Don't you just love it when the whack-jobs embraced by the Left turn and eat their own allies?

The Vacaville woman who made national headlines with a peace vigil outside President Bush's Texas ranch brought her rhetorical guns to bear Friday on one of California's U.S. senators.

Cindy Sheehan — whose son, Casey, 24, was a soldier killed in Baghdad in April 2004 — met briefly with an aide to Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., before telling reporters the lawmaker's reasons for supporting Iraq's ongoing occupation are "very bogus."

The Iraqi constitution the United States purportedly is supporting is based on Islamic law and severely curtails women's rights, she said, and the leaders America is protecting are "puppet leaders who George Bush put into place."

Iraqi soldiers the United States is training are seen as collaborators and can do little more than fight for survival, and Iraq's crucial infrastructure continues to be eroded by an insurgency fueled by our military presence, she said.

Feinstein previously has acknowledged that she and other lawmakers were lied to about the reasons for going to war, and that if she knew then what she knew now, she would not have voted to support the conflict, Sheehan said.

"Well, if she knows it's wrong, it's time to bring our kids home," she said.

But Barbara Boxer has lined up right behind Sheehan, who calls teh al-Qaeda affiliates who murdered her son "freedom fighters" and her son's fellow soldiers "terrorists" and "murderers" -- and who has declared America "not worth dying for."

UPDATE: The more mainstream press provides coverage, too.

"If she is a strong leader, and if she's strong about bringing the troops home, we will support her," Sheehan said. "If she is not, we will withdraw our support from her."

Sheehan said Feinstein's reasons for supporting the occupation in Iraq were "very bogus."

"There is no noble cause," Sheehan said. "This war is based on lies. To me, it's not rocket science."

Which Democrat will she start gnawing on next?

Posted by: Greg at 08:37 AM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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Who ordered this attrocity -- cops on one side of the bridge telling them to cross, and cops on the other side turning them back?

Police agencies to the south of New Orleans were so fearful of the crowds trying to leave the city after Hurricane Katrina that they sealed a crucial bridge over the Mississippi River and turned back hundreds of desperate evacuees, two paramedics who were in the crowd said.

The paramedics and two other witnesses said officers sometimes shot guns over the heads of fleeing people, who, instead of complying immediately with orders to leave the bridge, pleaded to be let through, the paramedics and two other witnesses said. The witnesses said they had been told by the New Orleans police to cross that same bridge because buses were waiting for them there.

Instead, a suburban police officer angrily ordered about 200 people to abandon an encampment between the highways near the bridge. The officer then confiscated their food and water, the four witnesses said. The incidents took place in the first days after the storm last week, they said.

"The police kept saying, 'We don't want another Superdome,' and 'This isn't New Orleans,' " said Larry Bradshaw, a San Francisco paramedic who was among those fleeing.

Arthur Lawson, chief of the Gretna, La., Police Department, confirmed that his officers, along with those from the Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office and the Crescent City Connection Police, sealed the bridge.

"There was no place for them to come on our side," Mr. Lawson said.

He said that he had been asked by reporters about officers threatening victims with guns or shooting over their heads, but he said that he had not yet asked his officers about that.

"As soon as things calm down, we will do an inquiry and find out what happened," he said.

Actually, Lawson, you need an inquiry now.

Looks like another screw-up on the state/local level. Wanna bet the Left tries to pin this one on the president, too.

(Hat Tip -- Instapundit and JustOneMinute)

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Look at this incredible statement from DNC Chair Howard Dean. It appears that he believes that opposing the policies advocated by the Democrat Party makes you opposed to equality and a bad American. The bold-face type is mine.

DEAN: My point is that John Roberts has a record. John Roberts appears to be a wonderful, decent, family person, but, again, we get back to the question about whether you really care and whether you have compassion. It's not enough to say you care.

It's what you've done. John Roberts' legal career has been about taking away every protection for young girls and women who want to participate in sports, for African-Americans and Hispanics, who want the equal same right to vote as everybody else, for taking away for women who believe they should determine what kind of health care they have, instead of having politicians do it.

His entire legal career appears to be about making sure those folks don't have the same rights everybody else does. That's probably not the right thing to do two weeks after a disaster, where certain members of society clearly did not have the same protections that everybody else did because of their circumstances. Americans are fair people and they want a sense of justice. I know Judge Roberts loves the law. I'm not sure he loves the American people.

Let's clarify what Howard is talking about here.

Roberts differed with liberals on how Title IX should be applied. He questioned whether one provision of the Voting Rights Act -- a section requiring FEDERAL APPROVAL for every change in district lines, election dates, and polling place locations in some states but not in others, such as Vermont -- should be renewed. And he is a Catholic who really believes in the sanctity of human life -- and has worked to protect the First Amendment rights of pro-life protesters.

Based upon these mainstream political positions, Howard Dean contends that John Roberts hates the American people.

Based upon these mainstream political positions, Howard Dean is questioning the patriotism -- the Americanism -- of a sitting federal judge.

Shame!

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Freedom of religion is a fundamental human right.

This right continues to be under attack in China.

China Aid learned that more than 210 Chinese house church pastors and believers have been arrested in Hubei, Hebei and Henan Provinces since July 2005. Two American tourists in China were also mistreated in this most recent crackdown on a house church in Hubei Province.

On August 2, 2005, while two American tourists were preparing to have Christian fellowship with 41 Chinese House church pastors and believers at their host familyÂ’s home in Lutou Town, Zaoyang City, Hubei Province approximately 30 Chinese plain-clothed police officers rushed into the house.

According to several eyewitness reports, the two American theological students, believed to be from Westminster Theological Seminary Campuses in Texas and California, were handled very unprofessionally. One sustained injuries to his wrists after being handcuffed because he wanted to put his shoes on before he was forced into an unmarked police car.

The police refused to reveal their identifications. The two Americans were neither permitted to contact the US Embassy nor permitted to show their US passports and other Identification cards. Both were taken to a government "hotel" for interrogation.

They were released at 5 pm following a 7 hour interrogation. Without explanation, some of their belongings, including their personal bibles, notebooks, and books on Westminster Confession of Faith were confiscated.

The same day, the 41 Chinese pastors and believers from the evangelical South China Church were taken to No. 2 Zaoyang Prison. At the time of this report 30 had been released. The remaining eleven, including 38-year-old Ms. Wang Hua and 32-year-old Ms. Wang Xiao, as well as the hostess, Ms. Ren Daoyun, are still in prison.

According to eyewitness reports, many of them were tortured. Sixty-year-old Ms. Ren has been repeatedly beaten by Mr. Lei Youxin, the director of the prison. He kicked her, punched her face, and beat her head against the wall with a prison chair. One eyewitness told CAA that Ms. RenÂ’s mouth was bleeding and swollen.

Another 17 year-old evangelist Mr. He Baobao was hospitalized for a serious nose bleed due to the repeated beatings by his interrogators.

CAA learned from a reliable source this raid was directed and led by Mr.Yang Kaihu and Mr Wang Zhiguo, the director of Domestic Security Protection Squad of Xiangfan PSB and Zaoyang PSB respectively.

The PSB confiscated blankets and 2300 RMB($290) and a check with 3000 RMB ($350) from the host family and broke the familyÂ’s television. About 5000 RMB ($625) was also confiscated from the pockets of those arrested.

