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Americans hate politicians and entertainers....

....right?

Fight! Fight!

African-Americans and Mexicans are not getting along. Example 1 and Example 2.

We interrupt our programming for a discussion on hip-hop

I love 'Wait' the whisper song by the Ying Yang Twins, particularly the remix with Missy Elliot, but I have to admit I can see it getting old quickly. Plus, this is one of the few songs where the clean radio version is so much better than the dirty original. Trust me, you don't want to hear the original. He's saying what you think he's saying. It's just better not to know.

Still, I think 'Wait' is on track to be in the top 3 songs you hear playing out car windows this summer. My other two picks are 'So Seductive' by Tony Yayo, mostly because it's catchy as hell and everything 50 Cent touches turns to gold these days, and 'Diamonds are Forever', with Kanye West and Jay-Z, which despite having a political message, something I normally hate, is a fantastic song. Sure, Jay-Z's retired from rapping but he's back here with a great verse that includes the excellent line 'I'm not a businessman, I'm a business man'.

Now back to our regularly scheduled right-wing politics.

'.....all alone in the moonlight....'

This may come as a total shock to some but 'Dawn Summers' is a pseudonym. I know, how surprising, it sounds so real. Dawn takes a trip down memory lane and remembers how she chose the name (and, well, I'm mentioned a couple of times instantly making it worth the read).

How the Onion should be

Riding Sun has an excellent post addressing the chicken-hawk 'argument' made by some on the left. Genius.

Also look for Riding Sun as the latest addition to my 'International' section.

Wouldn't it be nice...

Headline: Palestinian police clash with Hamas in Gaza Strip.

No, just kidding. The real headline:

Headline: Protesting settlers clash with troops in Gaza Strip

TALK ABOUT A PREEMPTIVE STRIKE (by guest blogger Dawn Summers)

"Canada cannot be the drugstore for the United States," Health Minister Ujjal Dosanjh told reporters at a news conference.

"In light of potential American legislation legalizing the bulk import of Canadian prescription and other medications, our priority must be the health and safety of all Canadians and the strength of our health care system," he said.

HAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHAAH

Uh-oh

Stella's lost her groove again.

Karol's rule #1 of life

Don't trust Russians.

Best idea I've heard all day

Ari broke the news to me that HBO is moving 'Six Feet Under' back to Sundays. Whoever decided to move it to Mondays in the first place should be fired. I haven't caught a single Monday episode yet, watching it On Demand instead.

Listen, 4pmEST

(Click this graphic to listen)

Our guest today will be Julia Gorin. She has written for Opinionjournal.com, Foxnews.com, Frontpage.com and she has a piece in the October issue of Hustler and a profile in the September issue of Penthouse. Yes, really. Her latest article 'Serb, lies and videotape' questions whether we chose the right side in the Kosovo war.

Our new format features one interviewee and one guest commentator, who will generally be a blogger. Today's guest commentator is Dorian Davis. Dorian is a sometimes-guest blogger here at 'Alarming News' and one of my all-time favorite bloggers. He is currently on hiatus because he is working on a book.

As always, Dawn Summers will be guest blogging the proceedings. Feel free to hang out in her comment section and comment along too. I do read it as the show is on so I can gauge what we're doing right or wrong.

The problem with liberal anger....

...is that it's just slightly misdirected:

I came across this post about a lefty in NYC mad as hell about Karl Rove's comments regarding liberals. He ends with 'I am determined to take them down. I am ready to fight the bastards like I have never fought before', which would be great if he was talking about the terrorists and not about Pataki and Bloomberg.

My kind of man

Former hostage hires bounty hunters to find and kill his captors.

Another one bites the dust

Sacramento Bee can't verify 43 sources in one reporter's work over 12 years.

Can the Spice Girls save the world?

But every seasoned aid worker knew at the time, as they know now on the eve of Live 8, Geldof's long-awaited successor to Live Aid, that there is no necessary connection between raising a lot of money for a good cause and spending that money well, just as there is no necessary connection between caring about the suffering of others and understanding the nature and cause of that suffering.

-From an interesting piece, via Daily Lunch, about whether 1985's Live Aid actually helped Ethiopia.

Best. Quiz. Ever. (well, for the tiny percentage of my readership that speaks Russian anyway)

Take the quiz here.

I like questions 12 and 17 the best. I think anecdoty are terribly unfunny and holodetz is disgusting though I chose 'pizdets' as the answer because it's funny.

