I was one of the first cheerleaders to hail the debut of the “Red America” blog at the Washington Post with Ben Domenech.

However, it seems there is more than a cloud of controversy surrounding blogger Ben. Michelle Malkin has the full report and it does seem that the accusations of plagarism are more than just left-wing character assassination. I trust Michelle’s dogged research on many subjects, so I’m going to have to take her lead on this one as well. And I’m afraid I share her assessment at this point.

I certainly understand the impulse on the Right to rally around Domenech. But I can’t ignore the plain evidence. And the charges can’t be dismissed as “lies” or jealousy attributed to Ben’s age.

As someone who has worked in daily journalism for 14 years, I have a lot of experience related to this horrible situation: I’ve had my work plagiarized by shameless word and idea thiefs many times over the years. I’ve also been baselessly accused of plagiarism by some of the same leftists now attacking Ben.

The bottom line is: I know it when I see it. And, painfully, Domenech’s detractors, are right. He should own up to it and step down. Then, the Left should cease its sick gloating and leave him and his family alone.

That being said, the knee-jerk attack by the Left of the whole idea of a conservative blogger at the Washington Post serves as a “chilling factor” for any replacement for Ben if it comes to that. The Left seems to think the Post doesn’t have enough liberal viewpoints (um.. read Sections A through D, any page!)…. so I fear the Post will cower and not keep Red America alive. I think that is where we need to step in and help.

**UPDATE** Ben Domenech has resigned. Please email the Washington Post as I already have and urge them to keep Red America alive!

-Bruce (GayPatriot)

Assuming there isn’t a breaking news story or another reason why I’d be bumped…. I’m honored to announce that I’ll be on the Tammy Bruce radio program on Friday, March 24 at 1:30 PM Eastern/10:30AM Pacific Time. I am so excited to have been invited and grateful to Tammy for the chance to chat with her.

It appears that you can listen live via Talk Radio Network’s webpage. Click on Tammy’s picture at 1:30PM Eastern to hear whatever I might have to say. You can also call into the program by calling 800-449-8255.

Hopefully I’ll also figure out a way to post the interview after the fact as well. If any of you have that capability, please drop me a line.

See ya on the radio!

-Bruce (GayPatriot)

Hey you moaning, whiny leaders of the supposed “non-partisan” HRC, Lambda Legal and NGLTF (aka – Gays for Socialism) — get a grip. These Democrat Senators don’t give a rip about gay rights. They will throw us under the bus quicker than you can find a hanging chad in Broward County, FL. Listen to me verrrrry closely: All they want out of you is your money. And you all are stupid enough to give it to them carte blanche.

Gay Activists Confront Dem Senators – Washington Blade

The activists say that by remaining passive or by taking ambiguous and “tortured” positions on same-sex marriage and other hot-button gay issues, the senators and other Democrats are hurting the gay rights movement.

“One of our concerns as a group is that they don’t necessarily hear enough back from the community on how we hear and perceive the sometimes tortured and hair-splitting positions they try to take,” Cathcart said. “We are tired of being seen as the embarrassment to the party.”

Now, how about spending some of your valuable, multi-hundred of thousands of salaried time meeting with the people in power — Republicans. Don’t give me that crap about they don’t even admit gays exist. Sen. Tom Coburn will, most likely, singlehandedly save the Ryan White Act this year. I could go on and on.

And here is a radical thought for a bunch of American radicals — start giving campaign donations to Republicans so you can show up at their fundraisers and quietly talk to them instead of making every thing a PR bash-case. Our national gay leaders have less political maturity than this brave 16-year old Virginia boy who debated US Senator George Allen. Your bias about Republicans is hurting our cause just as much as Republicans bias about gays. How do you expect Republicans (the majority party in power) to come our way, if you won’t even put skin in the game?

Just get a friggin’ grip. Reality is calling you.

-Bruce (GayPatriot)

I don’t know why anyone would be surprised, but I’m angry as hell about this. Saddam was paying off the French diplomats with the UN-run Oil For Food program, those Frenchies backstabbed Colin Powell and now ABC News has found from the Saddam Files that the Russian Ambassador handed over our war plan to Iraq.

