The last thing that the GOP needs in the race for the 2008 nomination is another candidate -- and especially not one who is as polarizing as Newt Gingrich.

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich will open a website by Monday in an effort to round up the $30 million in pledges that he says would be his ticket to entering the race for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination.

A longtime adviser, J. Randolph Evans of McKenna Long & Aldridge, will hold a press briefing at 3:30 p.m. Monday in Atlanta to describe plans for what Gingrich aides are calling a “feasibility assessment.”

Aides say Gingrich will announce his intentions by Oct. 21, ahead of a Michigan filing deadline.

During a recent breakfast with a Politico reporter and other journalists, Gingrich made it clear he has given a great deal of thought to how he would run, starting with a national television ad that would be heavy on his policy ideas.

That might be followed with DVDs of his agenda to households in early-voting states.

Gingrich vowed that he would not participate in group debates like those that now sprinkle the campaign calendar.

“I’m not a penguin,” he said, referring to the field of candidates at the debates as “a row of penguins.” Instead, he said, he wants to hold one-on-one, 90-minute “dialogues” on such topics as fixing specific inner cities.

“If I did run, I wouldn’t do any dog and pony shows,” he said. “I’d debate anybody who wanted to for 90 minutes — one-on-one, for 90 minutes, in either party.”

Let's ay it loud and clear -- Newt has all of Rudy's liabilities and none of his personal popularity with the American people. Indeed, his abrasiveness even turns off a lot of Republicans. So while he is clearly one of the leading minds of the conservative movement, Newt Gingrich is clearly not someone who should be in the race for the nomination this year.

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Dead terrorists are always a happy note on which to start the day.

A U.S. airstrike killed one of the most senior al-Qaida leaders in Iraq, a Tunisian linked to the kidnapping and killings last summer of American soldiers, a top commander said Friday.

Brig. Gen. Joseph Anderson said the death of the suspected terrorist in a U.S. airstrike Tuesday south of Baghdad, and recent similar operations against al-Qaida, have left the organization in Iraq fractured.

Abu Osama al-Tunisi was killed along with two other terrorist suspects in a U.S. F-16 strike that dropped two 500-pound laser-guided bombs on a safehouse where they were meeting, said the U.S. Central Command Air Forces.

"Al-Tunisi was one of the most senior leaders ... the emir of foreign terrorists in Iraq and part of the inner leadership circle," Anderson told a Pentagon news conference.

Al-Tunisi was a leader in helping bring foreign terrorists into the country, said Anderson, chief of staff to the No. 2 U.S. commander in Iraq, Lt. Gen. Ray Odierno.

Speaking by videoconference from Baghdad, Anderson said that al-Tunisi operated in Youssifiyah, southwest of Baghdad, November '04 and became the overall emir of Youssifiyah in the summer of '06.

His group was responsible for kidnapping American soldiers in June 2006, Anderson said.

And by now he knows that there were no virgins waiting for him -- and that the sands of Iraq are much cooler than his new eternal dwelling place.

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When it comes to the question of granting commutations and reprieves in death penalty cases, the governor of Texas has very limited authority. On his own authority, he can only stop an execution once, and for a maximum of 30 days. Anything else requires an affirmative recommendation from the Board of Pardons and Parole to be legal. This is both statutory and constitutional law in the state of Texas.

But at least one Texas legislator doesn't think that a little obstacle like a constitution should be grounds for Gov. Goodhair to allow executions to go forward while the US Supreme Court considers the constitutionality of lethal injection in a Kentucky case.

[Gov. Rick] Perry believes the fate of death row inmates lies with the courts, said spokeswoman Krista Moody.

"The governor does not have the authority to issue a moratorium nor does he believe there's a reason for one," she said.

Senate Criminal Justice Committee Chairman John Whitmire, D-Houston, said Perry should issue a moratorium because the Supreme Court likely will grant a stay in every Texas execution until the Kentucky case is decided.

Whitmire noted that Perry, until overturned by the Legislature, attempted to use his executive order power to require teenage girls to be vaccinated against a sexually transmitted disease.

"If he can tell a state agency to vaccinate people, I think he can tell a state agency not to execute people," Whitmire said.

