Hey RightWingers,

I'm in the process of a temporary move this weekend and I won't be back fully online until probably Monday, so I won't be posting until at least then. In the mean time, keep up with the best - Expose the Left, Drudge Report, Hot Air, Michelle Malkin, or try out some of the great bloggers in my blog roll (see left side bar). You can also use and abuse my archives and and categories while I'm gone.

You can definitely entertain yourself for a few seconds with this hilarious video I found on YouTube put together by the Tonight Show, making it appear as if President Bush and Rummy are singing the Kanye West song, Gold Digger.

Kind of funny that they're singing a Kanye "George Bush doesn't care about black people" West song, and I'm sure that was no mistake on the Tonight Show's behave, but it did remind me of West's ridiculous comments about the President and made me wonder about the massive flooding we saw in New England this past week.

For starters, local officials evacuated people and threatened them with arrest for trying to go back to their homes, where as we know in NOLA Bush begged officials to call a mandatory evacuation, days before the storm hit, but they refused. That's a funny simple fact to always remember with all of the Bush bashing over Katrina. Simply forcing an evacuation could have saved a lot of lives, and the whole event would have been totally different. Not to mention that a lot of the emotion still involved is based on lies being reported at the time of bodies piling up at the Superdome, gang activities, rapes, etc. The cable news networks hyped a bunch of rumors we found out were almost all BS a few days later. And this isn't even getting in to the failure of levees that should have held, the squandering of funds locally, the Louisiana emergency officials being indicted shortly before the storm for having up to $60 million in federal funds unaccounted for, the warning signs ignored by the Corps of Engineers, etc. etc.

Anyway, setting that all aside, I found it odd this week that we didn't have Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Maine residents going on TV saying "George Bush doesn't care about white people", since he hasn't (to my knowledge) made a visit to New England.

Oh and one more thing about New Orleans... Whites died at an extremely high and disproportionate rate in New Orleans, don't let the media and liberals (like there's a difference) lie to you. This is older, but the numbers have continued to reflect the same thing, but I don't have time to dig up the latest count at the moment.

In closing:

I hate the way they portray us in the media. You see a black white family, it says, 'They're looting.' You see a white black family, it says, 'They're looking for food.' And, you know, it's been five days [waiting for federal help] because most of the people are black white. And even for me to complain about it, I would be a hypocrite because I've tried to turn away from the TV because it's too hard to watch. I've even been shopping before even giving a donation, so now I'm calling my business manager right now to see what is the biggest amount I can give, and just to imagine if I was down there, and those are my people down there. So anybody out there that wants to do anything that we can help — with the way America is set up to help the poor, the black white people, the less well-off, as slow as possible. I mean, the Red Cross is doing everything they can. We already realize a lot of people that could help are at war right now, fighting another way — and they've given them permission to go down and shoot us! (Black White People)

 

(h/t Drudge)

This actually sounds like genuine progress to me, but I haven't had time to read it all yet. Any input?

The Senate voted to build 370 miles of triple-layered fencing along the Mexican border Wednesday and clashed over citizenship for millions of men and women who live in the United States illegally.

Amid increasingly emotional debate over election-year immigration legislation, senators voted 83-16 to add fencing and 500 miles of vehicle barriers along the southern border. It marked the first significant victory in two days for conservatives seeking to place their stamp on the contentious measure.

I'm not clear on what these vehicle barriers are yet...

Construction of the barrier would send "a signal that open-border days are over. ... Good fences make good neighbors, fences don't make bad neighbors," said Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala. He said border areas where barriers already exist have experienced economic improvement and reduced crime.

"What we have here has become a symbol for the right wing in American politics," countered Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill. He said if the proposal passed, "our relationship with Mexico would come down to a barrier between our two countries."

I'm still not clear why Durbin should be in office or allowed to speak ever after comparing Gitmo troops to Nazis, etc. That's all I think of anytime I see his name. He's a disgrace, and he should be deported (but if he sneaks back quick enough he could gain citizenship under the new amnesty plan).

Read on for more bloviating from people on all sides, and GOPers eatting their own.

I haven't commented much on all the latest immigration developments for a couple reasons. For starters there has just been a ton of other news going on at the same time, and I know the rest of the blogosphere is saturated by border/immigration talk and I guess I'd rather not just get lost in the sea of it all. In addition to the fact that I've been covering all the other stuff going on, the immigration news is just coming in rapid fire and to try to get a post up, I know I'd be leaving out a lot of things I'd like to say about it (like I am about to here).

Anyway, here's my thing. I think we need a fence, similar to what the Minutemen have designed, running down almost all of the border. I think if we could do this, there wouldn't be a need for a bunch more guards. That is why I'm cautiously optimistic about this development, until someone tells me that I'm missing something and this doens't mean anything and I just got to excited when I saw the Drudge siren going off.

As for the President, yes I'm angry with his weak handling of the immigration issue. But I'm a supporter of most of his policies, and we're obviously a lot better than if a Democrat was in office in many different areas. And yes the border is one of the, if not the most important issue facing us. But I feel like he's kind of stuck.

This is sort of a damned if you do, damned if you don't situation. If the President and GOP gets really tough on the border, what will happen? Well first the Senate Democrats will do the only thing they seem to know how to do... Rant and rave, filibuster and obstruct. Nothing will get done, the delay will go from weeks, to months, to years.

Even if somehow we did get a tough plan pushed through, what would happene next? If it hadn't already, the Dems would pull the race card. It would be all about those racist Republicans trying to keep latinos out. It would be, as it always is, all about the votes for Democrats. We saw the signs at the Dallas illegal rally with reminders to vote "Democrat in 2006" above a picture of Mexico and Texas fused together. We also saw Hillary and Kennedy become stars of the shows at a couple different rallies.

Seeing as how hispanics are the largest minority, and not far off from being a majority in this country, the libs, with the help of their trusty media, would stir all of these people up to vote Democrat if Republicans got tough. GOP would lose power, and Dems would just reverse any good they had done. Again, damned if they do, damned if they don't.

