My students laughed at me last fall when, after Hurricane Ike and the extended power outages that followed, I predicted an increased birth rate in the area come June and July. Today they laughed with me when I read them the following article.

Doctors who work in HoustonÂ’s busiest maternity ward say theyÂ’re expecting an especially bustling June, leading some to conclude that Hurricane Ike was the perfect storm for making babies.
ItÂ’s been eight months since Ike knocked out the regionÂ’s electricity, leaving many with no television, Internet access or other distractions for days, if not weeks. Now thereÂ’s a curious bump in the number of women who are rounding out their third trimesters of pregnancy.
Several obstetrical practices associated with The WomanÂ’s Hospital of Texas are extra-busy these days with prenatal care.
“I looked, somewhat in shock, at my little book of deliveries for June, and it’s 26,” said Dr. John Irwin, president of Obstetrical and Gynecological Associates.
He routinely delivers 15 to 20 babies a month and called the Ike boomlet “a real phenomenon.” His colleagues in the 35-physician practice have seen a similar increase in patients who probably conceived during the powerless days after Ike.
“There’s about a 25 percent increase in the number of deliveries coming up in mid-June to mid-July,” said Irwin, also chief of surgery service at Woman’s Hospital.

I donÂ’t know why anyone would be surprised. Weather-related disasters like this one often produce such statistical anomalies, and I would not have expected Hurricane Ike to be any different. Indeed, one local OB/GYN is certain that is precisely the reason for the strange increase in babies due this summer.

Dr. Rakhi Dimino, an obstetrician/gynecologist with Houston WomenÂ’s Care Associates, is sure thereÂ’s something to this Ike baby boom.
SheÂ’s due June 10.
She was on call at WomanÂ’s as the hurricane passed over, and and left around noon that Saturday. She was with her husband at home until her office reopened the following Tuesday.
So what was happening at the Dimino home those two and a half days?
“What everybody else in Houston was doing,” said Dimino, 33, whose baby will be her first. “You can only do so much when there’s no television, nothing open and there’s nowhere to go.”

Posted by: Greg at 12:41 PM | Comments (7) | Add Comment
Post contains 392 words, total size 3 kb.

I don’t like it – but not for the reason that everyone else seems to object.

NRSC chairman John Cornyn made the endorsement official this morning, casting Crist as the most electable candidate to hold the seat for the GOP.

"While I believe Marco Rubio has a very bright future within the Republican Party, Charlie Crist is the best candidate in 2010 to ensure that we maintain the checks and balances that Floridians deserve in the United States Senate," Cornyn said in a statement.
"Governor Crist is a dedicated public servant and a dynamic leader, and the National Republican Senatorial Committee will provide our full support to ensure that he is elected the next United States Senator from Florida.”

The committeeÂ’s decision will make it tougher for former Florida House Speaker Marco Rubio to raise money against Crist, given that the party has given the governor its stamp of approval. Rubio has won support from Florida conservatives and has a base in the Cuban-American community, but will need to raise a significant amount of money to credibly compete against Crist in the primary.

Now I’ll be honest – I like Rubio more than I like Crist. Rubio is popular and has the Cuban-American demographic going for him, not to mention more conservative. Crist, despite his unquestioned popularity with Florida voters, will be dogged by a certain rumor about him (irrelevant to his qualification for office, in my opinion) that has been given more public play in a current documentary. The real problem for me, though, is the fact that I believe that the GOP base should be picking the candidate, not the inside the Beltway crowd.

Posted by: Greg at 12:40 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
Post contains 296 words, total size 2 kb.

There really is only one appropriate response from normal males to the kerfluffle over the Carrie Prejean photos:

Personally, I think the more topless photos, the better. But as a straight male, what do I know about beauty pageants?

Exactly right!

Posted by: Greg at 12:39 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 53 words, total size 1 kb.

I love Star Trek. Always have, always will. But having grown up in a military family, IÂ’ve always had the same sort of question as Kurt Schlichter at NewsBusters.

I just cannot get behind this Star Trek rebirth. The whole thing is just so unrealistic. Not the warp speed or phasers or beaming about the universe - those are at least remotely plausible. I am talking about the fact that the starship Enterprise is composed entirely of officers and yet it still seems to function. Where are the non-commissioned officers (NCO), the petty officers and sergeants who actually make any military organization run? No, I can suspend disbelief over Klingons and tribbles, and I actively support the notion of green alien hotties. But the idea of a functioning military unit without sergeants is just a wormhole too far.

And may I take it a step further – where the heck are all the Master Chiefs and Senior Chiefs, if we are operating on a distinctly naval model? Even as an officer’s son, I learned early that the real work of the Navy could not have been accomplished without those senior enlisted men. How do they manage it on the Starship Enterprise.

Posted by: Greg at 12:38 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 211 words, total size 1 kb.

Well, most of what they do violates one tenet or another of international law. Why would this come as any surprise?

Taleban fighters have been using deadly white phosphorus munitions, some of them manufactured in Britain, to attack Western forces in Afghanistan, according to previously classified United States documents released yesterday.
White phosphorus, which can burn its victims down to the bone, has been found in improvised explosive devices (IEDs) in regions across Afghanistan including in the south, where British troops are based. It has also been used in mortar and rocket attacks on American forces.
Last night the US military in Kabul condemned the use of white phosphorus by the insurgents as “reprehensible”. White phosphorus is banned as an offensive weapon under international rules of armed conflict.

And sadly, some of these weapons have been turned against civilians, another war crime. And yet somehow the opinion leaders in this country appear more concerned over terrorists getting their faces wet at Gitmo than over enemy activities that actually merit condemnation by civilized people.

But then again, such folks canÂ’t seem to muster sufficient outrage to condemn gas attacks on schoolgirls, either.

Posted by: Greg at 12:37 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 197 words, total size 1 kb.

I like Gary Sinise. Like his style, and I like his politics. However, I donÂ’t know that I am ready to support him for this particular office in 2012.

Nicolle Wallace, a top adviser to George W. Bush and John McCainÂ’s presidential campaign, is adding a few names to the list of Republicans who might lead the GOP out of the wilderness.
Top among them? Actor Gary Sinise.
Wallace, writing on The Daily Beast, said she first heard the idea from a fellow Republican.
“The natural strengths that an actor brings to politics would come in handy to anyone going up against Obama in 2012,” she wrote. “We will need an effective communicator who can stand toe to toe with Obama’s eloquence.”
Sinise, also a musician, performs for U.S. troops and often champions veterans' causes.

The only thing he would be lacking would be the sort of experience that would actually qualify him to be president. Good grief – his resume is even thinner than Obama’s in 2008.

On the other hand, he might make a great candidate for Governor or Senator somewhere.

I prefer one of Wallace’s other names – General David Petraeus.

Posted by: Greg at 12:33 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
Post contains 208 words, total size 1 kb.

You had two tickets. You arrived as a part of a party of three at the White House CorrespondentÂ’s Dinner, and threw a tantrum over the matter. My favorite line of the night? This one, uttered regarding the security guard dispatched to deal with her attempted crashing of the party.

‘Does he even know who the f— I am?’

Maybe he did, Megan, and maybe he didnÂ’t. But I think I speak for an awful lot of Americans when I say that he probably didnÂ’t care. I know that I sure donÂ’t.

Posted by: Greg at 12:32 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 102 words, total size 1 kb.

Ever since I started working in politics, I have had a simple rule – if I don’t believe in a candidate, I don’t work for him/her. If I lose faith in a candidate, I quit working for the campaign. Most folks I’ve dealt with in the GOP operate on the same sort of principle.