So arrest, detention, and torture are the punishment for holding a Bible study.

Similarly, other acts of persecution continue in China.

According to CAAÂ’s reliable sources, July 22, approximately 100 Christian high school aged students were arrested at Wanzhuang Town, Langfang City, Hebei Province. They were attending a Vocational Bible School (VBS) organized by their Christian parents. After being interrogated for hours, they were all released and ordered not to gather again by the local PSB.

July 1,2005 approximately 70 house church believers were arrested at Zhaolou Village, Sui County, Henan Province. That church was performing baptisms for 60 new believers at the home of a host family. Ten of them including Pastor Wang Baode were sentenced to 15-days administrative detention. All others were released after paying a 300 RMB ($35) fine without receipts.

CAA received information from a source in Shanghai that 400 members of a 16-year-old house church at Minhang District, Shanghai City was ordered to close by the Shanghai authority. The Religious Affairs Bureau and District Government of Minhang District placed a stamped official notice on the gate of the church building on July 26th declaring the gathering as “an illegal religious gathering and should end their service immediately,” otherwise, the leaders will face “severe administrative punishment.”

Contact the Chinese Embassy in Washington DC to protest these violations of the human right to worship, to pray, and to peacefully associate for religious purposes:

Ambassador Yang Jiechi
Embassy of the PeopleÂ’s Republic of China
2300 Connecticut Ave NW
Washington DC 20008
Tel: (202) 328-2500
Fax: (202) 588-0032
Director of Religious Affairs: (202) 328-2512

For more information on religious persecution in China.

For more on religious persecution worldwide.

Posted by: Greg at 03:57 AM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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The seminal account of the "Middle Passage" of African blacks to America for enslavement was written by Olaudah Equiano. His claim was to have been an African who survived the journey, and his story was purported to be a first-hand account in 1789.

But new evidence raises a question about the facts of Equiano's life -- and whether the story he told was true. And lest you think this is simply an obscure academic debate, please realize that Equiano's account is the basis for much historical thinking on the Middle Passage. I include Equiano's account when I teach about slavery, and it is either explicitly or implicitly a part of most textbooks used today.

Things began around 15 years ago, when Carretta, a professor of English at Maryland who had long been enamored of Equiano, ever since he started teaching his autobiography to undergrads, hopped a plane to England and started hunting. At Westminster Abbey, he stumbled on the documents that recast Equiano's beginnings in a completely unexpected light.

"No one had ever looked at his naval records," Carretta says, still sounding a little surprised. "He tells us the month and year and place he was baptized.

"I was indeed shocked. I said, 'This does not make sense, this shouldn't be. What do I do with it?' "

Carretta decided to test the waters: He edited a new edition of "The Interesting Narrative" for Penguin in 1995 -- and listed his discovery in a footnote. No one noticed.

So in 1999, feeling a little more adventurous, he printed his findings in a history journal, Slavery and Abolition. People noticed.

Some academics in African American studies saw Carretta's findings as an attempt to discredit Equiano, to depict him as the pawn of white abolitionists.

At an academic conference in 2003, scholars debated whether Equiano's claims of his origins were "most likely rhetorical exercises," according to the Chronicle of Higher Education, which first reported on Carretta's biography.

Carretta sees his findings as a twist in the narrative, one that intrigues but, he argues, in no way diminishes Equiano's authority.

"No one raises these questions about Ben Franklin," says Carretta, whose book is titled "Equiano, the African: Biography of a Self-Made Man."

"No one believes Franklin's biography is absolutely unvarnished, true. Everyone selects, elaborates, enhances, embroiders. We expect that. To not, is to assume that someone is a transparent auto-Dictaphone, and can't shape anything, which is more demeaning.

"My Equiano is a literary genius. Other people's Equiano is more like a literary tape recorder: He says what he says."

Actually, I would argue that this could seriously undermine Equiano's authority. This is not a question of a self-serving varnish on one's autobiography, but instead is a question of complete fictionalization of one's life. Carretta is corrects in labeling him a literary genius -- but the problem is that his account is held up as a work of history. If what we have is a novel rather than a memoir, this important narrative of the Middle Passage loses much of its historical importance.

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>

They will be loosed upon trolls, spammers, and fools.

But I will continue to be your guide.

>

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We've heard it was the fault of the federal government that there was no food or water in the Superdome. However, look at why there was no food or water -- it was offered and rejected.

Louisiana officials told the American Red Cross not to plan to go into New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina hit to provide relief to residents at the Superdome — and also refused help from the organization before the storm hit.

As its workers evacuated the city before the storm, the Red Cross offered to drop off food, water, cots and other emergency supplies to the Superdome, but officials declined the supplies, Red Cross spokeswoman Carol Miller said Thursday. The Red Cross was aware that the Superdome was a refuge of last resort for people who couldn't evacuate New Orleans.

Red Cross President Marty Evans said that officials for Louisiana's homeland security department told the relief agency not to drop off the supplies, Miller said. She didn't name the officials.

In the days after Katrina hit, television broadcasts from the Superdome showed thousands of people there complaining about the lack of food and water. Miller said the Red Cross didn't offer its own shelter in downtown New Orleans because it is the agency's policy to “not shelter in unsafe areas.”

So there is no more basis for saying it is the fault of the president or FEMA -- state and local government intentionally starved these people.

Posted by: Greg at 02:37 PM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
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They may have tried to shut her down, but one woman with courage and a message managed to upstage the anti-American thugs of MoveOn.org who wanted to prevent her from exercising the freedom of speech that they demanded for themselves.

Clarice McMillan, of Alexandria, Va., was standing about 25 feet behind the MoveOn.org protesters holding a small, hand-written sign that read, "Support the president and love the people." She had been there for only a few minutes when she was confronted by a screaming MoveOn.org supporter.

"Damn you! Supporting the president's great, but supporting the people and the Constitution is more important," the unidentified woman screamed at McMillan. "The Constitution and the babies who died is [sic] more important than any president and you know that in your heart."

Another MoveOn.org supporter pulled the now crying woman away, telling her, "Don't make this the event." Other protesters criticized members of the media for videotaping the confrontation and interviewing McMillan, who said she understood the verbal assault.

"Well, she was upset. She was just upset. It's okay, I can understand that people get emotional," McMillan said. "I want the people to get help, but I don't think this is the time for blame and criticism or the time for MoveOn.org to take advantage of this."

MoveOn.org supporters continued to heckle members of the press and interrupt McMillan as she explained why she lodged her one-woman counter-protest.

Bravo, Ms. McMillan. You are proof that one person speaking the truth can overcome the lies of a mob.

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I love the response of the crowd at last night's NFL Kickoff celebration.

But I'm mystified by this writer's response to the crowd's reaction to Kanye West.

West did one tune, ''Heard 'Em Say." Yet it was disconcerting to hear his name booed loudly by Patriots fans who evidently didn't appreciate his nationally televised comment the other night on a Hurricane Katrina benefit that President Bush ''doesn't care about black people." The boos were thunderous and lasted for much of his number.

Why are you disconcerted? West made a selfishly self-indulgent and demonstrably false political statement during last week's telethon. Obviously folks did not approve. Is it any wonder that thes patriotic Patriots decided to make a statement of their own?

