The best indictment of the Democrats and their obstructionist tactics on wiretapping for national security purposes during time of war that I have ever seen.

H/T Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler, DANEgerus, Gateway Pundit, Riehl World View and Right on the Left Coast.

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They keep on taking from the corrupt.

Over the years, as it became Exhibit A for critics of shareholdersÂ’ class action lawsuits, the law firm of Milberg Weiss often enjoyed the support of Democrats who called the suits an invaluable weapon in the universal conflict between big business and the little guy.

The Democrats, in turn, enjoyed the support of Milberg Weiss and its partners, who together have contributed more than $7 million to the partyÂ’s candidates since the 1980s.

Last year, the firm was indicted on federal charges of fraud and bribery. But the political partnership has not been entirely severed. Since the indictment, 26 Democrats around the country, including four presidential candidates, have accepted $150,000 in campaign contributions from people connected to Milberg Weiss, according to state and federal campaign finance records. And some Democrats have taken public actions that potentially helped the firm or its former partners.

The recent contributors include current and former Milberg partners who had either been indicted or were widely reported to be facing potential criminal problems when they wrote their checks. One, William S. Lerach, was a fund-raiser for John EdwardsÂ’s presidential campaign until his guilty plea last month. Melvyn I. Weiss, a founder of the firm, gave the maximum $4,600 to Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York in June. Other firm members contributed to the presidential campaigns of Senators Barack Obama of Illinois and Joseph R. Biden Jr. of Delaware.

I guess than Pelosi and Reid not only failed to drain the swamp, but they an their party's candidates are giving support to the alligators instead. But then again, corruption is a fine old Democrat tradition!

Posted by: Greg at 10:32 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Is democracy on its way back in Pakistan? The return of Benazir Bhutto may be the signal that it is.

Former prime minister Benazir Bhutto returned to Pakistan on Thursday to a massive and joyous homecoming, as thousands of her supporters rallied at the airport here and tens of thousands more gathered nearby to celebrate the end of her eight years in exile.

Ignoring assassination threats and a suggestion from President Pervez Musharraf that she delay her return, she arrived on a plane from Dubai at a time of immense turmoil in Pakistan -- with her presence adding another layer of uncertainty.

Stepping onto the tarmac at 2:16 pm local time, she briefly glanced upward and said "It's great to be back home. It is a dream come true."

Jostling through a scrum of hundreds of reporters and photographers documenting the moment, she headed for a planned trip to the tomb of Mohammed Ali Jinnah, Pakistan's founder, a journey that will take her through streets lined with until thousands of supporters.

Aides predicted that perhaps 1 million Pakistanis would gather to welcome her in a reception expected to last for days. But they had also arranged tight security and a bullet-proof vehicle and stage trappings for her first appearances.

"My return heralds for the people of Pakistan the turn of the wheel from dictatorship to democracy," Bhutto said at a news conference in Dubai, where she has spent much of her exile.

Some argue that her deal with Musharraf undercut the movement against him, but if her return signals a weakening of his power, she has done a great service to the people of Pakistan. After all, a peaceful transition from the general's rule is a good thing, compared to the convulsions seen in many other parts of the world as military leaders are challenged.

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The television as we have always known it is no longer available at one retailer.

The nation's largest consumer electronics chain says it has pulled all analog televisions off store shelves. Flat panel and high-definition screens have taken their place.

Beginning in February 2009, broadcasters plan to stop transmitting analog signals, although people with older sets can still get programming via special converter boxes, set-top box or direct satellite.

The Minneapolis-based chain says it told its stores to stop selling the products at the beginning of the month.

More than 60 million U.S. households currently rely on an antennas or analog cable. Cable operators are required to guarantee their customers will receive broadcast channels until February 2012.

After the first of the year, the government will be making available coupons that can be used to buy converter boxes. Best Buy will sell coupon-eligible converter boxes starting early next year.

As one of those folks with nothing but analog sets in my home and analog cable running into it, I'm not happy with the upcoming change. But Best Buy is making a responsible decision (something i rarely say -- I hate Best Buy) in light of the upcoming change in broadcast standards.

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Heck, the conclusion is intuitive.

President Bush warned today that Iran would be raising the risk of a “World War III” if it came to possess nuclear weapons.

* * *

“If Iran had a nuclear weapon, it’d be a dangerous threat to world peace,” Mr. Bush said. “So I told people that if you’re interested in avoiding World War III, it seems like you ought to be interested in preventing them from having the knowledge necessary to make a nuclear weapon.”

Personally, I don't care if they have the knowledge to make the weapons. I want to be assured they don''t have the materials and the facilities to make the weapons.

After all, they are a terrorist-supporting regime of questionable stability.

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This isn't a surprise, given the number of generations in the past you would have to look to find the common ancestor.

In an interview with MSNBC's Norah O'Donnell this afternoon, Lynne Cheney revealed that while researching the Cheney family tree for her new book "Blue Skies, No Fences," she discovered that the Vice President Cheney and Barack Obama are related -- albeit distantly. According to Mrs. Cheney, the two politicians are eighth cousins.

*** Update *** The Obama campaign emails NBC/NJ's Aswini Anburajan that the Chicago Sun-Times actually wrote about this relation back in September, although the article notes that Obama and Cheney are 11th cousins -- not 8th cousins.

*** Update II *** Our mistake: The Sun-Times says that Obama and George Bush are 11th cousins, and Obama and Cheney are ninth cousins once removed. It seems we're all related.... 

What does it prove? Nothing.

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No mention of God allowed in Radio Disney ads for a new movie – The Ten Commandments.

It's a movie about the Bible, but family-friendly Disney Co. is moving heaven and earth to make sure the word "God" is stricken from some advertisements promoting an upcoming animated film on Moses and the Ten Commandments.

Radio Disney was to broadcast a radio spot for Promenade Pictures, makers of the film "The Ten Commandments," but the company sent an e-mail earlier this month instructing that the phrase "chosen by God" be stripped from the script.
"Our BS&P [Broadcast Standards and Procedures] said Both scripts need to include the studio mention and omit the following line: CHOSEN BY GOD.... Please let me know if you have any questions," reads the e-mail, sent Oct. 2 to Promenade media buyer Casey Baker by Radio Disney Network sales.

