I have always been fascinated by clocks and the telling of time. Maybe it is that fascination with time that led me to my fascination with both the past (history) and the future (science fiction).

Now I've owned many clocks over the years, but my favorite has to be one given to me to mark my fifth anniversary with my school district. It is a Howard Miller alarm clock, and it sits next to my bed. It is absolutely beautiful, and keeps excellent time. Frankly, I'm rather impressed by the quality, and am still surprised that the district treated us all so well that year. I guess it is true that clocks make great gifts.

Now I knew nothing of the Howard Miller brand when I received this clock, but my wife was quite impressed. I've since discovered that Howard Miller clocks are considered to be among the best in the world -- especially their grandfather clocks.

As my wife and I continue with the redecorating planning, we want to make sure that we have a clock in the living room that really helps set the tone for the space and the Old West/ranch house theme. It will, of course, have to be predominantly wood, and appear to fit with the time period. Personally, I'm rather fond of this wall clock, though there are several others that I could be quite happy with if my wife prefers them.

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Because after all, they inculcate discipline, patriotism, and train people to protect her right to trash the military.

I know why I chose Columbia: the campus is magnificent, the education is top-tier, and my peers are intelligent. I could look at a stranger, tell him or her that I went to Columbia, and hear the predictable, “Wow, you must be smart.”

* * *

My brother ended up liking Annapolis and he has decided to stay. While it has been difficult for me to accept that I have a brother in the military, I must allow him to pursue whatever path he is drawn toward, and he has admitted to me that he feels called to being there. However, for anyone else out there considering a career in the academy, let it be known: the U.S. Naval Academy is not an elite college; it is first and foremost a branch of the U.S. military and the prestige comes at a big price—it taxes parents, siblings, and participants if they do not understand what they were signing up for.

Imagine that -- the service academies are a part of the military! I guess it takes a little left-wing snob from a school that does not even allow its students the option of an ROTC program to tell the rest of us that incredibly insightful observation. Her decision to trash them as "not an elite college" shows her lack of respect for diversity -- it is an elite college, just not in the way that her school is. Indeed it is better, and reflects a call to a purpose higher than that of her school: the preservation of our country.

So while Idris Leppla is busy sucking down her lattes and attending her rallies against the war and mourning the fact that her brother didn't respond to her efforts to get him out of the Naval Academy AGAINST HIS WILL, it is her brother and those like him who are defending the right of ms. Leppla to spit on them with her unAmerican words and actions from the hallowed halls of her "elite" university.

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Murderous jihadi pig Osama bin Laden has released his latest address to the American people, telling us that we will lose to the vile forces of jihad and must become either dhimmis or Muslims.

A new video of Osama bin Laden makes no overt threats against the United States but boasts about the devastating impact the 2001 terror attacks had on the nation — both domestically and overseas.

* * *

In a rambling 30-minute speech addressed to Americans, bin Laden references the attacks on New York and Washington several times, almost gloating about policy changes by the U.S. government in response.

"Nineteen young men were able — by the grace of Allah, the Most High — to change the direction of its compass," bin Laden says of the nation in a transcript of the video obtained by The Associated Press.

"Since the 11th, many of America's policies have come under the influence of the Mujahedeen," bin Laden says. "And as a result, the people discovered the truth about it; its reputation worsened, its prestige was broken globally and it was bled dry economically."

"Mujahedeen" is a term for Muslims fighting in a war or involved in any other struggle.

His call for America to get out of Iraq echoes the the talking points of every Democrat running for President -- but especially Kucinich, Gravel, and Richardson. Indeed, his position sounds even more like those taken by Cindy Sheehan, MoveOn.org and other anti-war radicals.

"Why have the Democrats failed to stop this war, despite them being the majority?" he asks, according to the translation provided by the SITE group. Later, answering his own question, he argues that the failure of Americans to stop the Iraq war was attributable to the political dominance of large corporations that "benefit from this continuation."

Remember that, America, when you go to the polls -- Osama bin Laden himself sees a vote for the Democrats as a vote for the ultimate victory of the jihad.

Bin Laden also plugs the works of Noam Chomsky in his video.

America has a choice. We can admit defeat and follow the prescription of Osama bin laden for ending the war in Iraq and the entire Crusade Against Jihadism. Alternatively, we can remain committed to victory in Iraq and the eventual eradication of the jihadis and their foul ideology. it is a question of whether America survives free or submits to the yoke of Islamism. As for me, I choose freedom.

Here is the full video, courtesy of the boys over at Jawa Report.

Death to the jihadis!

UPDATE: Don Surber notes that a great many of the statements made by Osama in this video could have been taken straight from the Cloaca Maxima of the internet.

Actual quotes from Osama bin LadenÂ’s new tape via ABC News:

“You made one of your greatest mistakes, in that you neither brought to account nor punished those who waged this war, not even the most violent of its murderers, Rumsfeld… “

And this:

“You permitted Bush to complete his first term, and stranger still, chose him for a second term, which gave him a clear mandate from you — with your full knowledge and consent — to continue to murder our people in Iraq and Afghanistan. Then you claim to be innocent! The innocence of yours is like my innocence of the blood of your sons on the 11th — were I to claim such a thing.”

And this:

“People of America: the world is following your news in regards to your invasion of Iraq, for people have recently come to know that, after several years of tragedies of this war, the vast majority of you want it stopped. Thus, you elected the Democratic Party for this purpose, but the Democrats haven’t made a move worth mentioning. On the contrary, they continue to agree to the spending of tens of billions to continue the killing and war there.”

There's also great photoshop fun at Doug Ross and an image of Osama without the fake beard at Exurban League.

UPDATE II: Gateway Pundit links to John Gibson's comparison of Osama's words with the words of Keith Olbermann.

Fifth columnist? Giving aid and comfort to the enemy? Why is he still on the air?

Also, at the Daily Gut they suggest that since Osama does not call for America's destruction in this video, just a departure from the Middle East, it is a sign that we have the jihadis on the run. After all, he's had to scale back his goal.

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I know that I am not happy with this response to a question from Glenn Beck, and only confirms my decision not to back him for the GOP nomination. Will this turn off other GOP voters and cause them to look elsewhere for a candidate who supports their views on immigration? I think it may, and probably should.