Apparently the Democrats operate differently.

ABC contributor George Will suggested former Sen. John Edwards was irresponsible to campaign for the Democratic Party nomination.
"Think about what a tragedy it would have been if he had won?" Will said.
I've talked to a lot of former Edwards staffers about this. Up until December of 2007, most on Edwards' staff didn't believe rumors about the affair.
But by late December, early January of last year, several people in his inner circle began to think the rumors were true.
Several of them had gotten together and devised a "doomsday" strategy of sorts.
Basically, if it looked like Edwards was going to win the Democratic Party nomination, they were going to sabotage his campaign, several former Edwards' staffers have told me.
They said they were Democrats first, and if it looked like Edwards was going to become the nominee, they were going to bring down the campaign.

Think about that one for a minute – they were willing to take the money paid by a candidate but not show him any loyalty. They decided he should not be president, but continued to draw a check anyway, while planning to sabotage the campaign if it appeared he would win.

Disgusting – absolutely disgusting.

George Stephanopoulos has reported on this “doomsday plan”. That is all well and good – but what he really needs to do is report the names of the staffers who were willing to co-opt the political process for their own personal gain, and to commit a fraud on the electorate for a paycheck.

And let me say that as deeply as I feel contempt for John Edwards, it does not approach the level of contempt I have for these staffers. Better that they be good Americans and not participate in the cover-up -- and allow the voters in the Democrat primary to have full information on all the candidates, which might have influenced the eventual outcome of the Democrat nomination. After all, would those Edwards voters have broken for Obama, giving him an earlier victory in the delegate hunt? Or would the displaced Edwards voters have broken for Hillary Clinton, turning the entire race on its head? And wouldnÂ’t either of those outcomes have been better for America?

Posted by: Greg at 12:27 PM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
Post contains 436 words, total size 3 kb.

IÂ’m just curious, since we are supposed to take the decisions of courts around the world as supplying precedents for interpreting our laws and Constitution.

Husbands are allowed to slap their wives if they spend lavishly, a Saudi judge said recently during a seminar on domestic violence, Saudi media reported Sunday.
Arab News, a Saudi English-language daily newspaper based in Riyadh, reported that Judge Hamad Al-Razine said that "if a person gives SR 1,200 [$320] to his wife and she spends 900 riyals [$240] to purchase an abaya [the black cover that women in Saudi Arabia must wear] from a brand shop and if her husband slaps her on the face as a reaction to her action, she deserves that punishment."

Remember – Muslims make up a huge percentage of the world’s population. And there are, of course, many Muslim countries that include sharia law as a part of their legal framework. Shouldn’t we give due consideration to the wisdom that law supplies? Or should we instead recognize that the laws and court rulings of foreign countries should have no bearing upon how our courts interpret our statutes and fundamental law.

Posted by: Greg at 12:26 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 199 words, total size 1 kb.

FoxNews says it all in this story.

While racy photos of Miss California Carrie Prejean could cost the outspoken first runner up in the Miss USA pageant her crown, pageant officials don't seem to care about even steamier photos of Miss Rhode Island that appeared in a menÂ’s magazine.

So is Prejean being targeted simply for her beliefs?

Alysha Castonguay posed for photos much more explicit and erotic than those that were leaked of Carrie Prejean. And while there is the disclosure issue, the bigger factor appears to be the desire of the pageant organizers to get rid of a young woman who had the audacity to take a conservative stance on a controversial social issue, a position that offended a loud and vocal segment of the liberal coalition (but which was in keeping with the beliefs of a majority of Californians). Even Alysha Castonguay sees the matter that way.

Castonguay even told gossip site TMZ that she felt Prejean was being targeted simply because she answered her pageant question by saying she favored limiting marriage to a man and a woman.
“I personally believe this situation is stemming from the controversy over her opinion and not a photo,” Castonguay said.

Seems to me that Donald Trump, the owner of the Miss USA organization, needs to intervene in order to save his brand.

H/T Don Surber

Posted by: Greg at 12:19 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 234 words, total size 2 kb.

If Rush Limbaugh or some other prominent conservative were to suggest that they hoped Wanda Sykes developed ovarian, uterine, or breast cancer and died?

Sykes was at her most vicious on the subject of Rush Limbaugh. "Rush Limbaugh said he hopes this administration fails. That's like saying, 'I hope America fails.' Or that 'I dont care if people are losing their homes, their jobs, our soldiers in Iraq.' He just wants the country to fail. To me, that's treason. He's not saying anything differently than what Osama Bin Laden is saying." Then, turning to the president, Sykes added, "You might want to look into this, sir. Because I think maybe he was the 20th hijacker. But he was just so strung out on Oxycontin that he missed his flight."
Realizing she shocked the crowd with that remark, she said, "Too much? But you're laughing on the inside..."
But she wasn't done. "Rush Limbaugh [says] 'I hope the country fails." I hope his kidneys fail. How about that? He needs some waterboarding, that's what he needs."

And weren’t we told for the last eight years that questioning the patriotism of Americans who dissented from the policies of the president was beyond the pale – and that such Americans were engaged in the highest form of patriotism? And to accuse such Americans of treason – or suggest that they were the equivalent of terrorists (or, worse yet, to call them terrorists even if they had, in fact, engaged in acts of terrorism like those committed by Bill Ayers) – was utterly unacceptable and un-American.

Somehow, though, all those rules went out the window on Saturday night at the White House CorrespondentsÂ’ Dinner. And rather than express his disapproval, President Obama sat and laughed out loud as the semi-talented Ms. Sykes wished death on a political opponent and accused him of treason and terrorism.

Now the American press hates Limbaugh, whose audience is growing even as theirs is shrinking, so they are not particularly taken aback by such naked hatred in the name of politics. But I am particularly struck by the clear-headed response of Toby Harnden of the Telegraph.

"Obama seemed to think this bit was pretty hilarious, grinning and chuckling and turning to share the 'joke' with the person sitting on his right. There's not much room for differing interpretations of what Sykes said. She called Limbaugh a terrorist and a traitor, suggested that he be tortured and wished him dead. What was his crime? Hoping that Obama's policies - which he views as socialist - will fail. That's way, way beyond reasoned debate or comedy and Obama's reaction to it was astonishing...Obama laughing when someone wishes Limbaugh dead? Hard to take from the man who promised a new era of civility and elevated debate in Washington."

Now, though, we know exactly what constitutes civility and elevated debate in the age of Obama – and it sure isn’t elevated or civil by any reasonable person’s definition of those words. And it is fair to say that since Obama put his imprimatur upon that sort of “humor”, he has managed to disgraces himself and his office even further than he did during the first 100 days.

And as for Sykes – I’d suggest she has jumped the shark, but for the fact that she began her career on the far side of said aquatic predator.

Posted by: Greg at 12:18 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 572 words, total size 4 kb.

I'm really taken aback by this comment by CBS golf announcer David Feherty.

"From my own experience visiting the troops in the Middle East, I can tell you this, though: despite how the conflict has been portrayed by our glorious media, if you gave any U.S. soldier a gun with two bullets in it, and he found himself in an elevator with Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, and Osama bin Laden, there's a good chance that Nancy Pelosi would get shot twice, and Harry Reid and bin Laden would be strangled to death," Feherty wrote in an a D Magazine piece welcoming former President George W. Bush back to Dallas.

Now my initial reaction to this comment was shock. It was followed by the desire to mock Feherty's comment with an equally inappropriate response that I won't include here in the interest of good taste and common decency. But in the end, I have to agree with the fifth columnists at Media Matters for (sic) America.