Perry, of course, was legally wrong to issue his Gardasil order last spring, and and was slapped down by the Legislature as a result. That action was clearly seen as an overstepping of his authority. Doing so in this case would be an even more blatant case of exceeding his authority -- and would be grounds for impeachment. It is up to the courts to act -- and for the Texas justice system to continue to move forward if they do not.

Rick Perry is correct in not acting in this case. If a moratorium is truly necessary, he ought to call the legislature back into session to consider one -- and perhaps also legislation restoring either hanging or the firing squad as the form of execution in Texas, rendering moot the need for a moratorium at all.

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Given the level of obesity in this country, it is fair to say that a great many of us could use a little bit of professional advice on how to improve our diets. But it isn't just weight that is a problem -- cholesterol, diabetes, and blood pressure are all issues that can be regulated, in part, through thoughtful changes in diet. But where can we get the knowledge and assistance we need?

http://Nutrition.BitWine.com is an online service where you can get the advice of a real professional in the field of nutrition. Through actual online conversation with a nutritionist or dietitian, you can get all the information you need to become a healthier you. Check them out today!

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Over at Gates of Vienna, the Baron posted this interesting notice for college bloggers.

A representative of the Daniel Kovach Scholarship Foundation emailed us today, and asked us to spread the word that the Foundation is giving away $10,000 to a blogger this year. If youÂ’re a college student, a U.S. Resident, and you keep a blog, youÂ’re eligible.

Full scholarship details are available at the College Scholarships website.

This Second Annual Blogging Scholarship prize will be awarded at the Blog World and New Media Expo, to be held in Las Vegas on November 8th and 9th.

Important Dates:
Submission Deadline: Midnight PST on Oct. 6th
10 Finalists Announced and Public Voting Begins: 9am EST on Oct. 8th
Public Voting Ends and Winner Declared: Midnight PST on Oct. 28th

Contact Information:
Daniel Kovach
(919) 630-4895
daniel@collegescholarships.org

If only I were 25 years younger!

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When it comes to the question of granting commutations and reprieves in death penalty cases, the governor of Texas has very limited authority. On his own authority, he can only stop an execution once, and for a maximum of 30 days. Anything else requires an affirmative recommendation from the Board of Pardons and Parole to be legal. This is both statutory and constitutional law in the state of Texas.

But at least one Texas legislator doesn't think that a little obstacle like a constitution should be grounds for Gov. Goodhair to allow executions to go forward while the US Supreme Court considers the constitutionality of lethal injection in a Kentucky case.

[Gov. Rick] Perry believes the fate of death row inmates lies with the courts, said spokeswoman Krista Moody.

"The governor does not have the authority to issue a moratorium nor does he believe there's a reason for one," she said.

Senate Criminal Justice Committee Chairman John Whitmire, D-Houston, said Perry should issue a moratorium because the Supreme Court likely will grant a stay in every Texas execution until the Kentucky case is decided.

Whitmire noted that Perry, until overturned by the Legislature, attempted to use his executive order power to require teenage girls to be vaccinated against a sexually transmitted disease.

"If he can tell a state agency to vaccinate people, I think he can tell a state agency not to execute people," Whitmire said.

Perry, of course, was legally wrong to issue his Gardasil order last spring, and and was slapped down by the Legislature as a result. That action was clearly seen as an overstepping of his authority. Doing so in this case would be an even more blatant case of exceeding his authority -- and would be grounds for impeachment. It is up to the courts to act -- and for the Texas justice system to continue to move forward if they do not.

Rick Perry is correct in not acting in this case. If a moratorium is truly necessary, he ought to call the legislature back into session to consider one -- and perhaps also legislation restoring either hanging or the firing squad as the form of execution in Texas, rendering moot the need for a moratorium at all.

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I love Christmas time. So many traditions abound, including the decoration of the house and the tree. But let's be honest -- there can be a lot of money expended just to keep those Christmas lights burning through the holiday season -- and you can easily spend more on that than you do on air conditioning during a Texas summer.

But I recently found a neat product that I think has some real potential to make that holiday more environmentally friendly and energy efficient -- LED holiday lights. These special lights burn bright but do so in a sensible way – reducing the amount of energy used by about 80-90%, since they only burn about 4 watts of electricity for every string of lights. These lights have a long life, too – some 50,000 hours, which makes them last longer than any standard bulb I’ve ever encountered. Even more interesting is the fact that these LED Xmas lights burn at only a single degree over room temperature, minimizing the danger of fire in even the driest of real Christmas trees.

