In light of the handling of the Chemerinsky hiring, there is only one conclusion.

The University of California at Irvine clearly has misdirected its search efforts. It has been looking for a law school dean. But what it really needs is a new chancellor.

Now for all I take issue with Scott Horton's "right wing kooks" assertion in the paragraph before his conclusion, it is beyond doubt that he is correct in his conclusion. But I wonder -- would Horton be so ready to leap to the defense of a conservative scholar whose politics were opposed by "left wing kooks"? Or more to the point, as so often happens on campus, by left-wing faculty members (many of whom might reasonably be described as kooks)? Is it only the right wing which Horton believes should not have a veto? Or is it his belief that no political interest group should be permitted a veto in academic matters?

And would Horton care to engage in a little bit of intellectual honesty and note that many of us "right wing kooks", including some of the most respected voices on the right side of the blogosphere, who spoke out in defense of Chemerinsky?

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Posted by: Greg at 02:09 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Hey -- in a world where we are seeing women enter non-traditional fields more and more often, we knew there would be a day with a real possibility of a male "First Lady".

I like Mitt Romney's response to it.

Commenting Saturday on a new Time Magazine cover story titled "The Real Running Mates" — which focuses on the current crop of presidential candidates' spouses — Republican candidate Mitt Romney said his wife would make a "prettier first lady" than former president Bill Clinton.

"It has a picture of five of the possible first ladies," the former Massachusetts governor said. "In the upper left hand corner it has my wife, and then next to it, it has Bill Clinton. And she is a much prettier first lady than Bill Clinton, I can tell you that!"

I don't know about the rest of you, but I find the comment to be amusing -- not the least of which because I have found myself in such a supporting role.

Not long after we married, my wife became pastor of a small church. When asked by one member of the board about how I would view my role in the congregation, I smiled and began with "Well, I hope that you all will understand my hesitation to be as involved in the Women's Fellowship as previous pastor's wives." It sort of helped to break the ice.

Given the fact that this is the first time we have a man in a position to be "First Lady" (will that term become an anachronism?), expect more such jokes. Especially since the "candidate" for that office happens to be a former president.

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While it isn't my favorite car ever (I still love that Escort), I have been quite happy with the Forenza. It rides great, runs well, and has given me precisely NO mechanical difficulties during the two years I've been driving it. Indeed, it would never have been in the shop at all were it not for the hit-and-run accident during the Hurricane Rita evacuation and the full-body keying that it took from an angry student last spring. I get great gas mileage, have plenty of room in the car, and have space to spare in the trunk with the wheelchair.

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Yeah, you could say that I'm quite happy with my car. Why wouldn't I be?

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The winning entries in the Watcher's Council vote for this week are 2001 -- Our Own Odyssey Began On 9/11 by ‘OkieÂ’ on the Lam, and When the Left Cares, and When It Doesn't by American Thinker.  Here are the full results of the vote:

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They work with them every day to coordinate strategy!

And that isn't coming from a GOP source -- it is reported by that reliable Bush-hating MSM outlet that gave the seditious group a huge discount accusing the commander of US forces in Iraq of treason during time of war.

MoveOn representatives also take part, as co-founders of a coalition of antiwar groups together under the umbrella Americans Against Escalation in Iraq, in a daily conference call with the Democratic leadership staff on Capitol Hill to coordinate efforts.

I'm curious -- in light of this coordinated effort, will any political advertising by MoveOn.org be considered an illegal donation to the Democrats in 2008?

H/T Say Anything

Posted by: Greg at 09:21 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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After all, you remember the raft of anti-Semitic comments directed against Joe Lieberman by the KOSsacks and DUmmies and other left-wing commentators of the blogosphere last year. Why should we be surprised when a Democrat Congressman offends AGAIN by claiming that the Iraq war is all the fault of the evil rich JOOOOOOOOOS!

Rep. James P. Moran Jr. (D-Va.) has again come under fire from local Jewish organizations for remarking in a magazine interview that the "extraordinarily powerful" pro-Israel lobby played a strong role promoting the war in Iraq.

In an interview with Tikkun, a California-based Jewish magazine, Moran said the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) is "the most powerful lobby and has pushed this war from the beginning. I don't think they represent the mainstream of American Jewish thinking at all, but because they are so well organized, and their members are extraordinarily powerful -- most of them are quite wealthy -- they have been able to exert power."

And if you think I'm being unfair, consider this quote from the interview that the WaPo article does not quote.

AIPAC “members are willing to be very generous with their personal wealth. But it’s a two-edged sword. If you cross AIPAC, AIPAC is unforgiving and will destroy you politically. Their means of communications, their ties to certain newspapers and magazines, and to individuals in the media are substantial and intimidating.”

Yep -- evil rich JOOOOOOOOOS! They'll get you if you don't watch out. Not only is Moran a socialist in his outlook, his outlook appears to trend towards National Socialist in terms of his belief in a Jewish conspiracy to control the media and direct teh course of the goverment.

But since he is a reliable vote for the Democrats, don't expect any criticism or denunciations from the Democrats -- after all, they rejoice at the presence of an old Kluxer like Robert Byrd in their midst, so why would they mind a brownshirt like Moran?

H/T American Thinker, Say Anything

Posted by: Greg at 09:15 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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There's this story from Foxnews.

A 26-year-old man accused of carrying an assault rifle in a Michigan park remained in custody Friday on a $1 million cash bond.

Houssein Zorkot, of Dearborn, Mich., was arrested on Sept. 8 after witnesses called police to complain about a man with an AK-47, dark clothes and blackened face walking around a park.

"We don't know exactly what his intent was or what he was intending on doing," Dearborn Police Chief Michael Celeski told FOXNews.com.

Police responded to the scene and approached the vehicle Zorkot was driving. Zorkot attempted to flee and was not cooperative with police, Celeski said.

"At one point, he was reaching to a lower area of the vehicle and the other officer at the scene was able to determine there was a weapon on the floorboard," Celeski said.