"Mr. Feherty's violent comments about Speaker Pelosi and Majority Leader Reid are disgusting," said Media Matters President Eric Burns. "Suggesting that our troops would attack the leaders of the very democracy they've sworn to sacrifice their lives for is an insult to their integrity, honor, and professionalism. CBS Sports should demand its golf analyst apologize to our soldiers."

Well said -- and spot on.

UPDATE: NewsBusters has a very different take on the matter, pointing out that the piece was satirical in nature, and taking both MMA and Keith Olbermann to task over their failure to note what was said in the rest of the satirical article -- and noting that the piece was some seven-weeks old and that it came to national attention only after negative words from Rush Limbaugh's guest host on Friday.

Posted by: Greg at 02:01 AM | Comments (26) | Add Comment
Post contains 314 words, total size 2 kb.

1 Holly..., and gallery of paris hilton, and 271639, and tila tequila sex, and apr, and jessica alba, and 69259, and

Posted by: Uvhplbgr at Thu May 14 05:33:58 2009 (at/Om)

2 Holly..., and megan foxx, and gkiqz, and miley cyrus boobs, and 215315, and miley cirus, and >:]], and kim kardashian booted, and ghhzn, and

Posted by: Hqtzbhvi at Thu May 14 05:34:47 2009 (at/Om)

3 Some pics., and kim kardashian sex, and 1795, and lindsay lohan sex, and 2276, and britney spears sex video, and %-PP, and

Posted by: Ztamtber at Thu May 14 12:06:21 2009 (/vSC6)

4 Some pics., and kim kardashian sex, and 1795, and lindsay lohan sex, and 2276, and britney spears sex video, and %-PP, and

Posted by: Ztamtber at Thu May 14 12:06:21 2009 (/vSC6)

5 Nope!, and kim kardashian booted, and fuhf, and jessica alba fakes, and =DD, and

Posted by: Dpdkuptp at Sat May 16 07:03:08 2009 (tCbYc)

6 Shit!, and paris hilton nude, and qadtl, and jessica alba wallpaper, and xtxwe, and

Posted by: Gidagolr at Sat May 16 13:03:17 2009 (EoyC6)

7 Great?, and pam anderson nude, and :[, and

Posted by: Ksgaffxq at Mon May 18 08:40:29 2009 (3hpJV)

8 Yess., and miley cyrus boobs, and =[[[, and emma watson gallery, and vlutx, and

Posted by: Rwsontxd at Mon May 18 10:11:16 2009 (GPPFz)

9 Coool stuff now., and jessica alba barefoot, and albfd, and

Posted by: Idbdcmnc at Mon May 18 21:53:16 2009 (n1Xrk)

10 Yami., and pam anderson, and qpcfg, and

Posted by: Yqdcjety at Mon May 18 23:29:32 2009 (VwcHx)

11 Great?, and lindsay lohan sex, and %-[[, and

Posted by: Xoxahkku at Tue May 19 01:06:36 2009 (/vSC6)

12 Great?, and lindsay lohan nip slip, and :-P, and emma watson, and :-((, and miley cyrus nude, and cemtzu, and paris hilton sex, and 8-], and

Posted by: Ztekqtwg at Tue May 19 07:22:33 2009 (e9lZf)

13 Shoooot., and free jessica alba wallpaper, and hbtxb, and

Posted by: Lhlntuim at Tue May 19 09:20:10 2009 (CZwZi)

14 Extra., and kim kardashian butt, and svsil, and

Posted by: Kgqjxggj at Wed May 20 06:04:17 2009 (O4XuR)

15 Great?, and kim kardashin sex tape part 2, and %), and

Posted by: Mzszwmxg at Wed May 20 06:04:42 2009 (O4XuR)

16 Shoooot., and kim kardashian home video, and vnlq, and

Posted by: Bwzygdyu at Wed May 20 07:42:05 2009 (FKa4h)

17 Great?, and kim kardashain, and xld, and

Posted by: Xzlsxadn at Wed May 20 07:42:29 2009 (FKa4h)

18 New., and kim kardashian superstar, and mbwq, and

Posted by: Tfeihwhy at Wed May 20 15:43:13 2009 (V7y0K)

19 Hehe., and kim kardasian playboy, and bjdhiz, and

Posted by: Wvzgmewt at Wed May 20 15:43:35 2009 (V7y0K)

20 Littauer Center., and emma watson gallery, and 8-OO, and miley cyrus shower, and ffaouz, and jenna jameson nude, and 9645, and

Posted by: Fbfbiggq at Thu May 21 22:23:45 2009 (qveDi)

21 Education., and carmen electra, and ulq, and jennifer aniston fakes, and 325866, and brooke burke barely, and D, and gallery of paris hilton, and 8[[[, and britney spears uncensored, and 5817, and

Posted by: Minpogyj at Thu May 21 23:53:33 2009 (VrPmo)

22 Harvard student., and enna jameson xxx, and psiqoo, and gia angelina jolie, and 721559, and paris hilton, and =-OOO, and jennifer aniston, and :-), and britney spears blowjob, and 56074, and paris hilton, and %-P, and

Posted by: Huvirmqu at Thu May 21 23:54:00 2009 (VrPmo)

23 Philippe Aghion, Robert C., and jennifer aniston sexiest gallery, and :-DDD, and fotos de britney spears desnuda, and 8-((, and nude britney spears, and pitsry, and lindsay lohan nip slip, and hsqf, and

Posted by: Icshiwdu at Fri May 22 02:58:47 2009 (6QCVY)

24 Blending theory, practice, and passion., and britney spears blowjob, and maha, and brooke burke gallery, and 16842, and britney spears breast gallery, and mubhvb, and kim kardashian porn, and pyu, and

Posted by: Poaxzznr at Fri May 22 02:59:28 2009 (uGHP4)

25 camphor, gipkgqsz, 49987, vtpcuwai, tbqj, bbvlkojb, 641,

Posted by: Hggnpeuq at Wed Oct 7 09:28:20 2009 (7wLkI)

26 saab, qtuxrhnx, 374, plpznysk, 754, khphsugr, =]],

Posted by: Rhbzaxke at Wed Oct 7 14:47:02 2009 (L92yo)

Hide Comments | Add Comment

This time on how to deal with terrorists -- he's going to go with military commissions rather than civilian courts to try the jihadi swine.

In one of its first acts, the Obama administration obtained a 120-day suspension of the military commissions; that will expire May 20. Human rights groups had interpreted the suspension as the death knell for military commissions and expected the transfer of cases to military courts martial or federal courts.

Officials said yesterday that the Obama administration will seek a 90-day extension of the suspension as early as next week. It would subsequently restart the commissions on American soil, probably at military bases, according to a lawyer briefed on the plan.

While the rules are going to be modified, the fact is that these jihadi swine will be kept out of civilian courts and tried in a forum more akin to those used to try our military personnel. Seems reasonable to me -- after all, America's enemies should not get greater consideration than American soldiers -- and, indeed, do not merit even that much.

Personally, though, I believe that both administrations are wrong on this. What needs to happen is extensive enhanced interrogation, followed by summary execution with a bullet coated in bacon grease. No process is due to these enemies of civilization.

Posted by: Greg at 01:45 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 241 words, total size 2 kb.

Much to the consternation of his Bush Derangement Syndrome afflicted followers, I'm sure.

Now he's siding with George W. Bush and Sarah Palin on protection for the polar bear.

The Obama administration will retain a Bush-era rule for polar bears, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced Friday, in a move that angered activists who noted the rule limits what can be done to protect the species from global warming.