I’m also fascinated by the many different stiles of LED Christmas lights that are offered. You can get a round raspberry shape, a traditional strawberry shape, or a standard mini light. They even have a special design – pure white snowflake light! I suspect my darling wife would want some of those to go on the tree, given the lack of snow here in Houston.

Now I will acknowledge one thing – these lights will cost you more than regular Christmas lights. But given their beauty, their durability, and their energy efficiency, you can probably pay off the difference in as little as one holiday season, so they are most certainly worth it.

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Dead terrorists are always a happy note on which to start the day.

A U.S. airstrike killed one of the most senior al-Qaida leaders in Iraq, a Tunisian linked to the kidnapping and killings last summer of American soldiers, a top commander said Friday.

Brig. Gen. Joseph Anderson said the death of the suspected terrorist in a U.S. airstrike Tuesday south of Baghdad, and recent similar operations against al-Qaida, have left the organization in Iraq fractured.

Abu Osama al-Tunisi was killed along with two other terrorist suspects in a U.S. F-16 strike that dropped two 500-pound laser-guided bombs on a safehouse where they were meeting, said the U.S. Central Command Air Forces.

"Al-Tunisi was one of the most senior leaders ... the emir of foreign terrorists in Iraq and part of the inner leadership circle," Anderson told a Pentagon news conference.

Al-Tunisi was a leader in helping bring foreign terrorists into the country, said Anderson, chief of staff to the No. 2 U.S. commander in Iraq, Lt. Gen. Ray Odierno.

Speaking by videoconference from Baghdad, Anderson said that al-Tunisi operated in Youssifiyah, southwest of Baghdad, November '04 and became the overall emir of Youssifiyah in the summer of '06.

His group was responsible for kidnapping American soldiers in June 2006, Anderson said.

As so many enemies of America have found since the birth of our country, the United States military will keep after you until they find you. Your two options are surrender or death -- and in the case of the jihadis, I personally like the second option.

And by now he knows that there were no virgins waiting for him -- and that the sands of Iraq are much cooler than his new eternal dwelling place.

Posted by: Greg at 08:10 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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The winning entries in the Watcher's Council vote for this week are Cosmic Ironies by Bookworm Room, and Rafael Medoff: Columbia "Invites Hitler to Campus" -- As it Did in 1933 by History News Network.  Here are the full results of the vote:

Posted by: Greg at 07:42 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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If you've noticed, this is not a big gossip blog. However, I do from time to time get into the celebrity gossip mode when it is significantly newsworthy. For example, in recent months we have seen both Brittney and Paris show up here as objects of my ridicule. For that matter, one might even consider some of my political blogging to be gossip. And I do keep myself semi-anonymous so that I can comment freely on such issues. One thing I don't do is gossip about work here, because that would probably mean engaging in some very unprofessional behavior, literally "talking out of school" about my students and colleagues. That is a boundary I will not cross.

Speaking of my students, a number of them have been really excited by Gossip Girl on The CW. Since they are all into MySpace and FaceBook, they are fascinated with the notion that one anonymous individual could spread all the latest dirt online in complete anonymity. They say they’d like to out the Gossip Girl – and at least one indicates that she might come to an unpleasant end for “bein’ all up in everybody’s bidness.” Makes me wonder how long a real-life Gossip Girl would make it at my school.

Will the Gossip Girl be outed? Will it make a difference? That is something that we will have to see in future episodes!

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You would think she would comment -- after all, the event is taking place in her district.

Instead, she chose to avoid answering the question.

CNSNews.com:"I'd like to get local for a second and talk about what's going on in San Francisco. Your spokesman told the Bay Area Reporter that the Folsom Street Fair advertisement mocking the last supper would not harm Christianity. I'm wondering if you find the advertisement personally offensive."

"And as a follow up, the city's Grants for the Arts program, funded by the city's hotel tax, subsidizes the fair. Do you think that it's fair to tax everyone who visits San Francisco and stays in a hotel to support the fair?"

