Year: 2005

It’s MATH, something I haven’t thought a lot about since I was in college. Michelle Malkin has been using it lately. She’s looking into a subject that is near and dear to most serious bloggers. Hits. Visits. Visitors. Instalanches. So, get out your calculator, and do a little checking of Michelle’s arithmetic for yourself.

Oh, and as discussed here previously, PunditGuy is no where near the size of the blogs she mentions. I’m not even on Michelle’s blogroll for goodness’ sake.

Respectfully yours,

Mr. B-List

By the way…Michael Totten wrote a related article about the accuracy of SiteMeter and similar hit counters. In light of Michelle’s info, this is worth revisiting.

Other than reading a snippet somewhere which covered the recent deportation of Ernst Zundel, chronic Holocaust denial theorist, I hadn’t heard much at all about him. Now that I’ve taken time to look into his background, I understand one thing. It only takes a reasonable person two minutes to conclude that Zundel is a certified wacko. Just browse his website and you’ll see what I mean. Now that he’s been sent back to Germany, and directly to prison, people are coming out for and against his deportation. While there are dozens of examples of people who share the opinion that Zundel deserves everything he gets, I haven’t read too many opinions from the other side. I did read this one from Declan McCullagh. At the onset, I was ready to label Declan a sympathizer who deserves his own padded cell, but I kept reading.

Now, I think he’s right.

I agree with his assessment of the treatment Zundel received from the Canadian government. Even though Zundel is a lunatic, and even though he’s pushed the most insane Nazi propaganda I’ve read anywhere, he still shouldn’t have been deported on the grounds cited by The Crown.

Go on over and read Declan’s article.

Word from Captain Ed tonight that the “conscience of the Senate”, Senator Robert Byrd, has compared Republicans to Nazis. The former clansman, (he must love that label) didn’t just say this in passing to an aide, or to a fellow congressman, or even slip it to a member of the press. No. Byrd made this accusation right from the Senate floor.

So, for those keeping count — we now know that Howard Dean thinks Republicans are “evil”, and Robert Byrd believes that Republicans are reincarnated Nazi jackbooted thugs.

The party of tolerance, indeed.

UPDATE: A Jewish group criticizes Byrd’s comments. So far, no word outta Byrd.

Red Meat.

There were plenty of screams Friday afternoon at Liberty Hall, but none of them came from Howard Dean.

Instead, the new chairman of the Democratic National Committee was cheered enthusiastically by a sign-waving crowd gathered to hear Dean’s message that the party must build its strength in traditionally Republican states such as Kansas.

“We need to go everywhere,” he told the rally. “There is not one county in this state, I don’t care how far west you go, that doesn’t have Democrats. We have to be proud of who we are.”

It was a message gladly received among the Democratic faithful.

Uh, that would be the Moonbat faithful.

“It was wonderful, very energizing, a very positive, powerful message,” said Micheline Burger, who joined nearly 1,000 others in paying $5 to hear Dean, the former presidential candidate. “It gives me a hope there’s a good future ahead of us, as opposed to what we’ve been having the last four years.”

Was that before or after Dean said this…

On abortion specifically, he said, the party must commit to making abortions “safe, legal and rare” while maintaining women’s rights to choose.

“The issue is not abortion,” Dean told the closed-door fund-raiser. “The issue is whether women can make up their own mind instead of some right-wing pastor, some right-wing politician telling them what to do.”

And Dean told the Hiebert fund-raiser that gay marriage was a Republican diversion from discussions of ballooning deficits and lost American jobs. That presents an opportunity to attract moderate Republicans, he said.

“Moderate Republicans can’t stand these people (conservatives), because they’re intolerant. They don’t think tolerance is a virtue,” Dean said, adding: “I’m not going to have these right-wingers throw away our right to be tolerant.”

And concluding his backyard speech with a litany of Democratic values, he added: “This is a struggle of good and evil. And we’re the good.”

Yep, that’s what he said, Republicans are evil. How does that jive with the feelings of Ms. Burger, who thought that Dean’s message was wonderful and “very positive”?

Back at Liberty Hall, the ruling party’s supporters weren’t entirely absent from the area. Lawrence entrepreneur Eric Haar held a one-man demonstration in front of the Eldridge Hotel, 701 Mass. With a Bush-Cheney sign in his hand, he sat silently as the crowd of Lawrence liberals shuffled toward the event.

“I just want to show people driving by that not everybody is gung-ho and crazy about this Howard Dean thing,” Haar said. “I have been flipped off four times.”

Oh yeah, my kind of “positive, wonderful TOLERANT message”.

Inside the hall, some people who saw Dean’s speech thought the former candidate for the presidency had watered down his rhetoric.

“I feel like he could have gone even stronger with his language,” said Katherine Dessert, a student and preschool teacher. “I feel like he was a little bit too conservative. It didn’t move me.”

This is today’s Democratic Party.

