Bushwack at American and Proud and Beth at Blue Star Chronicles have both graced me with an award, the Thinking Blogger award.

While on it's surface it seems like a bloggers chainletter, in that when you get it you should likewise honor 5 blogs that make you think, as i considered it and looked at other bloggers thus awarded, I am honored to be in such company.

So, here are my 5 blog picks for the Thinking Blogger Award (see rules below):

1. Steve at Andrews Dad
2. Max Redline
3. Suzie at Assorted Babble
4. Whacky Nation
5. Perri Nelson

Congratulations, you won a Thinking Blogger Award:

Should you choose to participate, please make sure you pass this list of rules to the blogs you are tagging. The participation rules are simple:

1. If, and only if, you get tagged, write a post with links to 5 blogs that make you think,
2. Link to this post so that people can easily find the exact origin of the meme,
3. Optional: Proudly display the ‘Thinking Blogger Award’ with a link to the post that you wrote.

Congrats everyone and thanks again to those who honored me.

Rosie continues on her quest to become the loudest idiot in America, and again dominates the view as the biggest bully.

She has lost it, and frankly no one can figure out why ABC and Barbara Walters lets her continue as she slowly destroys any credibility ABC and Walter's have left.  The view has turned into Rosie's personal propaganda machine

Here is her latest unhinged and uninformed rant, followed by the Popular Mechanics rebuttal to her idiotic 911 bldg 7 conspiracy nutrootery.  Psst.  They used science!  Try it.

Oh.  And Joy Behar wins no awards for smarts with her continuing ranting about Yale and Bush....if Yale lets in idiots, do you include Howard Dean, John Kerry (who's GPA was below Bush's) and both Bill and Hillary Clinton? 

Oh and Bush attended Havard too.

But no matter.  What would April Fools be without a fool.  Or two.

H/T as usual, to Hot Air.

Recently,, Rosie O’Donnell, a co-host of ABC talk show The View, made comments on the show that renewed controversy over the collapse of World Trade Center 7.

While saying she didn’t know what to believe about the U.S. government’s involvement in the attacks of Sept. 11, she said, “I do believe that it’s the first time in history that fire has ever melted steel. I do believe that it defies physics that World Trade Center tower 7—building 7, which collapsed in on itself—it is impossible for a building to fall the way it fell without explosives being involved. World Trade Center 7. World Trade [Center] 1 and 2 got hit by planes—7, miraculously, the first time in history, steel was melted by fire. It is physically impossible.”

She continued: “To say that we don’t know that it imploded, that it was an implosion and a demolition, is beyond ignorant. Look at the fiilms, get a physics expert here [on the show] from Yale, from Harvard, pick the school—[the collapse] defies reason.” (Watch the clip here)

If she had been a republican this would be a lead item, but since she is prissy DiFi from California, former Mayor of moonbat central, San Francisco, this is a back page yawn.

Feinstein Resigns

Senator exits MILCON following Metro exposé, vet-care scandal

SEN. Dianne Feinstein has resignned from the Military Construction Appropriations subcommittee. As previously and extensively reviewed in these pages, Feinstein was chairperson and ranking member of MILCON for six years, during which time she had a conflict of interest due to her husband Richard C. Blum's ownership of two major defense contractors, who were awarded billions of dollars for military construction projects approved by Feinstein.

As MILCON leader, Feinstein relished the details of military construction, even micromanaging  one project at the level of its sewer design. She regularly took junkets to military bases around the world to inspect construction projects, some of which were contracted to her husband's companies, Perini Corp. and URS Corp.

Perhaps she resigned from MILCON because she could not take the heat generated by Metro's expose of her ethics (which was partially funded by the Investigative Fund of the Nation Institute). Or was her work on the subcommittee finished because Blum divested ownership of his military construction and advanced weapons manufacturing firms in late 2005?

Oh, interesting twist.  She didn't quit during the time she had a conflict of interest but after her conflict of interest was effectively over?  How Bizarre.

Feinstein abandoned MILCON as her ethical problems were surfacing in the media, and as it was becoming clear that her subcommittee left grievously wounded veterans to rot while her family was profiting from the occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan. It turns out that Blum also holds large investments in companies that were selling medical equipment and supplies and real estate leases—often without the benefit of competitive bidding—to the Department of Veterans Affairs, even as the system of medical care for veterans collapsed on his wife's watch.

Thanks to Hot Air for the tip on this.

Truly the new American Hero.

Seriously, it is a real tear jerker. You ahve been warned.

Recently released this week was the report on Pat Tillman's friendly fire death and the disinformation campaign the Army presented to immortalize him as the next "Private Ryan."  More to the point as the next Jessica Lynch.