Pelosi: "Well that's not really a local question. That's a constitutional question. That's a religious question. That's as big a global question as you can ask. I'm a big believer in First Amendment and therefore, as I said in my statement, I do not believe that Christianity has been harmed by the Folsom Street Fair advertising."

Notice what she avoids answering.

1) Are you offended by the poster?

2) Should tax dollars subsidize the event and the poster?

I guess Pelosi realizes that the gay bondage crowd is more likely to vote for her than Christians are -- but that she and her party need to court Christians and capture some of their votes to win in 2008.

But the obvious answers are:

1) No, I'm not offended by the mocking of Christianity and a sacred event in the life of Christ. Gay sado-masochism is a beautiful thing between two leather clad consenting adults.

2) Yes, taxpayers, especially Christian taxpayers, should have to subsidize everything that offends them and insults them, because they vote for Republicans. On the other hand, gay sado-masochists are a key part of the Democrat coalition of the victimized, and so they are entitled to everything they can get from the government.

Thank you, Madam Speaker, for highlighting the Democrat family values.

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But even as the percentage of the federal spending sits at about half of what it was 50 years ago, some want to cut it even further.

For Ben Cohen, the politically active half of Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream, life's not all about ice cream anymore. Since he and Jerry Greenfield sold their Burlington, Vt., company in 2000 to Unilever, the politically conscious cofounder Cohen has turned his attention entirely to making Americans more aware of what percentage of their tax dollars goes toward funding the Pentagon's budget. His latest efforts include hitting up the early primary states and finding Democratic caucus attendees who will pledge to only vote for a candidate who promises to slice the defense budget and put that money toward social needs programs.

* * *

From what I understand, you're trying to persuade the presidential candidates to commit part of the federal budget away from the Pentagon. How are you doing this?

About two years ago we started a grassroots campaign working with "Iowans for Sensible Priorities" and "Priorities New Hampshire" to educate people as to how the federal budget is currently sliced up. We knew from surveys that once people found out about it, people were incredulous and wanted to shift twice as much money as we're talking about.

What percent are you trying to get sliced away from the Pentagon?

It's about 13 percent. That's $60 billion and it's amazing what you can do with $60 billion. It's enough money to rebuild all our schools, provide healthcare for every kid who doesn't have it, provide food self-sufficiency for all 6 million starving kids a year in the world, and reduce our need for oil, increasing energy independence—a lot of stuff.

Cohen, of course, fudges the numbers in this project. What he shows is the proportions of government DISCRETIONARY spending. He ignores those expenditures that are not discretionary, which is about half the budget. Many of those expenditures that deal with the very social issues he wants to address – expenditures on programs that grow every year and have generally been ineffective.

But then why would we expect a super-rich socialist like Cohen to be honest? It simply is not in the nature of the Left to do so.

And I'm curious -- any American with common sense knows the War on Poverty was lost a generation ago. How many more lives and how much more treasure must be wasted on it before liberals will admit that their war policies have been a failure and devise a plan for surrender retreat redeployment of our nation's social workers and anti-poverty activists?

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A young author gives an interview to promote her new book.

The reporter asks her a totally unrelated question on US foreign and military policy regarding Iraq.

Is it relevant? Is it appropriate? Should she answer?

My answer to all of the above is NO!

Even if her father is President of the United States.

Jenna Bush agreed to an interview with Diane Sawyer to promote her new book, "Ana's Story." The nonfiction book is based on the life of a 17-year-old Latin American mother infected with HIV. She met the mother while working for UNICEF, teaching in four countries in Latin America and the Caribbean.

The AP, of course, chooses to criticize her, claiming she “ducked the question”. But it was a question that should not have been asked in the first place.

Posted by: Greg at 01:30 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Next time the Left claims that they are being oppressed in this country for speaking out against the government, point to the situation in Burma (I don't recognize the name change made by the oppressive military junta).

Brutality and defiance marked the second day of an armed crackdown in Myanmar today as the military junta tried to crush a wave of nationwide protests in the face of harsh international condemnation.

The violence began before dawn with raids on Buddhist monasteries and continued through the day with tear gas, beatings and volleys of gunfire in the streets of the countryÂ’s main city, Yangon, according to witnesses and news agency reports from inside the closed nation.

Witnesses said soldiers fired automatic weapons into a crowd of protesters. State television in Myanmar reported that nine people had been killed and that 11 demonstrators and 31 soldiers were injured. The numbers could not be independently verified, and exile groups said they could be much higher.

