Apparently He's Never Heard of Robert Byrd

The ever viligant Media Research Center points out Spike Lee making the claim that Lott is a "card carrying member of the Klan" on ABC's Good Morning America. And of all people, Diane Sawyer takes him to task.

"Military Seeking Radical Ways of Stumping Need for Sleep"

Heck, just call up a few college students and ask how they remain sleepless during finals.

Required Reading

Jonah Goldberg's G-File today:

Whenever, I tee off on the French, I get e-mail from angry Franco-Americans who — from a safe distance, obviously — complain: "If you wrote that way about black people, you'd be called a racist!" To which I usually respond "Wiener Schnitzel!" and they run away in terror.

Ole Miss

Michelle Malkin writes of an racial incident at Ole Miss and was on O'Reilly tonight discussing it. A little back story, first. Early in November, two black students living in Kincannon Hall (the same dorm I reside in) had graffiti contain very offensive racist language and pictures carved into their door and surrounding wall. Ms. Malkin describes the immediate reaction:

Black students organized a "Say No to Racism" march and demanded more protection against white-on-black harassment. They blasted the school's president for not apologizing quickly enough for the racial slurs. The school's "Minority Affairs" director demanded that the university establish "programs and procedures" to ensure racial sensitivity and prevent hate crimes. The "Institute for Racial Reconciliation" and the "Committee On Sensitivity and Respect" convened meetings. Activists called for criminally prosecuting the perpetrators under state felony laws or federal hate crime statutes.

I remember hearding. The general sense among many students was that probably either some idiot drunk frat boys or blacks

But here's the thing: last week the three culprits were apprehended; they were black students. I wonder what would be the motivation for them to do something like this? Maybe they had a grudge with at least one of the dorm residents and thought that if they carved some racist garbage onto the wall, it would terrify the roommates. Not only that, they wouldn't be suspected since everybody would be on the look out for some whites. Malkin continues:

If the attackers had been white, they faced possible federal prison time. Because the suspects are black, the most serious consequence they face is expulsion. Welcome to equal treatment under the law, 2002-style.

That's a very good observation. The point of the civil rights movement during the 1960s was for blacks to enjoy the same basic human rights and Constitutional protections that white Americans had; it was about ending the practice of holding one race above another.

Thanks to Aakash Raut for bringing the article to my attention.

"Of course you can quit. Many fine people quit everyday."*

Algore declares he isn't running for the Democratic nomination in 2004.
Henry Kissinger quits from an independent commission investigating the intelligence failures that led to 9/11.
Senator Trent Lott (R-MS) may be forced to resign his Senate Majority Leader post

*Extra credit to those who can guess switch movie that is from.

Just to let y'all know...

I did make it back here okay on Saturday.

On the Road Again

Well, y'all, I'm about to make my trip up home to Clarksville. So, the next time I post, I'll be safely nestled at my house.

This Blog Post Title 100% Lott Pun Free

I just watched Trent Lott give his press conference. He did okay, at best, offerring the "more forceful apology" many have asked of him. And he mentioned uber-liberal former Senator Paul Simon's and Jim "Benedict Arnold" Jeffords' statements that state that they don't believe him to be a racist. But all the apologies and endorsements in the world aren't going to erase this stain on him too quickly.

Unfortunately, the "big announcement" wasn't his resignation from the major leader post, but that he will be on BET for a full hour next week discussing his views on race and other things. Understand that I have nothing against the show idea; it's that I believe his giving up the leadership post will be of more help to the Republicans than chatting on a show, albeit a potentially hostile audience. National Review does a far better job of outlining why his should step down that I could.

On a somewhat lighter note, a heckler interrupted mumbling something about the Klan. Trent Lott asked, "Are you with Al Sharpton?" "Yes, I am," averred the man.

Whew!

Finally, my exams and projects are out of the way!

7 semesters down, 1 more to go...

"Miss. could be first in nation to wire all public classrooms"

Mississippi is winning the race to become the first state in the nation to equip all of its public school classrooms with computers and get wired to the Internet. The state is outdistancing second-place Delaware, according to the National Governors Association in Washington.