Posted by: Greg at 02:23 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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Should running for office and being certified the winner make you liable for the legal fees of someone who challenges the results?

The results of last year's House District 12 election are finally complete. Justice lost.

Acting on a court order, the Lake County sheriff on Aug. 31 confiscated the $543.60 from Rick Jore's checking accounts at Community Bank in Ronan. The bank took the remaining $25 in his account as its fee for the transaction. The rest goes to the Meloy-Trieweiler law firm in Helena, the firm that represented the Democratic candidate who won the Nov. 2 election with an appeal to the state Supreme Court.

The worst of Jore's punishment is yet to come. An Aug. 25 order from state District Court Judge Kim Christopher of Polson directs Sheriff Bill Barron to collect from Jore a total of $15,663.56 - plus 10 percent interest dating to June 16. Finding but a fraction of that amount in Jore's bank accounts, the sheriff now is supposed to seize $15,119.96 worth of Jore's personal property, moving on to his house or land after that if necessary. For his trouble, the sheriff will collect a final $60 as his fee for taking Jore's money and property.

What did Jore do to earn such a penalty?

Nothing. He broke no law. He violated nobody's rights. He neglected no duty. All he did was run for public office, for a seat in the Montana House of Representatives.

Jore ran as the Constitution Party candidate in a three-way race against Republican Jack Cross and Democrat Jeanne Windham. Lake County election officials initially declared the election a tie between Jore and Windham, with Cross trailing a distant third. However a handful of ballots counted for Jore were challenged by Windham and the Democrats. And for good reason: Several ballots marked for Jore also had marks adjacent to Cross' name. County election judges somehow divined the voters' intention in those cases to be to vote for Jore. With the election ending in an apparent tie, the governor got to appoint the winner. She picked Jore. A voter and Democratic proxy named Anita Big Spring appealed to the state Supreme Court.

All Jore did was respond to the lawsuit and argue that hte results should stand -- and he therefore was assessed the legal fees of the folks who challenged the outcome -- even though he is accused of nothing other than having been declared the winner. That outcome is sick.

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The detention of Jose Padilla is consistent with federal statutes, Supreme Court precedent, , the US Constitution, and customary international law. He may be held until al-Qaeda is defeated -- just like is done with a POW.

"The exceedingly important question before us is whether the President of the United States possesses the authority to detain militarily a citizen of this country who is closely associated with al Qaeda, an entity with which the United States is at war," Judge Michael Luttig wrote. "We conclude that the President does possess such authority."

Lest anyone forget a rapidly approaching anniversary, these people are making war upon us and trying to kill us.

(Hat Tip -- Michelle Malkin)

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Yesterday, Governor Rick Perry signed the most disgusting piece of legislation passed by the Texas legislature this year.

The legislature could not get a pay raise passed for Texas teachers, but it could increase its pension by a minimum of $6500 per legislator per year for their $7200 per-year part time job (no, that is not a typo -- seventy-two HUNDRED dollars a year).

That means that the annual pension for a legislator with eight years of service is now at the same level as the salary for a teacher with ten years in the classroom making the state minimum salary.

And the increase in pension benefits is, almost to the dollar, equal to the amount Texas teachers are paid below the average national teacher salary.

Virtually every legislator ran making a promise to boost teacher salaries to at least close the compensation gap. They didn't -- and the Lt. Governor even called pay raises for teachers (along with adequate funding for textbooks) "poison" to the process of passing an education bill this year.

Shame on you, Governor. This on your part move makes a vote for Kinky Friedman look much more attractive.

Posted by: Greg at 11:24 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Yeah, probably -- but I somehow suspect that the aliens in question will be speaking Spanish and trying to get to their first period class before the bell rings, not abducting me for strange medical experiments.

I'll let you know after I get back from the mother ship.

Posted by: Greg at 05:59 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Where are Bill Murray, Dan Akoyd, and Harold Ramis when you really need them?

The owners of a Japanese restaurant who claim their newly renovated building is haunted are being sued by their landlord for refusing to move in.

An offer to hold an exorcism was refused, according to the 2.6 million dollar lawsuit filed by the owners of the Church Street Station entertainment complex last month in Orange County Circuit Court.

The lawsuit also asks a judge to decide whether the building is haunted and, if so, whether the ghosts would interfere with the restaurant's business.
Christopher and Yoko Chung had planned to move their Amura Japanese Restaurant into the building in October 2004, but backed out of the lease.

The Chungs' attorney says subcontractors gave several documented reports of having seen ghosts or apparitions in the restaurant at night. The attorney also says Christopher Chung's religious beliefs require him to "avoid encountering or having any association with spirits or demons."

Sounds to me like these folks are avoiding any encounter or association with reality.

Posted by: Greg at 01:45 PM | Comments (9) | Add Comment
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Now really, what is wrong with this?

An undercover police tactic that led to the arrests of at least 30 day laborers brought protests Wednesday as immigrant rights activists demanded an investigation.

But the unusual operation brought praise from residents of the neighborhood around Shepherd and Washington, who called it a much-needed crime-fighting measure.

The undercover officers posed as paint contractors last week, luring day laborers into their trucks and arresting them, police said.

Thirty were charged with soliciting work in the roadway, a misdemeanor, and two of those 30 also were charged with drug possession, said Houston police spokesman Lt. Robert Manzo.

Manzo said a police tactical unit set up the operation partly to search for a burglar known to be in the area and partly in response to frequent complaints of crime and trespassing.

He added that the effort does not reflect a change in policy at his department, which traditionally does not enforce immigration laws.

Of course, the activists are outraged – and the law-breaking immigration criminals are scared.

An undercover police tactic that led to the arrests of at least 30 day laborers brought protests Wednesday as immigrant rights activists demanded an investigation.

But the unusual operation brought praise from residents of the neighborhood around Shepherd and Washington, who called it a much-needed crime-fighting measure.

The undercover officers posed as paint contractors last week, luring day laborers into their trucks and arresting them, police said.

Thirty were charged with soliciting work in the roadway, a misdemeanor, and two of those 30 also were charged with drug possession, said Houston police spokesman Lt. Robert Manzo.

Manzo said a police tactical unit set up the operation partly to search for a burglar known to be in the area and partly in response to frequent complaints of crime and trespassing.

He added that the effort does not reflect a change in policy at his department, which traditionally does not enforce immigration laws.

There would not, of course, be any need for the Minutemen if law enforcement (on all levels) were doing its job. But even if they were working with the Minutemen, what would be the problem? After all, this is about seeing that the laws of the United States, Texas, and Houston are followed.

Local residents are ecstatic.

Lisa Flores, who lives nearby, said she was "ecstatic" that police mounted the operation.

Flores said two men broke into her house in November and threatened her husband with knives, also threatening to kill the baby sitter and Flores' 6-month-old baby. Flores said she thinks one of the burglars, whom the baby sitter saw in the area recently, gathers with day laborers in the neighborhood

* * *

. HPD has received many complaints about day laborers, however, particularly around Shepherd and Washington. A community meeting in July drew more than 70 residents.

Officers at the meeting talked about one elderly woman who said she had a $500 water bill in one month because of day laborers drinking from her outdoor faucet and using it to wash themselves.

