Low Earth Orbit

Funny, but true?

[source, source]

WASHINGTON - Concerned about the appearance of disarray and feuding within his administration as well as growing resistance to his policies in Iraq, President Bush - living up to his recent declaration that he is in charge - told his top officials to "stop the leaks" to the media, or else. News of Bush's order leaked almost immediately. Bush told his senior aides Tuesday that he "didn't want to see any stories" quoting unnamed administration officials in the media anymore, and that if he did, there would be consequences, said a senior administration official who asked that his name not be used.

Ok, that's funny. Possibly apocryphal, but funny.

Big Media credibility watch

A "long story":http://www.jillstewart.net/php/issues/issue1014.php on the witch hunt mentality at the ??LA Times?? during the run up to the California recall election. Key quotes:

Toward the end, a kind of hysteria gripped the newsroom. I witnessed a deep-seated, irrational need to get something on this guy [Schwarzenegger]. By Wednesday before it was published, I counted not fewer than 24 reporters dispatched on Arnold, and this entire enterprise was directed by John Carroll himself. [hellip;] The paper used methods as if they were trying to crack a criminal enterprise. That is fundamentally what happened here. They took the rules of criminal investigation and overlaid them onto a political campaign, as if we had an organized crime figure running for office.

The last quote is a key one - I suspect that many liberals and in particular California liberals _do_ view the Republican Party as a largely criminal organization.

Michael Moore forgets his tin foil lining

[source, source]

[MICHAEL] MOORE: I'd like to ask the question whether September 11 was a terrorist attack, or was it a military attack? We call it a terrorist attack. We keep calling it a terrorist attack. But it sure has the markings of a military attack. And I'd like to know whose military was involved in this precision, perfectly planned operation. I'm sorry, but my common sense has never allowed me to believe since that day that you can learn how to fly a plane at 500 miles per hour. And you know, when you go up 500 miles an hour, if you're off by this much, you're in the Potomac. You don't hit a five-store building like that. You don't learn how to do that at some rinky-dink flight training school in Florida on a little video game with PacMan buttons. I'm sorry. I just don't buy that.

Which military, exactly, does Moore think executed this attack and why hasn't he called for a military response against that nation? He probably considers those details irrelevant next to the chance to bash President Bush. Or he's completely clueless. We can't, however, rule out the answer "both".

Health care - the only thing that matters

[source, source]

Nethercutt and Senor highlighted the return of electricity to Iraq, which now has a higher megawatt output than it did before the war. Reconstruction has targeted schools and hospitals, and the *Americans are spending 3,500 percent more on health care than Saddam Hussein did*, Senor said. p(qq). Does that mean that all those people who defend Castro's dictatorship based on the "excellent health care system" will now start defending the war in Iraq? p(qq). And if not, _why_ not?

Because it's stealing food from the mouths of The (obese) Children™ in this country!

You just gotta believe!

[source, source]

Republicans are more likely than Democrats to say they believe in God (by eight percentage points), in heaven (by 10 points), in hell (by 15 points), and considerably more likely to believe in the devil (by 17 points). Democrats are more likely than Republicans to say they believe in reincarnation (by 14 percentage points), in astrology (by 14 points), in ghosts (by eight points) and UFOs (by five points). p(qq). it's still interesting that the hallmarks of true credulity are much more the preserve of the Left than the Right

Only the truly gullible can buy in to most Leftist dogma, especially after the results of the last century.