Michael Bloomberg and abortion-rights advocate Arnold Schwarzenegger.

This is a reasonable argument. But I don't really see this as a problem. It means that there are diverse ideas within the republican party, and there will be republicans that disagree with each other and keep the too ridiculous ideas from getting through. And I highly doubt every democrat agrees with Kerry and Moore when they preach "Socialism, down with big business, and everyone is a victim."

Bush, you idjut

Yesterday on Matt Lauer's Today interview, George Bush said something to the effect of "The war on terror cannot be won." (I can't find an exact quote) This is sure to bite him in the ass. For years now he's been preaching "We will win the war on terror." And now he lets fly this doozie on the morning of the convention when McCain and Giuliani focus almost entirely on how we are succeeding in the war on terror.

If anyone saw the convention stuff, both McCain and Giuliani seemed well loved by the party. McCain - Giuliani in '08 would sure be cool. Take back the republican party from those insane religious nutballs that have hijacked the party.

Kerry is done

More proof that John Kerry is finished.

Senate minority leader Tom Daschle now has a re-election ad featuring himself hugging president Bush. Is Daschle so uncertain of Kerry that he must use Bush's image in his own re-election ads?

Also, Kerry's daughters were booed at the MTV music awards. One of them even tried to shush the booers. Yes, there were cheers for them, but they were not nearly as warmly welcomed as the organizers could have thought. Is there anything more left leaning than the entertainment industry? This is the industry that forces their leftist politcal agenda onto the naive youth of America. If this crowd rejects Kerry, Kerry has serious problems.

Here is John Kerry's problem, hiss platform stands completely upon two issues:

1. John Kerry served honorably in Vietnam
2. John Kerry is not George W. Bush
   

Unless the republicans screw up their convention by doing what the democrats did, by failing to talk about any real issues, Bush is going to get re-elected. The "anything but Bush" idea spread by everyone is no longer a convincing reason to vote for Kerry. Kerry had his chance to tell us how he was gowing to correct the problems faced by our nation. Yes, he mentioned briefly that he would end corporate "loopholes", give everyone healthcare, and ask for France's permission before we go to war. Other than those brief seconds though, he focused on his 4 months in Vietnam, which now has become a hotbed of debate. How he could not have seen that coming? These swiftvets were, although ignored by the media, speaking out just as fiercely when Kerry was nominated. It was only a matter of time until a wealthy republican would donate to them so that they could buy some airtime.

Now Kerry wants to do weekly debates with Bush. Well duh... They realize now that they blew their chance at voicing their policies on issues at the convention. All their commercials try to connect Bush with these swiftvets in the "father's brother's nephew's cousin's former room-mate" connection of Lone Starr and Dark Helmet. "Get back to the issues" has also been a theme of Kerry ads. I don't think I've seen a single actual Bush ad that has not been about the issues. They've informed me that Bush wants to privatize social security and health insurance, that Kerry has not supported our military or intelligence, and that he will continue protecting us from terror. Now I don't see how one can claim with a straight face that Bush is avoiding the issues.

The American people are beginning to see through Kerry and realize just how shallow his campaign is, and unless Kerry does some major campaign restrategizing, he's finished. They may not agree with Bush on everything, but at least Bush is capable of being our president.

Bush fails to get credit for tax cut benefits

John Kerry: "Over the last four years, the burden of taxes has shifted from the wealthy to the middle class."

Pure and absolute bullshit. And somehow they used these Congressional Budget Office results to come to that conclusion. Just look at that chart? How can anyone come to the conclusion that these tax cuts favor the wealthy? ...Oh wait, the democrats can.

Democrats won't be happy until our society collapses by taxing the rich at a rate of 100%.

Whenever someone claims that Bush's tax cuts favor the weathly, just laugh at them and send them to the CBO report.

Another vet disputes Kerry

Another swiftvet, Butch Vorphal, has now spoken out with an account of March 13 that differs from Kerry's version.

Also, Douglas Brinkley doesn't seem to be doing very well in defending Kerry.

Physics in the Senate

For all you Nevadans that read this, Tom Hurst is the man you need to vote for to be our US senator. He's the libertarian candidate and he currently works closely with us at the UNLV physics department. I personally know this great man and he could do an excellent job. Although the physics department would certainly be at a loss without his services, our state would greatly benefit from Tom being in the Senate.

And for all the non-Nevadans out there, vote libertarian in your own state!

Under fire

Here is a commentary by a marine who looked into all the documents of the March 13 incident and straighforwardly lists his findings and makes the conclusion that Rassman is honestly mistaken about the incident.

25.) The "Battle Damage" report of March 13, 1969 does not reflect any bullet damage to any of the 5 Swift boats. The lack of any bullet holes in any of the five Swift boats following the incident presents reliable forensic evidence that there was no enemy weapons fire. Also, none of the personnel involved in the incident received any bullet wounds during the incident. In a waterway less than 75 yards wide, if the enemy on both sides of the river were in covered positions with clear fields of fire, the enemy could not possibly miss the 50 foot long aluminum boats. Rassmann and many others would be dead considering the length of time the boats were present supporting Swift boat PCF-3.

This is the most convincing evidence to me that there was no enemy fire.