The network claims that the problem isn’t the mention of God, and that there is no prohibition on religious references in their BS&P – but the letter says otherwise.

I’ll definitely see the movie – indeed, I may make it the first I have seen in a theater in at least three years – but I think I’ll continue a personal boycott of Disney products.

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I wasnÂ’t going to comment on the Randi Rhodes fiasco from yesterday. Yeah, it shows the fact-free, paranoid style of the American Left, but I found it unseemly to use her unfortunate accident to score political points. After all, IÂ’ve fallen when the dog has given an unanticipated jerk of the leash in an unexpected direction, and had one of my grad school professors go under the knife after blowing out a knee in just such an accident (though Dr. Lind was on cross country skis at the time).

But some of the comments from RhodesÂ’ fellow lefties just deserve comment.

Adolph Hitler's right wing thugs regularly 'mugged' opponents and members of unpopular groups even before he came to power....Given Randi Rhodes courageous outspokenness about the sinister intentions of the right wing, it is not unreasonable to suspect that this non-robbery assault is an attempt by Neo-conservative thugs to silence her views.

Hitler was a National SOCIALIST – by definition, a left-winger. If you doubt me, look at his economic and political program and tell me which party it more generally tracks with. One hint – it begins with a D.

Have you ever noticed that when one of ours shoots one of theirs (Reagan, Ford, Wallace), it's always an amateurish lunatic like Squeaky Fromme or John Hinkley [sic] acting alone and without a plan or a mind, and that little or no blood spills, but that when they come after one of ours (Malcolm, JFK, MLK, RFK), it is a flawlessly executed surgical strike from triangulated professional snipers who leave no witnesses or other loose ends behind, just the corpse of a formerly great liberal leader and an unwitting patsy to take the fall (Oswald, Bremer, Sirhan)?

LetÂ’s look at this, can we.
JFK was shot by a Communist. That makes him one of yours.

RFK was shot by a Palestinian terrorist because RFK supported Israel. Again, that makes the perpetrator one of yours.

Malcolm was shot by his fellow Black Muslims. Again, that would make the assassins part of the leftoid coalition.

Dr. King was murdered by a racist criminal – I believe that would make him a part of the Democrat constituency as well (after all, the KKK was a Democrat paramilitary terrorist adjunct).

I could go on, but I wonÂ’t. Fortunately, this article does.

And by the way -- I hope Rhodes is doing better, and that she s fully recovered in time for her radio show today.

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I’m looking forward to hearing this song – not just because of my fondness for Martina McBride, but because of the story behind it.

This is the story of a defeated senator, his crying daughter, a Nashville songwriter and Martina McBride, the country music star.

It begins in Pittsburgh on election night 2006. Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.), losing to Democrat Robert P. Casey Jr. by a wide margin, gathered his wife and six children around a hotel ballroom microphone and conceded.

The little girl at his side, Sarah Maria Santorum, then 8, wept. She squeezed her eyes and wiped her tears. She buried her face in her father’s arm, pulled away and cried some more — all on live, national television.

The image became an instant Internet sensation, fueled by snarky blogs like Wonkette, which declared it the “official screenshot of the 2006 congressional midterm elections,” and was debated for weeks on comment boards.
Now itÂ’s a country music single.

McBride released the song, “For These Times,” on Monday — a social commentary inspired, in part, by Sarah Maria Santorum.

* * *

Hundreds of miles away from the Pittsburgh hotel, where the Santorum children took their pre-marked positions on stage — their names were scribbled on masking tape pressed to the floor — Leslie Satcher watched the election returns on a big-screen TV in her Nashville home.

The songwriter already had one hit with McBride (“When God-Fearin’ Women Get the Blues” in 2002), and was trying for a second.

Inspiration struck on election night.

Satcher and her husband — “big Fox News junkies” — were riveted by the scene.
“I saw the cameras zoom in on that little girl,” Satcher said.

“That’s awful. They are not even showing Rick. They are showing her crying. She is hurting, and she knows her dad is hurting.”

As blogs parsed and parodied the image — some gleefully made fun of it, others questioned the wisdom of putting a distraught child in front of the camera — Satcher went to church. Her pastor held up the Bible.

“For these times in which we live, you are going to need this book,” he said. Satcher scribbled the words into the back of her book.

At 3 a.m., she wrote the song.

It is a song of love, of compassion, and of faith – things which are highly valued by most Americans, including Satcher, McBride, and the Santorum family.

The song pans the picture.

In these times in which we live
Where the worst of what we live
Is laid out for all the world on the front page
And the sound of someoneÂ’s heartbreak
Is a sound bite at the news break
With a close shot of the tears rollinÂ’ down their face
Blessed be the child who turns a loving eye
And stops to pray
For these times in which we live

One can think what one likes of Rick Santorum, but the exploitation of the image of that hurting child by the many of the same lefty bloggers who later decried even asking questions about Graeme Frost and his family is more than a little bit hypocritical. And their level of compassion is revealed in some of the comments connected to the Politico story IÂ’ve quoted above proves that compassion and decency are not concepts that they truly understand.

And let me add a note of full disclosure – my opinions of Rick Santorum go back significantly longer than most Americans. You see, we graduated from the same high school, though our school careers did not overlap (he’s class of 1976, I’m class of 1981). More than once during my high school years, I was compared to the future senator by teachers we were blessed to have shared. And I look forward to his eventual comeback, because I know that he is too good a man to be kept down by the results of the 2006 election.

OPEN TRACKBACKING AT The Virtuous Republic, Perri Nelson's Website, Right Truth, The Populist, Inside the Northwest Territory, , Stuck On Stupid, Webloggin, Leaning Straight Up, Conservative Cat, Nuke's, , third world county, Blue Star Chronicles, Pirate's Cove, The Pink Flamingo, Republican National Convention Blog, High Desert Wanderer, Right Voices, and Gone Hollywood, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.

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No, not in 2008 – in 2012 or 2016, depending upon the outcome of next fall’s presidential election.

I have my candidate.

