The first story that caught my eye was at the beginning of June when the White House announced that McCartney would be awarded the George Gershwin Award by the Library of Congress. Wow, I thought, he sure deserves that. I mean, few people have had the effect on popular music that he has had, both individually and as a member of the Beatles. So then, the day after the award ceremony and performance for the President and his guests, the story comes out that McCartney said this:

“It’s a fantastic honor (for) the Gershwin family to give me this incredible award and for me to be awarded it by the Library of Congress. And in fact, after the last eight years, it’s great to have a president who knows what a library is,” McCartney said, drawing cheers from the audience.

Now, at first blush, this didn’t surprise me much. After all, McCartney was not only a big part of the liberal drug and peace protest culture of the Sixties, he was a leader of that group. Its no surprise that a far left celebrity like him would think or feel this way. However, upon reflection it started to bother me. I mean, here was this foreigner welcomed as a guest and honoree to a non-political event in our nation’s capital to be honored with an award. What right did he have to inject politics into a ceremony like this? Especially being that he isn’t even a citizen of this country? To me, it smacked of a unusually high lack of class and respect for his hosts, a lack of class I had not formerly associated with him.

The next story that caught my attention was this one:

The Beatles legend said: “Sadly we need disasters like this to show people. Some people don’t believe in climate warming – like those who don’t believe there was a Holocaust.

“But the facts indicate that there’s something going on and we’ve got to be aware of it if we want our kids to inherit a decent world, not a complete nightmare of a planet – clean, renewable energy is for starters.”

In truth, the facts show that something may or may not be happening, and exactly what that something is nobody knows. The smartest people on the planet cannot decide what the facts prove or disprove, so forgive me if I don’t think some celebrity who didn’t even finish high school should be commenting on something he clearly has no understanding of whatsoever.

Oh, as far as comparing Global Warming to the Holocaust, he should call me when he can demonstrate that Global Warming has killed 6 million people from a single ethnicity maliciously. Having lived in Europe most of his life, can he really be this ignorant and cavalier about the slaughter of Jews by the Nazis? After all, pictures, artifacts, and first-hand accounts of the Holocaust abound; there is absolutely no doubt that the Holocaust happened. Global Warming, on the other hand, has produced no dead victims, no destruction on anything like a measurable scale, and lacks any sort of credible, undeniable physical proof of its existence. In fact, its just a scientific theory which has yet to be proven. Quite a bit different from the Holocaust, wouldn’t you say? Certainly, at this stage of the game, there is more than enough reason to doubt the existence of Global Warming without having to endure mental midgets like McCartney equating you to a Holocaust denier.

So, to sum up: Mr. McCartney, thanks for all of the great music and inspiration over these many years. However, you should really learn how to be gracious to people who are honoring you, and you should really learn to shut your freaking mouth when you have no clue what you’re talking about.

Whoopi Goldberg is facing a fierce backlash after saying that film director Roman Polanski didn’t commit “rape-rape” when he had unlawful sex with a 13-year-old girl.

Goldberg, star of The Color Purple and Sister Act, said: “I know it wasn’t rape-rape. I think it was something else, but I don’t believe it was rape-rape.

“He pled guilty to having sex with a minor and he went to jail, and when they let him out he said ‘You know what, this guy’s going to give me 100 years in jail. I’m not staying’. And that’s why he left.” Polanski was arrested in Zurich, Switzerland on Sunday and faces extradition to the United States. He fled the US in 1978 before being sentenced for the crime and has been pursued around the globe by prosecutors ever since.

You read that correctly — Goldberg doesn’t think raping and sodomizing a 13 year old girl after giving her drugs and alcohol is “rape – rape.” To top it off, it seems like most of Hollywood thinks the same thing:

More than 100 film industry figures have now signed a petition calling for the release of Polanski, the acclaimed director of Chinatown, Rosemary’s Baby and The Pianist.

