December 31, 2006
Here are the things I see in the coming year -- let's see if I do better than I did for the year just passed, or can beat my 2005 predictions.
1) Good news -- Fidel Castro finally dies. Bad news -- Kim Jong-Il and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad don't.
2) Pelosi only seeks to remove GOP alligators from her ethical swamp -- and seeks a special investigation of the DOJ when John Murtha is indicted over his recently disclosed connections with a non-profit group.
3) Tom DeLay finally gets a trial after the Court of Criminal Appeals tosses the Ronnie Earle's attempt to create an ex post facto application of campaign finance law. DeLay will be found not guilty.
4) There will be a troop surge in Iraq beginning in March, with numbers being decreased in July. Next December will see fewer US troops in Iraq than are there as 2006 ends. Presidential poll numbers will rise as the troop surge stabilizes Iraq.
5) We will see a July resignation from the Supreme Court -- and there will be a serious fight over the confirmation of the president's choice of replacement.
6) Congressman Nick Lampson finds it necessary to strike a balance between his overwhelmingly conservative district and his overwhelmingly liberal Democrat supporters. He will have thoroughly alienated one or the other by this time next year, and polls will show him quite vulnerable to either a primary or general election challenge in 2008 (depending on which group he angers).
7) The Texas Legislature will screw up property tax reduction again -- and do nothing significant about teacher salaries and insurance. Congress screws up immigration reform, doing nothing to fix the leaking border while granting amnesty.
Royal weddings: Prince William and Kate Middleton, Chelsea Clinton and Marc Mezvinsky.
9) The Houston Texans make David Carr actually compete for the starting quarterback position after drafting University of Houston QB Kevin Kolb in the third round. Carr remains starter, but has to keep an eye over his shoulder while leading the team to its first playoff appearance in franchise history (as a wild card team) -- but Kolb is clearly the future in Houston.
10) Muslims riot yet again over a perceived slight to Muhammad.
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, 
DD,
THE cover story on abortion in El Salvador in The New York Times Magazine on April 9 contained prominent references to an attention-grabbing fact. “A few” women, the first paragraph indicated, were serving 30-year jail terms for having had abortions. That reference included a young woman named Carmen Climaco. The article concluded with a dramatic account of how Ms. Climaco received the sentence after her pregnancy had been aborted after 18 weeks.It turns out, however, that trial testimony convinced a court in 2002 that Ms. Climaco’s pregnancy had resulted in a full-term live birth, and that she had strangled the “recently born.” A three-judge panel found her guilty of “aggravated homicide,” a fact the article noted. But without bothering to check the court document containing the panel’s findings and ruling, the article’s author, Jack Hitt, a freelancer, suggested that the “truth” was different.
The issues surrounding the article raise two points worth noting, both beyond another reminder to double-check information that seems especially striking. Articles on topics as sensitive as abortion need an extra level of diligence and scrutiny — “bulletproofing,” in newsroom jargon. And this case illustrates how important it is for top editors to carefully assess the complaints they receive. A response drafted by top editors for the use of the office of the publisher in replying to complaints about the Hitt story asserted that there was “no reason to doubt the accuracy of the facts as reported.”
Indeed -- despite the evidence of the official record of the court proceedings, including the scientific evidence, the official line of the New York Times is that hte article was fair, accurate, and truthful. Even though the information in it was false and the reporter never bothered to look at the official court transcripts in the case.
Yeah, you read that right.
Mr. Hitt said Ms. Climaco had been brought to his attention by the magistrate who decided four years ago that the case warranted a trial, so he had asked the magistrate for the court record. “When she told me that the case had been archived, I accepted that to mean that I would have to rely upon the judge who had been directly involved in the case and who heard the evidence” in the trial stage of the judicial process, Mr. Hitt wrote in an e-mail to me. So he didn’t pursue the document.But obtaining the public document isn’t difficult. At my request, a stringer for The Times in El Salvador walked into the court building without making any prior arrangements a few days ago, and minutes later had an official copy of the court ruling. It proved to be the same document as the one disseminated by LifeSiteNews.com, which had been translated into English in early December by a translator retained by The Times Magazine’s editors. I’ve since had the stringer review the translation of key paragraphs for me.
The magistrate, Mr. Hitt noted, “had been helpful in other areas of the story and quite open.” So when she recalled one doctor’s estimate that Ms. Climaco’s pregnancy had been aborted at 18 weeks, he used that in the article. (The only 18-week estimate mentioned in the court ruling came from a doctor who hadn’t seen any fetus and whose deductions from the size of the uterus 17 hours after the birth were found by the three judges to be flawed.)
Mr. Hitt concluded the article with this summation of the Climaco case: “The truth was certainly — well, not in the ’middle’ so much as somewhere else entirely. Somewhere like this: She’d had a clandestine abortion at 18 weeks, not all that different from D.C.’s [another woman cited earlier in the story], something defined as absolutely legal in the United States. It’s just that she’d had an abortion in El Salvador.”
So the story was run based upon the word of the magistrate, and there was no attempt made to get a copy of the record -- a pretty shoddy piece of work. And what did the record show when the transcript was acquired, months after the piece ran in the NY Times magazine?
When Times Magazine editors provided me with an English-language version of the court findings on Dec. 8, just after the translation had been completed, there was little ambiguity in the court’s findings. “We have an already-formed and independent life here,” the court said. “Therefore we are not dealing with an abortion here, as the defense has attempted to claim in the present case.”The physician who had performed the autopsy on the “recently born” testified that it represented a “full-term” birth, which he defined as a pregnancy with a duration of “between 38 and 42 weeks,” the ruling noted. In adopting those conclusions, the court said of another autopsy finding: “Given that the lungs floated when submerged in water, also indicating that the recently-born was breathing at birth, this confirms that we are dealing with an independent life.”
Yep -- a full-term pregnancy, a breathing child, and a murder. No abortion.
But how has the official NY Times responded to the situation? By defending the article, and refusing to acknowledge that its contents are false, all without allowing the facts to finally be checked.
The magazine’s failure to check the court ruling was then compounded for me by the handling of reader complaints about the issue. The initial complaints triggered a public defense of the article by two assistant managing editors before the court ruling had even been translated into English or Mr. Hitt had finished checking various sources in El Salvador. After being queried by the office of the publisher about a possible error, Craig Whitney, who is also the paper’s standards editor, drafted a response that was approved by Gerald Marzorati, who is also the editor of the magazine. It was forwarded on Dec. 1 to the office of the publisher, which began sending it to complaining readers.The response said that while the “fair and dispassionate” story noted Ms. Climaco’s conviction of aggravated homicide, the article “concluded that it was more likely that she had had an illegal abortion.” The response ended by stating, “We have no reason to doubt the accuracy of the facts as reported in our article, which was not part of any campaign to promote abortion.”
And now that the facts are clear in the case, what is the response? To continue to defend the article as true, to reject the findings of the trial court as untrustworthy and possibly politicized, and to refuse to present a retraction or correction -- or even notify those who received the earlier response that new evidence was out there casting doubt on whether or not the article was fair or accurate.
The article was “as accurate as it could have been at the time it was written,” Mr. Marzorati wrote to me. “I also think that if the author and we editors knew of the contents of that third ruling, we would have qualified what we said about Ms. Climaco. Which is NOT to say that I simply accept the third ruling as ‘true’; El Salvador’s judicial system is terribly politicized.”I asked Mr. Whitney if he intended to suggest that the office of the publisher bring the court’s findings to the attention of those readers who received the “no reason to doubt” response, or that a correction be published. The latest word from the standards editor: “No, I’m not ready to do that, nor to order up a correction or Editors’ Note at this point.”
In other words, what are the standards at the NY Times? No standards -- not when it might present the paper in a bad light, and so the Times stands by the article that is factually untrue. So much for the "paper of record".
UPDATE: 1/2/2007: Well, looks like some others are picking up on the story -- including Michelle Malkin, The Saloon, Elmer's Brother, The Coffeespy, Blake's Blog, Hot Air, Roger L. Simon, Custos Fidei
UPDATE 1/3/2007" Could it be that the only staff member to lose his position over this scandal (at least in part) will be public editor Barney Calame -- because he has once agaain taken a position critical of, rather than endorsing, outrageous actions by the Time editorial staff?
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The military band drilled. Wreaths with white roses hung outside the House and Senate chambers. In the Capitol Rotunda rested the black velvet catafalque that once bore the remains of Abraham Lincoln.Everything was in place for former President Gerald Ford's state funeral Saturday night — everything, that is, but the statesmen.
•President Bush sent his regrets; he was cutting cedar and riding his bike on his ranch in Texas.
•Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and his deputy, Richard Durbin, couldn't make it either; they were on a trip to visit Incan ruins.
•Incoming House Speaker Nancy Pelosi took a pass, too — as did about 500 of the 535 members of Congress.
Only one Cabinet member — Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez — accepted the invitation, organizers said.A 6-to-3 majority of the Supreme Court, including Ford's appointee, John Paul Stevens, ruled against attending.
Congressional staffers and Ford family representatives scrambled to find sufficient greeters and honorary pallbearers to join Vice President Dick Cheney and a score of former lawmakers and Ford administration officials.
I'm sorry, but I can only call this a shameful response. The President could and should have cut short the Crawford vacation. Reid and Durbin arguably could have rescheduled the trip south of the border -- they do get CNN in Latin America, so they know about Ford's death.More members of Congress could have made it back, Cabinet officials could have made an effort to return to Washington, and the Supreme Court justice (especially Stevens) could have put in an appearance. There should have been more than 77 official mourners at the Capitol on Saturday night.
After all, this is the state funeral for a former head of state -- shouldn't the current leaders of the United States be in attendance?
Or are we seeing that such funeral rituals are an anachronism in this country?