The administration had faced a weekend deadline to decide whether it should allow government agencies to cite the federal Endangered Species Act, which protects the bear, to impose limits on greenhouse gases from power plants, factories and automobiles even if the emissions occur thousands of miles from where the polar bear lives.

"We must do all we can to help the polar bear recover, recognizing that the greatest threat to the polar bear is the melting of Arctic sea ice caused by climate change," Salazar said in a statement. "However, the Endangered Species Act is not the proper mechanism for controlling our nationÂ’s carbon emissions.

Especially since anthropomorphic global warming is a hoax that is well on its way to being discredited by good science on our climate. Besides, didn't i read recently that the polar bear population is up?

Posted by: Greg at 01:39 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 226 words, total size 2 kb.

Now one of our major concerns in the last few months has been the possibility of losing her. After all, for over seven months we were out of our home, first evacuated to Austin, then living in the church hall, and finally the apartment several miles from our house. We wondered what would happen if she got away, and how we would ever recover her.

That is where the idea of microchipping pets enters the picture. Microchips can't be lost and don't fade or become defaced. And at the Home Again Web Site, you get a great service to help you recover your pet should it become lost. For an annual subscription fee, HomeAgain members have telephone access to pet-recovery specialists and 24/7 emergency medical assistance at 1-888-HomeAgain. The program also includes up to $3,000 (less a $50 deductible) in medical pet insurance for lost pets and up to $500 in reimbursable travel expenses for pets found more than 500 miles from home.

And if you subscibe to their service, HomeAgain will make a donation to help shelter animals through a fundraising Web site specifically created to help shelter animals

Posted by: Greg at 12:19 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 198 words, total size 2 kb.

One more sign that shifting Left may not help Arlan Specter after all. First the Democrat Caucus in the Senate rejects him, now MoveOn.org.

One of the nationÂ’s largest liberal advocacy organizations, MoveOn.org , is resisting efforts to clear the Democratic primary field for Republican-turned-Democratic Sen. Arlen Specter.

The political arm of MoveOn flexed its muscle Friday by releasing the results of an online poll that showed the vast majority of the group’s roughly 170,000 members in Pennsylvania — 85 percent — would consider supporting a Democratic challenger against Specter.

The group expressed concern over Specter’s vote against President Obama’s $3.4 billion budget just one day after defecting to the Democratic Party. MoveOn also cited comments Specter made in an appearance on “Meet the Press” last weekend suggesting he would oppose a public health insurance option that some Democrats would like to see included in any health care reform proposal.

of course, a full 90% of MoveOn supporters would support Specter in the general election -- but he does need to get that Democrat nomination first, and it appears that the Democrat base -- as well as elected Democrats -- are balking at the prospect of welcoming him into the party.

Posted by: Greg at 12:15 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 207 words, total size 1 kb.

That is the current snapshot from Rasmussen.

Texas Governor Rick Perry and Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison find themselves essentially tied in an early look at their 2010 Primary battle.
The latest Rasmussen Reports statewide telephone survey shows Perry attracting 42% of the vote while Hutchison earns 38%. Seven percent (7%) say theyÂ’d like to vote for somebody else and 13% are undecided.
Perry leads by 15 percentage points among conservative voters but Hutchison leads by 35 points among the moderates.
Favorability ratings for the two candidates are virtually even among Likely Republican Primary Voters. Perry is viewed Very Favorably by 26% and Very Unfavorably by 9%. The comparable numbers for Hutchison are 27% and 10%.

My concern is that this means a really divisive primary. However, given Rick PerryÂ’s weakness in the last election, I donÂ’t see him as a strong candidate for governor. Hutchison, on the other hand, would be able to defeat practically any candidate that the Dems put up against her next fall. That is why, in the end, I am backing her in this race.

Posted by: Greg at 12:04 PM | Comments (19) | Add Comment
Post contains 193 words, total size 1 kb.

One has to wonder, given his plan to cut the benefits paid to the families of dead police officers by nearly 50%.

The Obama administration wants to cut almost in half a benefits program for the families of slain police and safety officers.
The president's proposed budget calls for cutting the Public Safety Officers' Death Benefits Program from $110 million to $60 million.
Justice Department budget documents say the reduction is being made because "claims are anticipated to decrease" because the number of officers killed in the line of duty has been decreasing.

One problem – that rationale is a lie. The rate of officers killed in the line of duty has been increasing, and is up some 20%. So tell me again why you want to cut the money set aside for dead cops and their families. I’m cure my brother the police officer would like to know as well, as would his wife and kids.

Posted by: Greg at 12:00 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 165 words, total size 1 kb.

I hate to say it, but I am not feeling a whole lot of sympathy for folks in this situation.

Though more than 4,000 Louisiana homeowners have received rebuilding money only in the last six months, or are struggling with inadequate grants or no money at all, FEMA is intent on taking away their trailers by the end of May. The deadline, which ends temporary housing before permanent housing has replaced it, has become a stark example of recovery programs that seem almost to be working against one another.
Thousands of rental units have yet to be restored, and not a single one of 500 planned “Katrina cottages” has been completed and occupied. The Road Home program for single-family homeowners, which has cost federal taxpayers $7.9 billion, has a new contractor who is struggling to review a host of appeals, and workers who assist the homeless are finding more elderly people squatting in abandoned buildings.
Nonetheless, FEMA wants its trailers back, even though it plans to scrap or sell them for a fraction of what it paid for them.
“All I can say is that this is a temporary program, it was always intended as a temporary program, and at a certain point all temporary programs must end,” said Brent Colburn, the agency’s director of external affairs. He said there would be no extensions.

It has been 3 ½ years since Hurricane Katrina. Huge amounts of government assistance has been poured into the region impacted. Survivors of other disasters, like those of us who went through Hurricane Ike last fall, have received nothing near the level of assistance that was given to folks in New Orleans. Indeed, except for a few elderly and seriouslydisabled folks in my town, there is not a FEMA trailer to be seen despite a 12 foot storm surge. I was told flat-out that my wife and I didn’t qualify for a trailer or rental assistance because we had insurance to repair our house, even though it did not cover temporary housing for the seven months we were out of our home. We were expected to make due with our own resources, even in the immediate aftermath of the storm. I therefore cannot feel outraged that “temporary assistance” is ending for people who were impacted by a storm well over three years ago – and wonder why the New York Times doesn’t wander down here to Texas and investigate the relative lack of assistance that those of us in the Houston/Galveston area have received.

Posted by: Greg at 11:56 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 428 words, total size 3 kb.

Now tell me – why was it necessary to plow taxpayer money into a company that is going to to move jobs from America to other countries to be profitable?

According to an outline the company has been sharing privately with Washington legislators, the number of cars that GM sells in the United States and builds in Mexico, China and South Korea will roughly double.
The proportion of GM cars sold domestically and manufactured in those low-wage countries will rise from 15 percent to 23 percent over the next five years, according to the figures contained in a 12-page presentation offered to lawmakers in response to their questions about overseas production.
As a result, the long-simmering argument over U.S. manufacturers expanding production overseas -- normally arising between unions and private companies -- is about to engage the Obama administration.

Remember – GM is now Obama Motors after the bailout. Will Barry Hussein allow those good jobs with good wages and benefits go to foreigners in foreign countries? Or will he insist that the company that he has poured taxpayer money into keep employing American taxpayers?

Posted by: Greg at 11:46 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 199 words, total size 1 kb.

One more bit of proof that the Democrats are disingenuous on what they now call torture.

ABC News’ Rick Klein reports: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was briefed on the use of “enhanced interrogation techniques” on terrorist suspect Abu Zubaydah in September 2002, according to a report prepared by the Director of National Intelligence’s office and obtained by ABC News.

