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As a teacher, I often see my students struggling to find money for college. After all, an education isn't cheap. Where do you look to find money to continue your education? How do you avoid overlooking resources or making mistakes that can cost time, money, and sometimes even a chance at a good education?

Frankly, I'm impressed with Scholarships.com, which is a free service that helps you find and apply for scholarships to continue your education. This site offers free scholarship searches and guarantees the confidentiality of any data you disclose to them as you conduct searches of their expansive database of sources of cash for college.

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Nothing -- absolutely nothing -- can justify this sort of vandalism and violence against any place of worship. Period.

Police in Arizona said two unidentified men tossed a bottle filled with acid at a Phoenix area mosque early on Monday, splashing a caustic chemical near a Muslim cleric involved in a high-profile discrimination suit.

A Glendale Police Department spokesman said two men driving in a red car threw a soda bottle filled with acid and a reactant at the Albanian American Islamic Center of Arizona, in Glendale, west of Phoenix, around 1 a.m. (O800 GMT) on Monday.

The bottle, which contained pool cleaner and strips of tin foil, burst some 20-25 feet away from Imam Didmar Faja and another mosque official, although neither man was injured, sergeant Jim Toomey said.

"The bottle ruptured in front of them and they smelled a strong chemical smell when it went off," Toomey said.

"We are treating it as a hate crime. We are taking it very seriously," he added.

This is not how real Americans do things -- and those responsible do not merit the dignity and high honor that goes with being an American citizen.

On the other hand, I can't wait to see Faza's lawsuit thrown out on its merits.

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In fulfillment of a dream that was marred by tragedy over two decades ago, there is at last a teacher in space.

Space shuttle Endeavour blasted off Wednesday carrying teacher- astronaut Barbara Morgan, who after more than two decades is finally carrying out the dream of Christa McAuliffe and the rest of the fallen Challenger crew.

Endeavour and its crew of seven rose from the seaside pad at 6:36 p.m., right on time, and pierced a solidly blue sky. They're expected to reach the international space station in two days.

"Good luck, godspeed and have some fun up there," launch director Michael Leinbach said.

Morgan was McAuliffe's backup for Challenger's doomed launch in 1986 and, even after two space shuttle disasters, never swayed in her dedication to NASA and the agency's on-and-off quest to send a schoolteacher into space. She rocketed away in the center seat of the cabin's lower compartment, the same seat that had been occupied by McAuliffe.

More than half of NASA's 114 Teacher-in-Space nominees in 1985 gathered at the launch site, along with hundreds of other educators, all of them thrilled to see Morgan continue what McAuliffe began.

Also on hand was the widow of Challenger's commander, who said earlier in the day that she would be praying and pacing at liftoff and would not relax until Morgan was safely back on Earth in two weeks.

"The Challenger crew—my husband, Dick Scobee, the teacher Christa McAuliffe—they would be so happy with Barbara Morgan," said June Scobee Rodgers. "It's important that the lessons will be taught because there's a nation of people waiting, still, who remember where they were when we lost the Challenger and they remember a teacher was aboard."

I echo that last sentiment -- this is important, but I will not relax until the flight is over and the crew is safely on Earth again. I say that for Barbara Morgan, for the rest of teh crew, and for my many dear friends controlling the flight from Johnson Space Center, just five miles from where I am typing this blog entry.

And yet, I still cannot forget...

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Those who want to argue that the media have nothing to fear from hate crimes laws and government imposed definitions of fairness need only to look at what is happening in the UK with an undercover documentary on extremism in British mosques.

The police have investigated and are seeking charges -- against the documentary producers.

Police are reporting Channel 4 to the media regulator Ofcom over the way an undercover programme was edited.

But charges will not be brought against preachers featured in Dispatches, which tackled claims of Islamic extremism.

West Midlands Police carried out its own inquiry into three speakers in the Undercover Mosque broadcast, and then into the programme-makers themselves.

The Crown Prosecution Service said the show "completely distorted" what the trio said, a claim Channel 4 rejects.

Kevin Sutcliffe, commissioning editor for Dispatches, said West Midlands police had produced no evidence to support their claims.

"We find it extraordinary that they have gone public on these concerns without discussing them with us first," he said.

"We believe the comments made in the film speak for themselves - several speakers were clearly shown making abhorrent and extreme comments."

He said the one-hour documentary, which was made over a nine-month period and broadcast in January, allowed comment to be seen in a fuller context.

"All the speakers featured in the film were offered a right to reply and none denied making these comments, nor have any of them complained to Ofcom to our knowledge."

Just remember, when government gets to decide what speech is hateful and what is acceptable, they will always bend over to give the benefit of the doubt to those who are seen as "diverse". on the other hand, anything perceived as an attack on those who fall into the protected classes will be fair game for persecution and prosecution.

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These words are no less true today as we find ourselves at war with jihadi swine than they were when we stood against the forces of Communism.

There is no argument over the choice between peace and war, but there is only one guaranteed way you can have peace--and you can have it in the next second--surrender. Ronald Reagan

We must remember these words, and make them ingrained in the American psyche.

Can we pass the word to these guys?

H/T Jawa, Lao

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Proving that we have the laws we need to crack down on illegal immigration when the government gets the will to do so, ICE is preparing to crack down on folks working with fake Social Security Numbers.

In a new effort to crack down on illegal immigrants, federal authorities are expected to announce tough rules this week that would require employers to fire workers who use false Social Security numbers.

Officials said the rules would be backed up by stepped-up raids on workplaces across the country that employ illegal immigrants.

After first proposing the rules last year, Department of Homeland Security officials said they held off finishing them to await the outcome of the debate in Congress over a sweeping immigration bill. That measure, which was supported by President Bush, died in the Senate in June.

Now administration officials are signaling that they intend to clamp down on employers of illegal immigrants even without a new immigration law to offer legal status to millions of illegal immigrants already in the workforce.

The approach is expected to play well with conservatives who have long demanded that the administration do more to enforce existing immigration laws, but it could also lead to renewed pressure from businesses on Congress to provide legal status for an estimated six million unauthorized immigrant workers.

“We are tough and we are going to be even tougher,” Russ Knocke, the spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security, said yesterday. “There are not going to be any more excuses for employers, and there will be serious consequences for those that choose to blatantly disregard the law.”

See, we didn't need an amnesty program to start fixing the problem -- we just needed folks to get off their butts and start enforcing the laws that are there. And while this makes the border-jumpers and their apologists upset, all that is being done is carrying out the dictates of our nation's reasonable immigration laws.

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I know they give away all sorts of crap to fans attending ball games on special days/nights. And i certainly will be out to get my swag at every football game this year.

But I think that the folks in the San Francisco Giants marketing department may have gone a bit too far with this item.

As pointed out by my dear friend at Bookworm Room, it is already on sale on eBay.

Someone does seem culturally challenged here -- that looks suspiciously like a cowboy hat, and since when is a ram's horn square?

UPDATE: Well, now I understand the origin of the thing.

Still...

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Scott Thomas Beauchamp is a liar, according to Army investigators.

Army investigators have concluded that the private whose dispatches for the New Republic accused his fellow soldiers of petty cruelties in Iraq was not telling the truth.

