This sounds like an overwhelmingly positive development to me.

The number of legal immigrants seeking to become United States citizens is surging, officials say, prompted by imminent increases in fees to process naturalization applications, citizenship drives across the country and new feelings of insecurity among immigrants.

That fourth word makes all the difference in my book -- and I salute them as they receive the most exalted rank that any human being can ever hold: AMERICAN CITIZEN.

Posted by: Greg at 08:12 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Just a little factoid to pull out next time that you hear open border advocates lament the "inhumane" policies of the United States in deporting border-jumping immigration criminals.

Those who enter Mexico illegally have committed a criminal offense, and under 1974 law are subject to two to five years in prison. This law is being revisited by federal legislators who don't want to be hypocritical in their objection to criminalizing immigration in this country.

The number of illegal immigrants detained in Mexico nearly doubled from 2002 to more than 240,000 last year. They came from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador.

For over 30 years, the Mexican government has been complaining about "harsh" US immigration policies while enforcing laws much more draconian than anything envisioned by th American government or the American people. The belated concern about hypocrisy rings quite hollow.

Posted by: Greg at 04:51 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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"Salus Populi Suprema Lex Esto" -- Juvenal

For those unfamiliar with Latin, that translates as "The will of the people is the highest law."

Today, columnist David Broder presents a different point of view, one which might well be summed up as "Screw the people!"

Let a reporter who is not running for anything suggest that exactly the opposite may be true: A particularly virulent strain of populism has made official Washington altogether too responsive to public opinion.

From Aristotle to Edmund Burke, philosophers have written of the healthy tension that normally exists between the understanding and strategies of leaders and the sentiments and opinions of their people.

In today's Washington, a badly weakened president and a dangerously compliant congressional leadership are no match for the power of public opinion -- magnified and sometimes exaggerated by modern communications and interest group pressure.

Now I'll agree with the notion that unfettered democracy is a bad thing -- hence my support of and near idolatry towards a Constitution that does place limits on what government can do, no matter what the majority wants. That is an essential feature of our system. And from time to time it might be necessary for the people and their representatives to hold their noses and acquiesce to unpopular legislation or policies that produce a substantive benefit to the nation as a whole.

However, Broder's gripe is that the Senate and House are unwilling to shove a bad immigration bill down the throats of an American people who are screaming their opposition. He defines listening to the collective wisdom of the American people as "failure", and ignoring our voices as "leadership".

I'm sorry, but his position is akin to claiming that a rapist might be justified in continuing his forcible violation of a screaming, struggling woman on the grounds that there might be a higher good that comes out of the assault, and that the victim is somehow obliged to lay back and enjoy it. Knowing that Broder is a decent man, I am sure he would never advocate such a thing if the victim were his granddaughter -- and he should be ashamed to advocate it when the victim would be the American people.

Posted by: Greg at 04:45 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Does the WaPo profile of Jonathan Edwards' hairstylist reveal a possible violation of federal campaign finance law?

Torrenueva provided his first five haircuts for Edwards in late 2003 and early 2004 free of charge. "I was just doing it because I'm a Democrat," he said.

That the Post is doing a profile of the candidate's hairstylist is a sign on how non-substantive a candidate Edwards really is. But consider the implications of that little excerpt above.

Wasn't Edwards a presidential candidate at the time? Would they constitute in-kind contributions? Were these contributions properly reported on his FEC disclosures? Is Torrenueva incorporated for business purposes, and if he is do those haircuts constitute illegal corporate contributions to the Edwards campaign? And if Torrenueva also gave cash to the campaign, did the combined total value of the haircuts and cash exceed the legal limit for campaign contributions?

UPDATE: 7/6/2007: Looks like Mark L. Jackson and Debbie Schlussel are asking the same question I am.

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I don't always agree with George Will, but I have always admired his ability to get to the heart of a matter and present a solid intellectual defense of his position.

His latest column does a fantastic job of explaining why the four judge plurality in last week's school desegregation cases were absolutely correct -- and traces the history of the court's meander away from the color-blind promise of Brown v. Board of Education before the Roberts court shifted back to the true promise of that seminal decision on civil rights and equal protection of the law.

The court ruled 5 to 4 that Seattle, which never had school segregation, and Louisville, which did but seven years ago completed judicially mandated remedial measures, must stop using race in assigning children to schools to produce particular racial ratios in enrollments. How did we get from this: "Distinctions by race are so evil, so arbitrary and invidious that a state bound to defend the equal protection of the laws must not invoke them in any public sphere" (the NAACP's brief, written by Thurgood Marshall, in the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education desegregation case), to this: local public education establishments routinely taking cognizance of race in assigning children to schools?

In 1978, in the Bakke case concerning racial preferences in a medical school's admissions, Justice Lewis Powell wrote that institutions of higher education have a First Amendment right -- academic freedom -- to use race as one"plus" factor when shaping their student bodies to achieve viewpoint diversity. Thus was born the "educational benefits" exception to the Constitution's guarantee of equal protection of the laws. But that hardly justifies assigning 6-year-olds to this or that school solely because of their races.

Twenty-five years after Bakke, in 2003, the court approved the University of Michigan law school's use of race in admissions, because that use supposedly involves a "highly individualized, holistic review" of applicants. The court simultaneously disallowed Michigan's undergraduate admissions plan that automatically granted preferences based solely on race -- as Seattle has done in high schools and Louisville has done in kindergarten through grade 12.

Samuel Alito, Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas joined Chief Justice John Roberts's opinion for the court, in which Roberts said: "The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race." Anthony Kennedy, although agreeing that Seattle and Louisville's practices are unconstitutional, chastised Roberts for an "all-too-unyielding" opposition to race-based programs. Yet, when dissenting in the law school case, Kennedy said: "Preferment by race, when resorted to by the state, can be the most divisive of all policies, containing within it the potential to destroy confidence in the Constitution and in the idea of equality."

Let us hope that we see the courts of the United States hew to the promise made by the Fourteenth Amendment and affirmed by the unanimous decision of the justices in Brown. And may the nation embrace the philosophical and constitutional position advanced by Marshall.

Posted by: Greg at 04:08 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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It looks like a lot of defendants, including this terrorist, are going to try to use the President's commutation of Scooter Libby's sentence as justification for lowering their own.

