Monday - October 02, 2006

Devil’s Advocate

Hugo Chavez is a major idiot and I have no use for the loudmouth jerk. I also feel he needs to be smacked up side of his pointy little head for his recent remarks about President Bush being the devil. With that said however, I am going to have to take the position of devil’s advocate in the whole CITGO kerfuffle that is going around the blogosphere.

The fact is I just don’t see a boycott of Citgo doing any good whatsoever to get back at Chavez. There has been a whole lot of smoke and mirrors over this entire incident and I want you to consider the three key facts below, think about it and then let’s open the floor for discussion ...

• Citgo doesn’t actually own any of the U.S. gas stations that carry its brand. Instead, it sells gas and oil to franchise owners. So the people who would be hurt most from a boycott of stations with the Citgo name would be the thousands of small businessmen and women who own the franchises and run the stations.


• The 7-Eleven stores are indeed dropping Citgo as a supplier, but the truth is the deal has been in the works for a year and is only marginally related to Mr. Chávez’s U.N. comments.


• The total value of Venezuelan crude oil and refined products imported into the United States for 2005 was estimated to be in excess of $21 billion. Citgo imported $10 billion. Many other U.S. oil companies, including ExxonMobil, ConocoPhillips and ChevronTexaco also import crude oil and refined products from Venezuela (Source: PVDSA).

_{Clay Jones - The Freelance-Star, Fredericksburg, VA}

7-Eleven Dumps Citgo, Picks Up Torrance Supplier
_{(BIZJOURNAL) - September 28, 2006}

Convenience store operator 7-Eleven Inc. is dropping Citgo as its gasoline provider and switching to its own brand, the company said Wednesday. The Dallas-based chain’s 20-year contract with Venezuelan-backed Citgo expires at the end of this week, said 7-Eleven spokeswoman Margaret Chabris. Torrance-based Tower Energy Group is among the suppliers that will now be supplying 7-Eleven with gasoline.

Chabris said 7-Eleven has been planning for some time to shift to its own brand of gasoline, and it is merely coincidental that the announcement follows incendiary remarks Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez made about President George W. Bush last week.

Chabris added that Citgo, a Houston-based subsidiary of Venezuela’s state-owned oil company, announced earlier this year that it would no longer supply Texas and other states where 7-Eleven relied significantly on the gasoline.

“Our decision to rebrand the gasoline as our own was made some time ago and certainly before Hugo Chavez made his remarks at the U.N. Last week,” Chabris said. Chavez, during his remarks, called Bush the devil and an alcoholic, according to news reports. 7-Eleven sells Citgo gas at more than 2,100 locations, Chabris said.

Posted by The Skipper     on 10/02/2006 at 05:31 AM   
Filed Under: • Economics • Latin-America •  
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   Sunday - October 01, 2006

Through The Looking Glass

“Delta GPS Launch”
_{(click image for larger 950x1152 in popup window)}

A Delta II space launch vehicle lifts off from Complex 17A at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla., Sept. 25. It carried a NAVSTAR Global Positioning System satellite into orbit. (U.S. Air Force photo)

Posted by The Skipper     on 10/01/2006 at 03:48 PM   
Filed Under: • Art-Photography • Military •  
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Death Of A Nation

I can’t say I’m going to miss Louis Farrakhan. Nor will I miss the “Nation Of Islam” if it falls apart. This shadow group is a nefarious, racist band of idiots who need to quietly disappear. It has always amazed me that Farrakhan could get away with his anti-semitic public statements, sleazy financing and hired thugs keeping the rabble away from His Lowness.

The government should have broken this bunch up a long time ago. Our society has become way too tolerant of idjits like Farrakhan and others of his ilk. A little housecleaning is in order. The Nation Of Islam is a good place to start sweeping out the trash. Where is Elliot Ness when we need him ... ?

Nation of Islam Future Questioned
_{October 1, 2006, 1:23 PM EDT - (AP)}

Minister Louis Farrakhan, ailing and in seclusion at his Michigan home, has ceded leadership of the Nation of Islam to an executive board while he recovers, saying the movement must prove that it “is more than the charisma, eloquence and personality” of one person.

But those who have watched the Nation evolve over decades believe that the organization—known as much for the dark suits and bow ties of its followers as for its doctrine of black supremacy—will falter without a dynamic figure like the minister in charge.

“When Farrakhan dies, my prediction is the movement will split,” said Lawrence Mamiya, a Vassar College professor and an expert on African-American religion. “I don’t think this movement can be governed by a board. It runs off the charismatic energy of one person.” The 73-year-old Farrakhan wrote in a Sept. 11 letter to followers that he was anemic and 20 pounds lighter because of complications from an ulcer in the anal area. He had surgery in 2000 for prostate cancer.