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December 30, 2006
Back in the early eighties my young family and I lived next door to an Iranian family. They were nice, friendly people. Hamid (not his real name) was a physician who was just starting out in his own practice. His wife, Haideh was also Iranian born. She was a mathematician. She taught at a local college. We moved in to brand new houses just months apart and shared the rigors of nurturing lawns where there had been only bulldozer tracks. We cooperated in the planting of trees and shrubs to define the empty expanses between our new homes. We borrowed tools from each other. Hamid and I played tennis often and even discussed the possibility of building a tennis court in the flat spot where our lots met. Our children played together and his son, Amir and my daughter Amy became very close friends. The two of them were barely more than toddlers when they first met but were soon talking about getting married the way little ones sometimes do when they find a close companion of the opposite sex.
The next summer, they went back to Iran to visit with their families. We were afraid for our friends. We knew the country was in turmoil. They were gone for several weeks. For much of the time my AmyÂ’s days were occupied with day camp but she still missed her friend. They finally returned a week before school. The two seemed to pick up right where they had left off.It was a sunny Sunday morning and Amy went out right after breakfast and met Amir in his backyard. We watched as they began to play and turned away to read the Sunday paper. We were surprised when Amy came back inside a short while later. She walked by us with her head down and started up the stairs to her room. We had expected to have to call her in for lunch so it was odd that she came back so early. I called after her and asked her what was wrong. She told me how little 5-year-old Amir had matter-of-factly informed my innocent 5-year-old daughter that because she is a Jew it is his duty to kill her.
I hope the author, Yaacov Ben Moshe, keeps on writing and has more to say about his topic of choice.
What's more, I've found this week's nominee for the Watcher's Council.
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Justice Accomplished!
At long last, Saddam is dead, hanged for his crimes against the Iraqi people.
Saddam Hussein, the former Iraqi dictator who spent his last years in captivity after his ruthless Baathist regime was toppled from power by the U.S.-led coalition in 2003, was hanged Saturday for crimes committed in a brutal crackdown during his reign, a witness said."Saddam's body is in front me," said an official in the prime minister's office when CNN telephoned. "It's over."
In the background, Shiite chanting could be heard. When asked about the chanting, the official said, "These are employees of the prime minister's office and government chanting in celebration."
A witness to the execution reported that celebrations broke out after Hussein was dead, and that there was "dancing around the body."
Not only was there dancing around the body, but also in Iraqi-American communities.
And celebrations broke out in Iraq as well.
I'll post more pictures/video of the big event when they becomes available.
UPDATE 1 -- 7:30 AM CST: Pictures added.
UPDATE 2 -- 8:00 AM CST: At least one local Dem blogger and party activist (connected enough to be admitted to our incoming Congressman's hospital room) appears troubled that it was Saddam swinging and not members of the Bush administration.
According to Raw Story, Saddam Hussein will die tonight. After 3 years of war, almost 3000 American soldiers killed, 20,000+ wounded, our reputation around the world badly damaged, hundreds of thousands of Iraqis killed, and after spending almost $500 Billion of our tax dollars, we finally got Saddam hanging from a rope.We should be so proud.
Tonight Saddam will be swinging from a rope and struggling for his last breath of air, while the ghouls across the country are waiting for the video to hit YouTube.
And yet the undeniable fact will remain that the only person who didn't lie about weapons of mass destruction will be hanging from the end of the rope.
And those that did will not.
UPDATE 3 -- 2:00 PM CST: Hot Air has video from FoxNews.
MORE AT Michelle Malkin, Captain's Quarters, Tammy Bruce, Liberty Papers, Sensible Mom, Ed Driscoll, bRight & Early, A Blog For All, PoliBlog, Anchoress, Patterico, Gay Patriot, Hot Air, TelChai Nation, Gateway Pundit, JammieWearingFool, Jawa Report
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In yet another moral blow to Durham County District Attorney Mike Nifong, the North Carolina Conference of District Attorneys called for the prosecutor to step down from the Duke lacrosse case.The group, which represents district attorneys from across North Carolina, said in a statement that "it is in the interest of justice and the effective administration of criminal justice that Mr. Nifong immediately withdraw and recuse himself from the prosecution."
"It's extraordinarily unusual and it means a great deal," said Joshua Marquis, a district attorney in Clatsop County, Ore.
The district attorney group also called for the case to be reassigned and handed over to "another prosecutorial authority."
The statement was prompted by charges of ethics violations against Nifong filed Thursday by the North Carolina bar. Those allegations accuse Nifong of making inappropriate comments about the case in a series of press interviews early in the proceedings.
The recently filed ethics charge have created a true conflict of interest for Nifong. Dropping all charges and conceding the obvious innocence of the accused would be an implicit concession that he had engaged in the sort of wrong-doing of which he is accused, and so it is virtually impossible for any prosecutorial decision he makes from this point forward to not be seen as tinged with self-interest.
And speaking of those ethics charges brought by the NC Bar against Nifong, there could yet be even more, according to Time magazine.
The Dec. 28 ethics charges are expected to be expanded when the state bar's grievance committee meets again Jan. 18. Like a grand jury, the committee meets periodically; the current ethics charges stem from its most recent meeting in October and cover public statements Nifong made about the case last March and April. At its next meeting, the committee will deal with revelations from a Dec. 15 court hearing in which the state's DNA expert admitted he and Nifong agreed to keep secret from the defense early DNA results showing no Duke lacrosse player could be implicated in an attack upon one of two exotic dancers hired for the March 14 house party.
In other words, some of Nifong's most egregious misconduct in this case had not even been exposed when these charges were drawn up, and so there is a whole lot more to delve into.
And that doesn't even get into the question of possible criminal charges against this hack DA.
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December 29, 2006
Here are the full tallies of all votes cast:
| Votes | Council link |
|---|---|
| 3 | Follow Your Surges Done With Mirrors |
| 2 | The Coming of Neo-Multilateralism American Future |
| 1 1/3 | IRANIAN Military Seized in Raid on Iraqi Insurgents -- (And the NYT Deplores It) Joshuapundit |
| 1 1/3 | The Dark Side of "Traditional Values" Right Wing Nut House |
| 2/3 | Two Red Herrings Out of Three Ain't Bad Soccer Dad |
| 2/3 | Negotiating with Iran The Glittering Eye |
| 2/3 | Robot Rights The Colossus of Rhodey |
| 2/3 | Why Facts Don't Matter Andrew Olmsted |
| Votes | Non-council link |
|---|---|
| 2 1/3 | From Khomeini to Ahmadinejad Matthias Küntzel |
| 1 2/3 | Is Federalism Tainted by Slavery and Jim Crow? The Volokh Conspiracy |
| 1 1/3 | The Sandy Berger Experiment: Bush Official Destroyed 9/11 Documents Doug Ross @ Journal |
| 1 1/3 | Emaciated or Emancipated? The Possum Bistro |
| 1 | Nifong's Sinking Ship Durham-in-Wonderland |
| 2/3 | 2007 Predictions: How the World Will Turn -- We Think The QandO Blog |
| 2/3 | The Hanoudi Letter: The Second Anniversary The Hanoudi Letter |
| 2/3 | A Month of a Unilateral "Cease Fire" Elder of Ziyon |
| 1/3 | American Historical Association Against the War Spinning Clio: Where History and Politics Meet |
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Or is it only the Israeli security fence that offends his sensibilities?
A country has chosen to build a wall to stop the flow of militants from crossing its border and creating terror and havoc in two countries. Some critics say that the real problem is the tolerance of militants by a government that claims to be fighting them. Sound familiar?Has Jimmy Carter been heard from to condemn this human rights atrocity? So far, no. After all this would be a wall built by Pakistan on its long border with Afghanistan.
I guess when Muslims build a wall to keep out Muslim terrorists, it is a good thing -- it's only when Jews defend themselves from Muslim terrorists that such barriers become a problem.
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Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has said he will not renew the licence for the country's second largest TV channel which he says expires in March 2007.In an address to troops, Mr Chavez said he would not tolerate media outlets working towards a coup against him.
Radio Caracas Television, which is aligned with the opposition, supported a strike against Mr Chavez in 2003.
But the TV's head said there must be some mistake as its licence was not up for renewal in the near future.
Marcel Granier also vowed to fight against the president's plans in Venezuela's courts and on the international stage.
The BBC's Greg Morsbach in Caracas says Mr Chavez has repeatedly threatened to take the TV off the air but has never given a date.
The move could help silence some of his critics in the media who have been a thorn in his side for several years, he says.
Mr Chavez, who was returned to power by a wide margin on 3 December, said Mr Granier was mistaken in believing "that concession is eternal".
"It runs out in March. So it's better that you go and prepare your suitcase and look around for what you're going to do in March," he said during a televised speech to soldiers at a military academy in Caracas.
"There will be no new operating licence for this coupist TV channel called RCTV. The operating licence is over... So go and turn off the equipment," Mr Chavez said.
So opposition to the government is now grounds for lifting broadcast licenses in Venezuela -- and there is no appeal from the heir-apparent to Fidel among Latin American human rights violators.
But Chavez isn't a dictator -- just ask America's leftists!
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Former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, sentenced to death for his role in 148 killings in 1982, will have his sentence carried out by Sunday, NBC News reported Thursday. According to a U.S. military officer who spoke on condition of anonymity, Saddam will be hanged before the start of the Eid religious holiday, which begins at sundown Saturday.The hanging could take place as early as Friday, NBCÂ’s Richard Engel reported.
The U.S. military received a formal request from the Iraqi government to transfer Saddam to Iraqi authorities, NBC reported on Thursday, which is one of the final steps required before his execution. His sentence, handed down last month, ordered that he be hanged within 30 days.
Some international leaders (and grievance polemicists) are outraged that the dictator might actually pay for his crimes and be executed by the Iraqi people he oppressed. And as I suggested some weeks back, the NY Times seems prepared to deck itself out in black to mourn the untimely execution of this murderous goon.
I am, however, disappointed about one aspect of this execution -- I had been hoping that Saddam would take a long drop on a short rope as the clock rang in 2007 -- sort of an Iraqi equivalent of dropping the ball over Times Square.
