Peoria Pundit

The only logical way to judge a president’s performance duing war time
to evaluate how well he leads the war effort.

Had the bombings not happened, I wouldn’t be voting for Georige W. in
2004. But they did happen. We are at war, so I’m voting for Bush. Period.

Some people are just too damn sensitive
.

/LOS ANGELES — A county official has asked computer and video
equipment vendors to consider eliminating the terms “master” and
“slave” from equipment because they may be considered offensive.

“Based on the cultural diversity and sensitivity of Los Angeles
County, this is not an acceptable identification label,” according
to an e-mail sent to vendors this month.

The e-mail asks manufacturers, suppliers and contractors to change
or remove any labels on components “that could be interpreted as
discriminatory or offensive in nature.”/

When I first saw this story, I immediately considered that the county is
just trying to avoid a lawsuit. I was right.

/In May, a black employee of the Probation Department filed a
discrimination complaint with the county Office of Affirmative
Action Compliance after seeing the words on a videotape machine.

“This individual felt that it was offensive and inappropriate,”
office director Dennis Tafoya said.

He said “master” and “slave” were replaced by “primary” and
“secondary.”/

All that Los Angeles is asking for is that companies take a niggardly
approach to the use of potentially offensive words.

Just as I predicted .
From the Washington Post :

/While the troops cheered the moment, it is too soon to know whether
the image of Bush in his Army jacket yesterday will become a symbol
of strong leadership or a symbol of unwarranted bravado.

Iraqis may be reassured that the United States will put down the
insurgency and restore order in their country. Or they may take the
image of Bush landing unannounced at night without lights and not
venturing from a heavily fortified military installation as
confirmation that the security situation in Iraq is dire indeed. /

The reporter is the aforementioned
Dana Milbank.

Thanks to all the city financed development in the northern part of
Peoria, traffic congestion
just keeps getting
worse. The renovation of Sterling Avenue is only making matters worse. I
made the mistake of shopping at Westlake Center last weekend and was
trapped in a traffic light nightmare for a half hour.

Has the /Journal Star/ written even one article about how urban suburban
sprawl creates this problem? Nope. Not one.

/?We did not charge hundreds of miles into the heart of Iraq, pay a
bitter cost of casualties, defeat a ruthless dictator and liberate
25 million people only to retreat before a band of thugs and
assassins.?/

Damn straight.

President Bush put himself at risk to visit the troops
in Iraq today. Foolhardy?
Perhaps. But the benefit to the troops’ morale is without measure.

Before the end of the day, look for his detractors to dismiss this as a
publicity stunt. Look for them to parse his words to look for the
slightest sign of hyperbole. Look for them to complain about the cost.

Just remember this quote and what it meant to the soldiers who are
fighting to protect us.

*UPDATE:* Here is the text
of his speech to
the troops, unfiltered by the press.

The city council voted 6-5
to not hire the 11
firefighters the city needs to maintain staffing levels.

The council agreed to cut $325,000 in non-discretionary capital
spending, such as fleet maintenance.

Paying off bond debt remains the biggest expense in the budget.

Will the council learn its lesson and stop agreeing to spend money to
help private developers and to stop creating public works projects that
compete with private businesses.

If you do, you haven’t been paying attention.

*CAVEAT:* The reporter for this article is Jennifer Davis, whose
reporting I no longer trust to be accurate and unbiased. I rely on her
report because the newspaper of record continues to use her to cover the
council.

Some folks at the White House think the /Washington Post/ has moved
beyond skepticism and into cynicism
.

/The White House has reason to wince at Post coverage. Walter
Pincus, with Dana Priest and Karen DeYoung, forced President Bush to
eat his 16 words claiming that Iraq had tried to acquire nuclear
material from Africa. The Post has been dogged in its investigation
of who leaked the name of CIA spy Valerie Plame.

Much of the toughest scrutiny of Iraq policy has come from Barton
Gellman and Tom Ricks. Glenn Kessler often reports stories that
question Bush foreign policy./

Sorry. I don’t buy it. This is the stuff the press is supposed to do. It
doesn’t reveal bias of any kind, except a bias toward confronting
whoever is in charge. This isn’t like when /New York Times/ columnist
Maureen Dowd changed quotes
to make Bush say something he really didn’t, and is still happily
employed there, by the way). This is just good journalism.

http://images.chicagotribune.com/media/photo/2003-11/10384209.jpg

? /Chicago Tribune/: Protesters use bullhorns to give Jackson an earful

/Small groups of seemingly organized hecklers disrupted a “jobs,
education and justice” rally at Federal Plaza sponsored by the
Rainbow/PUSH Coalition on Tuesday afternoon.

Although the hecklers chastised various speakers and political
candidates, they targeted most of their wrath at Rev. Jesse Jackson,
founder of Rainbow/PUSH.

As Jackson tried to elicit chants of peace and justice from the
crowd of about 100 people, the hecklers drowned him out, bellowing
into bullhorns. Most of the hecklers were black men in their 20s who
said they couldn’t find a job and blamed Jackson, at least in part,
for their plight.
/

A have no sympathy for Jackson. Sending “seemingly organized” groups to
protest against businesses, which he then hits up for donations, has
been a tactic of his for years. Now it’s Jackson’s turn in the stocks. I
hope these guys follow him /everywhere/ and give him the same treatment
he is willing to give anyone who doesn’t kiss his ring.

And, these protestors are /right/. Jackson has done nothing except get
his name in the papers and bully businesses into giving his organization
donations and giving his family special perks.

Yet he is treated as an elder statesman by the press. I cannot
understand why.

If you ask me, Jackson, the Rev. Al Sharpton and their ilk have a vested
interest in keeping black people poor, ignorant and in need of their
intervention for the crumbs they hand out. Which is exactly the way most
liberals view black people: Permanently unable to compete against white
people and in need their assistance.

The /Chicago Tribune’s/ Eric Zorn details the origin

of the word “wussy.”

It’s an offshoot of the discussion over the Trib’s censoring of the work
“sucks” in the “Zits” cartoon strip.

Decorum prevents me from sinking deeper into this cavernous topic.

*NOTE:* This entry actually contains a permalink. It’s one of very few
entries on Zorn’s j-blog to have that feature. Now, if he arranges to
put a permalink on every entry, along with comments, it might actually
qualify as a /real/ blog.

Black Glenn feels
a little ripped off. I can understand why.