“In this period of testing, you can prove to the world that the Nation of Islam is more than the charisma, eloquence and personality of Louis Farrakhan,” he wrote. “You can prove that the Nation of Islam ... is more than the physical presence of any individual, and that it will live long after I and we have gone.”

Conrad Worrill, of the Inner Cities Studies program at Northeastern Illinois University, traveled with Farrakhan to Cuba, where he was initially diagnosed this year. “It’s serious, he needs to recover, but he’s not on his deathbed,” he said. The Rev. Jesse Jackson, who spoke with Farrakhan by phone Sept. 24, said the minister had given up oversight “because he wants to devote his time exclusively to physical restitution.”

Still, it’s clear from Farrakhan’s letter that he is concerned about who will succeed him. He has firsthand experience with a messy transition at the top. He had to rebuild the Nation in the late 1970s, after W.D. Mohammed, the son of the late Nation leader Elijah Muhammad, broke away and moved his followers toward mainstream Islam.

While the Nation has obviously survived, no one can say how successful the revival has been. A longtime target of federal surveillance, the movement is highly secretive and suspicious of outsiders. At Mosque Maryam in Chicago, the Nation’s headquarters, security guards stand watch behind brass-plated doors. Even researchers who follow the group closely do not know for sure how many members or mosques it has, how much money it takes in or whether it is shrinking or growing.

Yet Farrakhan’s popularity among many blacks is clear. The hundreds of thousands of black men he drew to the 1995 Million Man March in Washington are only one example. He is popular with hip-hop artists, who praise the Nation in their music, and a trusted mediator in gang conflict. This support is baffling to many outsiders, who remember Farrakhan only for his most provocative comments, including calling Judaism a “gutter religion” and saying Hitler was “wickedly great.”

“The Nation of Islam has always been a symbolically important organization as a cultural symbol of defiance against the American state,” said Melissa Harris-Lacewell, professor of politics and African-American studies at Princeton University. “At the Million Man March, most of those people were not members of the Nation of Islam. They were supporters of Farrakhan and his brand of critique of American politics.”

Farrakhan has haltingly tried to move the Nation toward traditional Islam, which considers the American movement heretical because of its view of Elijah Muhammad as a prophet—among other novel teachings. Orthodox Islam teaches that there has been no prophet after Muhammad in the seventh century.

He’s also played down some of the group’s more controversial beliefs. The Nation of Islam teaches that whites are descended from the devil and that blacks are the chosen people of Allah. Mamiya said leaders no longer preach that message, although it is still taught in some mosques.

- More on the downfall of the Nation here ...

Posted by The Skipper     on 10/01/2006 at 01:28 PM   
Filed Under: • Racism and race relations • Religion •  
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Oddly Enough …

Ever wonder what people who have no social life and few brains actually do to keep themselves occupied? Me neither. However, I found out that some of them get into building really weird cars* to impress their geek friends (like the one below). Sad, but true ....

<sub>Note: if that is a PacMan car then that must be Ms. PacMan and where are the ghosts who are about to eat her alive? I’m sure some of them are reading this blog right now. Mheh-heh ....

* - Scroll to the bottom of the page in the link above and play the YouTube movie of the Barking Mad Englishman and his creative vehicles. Monty Python would be proud. No, really.</sub>

Posted by Rancino     on 10/01/2006 at 11:16 AM   
Filed Under: • Odd-Strange •  
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Back In The Saddle Again

“Out, Out, Damn Flu”

Yep, I’m back in the saddle again after a miserable week. Wednesday and Thursday were spent in a fevered delirium as the flu bug chomped on my brain and I spent most of my time in the “WC”, as Bulldog might call it.

Friday, I woke up and figured I was all “healed up and haired over” as the old saying goes. I was a blaze of energy at work and posting here.

Then it all came crashing down on Saturday and I went into relapse. Horrific visions haunted me as I stumbled around trying to determine if a coma seemed appropriate.

Then Alabama got whupped by Florida down in “The Swamp” Saturday afternoon and I punched out the clock and crawled under the covers in an attempt to make the world go away. I dreamed of Gators. Argh.

Finally, I woke up early this morning feeling more like my old self. Probably due to the massive quantities of “medicinal beverages” I consumed last night in an effort to get to sleep.

I should have listened to all of you last week when you recommended aforementioned remedy. It worked. So I am herefore declaring the Officially BMEWS Flu Remedy to be: (1) avoid food at all costs, (2) consume large quantities of adult beverages - straight, (3) take plenty of aspirin, (4) keep yer ass in bed until it passes and you’re sure it has passed, (5) stay close to the bathroom, (6) keep repeating to yourself, “the season is finally over - the Cubs are out of their misery until Spring. Yep, that’ll do it ....