By the way -- I'm hoping photos of this administration of justice flood the 'net and that the video quickly shows up on YouTube and elsewhere.
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December 28, 2006
The North Carolina bar filed ethics charges Thursday against the prosecutor in the Duke lacrosse case, accusing him of saying misleading or inflammatory things to the news media about the athletes under suspicion.The punishment for ethics violations can range from admonishment to disbarment.
Among the four rules of professional conduct that District Attorney Mike Nifong was accused of violating was a prohibition against making comments "that have a substantial likelihood of heightening public condemnation of the accused."
The charges will be heard by an independent body called the Disciplinary Hearing Commission, made up of both lawyers and non-lawyers.
In a statement, the bar said it opened a case against Nifong in March 30, a little more than two weeks after the party where a 28-year-old student at North Carolina Central University hired to perform as a stripper said she was raped.
Another rule the rogue prosecutor is alleged to have broken is the one against dishonesty, fraud, deceit, and misrepresentation".
Methinks that DA Nifong is going down fast.
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U.S. Senator Tim Johnson is spending Thursday, his 60th birthday, sedated in a Washington, D.C. hospital. Family members plan to be at his bedside.Senator Johnson remains sedated after undergoing emergency surgery two weeks ago for bleeding in the brain. A Johnson spokesman says his family remains optimistic but could not say how long he'll remain under sedation.
The senator has been in critical condition since the surgery. He is sedated to help minimize the swelling of his brain.
Happy birthday, Senator Johnson. may the gift of health be conferred upon you by the good Lord this day -- and may you one day come to know that the prayers of the citizens of the United States are with you.
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Romney was recently interviewed by Human Events, and answers two questions on the issue in a way that I believe should clarify his position and reconcile his positions for most conservatives.
And also on the issue of gay marriage, the Supreme Judicial Court in Massachusetts today gave you a symbolic victory in terms of scolding some of the lawmakers for their actions. Do you believe the same [skepticism among conservatives] will hold true on gay marriage or will people still critique that 1994 letter and some of the comments you made in that campaign?
No, actually, my view on marriage has been entirely consistent over my political career. And that is that I oppose same-sex marriage. I also oppose civil unions.
There are some people who feel that is inconsistent with also encouraging the elimination of discrimination against gay people as well as others of differences. IÂ’m very much opposed to discrimination. I also recognize that itÂ’s not wise to create a special class and establish new rights for any particular group. But IÂ’m opposed to discrimination.
At the same time, IÂ’m opposed to same-sex marriage. And ever since that feature has become a prominent one in my state, with the decision of the Supreme Judicial Court, I have taken every action that I could conceive of within the bounds of the law to defend traditional marriage and to stop same-sex marriage.
You mentioned the decision today of the Supreme Judicial Court. It’s more than symbolic. The Supreme Judicial Court—and this is a battle that my administration took to the court—they said, in fact, that the Legislature must take a vote on a citizens’ petition to have this go before the voters. They must take a vote, and failure to do so would represent a violation of a legislator’s oath of office. That is a very powerful statement, and I believe it gives me a pretty significant degree of confidence that we will see on the ballot in Massachusetts the right of citizens to define marriage. And that’s what I’ve been fighting for now for over two years.
On that same subject, would you accept another endorsement from the Log Cabin Republicans if it was offered to you?
Haven’t thought about that. I doubt it’s going to be forthcoming—and in part because for gay Americans of both Republican and Democratic stripe, the issue is now all about marriage. It is not about equality and hiring. Look, I would not discriminate against someone in a hiring position based on their sexual preference. But it’s now about marriage, and I am adamantly opposed to same-sex marriage.
IÂ’ve been to Washington to testify in favor of traditional marriage. IÂ’ve written a letter to every U.S. senator on the topic. IÂ’ve fought same-sex marriage in Massachusetts in every way I could within the bounds of the law. So thatÂ’s not going to make me popular with gay Republicans or gay Democrats. But there are some gay individuals who I know, who are friends of mine, who respect that fact that I believe that traditional marriage is right for the nurturing and development of children, but that I do not want to discriminate against gay people in employment or housing or other parts of their life.
In other words, Romney draws a distinction between marriage and issues of non-discrimination in housing, employment, etc.
IÂ’d argue that this is well within the conservative mainstream. Marriage is fundamentally an institution defined by our society as being between one man and one woman, and the American people have voted to retain that definition every time they have been given the opportunity to do so (with the exception of one poorly drafted proposal this year in Arizona). On the other hand, most Americans find discriminatory practices in employment and housing to be unacceptable and are supportive of efforts to eliminate it in cases of sexual orientation (although some, on libertarian principles, question the legitimacy of government-imposed non-discrimination requirements for any group).
Hopefully this interview and a close examination of RomneyÂ’s record will help to settle the gay issue (as well as the abortion issue) for conservatives and allow Romney to position himself as the best conservative option in 2008.
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With Democrats assuming majority power next month, Congress has a fresh opportunity to make things right. The new House majority leader, Steny Hoyer, has proposed a repeal of presidential term limits in every session since 1985. Now he may have the political muscle to get it passed.
In my American government classes, IÂ’ve always described the Twenty-Second Amendment as the GOP-controlled CongressÂ’ method of driving a stake through the heart of FDR and as close to the posthumous treatment of Pope Formosus as we are ever likely to see in American politics. More than Prohibition (a dumb idea that, having made it into the Constitution, was wisely repealed), the two-term limit placed upon presidents is a blot upon the Constitution.
Indeed, I agree with this great American.
"The United States ought to be able to choose for its president anybody it wants, regardless of the number of terms he has served," Dwight Eisenhower said on the eve of his 1956 reelection. "I have got the utmost faith in the long-term common sense of the American people."
Do I fear that the American people might engage in some monumentally stupid act and reelect Bill Clinton (currently one of only two Americans barred from election to the presidency by Amendment XXII)? Not really, for I believe that Senator Hillary Clinton would commit homicide before permitting that. Do I vainly hope for the reelection of George W. Bush for a third term? No, as I have become increasingly disappointed in the policies of the current occupant of the Oval Office since the 2004 election. And while I recognize that because of the Twenty-Second Amendment we were mercifully spared the reelection of Ronald Reagan as he descended into the fog of AlzheimerÂ’s disease, I also acknowledge that his situation is anomalous among recent American presidents, most of whom have remained healthy and active for at least a decade following their time in office.
Ignore the anti-Bush rant that constitutes the first half of Zimmerman’s column – focus on the big issue of restoring the Constitutional order to that established by the Founders.
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The document has, at last, been declassified.
THE SEIZURE OF THE SAUDI ARABIAN EMBASSY IN KHARTOUMSummary
In the early evening hours of 1 March 1973, eight Black September Organization (BSO) terrorists seized the Saudi Arabian Embassy in Khartoum as a diplomatic reception honoring the departing United States Deputy Chief of Mission (DCM) was ending. After slightly wounding the United States Ambassador and the Belgian Charge d'Affaires, the terrorists took these officials plus the United States DCM, the Saudi Arabian Ambassador and the Jordanian Charge d'Affaires hostage. In return for the freedom of the hostages, the captors demanded the release of various individuals, mostly Palestinian guerrillas, imprisoned in Jordan, Israel and the United States.
The Khartoum operation was planned and carried out with the full knowledge and personal approval of Yasir Arafat, Chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), and the head of Fatah. Fatah representatives based in Khartoum participated in the attack, using a Fatah vehicle to transport the terrorists to the Saudi Arabian Embassy.
Initially, the main objective of the attack appeared to be to secure the release of Fatah/BSO leader Muhammed Awadh (Abu Da'ud) from Jordanian captivity. Information acquired subsequently reveals that the Fatah/BSO leaders did not expect Awadh to be freed, and indicates that one of the primary goals of the operation was to strike at the United States because of its efforts to achieve a Middle East peace settlement which many Arabs believe would be inimical to Palestinian interests.
Negotiations with the BSO terrorist team were conducted primarily by the Sudanese Ministers of Interior and of Health. No effort was spared, within the capabilities of the Sudanese Government, to secure the freedom of the hostages. The terrorists extended their deadlines three times, but when they became convinced that their demands would not be met and after they reportedly had received orders from Fatah headquarters in Beirut, they killed the two United States officials and the Belgian Charge. Thirty-four hours later, upon receipt of orders from Yasir Arafat in Beirut to surrender, the terrorists released their other hostages unharmed and surrendered to Sudanese authorities.
The Khartoum operation again demonstrated the ability of the BSO to strike where least expected. The open participation of Fatah representatives in Khartoum in the attack provides further evidence of the Fatah/BSO relationship. The emergence of the United States as a primary fedayeen target indicates a serious threat of further incidents similar to that which occurred in Khartoum.
The United States government should have adopted a policy similar to Israel's in the wake of this attack -- we should have hunted down and killed those involved in this act of war against the United States. More specifically, this means that rather than encoraaging dialogue with the slimy terrorist Arafat, United States forces should have found him and killed him -- or at least taken him into custody for trial and execution.
Instead, we adopted a policy of treating Arafat like a legitimate player in the Middle East, giving his "Palestinian Authority" funds which he and his cronies could loot for personal gain and encouraging Israel to negotiate with the murderer. In the process, we have given every subsequent terrorist band the message that the United States will not engage in any sustained effort to punish terrorists who strike at American interests, only encouraging such attacks.
What's more, the failure to level with the American people about this incident has allowed at least two generations of moral retards to argue that the United States and Israel are the aggressors and the Palestinians the innocent victims. Congress needs to investigate why this information was hidden, and publicize who the responsible parties were. And perhaps Jimmy Carter can retract his praise for a man he knew (or should have known) ordered the murder of American diplomats.
H/T It Shines For All & Captain's Quarters
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December 27, 2006
Next week will mark the 31st anniversary of StevensÂ’ taking his oath as an associate justice of the Supreme Court. Stevens has turned out to be one of the stalwart members of the court's liberal wing.Thirty years after Ford left office, Americans are living under legal rules created by the Supreme Court, in many cases by 5-to-4 decisions with Stevens in the majority.