GLENN: Right. But isn't illegal immigration a crime in and of itself?

GIULIANI: No.

GLENN: Aren't you saying --

GIULIANI: Glenn --

GLENN: You're protecting criminals by saying that being treated as a criminal is unfair.

GIULIANI: Glenn, it's not a crime. I know that's very hard for people to understand, but it's not a federal crime.

GLENN: It's a misdemeanor but if you've been nailed, it is a crime. If you've been nailed, ship back and come back, it is a crime.

GIULIANI: Glenn, being an illegal immigrant, the 400,000 were not prosecuted for crimes by the federal government, nor could they be. I was U.S. attorney in the southern district of New York. So believe me, I know this. In fact, when you throw an immigrant out of the country, it's not a criminal proceeding. It's a civil proceeding.

GLENN: Is it --

GIULIANI: One of the things that congress wanted to do a year ago is to make it a crime, which indicates that it isn't.

GLENN: Should it be?

GIULIANI: Should it be? No, it shouldn't be because the government wouldn't be able to prosecute it. We couldn't prosecute 12 million people. We have only 2 million people in jail right now for all the crimes that are committed in the country, 2.5 million. If you were to make it a crime, you would have to take the resources of the criminal justice system and increase it by about 6. In other words, you'd have to take all the 800,000 police, and who knows how many police we would have to have.

I once thought that there might be a place for Rudy Giuliani in a future GOP cabinet, either as Attorney General or Secretary of Homeland Security. This response makes it pretty clear that he isn't fit for either of those positions, either.

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I'm glad that folks are taking notice of the Avery Doninger case and its potential impact on student rights everywhere. And that support spreads far beyond her Connecticut home.

Support, both financial and moral, for Avery Doninger's appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit has spread across the country.

Doninger is seeking an injunction to overturn the 2008 class officer election results of Lewis S. Mills High School on the grounds that school officials unconstitutionally denied her candidacy. Although she won the election with write-in votes by her classmates, school officials still refuse to allow her to take the 2008 class secretary position.

Doninger alleges she was stripped of her junior class secretary title and not allowed to run for senior class office because she exercised her right to free speech and expressed a grievance on a blog site from her home computer.

On Aug. 31, U.S. District Court Judge Mark Kravitz denied Doninger's motion for a temporary injunction, issuing a 34-page memorandum on his ruling 45 minutes after the close of court.

"A battle is lost, the war is not over," said Avery's mother, Lauren. "We now head to the 2nd Circuit to appeal the denial and continue to seek injunctive relief. Additionally, we will file trial paperwork. Unlike the very rushed hearing, this will be a jury trial."

With the appeal expected to cost approximately $20,000, not including payment to attorney John Schoenhorn for his representation, Doninger set up an online donation site. She did not expect support for her appeal would ripple across the nation.

As I've pointed out in previous posts, this is a decision with potentially devastating effects upon the First Amendment rights of students -- after all the speech for which this student is being punished took place away from school outside of school hours, but the school wants to regulate it and discipline based upon it.

I'm particularly struck by the wisdom of this commentator.

Greg Aydt, a world history high school teacher and right-wing conservative from Houston, Texas, also posted a link to Doninger's fund on his site, http://rhymeswithright.mu.nu. He said he put the link on his site because very often he sees school administrators take a very narrow and cramped view of students' rights.

"When you are in your home at [9 p.m.] on your computer, that's not a place the school has any right to intrude, unless it presents a direct threat to student or school safety," Aydt said. "In this case, we have administrators who got their knickers in a twist because you have a student who isn't deferential to them 24 hours a day."

Yeah, I was contacted the other day requesting an interview. I'll concede, its a first. And while I don't know why Jacqueline Manning chose to describe me as a "right-wing conservative" rather than merely as a conservative (I'm the only person whose political orientation is noted). But that's neither here nor there. I was honored to be asked and even more honored to be included in the article. Heck, I'm simply honored to be able to lend my voice in support of a good cause.

And by the way, here is a way to help Avery and her mom continue their fight for freedom of speech.

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The world of literature has lost one of its greatest fantasy writers.

Madeleine L’Engle, who in writing more than 60 books, including childhood fables, religious meditations and science fiction, weaved emotional tapestries transcending genre and generation, died Thursday in Connecticut. She was 88.

Her death, of natural causes, was announced today by her publisher, Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

Ms. L’Engle (pronounced LENG-el) was best known for her children’s classic, “A Wrinkle in Time,” which won the John Newbery Award as the best children’s book of 1963. By 2004, it had sold more than 6 million copies, was in its 67th printing and was still selling 15,000 copies a year.

Her works — poetry, plays, autobiography and books on prayer — were deeply, quixotically personal. But it was in her vivid children’s characters that readers most clearly glimpsed her passionate search for the questions that mattered most. She sometimes spoke of her writing as if she were taking dictation from her subconscious.

“Of course I’m Meg,” Ms. L’Engle said about the beloved protagonist of “A Wrinkle in Time.”

I've always hated to see her pegged as a children's writer, for there was so much more to her writing than that. In a sense, L'Engle was the J.K. Rowling of her era, writing books that transcend that category in their sophistication and which earned a following outside the boundaries of "kid lit".

I might have let her death pass unnoted on my site, were it not for my own fleeting contact with Madeleine L’Engle some ten years ago when I was still teaching English. I decided to write to one of my favorite authors, Marion Zimmer Bradley, asking her for advice to give to students about how to write and what it took to write a good story. A few weeks later, I received a pair of big boxes in the school mailroom. Upon opening them up, I discovered that I had been shipped two boxes of MZB's science fiction and fantasy magazine -- and a handwritten note telling me that MZB was unable to personally respond to my request due to a serious illness, but that she wanted me to have a classroom set of these two issues that each had a column on the topics I had asked about. The beautiful note also contained its writer's own answer to those questions. And at the end, I was stunned to see the signature -- Madeleine L’Engle.

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The world of literature has lost one of its greatest fantasy writers.

Madeleine LÂ’Engle, who in writing more than 60 books, including childhood fables, religious meditations and science fiction, weaved emotional tapestries transcending genre and generation, died Thursday in Connecticut. She was 88.