My point is that I'm a little disturbed by all the giving up on the President I've been seeing from conservative bloggers. Do you really think not showing up on election day is going to make things better?! Yes this is arguably the most important issue, but do you really want the Democrats in charge? They aren't going to be any better, and in fact we know they'll be worse. Let's just calm down the emotion, and think realisitically about what not voting could mean for the country. I'm just scared that there's this movement to "send a message", but when the dust settles it won't matter, because we'll have Democrats taking back at least one house.

Back to my personal opinion quickly... I'm absolutely for enforcement first. I'm a little less concerned about the workers who are already here, as I am about the security issue of the open border. This goes back to why I want the fence. As I said before, perhaps there could be some type of extreme tax hike on illegals after cracking down on employers and making them have records of employees, and make them pay taxes. They would pay these for their entire lives, not ever be able to collect social security, and get some type of "worker" status, and maybe after 10 years, if they can speak english and have clean records, they could apply for citizenship. Just rough, off the cuff idea that could be tweeked in all directions.

 

One of the teachers honored in my unhinged teachers and professors post a few weeks ago has rightfully been fired. If you recall Steve White thought it was okay to show the Bush/GOP are a**holes online "filmstrip". In addition to that behavior that should have gotten him fired, he showed sex videos to his students as well:

ATHENS — During a meeting that lasted about 4½ hours, the Limestone County school board voted to dismiss a teacher accused of showing his students sexually themed Internet videos.

Oh I'm sorry, "sexually themed". Anyway, here's the fun part:

Soon afterward, a state Democratic Party official said Steve White also could be removed from the ballot in the upcoming election in which White is a candidate.

Among the board's findings leading to its canceling White's contract was a charge that he showed students an Internet clip depicting a former president and his wife engaged in sexual activity. Another charge was that he showed students a computer image of a girl exposing a breast.

Why can't you liberals just do your jobs?

White is also a candidate for the state House District 4 seat. The Alabama Democratic Party said Tuesday afternoon that he had not withdrawn from the race as it had requested.

Well, I said do your job, but I doubt you'll be getting that one now. If you stay on the ballot, and if you won, it would be pretty ridiculous. I would have some questions for those voters, like - "if this guy can't decide what is appropriate for 8th graders, do you really want him as a policy maker?"

Michelle Malkin has been on the Steve White story from the beginning, and has more.

 

In my last update on NSA phonegate I discussed some of the selective outrage of the left. Of course I have to keep wondering why the left isn't angry at the ACLU who is collecting personal information for fund-raising purposes, as opposed to the NSA, which is collecting call records with NO names or personal information attached, simply so that their supercomputers can search for patterns in billions and trillions of calls. However in the last post I specifically wondered why the left and the media aren't upset about the Echelon program (under Clinton) or Clinton's spying on pro-life political opponents. I'm not expecting an answer. As always, scroll to the bottom of this post to catch up on all past updates on the story.

While yesterday's news about BellSouth denying the USA Today story and any involvement with the NSA was weird enough, it just got weirder. Verizon is now denying the entire thing as well, leaving AT&T all alone. I wonder if they'll come out with any kind of statement in the next few days?

About Verizon (from a USA Today blog, if you can believe it):

Verizon Communications this afternoon said that it "was not asked by the (National Security Agency) to provide, nor did Verizon provide, customer records" from any of its telephone businesses "or any call data from those records."

Any media reports that say it did those things "are simply false," the company stated.

USA Today remains confident in their initial reporting.

"We’re confident in our coverage of the phone database story. We will look closely into the issues raised by the Bell South's and Verizon’s statements."

Does that sound eerily familiar to anyone? (*cough*Dan Rather*cough)

Verizon has posted their statement at their own web site here, and I've reproduced the entire thing below, because it's very important:

NEW YORK -- Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) today issued the following statement regarding news coverage about the NSA program which the President has acknowledged authorizing against al-Qaeda:

As the President has made clear, the NSA program he acknowledged authorizing against al-Qaeda is highly-classified. Verizon cannot and will not comment on the program. Verizon cannot and will not confirm or deny whether it has any relationship to it.

That said, media reports made claims about Verizon that are simply false.

One of the most glaring and repeated falsehoods in the media reporting is the assertion that, in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, Verizon was approached by NSA and entered into an arrangement to provide the NSA with data from its customers’ domestic calls.

This is false. From the time of the 9/11 attacks until just four months ago, Verizon had three major businesses – its wireline phone business, its wireless company and its directory publishing business. It also had its own Internet Service Provider and long-distance businesses. Contrary to the media reports, Verizon was not asked by NSA to provide, nor did Verizon provide, customer phone records from any of these businesses, or any call data from those records. None of these companies – wireless or wireline – provided customer records or call data.

Another error is the claim that data on local calls is being turned over to NSA and that simple "calls across town" are being "tracked." In fact, phone companies do not even make records of local calls in most cases because the vast majority of customers are not billed per call for local calls. In any event, the claim is just wrong. As stated above, Verizon’s wireless and wireline companies did not provide to NSA customer records or call data, local or otherwise.

Again, Verizon cannot and will not confirm or deny whether it has any relationship to the classified NSA program. Verizon always stands ready, however, to help protect the country from terrorist attack. We owe this duty to our fellow citizens. We also have a duty, that we have always fulfilled, to protect the privacy of our customers. The two are not in conflict. When asked for help, we will always make sure that any assistance is authorized by law and that our customers’ privacy is safeguarded.

So they won't confirm or deny any relationship with the NSA, but they seem to have denied virtually everything about this "new" revelation. I suspect they can't confirm or deny a relationship, because they probably have a limited one as it pertains to wiretapping of suspected terrorists. But if you insist on knowing about it, then you really don't care about national security.

