Thursday - June 23, 2005

Wild Thang !

The Republican National Committee’s newest video ad is a hoot! You’ll never again be able to listen to a certain rock song by The Troggs (or if you’re not that old, the latest cover of that song by Cheap Trick). Actually, “Cheap Trick” kinda describes the subject of the video ....

Posted by The Skipper     on 06/23/2005 at 02:49 PM   
Filed Under: • Democrats-Liberals-Moonbat Leftists •  
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SCOTUS: Land Snatching Approved

The Supreme Court today ruled on a case we reported on back in February (Part I) and March (Part II) involving a town seizing a person’s property to make way for development projects, or “imminent domain” as it is referred to ....

WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that local governments may seize people’s homes and businesses — even against their will — for private economic development.

It was a decision fraught with huge implications for a country with many areas, particularly the rapidly growing urban and suburban areas, facing countervailing pressures of development and property ownership rights.

The 5-4 ruling represented a defeat for some Connecticut residents whose homes are slated for destruction to make room for an office complex. They argued that cities have no right to take their land except for projects with a clear public use, such as roads or schools, or to revitalize blighted areas.

As a result, cities now have wide power to bulldoze residences for projects such as shopping malls and hotel complexes in order to generate tax revenue.

Local officials, not federal judges, know best in deciding whether a development project will benefit the community, justices said.

“The city has carefully formulated an economic development that it believes will provide appreciable benefits to the community, including — but by no means limited to — new jobs and increased tax revenue,” Justice John Paul Stevens wrote for the majority. He was joined by Justice Anthony Kennedy, David H. Souter, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen G. Breyer.

At issue was the scope of the Fifth Amendment, which allows governments to take private property through eminent domain if the land is for “public use.”

Susette Kelo and several other homeowners in a working-class neighborhood in New London, Conn., filed suit after city officials announced plans to raze their homes for a riverfront hotel, health club and offices.

New London officials countered that the private development plans served a public purpose of boosting economic growth that outweighed the homeowners’ property rights, even if the area wasn’t blighted.

Posted by The Skipper     on 06/23/2005 at 11:23 AM   
Filed Under: • Judges-Courts-Lawyers • Outrageous •  
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Quote Of The Day

“Conservatives saw the savagery of 9/11 in the attacks and prepared for war; liberals saw the savagery of the 9/11 attacks and wanted to prepare indictments and offer therapy and understanding for our attackers.”
-- Karl Rove at a fund-raiser in Midtown for the Conservative Party of New York State.

Not satisfied with having taken a light saber to the Leftists’ black, evil hearts, Darth Rove continued ....

“Let me just put this in fairly simple terms: Al Jazeera now broadcasts the words of Senator Durbin to the Mideast, certainly putting our troops in greater danger. No more needs to be said about the motives of liberals.”

Note I: While we’re in Star Wars mode today, is it just me or does anyone else see the resemblence between John Kerry and Jar-Jar-Binks?

Note II: General Grievous (played by Chuck Schumer [D-NY]) is now demanding an apology from Darth Rove.

Posted by The Skipper     on 06/23/2005 at 10:57 AM   
Filed Under: • Democrats-Liberals-Moonbat Leftists • Terrorists •  
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No More Flag Burning ?

The House passed a Constitutional Amendment yesterday to make flag burning illegal (actually all it does is give Congress the power to prohibit flag burning). The ACLU is already lobbying against it and the Hildabeast thinks flag desecration should be illegal but doesn’t think we need a Constitutional Amendment to do it (waffle-waffle) ....

A constitutional amendment that would allow Congress to ban flag burning passed the House yesterday, and congressional leaders said it has a strong chance to clear the Senate for the first time, sending it to the states for ratification.

The House has passed the measure four times before, but it has always fallen short of the two-thirds vote needed in the Senate. But changes in the Senate’s makeup shifted several votes to the bill’s supporters, and a lobbyist who leads the opposition said the absence of one or two senators could mean that the measure would pass.