There also were complaints of drug use, prostitution and burglaries associated with the day laborers.

"It's a free-for-all in our neighborhood," Flores said. "As much as people want to make it a race issue, it's not. It's a safety issue."

So to all the activists – shut up, and start doing something for the US citizens impacted by these people.

And to the illegals – GO HOME!

Good job, HPD – keep it up.

Posted by: Greg at 01:41 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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In a move strikingly similar to those taken against civil rights activists by racists during the 1950s and 1960s, a pair of homosexual activists in Massachusetts is seeking to intimidate citizens of Massachusetts who want to sign petitions for a proposal to ban homosexual marriages and civil unions in Massachusetts.

``I have the fight in me now, and if people I know, or that I support, or that I do business with are on that list, I might not support them or their philanthropies or their businesses,'' said Tom Lang, who launched knowthyneighbor.org with his spouse, Alex Westerhoff.

Lang, 42, said he and Westerhoff, 36, are only providing via the Internet public information that any citizen could obtain at the secretary of state's office. But anti-gay marriage activists are outraged.

``We think that it is intimidation by no other name,'' said Kristian Mineau, whose name was listed as one of the first 30 signers of the petition. Mineau said he will explore the rights of people who have signed or plan to sign the petition.

``Certainly it raises my concerns. This is the first I have heard of it,'' said Mineau, president of the Massachusetts Family Institute.

Mineau and his wife are listed on the site, along with their address. Also listed: former Mayor Raymond L. Flynn; Dover Selectwoman Kathleen W. Weld and her husband, Walter Weld; and Richard W. Richardson, spokesman for the Black Ministerial Alliance.

This strikes at the heart of public participation in the electoral process. It is also more than a little reminiscent of tactics by the Democrat Party and other racist groups in the South to get the membership rolls of the NAACP and other groups made public so that the public could know which neighbors to harass and which businesses to boycott.

Posted by: Greg at 01:39 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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When Pat Robertson suggested the US government might consider assassinating Hugo Chavez, there was an uproar in the media. Why is there no outcry from the press over this statement from a German official, Andreas Renner, Social Minister in Germany's southern state of Baden-Wuertemberg?

During a visit to a local company on Tuesday, Renner said of Bush: "He ought to be shot down."

He later retracted the remark, saying he meant Bush should be shot down "in a political sense", according to the Reutlinger General-Anzeiger newspaper.

Yeah, like anyone could have intended the words “shot down” to mean anything other than an act of violence. Imagine the uproar if someone suggested that Ted Kennedy needed to be “shot down.” How long would it take for the Secret Service to reach your door if the phrase were directed at Hillary Clinton?

But the press is strangely silent.

I guess it is acceptable for a foreign official to suggest the murder of the President of the United States.

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Nothing had changed in the companyÂ’s circumstances, but the New York Stock Exchange suddenly dropped the planned listing of Life Sciences Research Inc. less than an hour before it was scheduled.

NYSE executives yesterday cowered before animal-rights activists who vowed angry protests over plans to market shares of a New Jersey firm that uses animals in scientific research and testing, investors in the company charged.

Executives of Life Sciences Research Inc. were looking forward to being listed on the world's most prestigious stock exchange.

But at 8:40 a.m. yesterday — less than an hour before the market's opening bell — a stock-exchange official took a Life Sciences Research official aside and said the listing would be postponed, said a company source.

"I'm appalled by what NYSE have done," said one investor who asked not to be named. "We won't be threatened by a bunch of goddamned long-haired hippies."

Animal-rights activists have targeted several companies involved with bringing LSR shares to market.

On Aug. 23, activists spray-painted animal-rights slogans at the Port Washington Yacht Club on Long Island, whose membership they believe includes executives of Carr Securities, which was trading in LSR stock.

Oddly, the animal-rights groups put out a "communiqué" several days later saying the attack happened at the nearby Manhasset Bay Yacht Club. It was unclear yesterday why the communiqué was incorrect, or if the group vandalized the wrong yacht club.

In any case, Carr Securities executives got the message, and on Aug. 26 the company said it would no longer trade LSR stock. No one from Carr returned a call for comment yesterday.

Animal-rights activists have targeted other securities firms as well, and claim their efforts have limited trading in LSR stock.

Leading the campaign against LSR is a British organization, Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty, which has long targeted LSR's British subsidiary, Huntingdon Life Sciences. SHAC has a branch based in New Jersey known as SHAC-USA.

Lest you forget, SHAC is the group responsible for this atrocity.

If yesterday was, as the group Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty claimed, "a great day in the history of the animal rights movement", shame on that movement.

Last October, the remains of Gladys Hammond were removed from her grave. This was the culmination of a long-running campaign against Mrs Hammond's relatives, the Halls of Darley Oaks Farm in Staffordshire, who provide guinea pigs for medical research.

Now that the Halls have, quite understandably, decided to cease breeding guinea pigs, they might get Mrs Hammond's body back. That will be the only positive result of their decision.

So to make it clear, the New York Stock Exchange has given into brazen grave-robbing terrorists. When will the US government take action against these people?

Posted by: Greg at 01:36 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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I encountered this in a New York Times article about the decreasing population of the Astrodome.

Frank E. Gutierrez, the emergency management coordinator for Harris County, which covers Houston, said that Joe Leonard, the area commander for the Department of Homeland Security, had made it a goal to clear the shelter complex by Sept. 18. "Everyone was asking him, 'What if we don't make it?' " Mr. Gutierrez said, "And he said, 'Then I'll need to work harder.' "

If that date seems a little odd but vaguely familiar to you, let me offer you the following link to an earlier post on this site.

I'm left with some uncomfortable questions because of that. Questions that, being asked, are likely to bring some outraged fans looking for me on September 18, the first regular season home game for the Texans.

It does sort of make you wonder, doesnÂ’t it?

Posted by: Greg at 01:34 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Air Force Brigadier General Johnny Weida faced allegations of using his position to proselytize cadets at the Air Force Academy. According to this report he has been cleared.

The Air Force Inspector General's office has cleared a top Air Force Academy general of proselytizing non-Christian cadets, Air Force spokeswoman Jennifer Stephens said Wednesday.

Commandant of Cadets Brig. Gen. Johnny Weida had faced seven allegations that he improperly shared his faith. The inspector general in June cleared him of six of the seven allegations, including his June 2003 "guidance" to cadets that said they are "accountable first to your God." He also urged cadets and staff to pray.

The academy said the final allegation of which he was cleared Wednesday was "using a religious communicative code to facilitate the proselytizing of non-Christian cadets."

Frankly, I do not understand what this last charge even means. A “religious communicative code”? I guess I need someone to explain that to me, because the charge seems to be just so much gobbledy-gook.

Posted by: Greg at 01:29 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Several years ago, California voters passed Proposition 22, establishing that marriage in the state of California is between one man and one woman. There was a vote of more than 60% in favor of the proposition, so one cannot even argue that it represented a slim majority imposing its will on the state -- the vote was overwhelming.

On Monday, the California Assembly gave the people of California the finger by passing legislation that runs directly contrary to the express wish of the people.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has indicated he will veto the bill.

Schwarzenegger's spokeswoman defended the governor's position, saying he continues to back gay rights, including domestic partnership programs that grant same-sex couples most of the rights enjoyed by married couples. She noted that in 2000 California's voters expressed their views on the marriage issue, passing by more than 60 percent Proposition 22, which defined marriage as being between a man and a woman.