Among them:
* Stevens wrote the majority opinion in Kelo v. New London, the 2005 decision that held that local and state governments could condemn and acquire private property even when it was not to be used for a public purpose.
* He helped form the five-justice majority in another 2005 case, Roper v. Simmons, which held that convicted murderers whoÂ’d been under age 18 when they committed their crime could not get the death penalty.
* He joined a 2000 decision called Stenberg v. Carhart in which the court struck down a Nebraska law banning so-called “partial-birth” abortions.
None of these decisions meet with my approval, and I believe each of them have been destructive of the proper Constitutional order. Indeed, Stevens' liberalism is proof positive that no president can ever be sure what sort of justice he will get when he makes an appointment.
The other argues that Ford's greatest legacy was that he set the stage for the election of Ronald Reagan four years after his own defeat, for any other outcome in 1976 would have likely ended Reagan's chance to be president and certainly sent the country down a very different path.
The true Ford effect was, once again, an unwitting one. By beating Reagan in the battle for his party’s nomination he saved Reagan from himself. It is very doubtful whether Reagan could have stopped Carter in 1976 — Ford as the incumbent President was the only Republican with any chance of winning — and if Reagan had lost against the Democrat peanut farmer that would have been the end of him.What if, as he nearly did, Ford had defeated Carter? He would have faced a heavily Democratic Congress, a severe economic recession in 1979-80 and an ageing cabal in Moscow intent on sending troops into Afghanistan. He would have been ineligible for re-election in 1980 but, in these conditions, the Republican candidate would surely have been doomed at the polling stations. The odds are that the White House would have been captured by the most prominent Democrat in the land — Edward Kennedy.
The world we live in today might have been very different if that Kennedy, not Reagan, had occupied the Oval Office in the 1980s. He would not have followed policies that led to almost constant economic growth over the past 25 years nor taken on the Kremlin to the point where the Soviet Union imploded.
“What if” is an ultimately unanswerable question in history. Yet it is the real story of the Ford years.
Indeed -- that "what if" would have resulted in a world unrecognizable today -- and one that I believe would be significantly worse-off had Gerald Ford not fallen short in 1976.
I can forgive Ford his making the same mistake as so many other presidents when selecting a Supreme Court justice -- and thank God for his having run the 1976 presidential race just as he did.
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The Supreme Judicial Court ruled today that it had no authority to order the Legislature to vote on a ballot initiative to ban gay marriage, but the justices gave Governor Mitt Romney a symbolic victory by scolding lawmakers for shirking "their lawful obligations."The SJC, the same court which legalized gay marriage in 2004, issued the unanimous 11-page ruling this morning in response to a lawsuit spearheaded by Romney, who is expected to run for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination as a social conservative.
The justices wrote that all the legislators took an oath to uphold the Constitution and will "ultimately will have to answer to the people who elected them."
Eric Fehrnstrom, a spokesman for Governor Mitt Romney, hailed the ruling as vindication for the plaintiffs even though the court dismissed the suit.
"We are very pleased that the court has confirmed once and for all that the Legislature has a constitutional duty to vote on the marriage amendment and that any failure to do so would be a violation of their oaths of office," Fehrnstrom said.
Interesting, isn't it, that the judges here find a violation of the constitution with no remedy, while a couple of years back they found a remedy with no actual violation of that constitution. I guess that their activism does have limits -- and those limits are exceeded when it might allow the people of Massachusetts to vote in a non-liberal manner.
UPDATE -- 12/31/06: An interesting piece on the topic from Opinion Journal.com.
The petitioners sued the legislature for abrogating its constitutional duty, and the state Supreme Judicial Court took the case. In its ruling last week, it agreed that the legislature's duty to vote on the measure was "unambiguous." But it claimed to be powerless to compel a vote. So the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, whose own arrogation of power created this mess, has suddenly discovered the limits of its power to clean it up.All in all, this is quite the political spectacle. First judges usurp the power of the legislature to dictate their own social policy. Then the legislature uses a procedural ruse to deny voters a say on the gay-marriage issue. And these are some of the same people who say Iraqis aren't ready for democracy.
Have we reached the point where the federal government can intervene on the grounds that Massachusetts no longer has a functioning "republican form of government"?
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“My family joins me in sharing the difficult news that Gerald Ford, our beloved husband, father, grandfather and great grandfather has passed away at 93 years of age,” Mrs. Ford said in a statement issued from her husband’s office in Rancho Mirage, also the location of the Betty Ford Center. “His life was filled with love of God, his family and his country.”
Gerald Ford, the only man to serve as President and Vice President without being elected to either office, has died at age 93. He had been in ill-health for some time.
Ford, a senior member of the GOP leadership in the House of Representatives, was selected as Vice president by President Richard Nixon following the resignation of Spiro Agnew in the wake of corruption charges. Less than a year later, Ford succeeded Nixon when the latter resigned from office in the wake of the Watergate scandal.
Ford had many accomplishments during his brief time in the White House.
Ford was the only occupant of the White House never elected either to the presidency or the vice presidency. A former Republican congressman from Grand Rapids, Mich., he always claimed that his highest ambition was to be speaker of the House of Representatives. He had declined opportunities to run for the Senate and for governor of Michigan.He was sworn in as president Aug. 9, 1974, when Richard M. Nixon resigned as a result of the Watergate scandal.
"My fellow Americans, our long national nightmare is over," Ford said in his inaugural address.
"I believe that truth is the glue that holds government together, not only our government, but civilization itself. That bond, though strained, is unbroken at home and abroad."
Ford had become vice president Dec. 6, 1973, two months after Spiro T. Agnew pleaded no contest to a tax evasion charge and resigned from the nation's second-highest office. The former Maryland governor was under investigation for accepting bribes and kickbacks.
In the 2 1/2 years of his presidency, Ford ended the U.S. involvement in the war in Vietnam, helped mediate a cease-fire agreement between Israel and Egypt, signed the Helsinki human rights convention with the Soviet Union and traveled to Vladivostok in the Soviet Far East to sign an arms limitation agreement with Leonid Brezhnev, the Soviet president.
Ford also sent the Marines to free the crew of the Mayaguez, a U.S. merchant vessel that was captured by Cambodian communists.
On the domestic front, he faced some of the most difficult economic conditions since the Great Depression, with the inflation rate approaching 12 percent. Chronic energy shortages and price increases produced long lines and angry citizens at gas pumps. In the field of civil rights, the sense of optimism that had characterized the 1960s had been replaced by an increasing sense of alienation, particularly in inner cities. The new president also faced a political landscape in which Democrats held large majorities in both the House and the Senate.
But Ford is perhaps best remembered for his pardon of Richard Nixon -- an act which I believe will be remembered as one of the most selfless acts in American history, for many historians consider it to be the overriding fact that led to his loss to Jimmy Carter in the 1976 presidential election.
As Ford explained in his memoirs, his goal was the healing of the nation. Presuming, of course, that Nixon would have been indicted for crimes related to Watergate, it was likely that the trial would have occurred against the backdrop of the 1976 national elections, poisoning the political process. Appeals would have meant that the case would likely have continued to be in the national eye during the 1978 and 1980 elections as well -- if not beyond, should there be any sort of retrial -- meaning that the wrong-doing of Nixon and his associates would have been a major factor in American politics for nearly a decade. The stresses this would have caused would have inflicted even greater damage upon the nation, and therefore Ford decided to issue the pardon a month after taking office.
Indeed, history is already beginning to see the wisdom of Ford's decision. In 2001, the former president received a "Profile in Courage" award from the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library in recognition of his decision -- and was praised by none other than Senator Ted Kennedy, who opposed the pardon at the time.
In the days to come, there will be many words said about Gerald Ford, as the media is saturated with coverage of his life and career, as well as the funeral rites associated with a presidential death. But let me sum it all up with a few words that I believe are fitting.
He placed the good of his country above his own political ambitions.
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December 26, 2006
However, in the interest of fairness, I believe I should at least post something taking the contrary position -- especially since a wonderfully written and reasoned piece by Rabbi Schmuley Boteach appeared in today's Jerusalem Post arguing that Carter is not, in fact, an anti-Semite. Rather, the book reveals a different problem with Carter's world-view..
But with the publication of Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid, [Carter's] ignorant rant against Israel, many in the American Jewish community believe that Carter is not just a loser but an anti-Semite. I disagree.Jimmy Carter is not so much anti-Semite as anti-intellectual, not so much a Jew-hater as a boor. The real explanation behind his limitless hostility to Israel is a total lack of any moral understanding.
Carter wants to do what's just. His heart's in the right place. He just can't figure out what the right is. He is, and always has been, a man of good intentions bereft of good judgment. He invariably finds himself defending tyrants and dictators at the expense of their oppressed peoples. Not because he is a bad man, but because he is a confused man.
Aonfused? How so? After all, Carter is often presented as one as the major do-gooders out there, a man with a deep sense of right and wrong. Indeed, many folks have argued that Carter is what our greatest elder statesman. How, then is Carter confused? Quite bluntly, it is a confusion based in a fundamentally flawed view of right and wrong.
CARTER SUBSCRIBES to what I call the Always Root for the Underdog school of morality. Rather than develop any real understanding of a conflict, immediately he sides with the weaker party, however wicked or immoral.Israel has tanks and F-16's. The Palestinians don't. Therefore the Palestinians are being oppressed. Never mind that the Palestinians have rejected every offer to live side by side with Israel in peace and elected a government pledged to Israel's annihilation. Their poverty dictates the righteousness of their cause even if their actions speak otherwise.
