The Old Macaca Sleight Of Hand

Suddenly Senator George Allen is in big trouble for having called a Jim Webb supporter a monkey*. That's apparently a bad thing to be called if you're a Democrat. Lesson learned.

Interestingly though, there may be something else in play here. A diversion:

Democratic Web Ad Angers Some Hispanics
By Suzanne Gamboa, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) -- A Democratic political ad is under fire from Hispanics who say it unfairly compares Latino immigrants to terrorists.

The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee sponsored a 35-second ad on its Web site that shows footage of two people scaling a border fence mixed with images of Osama Bin Laden and North Korea President Kim Jong Il.

Houston City Councilwoman Carol Alvarado, a Democrat, sent a letter to DSCC Chairman Sen. Charles Schumer of New York asking that the ad be pulled. She said it could alienate Latino voters.

"To liken Latino immigrants to bazooka-toting terrorists not only undermines the positive relationship our party has with this community, but also lowers us to a despicable level as breeders of unfounded fear and hatred," Alvarado wrote. (link)

I expect the Post and the Times to be all over this story ... in my next life.

* To be fair to Senator Allen, the monkey is actually called a macaque of the genus macaca. I'm sure he was making that distinction when he called the stalker that bad name.

Hat tip to Matt Drudge

Not a Bad Day On The Mountain

It's a good day I think when you get a mention on CBSNews.com and in the Washington Post.

My guess is neither link will be active very long so check these out while you can:

• Melissa McNamara with CBSNews.com picked up my post from Saturday regarding Al Gore's hypocritical global heating lifestyle in "Gore Full Of Hot Air?".

and:

• Chris Edwards with the Washington Post links to a post I had on Sunday with regard to the disparity in wages between the Washington DC area and the rest of Virginia in "Federal Pay: Myth and Realities."

As for Ms. McNamara, not only does she write well (although I really must simplify the spelling of my last name), I want to give birth to her next child. Check out the accompanying photo; you'll see what I mean.

And don't anyone write me about my having been very critical in the past of CBS News. That's all now changed. A kind word from a good lookin' reporter/producer and I'm a changed man.

While The Macaca Crowd Feigns Outrage ...

... Wal-Mart takes its campaign to the people ... with a vengeance:

Wal-Mart takes aim at Democratic critics
No. 1 retailer sends 'voter guides' to its 18,000 Iowa employees, criticizing presidential hopefuls who have joined company's critics.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Wal-Mart Stores is hitting back at some leading Democratic presidential hopefuls who have joined with the company's critics recently.

The world's largest retailer announced it is sending out what it terms a "voter education guide" to its 18,000 Iowa employees, criticizing politicians who have recently joined with the union-backed group "Wake Up Wal-Mart" for a series of rallies. Iowa holds the nation's first presidential caucus, and potential candidates are already visiting the state.

"We believe it's wrong for these political candidates to attack Wal-Mart and the transformation under way at our company," the letter said. "We would never suggest to you how to vote, but we have an obligation to tell you when politicians are saying something about your company that isn't true." (link)

Iowa had 124,331 voters particpate in the 2004 Democratic presidential caucuses. Wal-Mart will be focusing on its 18,000 employees and their spouses and parents and grandparents and children and ...

The retail giant could ultimately affect the decisions of up to a fourth of all participants by caucus time 2008.

You've heard the expression, "It's not nice to fool mother nature." Hillary and her ilk have awakened an even more powerful force in nature, America's largest corporation, one not to be fooled with.

While they wallow in their macaca ...

While Rome Burns ...

While the Washington Post, the Roanoke Times, and the Richmond Times-Dispatch devote a great deal of attention this morning to the life-and-death issue of ... macaca, another story goes largely unnoticed and unreported. Understandably of course. It doesn't involve politics.

It only involves the health and well-being of our people:

Hurt plant to shut down
By Bernard Baker, Danville Register & Bee staff writer

Nearly 500 people will lose their jobs when International Textile Groups closes its Hurt plant next year.

Production at Burlington Worldwide in Hurt should continue until May or June in order to remain competitive, said Delores Sides, company spokeswoman. Employees were told Tuesday about the plant closing. (link)

Hurt, aptly named, is east of Roanoke and south of Lynchburg. According to the last census, the town had 541 households. It is losing 500 jobs.

The entire town of Hurt, Virginia is shutting down and making the migration north in search of work and all the major headlines around the commonwealth are breathlessly reporting the story about our senator saying something seemingly stupid in some speech somewhere about something insignificant.

You should all be ashamed.