The finding, disclosed yesterday, came days after the Washington-based magazine announced that it had corroborated the claims of the private, Scott Thomas Beauchamp, except for one significant error.

"An investigation has been completed and the allegations made by Pvt. Beauchamp were found to be false," an Army statement said. "His platoon and company were interviewed and no one could substantiate the claims."

TNR wants to claim that their investigation is more authoritative. BULL! TNR just wants to create this generation's John Kerry, making false charges of troop misconduct to undermine a war they oppose.

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Not every sort of medical test needs to be administered in the doctor's office or in a laboratory. There are many home drug tests -- the sort that some parents rely on to make sure their kids are not on drugs -- that can be done without medical training. Similarly, there are Online Lab Tests, such as cholesterol tests, colon cancer tests, liver tests and STD tests that can be performed at home to provide confidential results by secure email that can later be discussed with a doctor. Nobody knows that you have taken the tests or what the results are except for you until you and unless you share those results.

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Now let's all ignore him until it is time for a fan campaign against his inclusion in the Hall of Fame.

For one spectacular moment, Barry Bonds and everybody cheering him could forget about the controversy surrounding his chase and appreciate the phenomenal feat: 756.

Nobody in the majors — not Hank Aaron, not Babe Ruth — has ever hit more home runs than the San Francisco star.

On Tuesday night, in his home ballpark, it didn't matter how many of them might have been fueled by steroids or performance-enhancers. Bonds has the title of home run king all to himself, ending Aaron's 33-year reign.

"This record is not tainted at all. At all. Period," Bonds said.

Here's hoping that enough evidence of illegal steroid abuse does emerge to result in banning Bonds from the game, the Hall, and any connection with baseball.

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When we bought our house here in Texas six years ago, we were very fortunate. We went with a mortgage broker who was based in our real estate agent's office. Since I really didn't know anything about mortgage loans (which are really just personal loans secured by the home/real estate) when I started, it was probably a good thing for me. She found me a 30-year mortgage at a fixed rate comparable to other mortgages out there -- but with no money down because I'm a teacher. Best of all, it was underwritten by a major national bank, so I knew it was reputable. Indeed, she even managed to get my rate knocked down an additional 1/8 of a point in the hours before closing due to a market fluctuation.

That doesn't mean that everything was perfect. Everyone missed the fact that my school district taxes through the neighboring county, not the county where the house is located. The result -- they missed $1200 in property taxes annually, which resulted in a $200 increase in my payment the second year as I struggled to get my escrow account up to where it was supposed to be as well as paying the full tax bill! So while she got me a great loan, the oversight ended up putting a squeeze on the budget for the first couple of years in the house.

Now would I look at refinancing my house? No -- the rate is still good and my equity and income are not where they would need to be for me to shorten my loan term. And while I liked my broker, I wouldn't be using her again after the error.

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Fighting the war on terrorism has been regularly made harder by the Fifth Column in the Fourth Estate giving aid and comfort to the enemy -- and undermining the Bush Administration through scare tactics and falsehood.

Today's editorial is no exception.

It was appalling to watch over the last few days as Congress — now led by Democrats — caved in to yet another unnecessary and dangerous expansion of President Bush’s powers, this time to spy on Americans in violation of basic constitutional rights. Many of the 16 Democrats in the Senate and 41 in the House who voted for the bill said that they had acted in the name of national security, but the only security at play was their job security.

There was plenty of bad behavior. Republicans marched in mindless lockstep with the president. There was double-dealing by the White House. The director of national intelligence, Mike McConnell, crossed the line from being a steward of this nationÂ’s security to acting as a White House political operative.

But mostly, the spectacle left us wondering what the Democrats — especially their feckless Senate leaders — plan to do with their majority in Congress if they are too scared of Republican campaign ads to use it to protect the Constitution and restrain an out-of-control president.

I'd love to respond to this editorial, but I'm fortunate not to need to, given this fine piece by Congressman Pete Hoekstra, who I one day hope to see serving in the Oval Office. It responds to today's editorial and yesterday's article on the FISA Fix.

Article

• Misstatement and Exaggeration: “…impact went far beyond the small fixes that administration officials had said were needed to gather information about foreign terrorists.”

o Facts: FISA is an extremely complex statute that is difficult enough to understand and apply even when it is not being deliberately distorted. Unfortunately, instead of reading the law, the New York Times chose to make up new assertions wholly unsupported by the facts. This did a disservice to our intelligence professionals who are attempting to keep America – especially prominent targets such as New York – safe.

o The new law plainly and expressly provides that surveillance must be “directed at” (targeted to) a person reasonably believed to be located outside the United States. Under well-established FISA practice and precedent, this only permits surveillance of foreign targets on foreign soil, not Americans on American soil. The Intelligence Community must develop procedures to ensure this is the case, and those procedures must be reviewed by the FISA Court.

o Any surveillance targeting Americans in the United States would still require an individual warrant from the FISA court, and any incidental collection of the communications of U.S. persons would still be subject to extensive minimization procedures. The bill expressly requires such minimization procedures to be imposed on any surveillance conducted under the new law, and those procedures must also be reviewed by the FISA court,

o Congresswoman Wilson expressly clarified in the Congressional Record that so-called “reverse-targeting” of the communications of Americans is intended to be illegal under this bill. Director McConnell also repeatedly has stated his intent in congressional briefings to seek an individualized order of the FISA Court to target any communication of an American.

o Judges of the FISA Court itself have also clearly expressed frustration with the fact that so much of their docket is consumed by applications that focus on foreign targets and involve minimal privacy interest of Americans.

• Misstatement and Exaggeration: “…new law for the first time provided a legal framework for much of the surveillance without warrants that was being conducted in secret by the National Security Agency and outside the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act … that is supposed to regulate the way the government can listen to the private communications of American citizens.”

o Facts: The Attorney General has publicly disclosed that the activities previously conducted under the Terrorist Surveillance Program described by the President were moved completely under FISA. The new law applies only to surveillance targeted at foreign persons, and a FISA order would continue to be necessary for surveillance targeted at Americans. The current FISA structure can handle these applications with speed and agility.

• Misstatement and Exaggeration: “[A] still-classified ruling earlier this year … which said the government needed to seek court-approved warrants to monitor those international calls going through American switches.”

o Facts: It’s not necessary to address or discuss any alleged court opinion to demonstrate that this assertion is false. The FISA modernization legislation passed by the House in the 109th Congress – well before the alleged opinion – attempted to address and close the FISA loophole for foreign terrorists.

• Misstatement and Exaggeration: “

he court’s only role will be to review and approve the procedures used by the government in the surveillance after it has been conducted.”

o Facts: This is a false and selective characterization of the plain provisions of the law. Third parties who are asked to assist the intelligence community under the law may challenge the legality of any directive by filing a petition with the FISA Court.

Editorial

• Misstatement and Exaggeration: “

oo scared of Republican campaign ads to use it to protect the Constitution.”

o Facts: Even without addressing the obvious fact that radical jihadists in foreign countries are not entitled to privacy rights under the Constitution relating to foreign intelligence collection, courts that have addressed the issue to date have made clear they believe that the type of surveillance contemplated by the bill is fully consistent with the Constitution, including the Fourth Amendment.