Following are the ABC News Investigative Unit’s summaries of five documents from Saddam Hussein’s government, which the U.S. government has released.

The documents discuss Osama bin Laden, weapons of mass destruction, al Qaeda and more. The full documents can be found on the U.S. Army Foreign Military Studies Office Web site.

Note: Document titles were added by ABC News.

“U.S. War Plan Leaked to Iraqis by Russian Ambassador”

Documents dated March 5-8, 2003

Two Iraqi documents dated in March 2003 — on the eve of the U.S.-led invasion — and addressed to the secretary of Saddam Hussein, describe details of a U.S. plan for war. According to the documents, the plan was disclosed to the Iraqis by the Russian ambassador.

The first document (CMPC-2003-001950) is a handwritten account of a meeting with the Russian ambassador that details his description of the composition, size, location and type of U.S. military forces arrayed in the Gulf and Jordan. The document includes the exact numbers of tanks, armored vehicles, different types of aircraft, missiles, helicopters, aircraft carriers, and other forces, and also includes their exact locations. The ambassador also described the positions of two Special Forces units.

The second document (CMPC-2004-001117) is a typed account, signed by Deputy Foreign Minister Hammam Abdel Khaleq, that states that the Russian ambassador has told the Iraqis that the United States was planning to deploy its force into Iraq from Basra in the South and up the Euphrates, and would avoid entering major cities on the way to Baghdad, which is, in fact what happened. The documents also state “Americans are also planning on taking control of the oil fields in Kirkuk.” The information was obtained by the Russians from “sources at U.S. Central Command in Doha, Qatar,” according to the document.

This document also includes an account of an amusing incident in which several Iraqi Army officers (presumably seeking further elaboration of the U.S. war plans) contacted the Russian Embassy in Baghdad and stated that the ambassador was their source. Needless to say, this caused great embarrassment to the ambassador, and the officers were instructed “not to mention the ambassador again in that context.”

(ABC News Editor’s Note: The Russian ambassador in March 2003 was Vladimir Teterenko. Teterenko appears in documents released by the Volker Commission, which investigated the Oil for Food scandal, as receiving allocations of 3 million barrels of oil — worth roughly $1.5 million. )

This is stunningly outrageous and I think it is about time the United States held the United Nations and our backstabbing allies to account for their deceit and support of terrorism against our country through Iraq. Imagine how much more we are going to find out since these first few translated documents are just a small part of the whole kit and kaboodle. It certainly puts the whole Jan-Mar 2003 UN debate on Iraq in a new and pathetic light.

I do have to praise ABC News for taking my advice…. it appears they are the only national news organization that is taking an interest in translating the Saddam Files. I have a feeling there will be a lot of liberals eating crow over the next few weeks.

-Bruce (GayPatriot)

As the result of this posting yesterday and the comments that followed, I would like to take this opportunity to re-state my personal position on “gay marriage.” It pretty much comes close to the comments of Matty here, and Michigan-Matt here.

I personally oppose intruding on the religious institution of marriage via court mandates or legislation. One of the main reasons, aside from intruding on religion, is that I have never once, during the entire gay marriage debate, heard anyone say they favor it due to wanting a covenant with God and their partner.. or frankly because of love.

The entire gay marriage debate has come down to this: We want financial benefits. That is a legitimate argument for civil unions, which I and the President support. But it is a very selfish and love-less reason to support gay “marriage” as Gryph describes here.

Gays and lesbians don’t want “gay marriage”, what we want is traditional monogamous marriage. It’s people such as yourself that attach all the labels to it. The facts are that we have families and children to take care of just like straight people. So we should have benefits of marriage to help us shoulder those responsibilities like everyone else. So quit hiding simple prejudice behind pseudo-intellectual word games.

Me, me, me, me, me. That’s the problem with the American gay communities’ stance on gay marriage. “It is all about me.” Guess what folks, real marriage is not “all about me.” It is all about a covenant between God, you and your spouse. Until the language of the debate from our side moves to talking about love, commitment and covenant — and less about financial gain and selfishness — we will continue to lose. Straight Americans know what marriage is about. We, by and large, haven’t figured it out yet. No one in the straight world gets married in a serious relationship only in order to improve their financial situation on April 15. That is the only argument we seem to bring to the table.

