Excellent.

Posted by: annika at 09:00 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Here's an old version of a Christmas Hymn, which is different than the one i'm used to singing.

Christmas Hymn

by Charles Wesley

Hark! how all the welkin rings
Glory to the King of kings!
Peace on earth, and mercy mild,
God and sinners reconciled!
Joyful, all ye nations, rise,
Join the triumph of the skies;
Universal nature say,
Christ the Lord is born to-day!

Christ by highest Heaven adored,
Christ, the Everlasting Lord;
Late in time behold Him come,
Offspring of a VirginÂ’s womb:
Veiled in flesh the Godhead see;
Hail thÂ’ Incarnate Deity,
Pleased as man with men to appear,
Jesus our Immanuel here!

Hail! the heavenly Prince of Peace!
Hail! the Sun of Righteousness!
Light and life to all He brings,
Risen with healing in His wings.
Mild He lays His glory by,
Born that man no more may die,
Born to raise the sons of earth,
Born to give them second birth.

Come, Desire of nations, come,
Fix in us Thy humble home!
Rise, the WomanÂ’s conquering Seed,
Bruise in us the SerpentÂ’s head!
Now display Thy saving power,
Ruined nature now restore,
Now in mystic union join
Thine to ours, and ours to Thine!

AdamÂ’s likeness, Lord, efface;
Stamp Thy image in its place;
Second Adam from above,
Reinstate us in Thy love!
Let us Thee, though lost, regain,
Thee, the Life, the Heavenly Man:
O! to all Thyself impart,
Formed in each believing heart!

Posted by: annika at 08:10 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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Mike Chertoff today:

I spent a lot of years as a line prosecutor at the Department of Justice, and as the head of the Criminal Division in this building. Many of the tools which we are talking about using in the patriot act against terrorists are tools that have been used for years in the decades against drug dealers, or people involved in white collar crime. And they've been used effectively and they've been used without there being a significant impact on civil liberties.

The question I ask myself when I hear people criticize roving wiretaps, for example, is, why is this something that we use successfully and prudently in the area of dealing with marijuana importers, but yet a tool that people want to deny us in the war against people who want to import chemical weapons or explosives. That makes no sense to me.

Why is it, for example, that delayed notification search warrants, which again, we use in all kinds of garden variety criminal cases, with the supervision of a judge, why should that tool be denied to our investigators when they're seeking to go into a house with a search warrant to see if there are explosives there, or other kinds of weapons that can be used against Americans.

[It's] Common sense [that] the tools that have been used without any significant impact on civil liberties in a wide variety of cases over the last 10 or 20 years, ought to continue to be available here against perhaps the greatest threat we face in this country, which is the threat of terror.

Posted by: annika at 07:27 PM | Comments (9) | Add Comment
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After Kobe drops 62 on the Mavs in only three quarters, you gotta wonder if Wilt's record might be in danger. Wilt's 100 point game in 1962, for the Philadelphia Warriors, always seemed to me like a more unbreakable record than Hank's 755 or Maris' 61. Wilt's record survived all 3 Michael Jordan eras. But i think Kobe can, and should do it. Apparently, he took himself out of the game last night. If Kobe wanted to, against the right defense, he could get to 101. Unlike Wilt, Kobe is almost automatic at the line, and he's got the advantage of a three point shot that didn't exist in 1962. i'd love to see it happen.

Posted by: annika at 12:42 PM | Comments (10) | Add Comment
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Germany has "secretly" released the Hezbollah murderer of an American Navy diver.

Apparently ignoring Washington's extradition request for Mohammed Ali Hamadi, German authorities have secretly released the Lebanese Hezbollah member who was serving a life sentence in the country for the hijacking of a TWA jet and for the murder of a US navy diver.

German prosecutors confirmed the release of Mohammed Ali Hamadi, now in his late 30s, to the Associated Press and said he was flown back to Lebanon last week.

Hamadi was convicted in 1989 by a German court of killing US Navy diver Robert Dean Stethem during the 1985 hijacking of a TWA flight diverted to Beirut. He was sentenced to life without parole. His sentence is one Germany reserves for the most serious and cruel crimes. It is difficult but not impossible to release someone who receives such a sentence after 15 years.

Two observations occur to me. One, this secret release is not so secret, is it? Nice to see that leaks are not something unique to the American government.

Second, this guy was supposedly sentenced to the worst sentence you can get in a place without the death penalty: life without the possibility of parole. Except NOW HE'S FREE!

That's kind of an argument for the death penalty, don't you think? At least in cases of international terrorism, where the continued earthly existence of the criminal becomes a blackmail opportunity for terrorists.

Germany, an entire nation with no balls.

Posted by: annika at 09:07 AM | Comments (18) | Add Comment
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"Former" is right. lol

Posted by: annika at 07:58 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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This movie thing is going to be harder than i thought. i couldn't find anybody to go with me tonight. i called Betty first.

"Which one did you have in mind?" she asked.

"How about Good Night and Good Luck?"

"Never heard of it. What's it about?"

"Edward R. Murrow."

"What's that?"

"Um, do you know who McCarthy was?"

"Sure, he was like some communist, right?"

"Um, not exactly."

Betty later claimed she was kidding. Anyways, she couldn't go because tonight was tae-bo night for her. i got stood up for Billy Blanks himself. Only in L.A.

Next, i called Lori. But she and her boyfriend are total homebodies. Even though they work in the business, the last thing they want to do after work is go see a movie.

My brother was a last resort, but if it doesn't involve a car chase, he's not interested. Also he got home late from his job and was too cranky and tired to go out again.