Bobby Jindal, the wiry and wired Republican son of Indian immigrants, doesn't look like a Louisiana good ol' boy and he doesn't talk like one either.

At 36, he has a resume that should place him closer to retirement than to yet another career. A Rhodes Scholar, Jindal was accepted to the medical and law schools of both Harvard and Yale (though he attended neither). While still in his 20s, he served as president of the University of Louisiana System and as assistant secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. He successfully reformed Louisiana's Medicaid program and was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 2004.

* * *

St. Bernard Parish Sheriff Jack Stephens told me that many voters have "buyer's remorse," and, "we've come to place a high value on intellect."

Also, in the days after Katrina when state and local leaders were tangled up in red tape, Jindal materialized with his sleeves rolled up -- without cameras or fanfare -- and said, "What do you need?"

Shortly thereafter, trucks, food and medicine began arriving in St. Bernard, where most of the parish's 27,000 residential units were damaged or destroyed.

Dems are troubled by Jindal because he is too Catholic and too non-white for them. Speaking as a Republican, I could not care less about his ethnicity, and I find his strong faith (combined with his incredible intellect) to be appealing. After all, he and I are both members of the party that has always opposed racism.
Heck – I wonder if he might be a good fit as the VP candidate in 2008?

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An interesting question, if he is really filing for President.

t has become something of a cliche: politicians launching their electoral campaigns on late-night talk shows, in a calculated attempt at hipness.
But a late-night comic announcing his presidential candidacy on a late-night talk show - now that is a hall-of-mirrors maneuver worthy of Stephen Colbert. The man known to viewers for his portrayal of a fulminating right-wing blowhard said on Comedy Central on Tuesday night that he will be a candidate in his native South Carolina.

* * *

Colbert, who in real life is a Democrat, said he would file papers to run in both parties' primaries.

It is hard to take the guy seriously in any event, but if he is going to make a run, shouldnÂ’t the equal time rules apply across the board?

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When I see article like this one, I makes me consider the possibility that he may be the best candidate we have on the GOP side.

tÂ’s the middle of October and Rudy Giuliani is still leading the race for the Republican nomination. His old enemies in New York canÂ’t understand it.
“It’s totally unbelievable,” said Charles Rangel, the dean of the New York Congressional delegation and a longtime adversary of Mr. Giuliani. “I refuse to believe that this could possibly happen to our country. I have too much confidence in our country to believe that this could really happen.”

On the other hand, I don’t have nearly as much confidence in our country – after all, two Bill Clinton terms proved how low the bar can be. And the fact that Hillary Clinton is the leading Dem candidate makes it even more obvious.

Posted by: Greg at 11:12 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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H/T Mike Lester

Ira Sendler was nominated for the Nobel Prize this year.

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They had better have gotten this one right. The American public will not support NASA after another high-profile disaster, not after the sort of deliberations known to have taken place over this launch.

The space shuttle Discovery will launch on schedule next Tuesday even though questions remain about small defects on heat shield panels along its wings, NASA managers said Tuesday.

After an all-day meeting in which engineers debated technical issues that could affect the mission, managers decided to keep the shuttleÂ’s Oct. 23 launching date for a mission that will take a key component to the International Space Station.

N. Wayne Hale Jr., director of the space shuttle program, said there were still questions about the degrading of a coating on 3 of 44 panels on the leading edges of the DiscoveryÂ’s wings. While not fully understood, Mr. Hale said, the problem appeared to be an acceptable risk.

Noting that the shuttle is an experimental vehicle that should never be considered completely safe to fly, Mr. Hale said managers who heard all the arguments voted to fly on schedule, although some had a few reservations. Mr. Hale said the decision was not made to keep the shuttle launching program on schedule, a criticism of the space agency that was voiced by investigators after the 2003 Columbia accident.

“We are not going to let schedule drive us into making a decision,” Mr. Hale said at a news conference late Tuesday after the meeting at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. “The preponderance of evidence, in my mind, is that we have an acceptable risk to go fly.”

Spaceflight will never be a risk-free proposition. Catastrophic failure will happen from time to time. I think everyone realizes that. But the recent debate over this launch has pitted safety issues against scheduling issues, and it looks like scheduling won out. Even if that isn't the case (and hale says it isn't), the appearance will be damning if anything goes wrong.

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At least according to Congressman Tom Lantos.

Lantos asked Yahoo Chief Executive Officer Jerry Yang and Senior Vice President and General Counsel Michael Callahan to appear November 6.

"Our committee has established that Yahoo provided false information to Congress in early 2006," Lantos said in a written statement. "We want to clarify how that happened, and to hold the company to account for its actions both before and after its testimony proved untrue. And we want to examine what steps the company has taken since then to protect the privacy rights of its users in China."

* * *

"We have now learned there is much more to the story than Yahoo let on, and a Chinese government document that Yahoo had in their possession at the time of the hearing left little doubt of the government's intentions," said Republican Rep. Chris Smith of New Jersey.

"U.S. companies must hold the line and not work hand in glove with the secret police."

In other words, Yahoo was more than willing to give up information about a user to allow the Chinese government to suppress legitimate speech.

The time has come to ensure that American companies do not become cooperators in oppression.

Posted by: Greg at 11:08 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Andrew Sullivan notes what will be the big selling point for the GOP candidate in 2008, quoting Bob Jones III of the university of the same name.

In a phrase from the mouth of Bob Jones III:

"This is all about beating Hillary."

Rudy is already using her to win the nomination as well. They all will. Just mention her name in a conservative direct-mail pitch and the money is yours. Will they also unload on any Democrat? Sure. But only one Democrat can raise the money for the GOP like she can - and already is. And only one brings (almost) everybody back into the big tent. There's a reason they're already bashing her. Because they know it works.

Given Mrs. Clinton's negatives, it is a strategy that could work.

That said, I wish it wasn't Bob Jones III, head of an institution with a rather sickening history (and theology) that was saying it. Just as I wish it was someone else making this important point.

"As a Christian I am completely opposed to the doctrines of Mormonism," he said. "But IÂ’m not voting for a preacher. IÂ’m voting for a president. It boils down to who can best represent conservative American beliefs, not religious beliefs."