The report, submitted to the Senate Intelligence Committee and other Capitol Hill officials Wednesday, appears to contradict PelosiÂ’s statement last month that she was never told about the use of waterboarding or other special interrogation tactics. Instead, she has said, she was told only that the Bush administration had legal opinions that would have supported the use of such techniques.

The report details a Sept. 4, 2002 meeting between intelligence officials and Pelosi, then-House intelligence committee chairman Porter Goss, and two aides. At the time, Pelosi was the top Democrat on the House intelligence committee.

The meeting is described as a “Briefing on EITs including use of EITs on Abu Zubaydah, background on authorities, and a description of particular EITs that had been employed.”

EITs stand for “enhanced interrogation techniques,” a classification of special interrogation tactics that includes waterboarding.

What does this all mean? It means that Pelosi and other leading Democrats knew about waterboarding and other means used to extract usable intelligence from jihadis. It means that they either approved those techniques or that they lacked the courage to speak out about them at the time. And it means that we have seen a sustained campaign of falsehood from the Democrats about the issue.

Time to cue the Donkey Party theme song!

Posted by: Greg at 08:21 AM | Comments (26) | Add Comment
Post contains 290 words, total size 3 kb.

He has released a statement on the matter.

"After careful consideration and many conversations with friends and family and the leadership of my party, I have decided not to seek the Republican nomination for Senate," Ridge said in a statement, adding later, "The 2010 race has significant implications for my party, and that required thoughtful reflection. All of the above made my decision a difficult and deeply personal conclusion to reach. ... To those who believe that the Republican Party is facing challenges; they are right. To those who believe the Democratic Party is without its own difficulties, they are wrong. No one party has a monopoly on all of the answers. ... And so my desire and intention is to help my party craft solutions that both sides of the aisle can embrace."

Not surprising, given that Ridge currently claims Maryland as his home state. Despite his strong Pennsylvania roots, that could have been used against him in both the primary and the general election.

I see this as an unhappy outcome for the GOP. I donÂ’t see Pat Toomey as being able to beat Specter in the general election. Is there another strong Republican who can both win the nomination and the general election?

Posted by: Greg at 01:49 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 220 words, total size 1 kb.

Now that Elizabeth Edwards has gone public on John’s affair and said plenty of nasty things about “the other woman”. Probable baby-mama Rielle Hunter is going to demand a paternity test and presumably seek child support.

The ex-senator's former lover - furious at being portrayed as a stalker in his wife's media tour - reportedly is taking revenge and will allow a paternity test for her baby after all.
Rielle Hunter previously refused to allow DNA testing on baby Frances, born in February 2008. Edwards, even after the admitted affair, insisted he wasn't the father.
Her friends said then she hoped they still had a future together and hoped to protect the philandering pol from further ruin.
But on the eve of Elizabeth Edwards' appearance on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" today to plug her new book, the National Enquirer reports that Hunter has changed her mind.
"Now she can see there's never going to be a future with John, and she feels he's lied about his promise to keep Elizabeth from trashing her in the book," an "insider" told the mag.

Well, Elizabeth did say that she didn’t know if John was the baby-daddy – this should settle the matter definitively. Perhaps it all has something to do with the fact that Rielle Hunter now realizes that Elizabeth isn’t going to die any time soon – and John Edwards isn’t coming back to her when she eventually does.

Posted by: Greg at 01:44 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 248 words, total size 2 kb.

Why simply run away?

Pirates have fired small arms weapons at a U.S. Navy supply ship off the coast of Eastern Somalia, the first attack of this kind since last year's surge in pirate attacks, the U.S. Navy said on Thursday.
The USNS Lewis and Clark was chased for about an hour on Wednesday morning by two pirates skiffs, but neither came closer than about one nautical mile to the U.S. vessel, the U.S. Navy's Fifth Fleet said in a statement.
The small arms fire fell well short of the U.S. ship which speeded up to evade the skiffs.

If these pirates really want to screw with the US Navy, why not let the US Navy screw back? After all, what needs to happen is for the pirates to fear the consequences of piracy more than they desire the profits – and death at the hands of their would-be prey would be a good start towards deterring piracy.

Posted by: Greg at 01:39 PM | Comments (34) | Add Comment
Post contains 166 words, total size 1 kb.

I simply cannot believe that Senator Lindsey Graham actually said this.

“My hope is that our Democratic colleagues — if you start listening to the bloggers — if we’re going to let the bloggers run the country, then the country’s best days are behind us.”

Excuse me, Senator? Is it really your position that government officials should not listen to the voices of the people as expressed in public forums? Do you really believe that such voices are irrelevant, and that listening to citizens like me is a danger to our nationÂ’s greatness? Could it be that the time has come for you to go, so that we can have leaders who actually give a damn what the people have to say?

Posted by: Greg at 01:35 PM | Comments (22) | Add Comment
Post contains 134 words, total size 1 kb.

This, my friends, is troubling – and not because of the fact that it honoring the faith of those responsible for 9/11, but because it is setting aside a day to honor any faith.

Hawaii’s state Senate overwhelmingly approved a bill Wednesday to celebrate “Islam Day” _ over the objections of a few lawmakers who said they didn’t want to honor a religion connected to Sept. 11, 2001.
Â…The resolution to proclaim Sept. 24, 2009, as Islam Day passed the Senate on a 22-3 vote. It had previously passed the House.
The bill seeks to recognize “the rich religious, scientific, cultural and artistic contributions” that Islam and the Islamic world have made.

Now hold on – will there be a Judaism Day? How about a Christianity Day? Buddhism Day? Scientology Day? Jedi Knight Day (hey – the British recognize Jedi Knights as a religion for census purposes)? And where are the usual crew of secularists raising a red flag over this state recognition of religion?

Posted by: Greg at 01:31 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 169 words, total size 1 kb.

We have many laws regulating the ownership and use of firearms. Why not enforce them rather than make new ones?

Amid a wave of publicity about drug-related gun violence along the Mexican border and police killings in U.S. cities, more Americans than ever oppose new government efforts to regulate guns.
Recent polls show shrinking support for new gun control measures and strong public sentiment for enforcing existing laws instead. So strong is the shift in public opinion that a proposed assault-weapons ban — once backed by three in four Americans — now rates barely one in two.
Frank Newport, editor in chief of the Gallup Poll, told reporters Tuesday that “every bit of data is showing us that Americans are getting more conservative about gun control.”

But is it really a question of being more conservative? Or is it simply a question of recognizing that more laws are not the solution to the illegal sale and use of guns when we already have many that go unenforced?

Posted by: Greg at 09:55 AM | Comments (10) | Add Comment
Post contains 177 words, total size 1 kb.

Hate crime protection will be guaranteed for pedophiles – but attacks on current and former members of the armed forces because of their military service has been denied by Democrats.

During a House Judiciary Committee meeting, Congressman Steve King (R-IA) offered up an amendment to the hate crimes bill to exclude pedophiles from being a protected category under the hate crimes legislation.
Every single Democrat voted it down.

In the same meeting, Congressman Tom Rooney (R-FL) offered an amendment to include veterans as a class protected under the hate crimes bill. Not only did the Democrats vote it down, but Cogresswoman Debbie Waasserman Schultz attacked the Republicans for even thinking veterans might need protection under hate crimes legislation.

Why vote down an amendment excluding pedophiles from protection? Even if one accepts the argument that they were not intended to be covered by the statute, why not make the exclusion explicit?