International action is being taken.

After news of Thursday's violence reached Washington, the White House renewed its demand that the Burmese junta end the crackdown.

"The world is watching the people of Burma take to the streets to demand their freedom and the American people stand in solidarity with these brave individuals," President Bush said in a written statement. He added: "Every civilized nation has a responsibility to stand up for people suffering under a brutal military regime like the one that has ruled Burma for too long."

The U.S. Treasury Department designated 14 senior Burmese figures under new sanctions announced by Bush earlier in the week, including Than Shwe; the army commander, Vice Senior Gen. Maung Aye; and the acting prime minister, Lt. Gen. Thein Sein. Any assets they have in U.S. jurisdictions will be frozen, and Americans are now banned from doing business with them. U.S. officials hope to leverage that to influence foreign banks and institutions to follow suit.

The European Union also vowed to seek tighter sanctions. The United Nations, meanwhile, has said it will send an envoy to Burma, a move that the Burmese foreign minister said Thursday would be welcomed.

India and Red China, however, are blocking a serious response by the UN Security Council. Contact their embassies to demand that they support concerted international action to end the violence against peaceful protesters seeking regime change.

Embassy of the People's Republic of China
2300 Connecticut Ave., NW
Washington, D.C. 20008

Embassy of India
2107 Massachusetts Avenue, N.W.
Washington D.C. 20008

Michelle Malkin reports that the junta has cut off internet access to Burma.

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How is it that someone with such a record was ever appointed to a government office in the first place?

Oh, that's right -- the governor who appointed him is a Democrat, and they have been siding with the enemy for some time.

But at least the supporter of jihadi terror is no longer holding an official position in government.

A controversial leader of a U.S. Muslim group resigned from a Virginia state board hours after Gov. Tim Kaine learned during a radio call-in show about incendiary comments the appointee made about Israel, Islam and U.S. foreign policy.

Dr. Esam Omeish, who is a top surgeon at a Washington, D.C., area hospital, also is seen in videos found on YouTube.com that show him advocating "the jihad way," decrying the Israeli invasion last year of Lebanon, and calling for President Bush's impeachment.

In a statement Thursday afternoon, Kaine said he had accepted Omeish's resignation from the state Commission on Immigration, which only met for the first time on Tuesday.

"Dr. Omeish is a respected physician and community leader, yet I have been made aware of certain statements he has made which concern me," Kaine said. "Dr. Omeish indicated that he did not want this controversy to distract from the important work of the Commission."

In a separate, undated video, Omeish tells a crowd of Washington-area Muslims, "... you have learned the way, that you have known that the jihad way is the way to liberate your land." The video was credited to Investigative Project, a Washington-based organization that investigates radical Islamic organizations.

Again and again we find "mainstream" Muslim leaders in this country engaging in the rhetoric of jihad. I applaud those who are engaged in an informational crusade to expose this ugly underbelly of the so-called "Religion of Peace."

Posted by: Greg at 10:10 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Have you got a business to promote? Do you want to have some Promotional Gifts to pass on to customers and potential customers, to keep your name out in front of them? Well, you need GetYourPromotionalProducts.com! They have a wide variety of products for you, like pens, balloons, shirts, and more. Take a look at their selection to see.

Posted by: Greg at 10:05 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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About 2 1/2 years ago, Nancy Pelosi and John Dingell sent a letter to the President that read as follows.

April 20, 2005

The President
The White House
Washington, D.C. 20500

Dear Mr. President:

As you know, gasoline prices have risen by an average 38 cents a gallon in the past two months. In fact, 70 percent of the American people have already said that the price at the pump is having an impact on their lives. We understand that the White House is feeling pressure from the American people to act, but misleading the public about the Republican's energy bill is not the answer.

In your weekly radio address last Saturday, you called on Congress to pass the energy bill and implied that the bill would lower costs to consumers. But your Administration's own Department of Energy studied last year's conference report on which this bill is based, and concluded that the Republican proposal would actually raise gas prices by 3 cents per gallon.

The American people deserve an energy policy that would boost the economy, preserve the environment, protect public health, and truly lower gasoline prices. This bill fails on all fronts. The Republican energy bill was written by energy lobbyists for the benefit of the energy industry, while hurting the environment, consumers, and taxpayers.

