Another Reason to Hate Radiohead
Well, besides the fact that a lot of people like them, herby making them "overrated" and subject to the scorn of Tom and I.

Smooth Move.

Mississippi covets neighbor's monument
Now Mississippi wants Judge Moore's 10 commandments monument since the Alabama state government can't use it anymore. It is amazing how hard they are trying to live up their reputation as the Backward State, it is almost as if it were planned.

Reality Blown to Shreds by White House

Bush's money strategy: I'm the underdog

''Democrats and their allies will have more money to spend attacking the president during the nomination battle than we will have to defend him,'' campaign chairman Marc Racicot wrote in the fund-raising e-mail sent Wednesday night. ''If you need more convincing the president needs your help, consider what the Democrats are saying. The race is just starting, but their rhetoric is already red-hot.''

Raciot's statement isn't even close to true, at least according to USA Today:

Four years ago, the two parties were at rough financial parity. But under the new campaign-finance law — championed, ironically, by most Democrats and opposed by most Republicans — the GOP has built a better than 2-to-1 advantage. When the Democrats' debt is taken into account, the gap grows to 4-to-1.

If the Shoe was on the other foot...

Deranged Liberal Slaughters Innocents For No Reason OR The Moral Sickness and Depravity of the American Left
Oh wait, never mind, the guys a Republican.

More News

As you might suspect, I have discovered how to put pictures on the blog. Needless to say, style will be trumping substance for some time to come.

Recent Forays Into Cartooning

No doubt I'll go far with this.

Just in case you can't tell, Tom is being shot with a harpoon gun by his father...and they're at the beach.

Burhmmm.

IMF warns US over mounting deficit
Now we are getting lectures from the IMF about fiscal discipline like some Third World Kleptocracy.

Good News

I think the comments are working again.

I'm A Bastard Like That

Posting for Posting's Sake
My results the Country Quiz:

You're India!

A great thinker and leader, you have a great deal of power despite
being really poor.  You like movies, cows, and you probably are a vegetarian and may
even be a pacifist.  You've probably been moving away from pacifism lately, though,
as you get more and more defensive that everyone around you is trying to hurt you.
 How about a nice game of chess?
Take the Country Quiz
at the Blue Pyramid

All and all, that's pretty on the mark. The only thing is that it is not so much that I've become more and more defensive because everyone around is trying to hurt me, so much as that Tom keeps encouraging me to be increasingly paranoid. I've always known the Great Thinker and Leader part to be true, but now its been confirmed by a very scientific computer test that was on some dude's website, so now I can be even more overconfident in my greatness.

Schwarzenegger's Past Comes To Haunt Him

Schwarzenegger's Sex Talk

In a 1977 Oui magazine (now out of print) interview, Arnold Schwarzenegger discussed his sex life and drug use in great and vulgar detail. Here are few choice quotes:

"Bodybuilders party a lot, and once, in Gold's--the gym in Venice, California, where all the top guys train--there was a black girl who came out naked. Everybody jumped on her and took her upstairs, where we all got together."

When Manso asked whether he used "dope," Schwarzenegger replied, "Yes, grass and hash--no hard drugs. But the point is that I do what I feel like doing. I'm not on a health kick."

at the 1972 Mr. Olympia contest, "we had girls backstage giving head, then all of us went out and I won. It didn't bother me at all; in fact, I went out there feeling like King Kong,"

So, am I going to jump all over the tuetonic plague about this? No, it might be embaracing for him now, but that was more than twenty years ago. It doesn't seem fair to nail politicians for "youthful indiscrestions" committed in the distant past. The President, after all, said that he did not begin taking his life seriously untill he was forty years old. Bill Clinton had his fair share of adult indiscretions, straight laced Al Gore admitted to smoking marijuana and Howard Zinn is rumored to have furniture fetish.

Arnold the Authoritarian

'My relationship to power and authority is that I'm all for it,' he once explained. 'People need somebody to watch over them.... Ninety-five percent of the people in the world need to be told what to do and how to behave.'