Third times the charm

This is interesting. Apparently Kerry had his silver star citation rewritten twice. The first citation seems to support what the swiftvets have been arguing where there was only 1 enemy that Kerry took down. Although the citation obviously does support that Kerry deserved the silver star, which the swiftvets dispute. Looks like this could be another point for the Swiftvets, although the media certainly isn't showing the score.

This research was done independent of the Swiftvets group, by the authors of Fake Warriors: Identifying, Exposing and Punishing Those Who Falsify Their Military Service, being reprinted in a new edition with a special preface on John Kerry: the Ultimate Fake Warrior.

Guitar time

Get out your guitar and have some fun with this 3 string arpeggio.

NTU

NTU & NTUF have a bunch of information about candidate spending. They have detailed information on both Bush and Kerry. There is even a tax survey sent to all congressional candidates, some of which answered, that you can view online. So now you can actually see who supports lower taxes.

And here's some hard facts on Bush's tax cuts.

How do they get away with this?

I mean, really? This boggles my mind. How do the democrats get away with claiming Bush connections to the swiftvets without everyone just laughing in their face for their own 527 connections.

“The Democratic Party is partnering with MoveOn.org, People for the American Way, Campaign for America's Future, and dozens of other groups representing millions of Americans to organize a massive public mobilization."

Read the link for more hilarity taken from the DNC's own websites.

And here is some perspective on some of the 527 group's money.

Damn anti-Metallica republicans

The Onion points out yet another republican conspiracy. This one being far worse than the swift boat veterans fiasco.

A study against minimum wage

Here's a new study from the Employment Policies Institute that makes the case against minimum wage.

In this study, Drs. Peter Arcidiacono and Thomas Ahn investigate claims of positive employment effects resulting from a minimum wage. The study first highlights the multitude of reasons why, under the classical economic model—the widely accepted model of economic behavior—an increase in the minimum wage cannot lead to an increase in employment. Then, by relaxing certain assumptions critical to the classical model, a search model is constructed. This model—which runs contrary to commonly accepted economic theory—is created to study a hypothetical situation of positive employment effects from a minimum wage increase? Even in this case, the authors show that those individuals who most value minimum wage jobs—current employees—end up with a higher probability of being unemployed after a minimum wage increase. In fact, all increases in the minimum wage under this model result in decreased employment prospects for individuals.

What a strange concept, that government telling businesses what to do is detrimental to the economy.

Mastodon tramples fear and breakdowns

Holy crap! If you've never heard Mastodon, go and buy all their albums immediately! I just saw them tonight opening for Fear Factory along with two hardcore bands not worth mentioning. They were the definite highlight of the show. I'm not a huge Fear Factory fan but even so, they were very boring. With Mastodon's performance though I'm now a hooked fan. I'm not even really sure how to describe what Mastodon does musically. Somewhere edging on grindcore but more melodic with incredible drumming. Go listen to them!

I've been told that the upcoming album Leviathan is based on the classic book Moby Dick.

Nipplegate?

Is Janet really stupid? Or is this just a joke?

Why the press is angry

Read this now.

Go Alaska!

First they announce that want drilling in Alaska, which even the democrats support, and now they want to completely legalize pot. All this will probably have people all over the nation, except Alaska of course, screaming. God forbid a state excercise their 10th amendment right.

Evil!

Bloodbath - Nightmares Made Flesh = good

With Peter Tagtgren overtaking the role as the voice of satan from Mikael Akerfeldt, Bloodbath once again releases a must buy death metal album. Evil!

swift boats in the Washington Post

The Washington Post has a decent article that sums up much of the swift boat debate thus far. It introduces some things I haven't read or heard about yet. It points out the KFW initials on that after action report the SBVFT claim Kerry wrote up as well as introducing another veteran, Wayne D. Langhofer, who was there that claims there was hostile fire on that March 13 incident. Finally, the debate is getting somewhere.

Which reminds me, I'm sick of the democrats quoting all these star citations about the event. The SBVFT have allready acknowledged they exist and argue that they were written up based on the supposed Kerry written report and therefore are inaccurate. At least the Washington Post challenges this argument which the democrats, if they had any intelligence, should already have done.

One thing about the article that bothers me greatly is that when they are stating the witness accounts diverge stuff, they fail to mention that Kerry's "No Man Left Behind" story where all the other boats fled and only Kerry stayed was complete bullshit. Why does the article not state that these SBVFT have proved Kerry wrong once already. This along with that searing -searing- made up "Christmas In Cambodia" memory makes me wonder what else has Kerry lied or exagerrated about.

Oh, and vote libertarian.

edit: ick, I can't link to the washington post. It simply goes to their subscribe page. So I changed the link to the drudge report. You can find the link to the story there. It's the "Both sides have withheld info..." link.

reviews and babies

Wow, I guess Ben and JP sent out our demo to some folks to listen to... One liked it and one did not.

aversiononline

darksoul7

I would have hoped that aversion would have liked us better, I really respect his opinion, but alas, I suppose we just aren't up to par yet.

I should remind everyone that our entire demo can be downloaded at our website.

Even more impressive though, Ben's wife gave birth to twin girls, Tori and Presley. Congrats to him.

URL

I've been on a sealab 2021 kick lately, which is where the url and the "rescue toaster" title come from...

Marco: Could my pants at least have a boot cut? I'll pay for it!.

damn. I'm blogging...

Well, it looks as though I've just gone and created a blog.