An alleged Hamas operative is likely to be among the first criminal defendants to try to capitalize on President Bush's commutation of the 2 1/2 year prison sentence imposed on a former White House aide, I. Lewis Libby Jr., for obstructing a CIA leak investigation. Mohammed Salah, 57, is scheduled to be sentenced by a federal judge in Chicago next week on one count of obstruction of justice. In February, a jury convicted Salah and a co-defendant, Abdelhaleem Ashqar, of obstruction, but acquitted the pair of a far more serious charge of racketeering conspiracy in support of Hamas's terrorist campaigns in Israel, Gaza, and the West Bank.

"What the president said about Mr. Libby applies in spades to the case of Mohammed Salah," Salah's defense attorney, Michael Deutsch, told The New York Sun yesterday. "We'll definitely be bringing it up to the judge. Â… It's going to be a real test, a first early test of whether we're a nation of laws or a nation of men."

Here's the problem with the argument advanced by the terrorist scumbag and his paid mouthpiece -- decisions in clemency cases are NOT a legal precedent, and DO NOT have the force of law. Indeed, a case of executive clemency is an action based upon the individual case and circumstance, not a general rule. It is an act of mercy in directed at correcting an individual injustice or recognizing individual merit.

However, there is one aspect of this case that troubles me -- and which troubles me every time it is used in justifying a sentence for someone convicted of a crime.

Despite Salah's acquittal on the racketeering charge, which could have carried a life sentence, prosecutors have asked Judge Amy St. Eve to find that the evidence presented at trial proved Salah was part of a terrorist conspiracy. "The jury did not find beyond a reasonable doubt that defendant Salah committed racketeering conspiracy. The standard at sentencing, however, is not proof beyond a reasonable doubt," the prosecution wrote in a recent court filing.

Prosecutors have also asked the judge to consider a series of alleged offenses from the 1990s that Salah was never charged with, including bank fraud and perjury on behalf of a Hamas leader then facing deportation, Mousa abu Marzook. "To sentence Mr. Salah on the basis of non-relevant, stale, and acquitted conduct would most assuredly result in an unreasonable sentence and promote disrespect for the law," Mr. Deutsch said in papers filed with the court.

It strikes me that if the prosecution wants to have someone sentenced based upon criminal conduct, they should have to prove that conduct in court and get a conviction, not come back after obtaining a conviction on some other offense, even a related one, and demand that the sentence be based upon a crime with which that individual was never accused, against which he was never permitted to defend himself, and of which he had never been convicted. That strikes me as loading the dice too much in favor of the prosecution when the Bill of Rights makes it clear that an individual should not be punished for a crime of which he was not convicted.

Posted by: Greg at 03:49 AM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
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When the white or the wealthy win, it is "Justice Denied" according to this editorial.

In the 1960s, Chief Justice Earl Warren presided over a Supreme Court that interpreted the Constitution in ways that protected the powerless — racial and religious minorities, consumers, students and criminal defendants. At the end of its first full term, Chief Justice John Roberts’s court is emerging as the Warren court’s mirror image. Time and again the court has ruled, almost always 5-4, in favor of corporations and powerful interests while slamming the courthouse door on individuals and ideals that truly need the court’s shelter.

* * *

It has been decades since the most privileged members of society — corporations, the wealthy, white people who want to attend school with other whites — have had such a successful Supreme Court term. Society’s have-nots were not the only losers. The basic ideals of American justice lost as well.

And when it comes right down to it, the decision cited -- some which I agree with, others which I do not -- don't really matter. What has the NY Times angry is that "corporations, the wealthy, [and] white people" won in them. Never mind that those decisions all had solid legal and/or Constituitonal reasoning to support them -- the NY Times does not like who won, so they cannot be legitimate. Indeed, it would appear that the editors believe that Lady Justice should rip off her blindfold and put her thumb on the scale to ensure that "corporations, the wealthy, [and] white people" even if the law and the Constitution are on their side.

OPEN TRACKBACKING AT Big Dog's Weblog, Maggie's Notebook, Right Truth, The Populist, Stuck On Stupid, Webloggin, Cao's Blog, The Bullwinkle Blog, The Amboy Times, Pursuing Holiness, stikNstein... has no mercy, The World According to Carl, Pirate's Cove, The Pink Flamingo, High Desert Wanderer, and The Yankee Sailor, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.

Posted by: Greg at 03:14 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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O beautiful for spacious skies,
For amber waves of grain,
For purple mountain majesties
Above the fruited plain.
America! America! God shed His grace on thee,
And crown thy good with brotherhood
From sea to shining sea.

O beautiful for pilgrim feet,
Whose stern impassion'd stress
A thoroughfare for freedom beat
Across the wilderness.
America! America! God mend thine ev'ry flaw,
Confirm thy soul in self-control,
Thy liberty in law.

O beautiful for heroes prov'd
In liberating strife,
Who more than self their country loved,
And mercy more than life.
America! America! May God thy gold refine
Till all success be nobleness,
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O Beautiful for patriot dream
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Thine alabaster cities gleam,
Undimmed by human tears.
America! America! God shed his grace on thee,
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Posted by: Greg at 05:59 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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The son, not the father -- but I wonder he was carrying dad's stash. It would explain some of the former VP's behavior.

Al Gore's son was pulled over for speeding on a California freeway early Wednesday and arrested on suspicion of possessing marijuana and prescription drugs, authorities said.

Al Gore III, 24, was driving a blue Toyota Prius about 100 mph south on the San Diego Freeway when he was pulled over by sheriff's deputies who said they smelled marijuana, said Sheriff's Department spokesman Jim Amormino.

The deputies searched the car and found less than an ounce of marijuana along with Xanax, Valium, Vicodin and Adderall, which is used for attention deficit disorder, Amormino said.

"He does not have a prescription for any of those drugs," Amormino said.

Gore was being held in the men's central jail in Santa Ana on $20,000 bail.

It isn't the younger Gore's first incident involving illegal drugs. Maybe Daddy Gore needs to stop trying to save the world and start trying to save his on.

Posted by: Greg at 08:18 AM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
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The headline sounds ominous.

Justice Is Unequal for Parents Who Host Teen Drinking Parties

Or it does until you actually read the article.

When police showed up recently at a Walt Whitman High School graduation party, three young people were drinking in a vehicle parked outside the Bethesda home. Then three more teenagers walked up with a six-pack in a bag. While the police were dealing with them, the mother came outside, saw the officers and ran back in.

Montgomery County police wrote dozens of citations against the minors who were found to have been drinking at the party. The party-hosting parents were given two civil citations each, carrying fines of up to $1,500 per infraction.