Officers then took Zorkot into custody and charged him with one count of carrying a dangerous weapon with unlawful intent, one count of possession of a loaded firearm in a motor vehicle and one count of felony firearm. If convicted on all three counts, Zorkot faces 9 years in jail.

Zorkot was arraigned on Tuesday. A preliminary examination is scheduled for Sept. 21.

But what is left out is this "minor" detail about the suspect.

The day he was arrested, he uploaded this little number on his website.

And hours later was arrested in a park carrying an assault rifle.

Not to mention all the pro-terrorist material on his blog.

Or this claim on the website.

Police say he has a website where he claims to be a member of the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.

Here's hoping that this terrorist goes down hard. And that our media begins reporting ALL the information about this story.

Posted by: Greg at 06:31 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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If they really want to rebrand themselves as the Religion of Peace, they ought to come up with something other than "Submit or Die!" as their slogan.

The purported head of al-Qaeda in Iraq has offered a reward for the murder of a Swedish cartoonist over his drawing depicting the Prophet Muhammad.

The $100,000 (£49,310) reward would be raised by 50% if Lars Vilks was "slaughtered like a lamb" said the audio message aired on the internet.

The speaker, said to be Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, threatened a new offensive during the holy month of Ramadan.

Last month's cartoon showed Prophet Muhammad's head on a dog's body.

Several Muslim countries protested.

Imagine, that someone might think that Islam is anything other than a peaceful religion!

But you know what -- maybe these folks have the right idea. Rather than turning the other cheek, perhaps slaying those who mock one's religion is the way to go.

I'll start by offering a reward of one hundred BILLION DOLLARS for the head of Christopher Hitchens on a silver platter -- and up it by 50% if it has an apple clenched between its teeth.

Oh, and $5.00 for every dead Muslim, since they say that Jesus isn't the Son of God but is instead a prophet inferior to Mo-doggie himself.

NOTE TO LOCAL DEMOCRATS: I'm being facetious.

And in the mean time, let's do our best piss off the jihadis (and their supporters) who insist upon the dhimmitude of the West.

In the mean time, might I urge you to sign this petition supporting the artist, Lars Vilks.

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Posted by: Greg at 06:04 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Courtesy of North Korea?

A State Department official said Friday that the United States had concerns about SyriaÂ’s involvement in illicit nuclear activities and suggested that North Korea might be aiding the Syrians in their efforts.

Andrew Semmel, a top official on countering the spread of nuclear weapons, said that Syria may have a number of “secret suppliers” for a covert nuclear program, and that North Korean technicians were currently operating inside Syria.

His comments, in an interview with The Associated Press in Rome, came in response to questions about an Israeli airstrike inside Syria last week. Neither Israel nor the United States has confirmed what targets the Israeli jets hit, and the government in Jerusalem has imposed a blanket restriction on the Israeli news media from reporting details about the raid.

If this report is accurate, what does this mean for the recent agreement between the US and North Korea regarding the latter's nuclear program? And what does that mean for US policy in the Middle East? Will we be drawn into conflict with the Syrians as well as the Iranians? And what of Israel -- will it be responding with similar force to Iranian nuclear schemes?

Posted by: Greg at 05:32 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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But then again, we already knew that.

Still, I wonder, has anyone found any gloves in the room?

O.J. Simpson says he only went into a casino hotel room to retrieve memorabilia that he felt was stolen from him. But police are investigating it as an armed robbery and named the fallen football star as a suspect Friday in yet another surprising chapter to his legal saga.

In an interview with The Associated Press, Simpson insisted there were no guns involved and he only went to the room at the Palace Station casino to retrieve stolen mementos that included his Hall of Fame certificate and a picture of the running back with J. Edgar Hoover.

"It's stolen stuff that's mine. Nobody was roughed up," Simpson told the AP.

Las Vegas Metro Police Capt. James Dillon said the confrontation was reported as an armed robbery involving guns. But he said no weapons had been recovered and stressed that the investigation was in its "infancy."

One has to wonder whether this was a set-up to obscure the release of his book by the Goldman family. After all, the timing is highly coincidental.

And I wonder who he will get to defend him in the resulting criminal and civil trials, now that Johnny Cockroach is dead.

Posted by: Greg at 02:53 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Military conditions might allow for even greater reductions in the number of troops in Iraq.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Friday raised the possibility of cutting U.S. troop levels in Iraq to 100,000 by the end of next year, well beyond the cuts President Bush has approved.

Stressing that he was expressing his hope, not an administration plan, Gates said it was possible conditions in Iraq could improve enough to merit much deeper troop cuts than are currently scheduled for 2008.

Asked at a news conference whether he was referring to going from today's level of about 169,000 to about 100,000 U.S. troops by the end of next year, Gates replied, "That would be the math."

It was the first time a member of Bush's war cabinet had publicly suggested such deep reductions, although many in Congress have pushed hard for big cuts to begin bringing the war to a conclusion.

You see, the determining factor will be the situation on the ground and military necessity, not politics and pandering like this proposal from the Democrats.

Now that President Bush and Gen. David H. Petraeus have charted their course for the Iraq war, Democrats in the Senate say one of their proposals aimed at shifting the presidentÂ’s strategy is finally close to winning enough Republican support for a real chance at being approved. It would require that troops spend as much time at home as on their most recent tours overseas before being redeployed.

The proposal, by Senator Jim Webb, Democrat of Virginia, has strong support from top Democrats, who say that the practical effect would be to add time between deployments and force General Petraeus to withdraw troops on a substantially swifter timeline than the one he laid out before Congress this week, and that it would protect troops from serving protracted and debilitating deployments.

In other words, the Democrats are offering yet another plan to undermine the ability of the military to conduct operations during time of war. They seem to have forgotten, for example, that troops during WWII were not rotated home -- indeed, many remained deployed for the duration of the war, and didn't see loved ones from the time they shipped out until late 1945 or early 1946. But then again, these weak-kneed, limp-wristed liberals would have swooned as they read casualty reports from Iwo Jima, Guadalcanal, and Normandy -- each of which cost the United states more troops in a matter of weeks (or, in the case of D-Day, hours) than Iraq has in four years.