Her death, of natural causes, was announced today by her publisher, Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

Ms. L’Engle (pronounced LENG-el) was best known for her children’s classic, “A Wrinkle in Time,” which won the John Newbery Award as the best children’s book of 1963. By 2004, it had sold more than 6 million copies, was in its 67th printing and was still selling 15,000 copies a year.

Her works — poetry, plays, autobiography and books on prayer — were deeply, quixotically personal. But it was in her vivid children’s characters that readers most clearly glimpsed her passionate search for the questions that mattered most. She sometimes spoke of her writing as if she were taking dictation from her subconscious.

“Of course I’m Meg,” Ms. L’Engle said about the beloved protagonist of “A Wrinkle in Time.”

I've always hated to see her pegged as a children's writer, for there was so much more to her writing than that. In a sense, L'Engle was the J.K. Rowling of her era, writing books that transcend that category in their sophistication and which earned a following outside the boundaries of "kid lit".

I might have let her death pass unnoted on my site, were it not for my own fleeting contact with Madeleine LÂ’Engle some ten years ago when I was still teaching English. I decided to write to one of my favorite authors, Marion Zimmer Bradley, asking her for advice to give to students about how to write and what it took to write a good story. A few weeks later, I received a pair of big boxes in the school mailroom. Upon opening them up, I discovered that I had been shipped two boxes of MZB's science fiction and fantasy magazine -- and a handwritten note telling me that MZB was unable to personally respond to my request due to a serious illness, but that she wanted me to have a classroom set of these two issues that each had a column on the topics I had asked about. The beautiful note also contained its writer's own answer to those questions. And at the end, I was stunned to see the signature -- Madeleine LÂ’Engle.

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I really believe that banks and other lenders are sometimes too ready to loan money. The current problems in the home loan market and with other secured loans are a great example. So are the credit card offers received by my dog -- many of them pre-approved, despite her lack of employment or a verifiable source of income!

Of course, the most clear example I can think of are the credit cards I see my tenth graders flashing around. Yeah, that's right -- fifteen-year olds with credit cards. I then hear them say that they have maxed them out and will simply transfer the balance to another card. I'm sure that many of them have ruined their credit scores before they have a high school diploma.

That isn't to say that borrowing money is always a bad idea. Rather, it is important that one take out personal loans responsibly -- do your research to find cheap loans with the best interest rates and terms. That is called being a responsible borrower -- and is likely to keep you out of financial trouble.

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The winning entries in the Watcher's Council vote for this week are Contemptible by Done With Mirrors, and Anatomy of a Tribal Revolt by Small Wars Journal.  Here are the full results of the vote:

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And I've actually have one local Democrat leader and blogger admit this to be true.

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The situation in Iraq has changed, the public is coming around, but the military-defeat-at-any-cost strategy for the electoral success of liberal Democrats remains unchanged.

"Anything that takes us back from where we were this spring [a firm withdrawal date] is unacceptable," said Rep. Lynn Woolsey (D-Calif.), one of the founding members of the 70-plus member Out of Iraq Caucus in the House. "Bipartisanship is great Â… only if it puts together an orderly withdrawal of the troops."

In other words, a “bipartisan solution” requires Republicans to vote like Democrats, not Democrats to vote for what is best for American and the world.

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No, not the fact that they are permitted to hold the parade (a right I fully support) – but the fact that after holding the New York’s United American Muslim Day Parade on the last Sunday of September for many years, this year (for the second year in a row) it will take place on the on the Sunday closest to the anniversary of the murder of thousands by jihadi Muslims in New York City and elsewhere.

Consider the date of this year's United American Muslim Day Parade in New York City: this coming Sunday, September 9, only two days before the sixth anniversary of the radical Islamists' attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon in which more than 3,000 people died.

For 20 years, thousands of Muslims gathered in New York City on the last Sunday of September for their annual parade. It came off without incident. Then, last year, with Siraj Wahhaj, a fiery Brooklyn imam as grand marshal, the parade moved its date forward to come within a whisker of 9/11. The "Mainstream" media have been asleep about this, not asking the pregnant question: Why time the parade to nearly coincide with an infamous event perpetrated by radicals purporting to be martyrs for Islam?

Why the change? Why put an event honoring Islam on a date that is so close to the anniversary of the attack on America? It is no more appropriate than holding an event in honor of Japan on or about December 7.

This is just wrong.

And CAIR, of course, is offended. By the objections of those who are troubled by the parade date.

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1 9/11 was an attack on America.

The people holding the parade are Americans. They were attacked on 9/11, too.

Are you running out of things to be offended by?

Posted by: John at Fri Sep 7 15:19:38 2007 (OTFxD)

2 Yeah, and most of the members of the German-American Bund were Americans, too. Never mind that it was a Nazi front, you probably would have supported a parade by them on D-Day.

I know -- let's see if we can get the KKK to hold a parade in Memphis on MLK Day. What could possibly be offensive about that?

As I make very clear about the parade in this post, my objection is not to the event itself -- it is to moving a parade celebrating Islam to coincide with an attack on America in the name of Islam.

Posted by: Rhymes With Right at Sat Sep 8 00:21:56 2007 (sRh/O)

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You know, since San Francisco canÂ’t secede from the United States.

After all, they have established their own economic, defense and foreign policies, and have abrogated the First Amendment by condemning Christianity and subsidizing Islam.

Now they want to establish their own immigration policy, and force folks to accept their immigration papers.

San Francisco Supervisor Tom Ammiano is drafting legislation to create a city identification card for immigrants unable to get traditional ID cards, a move likely to anger advocates of tougher immigration enforcement.

The cards would be accepted by all city agencies and organizations that receive city funding. Ammiano plans to introduce the legislation within a couple of weeks. He also is trying to persuade financial institutions to allow residents to use the cards to open accounts.

"There is a large community who contribute, and there are not a lot of safeguards around their (immigration) status, their piece of mind and their ability to participate," Ammiano said, adding that the card would be available to all people living in San Francisco regardless of their immigration status.

San Francisco could be the first large American city to have such a card. New Haven, Conn., has such a program, and New York City is considering one.

Ammiano said the impetus for the city cards came from the immigrant community, which asked for his help. Illegal immigrants who are victims or witnesses of crime often do not report the incident because they have no identification and fear deportation. Identification also is needed for many services, such as city health care.