Thanks to Atrios

Right Wing Revionism Makes The Big Time

When no conclusive evidence of Saddam-Al Qaeda link was found following the Iraq War, some conservative pundits argued that Bush never actually suggested that such a link existed (this is absolute nonsense, on many occasions before the war began, Bush publicly stated that Saddam was in league with terrorists). Unfortunately, this claim that the President never accused of Iraq of having ties to Al Qaeda has made its way into the newspaper of record. In today’s (well, now technically yesterday’s) Times it was printed
that:

Mr. Bush has never accused Iraq under Saddam Hussein of a direct role in the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. But he has said many times that Mr. Hussein and his followers are of the same ilk as Al Qaeda terrorists. He asserted again today that what is left of Al Qaeda - ``wounded yet not destroyed'' - knows that the overthrow of Saddam Hussein ``is a defeat for them.''

This is not exactly the same thing as the wrongheaded notion put forwards by some conservatives (it is a bit closer to the truth), but it cuts George W. Bush more slack than he deserves.

Next to this Kid, we are all slackers

12-year-old begins medical school
Nothing to make to you feel like a moron quite like a child prodigy.

Compassion

Compassion means having your picture taken with blacks, at least that's what the Bush's campaign site suggests.



Pardon me, here is the real link.

Recall Contagion?

It looks like the recall, like mid-decade redistricting, might spread and become another weapon for the Republicans.

Pa. GOP May Want to Recall a Governor

Group plans Nevada Gov. Kenny Guinn recall effort

Yep, I'm sure several campaigns to unseat recently elected politicians will really help cleanse the poisoned well of American politics.

A Gamble, Indeed.

Edwards Not Running For Re-election?
This would be a pretty risky move, seeing how Edwards isn't polling all that well in the Democratic primary. Then again, it isn't necessairly a bad move, since it would make him look more confident and less like a "calculating opportunist".

The Dunce Corner

From National Review's Blog, the Corner:

THANK WHO ALMIGHTY? [Susan Konig]
So Dr. King's speech is inscribed on the Lincoln Memorial but the Ten Commandments are booted from the courthouse? There's a whole lot of God in the "I Have a Dream" speech. What's the difference?
Posted at 10:08 AM

Noted without comment.

Is W. Campaigning On Your Dime?

From Argmax:

$20 Million Wasted for PR

The first round of IRS rebate checks to middle and upper income families with dependent children have been mailed. In addition, a second mailing by the IRS was conducted, at a cost of $20 million, letting people know a check would be on the way.

This second mailing (see text below) is completely unnecessary and wastes valuable resources at a time when deficits are already exploding.

Text of the letter:
"We are pleased to inform you that the United States Congress has passed and President George W. Bush has signed into law the Jobs and Growth Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2003," the letters read. "Within two weeks of receiving this notice, you will receive a check."

In addition to Bush's larger campaign war chest and friends in the media (Fox News, the Wasthington Times, etc.), let's not forget he also enjoys the many advantages of incumbency, such as being able to launch what amounts to the a tax payer financed direct mail advertisement or campaign stunt.

An Idea Who's Time Hasn't Come

House Members Propose Longer Office Terms

Two congressmen, Stenholm (D-Tex.), Roscoe Bartlett (R-Md.) have proposed altering the Constitution in order to end the "permanent campaigns" waged by today's representatives. To replace current system of two-year terms for members of the House, the two men would instead have a ten-year election cycle, beginning after the census with one two year terms, followed by two four year terms.

I’m as opposed to the excessive fundraising and campaigning as much as anyone, but I don’t think this ten-year election cycle is the best solution. In the first place, longer terms are not necessarily an antidote to the permanent campaign (just look at the Presidency in recent years). Secondly, the House is meant to be the most responsive branch of the Federal Government, any changes to the frequency of elections that would really decrease the amount of electioneering done by congressmen would undermine this important function.

Whoa!

New Moby Dick? Boat crasher a rare white whale
Migaloo, the whale in question, is thought to be the only albino humback whale. Unfortunately, Migaloo is being harassed by whale watchers and it is believe his health is being damaged by the stress caused by their excessive attention. However, I think that's the least of his worries. He just better stay away from Iceland and the Japanese (legendary fans of whale).

About Time

Alabama Justice Suspended Over Monument
It seems that Roy Moore is finally being put in his place.

The Weekly Standard: Threat or Menace?

The writers at the Weekly Standard seem to be intent on conclusively proving their magazine is nothing but a right wing echo chamber, where different columnists write virtually the same article again and again. This week, the esteemed Terry Eastland warns us that the Democrats are boiling over with partisan rage (but that never happens to the sensible souls of the ever-rational GOP). Oddly enough, I remember that David Brooks wrote a nearly identical piece only a few weeks ago, called "Democrats Go Off the Cliff". In each article, we're told the Democratic base has become very angry because the party is completely out of power and that this anger endagers any possible return to power because it frightens moderates. Seems like the Standard is a haven for incest of the mind, with hereditary disorders becoming increasingly severe, untill their blood can barely carry oxygen and they turn blue or something like that.