The one consolation to staying home was a big plate of my Mom's Labskovs stew, which we all ate while watching the latest Raymond DVD. What's my Mom's Labskovs stew like, you ask? Holy crap, as Frank Barone might say, it's awesome!

My parents are completely addicted to Raymond. They buy each DVD set the very day it goes on sale. i must say, i've gotten to appreciate the show a lot too. This latest DVD, of season five is the funniest so far. It's too bad they went and bought it because i still have no idea what to get either of them for Christmas.

Oh, on a completely unrelated topic, my car is angry with me. She's threatening to go on strike because i've been driving with the check engine light for the last oh 10,000 miles or so. So now she's started sputtering and coughing when i first turn her on. It's just a form of protest, but i'll have to placate her by taking her in to the shop this week if i can.

When the check engine light first came on i took her in right away because i heard that you should never drive a car with the check engine light on. i ended up paying the dealer $100 just so they could tell me it was the catalytic converter. Cool, i thought. i can ignore that, no problem.

i continued to ignore it for several reasons:

#1: from what i understand, the CC is made of solid platinum, and therefore costs about $50,000 to replace.

#2: i'm supposed to smog the car this year, so they will obviously insist that i fix the CC before they re-register me. i'm now late on re-registering, by the way. i just couldn't afford the smog check, the new CC and the fee all at once.

#3: until now, there was no discernable difference in the car's performance, except for the annoying orange light on the dashboard, which i got used to. Actually the light itself was not as annoying as having to hear every single passenger in my car say "hey, did you know your check engine light is on?"

Posted by: annika at 09:48 PM | Comments (15) | Add Comment
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Not many people know that, for Catholics, some sort of penance is advised during the Advent season as well as during Lent. So this year i have decided that my Advent sacrifice should be to see ten movies in the next fourteen days.

i call it a sacrifice because the quality of Hollywood movies in recent years has not given me much hope that this will be an enjoyable experience. Plus, i intend to blog about each one, and lately, wringing a decent blog post out of my head has been a difficult task.

i am in Los Angeles until after the new year, so i will have the advantage of being able to see a lot of the limited release films that are already creating a buzz, such as Spielberg's Munich and Woody Allen's Match Point (a must see for me, since i love tennis.)

The boyfriend will be joining me next week, and he has indicated that he will help me cross the finish line on this goal, as long as "that cowboy movie" isn't one of the ten films.

i hope my Advent sacrifice, and the blog posts it generates, will be of some interest to you all. Besides, it's Christmas break, and what else have i got to do with my time? Otherwise i might spend it playing videogames with my bro, or eating and drinking way too much.

Posted by: annika at 02:03 PM | Comments (7) | Add Comment
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Bush seems to have his own "no controlling legal authority" problem now. He's straining the war powers and the congressional use of force resolution to justify his domestic wiretapping without a warrant. Well, after one semester of Con Law, i think i have found a way out of this mess. Simply invoke the Commerce Clause. It means whatever you want it to mean, you can use it to do anything, and Courts love expanding it. Only problem is getting it to cover executive action, but i'll leave that up to Alberto. Let him earn his keep and give some good advice for once.

Posted by: annika at 08:19 AM | Comments (11) | Add Comment
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Christiane Amanpour delivered the Democratic response to the president's speech on the Iraq War tonight. In a nutshell, she said we're losing.

Other democratic responses included the following:

Halliburton Halliburton. Bush spied, people died. Iraqis flying kites. Need specifics specifics timetable timetable pullout pullout. No WMDs.

blah blah blah blah zzzzzzzzz clunk.

Posted by: annika at 08:03 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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Last night at the grocery store i got into the wrong line. It was the express lane and i had only seven items.* i got in that line because the lady ahead of me looked like she had finished getting rung up, so i thought i was good to go.

i was wrong, because she was about to move into phase two of her $6 scheme.

The first thing i noticed was her voice, because she sounded so much like Roseanne Barr, that i truly thought it might have been her. She had bright cinnamon colored hair, cut in a bob, which temporarily obscured her facial features. When she turned in my direction momentarily, i realized it couldn't have been Roseanne, unless Roseanne had recently been involved in a horrible accident.

The lady's teeth were a disaster. Every other one was missing, and the remaining teeth were pointed in every direction except proper. She looked like a mako shark, it was quite an array.

The checker and in fact all of the grocery store personnel were beyond professional throughout the whole ordeal. i was really impressed by them. The controversy that developed involved a reciept that the lady wanted to apply to her purchase. The slip of paper apparently indicated a credit left over from a previous gift card purchase.

The lady said that she threw away the actual gift card after her last visit, even though it still had $6 on it, because a manager had told her she didn't need the card. This mysterious manager said that the receipt could be used instead of the card.

The checker explained that you actually had to have the gift card, and that he couldn't accept the receipt. The lady then began a string of expletives. If a manager said she could do it, she should be entitled to do it.

Of course the lady couldn't identify the particular manager, who apparently wasn't working that night. She also refused to go speak to any other managers unless they came over to her, while she held up the checkout line.

This was the key part of the scam. She needed to create an inconvenience to the other customers so the store employees would just give her the $6 so she could go away. After all, it was only $6, and look at all those people waiting.

Anyways, they opened another aisle and let me check out, so i never found out if the store caved-in to her demands or not. i hope they didn't.
_______________

* Pumpkin pie, Reddi-Whip, Kerns Pineapple-Mango juice, hot dog buns, six Anjou pears in a bag, vanilla ice cream, salsa

Posted by: annika at 03:05 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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i know what wills are, but what's a trust? i kind of zoned out by the middle of the semester in that class.

