Kerry Blames Bush For Bad Air, Water Quality

You gotta be *kidding* me.

Democrat John Kerry, shifting from the Iraq war to the environment as Earth Day approaches, says President Bush has presided over a “devastating deterioration” of the quality of the nation’s air and water.

Kerry on Tuesday was opening a three-day campaign swing centered on Bush’s environmental record, starting with a Tampa event focused on clean water. He was being joined by Carol Browner, a former Environmental Protection Agency administrator.

On Monday, Kerry’s campaign released a lengthy critique of Bush’s treatment of the environment, accusing him of fighting to weaken protections on several fronts. Kerry’s campaign also launched a new television ad in five states that accuses the president of allowing corporate polluters to rewrite the nation’s environmental laws.

“Under President Bush we have seen a devastating deterioration not only in our economy but in our public health and safety,” Kerry said of the effort to mark Earth Day on Thursday. “It does not have to be this way.”

Kerry really wants me to believe that Bush himself has destroyed the environment in 3 years?  It was pristine before Bush took office, and now we’re all breathing LA smog, right?

Can this guy talk about *anything* without trying to blame Bush?  Even you Kerry fans have to admit this one is a major, major stretch.  Bush’s environmental policies, even if you hate every one of them, have not had time to cause a measurable effect on our air and water.

It’s high time Kerry came up with an idea that doesn’t involve the phrase “...and it’s all Bush’s fault.” Where was Kerry on all these environmental issues during his time in Congress?

At least when Gore talks about the environment, I know he cares.  It’s been central to his life for many years.  Kerry’s just trying a new Anybody But Bush angle.

Posted by JimK at 09:39 PM on April 20, 2004
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Categories: News,  Politics

Judge lays the smack down on the Shoe Bomber

U.S. District Court Judge William Young-Sentencing Statement to the “Shoe Bomber"- Richard Reid

Here in this court where we deal with individuals as individuals, and care for individuals as individuals, as human beings we reach out for justice.  You are not an enemy combatant. You are a terrorist. You are not a soldier in any war. You are a terrorist. To give you that reference, to call you a soldier gives you far too much stature. Whether it is the officers of government who do it or your attorney who does it, or that happens to be your view, you are a terrorist.  And we do not negotiate with terrorists. We do not treat with terrorists. We do not sign documents with terrorists. We hunt them down one by one and bring them to justice.

Oh, you have to read the rest of this.  It’s great.  More judges like this guy please!

Posted by JimK at 09:06 PM on May 07, 2003
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Categories: News,  The Federal Government

John Lott doesn’t go out on a limb

Gun control advocates’ credibility on line

Gun control advocates should fear the new concealed handgun law, but not for the reason that most people think. The law allows trained, law-abiding citizens to carry concealed handguns for their protection, but despite claims that it is “radical” and “is really a conceal and kill bill,” here is a prediction: A year from now Minnesota’s newspapers will report that all the horror stories about letting citizens carry concealed handguns were wrong. The real loser will be gun control advocates’ credibility.

My prediction does not really involve going out on a limb. One needs only look at the other 32 states with similar laws where we have had enough time to see what happens

He’s right, of course.  We’ve had concealed carry for quite some time here in Connecticut, and responsible, legitimate gun owners haven’t gone on homicidal rampages or anything, there aren’t armed gangs of vigilantes prowling the streets, and children aren’t shooting each other by the thousands.

When the bad guys don’t know who might be strapped, you can bet they’ll think twice about mugging you in an alleyway or parking garage.

Posted by JimK at 08:38 PM on May 06, 2003
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Categories: News,  Guns - 2nd Amendment

Ottawa Scraps More Cash for Gun Program Fiasco

The Canadian government, under enormous pressure over a gun registry that cost hundreds of millions of dollars more than expected, scrapped plans on Thursday to pour even more money into the program.

Parliament had been due to vote later in the day on whether to spend an extra C$72 million ($46 million) on a program which has already cost taxpayers C$860 million. The registry, introduced in 1995, was supposed to cost just C$2 million.

It’s nice that the Great White North is so conscious about their citizenry, and cares so much about their safety as to spend millions and millions after promising to only spend a reasonable amount.

Posted by JimK at 10:26 AM on December 09, 2002
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Categories: News,  Guns - 2nd Amendment

Daylight come an’ me wanna punch Harry in the face

Now, I talked a bit about this before,but the latest thing he’s said has me mad again.

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Mr. King asked Mr. Belafonte whether any of his Hollywood comrades thought he may have gone too far in slurring the secretary of state and former chairman of the joint chiefs of staff just because he happens to be black man in Republican administration.

No, said Mr. Belafonte, though some of his fellow Hollywooders “thought that the public was going to have a big problem because the public does not come from the same kind of a sophisticated sense of history and all the different things that I’ve been exposed to.”

Who in the hell does Belafonte think he is?  Does he truly believe he’s justified in calling Colin Powell a “house nigger” because he “comes from a sophisticated sense of history?” Have you ever heard of such arrogance?  I’m more determined than ever to avoid anything with which this man has involvement.  He is literally saying that he and his friends think we aren’t smart enough to understand what he meant when he called Colin Powell a house nigger.

As if there is anything to understand?  As if a level of sophistication could all of a sudden open our eyes and make us say “Well, looky there, I sees it all now, Massuh Harry!  You sho am the smartses, how you done tole’ ole Unka Tom Powell to gets back in his place, fo’ sho’nuff!”