I've said in the past, I'm voting for a president, not a theologian. I fundamentally disagree with many distinctly Mormon beliefs. But I'm voting for a political leader based upon political principles -- and if the best candidate is a Mormon (or a Buddhist, or a Hindu, or even a Muslim) I'll cast my vote for that individual with pride and joy, knowing that I have done my duty for my country.

Posted by: Greg at 11:03 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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No, not the incident itself, which has a host of disgraceful angles involving both black and white individuals.

I mean the hearing in Washington yesterday.

1) Sheila Jackson-Lee, who disgraces Houston on a regular basis, hysterically screeching and raving about being a mother. Excuse me, Congresswoman, but your job yesterday was to be a legislator and to conduct yourself with the dignity of your office.

2) Al Sharpton. Given his involvement in the Tawana Brawley fraud, as well as his willingness to railroad the Duke lacrosse players, he no more deserves to be treated as a leader in healing racial division that David Duke.

3) Rev. Brian Moran of the Jena NAACP.

Several other Republicans on the panel questioned whether the white beating victim, Justin Barker, had been forgotten in all the uproar, but Rev. Brian Moran, president of the Jena NAACP chapter, said that the most pressing issue is justice for the six teens facing criminal charges.

Excuse me, sir -- don't you realize that this is precisely the same argument used by Kluxers, namely that something other than justice for the victims of racial violence was more important? Six black boys ambushed and assaulted a white boy as he lay helpless on the ground because of the color of his skin -- the obscene stupidity of the noose (in which no one was hurt) incident THREE MONTHS BEFORE and the subsequent failure to bring criminal charges provides no justification for giving lenient treatment to the criminals in this REAL LYNCHING of a student not involved in that other incident.

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Because after all, they donÂ’t want anyone to question the legitimacy of their takeover of Tibet and subsequent human rights violations there.

Chinese officials warned the United States today not to honor the Dalai Lama, saying a planned award ceremony in Washington for the Tibetan spiritual leader would have “an extremely serious impact” on relations between the countries.

Speaking at a Foreign Ministry briefing and on the sidelines of the Communist Party’s ongoing 17th National Congress, the officials condemned the Dalai Lama as a resolute separatist and said foreign leaders must stop encouraging his “splittist” mission.

“Such a person who basely splits his motherland and doesn’t even love his motherland has been welcomed by some countries and has even been receiving this or that award,” Tibet’s Communist Party boss, Zhang Qingli, told reporters during the congress.

“We are furious,” Mr. Zhang said. “If the Dalai Lama can receive such an award, there must be no justice or good people in the world.”

The Dalai Lama, a Nobel laureate, has lived in exile since the Chinese army crushed an uprising in his homeland in 1959 and is revered as the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhists. He is scheduled to receive the Congressional Gold Medal on Wednesday after President Bush receives him at the White House today.

My big regret is that the President does not choose to receive him as the legitimate leader of the Tibetan government in exile.

A White House spokesman, Tony Fratto, emphasized that the meeting was “with a spiritual leader,” not a political official, and he said it was thus appropriate that it be held in the president’s residence, not the Oval Office.

The complaints of the Communist regime cannot obscure the abuses of the people of Tibet or the level of respect appropriate for this man of peace and dignity. The yapping of the Pekinese puppies cannot undermine the importance of a giant like the Dalai Lama and his voice as spokesman for an oppressed people.

Posted by: Greg at 11:38 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Some folks just need to get over themselves.

A halloween decoration is stirring up controversy in Chicopee.
Kelly lynch is a self-proclaimed witch and has been studying witchcraft since she was a child.

She's offended by this decoration of a witch hanging from a noose.

Lynch was so put off that she went straight to the owner's front door and asked him to take it down.

"He told me that people should lighten up, and that it's a halloween decoration," said Kelly Lynch "to have that as your only halloween decoration, it's kind of odd."

The owner refused to take it down.

Lynch says it's no laughing matter and is calling it a hate crime against her religion and to the entire community.

Lynch is threatening to protest if he neighbor doesnÂ’t take it down. ThatÂ’s her right.

Just as it is his right to have whatever Halloween decorations he wants.

And to add a second witch effigy – tied to a stake atop a pile of kindling. And to douse it with lighter fluid and set it alight during Lynch’s attempt to intimidate him into silence.

Private property and personal choice – they are beautiful things about this country. Don’t let a witch like Kelly Lynch take them away.

UPDATE: But in this case elsewhere in the country, the grievance-mongers win after bringing government pressure based upon spurious claims of racism.

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After all, being the relative of an accused criminal – even a terrorist – does not make you part of a protected class.

The 12-year-old sister of a Fort Dix terror suspect alleges she was attacked at a township school in an apparent hate crime, an Islamic group said Monday.

The sister of Mohamad Ibrahim Shnewer, one of six men accused of plotting an attack on the Burlington County military installation, says she was choked and punched at Carusi Middle School in an incident last month, according to the New Jersey chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

The assailant allegedly said, "There's a terrorist on the loose," and told the girl, "Your brother will never come back," according to Afsheen Shamsi, a CAIR-NJ spokeswoman.

"It does seem that she was targeted because of the alleged plot that her brother had engaged in," said Shamsi. "It's really sad and terrible."

The civil-liberties group has scheduled a news conference today at its Princeton headquarters to demand that the FBI and state Office of Bias Crimes investigate the alleged attack and find and prosecute the assailant.

Now there is clearly an assault here, and it needs to be dealt with as such. But the attack seems to be based upon her brother’s involvement with the plot to kill American servicemen – not upon this girl’s race, ethnicity or religion, unless one wishes to argue that being a terrorist is part and parcel of being either an Arab or a Muslim. As such, there is no way to call this a hate crime.

More disturbing to me, however, is the fact that it has taken over three weeks for this to be reported to the authorities.

By the way, it is my hope that the attacker is correct in one of his comments – I hope that the terrorist scumbag never sees another day of freedom.

Posted by: Greg at 11:35 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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What do you think?

Two girls at a Florida high school were booted from a football game for painting their bodies to show school spirit, even though boys with painted bodies were allowed to stay.

Manatee High School student Monica Cummings, 17, and her friend Jessyca Altenbach, 17, painted their entire bodies in school colors for a big game this week.