What a bunch of hacks. They'll never make it on to the B of P/

The Redistricting Virus May Spread

Deciding Where to Draw the Lines
Now the Republican majority in the Ohio state legislature is considering redistricting, even though they were in power during the last redistricting as well.

Phish is Caught

Phish's Mike Gordon Arrested
Gordon was arrested for child endagerment after he was found in a secluded Jones Beach boat house, alone with a nine year old girl. He claims he was only taking "art photos". The best part of this story is that the girl's father lead a local Hell's Angel's Chapter and members of the Angels brutalized Gordon while they waited for the police to arrive.

Speaking too soon? (It wouldn't be the first time)

Tensions Rising in California Recall Race
California Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante is now accusing Davis aides of attempting to sabotage his campaign. Maybe the Democrats aren't sticking together after all and Davis and/or his underlings are putting their interests above the interests of the Democratic Pary. Then again, perhaps this story is just a ploy by Bustamante to seperate himself from his unpopular boss. Who knows? I don't.

Simon the Spoiler

Simon baits Schwarzenegger on issues
While Simon is busy committing fratricide before the media, the center-left candidates have maintained a fairly united front againts the tuetonic plague. As far as I know, Bustamante's chief rival on the left, Arianna Huffington has focused her attacks on Schwarzenegger. Hopefully, this trend will continue untill election day, leading to a weak, divided and bitter right and a Democratic victory. The Republican might even end up regreting the recall if it succeeds in replacing a detested Democrat (who might have proved to be a useful prop in Bush's California re-election effort) with a more popular one.

The Slur Campaign Against Bustamanted Begins

Cruz Bustamante is being (wrongly) accused of racism and anti-semitism by FrontPage Magazine. Click here for the story.

Fun With GoStats

I was looking at the data GoStats collected on this site and found some interesting facts. The B of P blog has recently been graced by several people looking for cliff notes on Nickle and Dimed and by one viewer interested in "carribean+nude+black_guys". Unfortunately for these visitors, we have none of either.

Another suprising discovery was that Jon Chin makes up more than 13% of the audience. GoStats keeps track of the language a visitor has their computer set to and I found that a lot of our hits come from computers in Chinese with the Taiwanese character set. Of all the people that I know are readers of the B of P Blog, only one (Jon Chin) could possibly be responsible for that statistic. Then again, perhaps the B of P has a huge cult following in the Republic of China.

Arnold Doesn't Look So Good Under The Microscope

I'm trying to establish a clearing house for any and all allegations, slanderous and otherwise, that can be made against Arnold Schwarzenegger. So here we go:

Arnold the Barbarian
A lengthy article documenting Arnold's marital infidelities and boorish behavior.

Arnold's Broken English
This piece deals Schwarzenegger 's involvement with US English, which supports making English the national language, but that's not the alarming part. The group's leader, John Tanton is a bigot (which isn't that suprising, an English Only organization isn't exactly the last place you'd look for bigot) and when his ugly prejudices were exposed, many prominent members of the group dropped out, but Arnold remained on the advisory board.

Arnold's Nazi Problem
and
Toasting Waldheim Was "Stupid"
These Slate columns deal with Schwarzenegger's relationship with Kurt Waldheim an ex-nazi and human rights violator.

I know a lot of people might take a look at this list and think that perhaps I should have attacked him on the issues, but the politics of personal destruction are far more enjoyable. Furthermore, Arnold (as to be expected from a weight lifter turned movie star turned politician) is rather light on policy matters, but allow me to assure you that as soon as he takes a stand, I will blow it away with the awesome power of my rhetorical artillery or something like that.

Goliath Trailing in Polls

Poll Places Bustamante In Lead to Succeed Davis
Lt. Governor Cruz Bustamante is head of the Teutonic Plague by 3 precentage points (25 to 22). It is not a big lead, but it is enough and its especially promising in light of all the press Schwarzenegger has gotten. Hopefully, the political benefits of his star power will evaporate even further and he'll be reduced to nothing more than an overtired gag in a Leno monologue.

This really sucked/continues to suck.