The outcome for the Bethesda parents was considerably less severe than for a Charlottesville area mother and stepfather who recently began serving 27-month jail sentences for hosting an underage drinking party. In Virginia and the District, parents who host such parties can be charged with contributing to the delinquency of a minor, a misdemeanor that can carry jail time. In Maryland, hosting an underage drinking party is punished with a civil penalty, payable with a fine, even for multiple offenses.

Oh, it isn't the unequal application of the laws -- it is that the District of Columbia and the two states that surround it each have different laws dealing with the same offense. That makes a world of difference in how this story should be presented, don't you think?

Unless, of course, the Washington Post is angling for the notion that all laws should be identical in all 50 states, under the notion that we should be the United STATE of America, not the United STATES of America

Posted by: Greg at 03:24 AM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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Andrew Sullivan has been flacking this quote.

"I don't believe my role is to replace the verdict of a jury with my own," - George W. Bush on why he signed death warrants for 152 inmates as governor of Texas.

The quote is from his own book, "A Charge To Keep." I think that's a debate-ender, isn't it?

The only thing is that there are two problems with the way Sullivan is using it.

1) In issuing a commutation, Bush did not substitute his judgment for that of the jury. The conviction remains intact, only the sentence (handed down by a judge, not a jury as in a death penalty case in Texas) is modified. Besides, a number of the jurors even called for a presidential pardon of Scooter Libby on the same day that they convicted him.

2) The governor of Texas doesn't have the power to pardon or grant a commutation any criminal without an affirmative recommendation fo the state's Board of pardons and Parole. This has been the case in Texas since the current constitution was adopted in 1876. Any attempt to stop the executions would therefore have been an impeachable offense -- and I believe that Texas law allows for the executions to proceed even without the signature of the governor.

So if you consider the pathetically inept analysis put forward by Andrew Sullivan, aside from the fact that the mechanisms by which the sentences were issued are completely different and the fact that the powers of the President and the Governor of Texas are completely different, the situations are exactly the same!

Posted by: Greg at 02:38 AM | Comments (15) | Add Comment
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So if a commutation of sentence means that the person was carrying out the wishes of the President, what does a pardon mean, Hillary?

Democratic presidential contender Hillary Rodham Clinton drew a distinction between President Bush's decision to commute the sentence of White House aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby — which she has harshly criticized — and her husband's 140 pardons in his closing hours in office.

"I believe that presidential pardon authority is available to any president, and almost all presidents have exercised it," Clinton said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press. "This (the Libby decision) was clearly an effort to protect the White House. ... There isn't any doubt now, what we know is that Libby was carrying out the implicit or explicit wishes of the vice president, or maybe the president as well, in the further effort to stifle dissent."

A commutation, please remember, leaves the conviction intact and leaves the individual in question still legally guilty of the crime -- a pardon constitutes a Christ-like redemption and complete forgiveness of the offense.

Let's see -- Bill Clinton pardoned a bunch of FALN terrorists. Does that indicate that they had carried out actions of which Bill Clinton explicitly or implicitly approved, including the murder of a police officer?

And we know he gave several pardons to big campaign contributors, and to at least one client of his brother-in-law who had given him a multi-million dollar interest-free loan that was forgiven after the pardon.

Indeed, let's look at the pardons and commutations given by Bill Clinton -- and remember that, according to Senator Clinton, that a pardon equals approval of the activities carried out.

I guess Slick Willie has a lot of stuff that he is complicit with.

UPDATE: Just wehn you thought the hypocrisy couldn't get any worse, what's up with this?

Former President Bill Clinton blasted his successor's decision to spare former White House aide Lewis "Scooter" Libby from prison, telling Iowa radio listeners that Libby's case differed from his own administration's pardon controversy.

"You've got to understand, this is consistent with their philosophy," Clinton said during an interview on Des Moines news-talk station WHO.

Bush administration officials, he said, "believe that they should be able to do what they want to do, and that the law is a minor obstacle."

HOLY CRAP! This is the guy who got slapped down on virtually every claim of executive privilege he and his administration made -- and also on several new "privileges" that he tried to get made up! Furthermore, this is the guy who took campaign donations and other financial kickbacks from folks who he later pardoned -- and who also pardoned close associates who were convicted in relation to his crimes. In-FREAKIN'-credible!

Posted by: Greg at 02:17 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Personally, I think a lot of the cause is the Thompson Effect -- folks waiting around for Fred Thompson's entry into the race. Also, we just don't have the excitement of the Hillary/Obama race, which is being hyped relentlessly by the press.

But I find these statistics to be telling.

Key fundraising numbers:

* Giuliani raised $17 million with about $15 million devoted to the primary and about $2 million for the general election. Candidates can't use general election money unless they win their party's nomination. In six months, he has had revenues of nearly $32 million and has spent about $17 million.

* Romney raised $14 million, all primary election money. He lent himself an extra $6.5 million. His six-month revenues are about $44 million and his expenditures are about $32 million.

* McCain raised $11.2 million with about $10.4 million devoted to the primary. His overall revenues are about $26 million; the campaign spent about $24 million. In the first quarter, the campaign reported a debt of nearly $2 million. Aides would not comment on where his debt may stand.

In terms of the primary fundraising numbers, Romney and Giuliani are very close. It is only because Romney is not taking general election contributions that the gap gets magnified. What stands out, though, is McCain's inability to keep up with his competitors AND the fact that he is burning money without airing a single commercial on television. No wonder he is cutting staff!

Posted by: Greg at 01:51 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Hey, I've admitted to being "one of THOSE people" in the past -- my dog probably owns me more than I own her. My wife sometimes has to offer me a gentle reminder on this point. "Greg, YOU are the person, not Carmie."

Hey, I dote on her (as does my wife), in large part because with no children she is truly a pet-child. That is why I spoil her. And with our lovable mutt having reached her eleventh birthday last week, we are all too aware that she is aging and starting to slow down just a little bit. One of these days she may lack the spring in her step to jump up on our bed, and may need a bed of her own.

As I've started looking at dog beds, I have seen a number that strike me as being good possibilities for Carmie. No, not her own chaise lounge (Paula would kill me if the dog got a chaise before she did), but something a little less ostentatious that would fit in with our decor. Or maybe she would do better with something orthopedic that would help to soothe those old bones and joints and make her comfortable when we can't lift her up to join us in our bed. After all, she has been a great do for all these years, and she deserves to be treated with love and respect.

Posted by: Greg at 06:05 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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I'm saddened by the guilty plea by Chicago's Father Dan McCormack -- a guy I spent four years with in the seminary. Not just because someone I regularly broke bread with has done something unspeakably evil, but also because the sentence imposed seems unconscionably short to me.