San Francisco already has a sanctuary policy for immigrants, which means no city agency, including the police, will assist the federal government to deport people. So-called sanctuary cities have become a major issue among Republican presidential candidates.

It seems clear that there is a fundamental incompatibility between the policies of San Francisco and those of the United States. Rather than force them to be a part of a nation they so clearly hate, we simply need to put up a border fence around San Francisco and recognize their sovereignty and independence.

Oh, yeah – and then close the border there, too.

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They just hire terrorists and terrorist sympathizers to work for them!

A high-ranking official in Gov. Blagojevich's office spent nearly two years in a federal prison for refusing to aid a government terrorism probe into a series of bombings in Chicago and New York City.

Steven Guerra, Blagojevich's $120,000-a-year deputy chief of staff for community services, was identified by federal prosecutors as a member of the Puerto Rican separatist group, FALN, which was behind a wave of violence and killings in the 1970s and early 1980s.

In 1983, Guerra, now 53, was among five people convicted in New York of contempt of court for refusing to testify before a federal grand jury investigating the group. The felony conviction resulted in a three-year prison sentence for Guerra, who was released in 1986 after serving 23 months.

Federal prosecutors labeled Guerra and his four co-defendants "a danger to the community," and said they advocated armed violence, kidnappings, hijackings and prison breaks in the name of a "free" Puerto Rico.

The Illinois Democrat knew of Guerra’s terrorist connections and his conviction for refusing to testify about terrorism when subpoenaed by a grand jury at the time of his hiring – and still stands by the terrorist-abetting felon.

At a minimum, Guerra has got to go. Preferrably, Blagojevich should be impeached.

And if I sound angry and unreasonable, I have reason – one of those Chicago area bombings occurred less than two miles from my home. It occurred outside a building where my best friend’s father worked, and where I had been only a few hours before. Indeed, Michael and I had been standing within a couple of feet of the spot of the detonation, waiting for his father to drive us somewhere. While the only damages were broken windows and a destroyed Camaro, I realize how lucky I was that evening.

Screw the FALN. Screw Steven Guerra. Screw Governor Blagojevic.

Oh, yeah – and screw Bill Clinton, who pardoned the terrorist bombers.

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Another outrage that will allow for increased illegal immigration -- and perhaps terrorism.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers in Texas have been ordered to abbreviate national security checks at one of the nation"s busiest ports of entry to speed up travel between the United States and Mexico, according to official documents and multiple interviews with agents.

An Aug. 16 memorandum from CBP El Paso field office Director Luis Garcia directs agents to limit inspections of vehicle and pedestrian border crossers as wait times escalate. The document, obtained by The Washington Times, sets new guidelines that border inspectors say undermine efforts to prevent terrorists and other criminals from entering the United States.

The memo says:

• If wait time is 45 minutes or less, officers are required to query all drivers and passengers older than 18 and ensure that the license plate is correct.

• If wait time is 45 to 60 minutes, customs officers are to query only the driver and 50 percent of the passengers. Also, the officers are not to conduct compartment checks and density-meter readings used to find contraband.

• If wait time is 60 to 120 minutes or more — the average wait at the numerous crossings — they are to query only the driver and ensure that the license plate is correct.

"At 30 to 40 minutes of 'wait time,' we were querying the driver only at the request of our supervisors," said an El Paso customs agent, who spoke with The Washington Times this month on the condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal.

"Basically, we were only running the documents of the driver every fifth vehicle, so everyone else was coming in without being checked to the same standards. Even if you stick with the letter of this memo, it still falls short for national security purposes."

I suppose, of course that this is necessary to ensure that all the illegally enrolled Mexican kids in El Paso schools and all the illegally employed local workers are not late. it wouldn't due to inconvenience those who break the law, even if it does make American citizens less safe.

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And their attempt to hamstring recruiting and cut of information about this important form of service to one's nation can only be described as unpatriotic.

Military recruiters are frequently given free reign in New York City public schools and allowed into classes in violation of the school systemÂ’s regulations, according to a report released yesterday by the Manhattan borough president and the New York Civil Liberties Union

The report, based on surveys of nearly 1,000 students at 45 high schools citywide last spring, said the cityÂ’s Department of Education exercised almost no oversight over how much access recruiters had to students at high schools.

“There were recruiters who were in the classroom not to talk to students about reading, writing and arithmetic, but to talk to them about how to get a one-way ticket to Iraq and all the benefits you will accrue by that process,” Scott M. Stringer, the Manhattan borough president, said at a news conference. “This is something that must be stopped. It’s outrageous, and it gives recruiters a captive audience.”

Wanna bet that the NYACLU wouldn't have a problem with homosexual activists in the classroom explaing the joys of sodomy and the evils of those who have moral objections to homosexual conduct?

No -- they and their coalition of anti-war folks just want to make America (and the world) safe for jihadis -- just like they have here.

After all -- terrorists have rights, but patriots don't, and schools should teach kids to love and embrace Islam and fear and loathe the military.

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It appears that if there is corruption in the Texas courts, it has a big D hanging around its neck.

Mikal Watts of San Antonio, a lawyer and candidate for the Democratic nomination for U.S. senator, has done the reputations of the courts and the trial lawyers no good.

As reported by the Chronicle's R.G. Ratcliffe, in 2001 Watts wrote to opposing counsel claiming that his firm's campaign contributions had won the hearts and minds of the justices on the 13th Court of Appeals, "all good Democrats." If Watts and his firm indeed gave campaign gifts with the expectation of influencing the court's decisions, it would constitute an illegal bribe. If Watts was just making an idle threat to intimidate a defendant in a lawsuit, he behaved unethically.

As a well- and largely self-financed candidate for high office, Watts owes voters an explanation: Does he think his campaign donations influence the outcome of cases? Regardless of the answer, Watts should explain to the voters why his outrageous claim does not violate the public trust and disqualify him from the office he seeks.

We constantly hear local Democrats complain that conservatives donating to judicial races "buys justice" in Harris County and the state of Texas. Will they now demand that these claims be investigated -- and that Watts be censured and any judges who he bought be removed from the Court? Or are they clean court chickenhawks?

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I'll concede that I do trust the electronic voting system put in place by my county, even though there is no paper trail. That said, I will also tell you that I preferred (and urged the adoption of) an optical scanner system similar to what my students use to take multiple choice tests at my school.