Why does Arnold take this position? It might have something to do with the California Constitution (bold mine).

CALIFORNIA CONSTITUTION ARTICLE 2 VOTING, INITIATIVE AND REFERENDUM, AND RECALL SEC. 10.

(a) An initiative statute or referendum approved by a majority of votes thereon takes effect the day after the election unless the measure provides otherwise. If a referendum petition is filed against a part of a statute the remainder shall not be delayed from going into effect.

(b) If provisions of 2 or more measures approved at the same election conflict, those of the measure receiving the highest affirmative vote shall prevail.

(c) The Legislature may amend or repeal referendum statutes. It may amend or repeal an initiative statute by another statute that becomes effective only when approved by the electors unless the initiative statute permits amendment or repeal without their approval.

(d) Prior to circulation of an initiative or referendum petition for signatures, a copy shall be submitted to the Attorney General who shall prepare a title and summary of the measure as provided by law.

(e) The Legislature shall provide the manner in which petitions shall be circulated, presented, and certified, and measures submitted to the electors.

Since the recently passed legislation has the effect of repealing Proposition 22, a vote of the people is required. However, the legislation does not provide for the constitutionally mandated vote, and is therefore in direct defiance of the California Constitution. One has to recognize this legislation as totally flawed, regardless of one's position on the issue of homosexual marriage. That mandates support for the veto.

Supporters of the legislation, of course, don't want a little thing like constitutional law to get in the way of getting what they want. Take this argument.

The legislature didn't "derail" any vote. Proposition 22 was not voted on by the current California populace. Many of those who voted on Prop 22 are now dead, massive amounts of new voters have entered the pool and in the 5 years since that legislation passed many voters have changed their mind (according to polling data). It is the new California voting population who decided (AFTER Prop 22) that these current politicians (the ones who passed the equality bill) were fit to represent them. Now these politicians have done what they were elected to do and if anybody is "derailing" the will of the CURRENT voting population of California it is Schwarzenegger.

Unfortunately for the owner of that blog, it makes as much sense to argue that as it does to argue that Congress could reinstitute slavery without repealing the Thirteenth Amendment, since they represent the will of the people today and the Thirteenth Amendment represents the will of the people 140 years ago. Any rational person recognizes the flaw in both the posters original argument and the hypothetical I put forth -- both situations would ignore the process mandated by the respective constitutions to take the course of action in question.

Of course, many supporters of homosexual marriage are not anywhere near as intellectual as my old friend dolphin is. Take this example (heck, take the whole thread) from Americablog, where there is outrage that Maria has not forced Arnold to sign the bill.

The Arnold is a Nazi Whore with a wife that loves his fame and money. She sold out her principles when she married this 8 inch 2 around uncut salami that gets more action than the Deli cold cut Of The DAy. Don't think for a minute he isn't available for influential men and wealthy ladies who love nothing more than to get serviced by the German Stud Meister. His body and brain have turned to mush and he can't comprehed that Sheldon et.al.will dump him in a heart beat, once they have used him on the gay marriage thing. He's not the darling of the radical right wing. He's a flabby slob that will never be returned to office, no matter who he diddles. It's over for him. He's sold himself to the highest bidder, slavik accent and all. Besides, he's not Sheldon's type, Mitt Romney is.

Much of the rest of the thread is the same, by the way, unless it gets cleaned up. And they say that conservatives are the hateful folks. Is it any wonder that we do not take them seriously?.

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Students are enrolling in local schools here in the Houston area.

If you are a teacher who has lost his/her job due to Hurricane Katrina, I want to bring this to your attention:

SEEKING WORK?

HISD will be holding interviews for job applicants.

• Who: Teachers, counselors, speech pathologists, social workers, teaching assistants

• When: Thursday, 1-4 p.m.

• Where: HISD administrative headquarters, 3830 Richmond, in the Weslayan Building B auditorium

• What to bring: Résumés, teaching certificates, transcripts, references, any other relevant information available

• More information: 713-892-6673

Houston Independent School district is opening two elementary schools that were closed, and is hiring more teachers.

Other districts in the area will need additional classroom teachers and other staff.

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A month back, I linked to a story about the possible discovery of King David's palace in Jerusalem.

Well, now there is another article, this one somewhat more scholarly and not tinged with the subtle and implicit anti-Semitism of the first.

The evidence is remarkable. It includes a section of massive wall running about 100 feet from west to east along the length of the excavation, and ending with a right-angle corner that turns south and implies a very large building. Within the dirt fill between the stones of the great wall were found pottery shards dating to the eleventh century b.c.e.; this is the earliest possible date for the walls’ construction. Two additional walls, also large, running perpendicular to the first, contain pottery dating to the tenth century b.c.e.–meaning that further additions were made after the time of David and Solomon or during their reign, suggesting that the building continued to be used and improved over a period of centuries. The structure is built directly on bedrock along the city’s northern edge, with no archaeological layers beneath it–a sign that this structure, built two millennia after the city’s founding, constituted a new, northward expansion of the city’s northern limit. And it is located at what was then the very summit of the mountain–a reasonable place indeed for the palace from which David “descended.”

This immediate evidence fits well with other archaeological finds from the site, as well. In 1963, the renowned archaeologist Kathleen Kenyon reported finding a Phoenician “proto-Aeolic capital,” or decorative stone column head dating to the same period, at the bottom of the cliff atop which the new excavation has taken place. Kenyon wrote that this capital, along with other cut stones she found there, were “typical of the best period of Israelite building, during which the use of Phoenician craftsman was responsible for an exotic flowering of Palestinian architecture. It would seem, therefore, that during the period of monarchic Jerusalem, a building of some considerable pretensions stood on top of the scarp.” In the early 1980s, Hebrew University’s Yigael Shiloh uncovered the enormous “stepped-stone” support structure which now appears to be part of the same complex of buildings. And in the new excavation, Mazar has discovered a remarkable clay bulla, or signet impression, bearing the name of Yehuchal Ben Shelemiah, a noble of Judea from the time of King Zedekiah who is mentioned by name in Jeremiah 37:3–evidence suggesting that four centuries after David, the site was still an important seat of Judean royalty. This matches the biblical account according to which the palace was in more or less continuous use from its construction until the destruction of Judea by the Babylonians in 586 b.c.e.

So, is it David’s palace? It is extremely difficult to say with certainty; indeed, no plaque has been found that says on it, “David’s Palace”; nor is it likely that such definitive evidence will ever be found. And yet, the evidence seems to fit surprisingly well with the claim, and there are no finds that suggest the contrary, such as the idolatrous statuettes or ritual crematoria found in contemporary Phoenician settlements. The location, size, style, and dating are all right, and it appears in a part of the ancient world where such constructions were extremely rare and represented the greatest sort of public works. Could it be something else? Of course. Has a better explanation been offered to match the data–data which includes not only archaeological finds, but the text itself? No.

If this discovery stands up, it will put to rest the revisionist school that claims that Jerusalem was an unimportant town and that the history of Israel contained in the Hebrew Scriptures is a pious fiction forged centuries after the fact.

Posted by: Greg at 02:13 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Well, that is the result of a recent study of education around the world.