Voicing no contrition for his crime, Rev. Daniel McCormack, the Chicago priest whose sexual-abuse case rocked the Chicago Catholic Archdiocese and led to an overhaul of church policy, pleaded guilty to molesting five boys and was sentenced to 5 years in prison.

With McCormack's admission of guilt, church officials vowed to permanently remove him from the priesthood.

As part of the plea deal worked out with prosecutors, McCormack, 38, pleaded guilty to five felony counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse and was promptly sentenced by Circuit Judge Thomas Sumner to 5 years in prison. He was taken from the courtroom to begin serving the sentence.

Within an hour of the court proceeding, church officials said they would move quickly to petition Rome for McCormack's removal under church law. But they said they hope McCormack, the former pastor of St. Agatha Church on Chicago's West Side, will request his own termination.

Frankly, this sentence is not nearly enough in my book -- Dan needs spend a lot more time in prison than this, because he has admitted to raping no less than five boys. A year a piece is shockingly short -- though admittedly more than he would have gotten had he been a buxom young female school teacher.

I'm also angry that Dan McCormack was not required to stand up like a man and admit to the exact nature of his crimes -- and that his attorney even tried to get the true extent of his abuse of these children kept off the record. Not only that, but McCormack refused to even offer a word of apology or contrition for what he had done. I always considered Dan to have an arrogant streak, I am horrified that it runs this deep. Indeed, had I been the judge this would have been sufficient basis to reject the plea deal and move forward so that Dan McCormack could have received a longer, much more punitive sentence for his indefensible deeds.

I hope, and I pray, that Dan spends every single day of this sentence behind bars -- and that he spends each and every one cowering in a corner, praying that the guards can keep the other inmates from using him like he used those little boys.

Posted by: Greg at 03:14 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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We keep hearing from liberals about the need for "fairness" in the media. If they really believe in that concept, why don't they demand equal time for those who disagree with the pseudo-science being promoted with this event.

This coming Saturday, July 7, NBC Universal will devote a record 75 hours of coverage to Al Gore’s “Live Earth: The Concerts for a Climate in Crisis,” to raise awareness about the alleged global warming “crisis” as defined by Gore. The coverage will air on seven NBC Universal-owned programs, and Today news anchor Ann Curry will host coverage during NBC’s primetime.

The 75 hours of coverage constitutes unprecedented promotion of one side of a political issue, and the largest in-kind contribution to Al Gore should he decide to run for President in 2008. Although undeclared, Gore ranks No. 3 among Democrats in leading polls on the presidential race.

Jeff Gaspin, president of NBC Universal Cable and Digital Content, declared, “By leveraging all of our properties, we will reach millions of viewers with this important call to action to combat global warming.” Kevin Wall, Live Earth founder and producer, said: “NBC Universal’s sweeping coverage of Live Earth ensures that Americans from coast to coast will be able to tune in to the concerts and take action against the climate crisis.”

So we have 75 hours of express advocacy of the global warming hooey promoted by Al Gore. How about 75 hours of scientific fact that shows that global warming, to the degree it exists, is not caused by mankind, and that there is not a consensus on the issue (no matter how often the global warming cultists claim there is).

I'm waiting, liberals, for you demand for "fairness" by NBC on global warming.

Posted by: Greg at 02:47 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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But then again, given the connections of the Council on American-Islamic Relations and its staffers to terrorist groups and activities, why should we expect them to support American values?

An Islamic advocacy group is urging its supporters to call a Washington, D.C., radio station to "express your concerns about the Islamophobic attitudes" expressed by conservative columnist and author Cal Thomas.

In a commentary on news-talk WTOP radio Monday morning, Thomas discussed the car-bomb terror attacks recently thwarted in the United Kingdom. The eight Muslims arrested in connection with the plot include several physicians.

"How much longer should we allow people from certain lands, with certain beliefs to come to Britain and America and build their mosques, teach hate, and plot to kill us?" Thomas asked.

He also compared Muslims to a "slow spreading cancer" that must be stopped.

CAIR calls the comments incitement, though there is no call for violence or any activity at all. Indeed, the only thing this speech might incite is a call to public officials demanding that reasonable actions be taken to safeguard our nation from terrorist attacks like those in the UK last week -- attacks that CAIR somehow managed to avoid condemning on their website, even as they went after Cal Thomas for daring to express a thought the group dislikes.

So here's what we need to do in response -- if CAIR is going to target Thomas with a campaign to pressure WTOP to get rid of him, we should be just as forceful in supporting Cal Thomas. Fortunately, CAIR has even provided us with the contact information.

CONTACT:
Jim Farley, WTOP Programming Vice President
Tel: 202-895-5071
Fax: 202-895-5088
Email: jfarley@wtopnews.com

And if you want, you can even include the requested CC to CAIR -- just to let them know what the overwhelming majority of Americans think about Islamic terrorism and those who support it.

COPY TO: info@cair.com

Your choice on that one.

But regardless, we must make sure that this terrorist supporting organization is unsuccessful in silencing voices against terrorism.

Posted by: Greg at 02:38 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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That is a question one has to ask as a result of reading this report.

The next terrorist assault on the United States is likely to come through relatively unsophisticated, near-simultaneous attacks -- similar to those attempted in Britain over the weekend -- designed more to provoke widespread fear and panic than to cause major losses of life, U.S. intelligence and counterterrorism officials believe.

Such attacks require minimal expertise and training and are difficult to prevent. Although British investigators have not claimed al-Qaeda involvement in the latest incidents, officials here said they may constitute a "hybrid" phenomenon, in which al-Qaeda inspires and guides local groups from afar but establishes no visible operational or logistical links.

The connection, several officials said, is made through a growing network of al-Qaeda intermediaries and affiliates who are far removed from the organization's leadership.

"What is a direct link?" asked one counterterrorism official. "Is it couriers? Messengers?" U.S. officials "from very senior folks" on down, he said, are watching as the British work to reconstruct the attacks and trace their origin.

And if we start seeing attacks modeled on this one, emanating from the Muslim community without direct links to al-Qaeda, then that will raise a much more serious question -- how do we stop these attacks? And perhaps just as pressing, how do we treat a community that will have become a metastasized cancer in our midst?

Posted by: Greg at 02:22 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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That the Circuit Court refused to allow Scooter Libby out on bond during his appeal was an incorrect decision, but I also believe that President Bush made an incorrect move with his commutation of Libby's sentence today.