And as for our veterans, weÂ’ve seen hate-inspired assaults on them for at least four decades, dating back to the Vietnam War. If veteran status is a basis for protection under other civil rights statutes, why not this one? Could it be that we have seen the majority in Congress demonstrate that, like Bill Clinton in the 1960s, it loathes the military?

Of course, I oppose hate crime laws -- and I therefore oppose the entire bill currently under consideration. But if we are to have such laws, why would we protect those who prey on vulnerable children, but not the patriots who defend our nation from its enemies?

Posted by: Greg at 09:54 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 269 words, total size 2 kb.

Arlen Specter goes from first to last in seniority on the Judiciary Committee.

The Senate dealt a blow tonight to Sen. Arlen Specter's hold on seniority in several key committees, a week after the Pennsylvanian's party switch placed Democrats on the precipice of a 60-seat majority.

In a unanimous voice vote, the Senate approved a resolution that added Specter to the Democratic side of the dais on the five committees on which he serves, an expected move that gives Democrats larger margins on key panels such as Judiciary and Appropriations.

But Democrats placed Specter in one of the two most junior slots on each of the five committees for the remainder of this Congress, which goes through December 2010. Democrats have suggested that they will consider revisiting Specter's seniority claim at the committee level only after the midterm elections next year.

Looks like Specter has hurt his home state of Pennsylvania by surrendering seniority for personal political advantage. We already know that he wasn’t interested in principle – now we see that he also doesn’t care about the best interests of his constituents. You see, it is really all about the best interests of Arlen!

Posted by: Greg at 09:52 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 197 words, total size 1 kb.

Some folks need their games to be very much like real life for them to be thrilling and enjoyable. This leads many of them to choose World of Warcraft as their gaming option. But to play, you need to buy wow game time, usually from an online source of some sort. One such account retailer for WoW accounts, products and services, is found at www.buyMMOaccounts.com. You can buy world of warcraft game time there.

Why get your stuff through www.buymmoaccounts.com? Easy – with them you know that you will get your World of Warcraft game cards and Keys in a timely manner, not like some of the resellers who take forever to get you their wares. And given that they provide support 7 days a week, you know that you will always be able to get in touch with them at 866-519-1188.

Posted by: Greg at 09:50 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 148 words, total size 1 kb.

I never thought I would be as ashamed of my country as I am at this moment. This is positively disgraceful.

Bibles in Afghan languages sent to a U.S. soldier at a base in Afghanistan were confiscated and destroyed to ensure that troops did not breach regulations which forbid proselytizing, a military spokeswoman said.

* * *

Military officials have said the bibles were sent through private mail to an evangelical Christian soldier by his church back home. The soldier brought them to the bible study class where they were filmed.

Confiscated and destroyed? Why not simply returned to the sender? Why resort to book burning in order to suppress the free exercise of religion on the part of both American soldiers and the citizens of Afghanistan?

There’s another country that destroys contraband Bibles in order to protect Islam by guaranteeing that Muslims do not hear the Gospel and are therefore not tempted to exercise their human right to freely change their religion. That country is Saudi Arabia – I wrote about that a couple of years ago.

I’m curious – will there be riots in the streets over this? Will there be an investigation of who gave the order, and apologies to offended Christians like happened when it was falsely reported that a Koran may have been desecrated at Gitmo? Or since Christians don't riot or issue fatwas, willthe US government simply ignore the offense given? And will the liberals who expressed outrage that soldiers might share the Gospel with Muslims express their revulsion at this act of official desecration of Christian religious texts by the US government?

I wonder -- in the next report of countries that suppress the religious liberty of their people, will the US State Department now include the United States as an offender rather than a champion of religious liberty?

Posted by: Greg at 09:47 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
Post contains 328 words, total size 2 kb.

1 hi all body , purchasing pamelor, 26538, zidovudine, vfuyk, Epivir, 6602, Cefaclor, %DD,

Posted by: Feldene at Mon Oct 5 08:55:06 2009 (Y+1uB)

2 hi gays , weekly weight loss, 84306, herbs for weight loss, yxuhw, antidepressant weight loss, ), high fiber weight loss, pbc,

Posted by: workout for weight loss at Mon Oct 12 19:08:13 2009 (NYD1G)

Hide Comments | Add Comment

Are you the sort of person interested in a career in computers? More to the point, are you interested in the nitty gritty details of operating systems? Then you need to think seriously about getting into the IT field, with trining from the K .ALLIANCE.

What is in K.ALLIANCE? Well, they are a firm that offere many type of IT Training, including different Certification Tracks, Desktop Applications,and many others. In fact, they even provide you with Online Mentoring as a part of their program. Sound interesting to you? If so, then all you have to do is to drop by their site and look at their free demonstration videos?

Are you interested in Windows 2008 online training? Well, K. ALLIANCE can help you with get up to speed on that! A quick visit to their site shows you that they offer a great deal of training in this area, and that you can get started on it immediately with their windows 2008 training cd. What more can you ask for?
Are you interested now? Then what are you waiting for? Just call them at 1-800-330-9111 and ask them the details about their program! Their customer service representatives are standing by to answer your calls from Mondays through Fridays from 9:00 - 6:00 EST!

Posted by: Greg at 09:42 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 217 words, total size 1 kb.

I’ve noted, in recent years, a certain tendency among left-wingers. When confronted with a woman offering a conservative view, the tendency is to refuse to address the argument. Instead, there is a concerted effort to denigrate that conservative woman as a woman – by sexually degrading her.

Such is the case with the current Miss California.

Miss California Carrie Prejean says a website has posted racy photos of her in an attempt to belittle her Christianity.
"Recently, photos taken of me as a teenager have been released surreptitiously to a tabloid website that openly mocks me for my Christian faith," Prejean said yesterday in a statement.
A photo of Prejean wearing only pink panties with her back turned to the camera appeared Monday on a gossip blog.
In explaining the photos, Prejean said, "I am a Christian, and I am a model. Models pose for pictures, including lingerie and swimwear photos."

Add to that the issue that was made over her breast implants and it is pretty clear what the lefties who support gay marriage want us to believe – Carrie Prejean is a whore, and therefore her words should be disregarded and her position is discredited. In other words, rather than engage in a well-reasoned attack on her position on gay marriage, they choose to instead engage in an ad hominem attack on her person. And in this case with photos that I don’t see as particularly scandalous.

Now I might let this go without comment, were it not that this is a part of the pattern of attacks on conservative women that has to do with their gender and sexuality.

Consider, for example, the sort of crap unleashed against Michelle Malkin – fake photos and comments about her alleged sexual antics

Then there were the disgusting sex-based attacks on Senator Fred ThompsonÂ’s wife, Jeri.

And donÂ’t forget the fake Sarah Palin photos that were somehow supposed to discredit her candidacy for vice president last fall.

So I guess the question that has to be asked is this – why do leftists hate women so much that they attack them on the crudest of sexual levels rather than engage them on the battle of ideas? Could it be that, despite their constant claims to worship at the altar of female empowerment and liberated sexuality, that too many folks on the Left are simply misogynistic patriarchs who insist that women keep to their proper place -- which is silent and in the background unless they are mouthing liberal political philosophy.

UPDATE: By interesting coincidence, Joshuapundit just posted a wonderful quote from one of the twentieth century's greatest conservative women.

"I always cheer up immensely if an attack is particularly wounding because I think, well, if they attack one personally, it means they have not a single political argument left."

- Margaret Thatcher

Indeed -- hence this move to sexually belittle conservative women by the intellectually bankrupt American Left.

Posted by: Greg at 09:40 AM | Comments (14) | Add Comment
Post contains 498 words, total size 4 kb.