• Misstatement and Exaggeration: “They gave the Director of National Intelligence and the attorney general authority to intercept – without warrant, court supervision or accountability – any telephone call or e-mail message that moves in, out of or through the United States as long as there is a ‘reasonable belief’ that one party is not in the United States.”

o Facts: This assertion is false under the express terms of the statute. The law clearly requires that the surveillance be “directed at” (meaning targeted to) persons outside the United States, and that procedures be in place and reviewed by the FISA Court to ensure that surveillance concerns persons outside the United States. In addition, the law requires minimization procedures reviewed by the FISA Court to be in place to deal with incidental collection of communications of Americans.

• Misstatement and Exaggeration: “It would allow the government to intercept, without a warrant, every communication into or out of any country, including the United States.”

o Facts: If this were the case, the FISA Court would be virtually shut down. We still expect the Court to be conducting a significant and appropriate volume of work to protect the privacy interests of Americans, as it has and as it should.

An excellent, point by point rebuttal of the sedition regularly put forth by the New York Times.

And while I'm at it, let me direct your attention to this fine piece in the National Review. It cogently argues why FISA needs to be abolished or ignored, so that the President can exercise his authority under the Constitution.

For nearly two years since the New York Times blew the NSA’s warrantless-surveillance program, the Left has transfigured itself into a whirling dervish of indignation over President Bush’s imperious trampling of “the rule of law.” Why? Because he failed to comply with the letter of FISA, which purports in certain instances to require the chief executive — the only elected official in the United States responsible for protecting our nation from foreign threats — to seek permission from a federal judge before monitoring international enemy communications into or out of the United States.

But the president, at least, had an excuse. Actually, not a mere excuse but a trump card. We call it the American Constitution. It empowers the chief executive to conduct warrantless surveillance of foreign threats. Even the FISA Court of Review, the highest, most specialized judicial tribunal ever to consider FISA, has acknowledged this. So did the Clinton administration when FISA was amended in 1994. In the United States, the “rule of law” first and foremost is the Constitution.

The president’s constitutional authority is inviolable — it cannot be reduced by mere legislation. When Congress passes a statute, like FISA, that purports to reduce the president’s constitutional authority, it is Congress, not the president, that is trampling the rule of law. A president who ignores such a statute is not a law-breaker; he is a defender of the highest law. He is executing the responsibility vested in his office by the Framers who, as Alexander Hamilton observed in The Federalist No. 73, worried deeply about “the propensity of the legislative department to intrude upon the rights, and to absorb the powers, of the other departments.”

Indeed, Andrew McCarthy gets it right when he argues that FISA needs to be buried in order to restore Constitutional equilibrium and a proper balancing of power -- because the judicial branches has no proper role, and the legislative branch none beyond appropriations, in this exclusively executive function.

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After all, in my vocabulary the word to be banned is a synonym for the junior Senator from New York.

The New York City Council, which drew national headlines when it passed a symbolic citywide ban earlier this year on the use of the so-called n-word, has turned its linguistic (and legislative) lance toward a different slur: bitch.

And before you rabid liberals get all indignant, consider the rhetorical brickbats you folks direct at the President. Is mine really any worse?

UPDATE: Volokh may have the answer -- DOGGESS.

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I would have loved to be in the newsroom when they passed this paragraph around.

Police searched the home in the 600 block of York Avenue on July 28, looking for a list of items including blood, medical instruments, fingerprints, documents discussing medical procedures, computers, and testicles. Court documents show they seized three specimen jars, medical supplies, a camera, a computer CPU, and other items.

There is a real story attached to this, involving some serious crimes. Let's just say that at least one individual in this story is nuts -- and now doesn't have any.

H/T Captain Ed

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I'd agree with the point, but point my finger at Al Gore, carbon bigfoot, and his merry band of jet-setting lib-ocrites who are doing the manipulation.

Former Vice President Al Gore said Tuesday that some of the world's largest energy companies, including Exxon Mobil Corp., are funding research aimed at disputing the scientific consensus on global warming as part of a campaign to mislead the public.

Sorry, but the misleading is being done by those who have a vested interest in making the cyclical increase in planetary temperature appear to be a crisis -- folks like carbon indulgense salesman Al Gore. As we continue to move out of an era known as "the little ice age", of course temperatures are going to rise.

And besides -- I can't help but remember the last time there was a consensus on a climatological crisis.

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Frankly, I don't see this as much of a story.

There's one vote that Rudy Giuliani definitely can't count on in his 2008 presidential bid: his own daughter's. According to the 17-year-old Caroline Giuliani's Facebook profile, she's supporting Barack Obama.

On her profile, she designates her political views as "liberal" and—until this morning—proclaimed her membership in the Facebook group "Barack Obama (One Million Strong for Barack)." According to her profile, she withdrew from the Obama group at 6 a.m. Monday, after Slate sent her an inquiry about it.

In what may be an effort to avoid public connection to her famous father, the future Harvard freshman and recent graduate of Trinity School in Manhattan uses a slight variation of her name on the Facebook site. But she didn't lock her profile, allowing any Facebook user with access to the Harvard or Trinity School networks (more than 42,000 people) to view her detailed profile. (As a Harvard student, I was able to see it.)

It's not news that Rudy and his two children, Caroline and her 21-year-old brother Andrew, have a rocky relationship. Caroline and Andrew are the children of Donna Hanover, Rudy's second wife. In March, Andrew, who is a junior at Duke, told the New York Times that he and his father had been estranged for some time, and he has spoken candidly about his objections to Giuliani's marriage to Judith Nathan. And after the wedding, the Times reported, Giuliani also stopped attending Caroline's high-school events. Though he went to her high-school graduation, he left without speaking to her and did not join in the post-graduation family celebration, according to the New York Daily News.

Caroline's Facebook profile does not reveal why she doesn't want her father to win the White House. She has not responded to e-mail questions from Slate.

You know, a 17-year-old's political views are really not something a put a lot of stock in, especially given that at 16 I was willing to support either Ronald Reagan or Ted Kennedy for President. At that age, most kids operate more on emotion and image than on intellect.

But I have two really simple questions.

1) Why is this being treated as a significant story by media outlets?

2) Given the acrimonious ending to her parents' marriage and Rudy's boorish behavior at the time and since, why would we expect her to support him?

Malkin agrees.

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We are coming up on two years since I learned just how unprepared my wife and I are for a disaster. Hurricane Rita took a turn in the Gulf and was slated to make landfall right in our landfall, bringing a 25 foot storm surge to our neighborhood located less than 10 feet above sea level. We had to evacuate in a hurry -- and were lucky that the storm turned and went elsewhere.

I didn't know where the insurance papers were. Bank statements? Well, I think they are in the third drawer on the desk, but am I really sure? I was pretty sure the marriage license was in the wedding album. Refills and prescriptions for Paula's meds? Disaster supplies? I'd never given them much thought until just days before.

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God forbid that you ever need to actually make use of the preparations that you make with AxcessPoints. May you never face fire or flood, earthquake, tornado or hurricane. But wouldn't you rather be ready -- just in case?