On the other hand, i am considering legally changing my name to "the evidence queen."

See that girl, she knows the F.R.E.,
diggin' the evidence queen!

Posted by: annika at 09:23 AM | Comments (8) | Add Comment
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Today is a great day for freedom. i think it's entirely fitting that i have chosen this day to announce the biggest event in the blogosphere's short history. Today is the long awaited launch day for Nose In The Air Media.

What is Nose In The Air Media, you say? Perhaps you've noticed the new icon on my sidebar, under blogging affiliations. Go ahead and look. See it?

Nose In The Air Media is the brainchild of blogger annika, of annika's journal. That's me. i made the whole thing up. The editorial board consists of me. The graphics designer is me. i'm the CEO, CFO, COO, judge, jury and executioner. i do all the work and i get all the credit.

Here's what Nose In The Air Media is all about:

Nose In The Air Media is not a club.

You don't have to join Nose In The Air Media to be in Nose In The Air Media.

You don't have to be invited into Nose In The Air Media. Just like some other hoity-toity blogging cabals, you might find yourself waiting forever.

If you are reading this, and you want to be in, you're in.

And you'll want to be in. It's that cool.

You don't have to be a "big time" blogger to be in Nose In The Air Media.

You don't have to get linked by any "big time" bloggers to be in Nose In The Air Media.

You don't have to have been interviewed by Time Magazine to be in Nose In The Air Media.

You don't have to be remotely interesting to be in Nose In The Air Media.

You don't even have to have a blog to be in Nose In The Air Media.

You don't have to have a cool site design to be in Nose In The Air Media.

You don't have to be a conservative to be in Nose In The Air Media.

You don't have to be a liberal to be in Nose In The Air Media.

You don't have to be political to be in Nose In The Air Media.

You don't have to wear pajamas to be in Nose In The Air Media.

You don't have to wear anything.

Your front page can load in less than five minutes and you can still be in Nose In The Air Media.

You don't have to like annika's journal to be in Nose In The Air Media.

You don't have to link to annika's journal to be in Nose In The Air Media.

You don't even have to de-link annika's journal to be in Nose In The Air Media.

You don't have to have been mentioned in Hugh Hewitt's book to be in Nose In The Air Media.

You can have a crappy template and be in Nose In The Air Media.

You can say fuck on your blog and be in Nose In The Air Media.

Fuck fuck fuck fuck fucking fuck.

You don't have to be hot to be in Nose In The Air Media.

You don't have to pay dues to be in Nose In The Air Media.

You don't have to be high on the Ecosystem to be in Nose In The Air Media.

You don't even have to know what the Ecosystem is to be in Nose In The Air Media.

You don't have to care at all.

You can post about shit and still be in Nose In The Air Media.

No one is going to kick you out of Nose In The Air Media for hatin' on me.

You'll get no money for being in Nose In The Air Media.

In fact, there's absolutely no advantage to being in Nose In The Air Media.

We have no blogroll.

We have no bankroll.

You don't have to post any icons.

You don't have to link to any other members.

There aren't any other members anyway.

You don't have to take part in any carnivals.

You won't get bombarded by a kazillion spam emails.

You can post as much as you want, or as little as you want, if you join Nose In The Air Media.

You can join Nose In The Air Media, and then quit, and then join again, and then quit again, and then join again, and then quit again, as many times as you like.

There are no celebrities in Nose In The Air Media and being in Nose In The Air Media will not make you a celebrity.

In fact, you can be in Nose In The Air Media and still respond to e-mails from non-celebrities who read your blog. Your head won't even explode.

You don't have to have a clever name to be in Nose In The Air Media.

If you're in Nose In The Air Media, you won't be required to agree with everything that the famous big blogger of the week says.

On the other hand, the famous big blogger of the week won't ever link to you if you're in Nose In The Air Media, even though he or she reads you regularly. But then, they weren't linking to you anyway, so that's no big loss.

You don't have to be a member - of - a - discrete - interest - group - that's - usually - thought - of - as - left - leaning - whose - conservative - views - have - made - you - a - darling - of - the - big - bloggers, to be in Nose In The Air Media.

You don't have to be all overly serious and self-important to be in Nose In The Air Media.

You don't have to have a law degree to be in Nose In The Air Media.

You don't have to be a journalist to be in Nose In The Air Media.

You don't have to be any kind of jerk to be in Nose In The Air Media.

You don't have to be a nun or a minister to be in Nose In The Air Media.

You can smoke pot and be in Nose In The Air Media.

You can even blog about sex and be in Nose In The Air Media.

You don't have to have a paypal button to be in Nose In The Air Media.

You don't have to solicit money for projects that you promise to do, then forget all about the project, but keep the money anyway, to be in Nose In The Air Media.

You don't have to use a fake name to be in Nose In The Air Media.

It's okay to correspond with your visitors when you're in Nose In The Air Media.

It's okay to be one of the little people when you're in Nose In The Air Media.

Even when your blog is ranked higher on the Ecosystem than many so-called "big time" don't-bother-me-I'm-so-serious blogs, not that you care about that shit anyway because it's all bullshit, and you're not competitive in that way, except for just a little bit.

It's okay to hit a paragraph break every once in a while when you're in Nose In The Air Media.

It's not necessary to have a blog ad with a grainy picture of a guy doing isometric push-ups on your sidebar if you want to be in Nose In The Air Media.