Finally, much has been made by our friend Andrew about this public exchange between a 16-year old Virginian and US Senator George Allen over the issue of gay marriage. Says the teen,

I never dreamed of the day when I would reach a political debate on a human rights issue based on civil liberty and the foundations of our great country with a Senator, former Virginia Governor, and a potential candidate for the Republican Presidency. Senator George Allen (R-Virginia), held a public hearing in Culpeper this evening.

If you haven’t, please read the whole posting. I agree that this young man was very courageous and professional in the way he handled himself and I applaud him for it. But it reinforced my mystification at the argument that gay marriage is a “civil right.” Huh? Andrew loves citing this over and over. But aside from saying your tax refund would be higher under “marriage”…. no one has yet explained (to me) how withholding marriage (Gryph’s definition) is “trampling on my civil rights.”

Sorry folks, I don’t see it and I think it demeans true civil rights infringement such as senseless gay bashings in Blue State cities such as San Francisco, Philadelphia and New York City where most seem to take place.

I’m sure there is much more to be said in my “re-re-clarification”… but I figured this was a good start to get the moonbats a’jumpin!

-Bruce (GayPatriot)

Hat tip – Stop the ACLU.

Talk About Ungrateful – Michelle Malkin

Our troops teamed with British forces to rescue three left-wing, anti-war activists kidnapped by terrorists in Iraq. Those freed were Canadians James Loney, 41, and Harmeet Singh Sooden, 32; and Briton Norman Kember, 74. The men, who were members of the Chicago-based Christian Peacemaker Teams, were kidnapped on Nov. 26 along with their American colleague, Tom Fox, 54, whose body was found earlier this month.

Reader Jen M. took at look at the Christian Peacemaker Teams website for the group’s statement on the rescue and she e-mailed me her observations:

Not once do they thank or even reference the fact that a Special Forces team rescued these guys. In fact, the only reference to military at all is blaming them for the kidnapping in the first place. Nice! Also on their home page is a long statement about how terribly treated terrorists are when detained by evil soldiers.

Jay @ Stop The ACLU points out:

Now the group adds insult to ingratitude. Not only are they ungrateful, they place the blame for their kidnapping on the very coalition that rescued them. Unbelievable!

“We believe the illegal occupation of Iraq by multinational forces is the root cause of the insecurity which led to this kidnapping and so much pain and suffering in Iraq today. The occupation must end,” the co-chairman of CPT Doug Pritchard told a news conference in Toronto.

I have an idea… send ‘em back and sit their lily-white Western-faced asses in the middle of an intersection in Sadr City.

Remember: There can be no peace with out freedom. Iraq was not at peace under Saddam.

-Bruce (GayPatriot)

Saxby has been absent in this space for quite a while. And while I wing back to Charlotte this evening, he is patiently waiting at the boarding facility for his two Dads to be home for the weekend. (Saxby…. I’ll pick ya up tomorrow AM!)

Here are some shots of the boy taken over the past few weeks.

-Bruce (GayPatriot)

What on God’s green earth is the point of this “breaking news” email from our Gay Pravda, The Advocate? Other than to take a pot shot at the poll-weary President, of course.

Bush says marriage is between a man and a woman – Advocate.com e-news bulletin

At a contentious news conference Tuesday that was mostly about the war in Iraq, President Bush took another opportunity to restate his belief that marriage is for heterosexual couples only. When asked a point-blank question about marriage equality, Bush reiterated his position that marriage is the union of a man and a woman.

Framing the question in terms of the children and families of thousands of gay and lesbian couples married in San Francisco and elsewhere, the reporter asked him, “Are you still confident that society’s interest and the interests of those children in gay families are being met by government saying their parents can’t marry?”

Bush responded, “I believe society’s interests are met by defining marriage as between a man and a woman. That’s what I believe.”

Duh. Not only is he restating his own belief, and the belief of an overwhelming majority of Americans, the headline actually also accurately restates the law in most parts of the United States, increasingly so due to the results of popular votes on the subject. Maybe Advocate forgets that they are still swimming upstream?

