US Senator Barbara Boxer (Stark Raving & Drooling Lunatic Moonbat-CA) said today that she would repeat charges that Secretary of State-designee Condoleezza Rice deliberately lied about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

"I will lay out again on the Senate floor [why] I do not believe [she] has been candid with the American people," Sen. Boxer told CNN's "Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer."

"[She's] gone on shows like yours and made statements that I don't think were true, or they were half-true, didn't tell the whole story, didn't level with the American people."

Reacting to criticism from White House chief of staff Andy Card, who called her attacks on Rice last week "petty politics," the Marin County Democrat taunted, "Even though Andy Card would like me to go away, I'm not going to go away."

"[Rice] said things that were flat-out not true," Sen. Boxer continued. "When she said only one agency thought the aluminum tubes could not be used for nuclear weapons, that wasn't true."

Boxer has some sort of personal grudge; in the eyes of some, she figures she's less vulnerable than most liberals, since she was just reelected to a six-year term by her constituents in California.

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Johnny Carson
1925-2005

We missed you long before you were gone...

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Wizbang and Rooftop Report have been all over this VW "commercial" since word of it surfaced.

The ad, a hoax viral ad not unlike last year's Ford Ka web ads that depicted a cat being beheaded and a pigeon being smacked into the street, is making it's way across the internet. The spot shows a man stepping out of a house in a nameless cosmopolitan European city and getting into a black VW Polo (a European-only sedan, similar to the American VW Golf).

After driving the Polo through the city, he stops in front of a sidewalk cafe packed with diners. Inside the car, you see that he is a suicide bomber with a bomb vest on and a detonator in his hand.

Outside the car again, the bomb detonates, and is completely contained within the car. A muffled "whumpf" sounds as the car remains intact. One diner looks up at the car casually.

The captioned tag reads, "Polo. Small but tough."

The ad plays on the established tagline for Volkswagen's Polo model, "small but tough". It shows a man in fatigues setting off in his Polo. He arrives outside a restaurant and pulls out a trigger. However, when he detonates the bomb, a flash is seen inside the car but the car itself does not explode. The strapline appears at the end. The campaign is the work of a duo known for their spoof advertising, called Lee and Dan. The pair run a website, LeeandDan.com, but the ad does not appear on the site at the time of writing. They have worked on a string of legitimate ads including Ford StreetKa, BP and Casio G-Shock, among others. Dan, from Lee and Dan, said: "The ad got out accidentally and has spread like wildfire. It wasn't meant for public consumption. "We think the spot reflects what people see in the news everyday, and in this instance the car is the hero that protects innocent people from someone with very bad intentions. We're sorry if the ad has caused any offence." Volkswagen stressed that the spot, which has been doing the viral email rounds this week, was made without any involvement from the company whatsoever. DDB London was also not involved in the spot.

Oh. And you can watch the ad here, or watch it here.

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1 Agreed. I hate to say it, but it is pretty stinking funny. Good call.

Posted by: Steve at January 21, 2005 05:31 PM (qUGze)

2 Funny, the first time I saw it I almost choked, I was laughing so hard. Those two have no apologies to make, they only have to make more.

Posted by: Mike H. at January 21, 2005 10:07 PM (FCfM4)

3 *ROTFLMBAO*

Posted by: DarkStar at January 22, 2005 06:46 AM (cnw1A)

4 Oh dear. I have to share this one with half the free world now ...

Posted by: Kate at January 23, 2005 12:21 AM (EwaGN)

5 Yer right. Very bad taste. But, *chortle* *snort* BWAHAHAHAHAAA!

Posted by: Tuning Spork at January 23, 2005 05:35 PM (L9A/j)

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The bad guys are getting bolder and bolder with their attacks.

According to a Kuwait News Agency (KUNA) report today, they decapitated an Iraqi policeman in front of shocked onlookers on a Baghdad street today.

Witnesses said here Friday that a number of gunmen beheaded a policeman and stuck a note on his corpse describing as traitors those working with or helping the police.

About ten gunmen in two cars in the Ramadi area stepped out of their vehicles, attacked a soldier, tied his hands behind his back, and cut his head off before the eyes of shocked onlookers in the street, the witnesses said.