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Seth Stevenson of Slate offers some choices.

Have you seen the advertisement for the new chocolate-flavored Altoids that features an explosion—presumably, a symbolic explosion of flavor—in the shape of a mushroom cloud? Of course I'm biased here, having been born and raised in Japan, but I find this advertisement extremely offensive and callous to the millions affected by the bombs dropped on Nagasaki and Hiroshima in WWII, which I perceive as something akin to genocide, two times over. What do you think? Am I wrong in thinking these ads should be withdrawn?
—K.O.

You don't have to look very far to find ads exploiting various tragedies. Last year's Chevy "This Is Our Country" spot was a twofer, with both 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina references. (By the way, I despised that ad.)

I understand how this Altoids spot could be offensive to some, but personally I don't have a huge problem with it. There's no specificity to the reference. I've actually visited Hiroshima and the Peace Memorial Museum, and I'm a little bit sensitized to the horrors that occurred there. But I've also seen lots of footage of random test detonations (like the ones at the end of Dr. Strangelove), so I don't necessarily connect an image of a mushroom cloud directly to the devastation that afflicted Japan.

Now, if the ad had shown people's eyeballs melting out, and the skin sloughing off their arms as they shrieked in ecstasy at the chocolate-y Altoids flavor ... that might have been offensive.

Personally, I've got a two-ad campaign that just annoys the crap out of me. Jack in the Box. Angus. 'Nuff said.

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The winning entries in the Watcher's Council vote for this week are NEA Also Confused About SCOTUS Decision Regarding Race & Schooling by The Colossus of Rhodey, and Baghdad Raid Night by Michael J. Totten. 

Here are the full tallies of all votes cast:

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Not every sort of medical test needs to be administered in the doctor's office or in a laboratory. There are many home drug tests -- the sort that some parents rely on to make sure their kids are not on drugs -- that can be done without medical training. Similarly, there are medical tests, such as cholesterol tests, colon cancer tests, anemia tests and allergy tests that can be performed at home to provide confidential results that can later be discussed with a doctor. These tests can be an important tool in assisting people in monitoring their health.

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When a coach believes that his athletic program should set admissions standards for a university, he either does not belong at the institution or the institution has no academic credibility.

An embarrassed and angry Steve Spurrier blasted South Carolina's admissions process Sunday, apologizing to two recruits who signed with the Gamecocks last winter and were denied academic entry this summer.

"In my opinion, I still believe we made a mistake in doing this," Spurrier said Sunday.

Spurrier had spoken with university president Andrew Sorensen and the two agreed, the coach said, that things needed to change.

Spurrier was angered that receiver Michael Bowman of Wadesboro, N.C., and Arkee Smith of Jacksonville, Fla., were cleared by the NCAA to enroll, yet were turned down by the university. The rest of the Gamecocks football team officially reported Friday for preseason camp.

"Hopefully, I truly believe this is the last year this is going to happen, because I can't operate like that," Spurrier said. "I can't operate misleading young men."

Spurrier signed a contract extension, which included a raise of nearly a half-million dollars, that ties him to South Carolina through 2012. However, he said if things didn't change on admissions "then I have to go somewhere else, because I can't tell the young man that he's coming to school here," then not have him admitted.

University spokesman Russ McKinney said Spurrier has been involved in talks with Sorensen and other administrators about refining the process of athletic admissions.

"I think the university administration understands his frustration," McKinney said.

McKinney said the goal would be to let all South Carolina coaches know as early as possible whether a prospect would meet the university's admission standards.

The problem is not th school's standards. the problem is that Spurrier is recruiting academically sub-par athletes for his teams. He does both the University of South Carolina and the young men no favors with that practice, for the students will ultimately be unable to perform academically and leave the school without a degree. In the mean time, South Carolina will have degraded its standards, for meeting Spurrier's requirements will ultimately lead to the degradation of admission requirements for all students.

Spurrier was a failure as an NFL coach. It seems to me that he is a failure as an educator as well -- after all, a college coach is, first and foremost, a teacher. Indeed, his arrogant effort to blackmail the administration leads me to conclude that he is a failure as a man. He needs to go.

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This looks bad -- for both Spitzer and Cuomo.

INVESTIGATORS for Attorney General Andrew Cuomo and the state inspector general weren't given potentially crucial evidence - private e-mails from top aides to Gov. Spitzer - related to the explosive Troopergate probe, The Post has learned.

"It's a huge gap in the investigation," conceded a source close to both investigations.

Cuomo's probers, who eventually produced an explosive report showing top Spitzer aides used the State Police in a plot to destroy the career of Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno (R-Rensselaer), allowed the governor's legal counsels to decide what "relevant" e-mails would be turned over as part of the investigation.

Those lawyers - who instructed top Spitzer aides, including the governor's chief of staff, Richard Baum, and communications director, Darren Dopp, not to cooperate with Cuomo's investigators - turned over a small number of scandal-related e-mails from official state e-mail addresses, not personal ones, sources said.

However, Baum, linked to the scandal by e-mails sent to his official state address, has repeatedly used at least one private e-mail address to communicate with other administration officials in recent months, sources with ties to the administration told The Post. One source provided The Post with a private e-mail address containing Baum's name, saying it was the address Baum often used for official communications.

An e-mail sent by The Post to the address went unanswered.

Dopp, who was suspended after the Cuomo report put him at the center of the scandal, also regularly communicated with other senior members of the Spitzer administration by private e-mail, sources said.

Letting those who are being investigated decide what evidence to turn over -- and making no effort to get relevant evidence -- looks like Cuomo's office intentionally did a half-assed job to destroy Spitzer's credibility while not giving the GOP an advantage. At the same time, the failure to turn over these emails makes it clear that the Spitzer regime has something to hide. Could the whole Democrat establishment in New York be heading for a fall?

Posted by: Greg at 03:15 AM | Comments (236) | Add Comment
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Dead terrorists sure do make me happy.

Coalition troops killed the al Qaeda terrorist who masterminded the February 2006 attack on Samarra's al-Askariya mosque and set off continuing violence and reprisal killings between Sunnis and Shiites, the U.S. military said Sunday.

Haitham Sabah al-Badri, the al Qaeda emir of greater Samarra, was killed by an airstrike Thursday east of Samarra, said Rear Adm. Mark Fox during a news conference.

"Eliminating al-Badri is another step in breaking the cycle of violence instigated by the attack on the holy shrine in Samarra," Fox said. "We will continue to hunt down the brutal terrorists who are intent on creating a Taliban-like state in Iraq."

Coalition forces Thursday raided four buildings outside Samarra that were associated with al-Badri, according to a U.S. military news release. During the raid, at least four armed men were seen leaving the buildings and setting up tactical fighting positions in an effort to ambush coalition forces, the release said.

The coalition forces called in close air support, killing al-Badri and the three others, the release said.

One of those killed was identified as a foreigner; al-Badri was identified by his close associates and relatives, the military said.

A successful Surge and dead terrorist leaders -- I'm sure that the Democrats in Washington are wailing and gnashing their teeth.