President Bush spared former White House aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby from a 2 1/2-year prison term in the CIA leak case Monday, stepping into a criminal case with heavy political overtones on grounds that the sentence was just too harsh.

Bush's move came hours after a federal appeals panel ruled Libby could not delay his prison term in the CIA leak case. That meant Libby was likely to have to report to prison soon and put new pressure on the president, who had been sidestepping calls by Libby's allies to pardon the former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney.

"I respect the jury's verdict," Bush said in a statement. "But I have concluded that the prison sentence given to Mr. Libby is excessive. Therefore, I am commuting the portion of Mr. Libby's sentence that required him to spend thirty months in prison."

Bush left intact a $250,000 fine and two years probation for Libby, and Bush said his action still "leaves in place a harsh punishment for Mr. Libby."

Now let me make a couple of things clear here. I believe the charges were unfounded. I believe the evidence indicates something other than an intent to deceive. I believe the sentence was too harsh, and based upon offenses with which Libby was not charged and against which he was never permitted to present a defense. Given that the actual leaker was known before the investigation even began and was not charged with any crime, as well as the fact that the perjury before Congress of Joe Wilson and Valerie Plame has not bee prosecuted, the trial and conviction of Scooter Libby over what was essentially an erroneous recollection of non-material facts is a travesty of justice.

However, President Bush made the wrong move today. Rather than the commutation, the President should have exercised his authority to grant a reprieve until the end of the appeals process -- a move which would have essentially reversed the move by the Circuit Court while still leaving the conviction and sentence intact pending the appeal.

Some may wonder why I take this position. Easy -- I believe that the elimination of the grossest miscarriage of justice, the 30-month prison sentence, has the effect of prejudicing Libby's appeal. It is hard to argue the sentence is too harsh when the worst element of it has been wiped away -- and since judges are human, it is possible that a court might reason that the President's action might lead certain jurists to have a bias against Libby due to the presidential intervention prior to the exhaustion of all appeals.

Personally, I believe a full and complete pardon may be in order -- but not at this time, when Libby still has a realistic chance of finding the remedy for this injustice in the Judicial Branch. And sadly, today's commutation also makes an eventual pardon harder to justify at a later date.

H/T Michelle Malkin, Captain's Quarters, Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiller, Stop the ACLU, Ace, Jawa Report

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I'm absolutely stunned by the gall of this woman and her supporters.

Hours after the Senate voted against advancing the immigration reform project, the Mexican activist Elvira Arellano announced a campaign of resistance against the U.S. government.

In a written statement, the leader of the movement Familia Unida (United Family) said that “if the Democrats and the Republicans cannot summon the courage to fix the broken law we will not sit quietly and see our families and our children cut to pieces on the broken pieces of that broken law."

She demanded an immediate moratorium on all raids and deportations.

Arellano, who has remained in a Northwest Side church since August 15 to avoid an order of deportation, said this would be the deadline the government will have to "revive and pass a comprehensive immigration reform.”

Otherwise, pro-immigrant organizers will begin a campaign “aimed at bringing this government and this economy to a halt.”

Representatives from the Centro Sin Fronteras and the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights also announced this morning they were prepared to take “economic actions” against corporations that support anti immigrant legislators and programming.

Also, a massive concentration of families and children is scheduled for July 17 in Washington D.C. to “confront the leaders of both parties and the President.”

So let me get this straight -- immigration criminals and their accomplices are going to "confront" the ineffective leaders of this country and demand that they stop even the half-hearted pathetic attempts to enforce our nation's immigration laws.

I've got a better idea -- not only does our government need to step up the raids and aggressively act to deport the immigration criminals rounded up, but they also need to kick down the doors of Adalberto United Methodist Church and haul out Arellano and (anyone who attempts to interfere with the enforcement of US law), and then ship her back to Mexico.

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So many people were pulling for David Ritcheson -- first for him to recover from the brutal attack which was perpetrated against him, then in his quest for justice. Sadly, the ghosts of the events that took place some in April of 2006 appear to have been too much for David to cope with.

A Spring teen who survived a brutal beating with a pipe last year apparently jumped to his death from a Cozumel-bound cruise ship on Sunday.

An 18-year-old was observed by "a bunch of people" jumping over the railing of the upper deck of Carnival Cruise Lines' Ecstasy around 7:35 a.m. Sunday, said Coast Guard spokesman Adam Eggers.

A written statement from the cruise line also said an 18-year-old appeared to jump from the ship.

Carnival Cruise Lines officials would not confirm his identity, but Rick Dovalina, head of LULAC in Houston, said Sunday night that he learned through the family's attorney, Carlos Leon, that 18-year-old David Ritcheson has died.

"Carlos said that the family confirmed it, that it was true," Dovalina said. "The family heard from the captain of the ship. He went overboard."

The ship's crew pulled the body from the water and he was pronounced dead at 9:10 a.m. The ship had departed Galveston on Saturday and was a "couple of hundred" miles out, Eggers said.

Ritcheson's death comes less than three months after he testified before Congress about how two teens nearly killed him on April 23, 2006 by repeatedly kicking a patio umbrella stand into his rectum while shouting "white power!"

I grieve with the Ritcheson family for their loss. I only wish that some further retribution could be taken against the scum who nearly killed him last year and whose actions make them morally, if not legally, responsible for David's death.

Predictably, Ritcheson's death is already being used to promote federal hate crimes legislation.

Jackson Lee said the tragedy of Ritcheson's death could draw attention to the need for the hate crimes bill, as well as one she drafted that focuses on educating teenagers involved in hate groups. She said she intends to amend her legislation, nicknamed "David's Bill," to include funding and counseling support for the victims of hate crimes.

"Now we have a greater reason to move this bill as fast as we can," she said of the main hate crimes bill, sponsored by Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich. "We will have a full press forward to have the president change his mind. Maybe he will rethink his position."

I hope this attempt fails, for the reasons I cited in April of this year, when Ritcheson testified before Congress.

The problem with his position? The facts of his case show that a federal hate crime law is not necessary.

Tuck, 19, and Keith Turner, 18, both of Spring, eventually were convicted of aggravated sexual assault for attacking Ritcheson in the backyard. Tuck was given a life sentence, Turner 90 years.

Life in prison. Ninety years in prison. Excuse me, but it does not strike me that there is anything more that can be done, unless you simply want to take these two mutts out and put a bullet into the base of their skulls. It is rather like the call for a hate crime law here in Texas after the James Byrd dragging in Jasper -- where two of the three perps got the death penalty and the one who cooperated with authorities got life. How would you "enhance" those sentences?