The reason these programs are secret is to catch terrorists. If they are known, terrorists will communicate a different way. Thanks, as always, to the politically motivated leakers for hurting national security again.

Anyway, this Verizon statement seems much more firm than BellSouth's statement, but as I said, either way AT&T is the last one standing. Here's the BellSouth statement, which again is a just little more ambiguous than Verizon's:

ATLANTA, May 15 /PRNewswire/ -- The following statement regarding media reports about U.S. governmental agency data collection may be attributed to BellSouth Corporation (NYSE: BLS):

There has been much speculation in the last several days about the role that BellSouth may have played in efforts by the National Security Agency (NSA) and other governmental agencies to keep our nation safe.

As a result of media reports that BellSouth provided massive amounts of customer calling information under a contract with the NSA, the Company conducted an internal review to determine the facts. Based on our review to date, we have confirmed no such contract exists and we have not provided bulk customer calling records to the NSA.

BellSouth has built a successful business because of the trust that our customers have placed with us. We will continue to take our obligations to our customers seriously.

Expose the Left has video of Brit Hume playing "Expose the Poll", smashing the deceptive polling practices of USA Today. Surprised?

Previous:
NSA Updates: Old News, No Names/Addresses Collected, BellSouth Denies Involvement, More...
USA Today NSA Story A Rehash Of December 2005 NY Times Story
ACLU Data Collection! Selective Lefty Outrage At NSA?
Today's Bogus/Manufactured NSA Anti-Civil Rights Story

 

***SCROLL FOR UPDATES***

The liberal hate and indoctrination on high school and college campuses is no surprise, but I find it particularly disturbing when they try to ram the gay agenda down these kids' throats (no pun intended).

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Port Washington - Parents are angry and school leaders are promising action in response to a "Heterosexual Questionnaire," approved by two teachers, that asked students questions such as: "If you have never slept with someone of your same gender, then how do you know you wouldn't prefer it?"

I don't think I really need to go beyond that, but I will...

Hundreds of Port Washington High School students were told to submit written answers and discuss the survey.

The questionnaire was distributed by a student organization, which then led a full class-period discussion. Two teachers approved distribution of the survey. The principal did not.

The teachers who Woelfel said are responsible for the survey - social studies teacher Sarah Olson and communications teacher Julie Grudzinski - could not be reached for comment.

Woelfel estimated that the survey was given to about 400 of the school's 930 students on April 25, the day before the national Day of Silence, an annual event co-sponsored by the New York City-based Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network.

According to the Day of Silence Web site, the event is a "student-led day of action" that attempts to eliminate harassment of non-heterosexual students.

Woelfel said that, in connection with the Day of Silence, the school's Students for Unity spent the day visiting classrooms. They distributed the surveys and led discussions, he said.

These are just excerpts of the important parts of course, and I was about to note that the principal is taking action and will hopefully discipline the teachers soon, until I reread and see that she seems to be in support of this, just against the fact that parents weren't notified. She's confused, because the issue is the fact that this doesn't belong in school at all. What if my family doesn't believe in homosexuality? Just because the media has mainstreamed it in recent years, we now have to be forced to accept it.

Some of the questions apparently were intended to make heterosexuals understand what it's like to be gay or lesbian. Those questions included: "What do you think caused your heterosexuality?" and "When did you decide you were heterosexual?"

Students in the group presenting the survey were trying to convey that "students who have an alternative lifestyle get asked these questions every day, so please be considerate. It was an exercise in compassion and understanding that did not work out real well," Woelfel said.

Woelfel said the survey violated school policy because parents were not notified in advance and given the opportunity to decide whether their children should participate.

Um, the problem is there is no evidence that anyone is born gay. I would be considered harassing a gay if I were to say:
"Don't you find it a little odd that you can't reproduce? Do you think it's a coincidence that we have two sexes, with two unique reproductive organs that are specifically designed (lol, whoops I mean evolved) to fit together for reproducing?"

Okay liberals, here's where you attack me and say:
"You don't have to except it, just let them live their lives... leave your fundamentalist Christianity out of it"

To which I respond:
"When did I say anything about Christianity? I just stated some common sense about the matter... as for leaving them alone, that would be fine if high school students weren't constantly being bombarded with the gay message."

Health/Sex Ed. class is bad enough, how about we just have classes teach what they're supposed to, not pass out tests with the agenda to legitimize gays.

What's next? We constantly see studies where they find the "gene" that makes someone fat or lazy, or have a temper. Should the kid who gets in fights a lot have a group come to school and tell everyone that they have to accept the way he is, because he's born that way. Hell, at least science can prove the higher propensity for that type of behavior, but they can't prove homosexuality. I could sit here and list off a million parallels, but you get the point. This forced acceptance doesn't belong anywhere, certainly not in school. Why is there "separation of church and state" but not "separation of agenda driven groups"? I see those groups to be as offensive as any liberal might find Christianity. Do you think the school would entertain a pro-life speaker who spoke totally about science and not religion?

Sophomore Justin Perry said he didn't like being surveyed because he is against homosexuality - although he doesn't think it's something that people should be harassed about.

Perry said he did not understand the point of spending a class period on the survey. "I know it's a survey," he said, "but what is it trying to teach us?"

Freshman Jaime Reuter said the survey caused such a stir that, even though her class didn't take the survey, her social studies teacher made it part of a class discussion a couple of days later.

Reuter said she would have been offended if asked to take the survey. "I shouldn't have to answer that because it's private information," she said.

Right on, who's business is it, and what purpose does this serve? The people didn't want to collect information. They are there to push their agendas. Liberals know when to strike impressionable youths, which is why the liberal virus is so prevalent in schools. This should make everyone sick.

***UPDATE***
Sister Todjah has a post up about this now and she managed to dig up this graphic of the questions asked on the survey. Here's the text of those questions, and a couple more not included in the graphic (thanks Sister Toljah).