You can actually read and comment at other people's blogs when you are in Nose In The Air Media.

In fact there are almost no rules for being in Nose In The Air Media.

You don't have to be great.

You don't have to be more popular.

You don't have to be more interesting.

You don't have to be funnier.

You don't have to be better than any other blogger out there.

In fact there's only one prerequisite for being in Nose In The Air Media.

You have to THINK you're better than everyone else.

And if you can do that, welcome. You're in.

Posted by: annika at 08:44 PM | Comments (29) | Add Comment
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1 Only I could have written it better.

Posted by: Scof at December 16, 2005 01:15 AM (RDouC)

2 Shit, annika, I've always known I was better than everybody, except for my father. I'm even better than you, except in the 'cute chick' department.

Posted by: Victor at December 16, 2005 06:04 AM (L3qPK)

3 Victor is ineligible to join because he does't think he is better than anyone else-he knows he is better.

Posted by: Jake at December 16, 2005 07:23 AM (r/5D/)

4 Joining the flame war against Pajamas Media?

Posted by: reagan80 at December 16, 2005 07:30 AM (K9tdw)

5 what's a pajamas media?

Posted by: annika at December 16, 2005 07:37 AM (nxq8n)

6 Annika Obviously exams are over and you have too much time on your hands. Go view these videos of the new Sony Robot. Amazing stuff. http://www.sony.net/SonyInfo/QRIO/videoclip/

Posted by: Jake at December 16, 2005 08:15 AM (r/5D/)

7 "what's a pajamas media?" http://pajamasmedia.com/ A group of bloggers including Moxie has been bashing the new OSM venture lately. Some OSM members are feuding with the critics.... http://moxie.nu/moveabletype/archives/003424.php

Posted by: reagan80 at December 16, 2005 11:45 AM (K9tdw)

8 Thanks for the heads up Reagan, i just followed the links. wild stuff, i was so busy with finals, i had no idea this thing was so controversial. heh heh for the record, no one ever invited me. just so you know. Them grapes were sour anyway.

Posted by: annika at December 16, 2005 06:07 PM (rIVqV)

9 No problem, Annika. I posted a link to your N.I.T.A. logo and another link to this post at Moxie's. Hopefully, that won't attract more trolls here since Atrios linked her recently.....

Posted by: reagan80 at December 16, 2005 06:57 PM (K9tdw)

10 heh, heh...she said "fuck"...heh..heh

Posted by: Pursuit at December 16, 2005 07:09 PM (n/TNS)

11 Best critiqe i've seen so far is at Hog On Ice.

Posted by: annika at December 16, 2005 08:34 PM (aEcBH)

12 Hah! Finally found me a blogospheric home to call my own. Consider me joined!

Posted by: Desert Cat at December 16, 2005 11:10 PM (xdX36)

13 I will join NITA if you put my comment at the top of the list, so I am the first one to have read you post and joined. I HAVE to be ahead of Desert Cat at the very least.

Posted by: Billy Budd at December 17, 2005 06:25 AM (BtK0i)

14 I forgot......How much does this pay again?

Posted by: Billy Budd at December 17, 2005 06:27 AM (BtK0i)

15 OT: Annika, since you're interested in aviation: today is the 70th anniversary of the Douglas DC-3. The first flight took place exactly 32 years after the first flight of the Wright brothers at Kitty Hawk.

Posted by: David Foster at December 17, 2005 09:06 AM (7TmYw)

16 I'm looking forward to a self-referential essay on the importance of Nose In The Air Media in the evolution of the blogosphere. Kinda like when TV airs a special on Nielsen families. (I'd write the essay myself, but you know that I have more important things to do.)

Posted by: Ontario Emperor at December 18, 2005 12:10 PM (4sNu+)

17 This was the post that doesn't end Yes it goes on and on my friend Some people started reading it and not knowing what it was And they'll continue reading it forever just because...

Posted by: Mark at December 18, 2005 11:29 PM (KOJUV)

18 Beware of sticking your 'nose in the air' smoeone my take a dump on it........

Posted by: Wm H at December 19, 2005 09:11 AM (c59X1)

19 Only poseurs think they are better than everybody else. Those of us who really are better than everybody else know we are.

Posted by: MarkD at December 20, 2005 12:34 PM (oQofX)

20 What if I don't think I'm better than everyone else, but rather mroe humble than everyone else ?

Posted by: ch2 at December 22, 2005 06:51 AM (C/uoF)

21 I'm in the Axis of Asshole. I just joined your club, too. Does that make me a Pompous Asshole?

Posted by: Acidman at December 22, 2005 09:53 PM (tZcNR)

22 A club that only has rules about what you don't have to do? I'm in. Hell I'm so much better, those jealous big dogs are afraid to link to me.

Posted by: Libby at December 23, 2005 06:14 AM (DGO1F)

23 Think I'm better? Everyone KNOWS I'm better. Wait, maybe I mean "bigger"

Posted by: og at December 23, 2005 07:05 AM (ip7cG)

24 I've joined, quit, and re-joined 18 times so far today Great fun!

Posted by: Misty at December 23, 2005 09:12 AM (YYX5i)

25 Nose in the Air Media revolutionizes new model marketing, bringing to bear fundamental technology with exciting innovations that maximize stream revenue through the dynamic convergence of the time tested and the next big thing. And if you put me on the Board, and how can I doubt that you will, you can be quoting the board member of a large and highly respected organization when you quote me.

Posted by: JS Narins at December 23, 2005 01:16 PM (L4z1p)

26 Annika, This was the first post of yours I ever read. I read some more. Please remove me from NITa media. Your nose is up the RNC's rear orifice.