Posted by The Skipper     on 10/01/2006 at 10:48 AM   
Filed Under: • Personal •  
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Weekend Editorial

Michael Reagan whips out a hammer and hits the nail right on the head in this weekend’s editorial. I have long felt that the current partisan attacks by the Democrats and the hatred and bias from the liberal mainstream media border on treason. In a time of war, these damnable acts by the Left are a disgrace and completely without honor or conscience.

We have troops overseas putting their lives on the line every single day and some of them pay the ultimate price. The Leftists in this country who enjoy the protection provided by those troops are at the same time providing aid and comfor to the enemy by revealing secret projects by the government to foil further attacks and by a constant stream of attacks on the current administration.

Why not call it treason? I’ll let Michael explain ....

Let’s Dare Call it Treason

-by Michael Reagan

Benedict Arnold was a war hero whose courageous actions at the Battle of Saratoga helped turn the tide for the colonists in the American Revolution, so it is not fair to him to compare him to the sniveling nest of traitors now endangering our national security in the name of cheap partisan politics.

They are not Benedict Arnolds - they are in a class all by themselves – political and journalistic hacks willing to do anything to win an election and oust an administration they loathe even if by so doing they endanger the safety of their fellow Americans.

Time after time, for months on end, we have watched the spectacle of government officials in the intelligence agencies violate their oaths by leaking the most sensitive secrets to dedicated anti-American newspapers such as the treasonous New York Times.

Vital anti-terrorism operations designed to monitor communications between terrorists overseas and their agents in the United States or track the international movement of funds meant to finance terrorist activities have been compromised, if not rendered useless, by leaks to the Times and The Washington Post.

Both newspapers loathe the Bush administration and the Republican Party, and both have wallowed in self-congratulation for their coups against the security of the American people, delighted to be inflicting harm on the president and his attempts to safeguard the American people if it will help turn the Congress over to their Democrat allies.

They are being enabled by what amount to moles lurking in the CIA and other intelligence agencies, who ignore the fact that they are committing real crimes by betraying their oaths for the most sordid of political purposes.

This latest episode, the leaking of the purported April National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) to the Times and the Post, however, is a different kettle of rotten fish. To begin with, the stories in the Times and the Post distorted what was in the NIE – a fact that quickly emerged when relevant parts of the authentic document were declassified and released.

What has emerged since the latest leaks were publicized is the very obvious involvement of the Democrats in the whole shameful episode. It is very easy to understand that given the superior record of the GOP as a proven protector of the safety of the American people and the pitiful record of the Democrats in that regard, it’s obvious that the leaks were designed to raise questions about the Republicans’ ability to safeguard the national security, and thus bolster Democratic claims disputing that record.

What is at stake here is simply the government’s ability to do its job of fighting a global war against a shadowy enemy that has made no secret of their goal of killing us and conquering the West.

That government simply cannot do that job as long as there is a fifth column operating within our borders. And that fifth column is composed of The New York Times and the rest of the liberal media dedicated to crippling the administration’s ability to fight the war and ensure the safety of the American people.

Call it whatever you want, but no matter what name you give it, it remains treason. And if the nation is to be protected from deadly attacks against the homeland by the enemy, the people involved in this treasonous activity have to be stopped from their ongoing betrayal of the United States and the American people, and stopped now.

This is no longer a matter of mere finger pointing. This is time for the handcuffs to come out. If President Bush wants to assure the nation that he is determined to protect them from future 9/11s he is going to have to step forward and loose the hounds of justice against those in the government who are betraying their oaths, and hold the Times and its allies in the media legally accountable for their treasonous activities.

As the president has reminded us, we are at war. With an active fifth column doing its level best to make us lose that war, the time has come to root it out and make its participants pay for their betrayal.

Let’s roll, Mr. President.

---

_{Mike Reagan, the eldest son of the late President Ronald Reagan, is heard on more than 200 talk radio stations nationally as part of the Radio America Network. Look for Mike’s new book “Twice Adopted”. Order autographed books at http://www.reagan.com. Email Comments to mereagan@hotmail.com. ©2006 Mike Reagan. If you’re not a paying subscriber to our service, you must contact us to print or web post this column. Mike’s column is distributed exclusively by: Cagle Cartoons, Inc. Cari Dawson Bartley email Cari@cagle.com, (800) 696-7561.}

Posted by The Skipper     on 10/01/2006 at 10:03 AM   
Filed Under: • Editorials •  
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Sunday Funnies

Posted by The Skipper     on 10/01/2006 at 08:37 AM   
Filed Under: • Humor •  
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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:

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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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