We encourage you to use your speech to the U.S.-Hispanic Chamber of Commerce to lay out an agenda that seeks to lower gasoline prices, not simply exploit them.

Sincerely,

Nancy Pelosi
Democratic Leader
John D. Dingel
Ranking Member, Committee on Energy and Commerce

And two years ago, Dingell spoke on the issue again in the Democrat radio address.

We must respond to the needs of the American consumers who are seeing the prospect of $4 a gallon gas and $1,000 monthly heating bills. I promise that Democrats will keep fighting for constructive solutions to AmericaÂ’s energy needs.

Well, around here gas prices are hovering around $2.50 a gallon -- and they are higher most other places in the country.

What is John Dingell's solution? A 50-cent tax on every gallon of gasoline.

Dealing with global warming will be painful, says one of the most powerful Democrats in Congress. To back up his claim he is proposing a recipe many people won't like — a 50-cent gasoline tax, a carbon tax and scaling back tax breaks for some home owners.

"I'm trying to have everybody understand that this is going to cost and that it's going to have a measure of pain that you're not going to like," Rep. John Dingell, who is marking his 52nd year in Congress, said Wednesday in an interview with The Associated Press.

John Dingell has repeatedly spoken out against "price-gouging" by oil companies causing high gas prices, only to have every single investigation of those prices show that they were a legitimate response to market forces. So now what does he do? He proposes that the federal government perpetrate a little price-gouging itself to pay for programs to deal with the junk-science "problem" of man-made global warming. I guess that Mr. Dingell thinks that the government, which already makes more profit off a gallon of gas than the oil companies, just needs that extra 50-cents a gallon more than the American consumer does.

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Are you looking for a beautiful place to vacation, filled with the sort of scenery that makes your heart cry out? Are you looking for an urban vacation spot, where you can experience fine dining and cultural events? How would you like to find both in one place? You can, in the wonderful city of Raleigh, North Carolina.

After all, where else can you go to see a popular Broadway show like Mamma Mia!and dine out at an Italian restaurant like The Point at Glenwood after a day exploring lovely greenways around town? And let's not forget the glorious golf possibilities around Raleigh. There is so much that you can do in Raleigh!

Want to know more? Visit the city's official tourism site to learn more about the activities that are available to you in Raleigh, and to check out the deals and steals on vacation packages or a Fall Getaway. And speaking of vacation packages, don't forget to sign up to win a FREE Raleigh Getaway. That package includes:
-One night accommodations for two at the Courtyard by Marriott Raleigh Crabtree Valley;
-$25 gift certificate to Bloomsbury Bistro;
-Free VIP admission for two to Rum Runners;
-2 tickets to the North Carolina Theatre;
-2 tickets to the N.C. Museum of Art’s Landscapes from the Age of Impressionism;
-2 tickets to Dinosaurs: Ancient Fossils, New Discoveries at the N.C. Museum of Natural Sciences.

What a great package!

Time is wasting, folks. Book your trip to Raleigh today!

Posted by: Greg at 09:47 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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It was a first that went unnoted at the time -- but which began a practice that is quite common today.

The play was 48 Toss, and 30 years later, Dick Vermeil remembers it as if he called it last Sunday. Herb Lusk took a pitch from Ron Jaworski, headed around left end and breezed unscathed 70 yards for a fourth-quarter touchdown. Four steps over the goal line at Giants Stadium, the Philadelphia Eagles' running back rewrote the playbook. Alone in the end zone, with a crowd of 48,824 looking on, he celebrated with a gesture in what has since become a watershed moment in American sports.

With little ceremony and no advance warning, Lusk kept his eyes straight, dropped to his left knee and bowed his head in prayer. A few seconds later, he stood back up and returned to the sideline, his legacy sealed.

"Herb Lusk was the first NFL player to kneel in the end zone and pray," said Steve Sabol, president of NFL Films, which has footage of more than 9,000 games played since 1894.

No one doubts the sincerity of Lusk's action -- his faith was well-known to others in the NFL. The prayer was not particularly noted at the time. But it opened the floodgates to such religious moments -- something about which I have mixed emotions.

I'm glad to see folks be open about hteir faith.