Your so-called "soul" earned 2 out of five troika matreshki.

Your soul is weak, my friend. Nearly transparent. Yet it is there. The whore of the west has implanted her syphillitic "culture" into your private parts. You must get out into the countryside and subsist on a diet of fresh goat's milk and cucumbers until you are pure.

Via Isolato.

The curse is broken

It's not that I've never seen Derek Jeter's bat connect with a ball. I have. Then the ball would sail through the air, into the outfielders glove then sail back toward second base or home, getting another Yankee out and ending the inning. It became a running joke among my friends and would come to be known as 'Karol's Jeter curse'. I would be watching a game with the fellas and the moment I'd choose to get up and get a drink would be the moment of Jeter's grand slam. It was just always this way.

But that all changed last night. Thanks to the kindness of my cute little neighbor girl, I broke my Jeter curse live at Yankee stadium with a double against the Mets. Turns out that it's true: that guy really can hit.

I'm going to go out on a limb and say it wasn't the straight guys

NY Daily News cover:

Blogroll Update

NYC:

Eye Dream Awake- Any roommate of Kat's is welcome on the blogroll.

Colorado:

Polichick- She was once Bond Girl, now she's Polichick. Check her out.

Hey hey, ho ho, memories of Communism's evil have got to go

The Checkpoint Charlie monument in Berlin is scheduled for demolition on the 4th of July. The monument features crosses with the names, and sometimes photos, of victims of Communism murdered attempting to escape East Germany during the Cold War.

Via GOPINION, an excellent new site that pulls conservative news from around the sphere.

Quote of the Day

Banning flag desecration flatters the desecrators and suggests that the flag of this great republic is a wee delicate bloom that has to be protected. It's not. It gets burned because it's strong. I'm a Canadian and one day, during the Kosovo war, I switched on the TV and there were some fellows jumping up and down in Belgrade burning the Stars and Stripes and the Union Jack. Big deal, seen it a million times. But then to my astonishment, some of those excitable Serbs produced a Maple Leaf from somewhere and started torching that. Don't ask me why -- we had a small contribution to the Kosovo bombing campaign but evidently it was enough to arouse the ire of Slobo's boys. I've never been so proud to be Canadian in years. I turned the sound up to see if they were yelling ''Death to the Little Satan!'' But you can't have everything.

-Mark Steyn

That makes sense.

I thought I sometimes mispronounce words because I'm an immigrant and learned most of my English through reading instead of hearing words, but it turns out it's because I'm a genius.

What happened to the Boy Scouts?

Cold Fury:

The lost Utah Boy Scout has been found, fortunately none the worse for wear. This is an eleven year old boy who got lost on a dirt road. That’s right, he got lost on a road. The glaring stupidity of this makes me wonder what the hell has happened to the Boy Scouts in the 30+ years since I was one. Hell, at 11 years old my daughters could shoot a gun, read a compass, and start a fire – with a flint and steel – let alone follow a freaking road.

Watch

Check out GOPTV's 'Wild Thing' ad about Democrats. It's funny, and dare I say, pretty cool.

Via Slantpoint.

How dare anyone call their romance staged?

Q.

Would any bloggers/readers be interested in playing an online poker game on Party Poker? We can set up a private table and I think it would be pretty fun. It could be a No Limit $25 or a $.50/$1.00 Limit game. It would be better if we could play a tournament to prevent anyone from Dawn Summering the game (leaving as soon as you win a big pot) but I haven't figured out how to set up a tourney.

Let me know if there is interest. If you've never used Party Poker before, you can get a 20% sign up bonus by using my offer code: Kashei.

You wouldn't like me when I'm angry

Despite living in the same city as the hole that used to be the World Trade Center, I've given very little thought to what will be built in its place. I have no expertise in architecture so when people discuss the hideousness of the proposed Freedom Tower or debate the design of the memorial, I kind of tune them out. I imagine, hell I know, that the great majority of people, both in NY and in the rest of the country, are just like me. Whatever they build, I'll be unfazed and generally satisfied. I've got other things to worry about than what kind of buildings get built. So do most people.

When I heard chatter in the blogosphere about 'taking back' the memorial at Ground Zero, I ignored it and assumed it was further discussion of the design flaws in the proposals for Ground Zero. Then I saw this Cox&Forkum cartoon:

C&F are geniuses but honestly, I thought they were exaggerating.