However, both were kicked out of the game in the first quarter.

"People think we did it to be rebellious senior teenagers but we did it because we wanted to show school spirit," student Monica Cummings said. "That's all we did it for."

School district policy states that it is up to administrators to decide whether something is appropriate or not and in this case, the principal decided that the girls' outfits were not appropriate.

Once the girls came in, there were a number of people who came up to the principal, the assistant principal and other school administrators who were very upset over their appearance, school spokeswoman Margi Nanney said. "We have never had complaints about the men or the boys."

It is ugly.

It is tacky.

But inappropriate? No more so than when guys do it – and there needs to be a “one-size-fits-all” policy for stuff like this. After all, the girls did cover all areas that they society (and the law) expects them to cover with clothing. Would those tops have gotten them kicked out if they had not done the body-painting?

Posted by: Greg at 11:34 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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My students and I get the daily "treat" of Channel One news in our classroom during fifth period. I think it serves a small purpose, in that it does expose some of the kids to the only news they will get in an average day. And it has sparked interesting comments.

But there was a line in today's broadcast (October 16, 2007 -- at 7:55 in the video) that struck me as somewhat over the top. In discussing the current debate over the House resolution on the Armenian genocide, they explain why Turkey is so important, and include the description of the country as "a secret ally of Israel".

Secret? Not if it can be discovered by student journalists like the folks at Channel One. And certainly not after they disclose it to students at 11,000 schools. But not to worry -- the relationship between the two nations is quite public knowledge -- as this Wikipedia article shows.

Posted by: Greg at 11:31 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Dr. Mike Adams notes that the NAACP in North Carolina is demanding that the state offer reparations for a race riot/coup in Wilmington in 1898. Indeed, there is the threat of litigation.

The N.C. NAACP is giving the state two options related to telling the story of the 1898 Race Riot and compensating descendants of riot victims.

"You can do it through the General Assembly or we're going to build a case," state NAACP President William Barber said Friday during a national symposium focused on the coup d'etat.

In other words, this is a race-based shake-down of the taxpayers of North Carolina for events that occurred before any current North Carolinian was alive.

I find it interesting who is not facing demands – the descendants of the actual perpetrators of the events in Wilmington, and the organizations and businesses that actively encouraged/benefited from the coup.

You know – the Democrat Party and the leading Democrats who were responsible for the coup, and who perpetrated the violence and murder.

Oh, and the News & Observer newspaper and other newspapers still publishing today that actively advocated for the removal of blacks from political power in Wilmington.

Why are these organizations not included in the demands? Why are the descendants of Josephus Daniels (later the Secretary of the Navy under Democrat Woodrow Wilson) and other participants not facing threats of litigation if they don’t pay up? Could it be that the NAACP knows that the political party and media outlets that instigated this rebellion and overthrow of lawful authority are today reliable allies – as are many of the individuals who would be impacted by the attempt to make them pay for events that occurred long before their birth?

Besides – the state has deeper pockets, since it can always tax the citizens more. And the NAACP loves higher taxes, more government spending and additional social programs which are what this lawsuit is really about. Otherwise

Reparations by those not responsible to those not personally wronged – like belated apologies for slavery – are misguided and dishonest efforts to assuage guilt of those who have done nothing wrong on behalf of those who believe themselves to be perpetual victims of the past.

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Professor David Currie of the University of Chicago, a great scholar, passed away this week. This report comes in from the Volokh Conspiracy about a great resource provided by the school.

Via the University of Chicago Law Faculty blog, I learn that the Chicago website has posted an MP3 file recorded in 2006 of the late Professor David Currie reading the U.S. Constitution (link to the hosting page rather than the file). It's a big file, but a download is well worth it: Currie has a marvelous voice, and hearing the Constitution read aloud gives you a particularly keen sense of the structure and internal consistency of the document. Super cool.

I've downloaded it -- you should, too.

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Now refugees from Cuba are taking the safer, longer way into the US -- through Mexico!

Cubans are migrating to the United States in the greatest numbers in over a decade, and for most of them the new way to get north is first to head west — to Mexico — in a convoluted route that avoids the United States Coast Guard.

American officials say the migration, which has grown into a multimillion-dollar-a-year smuggling enterprise, has risen sharply because many Cubans have lost hope that Raúl Castro, who took over as president from his brother Fidel in 2006, will make changes that will improve their lives. Cuban authorities contend that the migration is more economic than political and is fueled by Washington’s policy of rewarding Cubans who enter the United States illegally.

In fact, unlike Mexicans, Central Americans and others heading to the southwestern border of the United States, the Cubans do not have to sneak across. They just walk right up to United States authorities at the border, benefiting from lax Mexican enforcement and relying on Washington’s “wet foot, dry foot” policy, which gives them the ability to become permanent residents if they can reach United States soil.

That is what José Luis Savater, 45, a refrigerator repairman from Havana, did in early October to reach southern Florida, which remains the goal for most migrating Cubans.

Two questions spring to mind in light of this story.

1) If we are now getting Cubans coming across, why would anyone doubt that terrorists are (or at least could) infiltrate the US in this same manner?

2) Why are these Cubans coming to America? Didn't they get the memo from Michael Moore that they have it better in Communist Cuba, with its great health care and benevolent leader?

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Absolutely tragic -- but at least this terrorist scumbag didn't do greater damage to even more innocents.

A mother who tried to stop her son from carrying out a suicide bomb attack triggered an explosion in the family's home in southern Afghanistan that killed the would-be bomber, his mother and three siblings, police said Monday.

The would-be bomber had been studying at a madrassa, or religious school, in Pakistan, and when he returned to his home in Uruzgan province over the weekend announced that he planned to carry out a suicide attack, Interior Ministry spokesman Zemeri Bashary said.

Surviving family members told police that the suicide vest exploded during a struggle between the mother and her son, said Juma Gul Himat, Uruzgan's police chief. The man's brother and two sisters were also killed.

Family members said the would-be bomber gave his family $3,600 before telling them he intended to carry out the attack, Himat said.

And another such bomber who lost his nerve accidentally detonated his vest while taking it off before turning himself into the police, resulting in only his own death. I'm curious -- does he still get his virgins?