In 1943 or 1944, proposals like the one offered by James Webb and promoted by Joe Biden and the Democrat leadership would have been promptly labeled what they are -- seditious capitulation to the enemy. It is disheartening to see that the party of Roosevelt has become the party of Benedict Arnold.

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I had dinner with a congressional candidate the other evening. I know he is setting up his campaign offices around the district. He's got the locations all scoped out, but hasn't yet set them up. I wonder what he is doing about phone services for those offices, and if he has ever considered a VoIP system as his communication solution.

After all, a campaign is really noting more than a small business. And that means that it will need a small business phone operation like any other organization with a small number of employees.

Packet8 offers such services. I suppose that a campaign would do well to go with their Unlimited Extension Plus package, which would eliminate the need to purchase the equipment. Leasing just makes sense for a campaign, which will, in any event, be shutting down by November or December of the election year, even if it is a successful campaign. I'd probably also include the Fax Metered Extension Plus for the same reason.

Why go VoIP? Because it is ultimately cheaper and more reliable than traditional phone services, eliminating much of the cost of long distance calling. Besides, in this day and age you need to be wired to the internet, and this uses the same high speed connections. And since it is digital, you get clearer signals to boot. So check out what Packet8 has to offer.

i

Posted by: Greg at 02:20 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Kevin Drum quotes Andrew Sullivan on President Bush's appearance during Thursday's speech.

HI-DEF BUSH....Last night Andrew Sullivan wrote that George Bush seemed "almost broken to me...his affect exhausted, his facial expression almost bewildered." Today he offers a second opinion:

I should say that I watched Bush in high-definition, and on regular TV, he didn't look so exhausted.

Clearly we're seeing a technology paradigm shift at work. Just as Richard Nixon "lost" the 1960 debate because, although he sounded fine on radio, he looked bad on TV, so modern politicians are going to have to learn to look good even when they're looming over their audience on 80-inch HD plasma screens. Looking good on a scratchy 32-inch tube doesn't cut it anymore. I predict booming business for a whole new generation of media advisors and skin care consultants.

I think this does raise a good point. We couldn't elect the homely Abe Lincoln today. Today's television would have doomed the reelection bid of FDR in 1944 (and probably 1940). With the coming of HDTV, will we find ourselves looking for even prettier candidates (such as John Edwards -- long on grooming and short on intellect)? Or will we finally consider that every candidate has warts and flaws -- in other words, that they are real human beings -- and go back to seriously considering ideas instead of photo ops and sound bites?

But I will also point out something else. The mouth-frothing Left has constantly told us that they believe the president to be unaffected by his decisions and untroubled by the difficulties and setbacks we have seen over time in Iraq. Sullivan's observations makes it clear that this is not the case, and that the strain is taking its toll on this President. Far from being untouched, George W. Bush is feeling the full weight of the crushing burden that goes with being President of the United States -- just as have many of our presidents who have left office as mere shells of themselves, sucked dry by the responsibilities they had shouldered.

I once read that American presidents, on average, lived four or five years shorter than the life expectancy of men of their generation. And while recent ex-Presidents seem to have gone on forever (one of the perks of the office is access to incredible health care), I think there remains some truth to that observation.

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You folks know by now that our pampered pooch is our pride and joy. Indeed, she is curled up by my feet right now, happily dozing as she dreams of chasing down the squirrels in the yard (I keep hearing little woofs and her feet are twitching). Yes, Carmie is our baby.

And I'll be honest with you -- if our baby ever got lost, we would be grief-stricken. With no kids, the dog is our family. And so I have been thinking about micro-chipping her. But there may even be a better solution for keeping track of her and finding her if she ever got out and got lost. Would you believe there is now a canine GPS unit?

Now I'll be honest -- it is a bit pricey for me, and more bulky than I would probably want to inflict upon Carmie (who is definitely an indoor dog living the life of luxury). But it seems like it would be a great resource for folks who use dogs as hunting companions, or for farmers/ranchers with dogs working the herds. At $599, it would probably be a good investment to keep track of a valuable, highly trained animal. The cost of dog tracking collars and their accessories would certainly be less than what one would spend finding a good animal and getting it trained for hunting of herding.

Posted by: Greg at 06:44 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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For that matter, which member of that marriage actually has the testicles?

MoveOn.org should not have labeled Gen. David Petraeus “General Betray Us” in a controversial newspaper ad, Elizabeth Edwards said in Des Moines Friday.

“Someone who’s spent their life in the military doesn’t deserve ‘General Betray Us,’” said Edwards, wife of Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards.

That is all well and good, but I expect such pronouncements to come from the candidate rather than the candidate's spouse. I'd begin taking John Edwards seriously if he would quit sending his wife to do the hard jobs and begin doing them himself. Instead, he sends his sick wife on the road to confront bad behavior by his supporter, but remains silent himself so that he can deny condemning the group himself. That is the behavior of a coward.

H/T Ben Smith

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About 18 months ago, we Republicans in Texas Congressional District 22 got abandoned by Tom DeLay in one of the more craven acts of self-serving political ego gratification I’ve seen. As a result, our district went Democrat in the 2006 election almost by default, due to the difficulty involved in mounting a successful write-in campaign for the office. And that has meant the disgrace of having Nick Lampson misrepresenting us as our Congressman since January.

Given the important issues facing our nation today, it is critical that our congressman support the President’s military strategy in Iraq. Slick Nick Lampson doesn’t.

And as the folks from MoveOn.org (and at least one local supporter) engage in libelous attacks upon the character and patriotism of the career military officer commanding troops in the field, Slick Nick Lampson has failed to offer a word of condemnation.

But then again, why should we be surprised? After all, Lampson has taken over $160,000 from MoveOn.org members, and the group has indicated it is prepared to support his efforts to continue misrepresenting CD22 in 2008.

Rather than support our troops, their mission, and their integrity, Slick Nick Lampson stands with those who undermine their mission and defame their leaders.