The Advocate – Our News Source of Record — “The New York Times of the Angry Gay Leftists.”

-Bruce (GayPatriot)

Do you really think another round of UN sanctions (or continuation of the corrupt Oil For Food program) would have stopped the evil son from pursuing his stated plans. More from the files of Saddam. (h/t – HughHewitt)

************
From Worldwide Standard:

The latest issue of Foreign Affairs contains excerpts from a recently declassified report, produced by the U.S. Joint Forces Command, on the inner workings of Saddam’s regime. This paragraph, in particular, hasn’t received much attention in the media:

The Saddam Fedayeen also took part in the regime’s domestic terrorism operations and planned for attacks throughout Europe and the Middle East. In a document dated May 1999, Saddam’s older son, Uday, ordered preparations for “special operations, assassinations, and bombings, for the centers and traitor symbols in London, Iran and the self-ruled areas [Kurdistan].” Preparations for “Blessed July,” a regime-directed wave of “martyrdom” operations against targets in the West, were well under way at the time of the coalition invasion.

It’s also worth noting that on April 8, 1991, the UN Security Council adopted Resolution 687, the first post-Gulf War disarmament resolution, which declared, among other things, that Iraq “not commit or support any act of international terrorism or allow any organization directed towards commission of such acts to operate within its territory and to condemn unequivocally and renounce all acts, methods and practices of terrorism.” Eleven years later, on November 8, 2002, the Security Council passed Resolution 1441, which declared that the “Government of Iraq has failed to comply with its commitments pursuant to resolution 687 (1991) with regard to terrorism….”

************

Is there any doubt remaining to a breathing, open-minded human being that our intervention in Iraq (see Nazi Germany, circa 1933) prevented a hell of a lot more destruction and death than it has caused?

-Bruce (GayPatriot)

And yet another reason to loathe our annoying, self-important “ally” on the other side of the Atlantic.

The dominance of the Apple iPod hit its first European stumbling block yesterday when French MPs voted to force companies to allow music downloads to be played on all types of digital players, not just their own.

Apple’s online music store, iTunes, dominates the global online music market, selling about 3m songs a day for 99 cents or 79p each. But the tracks can only be played on Apple’s own iPod, which is also the most popular digital music player.

Forgive me, but don’t the Members of the French Parliament have matters a little more pressing than quashing American pop culture?

-Bruce (GayPatriot)

Big and long overdue kudos to the Washington Post for realizing that Republicans are the majority party in the USA and most of us do not have an “inside the beltway” mentality. (Scooter, who?)

A hearty welcome to former RedState.org blogger Ben Domenech who is now blogger-in-residence at “Red America” at the Washington Post.

Here’s some background on Ben (very impressive!).

Ben Domenech is a co-founder of RedState, the web’s leading Republican community blog. He began his career as a political journalist covering Capitol Hill, writing for numerous publications and working as a contributing editor to National Review Online. After 9/11, he abandoned the journalism field for a taxpayer-funded life and was sworn in as the youngest political appointee of President George W. Bush. Following a year as a speechwriter for HHS Secretary Tommy Thompson and two as the chief speechwriter for Texas Senator John Cornyn, Ben is now a book editor for Regnery Publishing, where he has edited multiple bestsellers and books by Michelle Malkin, Ramesh Ponnuru, and Hugh Hewitt.

Please make Red America one of your first stops of your blogging day! I sure will.

-Bruce (GayPatriot)

Direct to you from Chad @ Cake or Death?

-Bruce (GayPatriot)

I agree! We must censure the American President who is enabling the enemies of the United States of America and has a consistent record of coddling with terrorists.

-Bruce (GayPatriot)

Given how busy I am with school work (two projects and one paper due in the coming week) and events for my college alumni association (of which I am the LA regional president), I doubt I will be able to blog much this week and when I do only briefly.

I just finished Bruce Bawer’s most excellent While Europe Slept: How Radical Islam is Destroying the West from Within which I had planned on reviewing this week. But, given that my school work takes precedence and that I want to write a review worthy of a book this good — and this important, I’ll hold off on writing until I can put in the time it takes to say (and say well) what I want to say about it. For now, suffice it to say that I recommend this book as it offers a striking picture of the Old World’s pusillanimity when it comes to facing Islamofascism, not only in the Middle East, but especially on the European continent itself.

