No Kiddin’

In the wake of skyrocketing GOP disapproval ratings and conservatives leaving the Republican Party, Vice President Dick Cheney let’s out the “No duh” quote of the day:

MILWAUKEE — Vice President Dick Cheney said Monday that Democratic leaders aren't doing enough to fight terrorism and said Americans must "reject any strategy of resignation and defeatism in the face of determined enemies."

Cheney, speaking at a party fundraiser, said Republicans must keep national security on the minds of voters heading into the November midterm election.

Cheney used his 20-minute address to defend the Bush administration's war on terrorism and point fingers at Democrats.

Finger pointing, eh? Do I sense the almighty ultraconservative Fox News becoming critical of the GOP? Considering Bush’s approval ratings, I’m not surprised. That, and saying that Democratic leaders aren’t doing enough to fight the war on terror is like saying the sky is blue. It’s pretty obvious.

We have to stay on the offensive until the danger to civilization is removed," Cheney told about 110 people at the Pfister Hotel in downtown Milwaukee.

Cheney attacked Democrats for turning their backs on Sen. Joe Lieberman, D-Conn., after his loss in the primary to anti-war candidate Ned Lamont.

He took Democratic Party chairman Howard Dean to task for saying the capture of Saddam Hussein has not made America safer and accused Dean and Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., of advocating what Cheney called a failed policy of retreat in the war against terrorism.

Honestly, as a Bush supporter, I have to say that I have been critical of this administration. I don’t want to sound too critical though. Bush and the GOP have disappointed me and many other right-wing folks on some of his policies and appeared incompetent on certain levels, but if the Democrats win, that’s even scarier. We may or may not win the war on terror with GOP administrations such as the current one, but any Democratic GOP at this point will be a surefire loss.

Techno Terror

You know one of the things that truly scares me about terrorists, other than the obvious, is that they’re ideology belongs to a time period that was 2000 years ago, but they’re using the technology of today to achieve their means of destruction:

SINGAPORE - Terrorists who have long embraced the Internet for propaganda and planning have begun to post comedy and Top 10 lists to draw in young recruits, experts say.

Bouchaib Silm, a researcher with the terrorism department at Singapore's Institute of Defense and Strategic Studies, said Web sites are becoming more modern in design, incorporating content designed to hook a younger generation of sympathizers and potential recruits.

Sites can no longer simply show videos of Osama bin Laden giving an hourlong speech as he sits in front of a bare wall, Silm said.

"The young of today will not listen to him," he said. "They will get bored. So the recruiters need something new to attract them."

He said some sites have recently offered animated videos, comedy clips and Top 10 video lists of the most devastating terror attacks.

"There is a shift in technology and presentation," he said. "The point is to attract an audience."

Silm made the remarks at the Digital Terrorism conference in Singapore on Tuesday.

Gee, the terrorists must feel really good about having us infidels around so they can use our technology to attract other people who might want to kill us. I wonder what they’re plan would be for the time that they actually succeed in killing the rest of the world off… In an alternative reality in which such a mission is realistic.

Busy as Hell

Ever try heading two short film projects at once? Yeah, you say? Tough, huh? How about three? Well, since my Advanced film teacher has decided that we’re not doing enough on our own Advanced projects, he’s decided that we have to make yet another short film by the end of the semester. I don’t know how he could possibly know just how much work I’ve put into my class assignments, but I’m assuming other students have done less than I have and he somehow knows.

The short films I will be working on by the end of the semester are as follows:

Brotherly Love: A discussion between two brothers regarding one brother’s behavior turns into a heated argument.

I Love It When You Say I Love You: A new music video to a song I wrote and performed about my relationship with Lauren. Yeah, I write music too. :-)

And now, the new project:

Marble Mayhem (Working Title): A gamer is sucked into his own video game and forced to play hide and seek with a killer marble. This one will be my first major collaborative animated effort with two other guys on my team, so wish me luck.

In other words, I may not have time to blog a heck of a lot in the next week or so, much as I love to talk about things in my life. But I will leave you all with this thought: This morning, as I left my house, I caught the headlines on the newspaper in big black letters.

SADDAM GUILTY

In a psychological and philosophical sense, we all have two sides of our brain: the rational brain and the emotional brain. While my emotional side responded to this with an internally resounding “Yay!”, my rational side followed it up with a more direct response to the paper’s message: “No DUH!” :-)