Given the choice between honorable conduct and political position, Slick Nick Lampson has chosen the latter.

Such conduct is shameful – but not surprising.

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Posted by: Greg at 01:53 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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About 18 months ago, we Republicans in Texas Congressional District 22 got abandoned by Tom DeLay in one of the more craven acts of self-serving political ego gratification IÂ’ve seen. As a result, our district went Democrat in the 2006 election almost by default, due to the difficulty involved in mounting a successful write-in campaign for the office. And that has meant the disgrace of having Nick Lampson misrepresenting us as our Congressman since January.

Given the important issues facing our nation today, it is critical that our congressman support the PresidentÂ’s military strategy in Iraq. Slick Nick Lampson doesnÂ’t.

And as the folks from MoveOn.org (and at least one local supporter) engage in libelous attacks upon the character and patriotism of the career military officer commanding troops in the field, Slick Nick Lampson has failed to offer a word of condemnation.

But then again, why should we be surprised? After all, Lampson has taken over $160,000 from MoveOn.org members, and the group has indicated it is prepared to support his efforts to continue misrepresenting CD22 in 2008.

Rather than support our troops, their mission, and their integrity, Slick Nick Lampson stands with those who undermine their mission and defame their leaders.

Given the choice between honorable conduct and political position, Slick Nick Lampson has chosen the latter.

Such conduct is shameful – but not surprising.

OPEN TRACKBACKING AT Stop the ACLU, Blog @ MoreWhat.com, Perri Nelson's Website, Rosemary's Thoughts, DeMediacratic Nation, 123beta, Big Dog's Weblog, Adam's Blog, Right Truth, The Populist, Nuke's News & Views, The Amboy Times, Leaning Straight Up, Cao's Blog, Pursuing Holiness, third world county, The Crazy Rants of Samantha Burns, The World According to Carl, Pirate's Cove, Blue Star Chronicles, The Pink Flamingo, Dumb Ox Daily News, The Yankee Sailor, and Church and State, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.

Posted by: Greg at 01:53 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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If this had been said a little bit differently?

The city's embattled police chief, acknowledging that police alone cannot quell a run of deadly violence, has called on 10,000 black men to patrol the streets to reduce crime.
Sylvester Johnson, who is black, says black men have a duty to protect more vulnerable residents. He wants each volunteer to pledge to work three hours a day for at least 90 days.
"It's time for African-American men to stand up," Johnson told the Philadelphia Daily News, which first reported the story Wednesday. "We have an obligation to protect our women, our children and our elderly. We're going to put men on the street. We're going to train them in conflict resolution."

Now think about the reaction if a white police chief had called for 10,000 white men to patrol the city protecting the vulnerable and reducing crime. We would be hearing about fears of a new racist organization, and invocations of the KKK – and justifiably so.

What Philly needs is NOT 10,000 black men. It needs 10,000 men (and women, for that matter) of every race and color to protect the vulnerable and reduce crime. It truly needs a rainbow coalition that spans the diversity of the city to act on behalf of the city – not monochromatic men. The only requirement as far as race is concerned should be the ability to check the box marked “human.”

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Well, that is the belief of a commentator in today's New York Times.

Our greatest obstacle is the popular belief that overturning Roe would automatically make abortion illegal everywhere. In fact, our goal may well be undermined by politicians like President Bush, who seem to use “strict constructionist” as nothing more than code for “anti-abortion.”

Only a constitutionalist who supports abortion rights can create an anti-Roe majority by explaining that the end of Roe means letting the people decide, state by state, about abortion.

Mr. GiulianiÂ’s ambivalence about the end of Roe is consistent with his belief that judges should not seek to achieve political ends. This is a judicial philosophy that pro-lifers should applaud, not condemn. It is, after all, the position consistently articulated by the pro-life movementÂ’s favorite Supreme Court justices: John Roberts, Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas and Antonin Scalia.

I'm not sure that I buy this argument. As a pro-lifer who is religious, I have long recognized that the death of Roe will merely throw the ball back to the states. So have many pro-life legislators who have already passed legislation protecting the unborn in the event that Roe is overturned. As such, I can't help but think that the author is really just looking for an excuse to support Giuliani rather than making a clear-headed argument from a pro-life perspective.

Posted by: Greg at 10:18 PM | Comments (21) | Add Comment
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I'll be honest -- "I can fix it" are words that my wife came to dread during our first couple of years in the house. I found little projects that needed doing around here -- and they did not come out nearly so well as we would have liked them to. Indeed, one of them led to a rather expensive visit from a locksmith to clean up after the mess I made within days of moving into the house.

It seemed like an easy enough task -- change a couple of door locks so that the keys were the same and we were sure that the previous owners and their family/friends didn't have keys still floating around. Its not like they were bad folks or anything like that, but just a desire for a sense of security.

Well, I headed over to Big Orange Cube for a a set of door knobs and locks that would be keyed to a single key. I found what I wanted easily enough, and immediately got to work on the project when got home. Naturally, I decided to start with the front door. I removed the old knob and lock and began to place the new one. But being the butter-fingered soul that I am, I dropped the assembly, which split into a couple parts. I simply put the thing back together and continued.

Unfortunately, nothing would line up. If the lock mechanism was in place, I couldn't screw the door knobs together, and the door would not latch if I did get them to screw together. I had damaged the entire assembly when I dropped it -- and had broken the old assembly removing it (it was 25 years old, and not in good shape). And what on earth are you going to do on a Friday night at 7:00 pm when you have no working lock on the front door? Call a locksmith, who ended up charging me the night-and-weekend rate.

My later projects have become more successful as I've gotten more experience. It also helps that I've acquired a few resources to help me better understand how to do the tasks before me. Knowledge is power, so now I can build bookshelf or fix a door, or even tile or drywall if I need to. And I've found websites that can supply me with plans and tips to make sure I'm prepared for anything that might face me in the course of my future projects, like DoItYourself.com. Check them out before you begin your next project.

Posted by: Greg at 10:07 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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It is a dumb rule.