Israeli teachers are less demanding of their students than teachers in countries of the developed world, according to a study conducted recently by Prof. Zemira Mevarech and Dr. Bracha Kramarski of Bar-Ilan University.

The study, which was based on an analysis of data appearing in the Program for International Student Assessment from 2003, reveals that Israel languishes at the bottom of the world table when it comes to demand for achievement from students, with most developed European and American countries ranking above it.
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The study also shows that the level of support an Israeli student receives from a teacher is relatively high.

"The study paints the picture that teachers in Israel spoon-feed the material to the students and don't challenge them," Mevarech says.

The 2003 PISA tests were written by a representative sample of 4,500 Israeli 10th graders and hundreds of thousands of their peers around the world. As part of the assessment, students were asked to complete a questionnaire that reviewed their teachers' demand for achievement.

Mevarech and Kramarski's study shows that on a scale of 1-10, the demand for achievement in Israel earned a score of 3.3. Demand for achievement in the United States scored 6.4; in Britain, 7.3; in Russia, 6.5; in Italy, 6.3 and in Finland, 5.7.

The study also reveals that while the demand for achievement in Israel is low, the level of support a student receives from a teacher is high.

"The teacher in Israel spoon-feeds the students, processes the material for them and poses a low demand threshold," Mevarech says. "The figures show that teachers in Israel are prepared to receive sloppy work from their students."

So it would appear that the US doe do better than one might have imagined, though not nearly as well as we might hope.

And the results for Israel shatter certain ethnic stereotypes, don't they?

Posted by: Greg at 02:05 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Foreigners who want to live in Switzerland will have to take language courses to ensure they can become integrated into Swiss society. Why?

Boillat told swissinfo that some immigrants remained on the margins of society because of poor language skills, lack of work or involvement in the local community.

"Lack of integration creates divisions between immigrants and the rest of society which can translate into tensions," he said.

Let’s implement this here – so that American citizens do not have to learn a language other than English in order to live and work in the United States.

Posted by: Greg at 01:58 PM | Comments (9) | Add Comment
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I think everyone has now heard about this from Oprah.

Oprah Winfrey on Tuesday devoted the first of two shows to the wake of Hurricane Katrina, saying: "I think ... this country owes these people an apology" – referring to the survivors for their treatment after the disaster struck and to those who were left to die as help failed to arrive.

"This makes me so mad. This should not have happened," said a tearful Winfrey, who wore a gas mask inside New Orleans' now-vacated Superdome, where she was overcome by the stench.

1) I am sorry that your governor delayed ordering an evacuation for two days after it became clear the hurricane was headed your direction.

2) IÂ’m sorry that your mayor ignored your cityÂ’s evacuation plan by directing you to shelter in the Superdome rather than using available buses to help you evacuate. IÂ’m further sorry that he allowed hundreds of buses to be destroyed by the hurricane instead of ordering them used to assist in getting you out of town.

3) I’m sorry about the culture of political corruption you and your fellow citizens of Louisiana have permitted and encouraged for decades, allowing the diversion of money for needed public works and public safety projects to be diverted into the pockets of so-called “public servants”.

4) IÂ’m sorry that the same destruction of infrastructure that made it impossible for you to get out of New Orleans also made it difficult for relief supplies and personnel to get into New Orleans following the hurricane.

5) IÂ’m sorry that you have had to be subjected to the ill-informed and hysterical rantings of Oprah Winfrey, whose millions will not be spent to provide you relief despite the fact that she used you and your tragedy to garner higher ratings.

Is that enough of an apology, Ms. Winfrey?

Posted by: Greg at 01:51 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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So, Al, would you like to correct your remarks about when you knew about the loan to Air America that took money from kid so that you can have a political platform. You claim you knew only a few weeks ago -- but now we have your signature on documents dating back a year spelling out the whole deal.

According to a November 2004 settlement agreement between former Air American head honchos Evan Cohen and Rex Sorensen and Air America's current owners and investors at Piquant LLC, Al Franken was smack dab in the middle of negotiations over the debts owed by the liberal radio network--including the Gloria Wise loan. The agreement was signed to clear the decks in advance of the questionable asset transfer from Air America's old owners, Progress Media and Radio Free America, to Piquant. (This is the transfer being challenged by Multicultural Radio Broadcasting Inc. as a "fraudulent conveyance," which we first reported exclusively in the first installment in our investigative blog series, "A Trail of Debts.")

Far from being an innocent party with no knowledge of Air America's money woes, Franken was a signatory to the agreement. The document, published here for the first time, exposes how Franken misled his listeners and the press about his knowledge of the charity loan.

Go to jail. Go directly to jail. Do not pass go -- but definitely pay back $875,000.

Posted by: Greg at 11:34 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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The people of Californian passed a Defense of Marriage Act in 2000. It recognizes marriage as being between one man and one woman, and nothing else. Under the California Constitution, there is only one way to for that to be overturned (other than by an over-reaching court decision) -- the people have to vote to repeal it.

Enter the California Assembly, which yesterday voted to permit homosexual marriage. The will of the people is apparently not a consideration to this extremely gerrymandered body, which is willing to set aside a popular vote and the California Constitution when they find it expedient.

I think this quote sums it up best.

"History will record that you betrayed your constituents and their moral and ethical values," countered Jay LaSuer, his Republican counterpart from La Mesa.

The issue here is not even the nature of marriage.

The issue is whether government dictates to the people, or people dictate to the government. Is government the servant or the master.

Quite bluntly, if this is allowed to stand, the very notion of government of the people, by the people, for the people will have perished in California.

Posted by: Greg at 11:25 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Are you Bush critics hearing this?

New Orleans Mayor C. Ray Nagin told CNN's "American Morning" Monday that he met with Mr. Bush and Mrs. Blanco on Air Force One on Friday and implored the two to "get in sync."

"If you don't get in sync, more people are going to die," Mr. Nagin said.

Mr. Bush met privately first with Mrs. Blanco, then called Mr. Nagin in for a meeting.

"He called me in that office," Mr. Nagin said. "And he said, 'Mr. Mayor, I offered two options to the governor.' I was ready to move. The governor said she needed 24 hours to make a decision."

Not that this is the first time she has delayed and temporized.

Mr. Bush, at the request of Mrs. Blanco, declared the entire state of Louisiana a disaster area 48 hours before the hurricane made landfall. He also asked Mrs. Blanco to order a mandatory evacuation of New Orleans on Aug. 27 -- two days before the hurricane hit -- but she did not make the order until Aug. 28.

In other words, Bush acted -- but Blanco did not.

And I won't get into the question of those school buses.

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I donÂ’t agree with the legal philosophy of Professor Lawrence Tribe, but I think his column on Chief Justice Rehnquist does a fine job of explaining what the greatest legacy of the recently departed jurist may be.

RECENT events might change the direction of the winds that moved America toward the point Justice Rehnquist comfortably occupied from his earliest days on the court. How the new court will tack with or against those winds will be Topic A at the forthcoming confirmation hearings, as it should be. But Topic B had better be the ability of the new justices to help the court earn the respect of all who take part in its proceedings or are affected by its rulings - which means everybody. Chief Justice Rehnquist was a master at that mission. For that, and for the steadiness of his leadership, I will always remember him with profound gratitude and admiration.