“There are too many scenarios where we lose,” said Terri Ann Schroeder, senior lobbyist for the American Civil Liberties Union. “We’re very concerned.” Schroeder counts 65 solid votes in favor of the amendment of the 67 needed for passage if everyone votes. “We still have a number of folks that have never voted, and we still have a potential problem if 100 members do not vote,” she said.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) favors the measure and plans to hold a hearing shortly after the Fourth of July break, Republican aides said. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) could schedule a floor vote as soon as next month, the aides said.

Specter plans to let Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah), a former chairman of the committee and longtime champion of the measure, preside over the hearing. Hatch said he believes the measure will pass and said he is motivated by relatives who have died in combat. “I think acts of flag desecration are offensive conduct we ought to ban in the interest of protecting the greatest symbol of our country,” Hatch said.

Among the new votes for the amendment is Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.), who pushed the issue in his campaign and helped recruit co-sponsors. “Out in the country, at the grass-roots level, it’s seen as a common man’s practical patriotism,” Thune said.

Another freshman, Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), will oppose the measure, aides said.

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) said in a statement that she would “support federal legislation that would outlaw flag desecration, much like laws that currently prohibit the burning of crosses, but I don’t believe a constitutional amendment is the answer.”

The House measure passed 286 to 130. Republicans were almost entirely for it, 209 to 12. Democrats were not as united in their opposition, with 117 against the measure and 77 for it. House Judiciary Chairman F. James Sensenbrenner Jr. (R-Wis.) said during the debate that lawmakers “must act with bipartisan dispatch to ensure that this issue is returned to the hands of those most interested in preserving freedom—the people themselves.”

The measure would have to be ratified by 38 states to become part of the Constitution.

109th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. J. RES. 10
JOINT RESOLUTION

Proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States authorizing the Congress to prohibit the physical desecration of the flag of the United States.

Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled (two-thirds of each House concurring therein), That the following article is proposed as an amendment to the Constitution of the United States, which shall be valid to all intents and purposes as part of the Constitution when ratified by the legislatures of three-fourths of the several States within seven years after the date of its submission for ratification:

Article --

‘The Congress shall have power to prohibit the physical desecration of the flag of the United States.’.

Passed the House of Representatives June 22, 2005.

Posted by The Skipper     on 06/23/2005 at 09:57 AM   
Filed Under: • Patriotism •  
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House Coughs Up Social Security Plan

Congress yesterday finally came up with a plan to fix Social Security but President Bush may not like it. In fact, in my opinion, there’s not a whole about it to like at all but at least the CongressCritters are finally getting off their collective buttocks and trying to come up with something, albeit something that sucks as badly as this proposal ....

After watching the Social Security debate from the sidelines, House Republican leaders yesterday embraced a new approach to Social Security restructuring that would add individual investment accounts to the program, but on a much smaller scale than the Bush administration favors.

The new accounts would be financed by the Social Security surplus—the amount of payroll tax revenue not needed to pay current benefits. That money is now used to fund other government activities and is expected to run out after 2016 as the baby-boom generation retires.

By contrast, President Bush’s proposed accounts would divert payroll taxes used to fund existing Social Security benefits, which would force the government to borrow to prevent cuts in retirees’ monthly checks. Once fully phased in, the Bush plan would allow workers to sock away $3,600 a year in today’s dollars. Even in its peak year, the new plan could limit average account contributions to as little as $588.

Still, Republicans hope the new proposal will shift the debate away from future benefit cuts, as Bush envisions, to ending what they call the “raid” on the current Social Security surplus. But the plan, unlike Bush’s, would do nothing to remedy the New Deal-era program’s long-term fiscal problems.

An aide to House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) called the bill “a great start,” and House Majority Whip Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) called it “an excellent first step.” Aides said leadership will gauge reaction over the July 4 break.

Posted by The Skipper     on 06/23/2005 at 09:46 AM   
Filed Under: • Social-Security •  
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On This Day In History

1868 - Christopher Latham Sholes receives patent for the “Type-Writer.”