And we're stuck with moonbats here worrying about the terrorists and how they are treated.

Just damn.

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Is this face of the new James Bond?

According to insiders, it is.

6'6" Scottish actor Rory McCann is the unknown that is reportedly the top choice of producers of the as-yet-untitled 21st James Bond flick, set to be filmed later this year or early next year.

McCann may be known peripherally to American audiences for a part in Oliver Stone's much-panned Alexander this year, and for a role known to PBS/BBC America viewers of Monarch of the Glen. McCann has recently finished filming in Beowulf and Grendel, due to be released stateside later this year.

The previous Bond, Pierce Brosnan, was let go by EON Productions late last year, when they indicated they wanted to go in a "new direction" with the Bond character. The Hollywood Reporter has all but confirmed that Goldeneye director Martin Campbell will direct "Bond 21" as well.

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Newly sworn in, Bush offered an implied rebuttal to critics of his foreign policy and the war in Iraq. "Some, I know, have questioned the global appeal of liberty," (President Bush) said, "though this time in history, four decades defined by the swiftest advance of freedom ever seen, is an odd time for doubt."

"We go forward with complete confidence in the eventual triumph of freedom," he said in remarks that were shorn of all but the most glancing references to the dominant political issues of the day.

The spread of freedom and liberty were the oldest ideals of America, Bush said. "Now it is the urgent requirement of our nation's security, and the calling of our time."

The US Senate, in an afternoon session, will take up cabinet appointments. Though Democratic Senator Robert Byrd (KKK-WV) suggested late yesterday that he would stall a vote on Bush' s choice for Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, until sometime next week -- a blatantly transparent swipe at the President, designed to let the Administration know that Senate Democrats are still engaging in open warfare with the White House.

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Senator Barbara Boxer (Raving Moonbat-CA), in her zeal to try to attack Secretary of State-designee Condoleezza Rice during confirmation hearings on Capitol Hill yesterday, falsely insisted that WMD was the only thing that Congress voted on when authorizing military action in Iraq.

BOXER: Well, you should read what we voted on when we voted to support the war, which I did not, but most of my colleagues did. It was WMD, period. That was the reason and the causation for that, you know, particular vote.

Boxer failed to note that seven different points were included in the authorization, contrary to her insistance otherwise.

To coin a phrase, let's go to the videotape!

1. Iraq's harboring of Al-Queda terrorists
2. Iraq's support for International Terrorism
3. Iraq's "brutal repression" of its citizens
4. Iraq's failure to repatriate or give information on non-Iraqi citizens detained and captured during Gulf War I, including an American serviceman;
5. Failing to properly return property wrongfully seized during the Kuwait invasion
6. The attempted assassination of former President Bush in 1993
7. America's national security interests in restoring peace and stability to the Persian Gulf

In other words, Boxer either had a lapse of memory or she just plain lied.

But then again, as I've said before, a lie told enough times becomes the truth in the minds of those who are apt to believe it. And Boxer has shown that the left plans to continue to tell as many lies about this President and this Administration as possible in order to make him look as bad as possible, and enhance their own standing.

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Secretary of State-designee Condoleezza Rice, testifying in today's confirmation hearings before a Senate subcommittee, got testy with several Democrats who seemed intent on attacking her character.

California Democrat Sen. Barbara Boxer argued that the Bush administration had shifted its justification for the war because it had failed to find stocks of biological and chemical weapons it had asserted were there.

"You sent them in there because of weapons of mass destruction. Later the mission changed when there were none," Boxer told Rice. "Let's not rewrite history, it's too soon to do that."

"It wasn't just weapons of mass destruction," Rice told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, saying former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein supported terrorism, attacked Kuwait and Israel and needed to be removed given the new U.S. threat perception after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington.

"We can have this discussion in any way that you would like, but I really hope that you will refrain from impugning my integrity," Rice told Boxer. "I really hope that you will not imply that I take the truth lightly."

"We must use American diplomacy to help create a balance of power in the world that favors freedom," Rice told the committee. "And the time for diplomacy is now."

Biden shot back: "Despite our great military might we are in my view more alone in the world than we've been in any time in recent memory. The time for diplomacy, in my view, is long overdue."