Also, this information needs to be proclaimed worldwide -- after investigation of allegations against US troops in Afghanistan made recently, the following has been determined.

There was no desecration of the Quran or any religious symbol by U.S. forces.

Now, if the Muslim world would become more interested in the desecration of their faith by terrorists, the outrage over this non-incident could be directed to better ends.

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Why will OJ go down this time? Because his co-defendants are going to testify against him.

Two co-defendants in the O.J. Simpson armed robbery case in Las Vegas, Nevada, have agreed to plead guilty to reduced charges and testify against the former football star, officials said Monday.

Walter Alexander and Charles H. Cashmore said they will testify against Simpson and three other co-defendants, and will include in their testimony that guns were used in the alleged robbery.

In return for Alexander's cooperation, Clark County District Attorney David Roger promised to seek a suspended sentence on a charge of conspiracy to commit robbery, according to Clark County Court spokesman Michael Sommermeyer.

Earlier Monday, Cashmore appeared before Judge Joe M. Bonaventure and said he would plead guilty to an accessory to robbery charge, court information officer Michael Sommermeyer said.

Clark County District Attorney David Roger announced in court that Cashmore would testify against Simpson and four others. Cashmore is scheduled for arraignment on October 23.

Imagine if they had managed to turn Al Cowlings against OJ before the murder case -- he'd have long since had a needle in his arm or a life sentence.

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Commenting about the "Obama is a Muslim" emails (commented upon here) circulating around the internet (and especially in South Carolina) even after they have been debunked, Kevin Drum asks the following question.

What is it about South Carolina, anyway?

Answer -- it is early. A crappy showing by Obama in the early states will derail his campaign, like happened with McCain in 2000 and Dean in 2004. The issue, therefore, is not the state, but is instead the calendar.

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Politico comments on a recent boomlet for the Arizona Senator.

Republican presidential hopeful John McCain is back, two months after he was given up for dead.

For most of 2007, McCain was the prohibitive favorite among GOP voters. No one else came close.

Then, suddenly, his campaign — swollen with overhead and consultants — began to come apart at the seams.

It wasnÂ’t long before it reported a financial crisis: It was broke.

Roughly half of McCainÂ’s staff left or was let go. His longtime political soul mate, John Weaver, split, leaving McCain alone to run his campaign.

Meanwhile, the national media began to write McCainÂ’s political obituary. You almost could feel the one-time leaderÂ’s polling numbers dropping toward the single digits.

Today, amazingly, the campaign of the U.S. senator from Arizona is very much alive.

How?

McCain was helped by progress in Iraq and a strong showing in a recent New Hampshire debate.

Also, the John McCain of old is back, saying what he means and letting the chips fall where they may. He is much more comfortable campaigning as an insurgent than as an insider.

Sorry, but I won't be signing onto McCain's campaign any time soon. Other than Ron Paul and Sam Brownback, McCain is the last individual in the GOP race i would vote for. His hostility to the First Amendment is shocking, and i will not be a party to the destruction of that most precious part of the Bill of Rights by supporting his candidacy for the GOP nomination.

Indeed, I'm not sure that I could support the GOP ticket if he is on it in either spot -- though I think he would be a great Secretary of Defense or Homeland Security.

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A short list of those not deemed as worthy as Al Gore to receive the Novel Peace Prize.

In Olso Friday, the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize was not awarded to the Burmese monks whose defiance against, and brutalization at the hands of, the country's military junta in recent weeks captured the attention of the Free World.

The prize was also not awarded to Morgan Tsvangirai, Arthur Mutambara and other Zimbabwe opposition leaders who were arrested and in some cases beaten by police earlier this year while protesting peacefully against dictator Robert Mugabe.

Or to Father Nguyen Van Ly, a Catholic priest in Vietnam arrested this year and sentenced to eight years in prison for helping the pro-democracy group Block 8406.

Or to Wajeha al-Huwaider and Fawzia al-Uyyouni, co-founders of the League of Demanders of Women's Right to Drive Cars in Saudi Arabia, who are waging a modest struggle with grand ambitions to secure basic rights for women in that Muslim country.

Or to Colombian President Àlvaro Uribe, who has fought tirelessly to end the violence wrought by left-wing terrorists and drug lords in his country.

Or to Garry Kasparov and the several hundred Russians who were arrested in April, and are continually harassed, for resisting President Vladimir Putin's slide toward authoritarian rule.

Or to the people of Iraq, who bravely work to rebuild and reunite their country amid constant threats to themselves and their families from terrorists who deliberately target civilians.

Or to Presidents Viktor Yushchenko and Mikheil Saakashvili who, despite the efforts of the Kremlin to undermine their young states, stayed true to the spirit of the peaceful "color" revolutions they led in Ukraine and Georgia and showed that democracy can put down deep roots in Russia's backyard.

Or to Britain's Tony Blair, Ireland's Bertie Ahern and the voters of Northern Ireland, who in March were able to set aside decades of hatred to establish joint Catholic-Protestant rule in Northern Ireland.

Or to thousands of Chinese bloggers who run the risk of arrest by trying to bring uncensored information to their countrymen.

Or to scholar and activist Saad Eddin Ibrahim, jailed presidential candidate Ayman Nour and other democracy campaigners in Egypt.

Or, posthumously, to lawmakers Walid Eido, Pierre Gemayel, Antoine Ghanem, Rafik Hariri, George Hawi and Gibran Tueni; journalist Samir Kassir; and other Lebanese citizens who've been assassinated since 2005 for their efforts to free their country from Syrian control.

Or to the Reverend Phillip Buck; Pastor Chun Ki Won and his organization, Durihana; Tim Peters and his Helping Hands Korea; and Liberty in North Korea, who help North Korean refugees escape to safety in free nations.

But I can understand the decision of the Swedish politicians who make up the selection committee. Faced with the possibility of giving the award to some individual or group that had engaged in real humanitarian work, often at great personal risk or cost, they instead made the courageous choice to give it to a washed-up politician who made an error-riddled film and who hypocritically lives a lifestyle with a sasquatch-sized carbon footprint while demanding that the rest of us cout back on our environmental impact -- or face government mandates that we do so.