They include leading Hollywood figures Martin Scorcese, Woody Allen, David Lynch, Wim Wenders, Pedro Almodovar, Tilda Swinton and Monica Bellucci.

One celebrity supporter, the actress Debra Winger, said it was a “three-decades-old case that is dead but for minor technicalities. We stand by him and await his release and his next masterpiece.” Movie mogul Harvey Weinstein said Polanski was a “humanist” who had been the victim of a “miscarriage of justice”. He said: “We will have to speak to our leaders, particularly in California. I’m not too shy to go and talk to the Governor of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and to ask him once and for all to look at this.” However, the views of the Hollywood elite seemed out of step with those of ordinary Americans and they now face a backlash.

These people are so out-of-touch with the American public, is it any wonder why the movie industry is held in such low regard?

For the record, regardless of who you are or what movies you have created, if you give drugs to a 13 year old girl, then give her alcohol, and then rape and sodomize her, I believe you belong in jail for as long as the law allows. Not country-club celebrity jail, but Federal pound-you-in-the-ass prison. I don’t care if you ran away for thirty years to France, where apparently this type of thing is considered normal, and continued to make movies. In the America I believe in, people who commit crimes like this are dealt with harshly, regardless of who long ago they committed the crime, and especially if they publicly proclaim this:

“If I had killed somebody, it wouldn’t have had so much appeal to the press, you see? But… f—ing, you see, and the young girls. Judges want to f— young girls. Juries want to f— young girls. Everyone wants to f— young girls!”

You know Whoopi, I wonder if you would be so cavalier about this if the victim had been someone near and dear to you. These Hollywood morons have no clue about right and wrong in the liberal paradise bubble they exist in out there in California.

But don’t take my word on this; read the transcript of the victim’s testimony and decide for yourself if it was “rape – rape” (whatever the hell that is) or not.

Just amazing, isn’t it?

As for Sheila Jackson Lee, she doesn’t hold a candle to Bachmann on the looney scale.

I object. I mean, Lee is 100% certifiable. Just ask anyone who used to work for her (by 2002, she had gone through 85 aides). In this article by Sam Dealey from February, 2002, her wanton sense of entitlement is laid bare for all to see:

It’s about 200 paces from the awning of Jackson Lee’s Capitol Hill apartment to the marbled steps of the Cannon House Office Building, where her office is. Most people think the walk is a pleasant one. Red-brick townhouses give onto tree-lined streets; crossing guards ensure no one is run over. It’s the kind of neighborhood where you might expect to find the Republican party’s headquarters–and do. They’re right next door to Jackson Lee’s building. In a city that consistently ranks among the nation’s worst for commuting, Jackson Lee would seem to have it made.

But apparently it’s not convenient enough. Jackson Lee is routinely chauffeured the one short block to work–in a government car, by a member of her staff, at the taxpayers’ expense. And apparently in violation of House rules.

I guess we should be happy that at least she hasn’t killed anyone, like her fellow Democrat Ted “The Swimmer” Kennedy. What is it with Democrats and cars, anyway?

Take, for example, the morning of December 6, a balmy Thursday when the temperature in Washington would climb to 73 degrees. At 8:43, a blue Ford Contour with government plates–the car Jackson Lee’s office has leased–pulled up to her building. For the next 23 minutes, the aide impeded traffic on one of Capitol Hill’s busiest streets, pulling in and out of alleys and reserved parking spaces. Finally, at 9:06, Jackson Lee appeared.

The aide jumped from the car and hurried to help the congresswoman. First she opened the rear door so Jackson Lee could deposit a bag and sheaf of papers; then she opened the passenger door. But Jackson Lee took this opportunity to place a phone call, and the aide stood patiently by. After a minute or so of this, Jackson Lee determined she was ready to climb in. But something was wrong. An uncomfortable moment passed as the congresswoman and aide stared at each other. Of course! Jackson Lee’s coat and shawl were still on!