Bwahahaha! Take that Delaware!

I'm sure this will come as a shock to many Yankees who think that Mississippi has had electricity for only 7 years.

Advantage: Mississippi!

So you think that there is no link between Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda, do you?

Hmm

This cemetery has an interesting name, to me at least.

This cartoon pretty much sums up Lott's gaffe.

Historical Fact of the Day

On 10th December 1817, Mississippi became the 20th State to join the Union.

In Lieu of Original Content

I present to y'all Weird Al Yankovic's "It's All About the Pentiums," a parody of P. Diddy's (the artist formerly known as Puff Daddy) "It's All About the Benjamins."

It's all about the Pentiums, baby
Uhh, uh-huh, yeah Uhh, uh-huh, yeah
It's all about the Pentiums, baby
It's all about the Pentiums, baby
It's all about the Pentiums!
It's all about the Pentiums!
(Yeah!!)

What y'all wanna do?
Wanna be hackers? Code crackers? Slackers
Wastin' time with all the chatroom yakkers?
9 to 5, chillin' at Hewlett Packard?
Workin' at a desk with a dumb little placard?
Yeah, payin' the bills with my mad programming skills
Defraggin' my hard drive for thrills
I got me a hundred gigabytes of RAM
I never feed trolls and I don't read spam
Installed a T1 line in my house
Always at my PC, double-clickin' on my mizouse
Upgrade my system at least twice a day
I'm strictly plug-and-play, I ain't afraid of Y2K
I'm down with Bill Gates, I call him Money for short
I phone him up at home and I make him do my tech support
It's all about the Pentiums, what?
You gotta be the dumbest newbie I've ever seen
You've got white-out all over your screen
You think your Commodore 64 is really neato
What kinda chip you got in there, a Dorito?
You're using a 286? Don't make me laugh
Your Windows boots up in what, a day and a half?
You could back up your whole hard drive on a floppy diskette
You're the biggest joke on the internet
Your database is a disaster
You're waxin' your modem tryin' to make it go faster
Hey fella, I bet you're still livin' in your parents' cellar
Downloadin' pictures of Sarah Michelle Gellar
And postin "Me too!" like some brain-dead AOL-er
I should do the world a favor and cap you like Old Yeller
You're just about as useless as jpegs to Helen Keller

It's all about the Pentiums!
It's all about the Pentiums!
It's all about the Pentiums!
It's all about the Pentiums!

Now, what y'all wanna do?
Wanna be hackers? Code crackers? Slackers
Wastin' time with all the chatroom yakkers?
9 to 5, chillin at Hewlett Packard?

Uh, uh, loggin' in now
Wanna run wit my crew, hah?
Rule cyberspace and crunch numbers like I do?
They call me the king of the spreadsheets
Got em all printed out on my bedsheets
My new computer's got the clocks, it rocks
But it was obsolete before I opened the box
You say you've had your desktop for over a week?
Throw that junk away, man, it's an antique!
Your laptop is a month old? Well, that's great
If you could use a nice, heavy paperweight
My digital media is write-protected
Every file inspected, no viruses detected
I beta tested every operating system
Gave props to some, and others? I dissed 'em
While your computer's crashin', mine's multitaskin'
It does all my work without me even askin'
Got a flat-screen monitor, 40" wide
I believe that yours says "Etch-A-Sketch" on the side
In a 32-bit world, you're a 2-bit user
You've got your own newsgroup, alt.total-loser
Your mother board melts when you try to send a fax
Where'd you get your CPU, in a box of Cracker Jacks?
Play me online? Well, you know that I'll beat you
If I ever meet you I'll control-alt-delete you
What?

It's all about the Pentiums!
It's all about the Pentiums!
It's all about the Pentiums!
It's all about the Pentiums!
What y'all wanna do?
Wanna be hackers? Code crackers? Slackers
Wastin' time with all the chatroom yakkers?
9 to 5, chillin' at Hewlett Packard?
What??

Much Ado About Nothing

On Thursday, Mississippi Senator Trent Lott done got himself into some hot water last Thursday over at Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday party. The ruckus is over this li'l comment:

I want to say this about my state: When Strom Thurmond ran for president, we voted for him. We're proud of it. And if the rest of the country had followed our lead, we wouldn't have had all these problems over all these years, either.