Posted by: JS Narins at December 23, 2005 01:23 PM (L4z1p)

27 JS, I read more of your blog. You might try removing your ample nose from your own posterior, after you remove your head and shoulders, and when you can see what an insufferable and fact resistant tool you are, try to go get a clue. Of course, I can't imagine you doing that, it would require sanity and reason.

Posted by: og at December 23, 2005 02:10 PM (ip7cG)

28 I'm in...

Posted by: Circa Bellum at December 23, 2005 04:44 PM (NCmy7)

29 You mean I can just take the button and put it on my blog and link back to you? LOL

Posted by: Alabama Improper at June 24, 2006 08:35 PM (w29Gv)

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In honor of Peter Jackson's latest film, here is some ape poetry:

Teaching The Ape To Write Poems

by James Tate

They didn't have much trouble
teaching the ape to write poems:
first they strapped him into the chair,
then tied the pencil around his hand
(the paper had already been nailed down).
Then Dr. Bluespire leaned over his shoulder
and whispered into his ear:
"You look like a god sitting there.
Why don't you try writing something?"

Posted by: annika at 03:59 PM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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This is beautiful.

Caught with their pants down again. You simply cannot trust the media to report the truth.

The media is on the side of the enemy.

Update: President Bush has now given four major speeches in recent weeks on the Iraq War. i see a new pattern emerging.

1. Democrats complain that Bush needs to explain his Iraq policy.

2. Republicans* admit Bush hasn't done a good job of explaining Iraq policy.

3. Bush explains Iraq policy in a major speech.

4. Media ignores major speech, but pulls one negative quote for headlines. ("30,000 civilians killed" or "Bush takes blame for faulty intel")

5. Go to #1, repeat cycle.

And in the meantime, everybody ignores the fact that Iraq continues to improve every day.
_______________

* myself included.

Posted by: annika at 04:04 PM | Comments (29) | Add Comment
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1 There is no media bias. Just ask Dan Rather. You'd take his word for it, wouldn't you?

Posted by: Shelly at December 13, 2005 04:16 PM (6mUkl)

2 Right on annie, you're the best!

Posted by: Scof at December 13, 2005 05:02 PM (RDouC)

3 I was fortunate enough to see Bush's speech in its entirety, and the Q and A which followed. Bush kicked ass! He even used threatened Syria and Iran. Today I glanced at The Ft. Worth Star Telegram, and the front page was filled with dreck, including a story which could've been run on any day, but just HAPPENED to bump Bush's speech off the front page: "Iran-backed militia gains power in Iraq" Bush's speech rated a 1"x1" photo in the bottom right, directing me to an account of his speech on Page A15. The headline to the article on 15A: "About 30,000 Iraqis have died in the war, Bush says" The article, by Ron Hutchinson of Knight-Ridder, said nothing positive until the final sentence of the 5th paragraph: "Although the crowd of several hundred in Philadelphia's Park Hyatt Hotel seemed generally supportive, there were dissenters." Nice qualifier. I consider even the assertion in this sentence to be spin. On TV, a strong majority of the crowd seemed supportive. Paragraphs 6-11 covered the speech and the Q&A, then Rep. John Murtha made an appearance in paragraph 12&13. Paragraph 14&15 talked about the Iraqi elections. Typical MSM - shove Bush's outstanding performance under the rug. When OIF success becomes obvious, and the public figures out how badly they've been misled, their relationship to the MSM will be forever altered.

Posted by: gcotharn at December 13, 2005 09:33 PM (nD6Iu)

4 It is astounding that they have lied to our faces for so long, and now they just cannot understand why everyone is abandoning them for the alternate media. Here is a little secret that the libbies dont want discussed. A lot of them now get most of their news from Fox. The way I know this is that on any liberal blog they will go on and on about things that appeared on Fox the night before. They bitch about it but Fox has the best coverage so they watch.

Posted by: Kyle N at December 14, 2005 03:51 AM (5yVJK)

5 good point Kyle.

Posted by: annika at December 14, 2005 08:09 AM (b/90D)

6 And I had heard that they just read Annika's Journal and skip Fox...

Posted by: shelly at December 14, 2005 02:04 PM (6mUkl)

7 I certainly hope the REAL media is on the side of the brave and noble insurgents - I certainly am! Free Palestine!

Posted by: Kimmitt at December 14, 2005 03:14 PM (V2eAR)

8 Anni, You get twitier every day. There was no enemy in Iraq. We invaded and called the people who want us the fuck out the enemy and you have the audacity to split hairs with the MSM's depiction of 30,000 deaths? And, what? This sham democracy that's forming gives you a good feeling deep inside but 30,000 dead makes you angry because the MSM did not qualify that the Criminal said "citizens" which could include republican guard killed in their barracks, regular army slaughtered as they retreated, women, toddlers, infants, teenagers, elderly, and a host of others? This by you is a problem? Gosh, the enemy loving MSM chose not to listen clearly to our lying sack of shit commander and chief whilst he once again repeats his hollow pledges, purile simplifications about government, democracy and elections, the sorry state of the state of Iraq, the readiness of the "soldiers" we are training, and basically every other aspect of this criminal transgression against all that is decent and moral, and because the MSM has stopped buying this barrow of crap they are the "friends of our enemy" Would this have pleased you? DEAD Description 1,650 children between 5 and 7 1,125 men employed as shop keepers 2,500 stay at home moms 9,250 men and women over 65 27 men in american custody 7,345 women who held civil service jobs 5,345 children between 7-19 2,758 men fighting to repel occupation 30,000 total Your right I guess, anything other than this is a clear demonstration of liberal bias and deep unabashed love of our "enemy"

Posted by: strawman at December 14, 2005 04:16 PM (0ZdtC)

9 I went to hear Bush speak in Minneapolis last week. The new information I heard from his speech that Al Qaida has decided that Iraq is the battlefield where they plan to fight the US to the bitter end. He said he would rather fight them in Iraq than fight them on American soil. I agree. He spoke with no notes or teleprompter for 25 minutes. His eloquence surprised me.