After all, it was a morally superior move to try to embarrass the American president and seek to influence the American election. I mean, having previously given it to a terrorist, a communist dictator, and a lying novelist, why sully the Nobel Peace Prize by giving it to true workers for peace and human rights?

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The US Constitution does not apply to those outside the US. And it certainly does not apply to enemies who are actively fighting our men and women in uniform. But a warped view of the Bill of Rights seems to have cost some soldiers their lives earlier this year.

In the early hours of May 12, seven U.S. soldiers - including Spc. Jimenez - were on lookout near a patrol base in the al Qaeda-controlled area of Iraq called the "Triangle of Death."

Sometime before dawn, heavily armed al Qaeda gunmen quietly cut through the tangles of concertina wire surrounding the outpost of two Humvees and made a massive and coordinated surprise attack.

Four of the soldiers were killed on the spot and three others were taken hostage.
A search to rescue the men was quickly launched. But it soon ground to a halt as lawyers - obeying strict U.S. laws about surveillance - cobbled together the legal grounds for wiretapping the suspected kidnappers.

Starting at 10 a.m. on May 15, according to a timeline provided to Congress by the director of national intelligence, lawyers for the National Security Agency met and determined that special approval from the attorney general would be required first.

For an excruciating nine hours and 38 minutes, searchers in Iraq waited as U.S. lawyers discussed legal issues and hammered out the "probable cause" necessary for the attorney general to grant such "emergency" permission.

Finally, approval was granted and, at 7:38 that night, surveillance began.
"The intelligence community was forced to abandon our soldiers because of the law," a senior congressional staffer with access to the classified case told The Post.

"How many lawyers does it take to rescue our soldiers?" he asked. "It should be zero."

Excuse me – the enemy on the field of battle does not have a right to the protection of the Constitution. He does not have a right to have a warrant issued before we intercept his phone calls, no matter where the hub is. And our soldiers do have a right to expect that the full range of American resources will be deployed to rescue them – and that does not include a battalion of attorneys to muck up the process and prevent prompt action.

Any new FISA legislation needs to make this clear. And if it does not, the President should veto it, and follow the precedents set by FDR to engage in intelligence gathering without warrants.

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We may be on the verge of defeating one of our major foes in Iraq -- the local al-Qaeda affiliate.

The U.S. military believes it has dealt devastating and perhaps irreversible blows to al-Qaeda in Iraq in recent months, leading some generals to advocate a declaration of victory over the group, which the Bush administration has long described as the most lethal U.S. adversary in Iraq.

But as the White House and its military commanders plan the next phase of the war, other officials have cautioned against taking what they see as a premature step that could create strategic and political difficulties for the United States. Such a declaration could fuel criticism that the Iraq conflict has become a civil war in which U.S. combat forces should not be involved. At the same time, the intelligence community, and some in the military itself, worry about underestimating an enemy that has shown great resilience in the past.

I'd rather not see a premature declaration of victory -- after all, there are other foes to be defeated in Iraq. But it is good to know that one of the worst is in the process of being crushed -- and it provides some hope that the rest are in similarly dire straights.

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When Charles Krauthammer coined the term "Bush Derangement Syndrome" some years back, he was well-within his competence in doing so. After all, he is a trained mental health professional. Now that Paul Krugman tries to label those of us who think that Al Gore did not deserve the Nobel Peace Prize as suffering from Gore Derangement Syndrome, I'd like to point out that he is practicing medicine without a license.

On the day after Al Gore shared the Nobel Peace Prize, The Wall Street JournalÂ’s editors couldnÂ’t even bring themselves to mention Mr. GoreÂ’s name. Instead, they devoted their editorial to a long list of people they thought deserved the prize more.

Yeah, that some of us might argue that a bunch of human rights campaigners and courageous opponents of dictatorship are a wee bit more deserving of a Nobel Peace Prize than the Gore is obviously a sign of psychological problems -- NOT. After all, that is who the WSJ list includes, not Rush Limbaugh or a who's who of right-wing pundits.

Krugman then goes on to list other folks opposing the hypocritical carbon sasquatch who demands that everyone except him cut back on their "carbon footprint" while selling latter day indulgences to violators.

And given that there is not a clear scientific consensus in favor of man-made global warming (whatever the political or pop-culture consensus), opposition to the Gore agenda is not a sign of mental illness -- it is a sign of critical thinking.

Posted by: Greg at 11:35 PM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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I have a soft spot for stories of reporters killed while doing their job -- I have ever since one of my college friends was killed covering a story on drug trafficking in South America.

I am therefore saddened by this report.

On Sunday afternoon, Salih Saif Aldin set out for one of Baghdad's most dangerous neighborhoods. He knew exactly where to go. He nodded, smiled, grabbed his camera. There was nothing he needed to say.

Saif Aldin always came back -- from death threats, from beatings, from kidnappings, from detentions by American soldiers, from the country's most notorious and deadly terrain -- but on Sunday he didn't. The 32-year-old Iraqi reporter in The Washington Post's Baghdad bureau was shot once in the forehead in the southwestern neighborhood of Sadiyah. He was the latest in a long line of reporters, most of them Iraqis, to be killed while covering the Iraq war. He was the first for The Washington Post.

"The death of Salih Saif Aldin in the service of our readers is a tragedy for everyone at The Washington Post. He was a brave and valuable reporter who contributed much to our coverage of Iraq," said Leonard Downie Jr., executive editor of The Post. "We are in his debt. We grieve with his family, friends, fellow journalists and everyone in our Baghdad bureau."

At 2 p.m., Saif Aldin took a taxi from The Post's office to Sadiyah to interview residents about the sectarian violence there between Shiite militiamen and Sunni insurgents. It was his third trip to the embattled neighborhood within a week. For him, there were no red zones, no green zones, no neighborhoods out of bounds.

I won't debate the merits of the coverage given to the war by Saif Aldin. This is neither the time nor the place, though I was generally impressed with his reports.

Instead I offer my sincere condolences to his family and to his colleagues.

Posted by: Greg at 11:15 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Supporters of Islamist terrorism – and enemies of America.