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Posted by: Greg at 01:18 AM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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But then again, what else is new?

The current editorial laments alleged political prosecutions of Democrats.

Individual Democrats may be paying a personal price. Don Siegelman, a former Alabama governor, was the stateÂ’s most prominent Democrat and had a decent chance of retaking the governorship from the Republican incumbent. He was aggressively prosecuted by both the Birmingham and Montgomery United States attorneyÂ’s offices. Birmingham prosecutors dropped their case after a judge harshly questioned it. When the Montgomery office prosecuted, a jury acquitted Mr. Siegelman of 25 counts, but convicted him of 7, which appear to be disturbingly weak.

The mere fact that he was found guilty of at least some of the charges seems to be irrelevant to the New York Times. The Times deems the case weak due to the acquittals, despite the fact that there was substantial evidence of Siegelman's guilt on even those charges. It seems that the editors believe that Siegelman should not have been prosecuted because it harmed the chance of a Democrat electoral victory -- corruption doesn't matter when your name is followed by a D.

And then there is this little example.

Georgia Thompson is a Wisconsin state employee wrongly put in jail on corruption charges by the Milwaukee United States attorney. Despite strong evidence that she was innocent, Steven Biskupic prosecuted Ms. Thompson for corruption and got a conviction. The news hit shortly before a bitterly fought governorÂ’s race, and opponents of James Doyle, the stateÂ’s Democratic governor, used the conviction to attack Mr. Doyle as corrupt. An appeals court later freed Ms. Thompson, but only after she had spent months in jail.

Excuse me, but now the overturning of a conviction is proof that the prosecution was improper in the first place? I'm curious -- will that be the standard now in all cases in which evidence of official corruption is alleged? In all cases?

Frankly, I'm surprised that the paper hasn't taken a stand agaisnt the William jefferson investigation.

And they fail to note that the same Bush Administration Justice Department has been aggressive in prosecuting GOP politicians. Acknowledging that would completely undermine the dastardly conspiracy theory that the Times spins.

But I like this conclusion.

If Americans are being put in jail for political reasons, Congress must put a stop to it.

Hey, New York Times -- we'll be able to take this editorial much more seriously when you call for the dropping of all charges against Tom DeLay, and the disbarment of rogue partisan prosecutor Ronnie Earle, whose actions reek of partisanship even more than the cases you point to.

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Do you want to invest in the same sorts of prime stocks that the mutual funds and pension funds do? Do you know where to find out where those whales of the investing world are putting their money? You can do that at TheBuyList.com. They track the investments of those funds and make the information available so that the little fish can swim with the whales. Drop by and start to improve your financial future today.

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Iranian President Mahmoud the Mad demands that Israel move so that the Terrorstinians can have their own state.

I don't know about you, but this strikes me as a great idea.

Iran's outspoken President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called on Israel to "go find somewhere else" for its state and leave its territory for the creation of a Palestinian state, according to an interview published Saturday.

"Our support (for the Palestinian people) is unconditional. As for the Israelis, let them go find somewhere else," Ahmadinejad told several Algerian newspapers ahead of an visit to Algiers that starts Monday.

Iran consistently refuses to recognise Israel's right to exist in the Middle East, and Ahmadinejad sparked outrage abroad by stating after coming to power in 2005 that Israel should be "wiped from the map."

He also provoked a storm in June by saying a "countdown" had begun that would end with Lebanese and Palestinian militants destroying Israel, and his government last year hosted a conference on the Holocaust questioning the German Nazis genocide of the Jews during World War II.

My proposal looks something like this.

Do I hear any objections?

ADDENDUM -- Anybody want to propose an alternate map? I'll be glad to post it if you do.

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The new legislation granting expanded wiretapping powers for national security purposes has passed after Democratic delaying tactics -- but it is only a temporary fix to a bigger issue.

The House late Saturday night approved the Republican version of a measure amending the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act by a vote of 227-183, with most Republicans and conservative Democrats supporting the bill.

The White-House backed legislation closes what the Bush administration has called critical gaps in U.S. intelligence capability by expanding the government's abilities to eavesdrop without warrants on foreign suspects whose communications pass through the United States.

Lawmakers have been scrambling to pass a bill acceptable to the White House before they leave for a monthlong summer recess.

President Bush had threatened to veto any bill that Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell said did not meet his needs.

The Senate approved its Republican-sponsored bill Friday night. Immediately after that vote, a Democratic-sponsored bill failed to reach the 60-vote majority.

Saturday night's vote followed fireworks in the House, where an angry group of Republicans accused House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of delaying a vote on the bill, the president's legislative priority.

"Last night, the Senate passed this bill at about 9:30. Now it's almost 1 o'clock. We should have had the FISA bill on the floor the first thing this morning," Rep. Peter Hoekstra of Michigan told reporters in the early afternoon.

"We could have passed a rule and passed this bill by 11 o'clock this morning, and it could have been on its way, and the president could have signed it," said Hoekstra, the ranking Republican on the House Intelligence Committee.

Now this legislation expires in six months -- enough time to allow for Congress to re-write the FISA law to meet with today's technological realities. This comes on the heels of a ruling by a FISA judge that the law forbids the interception of any call that passes through equipment based in the US, even if it is between two individuals located outside of the United States. Under that ruling, a call that originated in Canada and ended in Pakistan would be considered a domestic call under the previous FISA regulations if it passed through a server or transmitting station located in San Francisco -- or one that began in the Philippines and ended in Malaysia would be a domestic call if it passed through the US territory of Guam. I won't even get into the question of emails communications that are hosted by a US server like those of Yahoo, AOL, or Gmail. Simply put, telecommunications technology has outstripped the old law.

Personally, I believe that the precedent in the Truong case needs to be followed here -- national security and foreign intelligence surveillance does not need a warrant, but such information cannot be used for criminal prosecutions.

Posted by: Greg at 01:51 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Remember -- a tax on oil companies translates to a tax on you, because such costs of doing business are factored into the price of products.

Declaring a new direction in energy policy, the House on Saturday approved $16 billion in taxes on oil companies, while providing billions of dollars in tax breaks and incentives for renewable energy and conservation efforts.

Republican opponents said the legislation ignored the need to produce more domestic oil, natural gas and coal. One GOP lawmaker bemoaned "the pure venom ... against the oil and gas industry."

The House passed the tax provisions by a vote of 221-189. Earlier it had approved, 241-172, a companion energy package aimed at boosting energy efficiency and expanding use of biofuels, wind power and other renewable energy sources.

"We are turning to the future," said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

And the future is higher taxes, higher spending, and higher prices. Sounds like a return to the failed Democrat policies of the past.

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I've written about Jack McClellan. He's an admitted pedophile who maintains a website about "girl love" that discusses watching -- but not touching -- little girls. McClellan has, as far as anyone can prove, never engaged in illegal behavior with a child. Now that is critical for what is to follow, for as disgusting as this guy is, he appears to have conformed his activities to within the restrictions of the laws. Indeed, the police even admit as much.

But Capt. Joe Gutierrez, commanding officer of the Special Victims Bureau of the L.A. County Sheriff's Office, told FOX News that complaints against McClellan were evaluated and he has not committed any crimes.