Many folks out there are carrying around a lot of debt, but they find that making all those separate payments for credit cards and payday loans can really become a hassle. They need help to get out of their debt mess by using a company like DebtConsolidator.net, which you can reach at 877-550-0595.

That is why various debt solutions are worth considering. Sure, you can get a loan, but there are also professionals who can provide you with various strategies consolidation programs can help you preserve your credit rating while getting out of debt much more quickly.

What are these options? There is always the standard debt consolidation loan. But you can also negotiate new repayment terms with your creditors. You can often do this yourself, or you might seek professional help with debt negotiation.

Then there are debt settlement options. Since you really can’t do these yourself due to the technical details involved, you almost certainly need professional help. The companies that negotiate such settlements for you can are the ones that you hear about that can reduce what you owe to “pennies on the dollar” – cutting your amount owed by half or more. You might take a credit rating hit, but not as bad as having a bankruptcy on your record.

Posted by: Greg at 09:29 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 226 words, total size 2 kb.

I've been remiss in posting these, due in large part to the process of returning to the house. So with sincerest apologies, here are some belated announcements of Watcher's Council results honoring some fine blog posts from around the internet

APRIL 17, 2009

Winning Council Submissions

• First place with 2 points! - Joshuapundit - A Few Inconvenient Truths About Israel And ‘SettlementsÂ’
• Second place with 1 2/3 points - The Razor - What is a Man?


• Third place with 1 1/3 points - (T*) - Bookworm Room - Separation does not mean destruction
• Third place with 1 1/3 points - (T*) - The Glittering Eye - Majority of Those Who Pay No Income Taxes Believe the Tax System is Fair


• Fourth place with 2/3 points - (T*) - Right Truth - Radical Leftist Appointments
• Fourth place with 2/3 points - (T*) - The Provocateur - Krugman, the Tea Parties, and AlinskyÂ’s Rule #13


• Fifth place with 1/3 point - Rhymes With Right - Lege Considering Campus Carry Bill, Chron Says “No”

Winning Non-Council Submissions

• First place with 2 points! - Macs Mind - About that Obama Iraq Visit


• Second place with 1 1/3 points - Information Dissemination - Observing the Obama Administration Somali Piracy Policy
• Third place with 1 points - (T*) - Dr. Melissa Clouthier - Tea Parties And Liberal Angst


• Third place with 1 points - (T*) - Shrinkwrapped - On demographics And Meaning, Part IV
• Third place with 1 points - (T*) - Jerusalem Post - Caroline Glick - Surviving in a post-American world


• Third place with 1 points - (T*) - Mark Steyn - Our Reprimitivized Future
• Fourth place with 2/3 points - Gay Patriot - Anti-Tea Party Hysteria: Opposition to Big Government DoesnÂ’t Meet Netroots Standard for Acceptable Political Grievances


• Fifth place with 1/3 point - (T*) - The Times Online - From Fatwa to Jihad: The Rushdie Affair and Its Legacy by Kenan Malik
• Fifth place with 1/3 point - (T*) - American Thinker - DHS, ‘Rightwing ExtremismÂ’ and Information Warfare

APRIL 24, 2009

Winning Council Submissions

• First place with 1 2/3 points! - Joshuapundit - The Real Holocaust Denial


• Second place with 1 1/3 points - (T*) - The Glittering Eye - For the Want of a Horseshoe Nail
• Second place with 1 1/3 points - (T*) - Soccer Dad - Preoccupied with occupation


• Second place with 1 1/3 points - (T*) - Wolf Howling - Throwing Green Fuel On An Economic Fire
• Third place with 2/3 points - (T*) - The Razor - Obama Administration Sucking Moonbats Out of Private Sector


• Third place with 2/3 points - (T*) - Bookworm Room - Honing our arguments
• Fourth place with 1/3 points - Right Truth - Witch Hunts (and you are the witch)

Winning Non-Council Submissions

• First place with 3 points! - Doug Ross@Journal - Let Them Eat Dirt
• Second place with 1 1/3 points - Elder of Ziyon - More of those “civilians” killed in Gaza (UPDATED)


• Third place with 1 point - (T*) - American Daughter - The Intimidation Begins
• Third place with 1 point - (T*) - AIFD - Obama Administration Stacking the Deck with Islamists


• Fourth place with 2/3 points - Rortybomb - Ban Mortgage Prepayment Penalties at the Federal Level, 1: Texas
• Fifth place with 1/3 point - (T*) - Portfolio - Confessions of a TARP CEOÂ’s Wife


• Fifth place with 1/3 point - (T*) - The Journal of the American Enterprise Institute - The Coming of the Fourth American Republic
• Fifth place with 1/3 point - (T*) - Britannica Blog - Shock peace therapy for the mideast

MAY 1, 2009

Winning Council Submissions

• First place with 2 1/3 points! - Wolf Howling - Words Have Meaning Rick


• Second place with 1 2/3 points - Soccer Dad - ItÂ’s easy being green. Not.
• Third place with 1 point - (T*) Right Truth - The next 1,360 days


• Third place with 1 point - (T*) The Razor - Why An Alcoholic Supports the Legalization of Illicit Drugs
• Third place with 1 point - (T*) The Colossus of Rhodey - Did the NY Times bury an “inconvenient” torture memo story? And a torture question Â…


• Fourth place with 2/3 point - (T*) - Bookworm Room - Torture, Real and Imagined
• Fourth place with 2/3 point - (T*) - The Provocateur - Is Commercial Real Estate Next?

Winning Non-Council Submissions

• First place with 2 2/3 points! - Legal Insurrection - Which city would you sacrifice?
• Second place with 2 1/3 points - Michael Sheurer @ WaPo - Say Its Osama. What If He WonÂ’t Talk?


• Third place with 1 point - The Washington Times - BarackÂ’s in the basement
• Fourth place with 2/3 point - (T*) - Right Wing Nut House - The Moral Parameters of Torture


• Fourth place with 2/3 point - (T*) - Cheat Seeking Missiles - John And Teresa And Conflict
• Fifth place with 1/3 point - (T*) - The New Republic - Regift, Please!


• Fifth place with 1/3 point - (T*) - The New Ledger - What Will the Stress Tests Mean

Congratulations all around to the many fine bloggers honored here.

Posted by: Greg at 09:24 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 862 words, total size 15 kb.

Over the summer, my wife and I went on a little vacation to visit my folks. In advance of the trip, we made a decision as to how much money we wanted to have available to us for purchases during the trip. But I'll be honest -- we didn't want to carry cash, and were not particularly interested in purchasing traveler's checks. How, then were we going to access the funds we had set aside for the trip? Easy -- we got ourselves a couple of Prepaid Visa cards! It turned out to be one of those decisions that was exactly right for us.

That got me thinking -- wouldn't that be a great way to approach the entire issue of credit cards? Simply fill up a card and spend it as needed -- while keeping track of the current balance. The Vision Premier Prepaid Visa® Card is one of the available options out there for doing this. Simply load -- or reload -- the card with the appropriate amount of cash for the purpose at hand and operate on that budget. It would be a great way of dealing with lunch budgets at work, grocery shopping, and many othe rpurposes. Heck, you could even use it to give your children their allowance, sinc eyou cannot overspend! It is an option worth considering.

Posted by: Greg at 09:10 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 227 words, total size 1 kb.

Joe the Plumber should have disappeared by now – fifteen minutes of fame and all that. After all, the attack upon him after he engaged in some pretty reasonable speech when he was approached by Barack Obama made him, one would have hoped temporarily, a political figure. But why is he still around – and why do we care what he thinks on social issues?