Why?

Because I knew it would eventually come to this.

Lawmakers have come full circle after devoting more money to high-tech voting machines following the 2000 election debacle in Florida. They now say a return to the paper trails of old is the key to an honest vote, exasperating state election officials.

Legislation pending in the House would require a voter-verified paper ballot for every vote cast in national elections beginning with the November 2008 ballot. It also would require random audits in federal elections and specifies that the paper ballot is the vote of record in all recounts and audits.

Public confidence in the voting process is at an all-time low, said Rep. Rush Holt, D-N.J., the bill's chief sponsor. "I shudder to think what would happen with another election where millions of Americans don't believe the results," Holt said.

Of course, the reality is that many of those "millions of Americans [who] don't believe the results" are the same folks who believe that the US government blew up the World Trade Center and Pentagon and that George Bush is a fascist planning a military coup so he can set up concentration camps to liquidate Muslims and liberals. What they need is not a paper trail at election time, but greater access to mental health care.

But I think a paper trail is important. We've all lost data and had computer glitches. thre should be something. But it should come at the beginning of the process, not at the end with a receipt-style printout. heck, another easy solution would be to use computer punch-cards -- but of course, the attempted vote-fraud and election theft by Florida Democrats in 2000 show that even that reliable, rational system is subject to failure in the hands of the unscrupulous away from the eyes of a vigilant public.

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It appears that jihadi pig Osama bin Laden is planning to address the American people on the sixth anniversary of his organization's cowardly murder of thousands of innocents.

Osama bin Laden will release a video ahead of the sixth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks in what would provide the first new images of the terror mastermind in nearly three years, al-QaidaÂ’s media arm announced Thursday.

Analysts noted that al-Qaida tends to mark the Sept. 11 anniversary with a slew of messages, and the Department of Homeland Security said it had no credible information warning of an imminent threat to the United States.

Still, bin LadenÂ’s appearance would be significant. The al-Qaida leader has not appeared in new video footage since October 2004, and he has not put out a new audiotape in more than a year, his longest period without a message.

The cowardly bin Laden, who isn't even a good enough Muslim to embrace his destiny and receive 72 virgins by blowing up his own goat-copulating jihadi ass, will no doubt continue to gloat over the acts of murder his followers committed and demand that Americans begin following the teachings of the (false) prophet Muhammad and the blood-thirsty deity his teachings proclaims.

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You know, if I ever rally get the house the way I want it in terms of setting up a work area in the garage, I'd like to be able to do a bunch of my remodel work myself. That includes redoing some cabinet doors around in the kitchen and the knick-knack shelves in the living room. The big task, though, will be redoing the entertainment center/bookshelf in the living room. And since my wife is planning on an Old West/Ranch House theme for those areas, I'd like to incorporate some hand-crafted western design into these wood to accent that.

Now I've used wood routers before to work with wood, but this will be Greg's big adventure. Fortunately, I've come across a great site that is devoted to wood routers and their accessories. They've got articles that can advise me about the router bits I'll need to accomplish my task, as well as woodworking plans. They even have a great series of articles about how to select the right wood router -- something I hadn't given much consideration yet.

What I especially like about the site, though, is the straight-forward way in which it deals with the subject. There is a great quote that really brings into focus the nature of the tool -- one so simple that it is often overlooked.

A wood router is basically a motor with a bit stuck on the end. All of the features available today simply make it easier, safer, or more efficient to use that basic combination.

Such simplicity makes this a great site for a beginner, and an one that will be useful for those who are more experienced. I'd really encourage folks interested in this sort of woodworking to take a look at Just-Wood-Routers.com for solid, down-to-earth information and guidance on the subject.

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And if this Justice Department decision stands, we could see higher charges for speedy delivery of email, as well as different speeds for delivery of other web content.

The Justice Department on Thursday said Internet service providers should be allowed to charge a fee for priority Web traffic.

The agency told the Federal Communications Commission, which is reviewing high-speed Internet practices, that it is opposed to "Net neutrality," the principle that all Internet sites should be equally accessible to any Web user.

Several phone and cable companies, such as AT&T Inc., Verizon Communications Inc. and Comcast Corp., have previously said they want the option to charge some users more money for loading certain content or Web sites faster than others.

The Justice Department said imposing a Net neutrality regulation could hamper development of the Internet and prevent service providers from upgrading or expanding their networks. It could also shift the "entire burden of implementing costly network expansions and improvements onto consumers," the agency said in its filing.

Of course, the question becomes whether the internet is more like the telephone company or the post office. The Justice Department argues the latter, with its differential rates for speed of delivery, while I'd argue for the former, which is required to connect all calls in an equal fashion.

Will Congress intervene to overturn this decision?

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And let me be the first to condemn this glaring example of race-based politics used to attack a candidate for office.

When Steve Cohen, a black man, was elected last year to represent mostly white Memphis in Congress, it was seen as a sign that racial divisions were fading in this Southern city.

But less than a year later, Cohen is facing a movement led by white pastors and political activists to defeat him in 2008 and send a white representative to Washington instead.

"He's not white, and he can't represent me. That's the bottom line," the Rev. Robert Poindexter told a local newspaper after a meeting last week of the Memphis Baptist Ministerial Association at which Cohen was jeered and booed.

The hostile reception caught Cohen off guard and foreshadowed the challenge he is almost certain to face next year in his first bid for re-election.

* * *

But the preachers have also questioned whether a black man should even represent the 9th District, which is 60 percent white and 34 percent black.

"I don't care how people dress it up," Poindexter told The Commercial Appeal newspaper in Memphis. "It always comes down to race, and he can't know what it's like to be white."

Such blatantly racist and discriminatory behavior on the part of the evil Konservative Khristian Koalition RethigliKlans must be denounced and rejected by every decent American as a violation of the fundamental concept of racial equality which so many fought and died for. those who hold to such views must be expelled from the GOP. Sheet-head KKKlergymen like Rev. Robert Poindexter need to be driven from the pulpit by Christians who accept the teaching of Scripture that in Christ there is neither Jew nor Greek, and the message of racial equality that underlies it.

Oh.

I see the story has been updated.

When Steve Cohen, a white man, was elected last year to represent mostly black Memphis in Congress, it was seen as a sign that racial divisions were fading in this Southern city.

