Olberman...doesn't seem to like his own advice....

So in June 2005, Keith Olberman (who anyone who knows me knows I detest) printed the following on his msnbc.com blog:

June 22, 2005 12: 05 p.m. ET
Enough with the Nazi references! (Keith Olbermann)

LOS ANGELES - A message to Dick Durbin, Rick Santorum, and Robert Byrd - as they combine to delay my reports to you about the night I inadvertently offered Bill Clinton my New York City subway pass, and my experiences behind the scenes at "The Tonight Show," and my private eight minutes with Mary Carey.

The message is this: Boys, just don’t say "Nazi" ever again in your life.

There’s no place for the reference in this culture. Not about the Republican tactics, not about the Democratic tactics, not about Guantanamo Bay.

The Republicans are not the SS, and the Democrats are not the Gestapo, and Gitmo is not Buchenwald.

Apologize profoundly and profusely, burst into tears if you will, but the analogies are wrong, offensive, and deeply hurtful. And I speak as a European of protestant descent.
More over, this particular moment in our history is no time to pour more ice into the crevices of our national political discourse. We have enough of the makings of fighting in the streets, enough of the rancor that preceded the caning of Senator Sumner on the floor of the Senate in 1856, without people throwing the devils of the 20th Century into the mix.

In fact, it would be a really good idea, for the sake of the country, and to steer out of this skid of Party First and Country Second that now pervades both sides, if the three distinguished gentlemen resigned, or at least announced they would not run again. Because apologies or not, they are at best, carrying the disease of branding other American leaders - no matter how wrong-headed some of those "others" might seem to you - with the same kind of vitriol that enabled the rise of the Nazis in Germany.

Stop it, stop it now, stop it for good.

So then why then, we addressing the Television Critics Association recently, did he walk on stage like this....



He defended his use of the Nazi salute to take a shot at O'Reilly because he claimed that O'Reilly had defended the Nazi's (3) times. What actually happened, was on (2) occasions, O'Reilly mis-quoted a battle of WWII, but corrected the mis-quote when it was brought to his attention.

Olberman is such a dick!

And now...all is peaceful in the world again....

A few more Plame/Wilson bits....

How many times can Val Plame be outted???

• In the early 1990s, while supposedly a NOC using a cover of "engergy analyst" she lists her address as the US Embassy in New York
• In 1991, again while supposedly a civilian "energy analyst" she coordinates the visit of Prez Bush 1 to Greece, through the Athens embassy
• In 1997, she was recalled to Washington as being one of the individuals identified by Aldrich Ames
• Around that same time, she was also outted when Cuba opened secure documents enroute the a Swiss Diplomat in Cuba.
• 1997, she is assigned an admin job working for the Asst Dir or Ops...CIA Langley...so she's NOC, but she works in Langley? Like no one is going to go "but wait, you were an energy analyst, but now you're working in CIA HQ....oooohhhh"

A few points about her dear ole hubby.....

He runs an Op Ed piece with the Wash Post, in which he says he told the White House that he determined Iraq never tried to by uranium in Niger. He said he based this on the fact that the documents had the wrong dates and names, and thus were forgeries. Problem is, the US didn't get the documents he's taking about unitl 8 months after his visit and report. When asked about this by the Senate...he said he may have mis-spoke in the Post

He also wrote in his report to the CIA that, according to the minister of mines, he was approached by an Iraqi operative to buy 400 tons of uranium in 1998, although he didn't because of UN sanctions. I guess we're to believe that Iraq wasn't serious, or only would have made that one attempt.

During his interview with CNN, when asked by Wolfe Blitzer if he wife was "classified" at the time of Novak's article he said "no".....later he said he was confused by the question.

He also states in his tell-all book that his wife had nothing to do with his selection to go to Niger (by her boss), and when presented with the email from his wife to her boss recommending him..says he doesn't consider that a recommendation. But lest we forget, this wasn't the first trip his wife sent him on, he had gone to Niger on another trip in 1999, at the non-recommendation of his wife.

A Niger govt official tells him Iraq tried to buy Uranium, he writes it down, then write and article to the contrary.

He writes and article saying that documents he hasn't seen were forged...and he's just confused.

He answers a simple question with "no"...but later didn't understand the question.

What a guy.

Plame/Wilson file suite

Today the happy CIA couple announced they were filing civil suit against those who supposedly "outted" her in an attempt to seek revenge on Joe Wilson. Here's some questions....