"We went in to rescue Iraq from Saddam Hussein, now I think we have to rescue our policy from ourselves," added Sen. John Kerry, the Massachusetts Democrat who failed to unseat Bush. "I don't take any joy in this but it's ... the reality we've got to deal with. We've got kids dying over there."

Though Rice's confirmation is all but assured, Senate Democrats have tossed veiled threats at the Republican leadership regarding White House nominees over the past few weeks, most notably over the possibility of the nomination of conservative Supreme Court jurist Clarence Thomas to the Chief Justice position on the retirement of ailing current Chief Justice William Rehnquist.

Provided the GOP leadership on the Hill gets some backbone about themselves, this won't be the headache that it currently looks to be shaping up as.

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In a 5-2 vote last night, the Cobb County School Board voted to appeal the decision of US District Judge Clarence Cooper, which would force the removal of a controversial sticker from science books in the county.

Cooper's decision insists the sticker, which reads "This textbook contains material on evolution. Evolution is a theory, not a fact, regarding the origin of living things. This material should be approached with an open mind, studied carefully and critically considered," violates the "Establishment Clause" of the US Constitution, which maintains the so-called separation of church and state.

On the heels of the school board vote, the board issued a statement which indicated that they felt "condemned . . . for taking a reasonable approach to address the concerns of citizens on a controversial issue."

The disclaimers stem from a petition drive begun in 2002 by Marjorie Rogers, who described herself during testimony in November as a creationist who believes the Bible's book of Genesis is factual. Rogers collected 2,300 signatures from supporters, prompting the board to print the disclaimers on stickers and place them in 13 science books used in middle and high schools.

Six parents sued to remove the stickers saying the disclaimers violated the principle of separation between church and state. Cooper heard three days of testimony, plus closing arguments, in November. He issued his ruling Thursday.

The board's decision Monday flabbergasted Jeffrey Selman, the leader of the parents who sued. "They're ludicrous," he said. "They're ignoring the ruling."

Board Chairwoman Kathie Johnstone read the board's statement aloud Monday, although both she and Laura Searcy voted against the appeal. Johnstone, the only one of seven members not on the board when the disclaimers were written, said she personally felt "it's time to move on."

"I'm worried about the toll it will have on the district," she said.

Board members said they would pursue the appeal at no additional cost, a promise stemming from board attorney Glenn Brock's pledge to do his remaining work on the case for free. Brock's law firm has charged the board roughly $74,000 so far.

My major beef with the issue has been addressed already, and that's the additional expenditure that we as Cobb County taxpayers would be saddled with, thanks to this entire process. Brock's firm won't be adding to the tax burdon with the appeal -- based on that, my feeling is that the appeal should move forward. There is no logical reason that the Judge Cooper should intervein in this matter - the stickers do not endorse any one theory of creation over another; it only suggests that the generally accepted theory is not the only one.

Or are the parents who filed the suit so afraid of a challenge to their own theories that they feel a zeal toward defending their theory? An almost religious zeal, perhaps?

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Bill Gates, sporting his "come hither" look, and looking more like a child molester, showed up in a 1985 Teen Beat spread.

I wonder if the future Mrs. Gates had a copy...

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Liberal feel-gooders love helping folks -- and this is not to say the tsunami victims don't need help. But do you hear a one of them - black or white - say anything about the genocide victims in the Sudan?

And you sure don't hear Jesse and the Soul Patrol saying anything...

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I'm a big man, and I'm in a constant struggle to lose weight these days.

But this waif of a girl, at a hundred pounds, soaking wet, won the challenge at Denny's Beer Barrel Pub in State College, PA, and didn't look any worse for wear afterward!

19 year-old Kate Stelnick, a Princeton student downed a six-pound burger plus fixins -- bun and all -- in just under three hours last Wednesday.

Denny Leigey Jr., the owner of the bar 35 miles northwest of State College, had offered a two-pound burger for years and conceived of the six-pounder after his daughter went to college and phoned him about a bar that sold a four-pounder.