But less than a year later, Cohen is facing a movement led by black pastors and political activists to defeat him in 2008 and send a black representative to Washington instead.

"He's not black, and he can't represent me. That's the bottom line," the Rev. Robert Poindexter told a local newspaper after a meeting last week of the Memphis Baptist Ministerial Association at which Cohen was jeered and booed.

The hostile reception caught Cohen off guard and foreshadowed the challenge he is almost certain to face next year in his first bid for re-election.

* * *

But the preachers have also questioned whether a white man should even represent the 9th District, which is 60 percent black and 34 percent white.

"I don't care how people dress it up," Poindexter told The Commercial Appeal newspaper in Memphis. "It always comes down to race, and he can't know what it's like to be black."

Of course, we know the party and the politics of those involved in this dispute. Liberal Democrats out playing race-ho and sowing the same sorts of divisions that the civil rights movement was about destroying. These so-called Christian leaders have turned the message of Dr. King on its head, and call for judging a man on the color of his skin, not the content of his character. It is a shameful move, and hearkens back to the racial policies of the Democrats in that part of the country only a few decades back.

Will the state or national party denounce such racial hate-mongering and expel the perpetrators from its midst, clearly stating that there is no place for racism in the party -- even if it means losing elections because of that principled stand? Will they forthrightly label the Memphis Baptist Ministerial Association as a hate-group?

Will the people of these churches remove Rev. Robert Poindexter and his ilk from the pulpit and replace them with American patriots and believers in the equal rights and dignity of every person? Or will the false Gospel of race-hatred and discrimination remain accepted in the Memphis Baptist Ministerial Association, while the Gospel of Jesus Christ is repudiated by race-baiting heretics?

Now there may be many good reasons to vote for or against Steve Cohen. As a conservative Republican, I likely would reject him in favor of a candidate closer to my views on the issues. But I will not stand by and see the poison of race-hatred circulate in the body politic of my country.

And I ask Rev. Robert Poindexter and his fellow bigots in the Memphis Baptist Ministerial Association is they will renounce the hatred and re-embrace the message of Martin Luther King and and Jesus Christ that tells us that racism is a vile, sinful contagion of the soul? Or will they have the courage of their convictions and call for Senator Barack Obama to withdraw from the race for the Democratic nomination for President -- and to resign from the US Senate because of his inability to properly represent the people of Illinois, who are over 75% white.

H/T Jay Nordlinger

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And how do the bison in question feel about this development?

With nowhere else to go,
sex offenders gravitate to Buffalo

Actually, it is a serious story about a serious issue -- but who writes these headlines?

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1 Now that's funny, thanks for the laugh!

Posted by: Just Me at Thu Sep 6 11:07:19 2007 (B1QYg)

2 Be careful though, Buffalo have a very wide stance.

Posted by: Stephen Macklin at Thu Sep 6 11:10:22 2007 (Z3kjO)

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Posted by: volks at Tue May 19 07:47:49 2009 (J+OLy)

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We need to reject him at the national level in the presidential race.

We need to defeat him in his congressional primary (in Texas, you can run for both).

He sounds like one of the frothing diarists over at the Cloaca Maxima of the internet.

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And, more to the point, who we must watch.

There are lessons to be drawn from the German terrorism arrests yesterday.

Some obvious points: these men are educated, two of three are German nationals, all seem to have been trained not in Iraq, Iran or Afghanistan, but in Pakistan, a putative ally. It is hard to see how the Iraq war - whether a failure or a success - would have any impact on this tiny cell's attempt at mass murder in the name of God. This is simply the religious violence we have to contend with for the indefinite future. All we can do is what the Germans did: keep up surveillance (with protections against abuse), and run as many to ground as we can.

And this means, unfortunately, greater surveillance of mosques and other Muslim groups, no matter what their composition. It means a willingness to look at the Muslim community intensively, because that is where the violence and terrorism has taken root.

This is not to say that all Muslims are terrorists -- far from it. But unfortunately, the bulk of terrorists today are Muslims of one stripe or another, and we cannot ignore that fact. And as long as Muslim groups run to the defense of any accused individual, and as long as the Muslim community silently allows such extremism to grow in its midst, an cloud of suspicion will unfortunately hang over the community as a whole.

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When things looked bad in Iraq, the Democrats wanted an all-or-nothing plan for immediate defeat at any cost. They wouldn't accept any bipartisan solutions that might give our forces a chance to win, and Iraq a chance to be stable. Well, now that the situation in Iraq is improving daily, the Democrats are willing to look for GOP allies to help get the American military defeat they so desperately need to be successful in 2008.

With a mixed picture emerging about progress in Iraq, Senate Democratic leaders are showing a new openness to compromise as they try to attract Republican support for forcing at least modest troop withdrawals in the coming months.

After short-circuiting consideration of votes on some bipartisan proposals on Iraq before the August break, senior Democrats now say they are willing to rethink their push to establish a withdrawal deadline of next spring if doing so will attract the 60 Senate votes needed to prevail.

Senator Carl Levin, Democrat of Michigan, said, “If we have to make the spring part a goal, rather than something that is binding, and if that is able to produce some additional votes to get us over the filibuster, my own inclination would be to consider that.”

Democrats would need to lure the 60 senators in order to cut off a likely Republican filibuster.

The emerging proposal by Mr. Levin and Senator Jack Reed, Democrat of Rhode Island, would still order the administration to begin pulling at least some combat troops out of Iraq, probably by the end of the year. It is not clear what other provisions the measure may include.

But Mr. Levin, who is chairman of the Armed Services Committee and who met Wednesday with Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the majority leader, said a compromise may be worth making. It would allow Congress to assert its own voice on Iraq policy, after falling short of that goal in most such votes throughout the year, he said.

Frankly, Congressional micromanaging of the war like this is a bad thing. It was tried back during the Civil War, and resulted in chaos as good generals had to justify bad outcomes before a congressional committee, while political hacks often got a pass from their patrons despite their incompetence. By its very nature, Congress is ill-equipped to direct the war and to set such timetables -- and since the Democrats have made it clear that they are more interested in the political benefit of retreat and surrender, this particular Congress must be considered incompetent and irrelevant to military decision-making.

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Fred Thompson is officially in the 2008 Presidential Race!