Surely the memorial wouldn't be used as a hodge-podge of various criticisms on American history. Right? I mean, that would be crazy. What does our sad history of slavery have to do with 19 maniacs killing 3000 of our people in one horrible day? Or, aside from even America-bashing, what would raising the discussion of Ukrainian democracy or on the history of World War II add to our understanding or experience of 9/11? Dawn Summers sees this as a free speech issue but she should put down the crackpipe and rethink. The Museum of Natural History doesn't have exhibits on space rockets or other scientific marvels. The Metropolitan Museum of Art doesn't hold laser light shows that explain to children about astronomy (or Pink Floyd). The Vietnam memorial in DC didn't tag on a few names of war dead from the Korean war. There's a time and a place for everything. The museum at Ground Zero should have one purpose and one focus: to remember the people that we lost that sad day.

I don't get mad easily. Beyond just being a generally calm, happy person, I'm pretty used to arguing or disagreeing with people and maintaining a happy disposition. Whatever the argument, whether over Iraq or Chimpy McHalliburton, I don't feel that adrenaline rush that I once might've. I don't get angry. Well, this story is the first in a while that made my blood rush. How dare they want to use this place for this idiocy? How could it even be up for debate that some anti-American propaganda should be included? And here's the thing: I'm politically obsessed and I just started paying attention to this. Just wait until regular people who don't spend all day on the internet and instead worry about car payments and college tuition and whether little Timmy will be picked for the Varsity team, hear about this. Americans are not that complicated. They love their country. And, they accept criticism of it. But not there, not at the place we watched destroyed. Not where our people died. 9/11 was, for most people, a really big deal. This is not the way in which we will let it be remembed.

Funny, I must've missed all the faux tribunals held for Saddam's crimes.

Mossback Culture reports that novelist Arundhati Roy is participating in a fake tribunal that will hold 'hearings' on the state of Iraq. Everything is terrible in Iraq, in case you didn't know, nothing is going right, everything is going wrong, it's all one big disaster. I just summed up the whole conference for you.

Do both conservatives and liberals love America?

Sure, says Ace, just in different ways.

From Iraq, with Love (by guest blogger Dorian Davis)

I was too young, at the time, to have a clear recollection of Bill Clinton's address to the nation on the evening of June 26, 1993, announcing a missile strike on the Iraqi intelligence service, the Mukhabarat, in retaliation for an assassination attempt against former President George H. W. Bush. That speech, for me, melted into the farrago of white-haired blurs from the Oval Office that characterized the Clinton administration; none of them memorable, or even notable, and most of them packed with tough rhetoric that conveyed the distinct impression he was advocating decisive action, though the nature of that action was never immediately apparent. He cited "compelling evidence" of a plot to assassinate George H. W. Bush:

It is clear that this was no impulsive or random act. It was an elaborate plan devised by the Iraqi government and directed against a former President of the United States, because of the actions he took as President. As such, the Iraqi attack against President Bush was an attack against our country, and against all Americans.

John Davis wrote, in an article for White House Studies, that the limited scope of the Clinton response to state-sponsored terrorism didn't coincide with the "level of the public statement" that he had made in regard to an "attack against all Americans." He pointed to a press briefing, a few days after the bombing, in which Clinton had admitted that the Mukhabarat consisted of "multiple facilities," but insisted that he had "severely damaged" the "main building," as if the destruction of one building in the middle of the night--at 12:22am--was a proportional retaliation for Iraq's "attack against all Americans."

The bombing of the Mukhabarat was unsuccessful; it wreaked minimal damage on the Iraqi intelligence service, it did no harm to Saddam Hussein; it was engineered too cautiously to avoid collateral damage; and it made the United States appear, frankly, anemic in its initial response to state-sponsored terrorism. It was a fiasco that William Safire called "phony tough" in his weekly column for the New York Times. "When one head of state tries to murder another," Safire scolded, "that is an act of war."

He continued:

Maybe that's too complicated for the new team; maybe it thinks its pitiful wrist slap will be taken for serious resolve; or maybe it thinks we can deal with state-sponsored terrorism by sending them a 'proportionate' message rather than teaching them an unforgettable lesson.

If our anti-terrorist policy is to send messages circumscribed by what is to appear onscreen, then Saddam and similar potentates will get the feeble Clinton message all too well: There is little risk in trying to assassinate a U.S. president, or knock out a U.S. city.