Belafonte is a piece of shit, plain and simple.  I don’t care what kind of sophistication he supposedly comes from.  He has a personal issue with Powell that is clearly political, and he reached down deep, looking for the worst thing he could think of to demonstrate his disdain, and in doing so became far worse than what he envisions Powell to be.  He’s the worst kind of racist; he hates his own if they don’t align with him politically.

Collin Levey of The Wall Street Journal provided the quote above, and they provide this one as well…

We can’t go too far along this line, though, without offering a little equal time. One of the newspaper stories of the last week recounting the contretemps recalled that though the two men have friendly relations, Mr. Powell, who is of Jamaican descent and a noted authority on Calypso music, had been known to express a judgment that Mr. Belafonte’s Calypso songs weren’t “the real thing.”

Oh...now I get it.  Powell insulted his music, and now he’s hell-bent on revenge.

I hope everyone remembers that the next time Mr. Belafonte tries to preach on one political or social topic or another.  His opinion is conditional on whether or not you like his music.

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Posted by JimK at 09:05 AM on October 21, 2002
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Categories: News,  Politics

Turnabout being fair play and all…

From the NY Post:

GORE’S SON BUSTED IN DUI
September 14, 2002—WASHINGTON - Former Vice President Al Gore’s 19-year-old son was arrested for drunk driving by U.S. Military Police at outside a base near the Pentagon - his second roadside arrest in the last two years. 
Albert Gore III was picked up Sept. 5 near Fort Myer, Va., and charged with driving under the influence of alcohol, reckless driving and possession of alcohol by a minor, the Washington Times reported yesterday. 

He was alone in the car and wasn’t speeding, said Jano Cabrera, a spokesman for the former vice president. 

“The [Gore] family is relieved that no one was hurt,” Cabrera told Inside the Beltway. “Beyond that, they are dealing with this privately as a family.”

On Aug. 12, 2000, the younger Gore was fined $125 and his license was temporarily suspended after he was arrested by the North Carolina Highway Patrol for driving 97 mph in a 55 mph zone.

Posted by JimK at 05:59 PM on October 14, 2002
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Categories: News,  Politics

Yassah, Massah, Right away Suh!

I fairly spit my soda out when I read this.  I cannot believe the nerve of Belafonte.  It boggles the mind.

Powell Lashes Back at Belafonte over Slave Remark
October 09, 2002 07:55 PM ET

By Steve Gorman

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Secretary of State Colin Powell lashed back at singer Harry Belafonte on Wednesday for remarks likening the former general to a plantation slave who curries favor “to come into the house of the master.”

Appearing on a segment of CNN’s “Larry King Live,” Powell said he was “very proud to be serving” President Bush and called the racially charged criticism leveled at him by Belafonte “unfortunate.”

“If Harry had wanted to attack my politics, that was fine. If he wanted to attack a particular position I hold, that was fine,” Powell said, according to a transcript of his remarks. “But to use a slave reference, I think, is ... a throwback to another time and another place that I wish Harry had thought twice about using.”

Powell, the first black American named chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff and secretary of state, initially brushed off the performer’s remarks with humor, saying through a spokesman that his accountants thought he was “better off as a field hand”—a reference to his earning a lot more money in private life than in public service. 

Belafonte, 75, who like Powell is a black man of Jamaican descent, lashed out at the secretary during a talk show appearance Tuesday on KFMB in San Diego. 

Long outspoken on civil rights and other political issues, Belafonte was asked by San Diego radio show host Ted Leitner whether he thought Powell had taken a low profile as the Bush administration pressed its case against Iraq’s Saddam Hussein. 

Powell initially had been seen as a leading proponent for seeking U.N. support for any military force against Iraq as opposed to unilateral action by the United States. 

NOT A BELAFONTE FAN

“There’s an old saying, in the days of slavery, there were those slaves who lived on the plantation and there were those slaves that lived in the house,” Belafonte said. “You got the privilege of living in the house if you served the master ... exactly the way the master intended to have you serve him. 

“Colin Powell’s committed to come into the house of the master,” the performer continued. “When Colin Powell dares to suggest something other than what the master wants to hear, he will be turned back out to pasture.”

OK.  Take a moment and think about what Belafonte said.

Do you see it yet?

HE CALLED COLIN POWELL A HOUSE NIGGER.

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What the *fuck*?  Are we doing that again now?  Did I miss a memo where it was OK to categorize black people as “house niggers” and “field niggers” again?  Well spank my ass and call me Jenna.  I had no idea.

You know what the real crime is here?  That Harry Belafonte is bringing something other than skin color into being black.  Clearly, Powell isn’t “black” enough for him, whatever the hell that means.  And in an effort to, I imagine, shame Powell into behaving more “black,” he used what might be one of the nastiest insults you could say to a black man in recent history.  The implication here is that a house nigger would sell out his people in order to gain favor with “the man.” Worse than that, it implies that Powell hasn’t goddamned well earned the right to be where he is today.  Love him or hate him, but dammit, the man deserves his job, and calling him a “house slave” (no such term, BTW, it has always been “house nigger") is abhorrent.

In my opinion, Belafonte should be shunned.  I wouldn’t listen to a word this man had to say on anything, ever again.  No matter what he says in public to try to weasel out of this one, you know how he feels in his heart.  He sees black people in two categories; The field niggers who are banded together in oppression under the man, and the house niggers, serving the man and doing his bidding.

Shame on you, Harry Belafonte.  You make me sick.  You are what’s wrong with race relations in this country...and the fucked up thing is you went after another black man.  You just gave a green light to anyone who wants to categorize black people who work hard and get ahead as house niggers.  Great job, jackass.

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Posted by JimK at 09:10 AM on October 10, 2002
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Categories: News,  Politics
Tags: Colin Powell Harry Belafonte