"Several citizens contacted us about his Web site," Gutierrez said. "There's no current criminal investigation."

Now a group of parents have gotten a judge to issue a restraining order against Jack McClellan -- one that, among other things, forbids him from being in a public place were there are likely to be children, forbids him to come within 10 feet of a child, and publishing material that is legal under California and federal law.

Indeed, noted conservative legal scholar Eugene Volokh (and blogger)finds this situation very troubling.

However, the breadth of the order raised some questions for 1st Amendment expert Eugene Volokh, who called it "more or less house arrest." Volokh, a UCLA law professor, said that restricting McClellan to 10 yards away from any child in California means "you can't go to the store, you can't walk down the street Â…. He can't go to court to challenge this. How can you be sure you can stay away from anyone 17 and younger?"

McClellan has no criminal record but he has spoken publicly about enjoying watching little girls. On his website — which is down — he had posted photographs he had taken of children and had rated venues for spotting little girls.

"They have an understandable worry this guy is going to do something bad," said Volokh. "But that's not enough. You need at least probable cause to believe some crime has been committed."

I happen to agree with that analysis. This order effectively strips McClellan of certain fundamental liberties guaranteed by the United States Constitution.

After all, the following activities are, in fact, legal.

1) Being in a public place where there are children present.
2) Advocating a change in social or political mores, no matter how unpopular that advocacy.
3) Photographing individuals in public places where no expectation of privacy applies.
4) Making non-commercial use of such photographs if one holds the copyright to them.

Indeed, as this restraining order is formulated, McClellan is effectively barred from leaving his home, and probably the only public place he is permitted to be is a bar.

This places grave and serious restrictions on his First Amendment rights.

1) His ability to speak is implicated (all you have to do to require him to stop speaking is bring a kid into his presence).

2) His freedom of the press is implicated (look at the limits placed upon his legal words and activities when it comes to publishing his thoughts and beliefs).

3) His freedom of religion is implicated (his attendance at any house of worship is effectively barred by this injunction).

4) His right to peaceably assemble is implicated (virtually every public place — including courtrooms, legislative chambers and government offices — are effectively closed to him because of the likelihood of children being present).

5) His right to petition the government for a redress of grievances is likewise restricted (see my point above).

Now there is a hearing on August 24 regarding whether or not to make this order permanent. However, as I point out above, Jack McClellan appears to be prohibited by this order from attending because of the likelihood that there will be children present at the courthouse or along his path there. This also means that his due process rights under the US Constitution are abrogated by the restraining order as well.

Why am I defending the Constitutional rights of this sick excuse of a man? Because the reality is that whatever restrictions are placed upon him will also be used to limit some of us.

I've written harshly about illegal immigration and jihadi Islam. Could someone make the argument that my statements show that I constitute a threat to Hispanics, and therefore get me barred from any public place where there might be Hispanics or Muslims? Could they get my liberty to write and publish my thoughts and beliefs on this website restricted? Under this precedent, yes they could. Indeed, if so-called hate-crime laws currently under consideration are passed, it is quite likely that some judge will act on behalf of some liberal interest group's attorney and declare that the beliefs I've expressed are illegal under those laws and subject to criminal sanction. I therefore take threats to the First Amendment rights of ANY American very seriously -- even those who I believe to be scum.

You see, my rights -- and the rights of every American -- are subject to exactly the same limits as are placed upon Jack McClellan. It is the same principle that I apply when I support the rights of Kluxers, Commies, and Nazis to speak freely -- absent criminal activity, they have a right to espouse beliefs and engage in activities that I abhor. The same is true of McClellan -- though I despise him and what he believes even more than I do those other evil folks. My rights, your rights, and his rights are identical in their extent -- and their limits.

Interestingly enough, over at Fascist Fred's Echo Chamber, we've got a goose-stepper and his vigilante mob arguing for a good old-fashioned lynching just on the general principle that McClellan says things that they find repugnant based upon their faux-patriotic, pseudo-Christian sense of outrage. What they do not recognize is this -- their expressed desire to murder the man makes them no different than Jack McClellan himself. Indeed, Fascist Fred and his lynch mob are worse.

Vigilante justice can be as wrong as wrong can get, innocent men and women have died in the name of vigilante justice, and as with anything else, mistakes can and have been made, but in the case of a SELF PROFESSED pedofreak that has empowered his kind and encouraged them and guided them in their quest to molest children, NO form of vigilante justice is too strong, too violent or too out of line to administer against this scumÂ…

I hope the authorities in Fascist Fred's area are monitoring his blog, and are taking appropriate actions to limit Fascist Fred's Second Amendment rights in the same fashion he is willing to abolish McClellan's First Amendment rights. After all, Fascist Fred is clearly a much more immediate danger to society than McClellan -- McClellan professes that he has and will continue to follow societies laws, despite his perverse desires, while Fascist Fred has indicated his intent to murder those who think and speak contrary to what he believes is proper AND likely broken the law by attempting to incite McClellan's murder.

Now, what can decent people do about Jack McClellan? They can do is be informed as to who this sick freak is, monitor his movements and make damn sure that he does not have the opportunity to harm a child. They can urge local businesses to ban him from the premises, and urge his landlord to break his lease. They can insist that the local cops keep Jack McClellan under observation. They can insist upon his arrest and prosecution in the event of ANY illegal activity, whether it relates to a child or not. And they can press for laws that more severely penalize real child sex abuse (not two teenagers having sex, like in Georgia, but sick freaks like McClellan). All of those actions are proper -- but those that imperil the Constitutional freedoms of ALL Americans are not, nor are acts of cold-blooded, premeditated murder.

Posted by: Greg at 05:01 PM | Comments (10) | Add Comment
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I love kids -- but I can't understand why anyone would want 17. I can't even understand my cousin, who has 9 (and not a multiple birth among them). That said, I respect the right of this couple her to make this decision -- and respect the commitment they have to life and family.

It's a girl — again — for the Duggars. Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar welcomed their 17th child, and seventh daughter, into the world Thursday.

Jennifer Danielle was born at 10:01 a.m. at Saint Mary's Hospital in Rogers, Ark., the Duggars said in an interview. Jennifer weighed 8 pounds, 8 ounces and arrived five days after Michelle's due date.

Less than 30 minutes after giving birth, the Duggars already were talking of having more.

"We'd love to have more," Michelle said, adding that the girls are outnumbered seven to 10 in the family. "We love the ruffles and lace."

Jennifer joins the fast-growing Duggar brood, who live in Tontitown in a 7,000-square-foot home. All the children — whose names start with the letter J — are home-schooled.

The oldest is 19 and the youngest, before Jennifer, is almost 2 years old.

"We are just so grateful to God for another gift from him," said Jim Bob Duggar, 42, a former state representative. "We are just so thankful to him that everything went just very well."

Jennifer joins siblings Joshua, 19; John David, 17; Janna, 17; Jill, 16; Jessa, 14; Jinger, 13; Joseph, 12; Josiah, 11; Joy-Anna, 9; Jedidiah, 8; Jeremiah, 8; Jason 7; James 6; Justin, 4; Jackson, 3; Johannah, almost 2.