But even dumber than the rule is violating it after the repeated warnings given by the NFL to its 32 teams.

The National Football League fined New England Patriots Coach Bill Belichick $500,000 yesterday, and the team will forfeit its first-round draft pick in 2008 if it makes the playoffs, for violating league rules Sunday when a Patriots staff member was discovered videotaping signals by Jets coaches during the season opener at the Meadowlands.

The Patriots will be fined $250,000. If they fail to make the playoffs, they will forfeit their second- and third-round picks in 2008.

It is the first time in league history a coach and franchise have been disciplined for videotaping — essentially spying on — opponents. The league’s ire with a team that has won three Super Bowls in six years and that until last week was considered a model of success was obvious in the unprecedented severity of the punishment. No coach has ever been fined such a large amount. Teams have forfeited first-round picks before, sent to other teams as compensation in tampering cases, but no team has ever lost a first-round pick as an outright punishment. No team will receive the draft pick or picks the Patriots will forfeit.

“This episode represents a calculated and deliberate attempt to avoid longstanding rules designed to encourage fair play and promote honest competition on the playing field,” Commissioner Roger Goodell wrote in a letter to the Patriots.

Quite a penalty for the offense of filming what is done in the open, able to be seen by tens of thousands of fans in the stadium and (potentially) millions on television broadcasts of the game. As such, the notion that there is something wrong with "signal stealing" is rather absurd.

However, this is a rule that has stood for years, and warnings were issued about it just last season. As a result, I have no sympathy for Belichick and the Patriots, despite Goodell's acknowledgment that the taping had not had an effect on the game.

Still, is this a rule that makes sense -- and does it need to be revisited and modified, if not completely stricken from the books?

Posted by: Greg at 09:37 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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When I was a kid, it seemed like every business gave them away to customers in order to earn a little good will and keep their name in the sight of the public. I'm talking about calendars, of course, in all their various varieties and configurations. The ones that we always liked were the wall calendars with scenes and sayings on them that helped widen my horizons to other, more exotic places. Even our church did a print calendar with all the holy days and a devotional picture that fit with the liturgical season.

But you know, you businesses can still do such calendars As I linked above, they even have beautiful 2008 calendars with some of those beautiful sights -- the Coliseum, the Parthenon, the Cathedral of Notre Dame, Stonehenge, and other bits of European scenery. I'd love to hang that one in my classroom, just to expose my kids to a little bit more culture, and to sites that go beyond American shores.

But you don't have to stay with that design. You can pick from a number of calendar templates -- or even upload your own images to make a calendar suited to your business. Add your logo and business information and you have an ad that is guaranteed to be seen for at least 12 months, through the entire year of 2008. That is a great use of your advertising dollar -- and guarantees to keep bringing them back.

Posted by: Greg at 06:41 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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TodayÂ’s NY Times editorial demanding that any AG nominee that George W. Bush would want be denied confirmation as too political is indicative of the degree to which the Paper of Wreckage has become irrelevant due to its ideology. I didnÂ’t even bother to write about it due to the intellectual light-weightedness of the piece.

But the best response I have seen is this one.

Yes, it's a shame that President Bush doesn't have a partisan, campaign-advisor brother who he can appoint to head the department headquartered in the Robert F. Kennedy building. There are probably a large number of civil rights leaders whose phones need tapping.

IÂ’ll take the editorial rant seriously when the paper demands that the buildingÂ’s name be changed.

Posted by: Greg at 12:40 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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I long ago came to the conclusion that we send too many students off to college. I know that sounds like heresy coming from a teacher, but the reality is that there are too many students seeking college degrees who donÂ’t have the intellectual or academic capacity to do the work.

Ove at NRO, George Leef makes an excellent case that we need to send fewer, not more, kids on to higher education.

First, it isn’t true that the economy is undergoing some dramatic shift to “knowledge work” that can only be performed by people who have college educations. When we hear that more and more jobs “require” a college degree, that isn’t because most of them are so technically demanding that an intelligent high school graduate couldn’t learn to do the work. Rather, what it means is that more employers are using educational credentials as a screening mechanism. As James Engell and Anthony Dangerfield write in their book Saving Higher Education in the Age of Money, “the United States has become the most rigidly credentialized society in the world. A B.A. is required for jobs that by no stretch of imagination need two years of full-time training, let alone four.”

Second, the needless pressure to get educational credentials draws a large number of academically weak and intellectually disengaged students into college. All they want is the piece of paper that gets them past the screening. Most schools have quietly lowered their academic standards so that such students
will stay happy and remain enrolled. Consequently, they seldom learn much — many employers complain that college graduates they hire can’t even write a coherent sentence — but most eventually get their degrees.

Third, due to the overselling of higher education, we find substantial numbers of college graduates taking “high school” jobs like retail sales. It’s not that there is anything wrong with well-educated clerks or truck drivers, but to a great extent college is no longer about providing a solid, rounded education. The courses that once were the pillars of the curriculum, such as history, literature, philosophy, and fine arts, have been watered down and are usually optional. Sadly, college education is now generally sold as a stepping stone to good employment rather than as an intellectually broadening experience. Sometimes it manages to do both, but often it does neither.

Fourth, itÂ’s a mistake to assume that the traditional college setting is the best or only way for people to learn the things they need to know in order to become successful workers. On-the-job training, self-directed studies, and courses taken with a particular end in mind (such as those offered in fields like accounting or finance at proprietary schools) usually lead to much more educational gain than do courses taken just because they fill degree requirements.

How many of our young people would be better prepared for their future with a solid vocational program at the high school level? How many would instead find themselves struggling for an academic credential (whether a bachelors or associates degree) with general studies requirements that are beyond their interest or ability and which serve as an obstacle o their success?

Posted by: Greg at 12:39 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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After all, anything to slander patriots and undermine the military.

The New York Times dramatically slashed its normal rates for a full-page advertisement for MoveOn.org's ad questioning the integrity of Gen. David Petraeus, the commander of U.S. forces in Iraq.