The aide sprang to remove the garments, and Jackson Lee gave an exasperated look. After Jackson Lee climbed in, the aide gently closed the door, scurried around the rear of the car to the driver’s seat, and they were off to the office, a block away. It was such a short trip, Jackson Lee didn’t even bother to fasten her seatbelt.

This isn’t even the worst of it. Look what she does to the airlines:

For years, Jackson Lee tormented the airline’s office in Washington that handles VIP booking. When Congress was in session, her staff would make several reservations early in the week for return flights to Houston. After the House finished its business that week, she would grab whichever flight was most convenient and scrap the others. But this kind of rule-bending put the carrier in a difficult position. Not only was Jackson Lee only paying coach fare (she was routinely bumped up to first class), but Continental was unable to sell the premier seats she didn’t use.

Talk about a sense of entitlement and abuse of power! Will no one stand up to her?

That outburst prompted a phone call to Jackson Lee from Rebecca Cox, vice president of Continental’s government affairs office in Washington and the wife of California Republican Chris Cox. The message? Straighten up and fly right, or don’t fly with us.

Finally, look how she treats her own staff:

A year earlier, at a March 2, 1998, reenactment of the march on Selma, an irate Jackson Lee called her scheduler in D.C. demanding to know why she hadn’t been given a ride to the event by the organizer, as a white colleague had been. According to the aide–who quit after just a month and a half on the job–Jackson Lee shrieked, “You don’t understand. I am a queen, and I demand to be treated like a queen.” [emphasis mine]

There you have it — the Queen of Congressional Loonies. Michele Bachmann is no prize, but she doesn’t come anywhere near Lee as far as craziness goes. Bachmann isn’t even in the same league.

Prove me wrong — I dare you!

Her financial and vocal support for Barack Obama has not endeared her to some fellow Democrats.

“I’ve got a lot of flak from feminists who feel that I should be supporting Hillary Clinton, but I thought the whole point of feminism is that you’re not supposed to be defined by gender,” she says.

“I don’t understand the reasoning behind that, because I wouldn’t vote for Condoleezza Rice and I hated Margaret Thatcher.”

…

Always busy, Sarandon is about to start work on the romantic period drama The Colossus, but with the presidential election campaign being heatedly contested, she also has bigger things to consider.

“If McCain gets in, it’s going to be very, very dangerous,” she says.

“It’s a critical time, but I have faith in the American people. If they prove me wrong, I’ll be checking out a move to Italy. Maybe Canada, I don’t know. We’re at an abyss.”

Do you remember all of those celebrities who promised they would leave America if Bush was either elected in 2000 or re-elected in 2004? Well, here we are at the next Presidential election, and here go the liberals “threatening” to leave if their candidate doesn’t get elected. It reminds me of my little sister when she was about three years old. She used to tell me that if I didn’t give her what she wanted, she would hold her breath until she turned blue. Of course, just like the liberals, she never carried out her “threat.”

At least this year there is some unity between the Democrat candidates and their supporters: The candidates are making empty promises and the supporters are making empty threats.

Looks like Robert Tilton?

They both command about the same amount of respect from their fellows (none) and the public trusts them just as much as they trust any other charlatan.

“I don’t want to sound like an ad, a public service ad on TV, but the fact is if you can read, you can walk into a job later on. If you don’t, then you’ve got, the Army, Iraq, I don’t know, something like that. It’s, it’s not as bright. So, that’s my little commercial for that.”

Where do you begin in such a target-rich environment?

• Just because you can read doesn’t mean you can just walk into a job and get it. Yes, reading will help tremendously, but it isn’t a guarantee.
• Members of the Military are some of the best-educated people in the country. Yes, not everyone in the services has a college degree, but I would imagine every single member can both read and write.
• A lot of service members make the Military their career, and have quite a bright future (my father-in-law served in the Air Force for 28 years). Is it Mr. King contention that the only type of future which is bright is authoring books?