Don't think perpetrators of hate crimes are getting punished sufficiently? Fine, I'll agree with you -- but the solution is not a hate crime law. The solution, instead, is to enhance the penalties for the underlying offenses, across the board, so that actions like theirs are punished harshly. Because after all, what is it we are out to punish -- the crime or the motive? The thoughts or the actions? I hope and pray that the answer is obvious.

At a time like this, there are many who want to make some good come out of the torment suffered by this young man. Unfortunately, the proposal in question is not the correct solution.

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Finally upgraded to DSL today -- I don't know how I lived without it! I made the switch because my wife and I had a little surprise dropped in our laps this past week -- the gift of a laptop my father bought for himself and then decided he didn't like almost as soon as it was out of the box. Being able to go wireless and have us both online at once will be a great convenience.

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The Illinois senator may have raised a bunch of cash, but I keep coming back to two words: Howard Dean.

Senator Barack Obama raised at least $32.5 million from April through June, he announced today, on his campaign Web site, attracting more than 258,000 contributors since entering the Democratic presidential race nearly six months ago.

As candidates tabulated how much money they raised in the yearÂ’s second quarter, Mr. Obama of Illinois appeared to be sitting atop contenders from either party, raising at least $31 million for the primary campaign alone. Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, Democrat of New York, raised about $21 million for the primary, a spokesman confirmed today, and about $27 million over all.

“Together, we have built the largest grass-roots campaign in history for this stage of a presidential race,” Mr. Obama said, adding that 154,000 new donors had signed on in the last three months. “That’s the kind of movement that can change the special interest-driven politics in Washington and transform our country. And it’s just the beginning.”

The question is, of course, whether or not this financial success translates into success at the polls. After all, Hillary! still has great name ID (but bunches of negatives), and Obama's name ID remains relatively low. This is precisely where the Democrats were 3 1/2 years ago, when Dean raised lots of cash and then crashed-and-burned in the primaries and caucuses. Will Obama succeed where Dean failed?

I'll be really interested in the GOP numbers, and whether or not the Thomson effect depressed fundraising among the other GOP candidates (and which ones).

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Here's the punchline.

If Mr. Edwards was half the woman Hillary Clinton is, he might be leading in the polls.

The rest of this great commentary on the disingenuous hypocrisy of John Edwards and his wife in the Ann Coulter Affair can be found here.

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Too bad he wasn't more forthright like this when he was still in office. It would have really put the jihadi Muslims and their supporters in the UK on the defensive.

'The idea that as a Muslim in this country that you don't have the freedom to express your religion or your views, I mean you've got far more freedom in this country than you do in most Muslim countries,' Blair told Observer columnist Will Hutton, who presents the documentary.

'The reason we are finding it hard to win this battle is that we're not actually fighting it properly. We're not actually standing up to these people and saying, "It's not just your methods that are wrong, your ideas are absurd. Nobody is oppressing you. Your sense of grievance isn't justified."'

Blair held out the example of the overthrow of the Taliban in Afghanistan - criticised by Islamists as an example of the heavy-handed imperial West oppressing Muslims - to highlight unfounded claims of grievance. He asked how it is possible to claim that Afghanistan's Muslims are being oppressed when the Taliban 'used to execute teachers for teaching girls in schools'.

Blair added: 'How are [we] oppressing them? You're oppressing them when you support the people who are trying to blow them up.'

But then again, since the US, UK, and Israel are the axis of evil in the eyes of those opposed to the war against jihadi terrorists, I don't know that we could ever convince them differently, even with appeals to common sense like this one.

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You have to love it when Vin Suprynowicz gets on a roll.

If these Chicken Littles really believed this, what would they be doing? They'd be looking for proven ways to really cool things down, of course.

How about examining the historical record for the approximately 200 years for which we have reliable weather data? Look to see if there was a period when the weather cooled down, all of a sudden, and what caused it.

Google "Year Without a Summer." From April 5 to 15, 1815, Mount Tambora on the island of Sumbawa in the Dutch East Indies (modern-day Indonesia) blew up, ejecting 40 cubic kilometers of volcanic ash (more than twice as much as the 1883 explosion of Krakatoa) into the upper atmosphere.

Other volcanoes -- La Soufrière on Saint Vincent in the Caribbean in 1812 and Mayon in the Philippines in 1814 -- had already built up a substantial amount of atmospheric dust.

That stuff stayed up there, in the jet stream, for more than a year. Sunlight was reflected off that orbiting cloud of crap and had trouble getting through. The "Year Without a Summer," known colloquially as "Eighteen hundred and froze to death," was 1816, in which severe summer climate abnormalities destroyed crops in Northern Europe, the American Northeast, eastern Canada and even China.

In May, frost killed off most of the crops that had been planted. In June, two large snowstorms in eastern Canada and New England resulted in many human deaths. In July and August, lake and river ice were observed as far south as Pennsylvania.

In Europe, food riots broke out and grain warehouses were looted. A recent BBC documentary tallied up 200,000 deaths.

Clearly, if anyone believes Earth is warming catastrophically and that we need to do something, the only proven solution is to start throwing as much crap into the atmosphere as we possibly can, right now.

Clean nuclear and natural-gas-fired power plants must be shut down and immediately replaced with coal plants burning the softest, dirtiest coal -- peat would be better -- that can be found. "Smog inspections" will take on a new meaning as our cars will be checked regularly to make sure each is pouring out the densest possible cloud of carbon particulates and lifesaving black soot.

Since every little bit counts, we may also have to make tobacco smoking mandatory for everyone above the age of 10.

Now is not a time to hesitate, to refuse to make the minor sacrifice of breathing some slightly less healthful air. Global warming is a crisis, baby! It's time we all set aside our selfish desire to keep our yard furniture free of drifting soot and share the sacrifice! Think globally; act locally. Do your part!

Pollution -- massive, smoky pollution -- is the only answer!

Which really exemplifies the problem with current global warming theory -- too much pollution in the atmosphere is held to cause the temperature to rise, except when it causes the temperature to drop. As I've noted in the past, the backers of man-made global warming are less about science and more about a cult-like faith.

UPDATE: Outside the Beltway, The Virtuous Republic, Jeanette's Celebrity Corner, Webloggin, The Amboy Times, Cao's Blog, , Pursuing Holiness, CatSynth.com "catback" weekend, Right Celebrity, Walls of the City, Nuke's news and views, Blue Star Chronicles, The Pink Flamingo, Dumb Ox Daily News, and The Yankee Sailor, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.