Christopher Latham Sholes(1819-1890) was a U.S. mechanical engineer who invented the first practical modern typewriter, patented in 1868. Sholes invented the typewriter with partners S. W. Soule and G. Glidden, that was manufactured (by Remington Arms Company) in 1873. He was born February 14, 1819 in Mooresburg, Pennsylvania, and died on February 17, 1890 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Before the computer, the typewriter may have been the most significant everyday business tool. Christopher Latham Sholes and his colleagues, Carlos Glidden and Samuel Soulé, invented the first practical typewriting machine in 1866. Five years, dozens of experiments, and two patents later, Sholes and his associates produced an improved model similar to today’s typewriters.

The type-bar system and the universal keyboard were the machine’s novelty, but the keys jammed easily. To solve the jamming problem, another business associate, James Densmore, suggested splitting up keys for letters commonly used together to slow down typing. This became today’s standard “QWERTY” keyboard.

Sholes lacked the patience required to market the new product and sold the rights to Densmore. He, in turn, convinced Philo Remington (of rifle fame) to market the device. The first “Sholes & Glidden Type Writer” was offered for sale in 1874 but was not an instant success. A few years later, improvements made by Remington engineers gave the machine its market appeal and sales skyrocketed.

Happy Birthday Today To: Clarence THomas - 57, James Levine - 62.

Posted by The Skipper     on 06/23/2005 at 09:35 AM   
Filed Under: • History •  
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Shameful Behavior !

_{Henry Payne, The Detroit News, Michigan}

Posted by The Skipper     on 06/23/2005 at 09:29 AM   
Filed Under: • Media-Bias • Military •  
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   Wednesday - June 22, 2005

Wake-Up Call

The Skipper has retired to the Captain’s Cabin for the evening with a fine bottle o’ rum. Please do not disturb until whatever the hell’s bells happen to chime around noon tomorrow. Only nekkid wenches need knock at the Capn’s door. All others will be shot.

Posted by The Skipper     on 06/22/2005 at 09:50 PM   
Filed Under: • Personal •  
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Blog Modifications

I have just completed several major modifications to the blog that will affect everyone. Let me know if anyone has any problems or complaints about the new design elements. Try not to use foul language unless you’re a Democrat, in which case you can go f**k yourself. Here’s the scoop ....

One of the (very few) things I liked about TypePad and MoveableType, before we switched over to Expression Engine blog software, was the little popup comment entry windows. No mess, no clutter, just an easy way to enter comments. The EE templates and PHP code made this impossible so comment entry windows had to open up in a full window (or tab if you’re smart and using FireFox) with all the inherited style sheet crap (like the right sidebar, etc.). That has bothered me for some time. It does not pay to bother me. I will eventually dig out my “round too-it” and correct things.

I have now completed all the necessary modifications and code changes to make things look the way I damn well want them to look and work. When you click on the “Comments” link at the bottom of each post, instead of a new window or tab opening up, a small popup window (800 x 600) will open up with no clutter and a simple little window to read comments and post your replies. I have also fixed some problems with the “Preview” window too (it also opens up within the small popup window now). I cleaned it up and added the HTML format buttons that were missing.

I am pleased with the results. It seems cleaner now and much easier to read comments and reply. Let me know what you think. One caveat: if your browser is set to block popups, you need to set your options to allow popups from this site (we don’t use those damned annoying popup advertisements here so relax).

Posted by The Skipper     on 06/22/2005 at 05:15 PM   
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Dances With Weasels

Several weeks ago, after the departure of my former partner, I decided to go ahead and pay the $250 and register BMEWS as a Limited Liability Corporation to avoid or limit any legal entanglements that might occur in the course of publishing this blog. I hired a weasel nice young lawyer to draw up the paperwork and handle it.

With the recent attack on Monday that rendered the site inaccessible, I have had numerous discussions with this nice young practitioner of the legal profession (hack! hack! cough! cough!) and he has advised me to post a Terms & Conditions Of Use document here to pave the way for severe legal action in the event the site is attacked again.

This is, in no way, intended to limit or alter your use of the blog. It is being done simply as a reponse to recent malicious acts. With that said, I have been forced at gunpoint directed to “recommend” that you all read it at your earliest convenience and to check it often for updates. There is a link at the bottom of the right sidebar for permanent access to this slimey crap informational document.