Liberals have been trying to portray members of the military as less than intelligent for years (see John Kerry’s remarks during his 2004 Presidential campaign). I don’t know why; after all, if it weren’t for the military most of these boobs wouldn’t be able to do most of the stuff they do, like protest, dissent, complain about the government, etc.

Mr. King has made quite a nice living by writing books about scary things which do not exist for the most part. Living in the United States affords him the freedom to do that, so maybe he ought to think twice before he starts insulting the people who guarantee that freedom with their lives.

Today, I’d like for you to take a look at the following advertisement from the Swedish Vodka maker Absolut:

Notice anything? How about Aztlan?

The myth of Aztlan can best be explained by California’s Santa Barbara School District’s Chicano Studies textbook, “The Mexican American Heritage” by East Los Angeles high school teacher Carlos Jimenez. On page 84 there is a redrawn map of Mexico and the United States, showing Mexico with a full one-third more territory, all of it taken back from the United States. On page 107, it says “Latinos are now realizing that the power to control Aztlan may once again be in their hands.”

In an effort to sell more vodka, this company has decided to encourage radical groups like La Raza and MEChA in their quest to reacquire about a third of the United States. When called on it, Absolut responded thusly:

This particular ad, which ran in Mexico, was based upon historical perspectives and was created with a Mexican sensibility. In no way was this meant to offend or disparage, nor does it advocate an altering of borders, nor does it lend support to any anti-American sentiment, nor does it reflect immigration issues. Instead, it hearkens to a time which the population of Mexico may feel was more ideal.

As a global company, we recognize that people in different parts of the world may lend different perspectives or interpret our ads in a different way than was intended in that market. Obviously, this ad was run in Mexico, and not the US — that ad might have been very different.

How this company can claim this ad doesn’t “advocate the altering of borders, nor does it lend support to any anti-American sentiment” is beyond me. Surly these people cannot be this stupid. The aura of mistrust between Mexico and the U.S. with regards to immigration matters is palpable enough to smell anywhere in the world. It’s practically in the news every single day. One person who doesn’t buy the stuff Absolut is selling is Michelle Malkin, who says:

But first: The advertising firm that created the Absolut Reconquista ad is Teran/TBWA. Teran is based in Mexico City. The company’s website boasts a pretentious statement of philosophy advocating “disruption” as a “tool for change” and “agent of growth.” (Scroll your mouse over the little buttons in the upper-right margin.) The firm advocates “overturning assumptions and prejudices that get in the way of imagining new possibilities and visionary ideas that help create a larger share of the future.”

Translation: The company advocates overturning borders that get in the way of imagining new maps of North America that help Mexico create a larger share of the continent.

Well, I’m not as worked up over this as Michelle is, even though I tend to agree that this ad was not only a bad move by Absolut, but also gave some undeserved credibility to the Reconquista movement. I mean, if a globally-recognized company sees enough merit in Reconquista to base an ad campaign on it, there must be something to it, right?

Oh well. If I was a drinking man (and I used to be; screwdrivers were my favorite), I’d stop buying Absolut for awhile just to express my displeasure with the ad and the company’s lackluster response to the criticism. Your mileage may vary.

AUSTIN — American icon Willie Nelson says he supports efforts to impeach President Bush and “throw the bastards out,” adding that the administration will do anything to stay in power, including staging an event to cancel the election.

Nelson made the comments on a radio show Thursday, saying that he supported Dennis Kucinich’s attempt to impeach Bush.

“If you break the law you have to pay for it one way or another, and if these guys haven’t broke the law nobody has,” said Nelson. “The deck’s been stacked and we need to figure out a way to get a new fresh deck in there in the deal and I don’t know how else to do it except throw the bastards out.”

I think that this is a fair representation of Nelson’s beverage of choice:

Here is something that these liberals suffering from BDS need to consider: As acrimonious as the relationship between the left and the right is these days, if there were a legitimate case to be made for the impeachment of the President don’t you think that the Democrat leadership would be pursuing it at full speed?

