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ABC Calls Myanmar Cyclone ‘Asia’s Katrina’

May 10, 2008 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

In today’s report on the disastrous cyclone that swept through the small Asian country of Myanmar (formerly Burma) it looks like ABC News is trying to start a new meme: The cyclone “was Asia’s answer to Hurricane Katrina.” How long do you think it will be before the idea takes hold and all manner of comparisons will be made between Katrina and the cyclone in Myanmar? If this idea takes hold it won’t be long before the media’s Bush Derangement Syndrome starts claiming that the military junta that is preventing relief supplies from reaching the Myanmarian people are just like Bush and FEMA’s failures in New Orleans.

It was Asia’s answer to Hurricane Katrina. Packing winds upwards of 120 mph, Cyclone Nargis became one of Asia’s deadliest storms by hitting land at one of the lowest points in Myanmar and setting off a storm surge that reached 25 miles inland.

“When we saw the (storm) track, I said, ‘Uh oh, this is not going to be good,” said Mark Lander, a meteorology professor at the University of Guam. “It would create a big storm surge. It was like Katrina going into New Orleans.”

But, in truth, cyclone Nargis was much, much stronger and more deadly than Katrina and any comparisons is superficial at best. Winds during Nargis, for instance, got up to 135 mph upon landfall and may have killed up to 100,000 people — already ranked as the 8th deadliest cyclone in recorded history. (Katrina’s winds were measured at 125 mph at landfall and killed about 1,836 people)

Naturally, it’s all because of global warming, too.

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00Publius Contributor - 2nd Amendment - Constitution - Democrats/Leftists - Media Bias - News - Security/Safety - Society/Culture - The Law - Warner Todd Huston

ABC News: Mexican Drug Violence U.S. Constitution’s Fault

April 23, 2008 by

-By Warner Todd Huston

True to the liberal penchant for blaming every ill in the world on the USA, ABC News has produced a “report” claiming that the increasing number of guns and drug cartel violence in Mexico is all the fault of… the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. That’s right, it isn’t the drug dealers and killers in Mexico that are at fault, it’s James Madison and the Founding Father’s fault! Now, before you imagine that I am employing hyperbole in my introduction, just look at the title of their piece: “U.S. Guns Arming Mexican Drug Gangs; Second Amendment to Blame?”

ABC wrote that “U.S. gun stores and gun shows are the source of more than 90 percent of the weapons being used by Mexico’s ruthless drug cartels,” but then noted that “It’s virtually impossible to buy a firearm in Mexico as a private citizen.” To anyone really thinking about it, this fact sort of confirms the pro-gun bromide that “if you make owning a gun a crime, only criminals will have guns,” doesn’t it?

Regardless, ABC allows the Mexican attorney general to present Mexican criminality as the fault of the U.S. Constitution.

Mexico’s strict gun laws are being subverted by the easy availability of weapons in the U.S., the Mexican attorney general, Eduardo Medina-Mora Icaza, told ABC News. “The Second Amendment,” said the attorney general, “is certainly not designed to arm and give fire power to organized crime abroad.”

If that same Mexican government wasn’t so rife with corruption, weakness and crime, our laws here wouldn’t be such a problem for them there. Here is the thing, if Mexicans had the same God-given right to self-defense as Americans, all their guns would be purchased right at home. But, Constitutional right or no, the same violence would be happening in Mexico as the violence is not the fault of gun laws. It is the fault of Mexican corruption and drugs.

Further, the Mexican drug cartels are powerful and flush with money. If they really wanted guns and the USA didn’t offer an easy mark to obtain them, they’d merely go elsewhere. Certainly we should try harder to assure that our Constitutional rights don’t interfere with the laws of a neighboring nation, but to assume we are the sole cause of their ills is poppycock.

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00Publius Contributor - Democrats/Leftists - Elections - Media Bias - News - President - Society/Culture - Warner Todd Huston

ABC Debate Obama Flag Pin Question ‘Planted from the Right’? Nutrooters REALLY losing it now!

April 19, 2008 by 4 Comments

-By Warner Todd Huston

Houston Chronicle blogger Bob Cavnar needs to take some time off, or lay off the caffeine, or maybe someone should gently tell him that the black helicopters aren’t following him after all. Whatever the case, Cavnar used his April 19th posting to go off on a wild eyed rant that is so twisted that it ends up blaming Republicans and Mickey Mouse for the fact that Barack Obama isn’t patriotic enough to wear an American flag lapel pin! This is just another hilarious example of the overheated far left’s panty bunching extravaganza that we’ve seen since the ABC debate aired.

During the last Democratic presidential debate, a woman from Pennsylvania was shown on videotape pointing out that Barack Obama refuses to wear an American flag lapel pin unlike most of the other candidates who do from time to time and Cavnar has decided that some dark, Obama hating conspiracy at ABC pushed this woman into the debate.

Here was her question at the ABC debate:

Continue reading “ABC Debate Obama Flag Pin Question ‘Planted from the Right’? Nutrooters REALLY losing it now!”