WRAPUP 5-Power outages hit N.E. United States, Canada
One sound: Burhmmmm.

Fair & Balanced

Newscorp has sued Al Franken and Penguin Books for use of Fox News' slogan "fair and balanced" in Franken's new book, Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right. Penguin's spokesman has called Newscorp "unamerican" in response. I would have called them as "uber tools", but perhaps that is why I'm not a spokesman for anyone or anything.

Two Man Advantage

Mac Thomason, the War Liberal also hates Woodrow Wilson.

Move On

Judge rejects suit to reverse McKinney loss
In case you can't remember or didn't care (which is more than likely), Cythnia McKinney was a lefty Georgia Congresswoman. She was defeated in the Democratic primaries and blamed her loss on the "Israel Lobby" and a viscious right wing assault. Her supporters have moved to have the election results invalidated. The case was really baseless (and didn't really make sense, since there will be another election in just a year) and has now has been put out of its misery, much to the displeasure of fruit loops everywhere.

Timon Leaves the Nest

Timon Stasko, an esteemed member of the Board of Pomposity, has begun a weblog of his own. His Blog will be more personal and less "political" than the Board of Pomposity weblog. However, Timon will continue to put up political posts on the B of P page, so stay tuned.

Pleas Falling On Deaf Ears.

Texas Democrats Ask Bush To Intervene
It isn't all that likely that the President is going to come to the resuce of the Texas Democrats, a lot of the push for the Republican redistricting in Texas is coming from outside the Texas and I suspect that Bush wouldn't mind having his congressionioanl majority getting beefed up a bit more. The Democrats that wrote to Bush most likely understood this. Their request that he intervene is probably meant to do two things (both of them important), keep the story in the papers and try and force Bush to take a stand on the issue.

Uzi Does It (or not).

Israel to Replace Uzi and M-16
The IDF is abandoning the Uzi and M-16 in favor of the Tavor. Who knows? Maybe the 2nd hand market will be flooded with second hand automatic weapons. Bargains Galore!

He Can't Be Serious...

Ashcroft wants lenient sentences reported

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Attorney General John Ashcroft wants prosecutors to closely monitor which judges impose more lenient sentences than federal guidelines recommend, a step some critics say could limit judicial independence.

"The Department of Justice has a solemn obligation to ensure that laws concerning criminal sentencing are faithfully, fairly and consistently enforced," Ashcroft wrote.

It is high time those rapscallions on the bench learned that their job is not to ensure that justice is done, but that criminals are properly brutalized. Maybe next AG Ashcroft will ask prosecutors to keep at track of which juries are so irresponsible as to fail to in their duty to get a conviction.

Mickey is a Self-Centered Shirk-off

[Ed. Note: this post comes from one of our esteemed contributors, Jon (the non-asian Jon).]

Well, as the week of parentless freedom comes to a close, I bring myself to reflect on the many ways in which my brother has been an uber-tool. First of all, the man buys an eighth (of "rosemary jane"), of which I contributed, and then neglects to give me even the smallest nug in the bag. He criticizes my smoking, then smokes cigarettes with me after a night of drinking with the Boyd. He fails to take any sort of responsibity, yet demands that I respect his seniority. In an attempt to please our parents, he says "let's leave the place cleaner than it was when mom and dad left," however, he leaves on an abode to our old summer camp, without even taking care of the menial task of washing his own fucking dishes. He made me late for work one day because he couldn't gather the common sense to bring his wallet with him. And the final shirking of responsibility comes as he neglects to pick up my parents from the airport, leaving me holding the bag. This is the same kid who spends tons of money on respectable looking clothes yet isn't able to secure a paying job for the summer, despite his acceptance at a notable business school. My only consolation from the whole ordeal (after spending over an hour cleaning his fucking pots and pans) is the listen to my parents yell at him for an hour, as they too have grown tired of his egotistic antics, lavish spending habits without employment, inability to finish any of the projects around the house that he starts, not to mention his abhorrid habit of singing intentionally off-key, and then not stopping even after four to four-hundred pleas to do so. In short: Fuck Mickey.

The Pain Train Leaves the Station

Bush-Cheney '04 chugs ahead with $170 million already
The headline of this article is misleading, W. & co. have not in fact raised 170 million dollars yet, but I don't doubt that they will. Bush has already raise more than 35 million dollars, which is double what Kerry (the democratic fundraising leader) has and he doesn't have any primary rivals to deal with. Of course money isn't everything in politics, but it is a lot. Hopefully, that loveable eccentric big eared Texan will return to politics and siphon off some votes.