1. What do you think caused your heterosexuality?

2. When and how did you decide that you were a heterosexual?

3. To whom have you disclosed your heterosexuality? How did they react?

4. Could it be that your heterosexuality is just a phase?

5. Is it possible your heterosexuality stems from a neurotic fear of others of your same gender?

6. If you have never slept with someone of your same gender, then how do you know you wouldn’t perfer it? Isn’t it likely that you just haven’t met the right same-sex partner yet?

7. Heterosexuals have a history of failures in gay relationships. Do you think you may have turned heterosexual out of fear of rejection?

8. Why do you flaunt your lifestyle with wedding rings, photos at work and talk of your heterosexual escapades?

9. Your heterosexuality doesn’t offend me as long as you leave me alone, but why do so many heterosexulal try to seduce others into their orientation?

10. Are cancer, earthquakes and floods God’s way of punishing heterosexuals?

11. Considering the battering, abuse and divorce rate associated with heterosexual coupling, why would you want to enter into that kind of relationship?

12. If you should choose to have childern, would you want them to be heterosexual, knowing the problems they would face?

13. How can you ever hope to become a whole person if you limit yourself to a compulsive, exclusively heterosexual lifestyle and remain unwilling to explore and develop your normal, healthy, God-given homosexual potential?

14. And anyway, why do heterosexuals place so much emphasis on sex?

As much as I'd like to tear apart each of these questions, it's only going to put me in a bad mood.. But I have to hit a couple of these quickly.

Look at #10.... Is that separation of church and state? Not that these people belonged there in the first place, and not that they have an ounce of sense, but is it appropriate to say that unprovoked to high school kids? It would be one thing if a kid said that to them about being gay, but they didn't... And again, this is just so out of place.

What is the deal with number 13. Obviously all of these question are supposed to "turn the tables", but when homosexuality is clearly just NOT NORMAL to anyone, with a shred of common sense. Again they bring God in to it. I always argue without invoking God because they always dismiss that out of hand anyway. So "normal" is heterosexuality for the reasons I explained earlier. It's not just a coincidence that we have two sexes, male and female, with specifically designed (sorry, "evolved") reproductive organs, allowing for reproduction only by man and woman. Not man and man, not woman and woman. This is what "normal" is. Another quick dig at the evolutionsist mindset... Gays better smarten up and go straight otherwise "evolution" will do them through the process of "natural selection" right? After all, it's all about the stronger and best apt to further the species, right?

Sticking with the "normal" thing for just another second... I have to ask again, why haven't scientists isolated a gene or something to prove that gays are born that way? They can find genes that show a likelyhood for all sorts of behavior, physical features, and just about anything you can imagine now. Why can't they find "what makes a person gay"?

As for 14... What's your point? For starters, "Homosexuality" (a phrase I hate using because I feel like it legitimizes it) refers specifically to sex. Anyway, this is ridiculous because they apparently are acting like putting so much focus on sex is just a stereotype we have about them, but the simple fact that they came in with this survey only proves it further!

Sick.

 

***UPDATE***
AllahPundit over at HotAir.com has obtained audio of Jodie Foster's anti-Bush rant and Eminem rap, and it's accompanied by a photoshop of Foster's face on Eminem's body. Classic.

While Bill Cosby was busy encouraging young black women to take the reigns and determine their own future, and not rely on the young black men, many of whom have problems taking responsiblity for their children and focus more on the hip-hop/thug life than anything else, liberal actress Jodie Foster was reciting Eminem lyrics at the University of Pennsylvania.

It's been refreshing in recent years to have Bill Cosby tell the younger black generations to stop blaming white people/the man for all of their problems, and take some responsibility, versus the shakedown brothers Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson (and many other clones) who make their living in the race trade, instead of focusing on the individual.

While the shakedown brothers and the Democratic party as a whole like to keep black people down by essentially telling them "no you can't", real leaders like Bill Cosby are telling them "yes you can!". The left has spent decades making promises of entitlements to blacks and minorities (in exchange for votes) and telling them that they can't succeed, but this has produced only negative results. Cosby, who isn't making friends with many other "black leaders", has obviously taken the opposite approach. (via Macon Telegraph)

ATLANTA - Bill Cosby challenged Spelman College's graduates "to take charge" Sunday, adding those leaving the historically black college for women have no choice but to lead.

"You have to know that it is time for you all to take charge," Cosby said. "You have to seriously see yourselves not as the old women where the men stood in front and you all stood behind, because the men, most of them are in prison."

Of course an exaggeration, but his point is well taken. There is an extremely high rate of blacks in the correctional system. The other "black leaders" would blame this on racial profiling and blame crime on poverty, rather than say "raise your kids right".

Added Cosby: "It is time for you to pick up the pace and lead because the men are not there. They're not there and every one of you young women know it."

This is a huge problem. I can't remember the exact figure, but last I heard, out of wedlock black births were something like 75-80%.

In 1987, Cosby and his wife, Camille, gave a $20 million gift to Spelman, which is celebrating its 125th anniversary this year. The Camille Olivia Hanks Cosby Academic Center on the campus opened in 1996.

Wow, talk about putting your money where your mouth is! $20 million!? Hey Jesse Jackson does good things too! He shows up to harass companies and threaten them with negative media if they don't hire more blacks. Oh wait, his behavior 99% of the time is nothing short of shameful.

In his current "A Call Out with Cosby" speaking tour, he has emphasized the need for proper parenting and education as self-help answers for low-income, urban families.

In an interview with the Associated Press before his commencement speech, Cosby acknowledged that some would say he is "preaching to the choir" by talking to the Spelman graduates about those who fail to place an emphasis on parenting and education.

"I smiled and I say, 'every Sunday so does the preacher,' " Cosby said.

"The message is clear. What's not clear is why black scholars, who ought to be saying what's on their minds, are not putting it into the African-American community the way it ought to be. They ought to be challenging the issues of high dropout rates of African-American males."