In fact, Nelson is nothing more than just another member of the fringe element of the left who wants to punish the right for the Impeachment of their one and only savior, Bill Clinton. I wouldn’t be surprised if these guys keep trying to impeach Bush after he leaves office. I mean, once Bush is out of office, who are they going to focus their rage and anger on? It’s plain that rage and anger are the only two things driving these people, and without anyone to focus it on they’ll be wandering around the country like a ticking time bomb. I pity the person who sets them off.

I was reminded of that when I read this piece by Keith Olbermann:

And George W. Bush took our assent, and re-configured it, and honed it, and sharpened it to razor-sharp points and stabbed this nation in the back with it. Were there any remaining lingering doubt otherwise, or any remaining lingering hope, it ended yesterday when Mr. Bush commuted the prison sentence of one of his own staffers. Did so even before the appeals process was complete; did so without as much as a courtesy consultation with the Department of Justice; did so despite what James Madison, at the Constitutional Convention, said about impeaching any President who pardoned or sheltered those who had committed crimes “advised by” that President; did so without the slightest concern that even the most detached of citizens must look at this chain of events and wonder to what degree was Mr. Libby told: “Break the law however you wish, the President will keep you out of prison”?

In that moment, Mr. Bush, you broke that fundamental compact between yourself and the majority of this nation’s citizens, the ones who did not cast votes for you. In that moment, Mr. Bush, you ceased to be the President of the United States. In that moment, Mr. Bush, you became merely the President of a rabid and irresponsible corner of the Republican Party. And this is too important a time, sir, to have a Commander-in-Chief who puts party ahead of nation.

Oh, please! Where was this dolt when his favorite President, Bill Clinton, served up 140 pardons on his last day in office, many of which were granted to felons arrested for drug offenses? Also, what about Clinton’s earlier pardons of Puerto Rican terrorists whose actions caused the deaths of 6 people in New York? Why is this any different than when Clinton pardoned Henry Cisneros, his HUD Secretary? Cisneros was convicted of lying to a government agency, a very similar circumstance to what Libby was convicted of. Why is it okay if liberals lie to the government but not okay if conservatives lie to the government?

Spare me the hysterics, Olbermann. Each and every President issues pardons and commutes prison sentances, and each and every President grants pardons and commutations to people he knows and who have worked for him. In Clinton’s case, he even pardoned his brother for a cocaine offense. So please just spare me the “no longer my President” and “only cares about a rabid and irresponsible corner of the Republicans Party” rhetoric.

“I think he forgot to accuse him of killing all the puppy dogs in New Orleans by ignoring Hurricane Katrina, but I’ll cut him a break. Being a brain-stem baby is hard.”

Lewis Libby was convicted for lying about a crime which never took place. The same special prosecutor who prosecuted Libby found that the disclosure of Valerie Plame’s work for the CIA was not a crime. In contrast, the members of the Puerto Rican FALIN group which Clinton pardoned bombed a restaurant and killed U.S. Citizens. It looks to me like your concern over the commutation of Libby’s prison sentence is a little, shall we say, misplaced.

The protection of the environment is turned over to those of one political party, who will financially benefit from the rape of the environment. The protections of the Constitution are turned over to those of one political party, who believe those protections unnecessary and extravagant and quaint. The enforcement of the laws is turned over to those of one political party, who will swear beforehand that they will not enforce those laws. The choice between war and peace is turned over to those of one political party, who stand to gain vast wealth by ensuring that there is never peace, but only war.

Next, Olbermann channels the worst of the deviants on the Democratic Underground by reciting the tired old canards of conservatives want to rape the planet, steal your Constitutional freedoms, allow lawlessness to flourish, and will start wars just to make a buck or two. Seriously, this guy is a Daily KOS diarist’s wet dream! I would take the time to dismantle all of his accusations, but it wouldn’t be worth it. Even if he could read it, he’d never understand it.