Congratulations and best wishes.

I wonder, though, if this cretin is going to comment again on the situation.

Posted by: Greg at 04:10 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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I've been remiss in responding to this one.

Jason A. Clark from Inner88 tagged me to be part of this meme a few weeks back, and I've simply not gotten around to it. Now I'll take a few minutes to paly the game.

Here's how it works.

In the 8 facts about [name], you share 8 things that your readers donÂ’t know about you. Then at the end you tag 8 other bloggers to keep the fun going.

• Each blogger must post these rules first.


• Each blogger starts with eight random facts/habits about themselves.
• Bloggers that are tagged need to write on their own blog about their eight things and post these rules.


• At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names.


• DonÂ’t forget to leave them a comment telling them theyÂ’re tagged, and to read your blog.

8 Random Facts About Greg:

1. I never had pizza until I was 14 -- and now it is among my favorite foods.


2. At 16 I was so politically naive that I couldn't decide whether I wanted to volunteer for the Reagan or Kennedy presidential campaign.


3. I don't own an iPod, and probably never will.


4. I'm a big science fiction fan -- and my favorite sub-genre is alternate history.


5. Almost every woman I ever dated -- including the one I married -- has been a Democrat.


6. When I do karaoke, I put on a falsetto voice and mimic Grace Slick singing "White Rabbit".


7. I once got seasick in the watching the dolphin show at Seaworld in San Diego -- from the rocking of the bleachers when there was a heavy surf.


8. I once managed to buy a new car between the end of school at 3:00 and the start of my school's Parent Night at 7:00 -- and made it back to school on time.

You Have been Tagged!

1. Hube at Colossus of Rhodey


2. Darren at Right on the Left Coast


3. Van Helsing at Moonbattery


4. Debbie at Right Truth


5. WZip at Weasel Zippers


6. Terry at Webblogin


7. Anna at Anna Venger


8. Steve at Pencil Nub

Okay, folks -- you are up!

Posted by: Greg at 03:05 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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1 I appreciate the tag very much and I always play these memes.  But I've already done this one.  So sorry.  Maybe the next one that comes along.



Posted by: Debbie at Sat Aug 4 10:46:04 2007 (qWpGo)

2 I'm looking forward to your entry!


Posted by: Rhymes With Right at Sat Aug 4 16:19:34 2007 (7LgSj)

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He's planning a purge of the Democrats, forcing out anyone who does not hold to the "progressive" philosophy found on his site and among the nut-roots.

And as Markos Moulitsas Zúniga, AKA “Kos,” made crystal clear at a press conference this afternoon, the battle will not only be against Republicans, but also against Democrats who need to be “cleansed” from the party. Kos didn’t name any names, saying we will find out “soon enough” which Democrats would be targeted for defeat in the primaries. But his message was clear; on issues near and dear to the hearts of the progressive on line community, Democrats will adapt or they will face the wrath of this new force in politics.

In effect, Kos has promised to remake the Democratic Party in the image of the netroots. And while many observers think that this would pull the Democratic Party too far to the left, Markos disagrees.

“There is no Jesse Jackson wing of the Democratic party anymore. We are the center,” he said.

Got that -- if you don't fit in with the views I outlined in my piece on Rick Noriega, you will not be welcome among the new "progressive" Democrats. I guess we can define this as a vision of the Democrats as a "Small Tent".

Posted by: Greg at 03:13 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Michael Gerson makes an excellent point in the Washington Post on what is significant about Mitt Romney's Mormonism -- and how it should unite him with, rather than divide him from, religious conservatives.

Many Christians have serious problems with Mormon theology on personal salvation and the nature of history -- disputes that go much deeper than those between, say, Baptists and Presbyterians. These disagreements are theologically important. But they are not politically important, because they are unrelated to governing.

Romney, however, should not make Kennedy's mistake and assert that all religious beliefs are unrelated to politics. What Mormonism shares with other religious traditions is a strong commitment to the value and dignity of human beings, including the unborn, the disabled and the poor. This conviction is unavoidably political, because it leads men and women to act in the cause of justice, not in order to impose their religion, but to protect the weak.

Given this common ground, evangelicals and other religious conservatives should not disqualify Romney from the outset. There may be other reasons to oppose him for president, but his belief about the destiny of the soul is not one of them.

Indeed, that point is critical -- and it is important to avoid the Kennedy trap of trivializing the importance of religious beliefs in the lives of religious believers.

Posted by: Greg at 02:52 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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Now he is willing to give the people what they want, not insist on giving the immigration criminals citizenship.

Republican presidential hopeful John McCain on Thursday backed a scaled-down proposal that imposes strict rules to end illegal immigration but doesn't include a path to citizenship.

The move away from a comprehensive measure is an about-face for the Arizona senator, who had been a leading GOP champion of a bill that included a guest worker program and would have legalized many of the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants living in the U.S. It failed earlier this year.

"We can still show the American people that we are serious about securing our nation's border," McCain said in a statement, adding that the new bill would "provide an essential step toward achieving comprehensive reform in the future."

McCain's immigration position has been a campaign liability among Republican voters and hurt his efforts to raise money. Other GOP presidential candidates, fellow Arizona Republicans and immigration opponents throughout the country have loudly decried his position.

Observers said McCain's switch was political. "He recognizes his position on the issue is killing him," said Steven Camarota, research director at the Center for Immigration Studies, which favors vigorous immigration enforcement.

This bill might bring meaningful reform and enforcement -- but won't change McCain's chances of getting the nomination.

Posted by: Greg at 02:24 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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"Jihadis roasting on an open fire..."

A man critically burned after allegedly crashing an explosive-laden Jeep into Glasgow Airport died of his injuries Thursday, Strathclyde Police said.

Kafeel Ahmed, 27, had been in the hospital for a month with burns from the alleged attack on June 30, which followed a day after two failed car bombings in London. The other man in the car, Iraqi doctor Bilal Abdullah, has been charged with conspiring to set off explosions.

"We can confirm that the man seriously injured during the course of the incident at Glasgow Airport on Saturday June 30 has died in Glasgow Royal Infirmary," said a spokesman for Strathclyde Police, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with force policy.

Here's hoping that upon reaching Hell he discovered that his 72 virgins are horny gay males who are all "ready for action".

Posted by: Greg at 02:12 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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And if they won't give to him, no Democrat should take money from them.

John Edwards criticized Democratic rival Hillary Rodham Clinton on Thursday for taking more than $20,000 in donations from News Corp. officials, arguing that the company's Fox News Channel has a right-wing bias and Democrats should avoid the company.

Edwards led the Democratic candidates' boycott of Fox's plans to host a Democratic presidential debate. Now he is objecting to News Corp.'s purchase of Wall Street Journal publisher Dow Jones & Co. and highlighting the relationships that Clinton and other rivals have with the company's executives.

"The time has come for Democrats to stop pretending to be friends with the very people who demonize the Democratic Party," Edwards said in a statement.

He challenged his rivals to refuse contributions from executives of News Corp., and return any they had already received. The Edwards campaign said it would return less than $1,000 in donations from three Fox employees — a worker at a local Fox station in Florida and two staffers from Fox Cable Networks — even though they are not executives.