Exactly. Where are the poverty pimps to encourage people and tell them that they can do it on their own, rather than make everything about how they are held back because they're black.

Cosby told the graduates that the same male students who are dropping out of high school "have memorized the lyrics of very difficult rap songs."

Added Cosby: "And they know how to send their sperm cells out and then walk away from the responsibility of something called fatherhood."

I have to say, I've personally witnessed these problems and it's a really disturbing thing to see. Go to any big or even medium sized city in the country and you'll see this. Actually, this has even spread to small suburb areas in recent years.

Cosby said he acknowledged that his criticisms are not meant for all black males, but he said 70 percent of black graduates this year are female.

"Who's running the show?" Cosby asked. "It appears that the male is, but I have news for you. It's your turn.

"We want you to lead in business. We want you to lead in medicine. We want you to lead in everything."

Didn't you get the memo from the NAACP Bill, you're supposed to tell them that they can't succeed and that they deserve government handouts and shouldn't strive for success.

Cosby made a reference to his critics, who he called "all those liberals" and in his response he told the graduates "I'll be darned."

HA! My favorite part of the article. A very Hannityesque quote: "all those liberals". That's so awesome.

"I had three Christmases with no tree, no presents," Cosby said, adding he was too embarrassed to invite friends into his home during the holiday "because I didn't want them to see I had no tree, no presents.

"Don't tell me I don't know, don't tell me I'm out of touch," he said. "I'm telling you I am in touch."

Now as I said, actress Jodie Foster had a bit of a different message in her commencement speech to graduating students at the University of Pennsylvania. AP via Breitbart reports:

You can add rapping to the list of Jodie Foster's talents. The Oscar- winning actress spoke Monday at the University of Pennsylvania's commencement ceremonies, ending her address with the chorus of Eminem's "Lose Yourself" from "8 Mile," the semi-autobiographical 2002 film in which he starred.

She earned laughs from the graduates by taking pictures of them from the podium and then by recalling her own years at Yale. But she struck a serious note later, saying the country and world are worse off than they were four years ago, and challenging graduates to change that.

The U.S. "squandered" the goodwill and sympathy other nations offered after the Sept. 11 terror attacks, Foster said. She also criticized officials for the "disastrous and shameful" handling of Hurricane Katrina.

Was this the place for politics? It's pretty clear what she meant there, she might as well have said "vote Democrat".

Anyway, what is the deal with rapping some Eminem lyrics? First of all, is Eminem still cool? Second, is he popular among graduating college seniors? I would hope not. So while Cosby is rightly slamming the hip-hop obsessed lifestyle, Foster is making an ass out of herself by rapping at a commencement speech. I suppose someone told her "the kids love Eminem, that will really make them love you", but even so these lyrics are stupid anyway:

You better lose yourself in the music, the moment You own it, you better never let it go You only get one shot, do not miss your chance to blow This opportunity comes once in a lifetime yo,

So lame. I also have to wonder how familiar Foster is with Eminem. Yeah, the Eminem who dropped out of high school after failing the ninth grade three times!!! Excellent choice Jodie.

 

Fox News just reported that and investigation in to anti-American University of Colorado Professor Ward Churchill has found that he committed serious academic misconduct. No link from FNC yet. But this from Rocky Mountain News:

BOULDER, Colo. — An investigation of Ward Churchill, a University of Colorado professor who likened some Sept. 11 victims to a Nazi, uncovered serious cases of misconduct in his academic research, a University of Colorado spokesman said today.

One member of the five-person investigative committee recommended that ethnic studies professor Ward Churchill be fired, and four recommended he be suspended, university spokesman Barrie Hartman said.

Churchill has denied doing anything wrong.

Michelle Malkin is all over this, and points to another Rocky Mountain News story, that says there will be a press conference at 2:30 pm. Not sure if this is eastern time, or mountain time since this is a Colorado publication.

Michelle also gives us the direct link to the PDF of the investigation's report at the University of Colorado web site.

***UPDATE***
NBC affiliate News 9 in Denver reports that recommendations for how to deal with Churchill range from suspension to termination.

DENVER - 9NEWS has learned recommendations made by members of the investigative committee looking into allegations of misconduct by tenured University of Colorado professor Ward Churchill vary from suspension to termination.

Two members of the committee say in the report Churchill should not be dismissed and the most appropriate discipline is suspension without pay for two years.

Three members think the violations are so serious that he falls under university criteria for dismissal. One believes he should be dismissed outright and the other two think the most appropriate discipline is suspension without pay for five years.

And yet another Rocky Mountain News article has more on just what Ward Churchill did (you know, besides comparing 9/11 victims to Nazis):

BOULDER -- A University of Colorado investigative committee found deliberate and serious misconduct by ethnic studies professor Ward Churchill, including plagiarism, fabrication, and "serious deviation from accepted practices in reporting results from research," according to a report made public today.

The committee also noted Churchill was "disrespectful of Indian oral traditions" when he wrote the U.S. government distributed blankets infested with smallpox to Mandan Indians in 1837 on the Upper Missouri River.

More:
California Conservative

***UPDATE***
Hot Air has posted some of the audio from the press conference.

 

New White House Press Secretary Tony Snow is holding his first press briefing, and predictably the usual front row vultures are in attack mode. I'm sure Expose the Left will have video for us later.

***UPDATE***
AllahPundit at Hot Air has posted video of Tony Snow doing battle with Helen Thomas. Expose the Left has video of this as well, though I was hoping someone would have the David Gregory part that came just before the Helen Thomas part.

Also, I missed this part earlier, but Tony Snow got a little chocked up when speaking about his and his mother's battles with cancer. Bill Sammon for the Examiner:

WASHINGTON - White House Press Secretary Tony Snow became emotional during his first on-camera press briefing Tuesday when the topic turned to his battle with colon cancer, which also claimed his mother's life.