That makes a certain sense. Cuba is weaker than the US -- therefore Castro is a good guy. North Korea is weaker than the US and South Korea -- therefore Kim Jong-Il is not a dictator and is fully justified in seeking nuclear power and weapons while his people starve. Hugo Chavez is supported by the poor of Venezuela, and he is therefore not a bad guy despite his anti-Americanism and evidence of vote fraud int he election Carter certified. Indeed, it even explains why Carter undercut the Shah of Iran and was rendered impotent in the face of the taking of American hostages in Iran -- as a US ally, the Shah was the obvious villain in Iran and Khomeni was a force for good, and any significant action against Iran would have been evil because of the power differential between the US and the Iranians, no matter how grave the provocation. And that confused moral calculus does clearly explain why Israeli self-defense against Palestinian terrorism constitutes a moral evil (greater even than the Rwandan genocide) in Carter's eyes.
Which, of course, absolves Carter of the charge of anti-Semitism in Boteach's book.
No, Carter is not anti-Semitic so much as a man whose lack of judgment and shallowness render him absolutely incapable of telling right from wrong.Carter's obscene comparison of Israel with apartheid South Africa ignores the fact that Israel is the first country to airlift tens of thousands of black Africans to become free and full citizens in its borders, a phenomenon that has no precedent in the history of the world.
But by saying that the Palestinians are being subjected to apartheid Carter has grossly maligned not Jews, but black South Africans. Whereas black South Africans inspired the world with their humane capacity for forgiveness and peaceful coexistence with their white brethren, even after having been so egregiously wronged, the Palestinians have unfortunately embraced murderous hatred and racism. Arab newspapers routinely publish grotesque caricatures of Jews, and the Palestinians teach kindergarten children to grow up and blow up Israeli buses.
Nelson Mandela rose to become the world's greatest statesman with his articulation of brotherhood and reconciliation. But Yasser Arafat fathered international terrorism and stole hundreds of millions of dollars from his own people.
Which leads to one conclusion: Before one runs around the world as a global do-gooder, one should first develop the ability to identify the good.
In other words, Carter's moral compass is broken, and his words and actions must therefore be understood in light of that character flaw.
So I'll concede that the good rabbi may have a point -- Jimmy Carter does not have Jew-hatred in his heart, but has simply lost his ability to distinguish good from evil (if he ever had it). But given that his current book, recent column, and other statements echo the statements of Jew-haters over the centuries, the argument can still be made that even if he is not motivated by animus towards Jews, his recent activities have been functionally anti-Semitic. So while my criticism of the man may be seen as unfair by some, I stand by my criticism of his position -- and ask if the difference is one that really makes any difference.
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December 25, 2006
What do you get when you take a senior congressman with the ability to steer money to favored companies, a former aide to that congressman running a non-profit group, multiple lobbyists for the industry over which the congressman has a big say serving on the board, and big donations from that industry going to the group?
Well, it depends.
If the congressman has an (R) after his name, you get a major scandal and claims of a improprieties and a "culture of corruption" trumpeted throughout the mainstream media. If the congressman has a (D) after his name, you get a story that is more-or-less ignored and published on Christmas Day, when almost no one is paying attention to the news.
Which explains why the story that follows was published on December 25, 2006 in the Washington Post, and accounted for only a couple of short paragraphs in the wire-service reports highlighting denials of wrong-doing rather than possible improprieties.
Oh, and the congressman in question? John Murtha, an unindicted co-conspirator from Abscam who has previously been linked to preferential treatment for clients of his brother's lobbying firm and other shady deals.
For a quarter of a century, Carmen Scialabba labored for Rep. John P. Murtha (D-Pa.), helping parcel out the billions of dollars that came through the House Appropriations Committee, so when the disabled aide needed a favor, Murtha was there.In 2001, Murtha announced the creation of Scialabba's nonprofit agency for the disabled in Johnstown, Pa. The next year, with Scialabba still on his staff, Murtha secured a half-million dollars for the group, the Pennsylvania Association for Individuals With Disabilities (PAID), and put another $150,000 in the pipeline for 2003, according to appropriations committee records and former committee aides. Since then, the group has helped hundreds of disabled people find work.
But the group serves another function as well. PAID has become a gathering point for defense contractors and lobbyists with business before Murtha's defense appropriations subcommittee, and for Pennsylvania businesses and universities that have thrived on federal money obtained by Murtha.
Lobbyists and corporate officials serve as directors on the nonprofit group's board, where they help raise money and find jobs for Johnstown's disabled workers. Some of those lobbyists have served as intermediaries between the defense contractors and businessmen on the board, and Murtha and his aides.
That arrangement over the years has yielded millions of dollars in federal support for the contractors, businesses and universities, and hundreds of thousands in consulting and lobbying fees to Murtha's favored lobbying shops, according to Federal Election Commission records and lobbying disclosure forms. In turn, many of PAID's directors have kept Murtha's campaigns flush with cash.
What sort of stuff are we talking about? Well, take a look at some of the specific examples.
After PAID's founding, Scialabba approached Kuchera [Bill Kuchera, chief executive of Kuchera Industries of Windber, PA] to get involved. Kuchera jumped, not only joining the group's board but ramping up hiring of disabled workers, who now compose a third of the 200 employees in his company's defense business. The federal government picked up Kuchera's $7 million training bill. This year, Murtha earmarked $1.3 million for Kuchera's chemical and biological weapons detection research.Kuchera employees donated more than $31,000 to Murtha in the past three election campaigns, according to federal election records. Between 1990 and 2000, contributions totaled $1,000. And congressional lobbying disclosure forms tally $140,000 in payments since 2001 from Kuchera to Ervin Technical Associates, whose chairman is former representative Joseph M. McDade (R-Pa.), a close Murtha ally.
The Kuchera experience is not unique. Ed Washington, another PAID director, hails from MTS Technologies, an Arlington defense contractor that recently secured $8.9 million in federal funds to expand its Johnstown facility. MTS's lobbyist, the PMA Group, has disclosed some $300,000 in fees from the company since 1998. And PMA has returned the favor: Since 1989, the firm's employees have given Murtha $107,500.
Daniel DeVos, an honorary PAID board member, represents Concurrent Technologies, whose employees have lavished Murtha with more than $53,000 in campaign contributions and PMA with $820,000 in fees. That may sound steep, but the rewards have been substantial: a $150 million contract to operate the Navy Metalworking Center; a $4 million contract from the Army to evaluate fuel-cell systems; and $1.7 million for a weapons of mass destruction response laboratory, among others.
Seems like a tidy little system in which the industries are buying access and favors using a charitable group. Isn't that something that the Democrats accused Tom DeLay of doing, claiming it was unethical, or at least had an "appeaance of impropriety"? What about Murtha?
This ought to be the first test case for the Democrats when it comes to dealing with lobbying and ethics reform as Nancy Pelosi seeks to "drain the ethical swamp" and undo the so-called "culture of corruption" that Democrats claim has existed in Congress. But Pelosi, of course, is one of Murtha's biggest supporters and she tried to put him in a senior leadership role. Will she play favorites,or will she keep her word?
Oh, and by the way -- Murtha isn't the only member of Congress who may have improper relations with a PAID director.
Another PAID director, Jim Estep, is a central figure in an investigation of Rep. Alan B. Mollohan (D-W.Va.), a Murtha ally and fellow member of the Appropriations Committee. Estep heads the West Virginia High-Technology Consortium Foundation and the Institute for Scientific Research, two nonprofit organizations that Mollohan helped set up and has plied with federal funds.
Yes, that is the same Alan Mollohan who is under FBI investigation for using non-profit groups to benefit himself and who lied on financial disclosure forms -- and who got thrown off the Ethics Committee as a result, but who still remains on the powerful House Appropriations Committee, the better to steer contacts to his supporters and his district.
And let me say one thing clearly -- I think efforts to aid disabled individuals are important. I've witnessed first-hand the difficulties that such folks face in finding employment, even when they have the skills to do the job. I believe that organizations that assist the disabled in finding employment and encouraging employers to see past the disabilities serve a truly noble goal. I'm therefore particularly incensed that Murtha and Scialabba chose such an organization to hide their illicit pork machine.
(By the way -- you should see the squealing posts from liberals in the comments over at end of the article -- this article is seen as a betrayal and an outrage)
MORE AT: Eugene David...The One-Minute Pundit, What Happened To My Country?, Common Sense & Wonder, Blog-o-Fascists, Gun Toting Liberal, Bitsblog, Newsbusters.org
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2 (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.)
3 And everyone went to his own town to register.
4 So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David.
5 He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child.
6 While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born,
7 and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.
8 And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night.
9 An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified.
10 But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.
11 Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord.
12 This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger."
13 Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,
14 "Glory to God in the highest,
and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests."
15 When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, "Let's go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about."
16 So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger.
17 When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child,
18 and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them.
19 But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart.
20 The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.
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Not only that, they are running a contest or three!
HOW TO JOIN THE FUN:
There are several ways to get in on the action.1. The first way is the simplest — Add your blog to the Blogiversary Database. One of the confirmed blogs (those that follow the confirmation email sent after you submit your information) in the database at the deadline will be chosen at random. This will include all current participants and those who sign up before the deadline. How easy is that?
2. A separate random drawing will be done for the blogs who include the Blogiversary Database display code on their site. You can see a list of all the BDb blogs, separated into those who have and those who don't have the display code, here. I check the blogs fairly often, but if you think you are not on the right list please let me know. You can send an email to lakelandjim at gmail dot com.
3. The third way to win is to write a post about the Blogiversary Database. You can write what ever you want, but must include a link to the Add Your Blog page, the Blogiversary Database information page, and to this post. You should also create a trackback to this post. If your blogging software can't generate a trackback you can use Wizbang's Standalone Trackback Pinger. Those posts will also appear below.THE DEADLINE:
The contest will run until the earlier of either 200 confirmed blogs in the database (of the 164 currently in the database 150 are confirmed), or midnight EST on Christmas New Year's Eve 12/24/2006 12/31/2006. The winners will be chosen at random in the week following the cutoff. If the 200 blog threshold is crossed before the 24th it will be announced here.THE PRIZES:
You where waiting for this part, weren't you? Three winners will be chosen from the categories listed above. You can only win once, and will be removed from the remaining drawings. The prizes will be awarded in this order:1. Write a Post — The winner will receive a free one month blogad.