Headlined "Cooking the Books for the White House," the ad which ran in Monday's Times says Petraeus is "a military man constantly at war with the facts" and concluded - even before he testified before Congress - that "General Petraeus is likely to become General Betray Us."

According to Abbe Serphos, director of public relations for the Times, "the open rate for an ad of that size and type is $181,692."

A spokesman for MoveOn.org confirmed to The Post that the liberal activist group had paid only $65,000 for the ad - a reduction of more than $116,000 from the stated rate.

A Post reporter who called the Times advertising department yesterday without identifying himself was quoted a price of $167,000 for a full-page black-and-white ad on a Monday.

I wonder – can this discount be viewed as a contribution to MoveOn.org? And does this discount put the lie to claims of journalistic objectivity by the New York Times?

Rudy Giuliani has gone the next step, seeking to show that there is a political motivation for the rate given to MoveOn.org.

Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani (R) said Thursday he is asking the New York Times for the “same heavily discounted rate they gave MoveOn.org,” for his campaign to run an ad in Friday’s paper.

Giuliani, calling MoveOn.org’s controversial “General Betray Us” ad “abominable,” said his campaign is asking the paper for a comparable rate for an ad to run following the President Bush’s speech on Iraq. The New York Post reported that MoveOn.org paid less than 40 percent of the regular ad rate.

The former mayor said his ad “will obviously take the opposite view” from MoveOn.org, which argued in its ad that Gen. David Petraeus is “cooking the books” on Iraq and cherry picking facts that support his recommendation to keep a large number of troops in Iraq for some time.

Will there be equal treatment for all messages? And will all political organizations and candidates be charged the “MoveOn rate”?

Oh, and by the way – I love the General’s response to the slanderous comments of his moral, intellectual, and patriotic inferiors in the cut-and-run movement.

'I disagree with the message of those who are exercising the First Amendment right that generations of soldiers have sought to preserve for Americans,' he told reporters. 'Some of it was just flat completely wrong, and the rest is, at least, more than arguable.'

IÂ’m proud to have your back, sir.

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Posted by: Greg at 12:36 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Any attempt to stop the release of these records of Hillary Clinton as First Lady should be taken as evidence of malfeasance on her part, and therefore held to be a disqualifier for her as a presidential candidate.

An estimated 10,000 pages of dailyschedules fromSenator Clinton's tenure as first lady could be made public as soon as December, though Presidents Clinton and Bush could postpone the records' release, a National Archives official said yesterday.

"Our hope is to get it done by the end of the year," the acting director of the Clinton Presidential Library, Emily Robison, told The New York Sun. She stressed that she was only referring to the review and redaction of the records by archivists. Under the Presidential Records Act and an executive order issued by Mr. Bush, Mr. Clinton's representatives then have 90 days to review the records for materials that could be covered by executive privilege. After that review is complete, Mr. Bush has an unlimited amount of time to make his own privilege assertions.

It is unclear whether the disclosure of redacted versions of Mrs. Clinton's schedules will ultimately have significance for her bid for the Democratic presidential nomination. However, it seems likely that Mr. Clinton's former aides will have control over the timing of the process just as the nominating contest reaches its peak early next year. The political atmosphere is sure to increase pressure on the former president not to be responsible for any delay.

Hillary Clinton can lay this all to rest right now. She needs to call for the release of the records immediately upon the completion of the archivists' work. Neither Bill Clinton nor George W. Bush can be permitted to stand in the way of full knowledge of a candidate for the office of President of the United States -- especially when it involved keeping public documents from public view without a compelling reason.

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Posted by: Greg at 10:47 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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When I got my masters degree 20 years ago, my area of focus was US Constitutional law. Over the years, I've worked to keep current in that field. And while I've not always agreed with him, I've always respected the work of Erwin Chemerinsky. His expertise and competence are beyond question, even if his conclusions are not. That is why I am outraged by the decision to dump him from the position of dean of the new University of California -- Irvine law school.

In a showdown over academic freedom, a prominent legal scholar said Wednesday that the University of California, Irvine's chancellor had succumbed to conservative political pressure in rescinding his contract to head the university's new law school, a charge the chancellor vehemently denied.

Erwin Chemerinsky, a well-known liberal expert on constitutional law, said he had signed a contract Sept. 4, only to be told Tuesday by Chancellor Michael V. Drake that he was voiding their deal because Chemerinsky was too liberal and the university had underestimated "conservatives out to get me."

Later Wednesday, however, Drake said there had been no outside pressure and that he had decided to reject Chemerinsky, now of Duke University and formerly of the University of Southern California, because he felt the law professor's commentaries were "polarizing" and would not serve the interests of California's first new public law school in 40 years.

Whether or not there was political pressure brought to bear, the firing of Chemerinsky by a public educational institution over his political orientation is simply wrong. And just as I would in the case of a conservative legal scholar, I wish to register my disgust with the decision to do so. It is clear that Chancellor Drake, not Professor Chemerinsky, needs to go.

And I'm not alone on the right in registering my opposition to this move. They include Hugh Hewitt, Glenn Reynolds, John Leo, Steven Greenhut, Stephen Bainbridge the esteemed crew from Volokh Conspiracy, B. Daniel Blatt (of GayPatriot), and Ed Morissey. I'm proud to stand in such company

UPDATE -- 9/14/07: Today's Washington Post has an interesting overview of the controversy.

Posted by: Greg at 10:43 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Let's mark the entire month this way, with the elimination of more jihadis.

More than 57 Taliban fighters were killed late overnight and during Wednesday in southern Afghanistan on the eve of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, officials said.

No coalition or Afghan forces were injured in the clashes. But three Afghan soldiers and an engineer were killed Wednesday in two separate roadside bomb attacks in south-eastern Afghan province of Paktia, officials reported.

Forty-five of the Taliban fighters were killed Wednesday after they fired anti-tank weapons at coalition and Afghan soldiers patrolling in Uruzgan province. The ground troops returned fire with air support as backup, officials said.