• Why isn't she suing the CIA spokesman who is actually the 2nd person that confirmed her identitity? Not wanting to piss off her boss?
• Why isn't she suing Novak to devulge the original source? Is it someone that she doens't want us to know about?
• When the CIA, FBI, British Intel, German Intel & Italian Intel were all confirming intel that Saddam was buying nuke material.....the Prez was supposed to throw all that out, and take the word of Joe Wilson, who spent about a week poolside in Niger, never left his hotel, and by his own account, met with 2 people? Also poolside, who basically said, "no, he didn't"...I can see where that's much more reliable.
• And speaking of Wilson, why was he chosen by his wife's agency?
• How much was he paid?
• I'm sure he didn't go for free, so wouldn't that be giving favorable government work to a family member?
• In the entire country, there wasn't anyone else capable of making this trip, other than a CIA agents husband?
• Since she wasn't covert, and her classified status had long since expired....what's the big deal about saying "you know that too?", which is what Rove said to Novak.

Doneal Mack....MSU (U of M) Lucky Break or insult

The college basketball junkies all over town are drooling over the fact that Doneal Mack, who had signed to play at the NCAA Champion Univeristy of Florida, has now "decided" to play for MSU.

Should they be that happy though.....basically, Mack is coming to Memphis because he is academically ineligable for any school in the SEC. He's not "picking" Memphis, he's "settling" for Memphis.

If he had come in and said..."I'd like to play for Memphis because your academic requirements are low enough for me to get in"....would we be proud?

Ya'll Democrats Killz Me...Part Deux

Ok, so let's review....

• For almost 4 years, the Dems having been ranting that Bush's "stay the course" message is flawed and he needs to change tactics to deal with the current situation & have been calling his policies "Cowboy Diplomacy" and critisizing his "unilateral" tactics
• Since the invasion of Iraq, the Dems have critized Bush for not giving diplomacy a fighting chance, and for not creating a "true coalition" of major nations (i.e. France, Germany, etc).
• For years, the Dems have critized other Republican leaders for not standing up to the Bush administration.

So, let's take about recent headlines....

• So now, when the Prez is letting diplomacy run it's course, and wont commit to military action against N. Korea, Time Magazine has run a cover story that basically ridicules the Prez for pushing diplomacy, and has a lead story titled "End of Cowboy Diplomacy"....wait isn't that what they said he should be doing?
• Now that Bush wants to rely on the Six Nation Coalition (France, England, Germany, et al) to push N. Korea around, the Dems are critizing him for not taking a bolder stance, and for not giving N. Korea ultimatums.
• Last month, the Dems ridiculed Rep. Hoekster (sic) for making a statement that we had found WMD, when the data he was looking at was 15 years old. But TODAY he is a hero for calling out the White House on not giving his committe enough information on NSA programs. Last month's fool....today's SuperHero....maybe that's how Kerry got nominated?
• And when a Republican does take a stance opposite the White House, they're only doing it for political gains, not because that's what they really believe....damn, if they're all knowing, how come they didn't know that they would tank in the last 2 prez elections?

Just a quick side note here, tonight, Keith Olberman (who routinely brags about his 12% viewer increase, and O'Reilly's 14% viewer drop) decided to run a segment around the Time article, and wanted to bring on a guest to comment on whether or not this signaled a change in the ethical level of the conservatives.....his choice for a expert on political ethics????......JOHN DEAN! Yup, the same John Dean who managed the slush money for Nixon, set-up the Watergate break-in, and married the hooker he was banging to keep her from being made to testify against him. What an icon on ethics!

Here's a few other thoughts:

• Dems want you to believe that Republicans are the driving force behind banning gay marriage, however the Democratic state of New York, and it's Supreme Court, just shot down Gay Marriage....didn't hear much of that on the news did you?
• Dems say that Gay Marriage is what the people want.....but they don't want it put to a vote by the people. Why is it the right of a minority to force a law down the majorities throught, but not the right of the majority to set boundries for our society? I am for gay rights, by the way. But in almost every state, gay couples can obtain the same legal rights through a "civil union". So the drive to allow them to be married doesn't gain them anything, other than to say "nah, nah....we made you change".

And while I'm on the subject of N. Korea, and the supposed failed Bush policies....let's not forget that the technology to build those nukes, and launch those missles...much of that came in a deal framed by Pres Bill Clinton & Pres Jimmy Carter, deal designed to keep N. Korea from developing nuke weapons....because they promised us they would!

The Official Grand Opening

The pool officially opened July 3rd with a party of about 40 friends and family....the first to arrive....of course...Jen....
Who was only staying a little while.....not.

Then there was my neighbor Jim, who every picture seemed to have one thing in common....

Of course, he wasn't always reaching for beer....sometimes he was showing the proper use to the up and coming generation....

All in all, it was a great night...started at 2pm and the last ones out were about midnight. Clean-up kinda sucked...but that's the price you pay.

Solution for Leap Frog Puzzle

For those who didn't get it....


Number the rocks one to seven, left to right.
Click the following order
3
5
6
4
2
1
3
5
7
6
4
2
3
5
4