Howard Dean, too conservative? Just how will Hillary’s “go to the center” style of campaigning mesh with a constituency like this? There’s obviously going to be a Clinton/Dean showdown in the not too distant future. The unfortunate thing is, it’ll all be done behind closed doors. A pity.

Comments won’t be available until I load MT-Blacklist. I’ll let everyone know when it’s safe to open ’em up again. Sorry.

UPDATE: MT-BL installed without a hitch, so comments are open once again.

Via MSNBC: Entrepreneur accused of biggest-ever tax scam.

The Justice Department on Monday filed its biggest personal tax evasion case ever, accusing the man who once tried to rescue Russia’s Mir space station, Walter Anderson, of failing to pay more than $200 million in personal income taxes by stashing income in offshore bank accounts.

Anderson, 51, earned millions by dealing in telecommunications companies after the AT&T breakup and became a global figure about five years ago when he embarked on a mission to rescue the ailing Mir space station.

If convicted on all the charges, he could face up to 80 years in prison. This case is part of a recent push by federal prosecutors to crack down on use of offshore accounts to evade U.S. taxes.

The Justice Department’s next target could be none other than ketchup magnate and “almost was First Lady” Teresa Heinz Kerr…

And at that moment, I awoke from the dream.

Republicans are calling for DNC Chairman Howard Dean to step down after he made insensitive remarks during a recent speech. So what right? How many times has a news story started this way? Too many times to count. There is one important difference this time though. The insensitive remarks were made during a meeting of the DNC Black Caucus, and the Republicans are African Americans from Mississippi.

Mississippi Republican Executive committee Member Charles Evers said Dean should apologize and step down. He told reporters Monday that in a February 11th speech to the DNC Black Caucus, Dean said quote “You think the Republican National Committee could get this many people of color in a single room?” Then added, “Only if they had hotel staff in here.”

If a Republican had made the remark instead of a Democrat, the news coverage would be wall-to-wall. By now Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, Kweisi Mfume, and Louis Farrakhan would have logged their 60th hour (each) on the major networks, Nightline would have broadcast a special report and a town hall meeting, and Representatives Sheila Jackson Lee and Maxine Waters would have already called for hearings of impeachment for the president. Perhaps worst of all, folks like Chuck Hagel, Arlen Specter, and Olympia Snowe would have come out publicly calling for immediate resignation.

But no…there won’t be any mention of this by tomorrow. It’s called a double standard, and most of the time, the Democrats are allowed all the room they need.

Oh the irony.

Via Reuters:

At a palm tree-studded resort and conference center in the capital Gaborone, 12 girls are competing this weekend for the title “Miss HIV Stigma Free.”

“We are saying here we are, we are HIV positive and it doesn’t mean it’s the end of the line,” 33 year old reigning Miss HIV Kgalalelo Ntsepe told Reuters in her cluttered one room cottage, where she displays trophies of her win in 2003.

So what’s next? Miss Leukemia? Miss Congenital Heart Disease? I understand the intentions here – especially in Africa, where HIV is ravaging the nation. But really, wouldn’t they do better to spend the money in ways that help the most people? Maybe the pageant is good for the participants and their families, but what about the majority of HIV infected people who are suffering without access to treatment of any kind? What about the people who don’t even know about the event because they don’t have television, can’t read a newspaper or even listen to radio? Often times, it seems like government programs and well intentioned organizations help a few people, but end up harming more.

This graphic tells the story.

Without real action now, the next ten years will bring to Africa a catastrophe three times the size of the Holocaust, resulting in the possible quarantine of an entire nation. In 2015, will anyone remember who Miss HIV 2005 was? It’s unlikely.

Yep, that’s me, according to the latest survey of the blogosphere.

Via the UK Sun – Saddam Hussein will be forced to sit in a Hannibal Lecter-style cage during his trial.

“Saddam will be housed in an underground cell and will travel to and from the courtroom cage using an elevator.

When he’s in his cell he will be under 24-hour surveillance by security staff who will watch him from behind a toughened glass shield.”

I can see the protesters now. Free Saddam!! Open the cage!! While I’m sure there will be those that have pity on Saddam-in-the-box, I have to believe that this is more about HIS protection than anything else, and that’s what angers me the most. Millions of dollars are being spent to house, feed, and provide safety to this guy, and for what? Don’t misunderstand me, I’m a rule of law kind of guy and I believe in the court system…IN AMERICA. Outside of our borders, WHAT DO I CARE? Especially for monster dictators like Saddam. Early on I was hoping that a few gutsy Iraqis would catch him before US soldiers did. And frankly, the outcome would have been the same as what is likely to happen after he’s found guilty – he’ll be put to death! One way costs nothing, the other way…well, its costs are already too high to calculate.

Saddam’s victims were given no protection whatsoever. He should receive equal treatment. Ditch the cage and hold the trial out in the open on street in Baghdad. Take the money that would have been spent and put it back into the rebuilding effort. The benefit will outlast any satisfaction an Iraqi might gain in watching this Hollywood production.