2. Display the Code — The prize for this category is a free two week blogad.
3. Join The Database — Win a free one week blogad.
So you will notice the addition of the Blogiversary Database to my left column, right above the licensing information. Scroll down and take a look -- it is worth it, and you never know what you will find!
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Here are the full tallies of all votes cast:
| Votes | Council link |
|---|---|
| 2 | Directions on Iraq: A Blogging Colloquium (Updated) The Glittering Eye |
| 1 2/3 | Ex-president and Jew Hater for Sale -- Jimmy Carter's Dirty Little Secret Joshuapundit |
| 1 1/3 | Tenets for a Useful Military Andrew Olmsted |
| 1 | So, Mr. President. What Will It Be? The Sundries Shack |
| 1 | What Moynihan and Kirkpatrick Saw Soccer Dad |
| 2/3 | Should Executions Be Painless? Rhymes With Right |
| 2/3 | Death of Pinochet The Colossus of Rhodey |
| 1/3 | Right of Return Done With Mirrors |
| 1/3 | Pinning the Blame on Iraq American Future |
| Votes | Non-council link |
|---|---|
| 2 1/3 | The ROC The Fourth Rail |
| 2 | One Muslim Voice on the Holocaust, Unheard The Y Files |
| 1 1/3 | Why They Deny the Holocaust Latimes.com |
| 1 | The Uncertain World of 1946 and the Future We Created. Varifrank |
| 1 | Evaluating Iraq Policy through Two Lenses Democracy Arsenal |
| 2/3 | There's a Sickening Conference of Hatred Going on in the World Right Now... IMAO |
| 2/3 | The Face of the Faculty Campus Newspaper Confab |
| 1/3 | Kofi Rips Off NY Taxpayers, Among Others Blackfive |
| 1/3 | Reflecting on the Music Piece Dodgeblogium |
| 1/3 | Michael Wright and Pundita Rumble Over Iraq Pundita |
Congratulations to all participants in this weeks vote, especially the two winners.
And if you are interested in being nominated for the next competition, please visit The Watcher's excellent site to find out about his offer of link whorage.
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Police in Houston and Fort Bend County are investigating two incidents in which Jewish holiday decorations were vandalized.Investigators do not know if the cases are related but the regional director of the Houston Anti-Defamation League, Martin Cominsky, said he is concerned about the incidents.
"Our hope is that the spirit of the holiday won't get destroyed and that people will understand that we are trying to create a community of respect and destroying other's religious symbols is not the model for that," Cominsky said today.
Cominsky said it is not unusual to have vandalism against holiday and religious decorations.
"Nativity scenes are sometimes destroyed," he said.
"I am concerned that any individual would try to destroy the religious symbol of another," Cominsky said.
The latest incident happened about 9 p.m. Sunday in the 5100 block of Loch Lomond in Meyerland at the home of Brian Cweren .
Cweren said he heard a noise coming from the front yard and looked outside and saw his inflatable menorah had been deflated and was on the ground.
A surveillance camera installed by Cweren captured an image of a man getting out of a Chevrolet Tahoe and walking onto the front yard. The man used something to puncture the menorah then jumped into the Tahoe and sped away.
Cweren said he called police and while he was on the phone the man returned and punctured an inflatable bear.
The man escaped before officers arrived.
Meanwhile, the Fort Bend County Sheriff's office is trying to determine who destroyed a plastic menorah at the entrance of the Lakewind subdivision in the New Territory development.
Sheriff's spokeswoman Terriann Carlson said the incident was reported about 10:45 a.m. Sunday at Homeward Way and Kendall Creek.
A menorah made from plastic pipe and adorned with lights had been smashed, Carlson said.
Police do not know if the two incidents are connected but Carlson said Fort Bend investigators will touch base with Houston police.
Cominsky said the incident in New Territory comes one year after some Jewish residents were frustrated because the neighborhood's holiday decorations only include Christmas items.
"And so a resident appealed to the homeowner's association (this year) and got permission to put up this menorah," Cominsky said.
As I Christian, I offer my solidarity in anger and offense at these acts of violation of symbols of the Jewish faith. It is my sincere hope that the perpetrators are caught and brought to justice quickly for these unacceptable acts.
And may my many Jewish friends, acquaintances, and readers be blessed by God during this holy season, and my they recognize that they and their faith are held in great esteem by the overwhelming majority of Christians.
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But now we do have confirmation from "journalists" of what those of us who actually work with students already knew -- which makes it "news" and therefore unquestionably true (because after all, would reporters every lie to you?). How long until we get the over-priced longitudinal study of student writing by researchers with the "proper academic credentials" to "prove" what we already know?
Zoe Bambery, a senior at Walter Johnson High School in Bethesda, might send more than 100 instant messages -- IMs -- during a typical evening. So during the SAT exam, the 18-year-old found herself inadvertently lapsing into IM-speak, using "b/c" instead of "because" as she scrambled to finish her essay.She caught herself and now is careful to proofread before hitting print. But she is hardly the only student to find IM phrases creeping into school work.
"They are using it absolutely everywhere," said Sara Goodman, an English teacher at Clarksburg High School in Montgomery County who has worn out many purple and red markers circling the offending phrases in papers and tests.
Wendy Borelli, a seasoned English teacher at Springbrook High in Silver Spring, finds photo captions for the school yearbook sprinkled with shorthand such as "B4" and "nite." A student who left on a brief errand to the office announced he would "BRB."
In 2004, 16 million teenagers used instant messages to communicate, up from 13 million in 2000, according to the Pew Internet and American Life Project. Students say IM language has become so ubiquitous they often do not realize they have lapsed into it.
"It's just natural. I had to learn not to do it" in papers, ChiChi Aniebonam, 17, said about her proficiency in IM. "I'm in AP literature, where you just can't put it into your writing, but when I'm writing something informal, now and again I use it."
And these are the top students -- you can only imagine how much more prevalent these issues are with average students who want to get academic tasks done with as little mental or physical exertion as possible and therefore avoid formal reading and writing whenever possible ("Mr. RWR -- You mean you actually read books for fun? Really?").
Then again, English is a constantly evolving language, as comparisons between books written today and those written before WWII (not to mention in earlier periods) will amply demonstrate. Sentence structure, voice, and vocabulary all have changed again and again -- and so I can only expect it will do so in the future. The question is one of how far we and future generations will allow the informality to progress without calling a halt to what some would call the debasement of the English language.
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Ethiopian fighter jets bombed Somalia's main airport Monday, the first direct attack on the city that serves as the headquarters of an Islamic movement attempting to wrest power from the internationally recognized government. Another airport also was hit nearby.Russian-made jets swept low over the capital at midmorning, dropping two bombs on Somalia's main airport, which recently reopened after the Islamic takeover of Mogadishu. An Associated Press reporter who arrived shortly after the strike saw one wounded woman taken away. The runway and one building used by the Islamic forces were damaged.
Shortly afterward, Baledogle Airport, about 60 miles outside Mogadishu, was hit, an Islamic soldier said. There were no reliable casualty reports available for either attack.
"The Ethiopian government is bombing non-civilian targets in Somalia in order to disable and prevent the delivery of arms and supplies to the Islamic courts," said Bereket Simon, an adviser to Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi. Ethiopia and the Somali government have long accused the Islamic council of recruiting foreign fighters into its ranks.
The Ethiopian attacks have the support of the legitimate Somali government, which has long accused the Islamists of being reinforced by foreign jihadis, and the bombings were intended to keep the Islamist forces from being re-supplied.
For their part, the Islamists have had the following to say about the attack.
The Somalia Islamic Courts Council's (SICC) Web site hailed "mujahideen" troops who, it said, chanted passages from the Koran as they went into battle against militarily superior Ethiopian "crusaders".
So let there be no question about who and what the SICC is, and why they seek to destroy the legitimate Somali government (which is secular) and Christian Ethiopia.
MORE AT Tammy Bruce & Liberty Papers
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James Brown, the dynamic, pompadoured "Godfather of Soul," whose rasping vocals and revolutionary rhythms made him a giant of R&B and an inspiration for rap, funk and disco, died early Christmas morning. He was 73. Brown was hospitalized with pneumonia at Emory Crawford Long Hospital on Sunday and died around 1:45 a.m. Monday, said his agent, Frank Copsidas of Intrigue Music. Copsidas said the cause of death was uncertain. "We really don't know at this point what he died of," he said. Along with Elvis Presley, Bob Dylan and a handful of others, Brown was one of the major musical influences of the past 50 years. At least one generation idolized him, and sometimes openly copied him. His rapid-footed dancing inspired Mick Jagger and Michael Jackson among others. Songs such as David Bowie's "Fame," Prince's "Kiss," George Clinton's "Atomic Dog" and Sly and the Family Stone's "Sing a Simple Song" were clearly based on Brown's rhythms and vocal style. "He was an innovator, he was an emancipator, he was an originator. Rap music, all that stuff came from James Brown," entertainer Little Richard, a longtime friend of Brown's, told MSNBC. "A great treasure is gone." If Brown's claim to the invention of soul can be challenged by fans of Ray Charles and Sam Cooke, then his rights to the genres of rap, disco and funk are beyond question. He was to rhythm and dance music what Dylan was to lyrics: the unchallenged popular innovator.And without a doubt, we have lost a icon of American culture, a man whose influence on the musical scene went from sea to shining sea and around the world. It's hard to believe that he is gone. Let me also note that Brown certainly could make a claim the title of "the hardest working man in show business" -- he had concerts scheduled for this week, and was to perform live on one of the New Years Eve shows. It took Death itself to silent that magnificent voice and still those dancing feet.
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December 24, 2006
Greg and Paula wish each and every one of you all the blessings and joy that come with Christmas and the birth of Our Saviour Jesus.
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Indianapolis Colts: 24
It only took five full seasons, but the Houston Texans have FINALLY beaten the Indianapolis Colts!