Well said, sir.

And certainly a cut above the hatchet-wielding hate-speech of your colleague at Harvard.

Posted by: Greg at 01:27 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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I’m sorry, but this has to be the most absurd demand for an apology since someone used the word “niggardly”.

The Gary branch of the NAACP wants an apology from Bureau of Motor Vehicles Commissioner Joel Silverman for "offensive and disrespectful" comments he made during a recent public hearing.

Silverman referred to members of a mostly black audience Aug. 17 as having a "city mentality," which many took as a racial remark.

"When you mention the term 'city mentality' to an audience consisting mainly of African-Americans, they're not thinking city mentality means 'regional.' They're thinking you mean the N-word mentality. That was a perception problem," said Tammi Davis, president of the National Association fro the Advancement of Colored People.

Davis has sent a letter to Gov. Mitch Daniels requesting a formal apology and suggesting that Silverman attend sensitivity training.

Now wait – the NAACP even admits that the problem was the perception of the audience, not the words of the of the official. So why does he need to be sensitized? Shouldn’t it be those who are misperceiving the message who get reeducated?

Posted by: Greg at 01:26 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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After all, if the board overseeing the levees is part of the legendary web of public-sector corruption in Louisiana, then it is hard to blame Corps of Engineers budget cuts for the problem, isn’t it?

Rampant public corruption was doing big business in New Orleans long before Hurricane Katrina ever hit. What then Congressman, now Senator David Vitter calls "corrupt, good old boy" practices were apparent in the New Orleans Levee Board just one year before the collapse of regional levees, emergency communications and government services brought the Big Easy to the brink of anarchy. In fact, Senator David Vitter requested a federal investigation into improper practices of a number of public utilities, including the New Orleans Levee Board, and a new Task Force was to have been initiated in the Baton Rouge office, beginning in July 2004.

As Vice-Chairman of the Appropriations Subcommittee, which holds jurisdiction over the Justice Department, Vitter met with and actively encouraged Attorney General John Ashcroft and FBI Director Robert Mueller to establish an additional Public Corruption Task Force in their Louisiana offices.

With the focus on kickbacks and bogus contractors, who was heeding experts calling for a levee disaster from a major hurricane?

Could New Orleans’s descent into quasi-revolutionary chaos be an indirect result of racketeering, kickbacks and procurement fraud by Democrat insiders with ties to a fast-growing organization called `La Francophonie’?

This is an important read, in my opinion.

Seems to me that we could have some folks here who should be facing some homicide charges along with public corruption charges – say 10,000 or so.

Posted by: Greg at 01:23 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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After all, if the board overseeing the levees is part of the legendary web of public-sector corruption in Louisiana, then it is hard to blame Corps of Engineers budget cuts for the problem, isnÂ’t it?

Rampant public corruption was doing big business in New Orleans long before Hurricane Katrina ever hit. What then Congressman, now Senator David Vitter calls "corrupt, good old boy" practices were apparent in the New Orleans Levee Board just one year before the collapse of regional levees, emergency communications and government services brought the Big Easy to the brink of anarchy. In fact, Senator David Vitter requested a federal investigation into improper practices of a number of public utilities, including the New Orleans Levee Board, and a new Task Force was to have been initiated in the Baton Rouge office, beginning in July 2004.

As Vice-Chairman of the Appropriations Subcommittee, which holds jurisdiction over the Justice Department, Vitter met with and actively encouraged Attorney General John Ashcroft and FBI Director Robert Mueller to establish an additional Public Corruption Task Force in their Louisiana offices.

With the focus on kickbacks and bogus contractors, who was heeding experts calling for a levee disaster from a major hurricane?

Could New OrleansÂ’s descent into quasi-revolutionary chaos be an indirect result of racketeering, kickbacks and procurement fraud by Democrat insiders with ties to a fast-growing organization called `La FrancophonieÂ’?

This is an important read, in my opinion.

Seems to me that we could have some folks here who should be facing some homicide charges along with public corruption charges – say 10,000 or so.

Posted by: Greg at 01:23 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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People are already talking about staying here in Houston following the storm.

After all, many evacuees have friends or family in the area, and others expect to be displaced a year. That means that they may decide that living in Houston may be a very attractive option for many of them.

From doctors and architects to retirees and gang members, more than 150,000 Louisiana residents have landed on this city's doorstep. Some will be here for days and months, but many will simply stay.

They will be looking for jobs and apartments. They will put their children in schools. They will figure out how to navigate the city in a bus.

These are not just the poor, dazed people seen in pictures of the shelters — many of whom are finding family and moving out.

They are professionals searching for nice houses and leasing them for the entire school year, said Terry Cominsky with Karpas Properties, who has helped six such families in the past week.

None has a clue whether they will ultimately buy a home and stay here, she said. Dozens of important questions come first, like how to collect insurance money and what happens to the mortgage back home.

But they might stay. And the effect on Houston could be "profound," said Mayor Bill White, without offering specifics. Certainly the city's budget will go up, as will tax revenue. Which will rise higher is anyone's guess, he said.

Other changes are happening fast.

A month ago you would have had no problem finding an apartment – today that is becoming much more difficult. A colleague’s wife reports an increase in potential homebuyers in the last week, many from Louisiana. The media claims that office space is renting fast as Louisiana companies plan for an extended relocation. On a note that is much closer to me, my school has a total of 9 students who have been displaced by Katrina -- and I expect the number to rise over the course of the week to at least 30 -- and beyond that next week.

Houston exists today because a hurricane wiped Galveston off the map 105 years ago. Does the destruction of New Orleans mean we will see an extended boom in 2005?

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John CornynÂ’s speculation on the new nominee is probably dead on target.

President Bush's nomination of John Roberts for U.S. chief justice opens the door to a likely appointment of a Hispanic or a woman to the post now occupied by outgoing Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, Texas Sen. John Cornyn said.

Cornyn is a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which will conduct confirmation hearings on Roberts and Bush's eventual nominee to replace O'Connor. Roberts was initially nominated for O'Connor's post, but Bush said Monday that he wants the conservative appeals court judge to replace Chief Justice William Rehnquist, who died Saturday.

As Bush begins a new search for an O'Connor replacement, Cornyn said, "it's highly likely" the president will appoint a woman or Hispanic, "or potentially even an Hispanic woman." Asked whether Bush is less likely to name an Anglo man to that position, Cornyn said, "that would be my guess."

Cornyn, a Republican, declined to suggest specific nominees. At least three Texas Hispanics -- U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, and Emilio Garza and Edward Prado, both members of the 5th U.S. Circuit appeals court -- have been prominently mentioned as possible nominees. Texan Edith Hollan Jones, another 5th Circuit judge, is also a potential contender.

Cornyn, a former Texas Supreme Court justice, was mentioned as a potential candidate in the first-round search but said he has no indication that he is a prospect now.

Does anyone know about Prado?

Also, hereÂ’s hoping that Cornyn is selected to replace John Paul Stevens if the justice dies or retires (he is older than the recently deceased Chief Justice).

Posted by: Greg at 01:18 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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There are many lost cities, thriving metropoli in their day. Has Hurricane Katrina made New Orleans the latest one, joining Pompeii (or the mythical Atlantis) as silent ruins with no human inhabitants?