At 7:57 p.m. Eastern time Wednesday, while taping "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" for broadcast later in the evening, Fred Thompson finally said: "I'm running for president of the United States."

The studio audience responded with thunderous applause.

Thompson rejected the notion that he has waited too long to get into the race for the White House.

"People treat politicians sort of like the dentist -- they don't have anything to do with them till they have to," he said.

"A lot of people have been, of course, running for some time. Everybody kind of changed the rules.

"Usually you don't announce until after Labor Day, but they started running a lot earlier, spending millions of dollars and so forth, and everyone said that you couldn't run this year without raising a hundred million dollars and starting much earlier. I don't believe that," Thompson said, adding that he doubts voters will say: "That guy would make a very good president, but he didn't get in soon enough."

Video of the announcement is here.

Actually, the Thompson campaign might well have the advantage of novelty behind it. After all, how many folks are simply tired of the current crop of candidates on both sides of the political aisle?

Here's the first campaign video.

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I'll admit it -- I've got an old ford Escort that I love to drive. It is a great car that has been reliable for me over a decade. And even though it is now semi-retired, I still love it because of some great features and the fact that it has given me over 200K miles of faithful service with relatively low maintenance costs.

Why did I get the car in the first place? A combination of brand loyalty and dumb luck. I'd been driving a Mercury Lynx (same car, different nameplate) for the previous eight years. Unfortunately, some kids vandalized the car one weekend -- and insurance totaled it out on me and just cut me a check for the value of a car with 160K miles on it. That left me with a nice check and a car that looked awful -- when two days later the tranny dropped two blocks from the Ford dealer. Sitting on the lot was a recently returned lease vehicle with low mileage and an even lower price. I cut arranged financing, cut the check, and drove off the lot in two hours -- probably the easiest sale this guy ever had. I was the proud owner of a white 1995 Ford Escort.

I drove that car to my wife's hometown for our wedding. We took our honeymoon in it. We moved from Illinois to Texas in it - and I even taught my wife how to drive in it. There is even a nice ledge in the hatchback for the dog to sun herself in when we are on the road! This car is really the fourth member of our family.

What can I say -- she still doesn't burn much oil, and still gets right around 28 mpg all these years later. Aside from standard maintenance, I've spent very little on her -- brakes, a new timing belt and water pump, and a few other miscellaneous repairs. But she still handles well, and has a comfortable feel like my favorite chair in the living room. For an old Used Ford Escort, she still seems like a luxury car to me. I plan on nursing her along for as long as I can.

I cried when Ford quit making the Escort. Having driven this one for years (and the Lynx before), I was displeased that I would not be able to get another. And I plan on buying from Ford again in the future. They've earned that loyalty.

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After all, MoveOn’s aim is to punish dissent, not to debate or persuade.

In the Hell Hath No Fury sweepstakes, groups like MoveOn.org are gearing up to take on a new set of perceived traitors in their midst--Democrats who have acknowledged some success from the troop surge in Iraq.

* * *

The group doesn't aim to engage in debate, but to punish and silence Democrats who dare to think for themselves. There's a pattern here: When John Dingell contradicted party orthodoxy on global warming and auto mileage standards this year, MoveOn ran ads in his Michigan district calling the 81-year-old Congressman "Dingellsaurus."

There was a time when liberalism was a patriotic, open-minded strain of political thought which accepted debate and dissent. Today, however, what we see is a totalitarian Left which defines dissent as dangerous (except when it is their own – then it is the ultimate form of patriotism).

We see that best in the current situation. So intent are these folks upon the notion that the Iraq War is wrong and that America MUST lose that it cannot brook any contradiction – even if it is good news for America.

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After all, MoveOnÂ’s aim is to punish dissent, not to debate or persuade.

In the Hell Hath No Fury sweepstakes, groups like MoveOn.org are gearing up to take on a new set of perceived traitors in their midst--Democrats who have acknowledged some success from the troop surge in Iraq.

* * *

The group doesn't aim to engage in debate, but to punish and silence Democrats who dare to think for themselves. There's a pattern here: When John Dingell contradicted party orthodoxy on global warming and auto mileage standards this year, MoveOn ran ads in his Michigan district calling the 81-year-old Congressman "Dingellsaurus."

There was a time when liberalism was a patriotic, open-minded strain of political thought which accepted debate and dissent. Today, however, what we see is a totalitarian Left which defines dissent as dangerous (except when it is their own – then it is the ultimate form of patriotism).

We see that best in the current situation. So intent are these folks upon the notion that the Iraq War is wrong and that America MUST lose that it cannot brook any contradiction – even if it is good news for America.

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You know, he may have been a crappy president who disgraced the office, but he at least has enough respect for the Constitution to not try to grasp for an office denied him.

Bill Clinton ruled out running as HRC's VP tonight during a taping of the CBS's LATE SHOW WITH DAVID LETTERMAN, sources tell the DRUDGE REPORT.

MORE

Dave: “Now there was a discussion last week, and there is I guess a greater discussion, and there’s some confusion, and maybe I’m the only one confused about the eligibility of a man who has been elected twice as President to possibly be named later on the ticket as Vice President. Constitutionally speaking, can that happen?”

Clinton: “I don’t believe so. There are some people who believe it can, and they have contorted readings of the amendment, the 22nd Amendment. But I believe as a matter of general interpretation, you’re supposed to read all the Constitution including all the Amendments as if they were written almost on the same day at the same moment, so they’re consistent with one another. And the Constitution says the qualifications for Vice President are the same as those for President. Now you can read that to mean ‘to serve,’ not ‘to run for.’ But I just don’t believe it’s consistent with the spirit of the Constitution for someone who’s been President twice to be elected Vice President. I just don’t think it’s Constitutional. I don’t think it’s right and I wouldn’t want to do that. I’d want to do whatever I could do to be of highest and best use for her, but there are lots of wonderful people out there, including all the people that are running this time would be good Vice Presidents. And, that’s just not in the cards.”

ALL the current Democrats would be good Veeps? Dennis Kucinich? Mike Gravel? Bill “God wants Iowa first” Richadson? You must be kidding.

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When everyone started carrying on about Katie CouricÂ’s trip to Iraq, I kept my mouth shut. I wanted to see what she had to say on the situation before I made a judgment about the trip.