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After all, they cannot let good news be seen as good news.

The number of civilians killed in Iraq fell sharply in June to the lowest monthly total since a U.S.-backed security clampdown was launched in February, Iraqi government figures showed on Sunday.

The data, obtained from the ministries of interior, defense and health, showed 1,227 civilians died violently in June, a 36-percent fall from May and the lowest level in five months.

U.S. military officials said it was premature to draw conclusions about the effects of the crackdown, which is seen as a last ditch effort to avert full-scale sectarian civil war between majority Shi'ites and minority Sunni Arabs.

"We continue to be cautiously optimistic, (but) we are still very early in this process," said U.S. military spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Christopher Garver.

The rest of the article then seems more interested in "what's wrong" rather than "what's right". Maybe it is that this story otherwise wouldn't fit with the "America is losing" template that most of the media and the Democrats (but I repeat myself) have adopted, or maybe it is the failure of the news media to recognize that in war you very rarely have instant complete success.

UPDATE: Not that we can forget the real problem is the brutal nature of the enemy we fight.

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The inconvenient truth is that science contradicts what he claims on more than a few points.

Many of the assertions Gore makes in his movie, ''An Inconvenient Truth,'' have been refuted by science, both before and after he made them. Gore can show sincerity in his plea for scientific honesty by publicly acknowledging where science has rebutted his claims.

For example, Gore claims that Himalayan glaciers are shrinking and global warming is to blame. Yet the September 2006 issue of the American Meteorological Society's Journal of Climate reported, "Glaciers are growing in the Himalayan Mountains, confounding global warming alarmists who recently claimed the glaciers were shrinking and that global warming was to blame."

Gore claims the snowcap atop Africa's Mt. Kilimanjaro is shrinking and that global warming is to blame. Yet according to the November 23, 2003, issue of Nature magazine, "Although it's tempting to blame the ice loss on global warming, researchers think that deforestation of the mountain's foothills is the more likely culprit. Without the forests' humidity, previously moisture-laden winds blew dry. No longer replenished with water, the ice is evaporating in the strong equatorial sunshine."

Gore claims global warming is causing more tornadoes. Yet the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change stated in February that there has been no scientific link established between global warming and tornadoes.

Gore claims global warming is causing more frequent and severe hurricanes. However, hurricane expert Chris Landsea published a study on May 1 documenting that hurricane activity is no higher now than in decades past. Hurricane expert William Gray reported just a few days earlier, on April 27, that the number of major hurricanes making landfall on the U.S. Atlantic coast has declined in the past 40 years. Hurricane scientists reported in the April 18 Geophysical Research Letters that global warming enhances wind shear, which will prevent a significant increase in future hurricane activity.

Gore claims global warming is causing an expansion of African deserts. However, the Sept. 16, 2002, issue of New Scientist reports, "Africa's deserts are in 'spectacular' retreat . . . making farming viable again in what were some of the most arid parts of Africa."

Gore argues Greenland is in rapid meltdown, and that this threatens to raise sea levels by 20 feet. But according to a 2005 study in the Journal of Glaciology, "the Greenland ice sheet is thinning at the margins and growing inland, with a small overall mass gain." In late 2006, researchers at the Danish Meteorological Institute reported that the past two decades were the coldest for Greenland since the 1910s.

Gore claims the Antarctic ice sheet is melting because of global warming. Yet the Jan. 14, 2002, issue of Nature magazine reported Antarctica as a whole has been dramatically cooling for decades. More recently, scientists reported in the September 2006 issue of the British journal Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society Series A: Mathematical, Physical, and Engineering Sciences, that satellite measurements of the Antarctic ice sheet showed significant growth between 1992 and 2003. And the U.N. Climate Change panel reported in February 2007 that Antarctica is unlikely to lose any ice mass during the remainder of the century.

Now Al Gwhore and his supporters claim that there is a consensus behind his claims -- but either he is lying or he believes that "consensus" trumps truth. It may be inconvenient, but it is time for him to tell the truth.

UPDATE: Al Gore conveniently avoids correcting his errors/lies in this NY Times column -- I guess he believes that an assault on a inconvenient truths is OK if Earth's in the balance.

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We've all seen some variation of this news report today.

Air strikes in the British-controlled Helmand province of Afghanistan may have killed civilians, coalition troops said yesterday as local people claimed that between 50 and 80 people, many of them women and children, had died.

In the latest of a series of attacks causing significant civilian casualties in recent weeks, more than 200 were killed by coalition troops in Afghanistan in June, far more than are believed to have been killed by Taliban militants.

It takes a while, however, to get to the reason for this tragedy -- and discern the moral responsibility for the deaths -- as well as where international law places the responsibility.

The bombardment, which witnesses said lasted up to three hours, in the Gereshk district late on Friday followed an attempted ambush by the Taliban on a joint US-Afghan military convoy. According to Mohammad Hussein, the provincial police chief, the militants fled into a nearby village for cover. Planes then targeted the village of Hyderabad. Mohammad Khan, a resident of the village, said seven members of his family, including his brother and five of his brother's children, were killed.

Oh, that is why the bombing tool place -- Taliban cowards hiding themselves among civilians.

What does international law say about such things. Since the terrorists and their supporters wax eloquent about the Geneva Conventions, it is convenient that the answer comes from one of them.

The presence of a protected person may not be used to render certain points or areas immune from military operations. Article 28, Fourth Geneva Convention

The Taliban who attacked US and Afghan troops were a legitimate military target. Their hiding amongst civilians did nothing to make such an attack illegitimate -- and did, in fact, render them morally and legally responsible for any civilian casualties by violating this provision.

The presence or movements of the civilian population or individual civilians shall not be used to render certain points or areas immune from military operations, in particular in attempts to shield military objectives from attacks or to shield, favor or impede military operations. The Parties to the conflict shall not direct the movement of the civilian population or individual civilians in order to attempt to shield military objectives from attacks or to shield military operations. Article 51 (7), Additional Protocol to the Geneva Conventions

Now, if the Taliban wishes to claim the protections of the Geneva Conventions, then they are also bound by them -- and in violating these provisions, once again prove themselves to be beneath contempt.

But the media is too busy providing aid and comfort to our enemies to tell you such things -- because it does not fit their preconceived template for the news.