Thank you for your indulgence and appreciation of this blog. You may now carry on with normal activities (provided you can verify that no animals were harmed in any manner during the course of posting any comments). Sheesh!

Note: If “You-Know-Who” is reading this, you surely know I was only kidding while making the snide remarks about lawyers, don’t you? It was sarcasm, parody, poetic license, freedom of speech. Please, don’t hurt me!

Posted by The Skipper     on 06/22/2005 at 02:21 PM   
Filed Under: • Judges-Courts-Lawyers •  
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Broke And Busted In Flori-DUH

This story from Flori-DUH has all the ingredients of a modern day Greek tragedy. It also has a dash of chopped fruit, crushed nuts and .... a certain political party which has recently decided to implode. The name of this party is being withheld pending notification of next of kin ....

Posted by Z Woof     on 06/22/2005 at 08:41 AM   
Filed Under: • Democrats-Liberals-Moonbat Leftists •  
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Open Forum

For those who haven’t been keeping up with current events, ever since my oldest son went out to Albuquerque to work on his Masters degree in Music at the University Of New Mexico, he has fallen under the spell of the Dark Side. Yes .... the fruit of my loins has become a Barking Moonbat. The liberal professors and students out there have brainwashed him to the point where he believes Michael Moore is the incarnation of truth and George Bush is Hitler reborn.

I am shamed.

He had this to say to me in his Father’s Day e-mail ....

Yes, I still believe that Bush is the worst president of our times and deserves to be impeached based on the proof exhibited in the “Downing Street Memos.”

Yes, I truly believe that anyone who still supports that man and his gangsters is seriously suffering from intelligence gaps and has completely lost their grasp on reality.

If only I could go back in time to 1970 (when he was conceived) and tell my youthful self, “USE A RUBBER, DAMMIT!”

Anyway, I present to you here the notorious “Downing Street Memo” and toss it out to you to chew over. You may feel free to cuss it or discuss it, whichever suits your fancy. Personally, I don’t see a so-called “smoking gun” as my son and his Moonbat friends see. You tell me. In the meantime, I’m going to go bang that snot-nosed little brat up side of his pointy little head. What else can I do? After all, he is his mother’s son ....

Note: the person speaking here who is identified only as “C” is Sir Richard Dearlove, the current head of MI6. I have underlined the sentence the Liberals believe is the “smoking gun”.

MEMO
SECRET AND STRICTLY PERSONAL - UK EYES ONLY

DAVID MANNING
From: Matthew Rycroft
Date: 23 July 2002
S 195 /02

cc: Defence Secretary, Foreign Secretary, Attorney-General, Sir Richard Wilson, John Scarlett, Francis Richards, CDS, C, Jonathan Powell, Sally Morgan, Alastair Campbell

IRAQ: PRIME MINISTER’S MEETING, 23 JULY

Copy addressees and you met the Prime Minister on 23 July to discuss Iraq.

This record is extremely sensitive. No further copies should be made. It should be shown only to those with a genuine need to know its contents.

John Scarlett summarised the intelligence and latest JIC assessment. Saddam’s regime was tough and based on extreme fear. The only way to overthrow it was likely to be by massive military action. Saddam was worried and expected an attack, probably by air and land, but he was not convinced that it would be immediate or overwhelming. His regime expected their neighbours to line up with the US. Saddam knew that regular army morale was poor. Real support for Saddam among the public was probably narrowly based.

C reported on his recent talks in Washington. There was a perceptible shift in attitude. Military action was now seen as inevitable. Bush wanted to remove Saddam, through military action, justified by the conjunction of terrorism and WMD. But the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy. The NSC had no patience with the UN route, and no enthusiasm for publishing material on the Iraqi regime’s record. There was little discussion in Washington of the aftermath after military action.

Posted by The Skipper     on 06/22/2005 at 08:05 AM   
Filed Under: • Democrats-Liberals-Moonbat Leftists • Politics •  
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Today’s Contest

The American Film Institute (AFI) today released its list of Top 100 Famous Movie Lines. Famous quotes from the movies that stick in our minds. Here is the top 10 on the list. See if you can name the movie and the star who spoke these famous lines ....