BUT WAIT! It gets even better:

I accuse you, Mr. Bush, of lying this country into war. I accuse you of fabricating in the minds of your own people, a false implied link between Saddam Hussein and 9/11. I accuse you of firing the generals who told you that the plans for Iraq were disastrously insufficient. I accuse you of causing in Iraq the needless deaths of 3,586 of our brothers and sons and sisters and daughters and friends and neighbors.

I accuse you of subverting the Constitution, not in some misguided but sincerely-motivated struggle to combat terrorists, but instead to stifle dissent. I accuse you of fomenting fear among your own people, of creating the very terror you claim to have fought. I accuse you of exploiting that unreasoning fear, the natural fear of your own people who just want to live their lives in peace, as a political tool to slander your critics and libel your opponents. I accuse you of handing part of this Republic over to a Vice President who is without conscience, and letting him run roughshod over it.

And I accuse you now, Mr. Bush, of giving, through that Vice President, carte blanche to Mr. Libby, to help defame Ambassador Joseph Wilson by any means necessary, to lie to grand juries and special counsel and before a court, in order to protect the mechanisms and the particulars of that defamation, with your guarantee that Libby would never see prison, and, in so doing, as Ambassador Wilson himself phrased it here last night, of you becoming an accessory to the obstruction of justice.

I think he forgot to accuse him of killing all the puppy dogs in New Orleans by ignoring Hurricane Katrina, but I’ll cut him a break. Being a brain-stem baby is hard.

In general, it has been proven that Bush did not lie to the public regarding the war; he was proceeding from the same intelligence reports that everyone else had seen and had come up with the same conclusions that everybody else came to. As for causing needless deaths, don’t be ridiculous. Sacrifice in service of one’s country is far from a needless death, but I wouldn’t expect Olbermann to understand that. He doesn’t think there is anything in this world bigger or more important than himself.

As for defaming Wilson, the Democrats’ own special prosecutor concluded that no crime was committed by outting Valerie Plame. How, exactly, was he defamed? Oh, just forget it.

Olbermann goes on and on accusing President Bush of almost every crime in the books, until the end when he demands that both he and Vice President Cheney resign from office. This is nothing new for Olbermann; he has used his television show as a platform for calling for the President’s resignation for years now. Its probably why his audience has shrunken from pitiful to non-existent.

Keith, I am going to close this by asking you to seriously seek medical help. Obviously you have lost touch with reality and have become a danger not only to yourself but to others. However, I’m sure a few years in a rehab center would bring you right back to the real world and you might even be able to resume the one job you had talent for: sports caster.

7/08/2007: Post Edited to correct spelling mistakes.

FLORENCE, S.C. (AP) – Democratic presidential hopeful John Edwards added some Hollywood star power to his focus on rural problems, campaigning Wednesday in South Carolina’s small towns with actor and political activist Danny Glover.

Glover, whose movie credits include “The Royal Tenenbaums” and the “Lethal Weapon” series, joined Edwards as he spoke to a crowd of more than 200 about increasing employment and improving education.

Glover said Edwards understands the needs of the working poor and that the campaign is telling their story. “This is a campaign about real democracy,” Glover said.

So, here we have one man who makes millions and millions of dollars pretending to be other people for a living, telling other people that a man who makes millions and millions of dollars off of the tragedy and grief of others knows about the needs of the working poor. I would wager that the only thing these two liberals know about the working poor is what they have observed from the comfort and safety of their million dollar mansions while watching their gardener or maid work.

Glover was last seen accepting $18 million dollars from Hugo Chavez, the far-left wanna-be dictator from Venezuela, for a movie he is making. Seems Glover and Chavez are buddies, with Glover having appeared on the “President”‘s talk show. Chavez, as everyone knows, recently shut down a television station which aired programming critical of his policies.

Summing up: Edwards has embraced a political activist whose best friend is a South-American dictator who enjoys depriving his citizens of freedom and calling President Bush names. I don’t think there is a $400 haircut anywhere that’s going to be able to make this look good.