Posted by: Jake at December 14, 2005 04:23 PM (r/5D/)

10 Strawman: 90% of the civilian casualties are from Al Qaida and Sunnis targeting women and children for execution with car bombs and suicide bombers. Bombers that are cheered on by the Democrats and their leadership. These bombers would have given up long ago if they had not had encouragement from the left. Your head butcher, Howard Dean and the bloodthirsty tribe he leads are more responsible for those vaporized children than the suicide bomber who pulls the trigger. At least the bomber does not live on to cheer the results as the Democrats do.

Posted by: Jake at December 14, 2005 04:38 PM (r/5D/)

11 Hey JAke, Who told you Al Qaida was going to fight to the bitter end in Iraq? I rest my case.

Posted by: strawman at December 14, 2005 04:55 PM (0ZdtC)

12 strawman: Al-Qaida No. 2 Ayman al-Zawahri has said that if Al Qaida loses in Iraq there goal of ruling the Middle East is lost. When President Bush and al-Zawahri say the same thing, I believe it.

Posted by: Jake at December 14, 2005 06:58 PM (r/5D/)

13 Jake, we all ignored the nut case from left field, and he went away with his crap for a while. Now that you have noticed his prattling and even worse, responded to it, is just like How Weird Dean and his merry gang of lost souls. You are encouraging him. Just ignore him and maybe he'll go away again.

Posted by: shelly at December 14, 2005 07:21 PM (6mUkl)

14 It's a waste of time to try converting us "Reich-whingers". Strawman would be better off finding women bloggers that share his views such as this one...... http://raymitheminx.blogspot.com/ She's bashed Bush on occasion and she often shows her T&A. I'm sure Tony Pierce's blog could hook him up with other similar links.

Posted by: reagan80 at December 14, 2005 07:56 PM (K9tdw)

15 I think Strawman's comments are great. I love Strawman, Air America, and all the other moonbats who promote the left's opinions. It shows how far off the deep end they have gone and actually helped the Republicans win the Presidency, House, Senate, and more governorships. Keep up the good work! Where can I make a donation to Air America?

Posted by: TheMan at December 15, 2005 07:04 AM (v/869)

16 Call Al Franken (if you can find him).

Posted by: shelly at December 15, 2005 07:07 AM (6mUkl)

17 > 3. Bush explains Iraq policy in a major speech. I've seen a number of speeches where his speechwriters employ the usual rhetorical tools that are simply intended to rally rather than inform. That's why you see a lot of; > 2. Republicans admit Bush hasn't done a good job of explaining Iraq policy. Now he has taken responsibility for the decision to go to war. Funny, I would have thought that was obvious from day one. I suppose that means that he is relieving Cheney from the pressure of having made that decision. There might be some who believe that the Administration did not steer the prewar Iraq intelligence analysis, but those 'some' are becoming a tiny, strident, increasingly bitter minority.

Posted by: will at December 15, 2005 08:09 AM (h7Ciu)

18 what percentage, do you think, is made up of folks who believe the administration did "steer prewar Iraq intelligence analysis" and don't have a problem with that?

Posted by: annika at December 15, 2005 08:57 AM (zAOEU)

19 Your question is a good one, but "steer" is not the best grounds for the question. Where there is no smoking gun, there are only educated guesses and probabilities. Bush looked at the available info and made his decision. Most of America has no problem with that. We voted him into office to do that very thing.

Posted by: gcotharn at December 15, 2005 10:11 AM (NS9sP)

20 The left complaint is really this: "Bush succeeded at leading us into war in Iraq." They are actually arguing that Bush was unfairly effective at the difficult task of moving the nation to war. They are arguing that the nation deserved for Bush to lay out the negatives more clearly, effectively undermining his goal of moving the nation to invasion. The left argument is illogical and laughable. Its also incorporates lies - especially the part where they morph Bush's assertion that we would definitely succeed in Iraq into an assertion that we would easily succeed. Bush could not move the nation to war w/o asserting that we would definitely succeed. That he said easily is a lie - although, by historical standards, we are succeeding easily. And that is not to take anything away from the incredible difficulty of the task. It is, instead, a compliment to our forces and our strength, and a compliment to the Iraqis for taking to democracy. That the Iraqis actually have taken to democracy - albeit an Iraqi style democracy that includes some violence - is the ultimate comment on Bush's correct strategic vision; and on his reading of the intelligence tea-leaves he was dealt.