He's Part Of The Problem

On the day that Burlington Worldwide announced that it was terminating the employment of 500 workers in Hurt, the Democratic contender for the 5th congressional district (that includes the town of Hurt), Al Weed, stepped up and offered his solutions for ending the economic crisis in Southside, ending the ongoing misery and suffering of the people there, and bringing a halt - finally - to the depopulation of that suffering region:

Candidate Weed: Mobilize resources for communities
By Jessica Zarebski, Danville Register & Bee staff writer

DANVILLE - Democratic candidate Al Weed said America is on the wrong track and changes are necessary if we are to ever get back on the path of righteousness. (link)

The path of righteousness? Did the flock stray, Al? Is that the problem?

Anyway. How is Al Weed going to get his constituents back on that "path to righteousness?"

“The basic principle of our society is how we serve each other,” Weed said.

The Democratic challenger said jobs depend on an efficient government and an efficient government is a staff that is about finding the path to get things done.

Horse shit. Jobs don't depend on government, efficient or otherwise. Even government jobs don't depend on efficient government. What's this guy thinking?

You folks in the 5th district - those who remain - need to start packing your bags.

We Are Fools

There has been so much talk over the last five years about a war on terror. All rhetoric it now seems. When the U.S. pushed Israel into a cease-fire with the most powerful terrorist organization in the world, Hezballah, it became clear that we no longer have any fight left in us. The Democrats and Osama bin Ladin have won.

We want a truce. An accommodation. Peace.

... With those who vow - even today - to slaughter our children and grandchildren.

... With those who can't even abide by an agreement they entered into only days ago:

Hezbollah Balks At Withdrawal From the South
Lebanese Officials Work on Compromise
By Edward Cody and Doug Struck, Washington Post Foreign Service

BEIRUT, Aug. 15 -- Hezbollah refused to disarm and withdraw its fighters from the battle-scarred hills along the border with Israel on Tuesday, threatening to delay deployment of the Lebanese army and endangering a fragile cease-fire. (link)

We are pathetic.

Two questions for George Bush:

Are we at war with the terrorists?

If so, why did you try to make peace with these animals?

Reporters Kidnapped In Palestine

I often wondered, as I watched Fox News' Jennifer Griffin broadcasting from war-torn Gaza, how she kept from meeting the fate of so many westerners, finding herself kidnapped by terrorists. Or worse.

Well, Jennifer seems to be doing well, but two of her compatriots are not:

'FOX' HUNT IS ON
PALESTINE BIGS TRY TO FREE SNATCHED DUO
By Diaa Hadid, AP

August 16, 2006 -- GAZA CITY - Palestinian security forces hunted for two abducted Fox News journalists yesterday, and the Palestinian president and prime minister intervened in an attempt to gain their release.

American reporter Steve Centanni, 60, and New Zealand cameraman Olaf Wiig, 36, were seized by masked gunmen Monday near the headquarters of the Palestinian security services. (link)

The Palestinian government is doing all it can to find and free the pair. Which means nothing is being done ...

SuperMike To The Rescue

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg has single-handedly made tobacco merchants in the Big Apple rich by foisting punitive taxes on City smokers. Well, he's made a lot of underground merchants rich anyway.

Now he's taking his "fight" global:

MIKE GIVES $125M TO MAKEWORLD CIG-FREE
By David Seifman, The New York Post

August 16, 2006 -- Four years after imposing one of the toughest smoking bans in the nation, Mayor Bloomberg announced yesterday that he's donating $125 million over two years to take on the tobacco industry around the globe. (link)

It's unknown why Bloomberg feels the need to interfere in the lives of others but ...

Wait, what am I saying. He's liberal. And as long as it doesn't affect their personal lifestyles, liberals love to control everyone else.

Macacagate Makes The Big Apple

Even the New York Times feels the need to pick up on the story:

Senator Says He Meant No Insult by Remark
By David Stout, The New York Times

WASHINGTON, Aug. 15 — If Senator George Allen of Virginia is thinking of running for president in 2008, as is widely believed, what he said in a little town in southwestern Virginia several nights ago may haunt him.

But it was Mr. Allen who supplied grist for his rival with his use of the term “macaca,” a genus that includes numerous species of monkeys found in Asia. (link)

Well, he "supplied grist" if we suspend reality and change the spelling of the name of that little monkey from macaque to macaca.

But then there's been a good deal of reality-bending in this affair already. Why should the Times be any different.

Personally, I think they should have gone with the preferred insult of the looney left in the Virginia blogosphere. To them macaca means nigger. Somehow.

I'm not sure how but it doesn't take a genius to see why. Such macaca.