In the last month, same-sex marriage has become legal in Iowa and Vermont. What do you think about same-sex marriage at a state level?
At a state level, it’s up to them. I don’t want it to be a federal thing. I personally still think it’s wrong. People don’t understand the dictionary—it’s called queer. Queer means strange and unusual. It’s not like a slur, like you would call a white person a honky or something like that. You know, God is pretty explicit in what we’re supposed to do—what man and woman are for. Now, at the same time, we’re supposed to love everybody and accept people, and preach against the sins. I’ve had some friends that are actually homosexual. And, I mean, they know where I stand, and they know that I wouldn’t have them anywhere near my children. But at the same time, they’re people, and they’re going to do their thing.

I won’t even begin to get into the level of ignorance displayed in that answer. There are good arguments to be made against gay marriage, but he puts out none of them. And to then resort to the slur – and to justify it as not being a slur – is offensive to me and to most Christians I know.

But what especially hurts is to see the argument that he has gay friends, and that he will not allow them near his children. First, it is completely wrong-headed to say that he is loving towards gay people while asserting that this is the correct path. But even more significant, I have seen how destructive that approach is in my own family, where one relative has rejected her own sister over her sexual orientation and attempted to ensure that her children have no relationship with their aunt and her partner – all in the name of Christianity. I have a number of terms I could use for that, and none of them is “love” or one of its synonyms.

But beyond that, there is even another issue. Is this guy someone we want to have as a face of the GOP? Do we want him defining our “brand”? And I ask that as a conservative who is a Christian – but who definitely is not a “Christian conservative” in the sense that term is so often used to discredit the Christians, conservatives, and the GOP.

Posted by: Greg at 12:46 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 470 words, total size 3 kb.

Joe the Plumber should have disappeared by now – fifteen minutes of fame and all that. After all, the attack upon him after he engaged in some pretty reasonable speech when he was approached by Barack Obama made him, one would have hoped temporarily, a political figure. But why is he still around – and why do we care what he thinks on social issues?

In the last month, same-sex marriage has become legal in Iowa and Vermont. What do you think about same-sex marriage at a state level?
At a state level, it’s up to them. I don’t want it to be a federal thing. I personally still think it’s wrong. People don’t understand the dictionary—it’s called queer. Queer means strange and unusual. It’s not like a slur, like you would call a white person a honky or something like that. You know, God is pretty explicit in what we’re supposed to do—what man and woman are for. Now, at the same time, we’re supposed to love everybody and accept people, and preach against the sins. I’ve had some friends that are actually homosexual. And, I mean, they know where I stand, and they know that I wouldn’t have them anywhere near my children. But at the same time, they’re people, and they’re going to do their thing.

I won’t even begin to get into the level of ignorance displayed in that answer. There are good arguments to be made against gay marriage, but he puts out none of them. And to then resort to the slur – and to justify it as not being a slur – is offensive to me and to most Christians I know.

But what especially hurts is to see the argument that he has gay friends, and that he will not allow them near his children. First, it is completely wrong-headed to say that he is loving towards gay people while asserting that this is the correct path. But even more significant, I have seen how destructive that approach is in my own family, where one relative has rejected her own sister over her sexual orientation and attempted to ensure that her children have no relationship with their aunt and her partner – all in the name of Christianity. I have a number of terms I could use for that, and none of them is “love” or one of its synonyms.

But beyond that, there is even another issue. Is this guy someone we want to have as a face of the GOP? Do we want him defining our “brand”? And I ask that as a conservative who is a Christian – but who definitely is not a “Christian conservative” in the sense that term is so often used to discredit the Christians, conservatives, and the GOP.

Posted by: Greg at 12:46 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 470 words, total size 3 kb.

Joe the Plumber should have disappeared by now – fifteen minutes of fame and all that. After all, the attack upon him after he engaged in some pretty reasonable speech when he was approached by Barack Obama made him, one would have hoped temporarily, a political figure. But why is he still around – and why do we care what he thinks on social issues?

In the last month, same-sex marriage has become legal in Iowa and Vermont. What do you think about same-sex marriage at a state level?
At a state level, it’s up to them. I don’t want it to be a federal thing. I personally still think it’s wrong. People don’t understand the dictionary—it’s called queer. Queer means strange and unusual. It’s not like a slur, like you would call a white person a honky or something like that. You know, God is pretty explicit in what we’re supposed to do—what man and woman are for. Now, at the same time, we’re supposed to love everybody and accept people, and preach against the sins. I’ve had some friends that are actually homosexual. And, I mean, they know where I stand, and they know that I wouldn’t have them anywhere near my children. But at the same time, they’re people, and they’re going to do their thing.

I won’t even begin to get into the level of ignorance displayed in that answer. There are good arguments to be made against gay marriage, but he puts out none of them. And to then resort to the slur – and to justify it as not being a slur – is offensive to me and to most Christians I know.

But what especially hurts is to see the argument that he has gay friends, and that he will not allow them near his children. First, it is completely wrong-headed to say that he is loving towards gay people while asserting that this is the correct path. But even more significant, I have seen how destructive that approach is in my own family, where one relative has rejected her own sister over her sexual orientation and attempted to ensure that her children have no relationship with their aunt and her partner – all in the name of Christianity. I have a number of terms I could use for that, and none of them is “love” or one of its synonyms.

But beyond that, there is even another issue. Is this guy someone we want to have as a face of the GOP? Do we want him defining our “brand”? And I ask that as a conservative who is a Christian – but who definitely is not a “Christian conservative” in the sense that term is so often used to discredit the Christians, conservatives, and the GOP.

Posted by: Greg at 12:46 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 470 words, total size 3 kb.

Joe the Plumber should have disappeared by now – fifteen minutes of fame and all that. After all, the attack upon him after he engaged in some pretty reasonable speech when he was approached by Barack Obama made him, one would have hoped temporarily, a political figure. But why is he still around – and why do we care what he thinks on social issues?

In the last month, same-sex marriage has become legal in Iowa and Vermont. What do you think about same-sex marriage at a state level?
At a state level, it’s up to them. I don’t want it to be a federal thing. I personally still think it’s wrong. People don’t understand the dictionary—it’s called queer. Queer means strange and unusual. It’s not like a slur, like you would call a white person a honky or something like that. You know, God is pretty explicit in what we’re supposed to do—what man and woman are for. Now, at the same time, we’re supposed to love everybody and accept people, and preach against the sins. I’ve had some friends that are actually homosexual. And, I mean, they know where I stand, and they know that I wouldn’t have them anywhere near my children. But at the same time, they’re people, and they’re going to do their thing.

I won’t even begin to get into the level of ignorance displayed in that answer. There are good arguments to be made against gay marriage, but he puts out none of them. And to then resort to the slur – and to justify it as not being a slur – is offensive to me and to most Christians I know.

But what especially hurts is to see the argument that he has gay friends, and that he will not allow them near his children. First, it is completely wrong-headed to say that he is loving towards gay people while asserting that this is the correct path. But even more significant, I have seen how destructive that approach is in my own family, where one relative has rejected her own sister over her sexual orientation and attempted to ensure that her children have no relationship with their aunt and her partner – all in the name of Christianity. I have a number of terms I could use for that, and none of them is “love” or one of its synonyms.

But beyond that, there is even another issue. Is this guy someone we want to have as a face of the GOP? Do we want him defining our “brand”? And I ask that as a conservative who is a Christian – but who definitely is not a “Christian conservative” in the sense that term is so often used to discredit the Christians, conservatives, and the GOP.

Posted by: Greg at 12:46 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 470 words, total size 3 kb.