It doesn't take a Heisman Trophy winner to run through the Colts' defense. But on Sunday it certainly made it easier.Ron Dayne, who won the award in 1999, had a career-high 153 yards rushing and two touchdowns, and Kris Brown kicked the winning 48-yard field goal as time expired, giving the Houston Texans their first win over Indianapolis, 27-24.
The loss denied the AFC South champions the chance to clinch a first-round playoff bye.
It was the first time Dayne had gained 100 yards since September 2001 with the Giants.
The Texans (5-10) used Dayne and rookie Chris Taylor to eat up the clock and exploit the Colts' suspect run defense, ranked last in the NFL, while taking pressure off David Carr and the struggling passing game. The win broke a nine-game losing streak to the Colts (11-4).
It was, to say the least, a fantastic game -- and one I am glad not to have missed.
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December 23, 2006
Columbia University said yesterday that it had notified students involved in disrupting a program of speakers in early October that they were being charged with violating rules of university conduct governing demonstrations. The university did not disclose the number of students charged with violations.ColumbiaÂ’s president, Lee C. Bollinger, announced the disciplinary proceedings in a letter to the university community yesterday that was also released publicly. But he said he would not provide further details because of federal rules governing student privacy.
The charges will be heard next semester by the deans of the individual schools the students are enrolled in. Possible sanctions include disciplinary warning, censure, suspension and dismissal.
Mr. Bollinger noted that as president, he is also the “final avenue of appeal for those found to be in violation of University Rules.”
The disrupted program, sponsored by a campus Republican group on Oct. 4, featured speakers from the Minuteman Project, which opposes illegal immigration and has mounted civilian border patrols.
The ambiguity of the statement concerns me, though -- were those who were charged the individuals who rushed the stage to break-up the speech? Or did the Columbia charge those who defended the speaker and freedom of speech? Is that why Bollinger hides behind privacy law in refusing to disclose the number of students charged, or even what the charges are?
But beyond that, I'm troubled by the ambiguity in this part of the statement.
Mr. Bollinger said the university would tighten rules governing all student events, and require advance agreements about how events will be staged and who from outside Columbia will be allowed to attend.
In light of the failure of Columbia University officials to invite Gilchrist back, and previous actions antithetical to free speech and open inquiry, I fear this means that onerous burdens will be placed on those conservative groups that seek to invite "controversial" (read that "mainstream conservative") speakers because of the actions of PC Brown Shirts, while letting liberal speakers on with few restrictions because conservative believe in freedom of speech.
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In 1996, Congress ordered immigration officials to create a system to track everyone who enters the country and everyone who leaves. That sensible directive lay on a back burner until 9/11. The Department of Homeland Security then hastened to set up the U.S. Visit program, which requires people to be photographed and fingerprinted at ports of entry for checking against databases of terrorists and other undesirables.That system has been running since 2004, and has plucked hundreds of bad people from the huge visitor stream without horribly disrupting tourism and business travel. But news came last week that the other half of the program — monitoring foreign travelers when they leave — has been abandoned.
The Homeland Security Department had hoped to begin tracking departures at the 50 busiest land border crossings by next December. But it has given up meeting that deadline after deciding that the cost — including time lost in long lines at the borders — would be prohibitive. Part of the problem is technological: tracking methods that would work are too expensive.
The Government Accountability Office, echoing the Bush administrationÂ’s conclusions, said that a cost-effective departure system may not emerge for five to 10 years. And so, after spending $1.7 billion since 2003 on the U.S. Visit program, the administration will keep doing what it has been doing at the nationÂ’s land exits, which is basically nothing.
It’s good to know who’s leaving the country — and who isn’t. About a third of illegal immigrants are believed to be those who entered lawfully but stayed after their visas expired. Some of the 9/11 hijackers were in this group. Hunting such people down is not even theoretically possible until you know whom you are looking for.
Of course, the formerly great newspaper then turns the corner into another in a never-ending series of Bush-bashing rants about the Iraq war and cutting taxes, but the overall point is correct -- we cannot control the borders until we know who is entering and leaving, and that won't come cheap. But then again, national security is one of the few legitimate things for the federal government to be spending money on, according to the Constitution.
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And so a PC weenie decides to protest --"> by lighting himself on fire.
A man used flammable liquid to light himself on fire, apparently to protest a San Joaquin Valley school district's decision to change the names of winter and spring breaks to Christmas and Easter vacation.The man, who was not immediately identified, on Friday also set fire to a Christmas tree, an American flag and a revolutionary flag replica, said Fire Captain Garth Milam.
Seeing the flames, Sheriff's Deputy Lance Ferguson grabbed a fire extinguisher and ran to the man.
Flames were devouring a Christmas tree next to the Liberty Bell, where public events and demonstrations are common.
Beside the tree the man stood with an American flag draped around his shoulders and a red gas can over his head.
Seeing the deputy, the man poured the liquid over his head. He quickly burst into flames when the fumes from the gas met the flames from the tree.
The deputy ordered the man to drop to the ground as he and a parole agent sprayed him with fire extinguishers.
''The man stood there like this,'' the deputy said with his arms across his chest and his head bent down, ''Saying no, no, no.''
The man suffered first degree burns on his shoulders and arms, Milam said.
Kern County Sheriff's Deputy John Leyendecker said the man had a sign that read: ''(expletive) the religious establishment and KHSD.''
On Thursday, the Kern High School Board of Trustees voted to use the names Christmas and Easter instead of winter and spring breaks.
I'm sorry -- the only thing incindiary about the school district's decision was the inane response of this religious bigot. And yet somehow, I doubt we will hear many folks criticize his actions, because he was acting in the service of a politically correct agenda. If, on the other hand, this had been a Christian protesting a decision to close for a Muslim or Jewish or Hindu holiday, we would hear all about bigotry and xenophobia from those who play the identity politics card.
This double standard was noted in a comment on another site I frequent in a different context.
I think it's funny that someone who doesn't like Muslims is called a racist, but someone who can't stand Christians isn't.Not funny "haha", more like funny "hmmmmm".
Indeed.
Here''s hoping that when he gets out of the hospital, this flamer faces charges for unsafe public burning, arson, and destruction of public property.
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P, December 22, 2006
U.S. Rep.-elect Nick Lampson underwent an angioplasty procedure to open a blocked vessel in his heart this afternoon and is expected to be discharged from the hospital Saturday."He's doing great — laughing and joking about getting out of Christmas shopping," said Lampson family friend Dave Matthiesen, a Houston-based attorney who had just visited with Lampson and his wife in the Congressman's private room at St. John's Hospital. "He's looking forward to getting up to Washington Jan. 4 to begin his term in Congress."
Lampson, D-Stafford, first went to the hospital Thursday night after complaining of illness at a friend's party. Doctors at St. John's Hospital in Nassau Bay ran tests on Lampson that night and today. During a routine angiography test around 3 p.m., doctors confirmed earlier tests that had indicated a blockage in a one vessel and decided to go ahead with the angioplasty.
Cardiologist Ghyath Samman performed the procedure by inserting a wire-mesh stent, placed on a balloon, into Lampson's vessel and inflating it to remove the blockage. Lampson was awake and alert throughout the procedure and is expected to make a full recovery, Samman said.
Samman added that Lampson should follow a low-cholesterol diet, but otherwise the congressman's activities will not be restricted.
Lampson had an angiography test several years ago, but this is the first time he has had an angioplasty procedure, Matthiesen said. The congressman has no other history of heart problems, he said.
"I think he's healthy as a horse," Matthiesen said.
I hope that last statement is true, because I draw a sharp line between political opposition and personal animus. I hope and pray that Lampson will serve out the next two years in Congress in good health.
So get well, Nick -- but understand that I and my fellow Republicans are working to ensure that you will be job-hunting two years from now.
(A little geography FYI for those not from the Houston area -- Christus St. John's hospital is directly across the street from Johnson Space Center, and about half a mile from the hotel where Clara Harris parked an SUV on her cheating husband several years back.)
UPDATE: Does this article from the Houston Chronicle confuse you -- given it was posted at 8:37 PM on Saturday night?
U.S. Rep.-elect Nick Lampson was discharged from the hospital Sunday morning, two days after undergoing an angioplasty procedure to open a blocked vessel in his heart.
Is there information we are not being told? Was Lampson readmitted following his release? Did Chronicle reporter Alexis Grant "phone in" the story hours before it happened? Or is this just sloppy reporting/editting by the local paper,confusing Saturday with Sunday?
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Prosecutors dropped rape charges Friday against three Duke University lacrosse players accused of attacking a woman who had been hired to strip at a team party, but the three still face counts of kidnapping and sexual assault.District Attorney Mike Nifong faxed a copy of the notice of dismissal to defense attorneys on Friday at 11:45 a.m. EST. The move took defense attorneys by surprise
In a news conference Friday afternoon, lawyers for the three players called on Nifong to drop the other charges as well, saying there is no evidence that their clients kidnapped or assaulted the woman in any way.
Nifong did not immediately return calls seeking comment about the dismissal.
The mere lack of evidence or a credible accuser, however, was not enough to get Nifong to dismiss all charges. Neither was the disclosure of prosecutorial misconduct on his part last week. And his actions still leave these young men facing a potential 20 years in prison. So Nifong tried to hide the story in by announcing it just before lunch on the Friday before Christmas, in the hopes that the disintegration of his case would be missed by the press.
The Washington Post's Andrew Cohen believes, as I do, that this ultimately bodes ill for Nifong's case.
There are two ways to digest today's big news about the dismissal of rape charges against the Duke lacrosse students. You can say that a very weak case against the three defendants has just gotten measurably weaker, which makes it almost non-existent. Or you can say that by getting rid of the rape charge, the prosecutor, and presumbly his complaining witness, now can move forwad on more solid legal and factual ground. While I think there is some truth to Option B, I'm going with Option A.Why? Because whatever shred of credibility the alleged victim had-- whatever residual confidence people may have had in her story until now-- is now lost. If the woman is now unsure she was raped why should anyone believe her beyond a reasonable dobut going forward that she was sexually assaulted-- touched in a way short of rape? I think this likely loss of credibility will more than offset the fact that the prosecution's case, without rape, is much easier to prove against any or all of the three defendants. For them, Christmas came a few days early.