Posted by: gcotharn at December 15, 2005 10:40 AM (NS9sP)

21 Recall the Senate voted 77-23 in Oct 2002 to authorize the President to attack Iraq. The House approved an identical resolution, 296-133 (the resolution became Public Law 107-243). If you have read the law (a big assumption I know for those who don't want facts to cloud their opinion), you would note the following section: "Whereas in Public Law 105–235 (August 14, 199 , Congress concluded that Iraq’s continuing weapons of mass destruction programs threatened vital United States interests and international peace and security, declared Iraq to be in ‘‘material and unacceptable breach of its international obligations’’ and urged the Presi- dent ‘‘to take appropriate action, in accordance with the Constitution and relevant laws of the United States, to bring Iraq into compliance with its international obligations’’" ** Note the date of 1998 - I'm waiting to hear how then Gov Bush et al manipulated the intelligence during the Clinton Administration so Congress would reach this conclusion ** Also, Congress was well aware the law authorized the use of force "section 8(a)(1) of the War Powers Resolution, the Congress declares that this section is intended to constitute specific statutory authorization within the meaning of section 5(b) of the War Powers Resolution." "I believe we have an obligation to protect the United States by preventing him from getting these weapons and either using them himself or passing them or their components on to terrorists who share his destructive intent," said Gephardt, who helped draft the measure. From CommonDreams (hardly a supporter of Bush to say the least). "It should also be remembered that it was the Clinton administration, not the current administration, which first insisted-despite the lack of evidence-that Iraq had successfully concealed or re-launched its chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons programs. Clinton's fear-mongering around Iraqi WMDs began in 1997, several years after they had been successfully destroyed or rendered inoperable. Based upon the alleged Iraqi threat, Clinton ordered a massive four-day bombing campaign against Iraq in December 1998, forcing the evacuation of inspectors from the United Nations Special Commission on Iraq (UNSCOM) and the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)." and "Clinton was egged on to take such unilateral military action by leading Senate Democratic leaders -- including then-Minority Leader Tom Daschle, John Kerry, Carl Levin, and others who signed a letter in October 1998 -- urging the president "to take necessary actions, including, if appropriate, air and missile strikes on suspected Iraqi sites, to respond effectively to the threat posed by Iraq's refusal to end its weapons of mass destruction programs." Meanwhile, Clinton's Secretary of State Madeleine Albright was repeatedly making false statements regarding Iraq's supposed possession of WMDs, even justifying the enormous humanitarian toll from the U.S.-led economic sanctions on Iraq on the grounds that "Saddam Hussein has . . . chosen to spend his money on building weapons of mass destruction." and Even some prominent congressional Democrats who did not vote to authorize the invasion were willing to defend the Bush administration's WMD claims. When House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi appeared on NBC's Meet the Press in December 2002, she claimed: "Saddam Hussein certainly has chemical and biological weapons. There is no question about that." If you claim that the President "skewed" the intelligence, then why would the Administration allow the 2002 NIE, a primary source given the Congress to justify military action, to contain in the document a much stronger dissent within the intelligence community than any other NIE in history? Look at David Kay's testimony in 2004: "As leader of the effort of the Iraqi Survey Group, I spent most of my days not out in the field leading inspections. It's typically what you do at that level. I was trying to motivate, direct, find strategies. In the course of doing that, I had innumerable analysts who came to me in apology that the world that we were finding was not the world that they had thought existed and that they had estimated. Reality on the ground differed in advance. And never -- not in a single case -- was the explanation, "I was pressured to do this." The explanation was very often, "The limited data we had led one to reasonably conclude this. I now see that there's another explanation for it." And each case was different, but the conversations were sufficiently in depth and our relationship was sufficiently frank that I'm convinced that, at least to the analysts I dealt with, I did not come across a single one that felt it had been, in the military term, "inappropriate command influence" that led them to take that position. It was not that. It was the honest difficulty based on the intelligence that had -- the information that had been collected that led the analysts to that conclusion. And you know, almost in a perverse way, I wish it had been undue influence because we know how to correct that. " I'm waiting to see how the MSM media report the Iraqi elections. Had some peers send aerial photos showing long lines of Iraqis waiting to vote. Pretty remarkable considering that the whole time those folks were in line waiting, they were exposed targets for terrorists. Some Americans would see that line and think “What a hassle!” Iraqis see the line, get right in it, and think “What an opportunity!”

Posted by: Col Steve at December 15, 2005 11:36 AM (pj2h7)

22 Will, You see, Annika thinks that OBL might have gone to Iraq and conspired with SH to cause tons of grief for you and me here at home. SHe thinks this because a traitor she otherwise loaths and has repeatedly called a liar, RIchard Clark, wrote a memo suggesting this was a possibility. Annika, quivering in her boots, was grateful that Clark didn't suggest OBL would consider going back to SA and hooking up with his family since that would have precluded Bush from acting. He gets all whinny and cranky without Prince BAndar or a Bin Laden shoving a crude oil slathered dick up his ass. But,lo, out of the loop/in the loop, Clarke said "Iraq", Annika was pleased, and Bush could continue directing the Prince toward his magic walnut. "Push overs", Anni said, (or maybe that was just Bush giving Bandar a hint) "me and my sig could tear Saddam a new one in two or three days" she cried stomping an 8 x 10 of Rummy hugging Saddam, breaking the heel on a new pair of 600.00 dollar Choo's. Surely, she thought, Rummy will have no trouble with these Iraqi son's of bitches. He'll kill 50,000 with or so with precision bombing and the rest will throw flowers and swirl cognac in our honor. And most importantly Osama will be rendered toothless in a desert abattoir like beef trimmings to tallow. (its a little mixed up I know but you get the point.) How's it working out Annika? Smell any tallow yet? So far as I can tell, it worked out really well. Only a few of the dead Iraqi's are voting today, the country is thriving;plenty of fresh water and electricity, oils-a-pumping paying back America for all it's help, kids are back in all new refurbished schools they now call Madras's and the artifacts from the museums are being auctioned off by Christies to buy arms for those pesky insurgents. Oh, and George is having a tough time sitting still but at least he isn't bleeding. "The President reads tea leaves not books" nice bumper sticker. THe fact that quasi intelligent people like your selves still think it was just our dumbass anal ysts (not George thank you) at the myriad of over funded but understaffed intelligence agencies that got it wrong, is astounding. Dozens of people who work there have come foward to say just the opposite, that the cabal willfully rejected contrary to invasion intel and cherry picked or badgered people to re-evaluate. I know this don't bother our hostess but she has other- worldly ideas about morality. Anni, if Clark had said Osama was potentially heading for Pakistan (where, BTW,he most surely is) should have we have invaded prophylactically?