And interestingly enough, she has come back with a rather surprising assessment.

One week before Gen. David Petraeus is expected to give his report on U.S. progress in Iraq, CBS Evening News anchor Katie Couric says she has already seen dramatic improvements in the country.

"We hear so much about things going bad, but real progress has been made there in terms of security and stability," Couric said Tuesday. "I mean, obviously, infrastructure problems abound, but Sunnis and U.S. forces are working together. They banded together because they had a common enemy: al Qaeda."

When even the liberals make the conservative case, you know that it must be true – things are improving in Iraq, and the surge is working.

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Well, the Cloaca Maxima of the internet has proved itself good for something. The Daily Kos has been ruled to be a media outlet not subject to FEC regulation, which means that the rest of us bloggers also qualify as journalists.

Bill O’Reilly blasts DailyKos as a “hate site,” but according to a federal ruling released Tuesday, the popular liberal blog is as much a part of the media as Fox News when it comes to campaign finance rules.

The Federal Election Commission unanimously dismissed a complaint filed against DailyKos by a right-wing blogger who had argued it was illegally acting as a political committee by giving support and free advertising to Democratic candidates.

Adam Bonin, the lawyer who represented DailyKos, called the ruling “a big victory, but everything about the rulemaking and the precedent strongly suggested that there was no other logical outcome.”

The ruling is only a small step in the evolution of government regulation of politics on the Web, but expect it to attract attention because of the prominence of Daily Kos.

The complaint alleged that DailyKos should have to register as a political committee since its primary purpose is promoting Democrats and it raised and spent more than $1,000 pursuing that end.

Now what this effectively means is that when bloggers speak, they are not making campaign contributions. That also means that we are free to speak free of government reporting burdens. Had the ruling gone the other way, many bloggers would have been forced to quit speaking on political candidates and issues, while others (myself included) would have continued speaking and risked arrest for the crime of engaging in political speech.

Now I will note that the complaint was filed by blogger John Bambenek. It is my hope that it was intended as a test case, not to silence a political opponent.

Posted by: Greg at 12:30 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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I guess it is time to show some solidarity with those whose free speech is under assault.

A Swedish Muslim group on Tuesday said it plans to sue a local newspaper for publishing a drawing of the Prophet Muhammad with a dog's body. The Nerikes Allehanda newspaper in Orebro printed the cartoon made by artist Lars Vilks in an August 19 editorial that criticized Swedish art galleries for not displaying Vilks' art.

Mahmoud Aldebe, chairman of the Swedish Muslim Federation, said the group would sue the newspaper for inciting hatred against ethnic groups. "It ridicules our religion. This is discriminating and insulting... they want to see just how far they are able to go by pushing the boundaries of press freedom," he said.

Actually, Mamoud, I think you and your fellow Muslims done a fine job of inciting hatred against yourselves and your faith. After all, between acts of terrorism and attempts to restrict the rights of non-Muslims, you and your co-religionists have managed to lower the esteem in which I once held Islam.

Besides -- since the Qu'ran contains insulting statements denying the divinity of Christ and ridiculing the beliefs of Christians, I certainly could argue that it constitutes an incitement of hate against ethnic groups, and that it is therefore discriminating and insulting towards OUR faith. Do you really want to trade your religion's holy book for a few pathetic drawings of your faith's (false) prophet?

H/T Stop the ACLU

Posted by: Greg at 12:04 PM | Comments (101) | Add Comment
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Hey, taking money from mobbed-up a financier is fine if you are a Democrat -- especially if you helped get him a high political appointments despite his shady past.

A man who has long been dogged by charges that the bank his family owns helped finance a Chicago crime figure will host a Windy City fund-raiser tonight for Sen. Barack Obama.

Alexi Giannoulias, who became Illinois state treasurer last year after Obama vouched for him, has pledged to raise $100,000 for the senator's Oval Office bid.

Before he promised to raise funds for Obama, Giannoulias bankrolled Michael "Jaws" Giorango, a Chicagoan twice convicted of bookmaking and promoting prostitution.

Giannoulias is so tainted by reputed mob links that several top Illinois Dems, including the state's speaker of the House and party chairman, refused to endorse him even after he won the Democratic nomination with Obama's help.

Of course, that is how the game is played by Chicago Democrats -- make sure that the mob and the corrupt unions are behind you so they can help turn out the dead and the non-existent vote for you on election day. And if they can fill your coffers with dirty money, so much the better!

Obama isn't a candidate of change -- he's the candidate of the Chicago status quo!

H/T Captain Ed

Posted by: Greg at 11:34 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Yesterday I wrote about anti-Semitism growing in Briatain. need proof? Here it is.

A British current affairs magazine has compared the Marva and Gadna IDF youth summer programs to Islamic Jihad "summer camps," and questioned what the difference would be if the participants were British Muslims.

In the latest edition of New Statesman, journalist Matthew Holehouse begins his article, entitled "The British children who train to fight in Israel," by stating that Israel denounced the Islamic Jihad summer camps in Gaza, which trained Palestinian adolescents to become suicide bombers, after hearing about them in 2001.

However, he continues, "what went unreported was that at a purpose-built barracks in the Negev desert, every summer, hundreds of Jewish teenagers from Europe, Mexico and America pay to spend nine weeks saluting, marching, firing guns and otherwise pretending to be soldiers."

Holehouse then asks what would happen if these were young British Muslims who had trained in Yemen or Pakistan.

That Holehouse can't recognize the difference between Hamas and the IDF is pretty frightening to begin with -- I'm curious, does he believe teh RAF is the iquivalent of the Terrorstinians launching Qassam missles into civilian communityes? The IDF, for all the propaganda claims of the pro-terrorist left, does not indiscriminately attack civilians -- and as was shown in Lebanon last summer, only hit locations where terrorists were using civilians as cover for their attacks. under international law, Hezbollah was in violation and Israel was not in such situations.

There is no moral equivalence between Hamas and Israel, any more than there was moral equivalence between the US and Nazi germany in 1943. Any attempt to draw an equivalence between Israel and the terrorists out to destroy that nation can be seen as nothing short of anti-Semitism -- and of a variety that is every bit as genocidal as that which ruled in Nazi Gemany.

Posted by: Greg at 10:10 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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