Notice

Dawn Summers and I will be in DC for one night only on July 2nd. We will be hanging with the fabulous Candace of the now sadly defunct Candied Ginger. We hear Ginger and Esther will also be in town that night. So, if any DC readers or bloggers want to hang out with four lovely ladies (and Dawn), do let me know.

I KILL YOU, MATT LAUER (by guest blogger Dawn Summers)

Cruise declares Scientology jihad on talk show host.

Because the European Union has worked out soooo well (by guest blogger Dawn Summers)

May I introduce the African Union.

File under Knew, Who?

NYC this weekend

The fabulous Robert George will be performing in an Improv show tonight and tomorrow. Apparently, there will be free beer, in case comedy isn't enough of a reason for you to attend.

Finally a little credit

The NY Times admits that conservatives (even though they call Fox's Bill O'Reilly a conservative) are trashing the new anti-Hillary book, 'The Truth About Hillary: What She Knew, When She Knew It, and How Far She'll Go to Become President' by Edward Klein. Klein has a theory on why conservatives aren't embracing him: 'I think a lot of conservatives are worried that a strong frontal criticism of Mrs. Clinton will elicit sympathy for her and turn her into a victim, as the Lewinsky matter turned her into a victim, and that will strengthen her hand'. Actually, most conservatives don't want to be associated with a nut like Klein who claims Chelsea was conceived in rape.

Don't mess with Oprah

Oprah Winfrey was denied entry to a Hermes store in Paris. A spokeswoman for Oprah's production company called it her "Crash" moment, 'referring to a race relations film'. The store's explanation is that they were preparing for a PR event and that she arrived after they had closed for the day. They have apologized.

I think they must've been smoking crack in the back to deny a billionaire access to their merchandise for whatever reason. Oprah plans to discuss the incident on her show insuring that millions of housewives will never shop Hermes again.

And, as always when arguing with Dawn, I'm right

Dawn and I debated whose 'side' would be happy about today's travesty of a decision by the Supreme Court regarding eminent domain. She claimed that because it was business-types bringing the suit, it must be Republicans that would be happy. I said that her people would rejoice since it was the court's liberal wing that made this decision. Ken Wheaton has a great explanation of why I'm right.

Abortion: now with less crime-reducing properties

I've been reading, and really enjoying, 'Freakanomics' by Steven D. Levitt (I think this where I admit I got it 'in the mail') but the chapter on abortion legalization in the 1970's bringing down crime in the 1990's sounded a touch ridiculous. Levitt dismisses all the usual reasons for the crime reduction such as prosperity and innovative police measures and focuses on abortion as the main reason that crime went down. Now, via Manhattan Transfer, I discover this point by point take-down of Levitt's theory. Read it whether or not you've read the book, it's that good.

Is it wrong that I like people like Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan better than the guys from Coldplay or Radiohead?

From a story about the protests outside of the new De Beers store in NYC:

In the 1990s, the company also denied accusations it dealt in "blood diamonds" that were used to finance civil wars in Africa.

But for many of the guests and celebrities who attended the opening of the store, where items will cost anywhere from several hundred to millions of dollars, any controversy went unnoticed.

One attendee, actress Lindsay Lohan, gushed over the possibility of wearing one of the famed diamonds.

Asked about what she thought of the bushmen controversy, she replied: "I don't get involved in any drama."

Smarter than I thought

I have a newfound respect for Noel Gallagher of Oasis.

Attention French people: try not to forget about the old people this year

Headline: 95 DEGREES PREDICTED AT WEEK'S END FOR PARIS...

I miss all the fun

I had a free ticket to the Conservative Party dinner that happened in NY last night but couldn't make it because I've got this bad cold. Turns out guest of honor Karl Rove made quite a splash by saying '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.'

Liberals are mad and urging people to write to their elected officials. I'm not entirely clear on the point of that since Karl Rove isn't elected nor is he a party spokesperson. I feel like it's more venting, useless venting, than anything else. If liberals really wanted to do something, they'd prove Rove wrong. They'd say that they want us to win and stop snickering every time something goes wrong. They'd tell Sen. Durbin that American has nothing in common with the Nazis or the Soviets and that they're offended that he'd say otherwise. They'd cheer our successes in Iraq and hope for more. Rove's implication was that liberals want us to lose in Iraq. I can't say that I think he is wrong.