Consider this article from the New York Times.

Only the wind inhabits the cliff dwellings at Mesa Verde in Colorado, birds and vines the pyramids of the Maya. Sand and silence have swallowed the clamors of frankincense traders and camels in the old desert center of Ubar. Troy was buried for centuries before it was uncovered. Parts of the Great Library of Alexandria, center of learning in the ancient world, might be sleeping with the fishes, off Egypt's coast in the Mediterranean.

"Cities rise and fall depending on what made them go in the first place," said Peirce Lewis, an expert on the history of New Orleans and an emeritus professor of geography at Pennsylvania State University.

Changes in climate can make a friendly place less welcoming. Catastrophes like volcanoes or giant earthquakes can kill a city quickly. Political or economic shifts can strand what was once a thriving metropolis in a slow death of irrelevance. After the Mississippi River flood of 1993, the residents of Valmeyer, Ill., voted to move their entire town two miles east to higher ground.

What will happen to New Orleans now, in the wake of floods and death and violence, is hard to know. But watching the city fill up like a bathtub, with half a million people forced to leave, it has been hard not to think of other places that have fallen to time and the inconstant earth.

One of those locations resonates with me. My first teaching job was at a Catholic school that served, among other places, Valmeyer. The pastor of the Catholic church there had been the founding principal. My wife, then the pastor of a church in a neighboring community preached the sermon at the first Thanksgiving service ever held in one of the churches in the new town. To say they voted is somewhat misleading -- the people of Valmeyer were told they could not rebuild on the site sacrificed by the Corps of Engineers for the sake of larger, historically important communities down river. Their only decision was whether they should rebuild together or scatter to the four winds.

The people of New Orleans will have to decide -- as a community, as individuals -- if a return to the site of the current tragedy is the right thing. I suspect that many will not return. Like Galveston before it, New Orleans may never fully recover from the death and destruction inflicted by nature.

Posted by: Greg at 04:22 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Saturn's rings have been changing for the last 25 years, and one has started to dim!

New observations by the international Cassini spacecraft reveal that Saturn's trademark shimmering rings, which have dazzled astronomers since Galileo's time, have dramatically changed over just the past 25 years.

Among the most surprising findings is that parts of Saturn's innermost ring _ the D ring _ have grown dimmer since the Voyager spacecraft flew by the planet in 1981, and a piece of the D ring has moved 125 miles inward toward Saturn.

While scientists puzzle over what caused the changes, their observations could reveal something about the age and lifetime of the rings.

Cassini-related discoveries were discussed Monday at a meeting of the American Astronomical Society's division of planetary sciences in Cambridge, England.

"I don't think Saturn's rings will disappear anytime soon, but this tells us how the rings are evolving and how long they might last, " deputy project scientist Linda Spilker said in a telephone interview from England.

Scientists are interested in Saturn's rings because they are a model of the disk of gas and dust that initially surrounded the sun. Studying them could yield important clues about how the planets formed from that disc 4.5 billion years ago.

The ring observations were made this summer. The $3.3 billion Cassini mission, funded by NASA and the European and Italian space agencies, was launched in 1997. Cassini is managed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena.

I know the problem -- it is galactic warming, and George W. Bush is at fault for not accepting the limits of the Kyoto Accords!

Posted by: Greg at 01:58 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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The winning entries in the Watcher's Council vote for this week are A Nation that Stands for Nothing Deserves a Media that Believes in Nothing by Dr. Sanity, and Gates of Fire by Michael Yon : Online Magazine. Here is where you can find the full results of the vote.

And here is the Watcher's regular offer of link whorage.

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Maybe I'm wrong to gloat over this misfortune that has befallen these limousine liberals, but a couple of stock & bond socialists like John Kerry and his wife Teresa do sort of bring it upon themselves. How many second's living expenses will this expropriateion take from them?

state governor allied to leftist President Hugo Chavez has ordered Venezuelan troops to seize an abandoned tomato-processing plant owned by the H.J. Heinz Co., a state official said Monday.

The plant in the eastern state of Monagas still belongs to Heinz but hasn't been used for years, said Angelica Rivero, a spokeswoman for the governor.

"The governor decided to seize the plant so it can be protected from looters and later be put to use," Rivero said.

Monagas Gov. Jose Gregorio Briceno told the state-run Bolivarian News Agency the plant changed hands several times under previous governments before Heinz purchased it in 1997 and later ceased operations.

Debbie Foster, a spokeswoman for the Pittsburgh-based food company, said the plant had not been used for eight to 10 years but gave no other comment.

Officials were expected to expropriate the plant, a move that would require the Venezuelan National Assembly to declare the property to be of "public interest." It wasn't immediately clear whether soldiers were posted at the plant Monday.

Chavez, a close ally of Cuba's Fidel Castro who says he supports socialism, has said the government may expropriate the property of companies whose factories are idle or partially paralyzed in order to put them back to work.

One nearby town, Caicara, suffered because of the actions of the "transnational monopoly," Briceno told the state news agency, known by its Spanish initials ABN.

"At that time I was mayor of that town and I felt impotent, my hands tied, as 30 million kilos (66 million pounds) of tomatoes ... were produced, and the closing of the business led the farm workers to go broke," Briceno told ABN.

Who wants to bet that the Kerrys demand "special assistance" from the State Department?

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I never thought I would write those words, but they are deserved.

Sean Penn took matters into his own hands yesterday, launching a boat in a personal effort to rescue New Orleans families stranded by Hurricane Katrina.

The Oscar-winning actor and political activist managed to reach several people who had been trapped in their homes since the hurricane hit Monday.

Penn, who was accompanied by his personal photographer and a crew of helpers, brought the victims to dry land - and gave them cash as well.

Johnnie Brown, 73, a retired custodian, called his sister on a cell phone after being plucked from his flooded house. "Guess who come and got me out of the house? Sean Penn the actor. Them boys were really nice," he said.

Penn later accompanied a few of them to a hospital.

Asked what he was doing in the disaster zone, Penn said, "Whatever I can do to help."

"There's a lot of people out there," Penn said. "There's bodies everywhere. We could only do so many houses."

Your politics may be wrong -- but your actions here are exactly correct, and I salue you.

UPDATE: Contrast the above story with this story.

EFFORTS by Hollywood actor Sean Penn to aid New Orleans victims stranded by Hurricane Katrina foundered badly overnight, when the boat he was piloting to launch a rescue attempt sprang a leak.

Penn had planned to rescue children waylaid by Katrina's flood waters, but apparently forgot to plug a hole in the bottom of the vessel, which began taking water within seconds of its launch.

The actor, known for his political activism, was seen wearing what appeared to be a white flak jacket and frantically bailing water out of the sinking vessel with a red plastic cup.

When the boat's motor failed to start, those aboard were forced to use paddles to propel themselves down the flooded New Orleans street.

Asked what he had hoped to achieve in the waterlogged city, the actor replied: "Whatever I can do to help."

With the boat loaded with members of Penn's entourage, including a personal photographer, one bystander taunted the actor: "How are you going to get any people in that thing?"

I'd love to know where these two stories fit in relation to each other -- and if both are true. (Hat Tip: Colossus of Rhodey.)

Posted by: Greg at 03:46 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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