While Bruce does not limit himself to the threats Islamofascism poses to gay people who enjoy many freedoms and privileges in Europe they lack outside the West, his book is of particular importance to gay people. A gay man himself (and author of one of the best books on homosexuality in American society, A Place at the Table (another tome I highly recommend), Bruce notes that when choosing between minorities in their midst, European governments (more often than not) cater to the anti-gay (and misogynist) views of Muslim extremists.

So rather than wait for my review, I highly recommend that you buy and read this book.

Best job market in 5 years for grads – Reuters (shockingly)

U.S. college graduates are facing the best job market since 2001, with business, computer, engineering, education and health care grads in highest demand, a report by an employment consulting firm showed on Monday.

“We are approaching full employment and some employers are already dreaming up perks to attract the best talent,” said John Challenger, chief executive of Challenger, Gray & Christmas.

In its annual outlook of entry-level jobs, Challenger, Gray & Christmas said strong job growth and falling unemployment makes this spring the hottest job market for America’s 1.4 million college graduates since the dot-com collapse in 2001.

The firm pointed to a survey by the National Association of Colleges and Employers which showed employers plan to hire 14.5 percent more new college graduates than a year ago.

The survey also found higher starting salaries this year. Graduates with economic or finance degrees will see the biggest gain with starting salaries up 11 percent to $45,191, while accounting salaries are up 6.2 percent, business management salaries up 3.9 percent and pay for civil engineers 4.3 percent higher.

That horrible US economy under George W. Bush! How dare he!

-Bruce (GayPatriot)

Helllooooo 9/11 Commission??!!?? Are you there? McFly???!!!

(Hat tip: Chad @ Cake Or Death?)

Via Ace of Spades:

SADDAM HUSSEIN’S REGIME PROVIDED FINANCIAL support to Abu Sayyaf, the al Qaeda-linked jihadist group founded by Osama bin Laden’s brother-in-law in the Philippines in the late 1990s, according to documents captured in postwar Iraq.

An eight-page fax dated June 6, 2001, and sent from the Iraqi ambassador in Manila to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Baghdad, provides an update on Abu Sayyaf kidnappings and indicates that the Iraqi regime was providing the group with money to purchase weapons. The Iraqi regime suspended its support–temporarily, it seems–after high-profile kidnappings, including of Americans, focused international attention on the terrorist group.

The fax comes from the vast collection of documents recovered in postwar Afghanistan and Iraq. Up to this point, those materials have been kept from the American public. Now the proverbial dam has broken. On March 16, the U.S. government posted on the web 9 documents captured in Iraq, as well as 28 al Qaeda documents that had been released in February. Earlier last week, Foreign Affairs magazine published a lengthy article based on a review of 700 Iraqi documents by analysts with the Institute for Defense Analysis and the Joint Forces Command in Norfolk, Virginia.

This news, combined with this news (and much more to come) makes me ask: “Hey Democrats… do you still wanna have that special Congressional hearing about the justification for going into Iraq in a post-9/11 world?”

Why on earth the Bush Administration hasn’t declassified and/or translated these documents before now is mindboggling. I mean for heaven’s sake this material could be used in some kind of International War Tribunal to make sure Saddam meets his lover in Hell once and for all.

(UPDATE – Roger Simon has some disappointing news on this front…. ughhhhh!)

And, I repeat my request that the deep pocketed mainstream media outlets pay people to translate these smoking guns at a faster pace. But that would mean that the Mary Mapes crowd actually believes in discovering the truth.

-Bruce (GayPatriot)

Dan and I were both mindboggled at the choice of Andrew Sullivan, labeled by the Log Cabin press release as a “conservative”, to be one of the featured speakers at the upcoming LC(R) Convention. We were both wanting to do a post on the subject. But earlier today I sent an email to Patrick Guerriero, Log Cabin Chieftain, that is snarky enough to serve as a post on its own! Yeah… killing two birds with one e-stone!