"I had cancer last year," Snow said when asked why he was wearing a yellow bracelet from fellow cancer survivor Lance Armstrong's LiveStrong Foundation.

"It's going to sound stupid and I'll be personal here, but having gone through this last year was the best thing that ever happened to me." The former Fox News anchor choked up and fell silent in the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room, which was packed with more than 100 journalists, or twice the usual audience.

At length, Snow cracked one of several self-deprecating jokes to break the tension.

"It's my Ed Muskie moment," he said, referring to former Sen. Edmund Muskie, D-Maine, whose 1972 presidential campaign fizzled after he appeared to cry in front of the press in New Hampshire.

"I lost a mother to cancer when I was 17: same type, colon cancer," Snow said. "And I feel every day's a blessing."

Expose the Left has video of this as well.

Previous:
Tony Snow's First Duty? Blast The Liberal MSM For Unfair Coverage!!!
PHOTOSHOP: Tony Snow Set To Handle Vultures As New Press Secretary
BREAKING: Tony Snow Will Be New White House Press Secretary
White House Sources Say Tony Snow Likely To Be New Press Secretary
Tony Snow To Go From Fox News To White House Press Secretary?

 

(I initially kind of live blogged this from when I first heard about it a couple hours ago, so the post was a bit of a mess. I'm going to clean it up now, so if you're checking back, that is why it will look different.

******UPDATE - HOTAIR.COM HAS POSTED THE VIDEO*******
Hot Air has posted the video, plus a still that appears to show the nose cone of the plane. The Political Pit Bull and Expose the Left have posted the video as well. It's basically just a closer shot of what we've already see, and similar in that it snaps a shot every half second so we see the nose cone and then the explosion. Definitely nothing to change the minds of conspiracy theorists. But again, I really wish they would all just take a look at this exhaustive Pentagon specific debunking.

In a new Hot Air post, AllahPundit uses freeze frames from both the old and new 9/11 Pentagon videos to show you where the plane was, with the help of this debunking piece I always link to. I'm going to take it upon myself to take credit for the hat tip because I posted this in the comments of the original post yesterday, and have posted it a number of places over the past couple days. AllahPundit says "But then someone pointed me to", and as I said, I believe I'm that someone, and going to take credit.

***SCROLL FOR UPDATESI***

Fox News is reporting that the Department of Defense plans to release video of Flight 77 crashing in to the Pentagon on 9/11. This is huge because until this point there is only one video of that event, which doesn't really show much. It's almost like a time lapsed photograph that just shows a fireball all of a sudden.

The extreme left conspircy theorists have maintained that the illuminati/White House has hidden these tapes so that the public wouldn't see the predator drone/missile/non-commercial airline hit the Pentagon. I'll be interested to see their reaction when this tape comes out. Oh wait, I can tell you what it will be. "THE TAPE IS A FAKE!" They'll try to pick it apart, but as usual won't be taken seriously when all of their critiques are debunked, as they have been with every single part of their conspiracy theories to this point.

Incase you'd like to see the debunking of all the Pentagon specific conspiracy theories you should take a look at this thorough piece that just trashes them better than anything I've seen.

http://www.abovetopsecret.com/pages/911_pentagon_757_plane_evidence.html

***UPDATE I***
Fox now reporting that the tape will be released in one hour, 1:00 pm ET
FNC's Brett Baier has seen the videos, and from what he just reported, it doesn't sound like there is a whole lot new in the two videos that will be released. I'm afraid this won't shut up the conspiracy theorists. I mean, the link I provide below thoroughly debunks them beyond a shadow of a doubt, and they don't give it up. I don't think these tapes will change anything.

Bill Hemmer just reported that it is the same kind of tape as the one we've all seen, that captures every half second, so I'm sure we'll certainly not have any change from conspiracy theory crowd.

***UPDATE II***
Finally, World Net Daily has an article about this. Not much else yet though

***UPDATE III***
Judicial Watch, who filed the lawsuit and has gotten the tapes out through the freedom of information act, has more.

***UPDATE IV***
BLOGOSPHERE BUZZ
Hot Air, Michelle Malkin, Suitably Flip, Publius Rendezvous, Stop the ACLU, Texas Rainmaker, E L Frederick, PA Pundits, Environmental Republican, Protein Wisdom, My Vast Right Wing Conspiracy Theory, The Dragon and the Phoenix, Reality Pundit, Ace of Spades HQ, The Sandbox, Ninth State, The Political Pit Bull, The Jawa Report, Bare Knuckle Politics, SuperFun PowerHour, High Desert Wanderer, Joust the Facts, Wizbang, Unalienable Right, In the Bullpen, Fore Left, Homeland Stupidity, Leaning Straight Up, Grace That Surprises, Main Street Journal, The Next Frontier, Wizbang, Blue Star Chronicles, Right-Wing Muckrakers Inc., American Conservative Daily, Sister Toldjah, A Lady's Ruminations, Hyscience, Occasional Outbursts

 

If you're looking for the "Bathroom Girl Talk" story, see this post.

It was only a few months ago that CNN flashed a giant black "X" over the face of Vice President Cheney (see here and here) during a speech, but it seems CNN rushed the sequel and X2 opened on the small screen last night.

As the President was rehearsing for his speech on illegal immigration and all the networks were awaiting their signal to pick up the live feed, CNN jumped the gun and caught 16 seconds of the rehearsal and of President Bush looking around the room. Expose the Left has the video.

Drudge explains it like this:

CNN AIRS FALSE-START LIVE; NETWORK CALLS MISTAKE

CNN aired President Bush false-starting his immigration speech from the Oval Office on Monday night!

The embarrassing images and audio [16 seconds total] captured the president starting and stopping his message, then looking at an unseen director for guidance.

"The president is rehearsing and the network pool inadvertently went to the president as he is rehearsing," anchor Wolf Blitzer explained.

FOXNEWS, MSNBC, CBS, ABC and other outlets did not air the 'rehearsal.'