I'm less pleased about the fact that some of those who engage in such public prayer appear to "talk the talk" during the game but don't particularly "walk the walk" off the field.

Posted by: Greg at 09:42 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Hard Drive Recovery is something that you never want to need as a computer user. It means that you have had a catastrophic computer failure that endangers all of your data. If you need Hard Drive Recovery, it can mean that you cannot even use your computer pending serious intervention, and that you are unable to even access the critical information stored there.

Frankly, I wish I had knows about DTIData last year when my old computer's hard drive went down. The hard drive had gone bad, and the computer would not even update. I tried to fix it myself, and even tried to get a friend with greater expertise than I to fix the problem. It was impossible with our resources. As a result, I lost several years of course materials for my classes, my resume, research notes for a possible book (growing out of my Masters thesis work) and the graphics my wife uses for her craft projects.

But if DTIData could have done Hard Drive Recovery for me, they would have likely gotten back all the data for me. All I would have needed to do was give them a call or submit an online request for an estimate, and then ship them the hard drive for them to work their magic on.

My hard drive would have been taken into their class 100 clean room for their technicians to go to work on it. There would have been no diagnostic fee – we already know the drive is dead. Instead, they would begin work on the data recovery, with every step of the process logged for me to know exactly what is happening and how the project is going. Their goal is 100% hard drive data recovery, and so their policy is that you are not charged a dime if there is no data recovered, or if they fail to get it all back for you. And regardless, they can usually complete their work in 2-5 business days -- because they know that time is money.

I hope you never need the services if DTIData. But if you do, they are tops at what they do.

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I guess some folks think that absolute moral authority means the law does not apply to them.

A bench warrant was issued Thursday for antiwar activist Cindy Sheehan, who did not appear for arraignment Thursday in a Washington, D.C., courtroom to face charges related to her Sept. 10 disorderly conduct arrest on Capitol Hill.

District of Columbia Superior Court Judge Michael McCarthy issued the order to Sheehan around noon, a court spokeswoman said. The warrant says she is to be arrested and brought before the court. She also faces one count of unlawful assembly.

"She wasn't aware that there was a court appearance today," said Sheehan's spokeswoman, Tiffany Burns, reached by cell phone.

"We'll have the attorney deal with this immediately, so as soon as she's rescheduled to appear, she'll be there," Burns added.

Burns said Sheehan was at home in California Thursday, and did not receive the paperwork notifying her of the court date.

However, a court document obtained by FOXNews.com dated Sept. 10, signed by Sheehan, advised her to appear Thursday at 8:30 a.m. The warrant issued Thursday sets a $50 bond for her arrest.

Damn those signed papers with the court date clearly indicated! They must be CIA fakes, manufactured as a part of a Rovian conspiracy by the BusCheneyHitler dictatorship!

And as for rescheduling the court date, I'd rather see her cuffed, stuffed, and dragged into court whining like Paris Hilton.

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Even a wannabe Commie dictator can be right from time to time.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez railed against a new trend in his beauty-conscious country -- giving girls breast implants for their 15th birthday.

"Now some people think, 'My daughter's turning 15, let's give her breast enlargements.' That's horrible. It's the ultimate degeneration," Chavez said on his weekly television show, which lasted a record eight hours.

Do we really need to further sexualize young people?

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Well, maybe – for a billion dollars and all his WMD information.

Less than a month before the U.S. invasion of Iraq, Saddam Hussein signaled that he was willing to go into exile as long as he could take with him $1 billion and information on weapons of mass destruction, according to a report of a Feb. 22, 2003, meeting between President Bush and his Spanish counterpart published by a Spanish newspaper yesterday.

The meeting at Bush's Texas ranch was a planning session for a final diplomatic push at the United Nations. The White House was preparing to introduce a tough new Security Council resolution to pressure Hussein, but most council members saw it as a ploy to gain their authorization for war.

Yeah, that’s the ticket – let the bad guy go with a wad of cash and the knowledge to either obtain WMD or sell the info to the highest bidder. That sure would have made the world a safer place!

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To celebrate the bicentennial of Abraham LincolnÂ’s birth, the US Mint will issue commemorative pennies with a variety of designs on the reverse.

“A penny for your thoughts” will have extra meaning in 2009 — the 200th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s birth and the 100th anniversary of the introduction of the Lincoln cent.