Light my whale oil fire.

Iceland Tells U.S. It Will Begin Whaling

First the swans and now this? A good week, indeed.

Yes!

U.S. ready to OK killing of swans
I bet killing beautiful things is a lot of fun.

The Moron Test, Part II: Now it is not Moron Test I

The Catholic Test, Part 2
Big media has been avoiding the new Democratic religion test, but the blogosphere has answered the bell.
by Hugh Hewitt

Evidently Mr. Hewitt did not read my post blasting his previous article, otherwise he would have soiled himself in shame and curled up into a protective ball when he realized how very wrong he was.

How do people like this become Judges?

Boston judge suspended after Tarzan joke

The Boston Herald said Ragno called out "Jane, come here. Me Tarzan!" at the beginning of a June 20 hearing on the unidentified woman's asylum request. The request was subsequently rejected by the judge.

The woman's physician told the Herald: "This was overtly racist and degrading and humiliating to both my patient and me, and egregious behavior from a United States official." Dr. Sondra Crosby said her client had been beaten, raped and tortured as a political prisoner and her husband killed.

Jack ass, indeed.

News from Political La-La-Land

Schwarzenegger Will Run
However, that's the not the worst part, Gary Coleman is also running. The recall election in California has the potential to be the most amusing races in a very long time and will take voter's minds off the exploding state budget deficit and crumbling education system.

Edwards on the Move

It seems that Sen. John Edwards is getting serious about campaigning, now. His campaign has begun airing television ads and he has published a book, Real Solutions for America, that details is policy proposals. Hopefully, Edwards' poll numbers will increase now that he is really campaigning (as opposed to fundraising).

Oh yes.

Going back to the US tomorrow.

The Chin is In

Here is an essay Jon sent for me to post:
An article I read somewhere else suggested that Saddam Hussien's weapons program was a hoax used for intimidation. It's called 10 Q&A about Iraq or something like that. It was written right at the end of hostilities. The author surmised Saddam may have kept an illusion of his WMD capabilities in order to scare the Iranians , or in that case, any potential adversaries away from Iraq. In essence, WMD is a deterance weapon, which means it is used as a chip in political bargaining. Saddam created a arsenal of phantom weapons. It reminds me of a Taiwanese thug who was stopped by the cop on the road for a search because he looked sketchy. He pulled out an air soft pistol, the metal-made kind that is identical to a real weapon in every aspect except for the trade mark engraved on the slider. The policeman shot him dead right on the spot. A police brutality suit as brought and lost. Very sad, but pathetic nonetheless.
Saddam may not have WMDs after all, but that wouldn't stop him from pretending to have it. Nor will it prevent him (or either one of his idiotic sons) from invading some country small, say Kuwait, and than claim to use WMD to deter intervention. Saddam did a good job convincing every one that he has a chemical-biological arsenal, and if you have read Hanns Blix's interview in Time, it is evident that even Hanns Blix himself was convinced Iraqis might have been keeping stuff away from the inspection team. For instance, he told the reporters that Iraqis officials had repeatedly refused to provide any evidence of their disarment while claiming they had no WMD. When reporters asked him whether Iraq has any credibility in their claim, he said, and I quote, "Iraq has no credibility. Iraq has already lost their crediblity in 1998." Obviously, no one believed that Iraq is clean, and the dubiousness is certainly a deliberate ruse. Even the anti-war people were convinced that Saddam has WMD.
The bottom line is, we would never know if Saddam has WMD without going in with the military. Not that some people did not foresee, by the merit of their foresight or good fortune, Iraq does not possess WMD; but the fact that U.S. policy-makers would be affected by such possibilities, therefore weaken their resolve in future crisis.

The Moron Test

Hugh Hewitt writes in the Weekly Standard that the senate democrats are guilty of anti-catholic bigortry for not confirming Alabam Attornery General William Pryor who President Bush submitted as a nominee for a federal judgeship. Hewitt goes so far as to compare the Democrat's opposistion to Pyror to the Religious Tests used to prevent Catholics from holding public office in the 18th century.