But nobody had finished the big burger in the three-hour time limit since it was introduced on Super Bowl Sunday 1998. In addition to the meat, contestants much eat one large onion, two whole tomatoes, one half head of lettuce, 1 1/4 pounds of cheese, two buns, and a cup each of mayonnaise, ketchup, mustard, relish, banana peppers and some pickles.

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Las Vegas weather reporter Rob Blair was fired yesterday after making an offensive slur against Martin Luther King, in what he termed an "accidental slip of the tongue" in an on-air apology broadcast later.

Jim Prather, vice president and general manager of KTNV, said Blair "stumbled" during a weather update at 7:55 a.m. Saturday but added that "this kind of incident is not acceptable under any circumstances, and I'm truly sorry that this event occurred."

Blair was delivering the extended forecast when he said, "For tomorrow, 60 degrees, Martin Luther Coon King Jr. Day, gonna see some temperatures in the mid-60s."

About 20 minutes later, Blair told viewers at the ABC affiliate, "Apparently I accidentally said Martin Luther Kong Jr., which I apologize about -- slip of the tongue."

He offered a full apology during Saturday's 6 p.m. and 11 p.m. newscasts.

At 6:11 p.m., co-anchor Christina Brown, who is black, announced, "Right now we want to pause for a program note. Rob?"

Blair, seated at the news desk with co-anchors Brown and Shawn Boyd, said, "On a weather report earlier this morning, I made an accidental slip of the tongue when talking about the Martin Luther King holiday, and what I said was interpreted by many viewers as highly offensive. For that I offer my deepest apology. I in no way intended to offend anyone. I'm very sorry."

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National Church of God in Christ board member Bishop George McKinney said Social Security is in trouble today because of abortion.

"Part of the problem that we're seeing now with Social Security has to do with the fact that 40 to 50 million people who have been killed through abortions have not taken their role as productive citizens."

McKinney said the Democratic Party's support for legal abortion and gay marriage has cost it support in the black community.

COGIC is the fourth largest denomination in the US with 5.5 million members.

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Martin Luther King's legacy is always the subject of much debate and deliberation at this time of year, when the national holiday to commemorate his birth takes place.

There are those who insist that it is not deserved, due to King's activities that some consider to be subversive; there are others who look at it as an excuse and means to denigrate and verbally attack those who do not agree with them politically or socially; and there are those who simply look at it as an excuse for a day off work on the heels of the Christmas/New Year holiday timeframe.

Then there are those who look on this as a day of service -- service to their home, to their community, to their way of life. Some participate by joining in commemorative services, some by reflective thought, some by serving their fellow man, and some - simply by partaking in the American Dream and going to work.

Contrary to the carpings of Jesse Jackson and others who pretend to know what Dr. King would be doing today, why not celebrate the man and his work? Why take the time, as Jackson did in a Jonesboro, GA pulpit yesterday, to attack the Bush Administration or anyone else who disagrees with you?

Dr. King worked so that I, and others, would have the opportunity to openly disagree with the status quo, and to disagree with each other. He worked so that voices wouldn't be silenced simply for being contrary to the larger whole.

I'd like to think that Dr. King would be proud of someone like myself, who takes the time to think and speak my own mind, and who encourages others to do the same.

Across town from me, at Atlanta's Turner Field, hundreds of volunteers work to put the finishing touches on a hot meal and to assemble resources for the city's homeless. The annual effort also provides access to showers and a haircut for those who would otherwise be forgotten. Volunteers with job service knowledge and skills to share, provide help where possible to those homeless, in order that they might be able to lift themselves up by their own bootstraps and remove themselves from the homeless population.

That is their service. They give voice and action to Dr. King's dream of Christian brotherhood, fellowship and mission to and for all. And though there are many who look past that portion of King's dream in favor of other, more "glory-seeking" goals, is it not better to serve yourself, your family and your fellow man? I would dare say it was better in Dr. King's eyes, and it certainly is far better in God's eyes.

Today, I sit in my office, at work. I work to better my company, to better myself and to better my family. I give voice to that work, and am proud to do so. That is how I serve. I am certain Dr. King would applaud my service.

And you? How do you serve?

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In the early-to-mid 90s, the Pentagon considered deploying a number of non-lethal chemical weapons, according to newly-declassified documents.