About a dozen Taliban fighters were killed in US-led coalition air strikes in Arghandab district of southern Zabul province overnight, officials said on Wednesday.

The Taliban have announced an offensive - called 'Nasrat', or 'success' - for the month of Ramadan, which begins Thursday. The announcement came just a short time after it had indicated it wanted to open talks with the government.

And since the jihadis have seen fit to declare a Ramadan offensive, it seems only appropriate that Coalition forces respond -- send every single terrorist possible to Hell during the Muslim holy month.

Posted by: Greg at 10:22 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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This is a good move by Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison. It needs to be made permanent.

Texas would be barred from turning existing interstate highways into toll roads by a provision in a major spending bill approved Wednesday by the Senate.

The amendment by Texas Republican Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison would delay for one year a plan by Texas transportation officials to turn to toll roads. State officials have said they need the revenue to help defray an $86 billion shortfall in highway funding for the state.

Hutchison argued that it is unfair to turn highways already paid for by taxpayers into toll roads, and she has pledged to press for a permanent ban.

Her measure, tied to the one-year, $104.6 billion transportation and housing spending bill approved by the Senate, would be in effect only for the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1.

"Today we protected Texas taxpayers from paying twice for a highway," Hutchison said.

The current plan from the Perry Administration is to take roads that Texans have paid for, sell them to private companies who would then make Texans pay to use them, so that the state could use the money from the sale to build more toll roads that Texans would have to pay to use. In other words, Texans will end up paying three times for highways we have already bought and paid for.

Posted by: Greg at 10:09 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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When I was a kid, I had a directors chair in my bedroom -- I just loved it. Well, directors chairs are a hot promotional item these days -- from providing seating at trade shows to serving as promotional swag for your business, they are quite popular. Imprinted with your name and logo, directors chairs can help provide a boost to your name id and sales.

Camelback Displays has a great selection of director's chairs in stock, ready to be imprinted with logos, names, and art. You just decide what you want, and they can make it happen for you.

Posted by: Greg at 10:05 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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For all the partisan spin placed on the poll numbers, that is what these polling numbers really come down to.

And when asked what they think is the most acceptable outcome to the war in Iraq, 24 percent say that American troops should remain in Iraq until it becomes a stable democracy. Twenty-six percent want them to begin the process of leaving now, and 37 percent want them to leave within the next year — but still keep some of them in the region.

In other words, only a small minority insist upon the "get out now" strategy advocated by the militant cut-and-run crowd. However, the media is loathe to present those numbers that way, for fear that its template might have to be changed.

Posted by: Greg at 10:04 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Christmas is coming. Well, you need to start thinking about the gifts you are going to buy for the holidays. And if you are going to be buying gifts online, you need to remember Coupon Chief.

At CouponChief.com, you can find all sorts of great savings on gifts for the whole family. Are you looking for a new computer? Coupon Chief has coupon codes for HP desktop and laptop computers that will really make your holiday a merry one. They've got coupons for high dollar discounts and promo codes for big money off the cost of that new computer. That will certainly stretch your holiday budget.

Or maybe you'd rather buy a computer from Apple -- Coupon Chief can help hook you up. They have free shipping to go along with that free gift with certain purchases. Again, you can make that gift-giving dollar go a lot farther just by using these great coupons and promo codes when you make your purchases.

Hey -- these are gifts you were planning to buy anyway? Why not be a smart holiday shopper and save yourself some cash in the process?

Posted by: Greg at 06:03 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Donors whose contributions to Hillary Clinton were bundled by Norman Hsu were to have their contributions returned to them. However, the Clinton campaign will take back those donations from those donors.

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, whose campaign is returning $850,000 in contributions linked to disgraced fundraiser Norman Hsu, indicated Wednesday that donors who contributed that money could donate to her presidential campaign once again.

"We're not asking that that be done," she said in a teleconference with reporters. "But I believe that the vast majority of those 200- plus donors are perfectly capable of making up their own minds about what they will or won't do going forward."

* * *

Clinton's campaign said this week that any donors whose money was returned could donate once again if they confirm to the campaign that the contributions are from their own personal funds.

Which means, of course, that the tainted funds will be coming back. After all, a failure to send back the cash could be construed that the original donation was not their own funds to begin with, opening them up to greater scrutiny from federal investigators.

In other words, the Clinton campaign is only claiming to divest itself of the tainted funds – but is really going to be keeping them. The appearance of propriety is apparently more important to them than actual propriety.

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He is recognized as one of the countryÂ’s top legal minds, but the Democrats are vowing to block Ted OlsonÂ’s confirmation if the President nominates him as attorney General.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid vowed on Wednesday to block former Solicitor General Theodore Olson from becoming attorney general if President George W. Bush nominates him to replace Alberto Gonzales.

Congressional and administration officials have described Olson as a leading contender for the job as the nation's chief U.S. law enforcement officer, but Reid declared: "Ted Olson will not be confirmed" by the Senate.

"He's a partisan, and the last thing we need as an attorney general is a partisan," Reid told Reuters in a brief hallway interview on Capitol Hill.

Olson did an outstanding job as solicitor general. His grace and strength following his wifeÂ’s murder on 9/11 was an inspiration to the nation. For Harry Reid to seek to thwart OlsonÂ’s nomination is a move of gross partisanship that the American people should reject.

Posted by: Greg at 12:05 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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There will be some who argue that it is a big deal that Senator Thompson does not attend church regularly. I disagree.

Republican presidential contender Fred Thompson, who has based his campaign on appealing to conservative voters, said he isn't a regular churchgoer and doesn't plan to speak about his religion on the stump.

Thompson, in his first campaign stop in South Carolina, told a crowd of about 500 Republicans yesterday that he gained his values from ``sitting around the kitchen table'' with his parents and ``the good Church of Christ.''

Talking to reporters later, Thompson, a former Tennessee senator, said his church attendance ``varies.''

``I attend church when I'm in Tennessee. I'm in McLean right now,'' he said referring to the Virginia suburb of Washington, D.C., where he lives. ``I don't attend regularly when I'm up there.''