Here is a quote that provides the full flavor and foolishness of Hewitt's article:

It is both laughable and pathetic for Senators like Leahy, Tom Daschle, and Richard Durbin to protest their innocence on the charge of anti-Catholicism with the argument that they are Catholics and thus cannot be anti-Catholic. This is a variation on the "some of my best friends are Jewish" refrain, and would not for a moment be admitted as a serious response in any other civil rights debate involving any other minority. The fact of discrimination is not in the motive of the offender but the effect upon the offended. Labels have nothing at all to do with the reality of bigotry.

In the past Republicans have shuddered at the prospect of engaging in hardball with their opponents across the aisle. The introduction of religious bigotry through tests on office is worth "going nuclear" over, and Archbishop Chaput has demonstrated that the Catholic Church agrees.

There is so much nonsense, I don't know where to begin. The Democrats aren't trying to prevent Pryor from being confirmed because he's catholic, but because he's conservative. You could say that the Democrats shouldn't reject justices on ideological grounds, but then again, Bush shouldn't be selecting almost exclusively conservative justices. It is completely absurd to dismiss the fact that Leahy, Tom Daschle, and Richard Durbin are catholic when discussing whether or not they are anti-catholic bigots, their faith makes all the difference in the world. Hewitt's statemant that "in the past Republicans have shuddered at the prospect of engaging in hardball with their opponents across the aisle", shows that he is clearly in a world of his own. It was the Republicans, after all that tried to impeach our last President, among many other instances of "hard ball politics". In short, Hewitt's could only be right (about anything) in a bizzare conservative parallel universe.

Dean the Destroyer

A lot of folks, mostly "progressives", have attacked the DLC for going hard on Dean, because it is "divisive" and damaging to the Democratic Parties unity and providing fodder for the right. However, I don't think the DLC is nearly as reckless as Dean himself, who seems to be threatening to intentionally sabotage the Democrats, at least that is what this US News article suggests:

Some weeks ago, Democratic Party Chairman Terry McAuliffe privately asked each candidate to drop out of the race when it became "mathematically clear" that the party had selected a nominee, a date he estimated would be no later than March 9 of next year. McAuliffe asked each to release his or her delegates and endorse the presumptive winner before the convention.

Dean refused. "It's not going to happen," he told U.S. News. "I'm not deliberately going to sit it out [in order to] have an uncontentious convention. I certainly want the Democratic nominee to win and I hope it's me, but this is about building the party, and I'm building the party and I'm in for the long run."

A Disgrace to Blogging

Bill Maher has started a weblog. It is garbage. Imagine an especially mean spirited monologue, lower the IQ of the writers by 30 points and that's basically the Maher Blog.

Help for a large, stupid animal.

A few months ago, North (unclejoe) complained that we were going to hard on the manatees, so am I sure he will be delighted to hear that something is being done to improve the lot of these cows of the sea. Manatee refuges are being formed now to protect the manatees, in addition to making nonsensical statements from time to time, are very sensitive creatures that become confused and dangerous when insulted.

Kick 'em When They're Down

Hopeless: Did Bob Hope ever say anything funny?
Christopher Hitchens not content with attacking Mother Theresea, has decided to savage Bob Hope. In all fairness to Hitchens, his hatchet jobs seems dead on, but what do I know? Hope was way before my time and perhaps making such cutting remarks right after someone dies is not the best form.

Homeland Security

Recently, it has been revealed (click here) that the Department of Homeland Security's Transportation Safety Administration was planning to cut air marshals from long distance flights in order to save money on hotel accomodations for the marshals. It is strange that many conservatives have pushed for measures of questionable morality and dubious effectiveness, such as racial profiling and the torture of terror suspects, while Bush administration has not been taking care of measures (like the air marshalls or port security, which has been thoroughly ignored) which are more likely to actually stop a terrorist attack and do not raise serious ethical issues. There are a few possible reasons for this situation. In some cases, bigotry may play a hand (especially in the case of the folks with "no arabs=no terrorists" stickers), but I think this is a small minority and not the case with most conservatives. The second, more likely one is that conservative push for "tough", but contraversial measures while ignoring the fact that the administration has mis-handled more practical propsals, is political. By pushing for hard line policies, conservatives know they will get a reaction out of many liberals and then declare triumphantly that their opponents are weak on defense, DO NOT CARE ABOUT WINNING THE WAR ON TERROR and other such nonsense. The Right's support of policies that limit civil liberties often does not come from a genuine concern about national security so much a desire to use national security as a crude political bludgeon.