1- “Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn.”

2- “I’m going to make him an offer he can’t refuse.”

3- “I coulda been a contender.”

4- “Toto, I’ve got a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore.”

5- “Here’s looking at you, kid.”

6- “Go ahead, make my day.”

7- “All right, Mr. DeMille, I’m ready for my close-up.”

8- “May the Force be with you.”

9- “Fasten your seatbelts. It’s going to be a bumpy night.”

10- “You talking to me?”

My personal favorite came in at #64: Peter Sellers ”Gentlemen, you can’t fight in here! This is the War Room!” from ”Dr. Strangelove”.

Posted by The Skipper     on 06/22/2005 at 04:20 AM   
Filed Under: • Humor •  
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Durbin Weeps

Senator Dick “Turban” Durbin took to the Senate floor yesterday evening and cried a river of crocodile tears, and extended a heartfelt saddened sincere bullshit apology for his naughty words ....

WASHINGTON - Under fire from Republicans and some fellow Democrats, Sen. Dick Durbin apologized Tuesday for comparing American interrogators at the Guantanamo Bay prison camp to Nazis and other historically infamous figures.

“Some may believe that my remarks crossed the line,” the Illinois Democrat said. “To them I extend my heartfelt apologies.”

His voice quaking and tears welling in his eyes, the No. 2 Democrat in the Senate also apologized to any soldiers who felt insulted by his remarks.

“They’re the best. I never, ever intended any disrespect for them,” he said.

The apology came a week after Durbin, the Senate minority whip, quoted from an
FBI agent’s report describing detainees at the Naval base in a U.S.-controlled portion of Cuba as being chained to the floor without food or water in extreme temperatures.

“If I read this to you and did not tell you that it was an FBI agent describing what Americans had done to prisoners in their control, you would most certainly believe this must have been done by Nazis, Soviets in their gulags or some mad regime — Pol Pot or others — that had no concern for human beings,” the senator said June 14.

The comment created a buzz on the Internet and among conservative talk radio hosts, but Durbin initially refused to apologize.

“This administration should apologize to the American people for abandoning the Geneva Conventions and authorizing torture techniques that put our troops at risk and make Americans less secure,” he said the day after his initial comments.

By last Friday, Durbin was trying to clarify his comments, yet the White House and top Republicans including Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist refused to relent. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, in an interview scheduled for broadcast Wednesday on Fox News radio’s “The Tony Snow Show,” tried to equate the comment with actress Jane Fonda calling U.S. soldiers war criminals during a visit to North Vietnam in 1972.

On Tuesday, Chicago Mayor Richard Daley — a fellow Democrat — added his voice to the chorus of criticism, saying, “I think it’s a disgrace to say that any man or woman in the military would act like that.”

Durbin said in his apology: “I made reference to Nazis, to Soviets, and other repressive regimes. Mr. President, I’ve come to understand that’s a very poor choice of words.”

Posted by The Skipper     on 06/22/2005 at 03:59 AM   
Filed Under: • Democrats-Liberals-Moonbat Leftists • Outrageous •  
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Not that very many people ever read this far down, but this blog was the creation of Allan Kelly and his friend Vilmar. Vilmar moved on to his own blog some time ago, and Allan ran this place alone until his sudden and unexpected death partway through 2006. We all miss him. A lot. Even though he is gone this site will always still be more than a little bit his. We who are left to carry on the BMEWS tradition owe him a great debt of gratitude, and we hope to be able to pay that back by following his last advice to us all:

1. Keep a firm grasp of Right and Wrong
2. Stay involved with government on every level and don't let those bastards get away with a thing
3. Use every legal means to defend yourself in the event of real internal trouble, and, most importantly:
4. Keep talking to each other, whether here or elsewhere

It's been a long strange trip without you Skipper, but thanks for pointing us in the right direction and giving us a swift kick in the behind to get us going. Keep lookin' down on us, will ya? Thanks.

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