Guam Reparations

As always, an issue being trumpeted by the simpletons that make up a large portion of the right side of the cheddarsphere isn’t as simple as they claim. This time, Fred at Real Debate, Wiggy (though his post is more funny) and I’m sure there are others, are up in arms over legislation before Congress to pay reparations of "... about $200 million in compensation and grant programs for Guam residents, including $25,000 payments on behalf of residents who died during the Japanese occupation and smaller payments for injury and forced labor." How dare we pay for atrocities committed by the Japanese occupations forces, they chorus. Oddly enough, according to Fred and Wiggy, our very own one-man travel agency, F. James Sensenbrenner has signed onto this bill.

Sensenbrenner’s support caused me to dig just a little deeper (this is where most of the right-wingers always fall just a bit short) and I found a few additional items.

The reason Guam is seeking these reparations is because the United States unilaterally forgave Japan’s war debt when they signed the official peace reaty in 1951, which precludes any chance of Guam approaching Japan for reparations.

A similar bill made it out of committee during the 109th Congress, a Congress then dominated by Republicans. It never made it to vote because the 109th Congress was adjourned.

The bill apparently has bi-partisan support.

There has been bluster on the right that the only people that should be recognized are the troops that liberated Guam from Japanese occupation. What these simpletons ignore is the Chamarros, the indigenous people of Guam, protected American serviceman after the island was conquered, many forfeiting their lives to keep the location of the hidden troops secret. Additionally, Japanese treatment of the Chamarros was especially brutal, with public executions not unusual.

To argue this bill is just another Democtratic gifting of taxpayer money is a lie … something the right-wing of the cheddarsphere has become all to expert at ... Republicans support this too.

Jessica's Hissy Fit

I can't help myself. Jessica McBride is at it again. This was a recent post of hers:

Noticed this name on the guest house for the dinner at the White House with the Queen:

David Gregory, NBC News correspondent, and Beth Wilkinson (wife). Reminds me of the media chowing down at the governor's mansion with Doyle and then freaking out when Scott Walker gives reporters a couple of press passes to tourist attractions.

Did NBC pay the White House back for the chow?

While the post is beyond sophomoric, I couldn't resist answering her question. NBC White House correspondent, David Gregory, was probably invited to the White House dinner for the Queen because he has written favorably about the Bush administration. So favorably, in fact, that he was awarded Best White House Correspondent for coverage of President Bush’s first 100 days in office by the conservative Media Research Center. You know, the group headed by chief wing-nut hack, L. Brent Bozell III.

Regardless, you know what the real issue is here, don’t you? The real issue is that Jessica didn’t receive the invitation.

From a source deep within WTMJ, here is what Jessica really wrote (heavily edited before it hit her blog ... sentence fragments have been filled in for easier readability):

Noticed this name on the guest house for the dinner at the White House with the Queen:

David Gregory, NBC News correspondent, and Beth Wilkinson (wife). Why was he and that little hussy of a wife invited (yeah, she works for Fannie Mae … you know, that group that provides help to those minority folks to buy homes, as though their tenements weren’t good enough for them ... they're probably a gay or Muslim front group anyway).

I can’t believe I wasn’t invited. My husband, Paul, has been the top conservative in Wisconsin and would have been Attorney General if not for Xoff, Owen Robinson’s wife and you-know- who’s money. He and I are doing all we can for the war effort at home, giving our brave troops the encouragement they need to die for their country. And besides, haven’t I always said that the President is my hero. I’m his … what’s the word … oh yeah, bestest supporter.

And, I’m on the radio almost every day taking on any liberal my producer thinks I might be able to handle, and I am working hard to indoctrinate the young journalists at the UWM in the ways of journalism … no objectivity needed, just the conservative facts.

This entire thing reminds me of the media chowing down at the governor's mansion with Doyle (again, I wasn’t invited) and then freaking out when Scott Walker gives reporters a couple of press passes to tourist attractions (hey, I didn’t get any of those either).

Did NBC pay the White House back for the chow? I bet WTMJ would. Hint, hint.

Why is She Teaching?

The ignorance and stupidity of this woman is astounding. Jessica McBride links to the story of a young girl stoned to death for falling in love with a boy outside her religious faith. McBride titles the post “The Religion of Peace,” which she and others on the right use as code for Islam.

Of course, if she had read just a bit further, she would have discovered that the young girl belonged to a minority Kurdish religious group called Yezidi, not Islam. The boy she loved is a Sunni Muslim.

Of course, in the pea brain that is McBride’s, any group not Christian or Jewish is probably Muslim and not worthy of respect ... just a tinge of racism, don't you think?

Why is this woman teaching journalism? She can’t even get her facts straight.