Gee -- if FoxNews is so anti-Democrat, why are they executives giving to Democrats in the first place? If FoxNews is so hostile to Democrats, why haven't the Democrat contributers been fired? But John Edwards will show mean old FoxNews -- he won't take any money from any of their employees at all!

Proving once again that John Edwards considers Foxnews a greater threat to America than Osama bin Ladin. After all, he considers the war on terrorism to be a bumper sticker, but he's making the war on FoxNews a centerpiece of his campaign.

UPDATE: Well, maybe not all money coming from Rupert Murdoch's media empire is bad.

"John Edwards will never ask Rupert Murdoch for money -- he won't accept his money," said a statement e-mailed to supporters.

Not so fast, Murdoch's people say. His publishing unit, HarperCollins, paid Edwards a $500,000 advance -- and $300,000 in expenses -- for his 2006 book "Home: The Blueprints of Our Lives."

"We assume the senator is going to give back the money from his advance," News Corp. spokesman Brian Lewis said.

Of course not -- he spent the expense money and took a tax write-off for donating the advance money to charity. What a hypocrite -- taking money from what he claims is a corrupt source AND using it to lower the burden of taxes he says are not high enough.

H/T Malkin, Captains Quarters

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Conservative blogger and columnist John Hawkins today points out some of the extremist rhetoric coming out of the founder of Daily Kos and his fellow bloggers there -- and pulls quotes that anyone who has ever visited the site should recognize as pretty mainstream there. I'm curious what Rick Noriega, newly-minted Kos blogger and honored guest at the Yearly Kos convention, thinks about this stuff.

Most notoriously, the founder of the Daily Kos, Markos Moulitsas Zuniga, wrote this about American contractors who were murdered in Iraq and had their bodies desecrated,

"...I feel nothing over the death of merceneries. They aren't in Iraq because of orders, or because they are there trying to help the people make Iraq a better place. They are there to wage war for profit. Screw them."

When you see that sort of hostility towards people risking their lives in Iraq from the man running the Daily Kos, is it any surprise that other diarists on that blog have penned commentary like this,

"Our sons and daughters need to realize that choosing to be a soldier means a decision to place themselves among "the damned," since no matter what they end up doing while on the field of battle, they will eventually be damned.. damned if they do and damned if they do not. Realizing that compliance with a superior's order to shoot and kill the enemy may well lead to the damnation (the self-extirpation) of one's soul. On the other hand, noncompliance will lead to that of being court-martialed." -- Populist Party

"But do I still support the individual men and women who have given so much to serve their country? No. I think theyÂ’re a bunch of idiots. I also think theyÂ’re morally retarded. Because they sign a contract that says they will kill whoever you tell me to kill. And that is morally retarded." -- AWhitneyBrown

"We need to lose this war and not start the next one so that we can remain a free people. Diminished on the world stage? Perhaps, like Great Britain was diminished when it surrendered its colonial empire. But free." -- bluedogtxn

Why is Rick Noriega seeking the support of those whose response to the murder of Americans by terrorists is to say of the dead "Screw them"?

Does Rick Noriega believe that Texans share the believe that members of the military are among "the damned"?

Does Rick Noreiga support the notion that members of the US military are "a bunch of idiots" and "morally retarded"?

And most importantly for a man seeking to become a member of the US Senate (and a commissioned officer in the National Guard), does Noriega believe that the US needs to be militarily defeated by terrorists and diminished in stature as a world power?

These are important questions to be answered by the presumptive candidate -- at least some of which raise questions not only about his fitness to be a US Senator, but even his fitness to retain his commission in the National Guard.

And while we are at it, maybe Rick Noriega can answer some questions about these other fine members of the online community he has chosen to join, and who he traveled out of state to court in an effort to garner support from non-Texans.

Along those same lines, here's the sort of bizarre paranoia that regular readers of the Daily Kos are exposed to on a regular basis,

"If we do not wake up now and flood Congress to impeach the President and Vice President, one year from now, Daily Kos may be banned and Markos himself may be disappeared, in a federal prison somewhere.

Even as I write these words I feel like a wild-eyed nutcase. If it were not for the OH SO REAL danger this country faces in the next 15 months or so as the people in power see their own doom and are determined to prevent their expulsion from power by suspending next year's elections and declaring martial law WHEN the next 9/11 comes or events that can be construed as a national emergency to "justify" such actions, I would be holding my tongue and crossing my fingers." -- slw0606

"...Bush let North Korea get nukes in order to start an arms race in Asia. He did it so American weapons manufacturers will make money, like we do with Israel.

We need to start talking straight, people. We need to start being up front about what this is all about. We can't wait until Bush walks up and blows our brains out to call this what it is." -- Kosmo

"Was Pat Tillman killed on Cheney's or Rumsfeld's orders?

We must be ever vigilantly cynical regarding the bloodthirsty, money-hungry cut-throats in the White House because they never disappoint the rudest and crudest analysis of their active and ongoing conspiracies. The vilest imaginings of Stephen King is where these deceitful serpents dwell. Never make the mistake that you are being too cold in your analysis of Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Powell, and Rice." -- 3CCD

Now let's move from conspiracy theories to hateful extremism,

"Because filing briefs don't stop bullets, and when the ballot box fails us, we are not above seeing what's in the ammo box." -- pinche tejano

"And anyone -- Liebercrat or Republican -- who stands to oppose impeachment, conviction and removal should be tried for their role as accomplice in the sedition and treason against the United States." -- GreyHawk

"If the Democrats fail (to end the war), the only option left is revolution and foreign intervention. Tyranny is but assured because Congress cannot and will not exercise it's Constitutional power to end this fascist Coup d'etat." -- wolverine 06

Now as you read these quotes from the diarists -- again, not the commenters -- at the Daily Kos, it should bring up a number of important questions that never seem to get answered.

So how about some answers, Rick -- do you find yourself in agreement with these sentiments that find common acceptance at Daily Kos? Are the President and Vice President -- both men with strong ties to Texas who were overwhelmingly supported by Texans in two elections -- fascists who have engaged in a coup and are planning to imprison and/or murder dissenters? Do you believe that "revolution and foreign intervention" are necessary? Do you believe that the Bush Administration has ordered the murder of individual Americans? Do you believe that those who do not support such the bilge spewed by your Kos Kolleagues are traitors who need to suffer the punishment prescribed for that offense (which includes the death penalty)?

Again, I think these questions are important for you to answer before you stand before Texas voters -- after all, you have chosen to join this fever swamp of left-wing extremism and are actively courting their support. Do you believe such views are representative of those held by the people of Texas -- or that such views are even acceptable to the people of Texas?

But maybe more importantly, do you think that those who embrace such views by joining and seeking the support of those who express them are really fit for service in the highest elective offices in the United States? I'd argue that they are unfit for any position of public trust.

UPDATE: How sick are these people?

But hey, this is a tough crowd. Later in the evening, they booed Mother Theresa.

UPDATE II: Gee -- Rick Noriega really does embrace Kos!

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Posted by: Greg at 01:47 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Posted by: Greg at 06:00 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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