The Weekly Buchanan: Is Bush becoming Irrelevant

Pat writes:

Looking back on the years since 9-11, it is hard to give the Bush foreign policy passing grades. We pushed NATO eastward and alienated Russia. We have 140,000 Army and Marine Corps troops tied down in Iraq in a war now in its sixth year, from which our NATO allies have all extricated themselves. We have another war going in Afghanistan, where the situation is as grave as it has been since we went in.

The Bush democracy crusade was put on the shelf after producing election triumphs for Hamas, Hezbollah and the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt. And the Bush Doctrine of preventive war, after Iraq, appears to be headed there, as well.

Are we safer now than we were 8 years ago pre-9/11? If we are, has the cost in terms of American lives, money, and the constantly expanding nanny state been worth it?

In the final analysis, I don't think one can come to any other conclusion than it has not. One thing that Pat doesn't mention about our foreign policy is the risk that our trillion dollar a year liability puts us economically. Which, in my mind is the greater threat to us (and always has been).

It's so wrong, but I laughed out loud

http://www.sarahjessicaparkerlookslikeahorse.com/

Movie Weekend

Indiana Jones came out this weekend and I have my review of the flick at the end of this post. But first, I've a couple of things (movie related, of course):

First, MovieCrunch has a list of the 20 Worst Chick Flicks of All Time. Needless to say, my favorite movie of all time, "Species" (how can a movie with Ben Kingsley, Michael Madsen, Forrest Whitaker and a constantly naked Natasha Henstridge at the peak of her powers NOT be our "Citizen Kane"?), is nowhere to be found. Which makes the only redeeming quality about this list is the drinking game that was tacked on at the end. Conveniently, I've cut and pasted that here:

1) Take a drink when someone dies of a lengthy illness.
2) Take a drink whenever someone has cancer
3) Take a drink the first time Matthew McConaughey, Richard Gere, or Tom Hanks appears.
4) Take a drink whenever you see a woman over the age of 40 (be careful with this one, you could easily die of alcohol poisoning).
5) Take a drink for every single mother that appears.
6) Take a drink whenever someone cries onscreen.
7) Take a drink whenever someone mentions men disparagingly.

Also, Cracked has a list of the 8 Least Intimidating Gangs in Movie History. I don't know anything about the writer of this particular piece, but how can any list like this be complete without mentioning Breakin II: Electric Boogaloo?



Finally, my review of "Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull": Aside from me taking a snooze about midway through. I can't think of anything memorable about the movie. Except for thinking about 5 minutes after waking up during the film, what a waste of $7.50.

1984

So what good are all those surveillance cameras provided by the nanny state if they don't make anyone safer, deter crime, or sometimes go unmonitored? From Reason Mag's Hit and Run blog:

The Get Out Clause, an unsigned Manchester band who could not afford a camera crew for their video, 'performed' in front of a load of CCTV cameras, requested the footage from the camera operators under the Data Protection Act and then stitched the results together for their music video.

Tax dollars at work!

Good Bye

Ed Morrissey over at Hotair writes about Ron Paul:

For some reason, normally sensible people like John Derbyshire continue to put their hope for electoral victory into a candidate who consorted with and exploited racists and anti-Semites for years in order to bolster his political standing.

Ohhhh, did you see that? Ron Paul "consorted with and exploited racists and anti-Semites". Normally, Captain Ed is a fairly reasonable guy. Compared to the morons over at Ace's blog, or a lot of the 2nd tier bloggers that make up the Pajamas Media Right, he looks like Voltaire. But he and the rest of the PJM sound like Jessie Jackson or Al Sharpton playing the "racist" card when they can't win on issues like, say, CUTTING THE SIZE OF THE FRIGGIN GOVERNMENT AND GETTING THEM THE FUCK OUT OF OUR LIVES. That's one thing the neoconservatives will never be accused of trying to do. You know the things that conservatives once stood for.

I entertained thoughts about coming back to the GOP, but naww, I can't do it in good conscience. They are as corrupt as the Dems. It'll be a cold day in hell before McCain gets my vote, my support or my dollars. Same with the GOP.

Good riddance.

Sin City

I'm coming up on two weeks in my new hometown and here are a couple of things that I've noticed about Las Vegas:

It really is a 24 hour city, there is always something to do, places to eat, things to see, and not just on the Strip. In fact, I've spent a total of maybe 4 hours on the strip in the time that I've been here.

So far, my favorite casinos: Southpoint (just because I like the blackjack game they have there) and Red Rock Casino (because it's about 5 minutes away, has lots of eyecandy, and has a cool, trendy vibe) but their blackjack game is ok.

CVS, Walmart, Target, and Home Depot seem to be the only stores that are allowed on the major intersections in Las Vegas. Seems like they are everywhere.

90 degrees isn't that bad when you have air conditioning. I don't know what I'm gonna do when summer rolls around and it's 120.

How come nobody told me that there are strippers and prostitutes in Las Vegas? I couldn't believe it, next thing you know, I'm gonna find out there are gay people in the arts.

Louisiana Gov. Jindal

David Weigel over at Reason writes about something that's music to my ears:

Jindal headhunted a Fortune 500 executive to run his state department of Labor and commanded him to prune it down. In response, the secretary came up with a plan for abolishing the department. This is what you fantasize about Republicans doing before they go and do things like hire Tom Ridge to lobby for the duct tape industry.

THIS is the GOP that wins elections not the "compassionate conservative" garbage that Kristol, W, and the rest of the neocons have shoved down our throats for the past 8 years. Now if the Republicans could start abolishing departments at the federal level, I might come back to the fold.

Vegas Baby! Vegas!

The RogueNation has moved it's HQ from San Diego to temporary diggs in Las Vegas after 18 years. My only vices are all-you-can eat buffets, gambling, and strippers, does anyone know how this story ends? lol

More to come on my new hometown very soon. In the meantime, the talk radio out here plays commercials for these guys all the time:

http://www.24-7privatevaults.com/index.htm

I know where I'm putting my collection of unopened SPAWN action figures!

Lew Rockwell Linkorama

Lew Rockwell has a few posts that I'm linking below. He's an old school conservative (like Taki or Ron Paul) and since one of my favorite things to read about that I never get from the Pajamas Media Right is stuff about the evil of big government. LR's site has been one of my everyday stops on my web travels.

Trevor Bothwell has a piece over there entitled "The Sordid, Wretched, Self-Serving State"

Also, is there such a thing as a "prison industrial complex"? Don Bacon makes the argument that there is one in California:

The California Prison system is the third largest penal system in the country, costing $5.7 billion dollars a year and housing over 170,000 inmates. Since 1980 the number of California prisons has tripled and the number of inmates has jumped significantly. In the past few years controversies involving prison expansion, sky-rocketing costs, and claims of mismanagement and inmate abuse have put the California prison system under heightened public scrutiny.

What caused prisons to be a growth industry in California? Did Californians suddenly become lawless? We need look no further than the CCPOA, the California Correctional Peace Officers Association. "The Power this prison guards’ union wields inside our prisons, legislative chambers and governor's office disturbs me. It should disturb every citizen." ~ Judith Tannenbaum, formerly an English teacher at San Quentin State Prison

Read the whole thing here

Lastly, the thing about Cali is that trends that first appear there have a habit of spreading across the country here's one I'm sure everyone will be happy about. There is a special license plate issued by the state that basically gives immunity from all traffic laws to anyone privileged to work for the government. Since there are nearly a million of those plates out there, the math works out to about 1 out of every 9 cars in California having these plates.

Read about the rest of this outrage here.