*******************
Dear Patrick:

I think you guys could have picked a better conservative speaker than Andrew Sullivan??? Calling him a conservative is like saying Pope Benedict is gay-friendly. Here are two examples of Sullivan as a not-so-conservative. (The “Bruce” he refers to is Bruce Bartlett by the way)

That’s why I think Bush’s ratings won’t go much below 25 percent; because 25 percent is about the proportion of the electorate that is fundamentalist and supports Bush for religious rather than political reasons. They are immune to empirical argument, because their thought-structure is not empirical; it is dogmatic. If the facts overwhelm them, they will simply argue that the “liberal media” is lying. Bruce poignantly thinks the GOP is still the secular, empirical, skeptical party it once was. It’s not: it’s a fundamentalist church with some huge bribes for business interests on the side, leveraged by massive debts. So all criticism is disloyalty; and disloyalty is heresy. The facts don’t matter. Obey the pastor. Or be damned.

(Hat tip to Gryph on this one!)

How do you explain the many others in the Republican Party who you and I both know are not “obeying the pastor or be damned” ??? This is an insult to my Republican Party and should be to you. Come on!

And though Andrew protesth loudly today, I think the emailer to him in this posting is spot-on.

“Your blood-and-thunder, hateful tirades against our commander-in-chief in time of war and at a vulnerable point IN that war has at last marked a watershed in your ‘evolution’ from long-ago conservative to current leftist-in-just-about-everything-name [sic].

Your language, your attitude and your position have finally placed you pretty firmly in the camp of Michael Moore, Alec Baldwin and the Hollyweird left in general.

It confirms my ‘bigotry’ from the get-go: Gays cannot sacrifice enough of their sexual self-interest to adhere to an ideology as austere as conservatism. The pull to the left is too strong for homosexuals to resist for very long. So formalize and render legit your new political ‘awakening’: declare conservatism behind you.

There is a long, proud history of betrayal in the homosexual community, whose most celebrated example – the locus classicus, if you prefer – is Philby and his crew.

Congratulations on joining that fine tradition!”

Well, upon second thought since Andrew’s reader is so astute… I guess he is the perfect speaker for your convention given Log Cabin has also abandoned all things Republican and now firmly milks at the teet of the anti-American Gay Leftists now.

My apologies.

-Bruce Carroll (GayPatriot)

Perhaps the fairest criticism our readers have made of this blog is that we do not criticize the president enough. And while we think that on the most fundamental issue of the day — leading our nation in the War on Terror — the president has done an outstanding job and while we generally think he’s done a good job, on a number of issues, notably domestic spending and the federalism, we believe his leadership has been lacking.

Perhaps, we spend so much time defending the president because his critics, particularly those on the gay left, make such outlandish (and very often inaccurate) accusations against him. Had they made more responsible critiques, they might find us less critical of them.

All that said, the release of Bruce Bartlett’s book has caused us to wonder how good a job the president is doing at fulfilling the great legacy of Ronald Wilson Reagan, a whom man both of us admire. While I disagree with Bartlett that the president has betrayed the Reagan legacy, I believe he has a point, at least on economic issues.

So, I decided to grade the president on several aspects of the Reagan legacy and came up with a preliminary grade of B/B-, not a great grade, but far from a failure. To see what other conservatives think, we’ve decided to ask readers (& other bloggers) to evaluate our preliminary report card (below the “jump”) and weigh in themselves. Have we been too lenient in our grades? Or too harsh? Or did we get them just right? Did we leave out any categories (on which to evaluate the job the president has done at fulfilling the Reagan legacy)?

Bruce (GayPatriot) looked over my grades and we reached a consensus for each subject (Bruce was a slightly harsher grader than I!). Now, it’s up to you. Please weigh in with your thoughts between now and Friday, March 27 at 4 PM Eastern Time. At which point, we will ask our panel of “Reagan scholars,” Polipundit‘s D.J. Drummond, Columnist Bridget Johnson (GOP Vixen) and Grande Conservative Blogress Diva Sondra K to read through the comments and adjust the grades. In order to better influence this panel, please make sound arguments on why you think the grade should be changed. From time to time, Bruce and I may jump into the comment thread to defend our grades. (In order to keep this post as short as possible, I have kept my evaluations to a minimum.)