Who Hates Americans? We Do.

                       Your typical American is:

                 Ã˜ A racist. A sexist. A homophobe.

                 Ã˜ An Islamo-phobe.

                 Ã˜ Is willing to invade other countries for oil and pleasure.

                 Ã˜ Is easily manipulated by Rush Limbaugh and Jews.

                 Ã˜ Is the cause of global warming.

Join Us For American Fascism Awareness Day

Place: Washington (Slaveholder) Monument

Date: November 31, 2007

Time: 12PM-2:00 PM

Speakers:

                                        Dennis Kucinich, Ron Paul, congressmen
                                        Adam Kokesh, Iraq War veteran
                                        Cindy Sheehan, Harry Karry, peace activists
                                        Michael Moore, Sean Penn, film-makers

Sponsors:

Peace and Social Justice Crusade, Iraq Veterans Against the War, Code Pink, Muslim Students Association, American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, Students for Justice in Palestine, Revolutionary Communist Party, International A.N.S.W.E.R., Moveon.org, DailyKos.com, Indy-Media.org, HuffingtonPost.com, Ivorypower.com

Shameful, disgusting – and reason enough for Ron Paul to be denounced by every other GOP candidate. I'd argue that appearing on this platform approaches -- if not crosses the line -- into treason.

And I'm curious -- will all the leftists and Jewish organizations who have been denouncing Ann Coulter for having the audacity to make a statement compatible with the Christian faith take note of and denounce the explicitly anti-Semitic statement -- which two of our members of Congress apparently endorse -- that "the Jews" are manipulating America?

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Because he can back his position with strong historical data, rather than speculation that ignores the historical data and contradicts previous theories.

ONE of the world's foremost meteorologists has called the theory that helped Al Gore share the Nobel Peace Prize "ridiculous" and the product of "people who don't understand how the atmosphere works".

Dr William Gray, a pioneer in the science of seasonal hurricane forecasts, told a packed lecture hall at the University of North Carolina that humans were not responsible for the warming of the earth.

His comments came on the same day that the Nobel committee honoured Mr Gore for his work in support of the link between humans and global warming.
"We're brainwashing our children," said Dr Gray, 78, a long-time professor at Colorado State University. "They're going to the Gore movie [An Inconvenient Truth] and being fed all this. It's ridiculous."

Just remember – many of the acolytes of global warming claimed we were headed for a new ice age less not too long ago.

And remember as well that the period which they are marking as the baseline – the 1800s – are part of what historians have long referred to as part of the Little Ice Age”. Of course it is warmer now, given that the “norm” is set at the lowest point on the temperature charts.

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Guess what? The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that there is nothing wrong with statutory rape -- and so the US cannot deport adults who have sex with underage partners!

Over the years, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has earned itself a reputation as the legal bastion of San Francisco looniness, and a recent decision will do nothing to change that.

On Tuesday, the court decided that Alberto Quintero-Salazar - a Mexican national and legal resident of the U.S. - could not be deported on the basis of a sex crime he committed in 1998, namely illegal intercourse between an adult over 21 and a youth under 16. According to the court, adults taking sexual advantage of a minor (so long as they have the "consent" that minors are legally unable to provide) are not guilty of a crime of "moral turpitude," which is needed to subject legal U.S. residents to deportation.

The reasoning of this case goes like this -- the age of consent differs in different states, and the act would not be illegal if the couple were married. Therefore it is only a crime because California made it illegal.

I suppose we could make that argument about most other crimes, too.

So the child-raping immigrant gets to stay in America -- even though a plain reading of the law says he should be deported immediately.

Anyone want to argue about the importance of doing something about the out-of-control Ninth Circuit?

Anyone want to ask why this decision was ignored by the media?

Will someone start asking the Democrat s running for President what they think of this decision and these judges? Not to mention what they will do to stop such idiocy.

H/T Stop the ACLU, Random-American

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Nicholas and Lola Kampf are the face of "pro-choice" America. They will be permitted to walk away with no penalty despite having committed multiple felonies in their attempt to violate their daughter's right to choose to have her baby.

Would these folks have been permitted to walk away with such a sweet plea deal if they had tied up their daughter and kidnapped her to prevent an abortion?

A judge on Friday accepted a plea agreement that allows a husband and wife to escape jail time for tying up their daughter and taking her out of state, allegedly in hopes of persuading her to have an abortion.

Katelyn Kampf, 20, spoke out against the plea agreement in a tense hearing at which she and her parents avoided eye contact.

Her parents, Nicholas and Lola Kampf, pleaded guilty to misdemeanor assault and disorderly conduct charges to resolve the case under an agreement in which the district attorney dropped felony kidnapping charges.

Under the agreement, there was no jail time and the assault case will be dropped if they meet stipulations including counseling.

The incident happened on Sept. 15, 2006, after the woman's parents learned that she was pregnant and had dropped out of college.

Katelyn Kampf contends her mother held her down and spit on her and that her father tackled her when she tried to escape from the parents' home in North Yarmouth.

The parents were arrested in Salem, N.H., after the woman got away from them and called police.

You and I both know the answer.

Instead, the victim's wishes were ignored and she received no justice.

But we won't hear a single voice of protest from the Left on this one, because it might raise questions about how many abortions are committed each year upon girls and women who are either forced or coerced into having them.

By the way -- Katelyn Kampf is now the mother of a healthy baby boy, D'Andre Johnson. Anyone want to hazard a guess as to one of the main reasons her parents wanted to force her to have that abortion?

Posted by: Greg at 10:03 AM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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Rock the Casbah! Rock the Casbah!

Kashmiri Muslim children pose for a photograph on the occasion of Eid al-Fitr at Eidgah in Srinagar, India.

And a little fun for my fellow Clash fans.

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I'm expecting quite a dust-up in Jacksonville, as my Texans take on the Jaguars in an AFC South battle. By the way -- all teams in the AFC South are over 500 right now.

Here's how CBS analyzes the matchup.

This team owned the Jags last year -- even as we played played a poor season. I think that we can do it again, although injuries may make it difficult. My guess is that this is a game won by a margin of 7 points of less -- and I won't predict the winner.

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