NBC NEWS, which was operating the television camera in the Oval Office, said late Monday that it gave the president a cue to begin his speech too early.

Anyway, let me just say that this time I buy the CNN excuse. The X thing, as we know, was defended by some Bush deranged liberal at the CNN call center as "freedom of speech", and by all accounts it had to be deliberate. Yeah I know, they said it had to do with transitioning from a satellite feed to another camera, some crap like that... But why then has no one ever seen the same thing happen on any channel? Come on, we know what happened there. Some liberal, possibly a college intern, thought it would be funny. Perhaps he didn't even mean for it to go on air, but it may have been something the Bush haters at CNN do as a joke all the time... but this time someone slipped and hit the wrong button taking it live briefly. I wouldn't go further and say it is some deep subliminal message scheme, but it was most certainly deliberate. Last night's snafu (first time I've ever used that word by the way) was clearly just a mistake though.

 

Since my last update on the NSA calling records story, there have been a few developments...

It's unlikely you heard this reported on most other channels and shows, but as Brit Hume pointed out on Special Report in the Political Grapevine segment, the NSA program doesn't involve phone customers' names, addresses or any other personal information. Expose the Left has the video, and the whacked out liberal commenters went wild as usual. One challenged Humes credibility, while ignoring the fact that Hume was quoting the original USA Today story, but a sidebar burried on the fifth page of the story.

Hume:

Not until page five, however, does the paper report the following: “Phone customers’ names, addresses and other personal information are not being collected as part of this program.”

Scroll to the bottom of this post for links to my extensive previous posts on "Phonegate", in which I've been saying this all along. I also discussed how much more data mining businesses are doing for marketing purposes, beyond anything the NSA is doing, and of course mention out the ACLU is even obtain all kinds of personal information for fundraising purposes, while being the most outspoken about the NSA!

Here's the real deal, as I understand it, about what the NSA is doing here.... How many phone calls are made in the United States every day? I was unable to turn up a figure but I would guess it's got to be at least 500 million and could easily be over a billion, agreed? Even if you wanted to ridiculously low ball it, you'd be talking in the tens of millions. Again, that's every day. Start adding up per week, month, year and you've got even more of an insanely large pile of records. No group of people could ever sift through these. Bush and Cheney aren't sitting in a back room cross checking lists of people who made calls to DNC HQ with calls they made to their friends and sending out secret police.

What seems to be really happening, as discussed in previous posts, is that these billions and billions of all records are going in to a supercomputer that has the capabilities to search for patterns. If the complex programs find a repeated pattern of this guy calling that guy and that guy calling a cave in Afghanistan, and then another guy gets calls from that cave calls a known radicall mosque, that also makes calls to the first two guys who live in different parts of the country, it might set off a buzzer to let the NSA take a look at it. But if you are stupid enough to think that we have the time, money, people, or resources to be sitting around spying on regular Americans, I can't help you. And again, there is no dropping of eaves here, just computers filtering through call records.

I heard someone raise an interesting point about this on some debate on FNC the other day... They complained of the ineffectiveness of such a program, which is a legitimate matter for debate, but said that the NSA should be focusing on suspected terrorists, not 300 million Americans. The other person in the debate left them with their mouth hanging open when they said "how do you identify suspects?" I hadn't really thought of it that way before, but that is exactly why this program is necessary.

Another interesting fact, as I've mentioned, was that this was just a rehash of a NY Times story from December being pulled out for no other reason than to railroad the nomination of General Hayden (former NSA head) to head the CIA. Not to mention the media has to create some bogus scandal at least once every week or two to hurt the President. Well many have been saying, not only was it an old story from December, but 60 Minutes did a story on it in 2000, under Clinton, and obviously before 9/11.

The 2000 story wasn't about this exactly, but it was about something for more "intrusive" and something that the privacy pimps could actually have been concerned about. It was about a vast spy program implimented under President Clinton that apparently monitored all electronic communications:

(Dec. 18, 2005 NewsMax article)

During the 1990's under President Clinton, the National Security Agency monitored millions of private phone calls placed by U.S. citizens and citizens of other countries under a super secret program code-named Echelon.

On Friday, the New York Times suggested that the Bush administration has instituted "a major shift in American intelligence-gathering practices" when it "secretly authorized the National Security Agency to eavesdrop on Americans and others inside the United States to search for evidence of terrorist activity without [obtaining] court-approved warrants."

But in fact, the NSA had been monitoring private domestic telephone conversations on a much larger scale throughout the 1990s - all of it done without a court order, let alone a catalyst like the 9/11 attacks.

In February 2000, for instance, CBS "60 Minutes" correspondent Steve Kroft introduced a report on the Clinton-era spy program by noting:

"If you made a phone call today or sent an e-mail to a friend, there's a good chance what you said or wrote was captured and screened by the country's largest intelligence agency. The top-secret Global Surveillance Network is called Echelon, and it's run by the National Security Agency."

NSA computers, said Kroft, "capture virtually every electronic conversation around the world."

Echelon expert Mike Frost, who spent 20 years as a spy for the Canadian equivalent of the National Security Agency, told "60 Minutes" that the agency was monitoring "everything from data transfers to cell phones to portable phones to baby monitors to ATMs."

Mr. Frost detailed activities at one unidentified NSA installation, telling "60 Minutes" that agency operators "can listen in to just about anything" - while Echelon computers screen phone calls for key words that might indicate a terrorist threat.

The "60 Minutes" report also spotlighted Echelon critic, then-Rep. Bob Barr, who complained that the project as it was being implemented under Clinton "engages in the interception of literally millions of communications involving United States citizens."

One Echelon operator working in Britain told "60 Minutes" that the NSA had even monitored and tape recorded the conversations of the late Sen. Strom Thurmond.

Still, the Times repeatedly insisted on Friday that NSA surveillance under Bush had been unprecedented, at one point citing anonymously an alleged former national security official who claimed: "This is really a sea change. It's almost a mainstay of this country that the NSA only does foreign searches."