OPEN TRACKBACKING AT Outside the Beltway, The Virtuous Republic, The Random Yak, 123beta, Jeanette's Celebrity Corner, Webloggin, The Amboy Times, Cao's Blog, , Pursuing Holiness, CatSynth.com "catback" weekend, The Magical Rose Garden, Right Celebrity, Walls of the City, Nuke's news and views, Blue Star Chronicles, The Pink Flamingo, Dumb Ox Daily News, and The Yankee Sailor, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.

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But it is really all the fault of the Republicans for not rolling over and playing dead, you see.

The problem for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi isn't just President Bush. It's the Senate.

Pelosi sounded more apologetic than celebratory Friday when she announced with her Senate counterpart, Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada, the Democrats' list of accomplishments six months after they seized control of Capitol Hill and promised "a new direction" in Washington.

"I'm not happy with Congress, either," Pelosi, of San Francisco, conceded.

She pinned the blame on "the obstructionism of the Republicans in the United States Senate."

Immigration has joined Iraq, stem cell research, Medicare drug pricing, the 9/11 Commission's recommendations and other promises in the dustbin of the current Congress. Heading into a July Fourth recess after a bruising failure on immigration, Congress has a public approval rating in the mid-20s, lower than Bush's and no better than Republicans' ratings on the eve of their catastrophic election defeat in November, when the GOP lost control of the Senate and the House.

Seems rather hypocritical to me -- after all, this is the woman who promised "bi-partisanship" but has never tried to deliver on that -- and is faulting the GOP for daring to use some tactics that ought to be familiar to both her and the mobbed-up Senate Majority Leader who was standing beside her as she delivered her comments.

"The Republicans are doing what the Democrats did," said Julian Zelizer, a history and public affairs scholar at Boston University. "They're using the power of the Senate filibuster, and the power in the House when you have narrow majorities, to make a do-nothing Congress -- even when there's a lot of issues on the table, even when there's a lot of interest in accomplishing things."

In other words, she is angry that the GOP would dare use the powers that the Democrats insisted upon as a matter of right when they were in the minority. I believe that the proper response is "Payback's a bitch -- and so are you, Nancy."

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Shocking. Appalling. Disgusting.

A 65-year-old St. Louis man is missing after Amtrak personnel, mistaking his diabetic shock for drunk and disorderly behavior, kicked him off a train in the middle of a national forest, according to police in Williams, Ariz.

Police said Roosevelt Sims was headed to Los Angeles but was asked to leave the train shortly before 10 p.m. Sunday at a railroad crossing five miles outside Williams.

"He was let off in the middle of a national forest, which is about 800,000 acres of beautiful pine trees," Lt. Mike Graham said.

Police said there is no train station or running water at the crossing, which is about two miles from the nearest road, at an elevation of about 8,000 feet.

If he was truly "drunk and unruly", the correct approach is to restrain him as would be done on an airplane, not dump him in the middle of a forest. That this could happen is sufficient reason for this diabetic to steer well-clear of any AMTRAK train.

Fortunately, Williams has been found dazed and disoriented -- four days after being unceremoniously dumped from the train. Here's hoping for criminal charges and a lawsuit against AMTRAK and the employees as individuals.

H/T Texas Fred

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My wife and I have had the same furniture since for over a decade. I mean just about all of it -- dining room, living room, bedroom. It is getting a little worse for wear in some cases, though we have done our best to keep up with it. Still, we talk sometimes about what we would like our next house full of furniture to look like – and more than once I have taken the time to browse around an online furniture store just to get some ideas of what we might do when we do finally find ourselves ready to buy new furniture.

I mean, let's consider the living room furniture for a moment. We definitely need a new sofa -- and my wife would really like for us to go with a sectional sofa this time around, preferably one with a chaise. We are unlikely to go for a leather sofa, though, both due to aesthetics and the fact that we have an indoor dog that could damage the leather with her claws

And what about the bedroom furniture? Well, she might not want the sleigh bed any more because of some of the practical issues one would present in our home due to her mobility issues. Personally I'd like to get us a couple of twin or full beds so that my tossing and turning does not disrupt her sleep by setting off her ache and pains but still allows us to share the same bedroom.

There is definitely one non-negotiable aspect of our home office furniture. One piece has to stay -- Dad's old marble-top roll-top desk that he and mom bought in Asia 20 years ago. However, a new computer desk that harmonizes with that family piece, and some comfortable desk chairs would certainly be appreciated by both my darling wife and I.

Of course, I am talking about a pipe dream right now -- but someday, maybe sooner than I expect, we will make the change.

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The winning entries in the Watcher's Council vote for this week are A Stunningly Dishonest Piece of Advocacy Writing About the Supreme Court by Bookworm Room, and The Rupture by Seraphic Secret.  Here is the link to the full results of the vote.

Here are the full tallies of all votes cast:

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Posted by: Greg at 06:16 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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The enemy within.

Arab-American voters are abandoning the Republican Party in large numbers and only 10 percent of them want the United States to stay in Iraq.

* * *

Only one in 10 Arab-Americans wish for U.S. troops to stay in Iraq until they achieve "victory." Almost a third would prefer they leave immediately and more than half think they should withdraw gradually, according to a new poll released by James Zogby, president of the Arab American Institute Thursday.

Given recent survey results showing that a frighteningly large proportion of US Muslims support suicide bombings and other terrorists activities, this shouldn't come as a surprise. Given that numerous Arab and Muslim groups are intimately involved in funding the terrorists, we shouldn't be shocked.

Indeed, we need to be vigilant and aware -- for like what we have seen in Great Britain, it is likely that the next terrorist attack in this country will come from home-grown jihadis.

Posted by: Greg at 01:04 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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And now a few pearls of wisdom from that great sage, Roseanne Barr.

IMPEACH THE PRESIDENT AND THE VICE PRESIDENT, THEY ARE TRAITORS TO AMERICA, AND SO ARE ALL OF THEIR SUPPORTERS. IMPEACH! ANYONE IN CONGRESS WHO REFUSES TO SAVE OUR UNION FROM THESE TRAITORS BY DOING NOTHING NEEDS TO BE RECALLED. SAVE OUR TROOPS!!! SAVE OUR SCHOOLS AND HOSPITALS AND JOBS. FEED OUR HUNGRY AND POOR! SAVE THE DROWNING PEOPLE IN NEW ORLEANS! ANYONE WHO MENTIONS PARIS HILTON ONE MORE TIME MUST DIE!

No word as to whether she spit and scratched her crotch following the completion of this magnum opus.

And to think that she couldn't make it on talk radio.

Posted by: Greg at 12:55 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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