Update: Ankle Biting Pundits think the Dem outrage is a bad political idea. I agree.

I guess it's the week of dumb ideas

New York passes OTC morning-after pill bill

My previous opposition to the idea of a Morning-After-Pill without a prescription is here.

Tonight in NYC

I'm sick, so feel sorry for me, but feel sorry-er for Jessica who is sicker and yet playing in a rock orchestra tonight in downtown Manhattan. If you're free at 8:30pm, check out the girl rocking on the violin.

Einstein believed in G-d too

It's not that I don't believe that 76% of doctors believe in G-d, as a poll released today indicates, or even that a majority of them are influenced by their religion. I'm just suspicious of any poll that mails their survey to participants and even more so when the responders are doctors. Have you met a doctor? Do they seem like the kind of person to sit down and fill out a 12-page mailed survey? For free?! The survey claims it received a 63% response rate, which leads me to believe that only the doctors most interested in this topic, religion, would respond.

But, anyway, why the surprise? Why wouldn't doctors believe in G-d? There is plenty that medicine can't explain, just as there is plenty science can't explain, why wouldn't a belief in G-d fit into those fields?

Anti-capitalist musicians are hypocrites?

I'm shocked.

Is it following the party line to wish conservatives were more conservative?

Flag burning amendment? Are they high?

The Bloomberg Express

New York City voters approve 55 - 36 percent of the job the Mayor is doing, his highest approval rating in three years.

Update: Freddy Ferrer, the John Kerry-type candidate of NYC.

Still lacking a last name, the junior senator from NY starts the campaign for re-election

New York Senator Hillary Clinton gestures while speaking to supporters at the first New York Women for Hillary event of 2005 on Monday, June 6, 2005 in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)

Unscientific poll on Roe v. Wade

See here.

Advertising everywhere

I'm sure they'd do the same if it was NAACP members

Slantpoint picks up the story that the three victims in the KKK case, settled yesterday after several decades, were members of the Congress of Racial Equality, a conservative black organization in NY, and that this fact is being all but ignored by the press.

Please, please, please, please, please G-d

Make it so.

Tonight in NY

Peter and Mike present the Archives Listening Project, tonight at 9pm. More info here. Be there or be...not there.

Update: There's also a Conservative Party event celebrating Karl Rove at the The Sheraton Hotel and Towers. Special guests will include George Pataki, Curtis Sliwa and one of my heroes Craig Shirley, who wrote the book 'Reagan's Revolution', which, ahem, features my name on page 351.

Blogroll Update

In NYC:

Cut the Shit- My new best friend Joe that I met tonight through Ms. Ari. Joe and I always had a feeling we'd click when we met and it so surpassed our expectations that I imagine we're going to be robbing banks together by the weekend.

Altas Shagged- One of them South Park Republican types. That basically means that you shouldn't be surprised to see scantily clad women and conservative politics all on one page. Their tag line is 'We stand athwart history, yelling: "Oh baby, don't stop."' I like it.

The Yankees amazing comeback tonight might not be because I was wearing my Matsui jersey.....

....but I think it is.

Today at 4pm EST

(Click this graphic to listen)

Ace and I will interview Thomas Lipscomb who is a Senior Fellow at the Annenberg Center for the Digital Future. He has been both a magazine publisher of consumer magazines such as The Ladies Home Journal and a CEO in book publishing, where he was responsible for bestsellers by authors as diverse as Agatha Christie, Susan Isaacs, Craig Claiborne, Jack Anderson, and William Safire. Books he has published have won literary awards such as the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Awards. His most recent publishing position was as founder and President of Times Books -- The New York Times book division.

He is the author of articles in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, Harpers, The Nation as well as The Readers' Digest etc., front page stories in The Chicago Sun-Times and The New York Sun, and articles in internet sites such as TechCentral Station and the Jewish World Review. He was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize in 2005.

Tom also does a ton of other stuff so be sure to google him for the full picture.

Call in at 1-866-884-TALK (8255). Since we've switched to the one guest format, we will be taking more calls so be sure to dial us up. Or, if you've got questions but don't feel like calling, leave them in the comment section.

Dawn Summers will be live-blogging it. Anything to keep her away from those internet quizzes.

Update: John from Wuzzadem will be joining us for the last segment.

Life or death isn't reason enough but deportation is

The Democrats were shocked, shocked, when the Senate tried to pass a law for an individual person, Terri Schiavo.