Most bizarre among the plans was one for the development of an "aphrodisiac" chemical weapon that would make enemy soldiers sexually irresistible to each other. Provoking widespread homosexual behaviour among troops would cause a "distasteful but completely non-lethal" blow to morale, the proposal says.

Other ideas included chemical weapons that attract swarms of enraged wasps or angry rats to troop positions, making them uninhabitable. Another was to develop a chemical that caused "severe and lasting halitosis", making it easy to identify guerrillas trying to blend in with civilians. There was also the idea of making troops' skin unbearably sensitive to sunlight.

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1 They really don't need a new reason, do they?

Posted by: david at January 14, 2005 01:08 AM (Vv/3u)

2 That's hilarious! These all sound like Monty Python skits.

Posted by: oddbrian at January 14, 2005 04:45 AM (xH7dl)

3 This is the sort of stuff that happens when you pay people to just brainstorm, and write down and consider everything they say at least somewhat seriously. I mean, look at what we're studying in all seriousness. Using sound as a weapon. Shooting down artillery shells with lasers. I'm sure that we have invasion plans for Canada and mexico in some filing cabinet in the pentagon. PsyOps does all sorts of wierd stuff. Some of it works, some of it doesn't. Alot of it is one-shot.

Posted by: Firethorn at January 14, 2005 07:47 AM (BPXQB)

4 What -- you mean the Canadian invasion plan isn't serious!? Dammit.

Posted by: McGehee at January 16, 2005 05:36 AM (S504z)

5 I didn't say that the planned invasion of Canada wasn't serious. I'm sure that the group that planned it was very serious. Though I bet it's on the low probability list.

Posted by: Firethorn at January 16, 2005 09:42 PM (BPXQB)

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Ted Kennedy flubbed Osama Bin Laden's name in an interview this week, substituting freshman Senator Barak Obama's name instead.

"Osama bin Â… Osama Â… Obama."

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Figures...

How 'bout you? How nerdy are you?

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My children attend schools in Cobb County, GA (makes sense, since I live in Cobb), and have been affected (for what it's worth) by the stickers placed in science textbooks. The stickers have a single paragraph on them: "This textbook contains material on evolution. Evolution is a theory, not a fact, regarding the origin of living things. This material should be approached with an open mind, studied carefully and critically considered."

A federal judge in Atlanta has ordered the stickers to be removed from the textbooks, indicating that they are unconstitutional.

In a ruling issued today, U.S. District Judge Clarence Cooper said the stickers violate the Establishment Clause of the U.S. Constitution.

"Adopted by the school board, funded by the money of taxpayers, and inserted by school personnel, the sticker conveys an impermissible message of endorsement and tells some citizens that they are political outsiders while telling others they are political insiders," Cooper wrote in a 44-page decision.

The stickers send "a message that the school board agrees with the beliefs of Christian fundamentalists and creationists," Cooper said. "The school board has effectively improperly entangled itself with religion by appearing to take a position. Therefore, the sticker must be removed from all of the textbooks into which it has been placed."

The lawsuit challenging the disclaimers, which call evolution a "theory, not a fact," was brought by six parents who believed the disclaimers violated the principle of separation between church and state. Cooper heard three days of testimony, plus closing arguments, last November.

There are far better things that my tax dollars should be spent on in the Cobb County schools than slapping in or yanking out stickers to satisfy the whims of overzealous school board members or judges.

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Britian's Prince Harry, in a brainless show of monumental proportions, donned a Nazi uniform for a costume party last week. The photo showed up on the front page of London's Sun newspaper this morning.

The prince had intended to go to a military college this fall, but this may put a kybosh on Harry's military plans.

Labour backbencher and former armed forces minister Doug Henderson said the incident demonstrated that the prince was unfit to train as a British Army officer at Sandhurst.

"If it was anyone else the application wouldn't be considered. It should be withdrawn immediately," Henderson said.

"A quick way of nipping it in the bud is for Harry to make it clear he has withdrawn his application for Sandhurst," he told Sky TV.

Harry is due to begin training at the elite Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst later this year.

Harry is third in line for the British throne, behind his father, Prince Charles, and his older brother, Prince William.

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