Thompson said he usually attends church when visiting his mother in Tennessee and isn't a member of any church in the Washington area.

Frankly, this doesn’t matter to me. After all, we saw the Clintons traipsing in and out of church during the 1990s, and it made not a whit of difference in how Bill governed or how Hillary wants to lead us. And besides, faith and values are more of an internal thing.

I also cannot help but remember the habits of the greatest president of my lifetime, Ronald Reagan. Not a regular church-goer during his presidency, he still led this country wisely in a direction consistent with the values I and many Christians hold. The question is whether or not Thompson (or some other candidate) can and will do the same, regardless of whether or not his (or her) seat warms a pew on the weekend. Just as I don’t consider Romney’s Mormonism to be a disqualifying factor, neither do I consider Thompson’s Sunday morning worship practices.

Posted by: Greg at 12:04 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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There will be some who argue that it is a big deal that Senator Thompson does not attend church regularly. I disagree.

Republican presidential contender Fred Thompson, who has based his campaign on appealing to conservative voters, said he isn't a regular churchgoer and doesn't plan to speak about his religion on the stump.

Thompson, in his first campaign stop in South Carolina, told a crowd of about 500 Republicans yesterday that he gained his values from ``sitting around the kitchen table'' with his parents and ``the good Church of Christ.''

Talking to reporters later, Thompson, a former Tennessee senator, said his church attendance ``varies.''

``I attend church when I'm in Tennessee. I'm in McLean right now,'' he said referring to the Virginia suburb of Washington, D.C., where he lives. ``I don't attend regularly when I'm up there.''

Thompson said he usually attends church when visiting his mother in Tennessee and isn't a member of any church in the Washington area.

Frankly, this doesnÂ’t matter to me. After all, we saw the Clintons traipsing in and out of church during the 1990s, and it made not a whit of difference in how Bill governed or how Hillary wants to lead us. And besides, faith and values are more of an internal thing.

I also cannot help but remember the habits of the greatest president of my lifetime, Ronald Reagan. Not a regular church-goer during his presidency, he still led this country wisely in a direction consistent with the values I and many Christians hold. The question is whether or not Thompson (or some other candidate) can and will do the same, regardless of whether or not his (or her) seat warms a pew on the weekend. Just as I donÂ’t consider RomneyÂ’s Mormonism to be a disqualifying factor, neither do I consider ThompsonÂ’s Sunday morning worship practices.

Posted by: Greg at 12:04 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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I realize that it is an inconvenient truth for Democrats, but the true party of civil rights in this country was, is, and always will be the Republican Party. From the GOPÂ’s demand for the containment and elimination of slavery to the passage of multiple pieces of civil rights legislation designed to overcome Democrat efforts to keep African-Americans in bondage as second-class citizens, at every turn it was the Republican Party that sought expanded rights for American blacks.

Unfortunately, Democrats continually tried to frustrate those plans.

Eisenhower complained in 1967 that if his critics felt “there was anything good done” in his presidency, “they mostly want to prove that it was somebody else that did it and that I went along as a passenger.” That has been especially true of his championship of civil rights.

The “somebody else” in this instance was Lyndon B. Johnson, who in 1957 was the Senate’s Democratic majority leader. Historians have consistently credited Johnson for the bill’s passage. Yes, Johnson played a role, but hardly the one his advocates might imagine: Eisenhower and his attorney general, Herbert Brownell Jr., first proposed strong legislation, and it was Johnson and his Southern cronies who weakened it beyond recognition.

Johnson wanted a cosmetic bill that would enhance his presidential ambitions without alienating his white Southern base. It was a balancing act, as even a weak bill depended on EisenhowerÂ’s new legislative coalition, which formed after he persuaded the Republicans to abandon their longtime opposition to civil rights legislation. (Republicans provided 37 of the 60 yes votes when the final bill passed the Senate.)

The Eisenhower proposal had four main parts. The first two — the creation of a civil rights commission to investigate voting irregularities and a civil rights division in the Justice Department — survive to this day. The other two pillars, unfortunately, became victims of politics. Part 3 proposed to grant the attorney general unprecedented authority to file suits to protect broad constitutional rights, including school desegregation. Part 4 provided for federal civil suits to prosecute voting rights violations.

Now many Republicans had opposed more civil rights legislation because of repeated efforts by the Democrats to use their congressional majority to prevent its passage or to water it down to the point of uselessness. Even the older statutes had been rendered useless by the refusal of Southern judges and juries to convict defendants under them. Eisenhower wanted to change that by allowing for strong civil enforcement of civil rights laws. Lyndon Johnson and Southern Democrats blocked that change, substantially weakening the legislation and delaying the promise of civil rights for more than a decade.

Republicans today still stand for civil rights for all individuals, with a call for equality under the law for all Americans. We still stand for non-discrimination – as we have for our entire existence as a party.

Posted by: Greg at 12:02 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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And the Democrats STILL arenÂ’t happy.

President Bush will tell the nation Thursday evening that he plans to reduce the American troop presence in Iraq by as many as 30,000 by next summer but will condition those and further cuts on continued progress, The Associated Press has learned.

In a 15-minute address from the White House at 9 p.m. EDT, Bush will endorse the recommendations of his top general and top diplomat in Iraq, following their appearance at two days of hearings in Congress, administration officials said. The White House plans to issue a written status report on the troop buildup on Friday, they said.

In other words, the reduction will be based upon military considerations and a plan for American victory in Iraq, not political considerations and a plan for Democrat victory in the 2008 elections.

That, of course, upsets the Democrats.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said Bush appears poised merely to bring the country back to where it was before the election that put Democrats in control of Congress — with 130,000 troops in Iraq.
"Please. It's an insult to the intelligence of the American people that that is a new direction in Iraq," she said. "We're as disappointed as the public is that the president has a tin ear to their opinion on this war."

Last time I checked, Nancy, polling data wasnÂ’t the relevant issue when it came to conducting a war. That you think it is shows precisely how unfit you are for ANY office.

Posted by: Greg at 12:01 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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