The dismissal documents may be found here.
Indeed, Nifong may be on the hook for criminal and or civil misconduct -- having possibly acted in a fashion that overcomes the presumption that he is immune from damages.
Great covrage at Durham Wonderland and LaShawn Barber.
More at Gay Orbit, A Blog For All, HuffPo, Florida Cracker, Alas, A Blog, Outside The Beltway, Digger's Realm, American Pundit, Opinipundit, Independent Conservative, NixGuy, Lead & Gold, Sensible Mom, Bitch Girls, HoyStory, Tapscott, Michelle Malkin, Talk Left, American Pundit, Hot Air, Johnsonville News, Mary Katherine Ham, Betsy Newmark, Leaning Straight Up, Bill's Bites, JammieWearingFool, Stop the ACLU, Unpartisan, Kevin Show, It Shines For All, Booker Rising, Hit & Run, Ace of Spades HQ, Pardon My English, Dartblog, Astute Bloggers, Six Meat Buffet, Wizbang, QandO, Don Surber, Mrs. Gribbit's Word
UPDATE: The New York Times has this great piece on the ongoing disintegration of the case.
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U.S. Hispanic groups and activists on Thursday called for a moratorium on workplace raids to round up illegal immigrants, saying they were reminiscent of Nazi crackdowns on Jews in the 1930s.They accused the Department of Immigration and Customs Enforcement of "racial profiling," or selective enforcement against Hispanics, for arresting 1,300 workers on immigration violations in December 12 raids at meatpacking plants in six states.
"We are demanding an end to these immigration raids, where they are targeting brown faces. That is major, major racial profiling, and that cannot be tolerated," said Rosa Rosales, president of the League of United Latin American Citizens, at a news conference.
"This unfortunately reminds me of when Hitler began rounding up the Jews for no reason and locking them up," Democratic Party activist Carla Vela said. "Now they're coming for the Latinos, who will they come for next?"
Such claims are nothing less than Holocaust denial on the part of advocates for immigration criminals. Every American, regardless of religion, race, or ethnicity, should stand up and denounce LULAC, the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund, the Hispanic National Bar Association, and the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials for daring to spew such falsehoods.
And might I add this note.
Round 'em up! Ship 'em back! Rawhide!
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The Iranian government is partly to blame for a 1996 terrorist attack that killed 19 Americans in Saudi Arabia, a federal judge ruled Friday.The ruling by U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth allows the families of the victims of the Khobar Towers bombing to seek $254 million in compensation from the conservative Islamic regime in Tehran.
Though intelligence officials have suspected a link between the Tehran government and the Saudi wing of Hezbollah, which the FBI has accused of carrying out the bombing, Friday's ruling is the first time a branch of the U.S. government has officially blamed Iran for the deaths of Americans in the bombings.
''This court takes note of plaintiffs' courage and steadfastness in pursuing this litigation and their efforts to take action to deter more tragic suffering of innocent Americans at the hands of terrorists,'' Lamberth wrote. ''Their efforts are to be commended.''
Lamberth relied heavily on testimony by former FBI Director Louis Freeh, who investigated the bombings.
Two Iranian government security agencies and senior members of the Iranian government itself provided funding, training and logistical help to terrorists who carried out the attack on a dormitory that housed U.S. Air Force pilots and staff in Saudi Arabia, Freeh testified.
This unprovoked attack on American military personnel constitutes an act of war by Iran. There is therefore no need to await sanctions or any other action by the international community -- BOMB IRAN NOW!
More at Right on the Right & Stop the ACLU
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We know what happens when the right of Jews to exist is denied, but Carter has forgotten. The "Historical Chronology" at the beginning of his book starts with Abraham and grows more detailed in modern times. But between 1939 and 1947 there is . . . nothing!In the text, the history of Jewish suffering is accorded five lines, and the Holocaust is barely mentioned in passing. But as both Hanukkah and Christmas remind us, Jews are history's most persecuted people, and Israel, where we started, is our last, best refuge. Carter's bizarre book is a poisoned holiday gift for Jews and Christians, and a danger to Jews throughout the world.
You read that right -- Carter leaves the Holocaust out of the history of the Jewish People in his book, and only briefly alludes to it. I guess he has joined Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and David Duke (as well as my recently-banned Troll, KKKen Hoop) in viewing the Holocaust as a hoax. After all, how else does one explain the omission of the greatest evil of Carter's lifetime from a book in which he indicts the victims for the offense of genocide?
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On a scale associated with presidential inaugurations, Nancy Pelosi is planning four days of celebration surrounding her Jan. 4 swearing-in as the first female speaker of the House. She will return to the blue-collar Baltimore neighborhood where she grew up, attend Mass at the women's college where she studied political science, and dine at the Italian Embassy as Tony Bennett sings "I Left My Heart in San Francisco."But the hoopla is more than just a party.
Pelosi is grabbing the moment to present herself as the new face of the Democratic Party and to restore the party's image as one hospitable to ethnic minorities, families, religion, the working class and women.
"This is important strategic repositioning," said Kathleen Hall Jamieson, who teaches political communication and rhetoric at the University of Pennsylvania. "Essentially, she's trying to embody the Democratic Party that she would like to offer the nation in 2008."
In her meticulous selection of events and venues during a week when she expects to attract media attention from as far away as Australia, Pelosi is clearly trying to bury the label "San Francisco liberal" that Republicans tried to affix to her during the midterm elections.
" 'San Francisco liberal' is a construct used very effectively for a long time by Republicans," Jamieson said. "It's a little like 'Taxachusetts.' It's telegraphic and very powerful. They haven't been able to get her identified with it because, to this point, a lot of people didn't know who she was. She's trying to position a counterimage before she gets well known."
Brendan Daly, Pelosi's spokesman, said the four-day celebration befits a historic moment in American politics. "We've never had a woman speaker before," Daly said. "This is a big deal."
Now I'll concede that there were two days of Gingrich-oriented activities in 1995, but they were political events filled with speeches and were related to policy and governance, not celebration and revelry. It was a celebration of ideals and ideas, not of Gingrich. Pelosi, on the other hand, is creating NancyFest. maybe that is because the Democrats are bankrupt when it comes to idea.
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Now one federal appellate court has loosened at least one of those restrictions.
A divided three-judge court ruled yesterday that ads advocating for an issue and mentioning candidates can run during an election, creating a loophole in the law that sought to control the power of big money in elections.In a 2 to 1 ruling, the court found that the government had no compelling justification to regulate television ads such as the ones Wisconsin Right to Life Inc. broadcast in July 2004, which advocated stopping congressional filibusters against President Bush's judicial nominees.
The ads ran when Sen. Russell Feingold (D-Wis.) was running for reelection and had opposed some of Bush's nominees. The ads made no mention of Feingold's record, instead urging Wisconsin residents to call their senators to express their dissatisfaction.
U.S. District Judge Richard J. Leon, joined by U.S. Court of Appeals Judge David B. Sentelle, agreed with Wisconsin Right to Life that ads such as theirs merely advocate a position without trying to criticize the record of a particular candidate.
The ads are not targeted "electioneering communications" and should not be burdened by the reporting requirements of the federal campaign finance law, Leon wrote.
The ruling was a key victory for Wisconsin Right to Life, which had sued the Federal Election Commission on the grounds that it had infringed on the group's constitutional right to free speech.
Needless to say, i believe this decision to be a step in the right direction -- though one which is clearly only a baby-step towards restoring political speech to its proper level of constitutional protection. After all, the court in this case clearly failed to apply a relevant portion of the United States Constitution in making this decision.
Amendment ICongress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.
Now I realize that some might find the phrase "no law" ambiguous, arguing that "no law" means "any damn law they please" abridging freedom of speech or the right of the people to petition the government for a redress of grievances. However, your average American, both now and at the time the First Amendment was ratified, has always understood that the First Amendment is intended to protect the right of the American people to be involved in the political process and to be free of government limitation and regulation when it comes to such political speech. I'm therefore pleased by this incremental restoration of a fundamental American liberty.
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An analysis done for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey says that the PATH train tunnels under the Hudson River are more vulnerable to a bomb attack than previously thought, and that a relatively small amount of high explosives could cause significant flooding of the rail system within hours.The analysis, based on work by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, revises some critical aspects of an assessment of the system’s vulnerability that was presented to the agency last spring. It makes clear that the tunnels — four tubes of varying design and sturdiness that stretch across the Hudson riverbed — are structurally more fragile than first thought.
A draft summary of the most recent analysis was given to The New York Times by a government official who was troubled by what the official felt was a lack of action in response to the analysis, which the official said the Port Authority got about three weeks ago. The official said the latest analysis indicates that it would take only six minutes for one of the PATH tubes to flood if a significant but not necessarily very large bomb were detonated.
Oh, yes -- once again we get the "anonymous public official with an axe to grind" giving the New York Times sensitive documents that the enemy can use to thwart our efforts to prevent terrorist attacks. I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm coming to believe that the Grey Lady has put on a burqa and begun actively aiding the jihadi terrorists in their efforts to harm America.
And even if one wishes to be charitable and presume that this formerly great newspaper is not intent upon assisting our nation's enemies and abetting another terrorist attack on New York City, one still has to question the editorial decisions that go into the publication of such information. In particular, we need to start questioning the use of anonymous sources. I understand that there might be legitimate reasons for withholding the names of sources from time to time, but the current practice of obscuring identities and thereby rendering the public less-able to determine the credibility and motivation of such sources is troubling, to say the least.
Of course, the NY Times benefits from publishing material that helps America's enemies in at least two ways. First, it makes people think it is still a great newspaper standing up to the government. Second, it makes it quite certain that the NY Times offices will not be a target of any future terrorist attack -- because why would al-Qaeda attack its own military intelligence network?
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