We will announce a final grade next Monday, March 27, 2006.

So, please read below to get the complete report card (and feel free to recommend new “subjects” if you feel we have left something out): (more…)

I sometimes think I’m a compulsive note taker. I almost always have a pad and pen (or pencil) nearby so I can scribble down some thought that crosses my mind, an observation of the way the world works, a commentary on my own quirks and desires (including “wish lists” of specific books, DVDs and products I might like to have), ideas for screenplays, thoughts about movies as well as scenes and images from projects I’m already working on, including scripts and my so-far unnamed fantasy epic. And in the past nearly eighteen months, I have jotted down numerous ideas for posts to this blog, some of which I have realized, most which remain just germs of an idea, awaiting some effort to bring them to life in a form which better services to communicate the ideas to others (than a random scribbling on a scrap of paper).

Whenever I sort my notes, I come across numerous such ideas, blog posts not realized. Some I may return to, others have become dated by the time I review the verbal record of my brainstorm. Perhaps, if I have time (which I doubt) in the coming weeks, I may address a few of these ideas. For while the inspiring event may have been a few weeks — or months — in the past, the passage of time has not diminished the importance theme I wished to address.

In one such note, likely from late November (or early December of last year),* I wondered at Mary Mapes’ insistence that the documents she relied upon for a celebrated September 8, 2004 60 Minutes II piece on the president’s National Guard service were genuine. In the immediate aftermath of the program, bloggers raised questions about the authenticity of these documents. CBS was forced to retract the story. And the subsequent Thornburgh-Boccardi report established that the documents, in the words of Powerline’s Scott Johnson, were “pathetic frauds.” (In this January 29, 2005 Weekly Standard column, Johnson offers a good summary of the story.)

In my recently rediscovered note, I wondered why, if Mary Mapes believes that the documents are indeed authentic and remains convinced that that then-Lieutenant George W. Bush received preferential treatment in his Guard service, she doesn’t (now that she’s unemployed) use her free time and reporting skills to authenticate the documents. She could go down to Texas to try to connect the documents to Lieutenant Colonel Jerry Killian, Bush’s then-commanding officer. And review (and debunk with facts and arguments) her critics’ claims.

(more…)

Hmmm… it would be nice if our national networks (including CNN and FOX) would pay more attention to our strongest wartime ally. It turns out that Cyclone Larry is bearing down on the northeast part of Australia (Queensland) where the resort city of Cairns is located — the stepping off point to the Great Barrier Reef. All of my information comes from blog-ally Tim Blair in Australia.

It is now early morning of Monday, March 20 in Australia… and here’s some of the latest on what appears to be the most devastating storm in 35 years to hit that continent:

The VERY DESTRUCTIVE CORE of SEVERE TROPICAL CYCLONE LARRY with EXTREME GUSTS of approximately 280 km/hr should cross the coast near INNISFAIL between 7am and 9am MONDAY MORNING. GALES are already being experienced along the exposed coast
in the warning area and DESTRUCTIVE winds are expected to commence along the coast between INGHAM and PORT DOUGLAS in the next hour or so.

Coastal residents between Cairns and Cardwell are specifically warned of the dangerous storm tide as the cyclone crosses the coast. The sea is likely to steadily rise up to a level which will be significantly above the normal tide, with damaging waves, strong currents and flooding of low-lying areas extending some way inland.

More here from the FOX News Corp affiliate network in Australia:

RESIDENTS in far north Queensland are bracing for Cyclone Larry, expected to be the worst storm to hit the area in decades.

Thousands of residents last night fled the state’s far north as authorities compared the violent storm to America’s Hurricane Katrina. Mandatory evacuations have been enforced in numerous low-lying seafront areas, including in the Johnstone and Cardwell shires, expected to bear the brunt of the cyclone and its 4m storm surge. In addition to the evacuation of island resorts in the path of the cyclone, emergency authorities have also warned residents in low-lying areas between Cairns and Townsville to “seriously consider” leaving.

God Bless to our fellow patriots in the great nation and continent of Australia. Our prayers are with you here in the States!

-Bruce (GayPatriot)