For the more history impaired amongst us, Thurmond ran as a "Dixiecrat", a member of a section of Southern Democrat who were pretty committed to the principles of segregation, to say the least.

Of course, many pundits have been making the requisite denouncements on Mr. Lott's remarks. Was his comment idiotic and poorly thought out? Absolutely. In his effort to flatter Thurmond to the heavens, he uttered a rather bone-headed statement that fed into the "Republican=Barely Closeted Racists" idea some people have. You would think that the soon-to-be Senate Majority Leader would be more careful in his choice of words.

But let's be honest here, Lott may be a spineless weasel and a poor leader, but he isn't racist. At least he has never been a member of the Klan, unlike a certain Democratic Senator.

Decrease in Blogitude

Blogging is going to a little slow for the rest of the week, with finals and projects going on. Of course, Paul O'Neill and Larry Lindsay resign, Louisiana has a runoff for Senate and House seats, the anniversary of the Pearl Harbor attack occurrs...

Let's see, I had a project due Friday, another due Monday morning, a major final Monday evening, a MAJOR final Wednesday morning, and a test (thankfully, not a cumlative final) on Friday. I love college, but this part of it stinks.

From the "Oh, please..." Department

David Corn on Kissinger heading an independent commission inquiring as to why US intelligence failed to anticipate 9/11: "Asking Henry Kissinger to investigate government malfeasance or nonfeasance is akin to asking Slobodan Milosevic to investigate war crimes."

Kissinger served under the late President Nixon and then in Gerald's Ford term. Yet, none of the "Kissinger=War Criminal" group of far leftists has called for President Ford, who would have been most responsible for any action taken by his administration, to be tried as well.

UPDATE: William Safire defend's Dr. K's appointment. William F. Buckley fires salvos at the documentary based on Christopher Hitchens anti-Kissinger book.

A belated thanks to Belligerent Bunny Blog and Rachel Lucas for adding me to their blog rolls

Happy Birthday, Strom



Strom Thurmond, the out-going Senator from South Carolina, has reached his 100th birthday today. He'll be celebrating at Capitol Hill with his staffers, friends, and colleagues. Fritz Hollings, who at the age of 80 will finally be the senior SC Senator, mentioned that Thurmond is no longer "mentally keen." Fritz "Foghorn Leghorn" Hollings is calling somebody a little less on the ball mentally? I've watched him on C-SPAN and its companion network, C-SPAN2, and drawing from those observations, I might suggest that Hollings is a little off his rocker...

Anyway, wow! A 100 years! Theodore Roosevelt was President when he was born and he has lived to see 17 more take office. Thurmond was elected to the Senate in 1954; that was before either one of my parents were born. He ran for President in 1948 while my grandparents were just finishing high school. That, y'all, is truly old.

The Senator's New Do

Josh Marshall is complaining about the brou-ha-ha over the cost of Sen. Kerry's haircut (which, incidently was $75 at a swanky salon in DC). He decries the "right-wing trashing machine" kicking into gear after the National Post of Canada, columnist Tony Blankley, and Judy Woodruff (of all people) comment/report on the junior Massachusetts Senator's hairdo after Drudge first printed the story.

The reason why conservatives and have "pounced" on this tidbit is that it illustrates the hypocrisy of Democratics claiming to be the Party of the Little Guy. The little guy doesn't spend nearly $80 on one haircut; heck, he might not spend that much at the barber in a one year. And he probably doesn't get it cut at a place owned by a fellow called Christophe. I know I don't.

via The Professor

The True Story of the Scopes Monkey Trial

During my sophomore year here, while I was taking Advanced Composition English, I had to write a report on "an historical event that is commonly misprecieved by the general public and what the 'true story' is." I decided to research the Scopes Monkey Trial, that 1925 affair in Dayton, TN, that launched the modern day media circus. But, sadly, my copy of that dazzling essay is stored on my old computer currently located in back home. However, I did run across this wonderful website today that does a better job that I did in exposing the Scopes myth, perpetuated (started by?) by the 1960 play Inherit the Wind, of ignorant redneck fundamentalists vs. enligthened noble evolutionists.