Posted by: strawman at December 15, 2005 03:13 PM (0ZdtC)

23 these days, i always suggest using a prophylactic whenever invading a new territory.

Posted by: annika at December 15, 2005 08:30 PM (7mM+j)

24 Ooops, bad experience I guess. It happens to the best of us.

Posted by: Casca at December 15, 2005 09:09 PM (amHxi)

25 Pakistan is kind of arid. No one wants to invade that.

Posted by: gcotharn at December 15, 2005 09:52 PM (NS9sP)

26 Iraq, conversely, has the lush and fertile crescent between the rivers. Invading Iraq is a natural act - sanctified by God.

Posted by: gcotharn at December 15, 2005 09:58 PM (NS9sP)

27 Col Steve: Please stop confusing our leftist friends with the facts. It tends to make their pitiful arguments even more more pitiful, and thus, they cannot even consider reconsideration. In the future, please stick to rumor and obfuscation, in order to leave them with a possibility of consideration. I mean, a good rumor beats the facts every time in their world. Just be thankful that when the chips are down, there are more of us than of them.

Posted by: shelly at December 15, 2005 10:17 PM (6mUkl)

28 "Iraq, conversely, has the lush and fertile crescent between the rivers. Invading Iraq is a natural act - sanctified by God." LMAO...that is so wrong.....

Posted by: reagan80 at December 15, 2005 10:30 PM (K9tdw)

29 Let's see, if raping and beating young Australian girls who do not cover their heads or their faces is sanctioned by God, maybe invading Iraq is as well.

Posted by: shelly at December 17, 2005 04:46 AM (6mUkl)

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Atlanta at home vs. New Orleans. Atlanta favored by 10½. Atlanta will cover, no prob.

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Here's proof that the smackdown Howard Dean received last week is doing some good:

So go easy on Howie, not only is he working hard to elect the next Republican Congress and President, he's a friend of annika's journal.

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What the hell, i just found out that Clareified got nominated for Best Liberal Blog. i've been so busy with finals that i haven't even looked at the contest and i wasn't planning on voting for anybody this year. Sour grapes and all that.

But i'll make an exception for Dawn, and i urge every reader of annika's journal to go forth now and vote for Clareified!

More: As of this writing, my blog is #135 on the Ecosystem, just two places behind disgusting fatbody Oliver Wills. And i've done shit on this blog for the last year and a half, which should tell you something about fat Ollie, or the Ecosystem, or whatever.

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An interesting interview with the one-time legend, now cranky drooler, Mike Wallace appeared in Thursday's Boston Globe. The irony of Wallace's answers to the first couple of questions was funny.

Q. President George W. Bush has declined to be interviewed by you. What would you ask him if you had the chance?

A. What in the world prepared you to be the commander in chief of the largest superpower in the world? In your background, Mr. President, you apparently were incurious. You didn't want to travel. You knew very little about the military. . . . The governor of Texas doesn't have the kind of power that some governors have. . . . Why do you think they nominated you? . . . Do you think that has anything to do with the fact that the country is so [expletive] up?

My first thought was that most of these questions could have been more appropriately directed to President Clinton, or President Carter while they were busy [expletive]-ing up the country in ways that our current President is now trying to fix.

And then, after showing what a blatantly biased hack he is, Wallace had the nerve to wonder why nobody cares about tv news anymore.

The days of Walter Cronkite and Huntley and Brinkley are gone. People still do watch, but it doesn't have the clout that it used to have. I don't know what's going to happen or if there will be an evening news 10 years from now.

Then Wallace is asked who he admired the most, out of all the people he's ever interviewed.

Martin Luther King. . . . Despite the gratitude he felt for what Lyndon Johnson did about relations between the races, Martin had the guts during the Vietnam War to say this is the wrong war, the wrong time, the wrong place.

Look at the choice of words: "gratitude" and "what Lyndon Johnson did." Wallace doesn't admire Martin Luther King for King's Civil Rights accomplishments. He clearly thinks those were gifts from the "great white father," LBJ.

Wallace thinks the most admirable thing about King was his opposition to the Vietnam War!

i don't know how anyone can gloss over King's great achievements, what he did to bring real voting rights, end segregation and Jim Crow, and change the way Americans think about themselves, and then say duhh, I liked him cuz he was anti-war.

Go away Mike Wallace, you had your day. Now you're just irritating.

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Arnold is supposed to announce his Tookie decision today. He's not given me any reason to believe that he won't wimp out. i predict clemency.

Update: i would like to apologize now to Tookie Williams for predicting clemency. i should have known that i was probably jinxing his chances with the way my predictions have gone this year.

i suppose he can add me to the list of "motherfuckers" he warned at the end of his trial in 1981:

After the jury read their guilty verdict Williams, according to transcripts, looked to jurors and mouthed: 'I'm going to get each and every one of you motherf------.'

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