Pat, like Jessica was used to present a tragic yet heroic tale to inspire people, until the story, Like Jessica's unraveled and the truth was released:  Pat was tragically killed by friendly fire.

First of all, friendly fire happens.  It always has, and in war it always will.  It is an unfortunate side effect of war that when imperfect humans are performing high stress missions in dangerous situations, mistakes will be made.

Pat was the sad recipient of such a mistake.  There are numerous sites detailing his life and his heroism so I will defer to those.  What concerns me is Kevin, Pat's brother.

Keven wrote this letter which slams the war and Bush, and while I empathize for his obvious pain and anger, pissed me off in a few sections.  So here is his letter with a few of my comments in line.

After Pat’s Birthday

By Kevin Tillman

Editor’s note: Kevin Tillman joined the Army with his brother Pat in 2002, and they served together in Iraq and Afghanistan.  Pat was killed in Afghanistan on April 22, 2004. Kevin, who was discharged in 2005, has written a powerful, must-read document.

It is Pat’s birthday on November 6, and elections are the day after.  It gets me thinking about a conversation I had with Pat before we joined the military.  He spoke about the risks with signing the papers.  How once we committed, we were at the mercy of the American leadership and the American people.  How we could be thrown in a direction not of our volition.  How fighting as a soldier would leave us without a voice… until we got out. 

Say anything you want about Bush, but he has a good sense of humor about himself.

Oh the irony.  This is the only time you will find that Muslims like pork....

UPDATED:  HuffPo hides the hate by deleting the post! 

How people can live with such inner hatred and bitterness,  I will never understand.

And the scary thing is that this is fairly mild for the HuffPo, but still, how can anyone even go there? How can you make such rude and idiotic statements?  Via Hot Air:

Because lies make the cancer grooooooow!

I admit my bias shows with these stories. I hear about Tony Snow and say to myself, well, stand up every day, lie to the American people at the behest of your dictator-esque boss and well, how could a cancer NOT grow in you. Work for Fox News, spinning the truth in to a billion knots and how can your gut not rot? I know, it’s terrible. I admit it. I don’t wish anyone harm, even Tony Snow. And I do hope he recovers or at least does what he feels is best and surrounds himself with friends and family for his journey. But in the back of my head there’s Justin Timberlake’s “What goes around, goes around, comes around, comes all the way back around, ya..”…

Now, I’ve been brutally honest above, and may have offended some, and for that I’m sorry. Again, I don’t want Tony Snow to suffer and die of cancer. But like many this morning, I had the thought.

Thanks to one of the Cornerites for spotting that. He rambles on for another 20 paragraphs or so about how we’re “having our asses handed to us” in Iraq and how Sky News is doing a crackerjack job covering it, unlike that evil Rupert Murdoch outfit that gave Tony his tumors. Um, who wants to be the one to tell him?

Consider the outrage over Elizabeth Dole's cancer had a right winger said "She lives with a lying democrat, its no wonder her cancer came back..."  In fact even those who wish her well were slammed not for anything against her, but for questioning whether Edward's made a good choice to continue his futile presidential bid.

I always publish retractions and corrections when I am wrong, and I was in my blog yesterday.  I said the House bill had over 6.4 Billion in pork spending.  I was wrong.

It is actually over 20 billion.  My bad.

Congress loads up $20 billion in pork

Congress  has loaded up President Bush's request for "emergency" spending on the Iraq war with more than $20 billion in "pork" for members' districts.

Originally, Bush asked for $105 billion in emergency funding. Democratic leaders say they want to grant the request to continue funding the war despite their desire to end it.

"We have provided all of the money the president requested- and more," boasted House Majority Leader Steny  H. Hoyer.

It also includes $16 million to convert the old Food and Drug Administration building in southwest D.C. into more office space for the Capitol. That "emergency" expenditure comes at a time when taxpayers already shell out $600 million "more than double the original estimate" for a mammoth expansion of the Capitol, which includes 160,000 feet of new office space

Well, isn't it nice to know that Senate hates to be left out?  When the bill reached them, they left the timetable intact and loaded their own laundry list of Pork:

Senate war bill features $20B in pork

Like their counterparts in the House, the Senate has larded its version of an “emergency” war spending bill with nearly $20 billion in pork-barrel outlays, including $100 million for the two major political parties’ 2008 presidential conventions.

The $121 billion bill includes $102 billion for the troops fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as $14 billion for Hurricane Katrina aid and more than $4 billion for “emergency farm relief.”

Most of it is likely the same as the House bill, but the 100 million for the conventions was slipped in here:

The $100 million for the political party conventions — $50 million for the Democratic convention in Denver and $50 million for the Republican convention in St. Paul, Minn. — is included in a section described as “Katrina recovery, veterans’ care and for other purposes.”