By the way, I got an A.

Radio Free Mississippi

Here's one of my favorite songs, "40 Acres" by Caedmon's Call.

Broadband
56k modem
28.8k modem

Lyrics

Requires Windows Media Player

Man, that's rough

A bad day for an Ole Miss student.

Sign of the End

Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley of the band KISS are on Hannity and Colmes. Please excuse me while my brain spins around in my head.

Thanksgiving Turkey

Turkey said that it will allow the US to use its military bases in a strike against Iraq, provided that it has the UN seal of approval.

Sherrill Fires Five From Coaching Staff

Mississippi State University head football coach, Jackie Sherill, gives the axe to five members of his coaching staff. State has a 3-9 record this season with it being 0-8 against other SEC teams. Last year, it was 3-8.

Quoth Mr. Sherrill, "I have personally told each how much I appreciated what they have done for our football program and Mississippi State University, but I have made the decision to make changes on my coaching staff."

Translation: You're losers.

While we're on the subject of Moo University MSU, here's a joke I wish to share with the group:

Q: How are the Mississippi State football team and Billy Graham alike?
A: They both make stadiums full of people jump up and yell "Jesus Christ!"

It's Official


The AP and CNN report on the Tuck switch. All the press conference held today in Jackson, Tuck declared, "I have always fought for conservative principles. Clearly, it is the Republican Party that champions these ideals. I have increasingly found myself on the opposite side of certain issues with the leadership of the Democrat Party and at home with Republicans like Sen. (Thad) Cochran and Sen. Lott."

Ricky Cole, chairman of the Mississippi Democratic Party, showing himself to be the epitome of class and grace, offered this thought on her leaving: "Good riddance."

There's speculation that soon to be former Represenative Ronnie Shows (D-3rd) will challenge her in 2003 for the Lt. Governorship. Shows, as you recall, was thoroughly and utterly shellacked by Republican Chip Pickering in the 2002 race for the newly created 3rd District. As I mentioned in a previous post today, Tuck was supportive of the Republican version of the congressional redistricting map over the Democrats' more gerrymandered one that would have benefited Shows. So, he's got the revenge motivation to run against her.

Ole Miss Football

Sadly, my beloved Rebels lost in a squeaker to LSU 13-14 on the 23rd. But at the Egg Bowl, aka "The Game That Really Matters," Ole Miss whupped up on Mississippi State 24-12.

"And now we do the Dance of Joy!"

Mark Steyn, the uber-conservatve columnist, has his own website. Oh, happy day!

Switcheroo

Amy Tuck, the Democratic Lt. Governor of Mississippi, will officially announce at 2 PM (central) that she will switch to the Republican party. The Magnolia Report details some reasons of her defection:

1.) Refused to support Algore in 2000.
2.) Recently allowed tort reform law, opposed by trial lawyers (a major Democratic bloc), to be passed.
3.) Did not support the new state flag design (which removed the Confederate Battle Flag in the upper left hand corner) in 2001.
4.) Opposed congressional redistricting plans that would have especially favored 2nd District Congressman Bennie Thompson and 3rd District Rep. Ronnie Shows , both Democrats.

With her change to the Republicans, she will now be the highest ranking statewide official in the state goverment. Phil Bryant, the state auditor, is the only other Republican to be in a nonfederal statewide-elected office.

Videt Carmichael, state senator from Meridian, switched to the GOP this last spring and the GOP picked up a Senate seat in a special election held due to the death of a Democrat, giving the current make of the state Senate 30 Democrats and 24 Republicans. According to the report, with Tuck's influence over conservative Democrats in the Senate, we can perhaps see a few more switheroos, putting that legislative house closer to Republican control.

I'm back

After completing the Patrick Carver Thanksgiving World Tour 2002 with stops in Collierville, TN; Leland, MS; and Philadelphia, MS, yours truly is now safely ensconced at Ole Miss. I hope everybody had a good Thanksgiving and a great time with your families.