Knock Knock!
Who's There?
The ACLU?
Oh crap, really?!
Nah man, you're Democrats, carry on as you were

Need more? How about Clinton's vast spying programs, targeting political enemies? Front Page Magazine has the story in this article dated February 22, 2006. A few excerpts below:

In 1994, Clinton administration Attorney General Janet Reno launched infiltrators, wiretaps, mail monitoring, and a wide range of other spying activities in a massive coordinated effort that included the FBI; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms; U.S. Postal inspectors; the U.S. Marshalls Service; and other Federal and local law enforcement agencies.President Bill Clinton had acted decisively to fight what he and First Lady Hillary Clinton deemed the most dangerous terrorist threat facing America: conservative Christians.

This huge Clinton surveillance scheme was VAAPCON, the Violence Against Abortion Providers Task Force. According to the U.S. Justice Department, VAAPCON “was charged with determining whether there was a nationwide conspiracy to commit acts of violence against reproductive health care providers.” The more than 900 targets of all this surveillance included the Christian Coalition, Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, Women’s Coalition for Life, Feminists for Life, Americans United for Life, the 600,000-member Concerned Women for America, the National Rifle Association, the American Life League, the National Conference of Catholic Bishops, and even then-Roman Catholic Cardinal of New York John O’Connor.

Read the rest of this very important and lengthy article here.

If you read that article, you'll certainly be shocked at all of the anti-free speech activities overseen by Clinton. What is particularly shocking is that what we read in this article sounds exactly like what the ACLU and Democrats scream is their big concerns over Bush administration policies, though they never cite any example of the NSA's data collection being used for political reasons. Here we have what Clinton did all laid out, but where's the MSM and where were they at the time? That is the outrage here. They don't report the actually shady things that Clinton was doing, while they blow up, misreport, spin and speculate about everything that President Bush is doing to protect us in the post 9/11 world. It's times like these I'm just infuriated at the state of the media in our country. It's almost physically sickening.

We have one other revelation today as well. You know how the original USA Today article that set this whole storm in motion said that Verizon, AT&T, and BellSouth were all handing over call records to the NSA for this program? Well BellSouth is totally denying that now... I don't know what will come of this, but I suspect we'll hear more in the next couple days:

BellSouth said in a statement that it doesn't contract with the National Security Agency to supply customer calling information.

"As a result of media reports that BellSouth provided massive amounts of customer calling information under a contract with the NSA," it said Monday, "the company conducted an internal review to determine the facts. Based on our review to date, we have confirmed no such contract exists and we have not provided bulk customer calling records to the NSA."

Asked to define "bulk customer calling records," Battcher said: "We are not providing any information to the NSA, period." He said he did not know whether BellSouth had a contract with the Department of Defense, which oversees the NSA.

read on here...

That's odd... So are we to believe that the NSA has obtained these somehow on their own? Or is this just some sort of clever wording, but BellSouth is actually providing the records through some other method? Or could it be that USA Today used Dan Rather's unimpeachable sources for the story? Or better yet, maybe they used Jason Leopold's sources.

Previous:
USA Today NSA Story A Rehash Of December 2005 NY Times Story
ACLU Data Collection! Selective Lefty Outrage At NSA?
Today's Bogus/Manufactured NSA Anti-Civil Rights Story

 

***SCROLL FOR UPDATES***

Yesterday we discussed the left side of the blogosphere's "Rove has been indicted" campaign, in which rumors initially flew Friday that Rove told the White House he was going to be indicted, and later that the indictments had come down on Saturday. These rumors were sparked by nothing more than two "articles" by Jason Leopold at the extreme left site TruthOut.org (here and here). I've become fond of calling them TruthOutOnALimb.org, because they've really gone out there on this one, and if they're wrong they've lost any credibility they may have had. I mean, these weren't some ambiguous articles that said "rumors are swirling in the beltway that Rove has been indicted"... The articles flat out stated it as fact, citing (you guessed it) unnamed "high level sources".

Well, as I mentioned later yesterday, Rove was in the news speaking confidently about the the upcoming 2006 midterm elections, but there was no news of these indictments. I noted in that post (via a hat tip from Hot Air) that other bloggers have all but debunked TruthOut's claims. I just checked that post out again and see AllahPundit has made a few updates, including a link to Johnny Dollar's Place, where you can listen to audio of Matt Drudge from Sunday's Drudge Radio, tearing Jason Leopold a new one.

Drudge partly takes it personally because breaking news on the internet is his life, and Jason Leopold is essentially hurting what is arguably an "industry" now, but flat out lying. And if he's not lying, the Vast Righ Wing Conspiracy strike again, by leaking false information just to make this guy look like the tool he is. I don't like having to eat my words though, so I'm still not going to go out on the limb and say that this guy is lying. As much as that seems like the case, he would have to be a complete idiot to run with this story, without any confirmation. Perhaps he is just that big of an idiot, but I'm just not willing to go that far just yet. As I said before, I give him the rest of the week to deliver.

Michelle Malkin is now weighing in on all of this, and points first to this New York Sun article. Rove's spokesman denies the rumors, and I could be wrong, but I think it would be stupid to lie about this if it were going to come out in a couple days:

A spokesman for a top White House aide under scrutiny in a criminal leak probe, Karl Rove, yesterday vigorously denied an Internet report that the political adviser to President Bush was told that he had been indicted on charges of perjury and lying to investigators.

"The story is a complete fabrication," the spokesman for Mr. Rove, Mark Corallo, told The New York Sun. "It is both malicious and disgraceful."

Michelle also directs our attention to this piece from the Detroit Free Press about how this internet rumor made it to the top of the Democratic party. Can you believe these clowns?

Was it an improbable outside-the-Beltway scoop on the ultimate inside-the-Beltway story? A criminal leak concerning the grand jury investigation of a criminal