To commemorate the event, the U.S. Mint, at the direction of Congress, will introduce four rotating designs on the 1-cent coin for that year depicting different aspects of LincolnÂ’s life.

Those designs will replace the engraving of the Lincoln Memorial on the “tails” side of the coin. The famous profile of the 16th president will remain on the “heads” side.

The Citizens Coinage Advisory Committee, which provides recommendations on such matters, met Tuesday and got into a lively debate over what those rotating images should be.

The question of the design to depict the Lincoln presidency provoke some discussion and dispute. The panel didnÂ’t like the designs of the incomplete US Capitol building (Lincoln ordered construction to continue during the war to signify that the union would endure). Instead, there was a request for designs related to Lincoln as a war president (perhaps visiting troops) or relating to emancipation. Personally, I believe a design depicting Lincoln at Gettysburg would be most appropriate, given the fact that the Gettysburg Address so neatly unifies those two elements.

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation, so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate—we can not consecrate—we can not hallow—this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us — that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion — that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain — that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom — and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

A masterpiece of American rhetoric and a cogent statement of our nation’s republican form of government, love of liberty, and debt to those who serve our nation in time of war. They are words to remember today – ideas appropriate to commemoration on our nation’s coinage.

H/T Don Surber

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Supporters of Hillary ClintonÂ’s campaign frequently hearken back to Bill ClintonÂ’s Administration for clues about what her administration will be like.

But consider what this answer tells us.

Sen. Hillary Clinton (D., N.Y.) dodged a curveball thrown at her by moderator Tim Russert in tonight’s debate after she disavowed the use of torture against terrorists, even in extreme circumstances, only to be told her husband took the opposite position on Russert’s Meet the Press. “Well, he’s not standing here right now,” Clinton responded. The moment brought her huge applause, and her campaign promoted the clip as “Tonight’s Video Moment.”

So, she won’t be a repeat of Bill Clinton – and she is very correct to note that he is not going to be the candidate in 2008. Let’s hope the American people recognize that fact.

Posted by: Greg at 10:13 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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I suppose that she would have been welcome if she were denying the Holocaust, calling for the destruction of Israel, and giving support to those killing Americans – at least if the principal were adhering to the Columbia University understanding of free speech and academic freedom. Instead, a few parental complaints were sufficient to get Alveda King’s speech cancelled.

A decision to cancel a speech by an anti-abortion activist at a Des Moines high school is sparking criticism.

The principal of Roosevelt High School, Kathie Danielson, says she canceled Friday's appearance by Alveda King because some parents complained about her message.

The Iowa chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union says it implies the school is taking sides on the abortion issue. Spokesman Ben Stone says Danielson is doing a "disservice" when she decides she must protect students from controversial viewpoints.

King is a niece of slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.

Danielson says it was a good opportunity to hear King on issues such as diversity. But parents complained about her political and social views.

Of interest, though, is the fact that King was not scheduled to speak on abortion at all. Her topic was, by all indication, her lifetime involved with civil rights. After all, as an author and minister and former college professor and state legislator, she might just have something of importance to teach these students on that subject—and about her uncle, whose life and work in that area ought to be an inspiration to every American. Add to the fact that attendance a the speech was voluntary, it seems hard to believe that anyone was going to be coerced, indoctrinated, or proselytized as a member of a captive audience of students.

However, that was not good enough for some.

Danielson explained the decision in an e-mail to the parents. When the school scheduled King in August, the plan was for King to speak about her civil rights journey.

Then Monday, "several community members" called to complain about King's allegiance to anti-abortion issues and abstinence. There was also the sticky possibility of King's expressing her religious beliefs in a public-school setting.

Those still wishing to hear King's message, Danielson added, could see her at either Iowa State or Drake.

Danielson said she called King, had a nice talk and came away impressed.

"She is a wonderful person," Danielson e-mailed, "and our conversation was meaningful and enlightening. We will visit in the near future about the possibility of scheduling a time when she could speak to our parents."

That's good, because King has a compelling story to tell. The students should be allowed to hear it.

The irony of this situation is not lost on me. You see my knowledge of history and constitutional law makes Roosevelt High School in Des Moines a familiar name to me – and it ought to be to any educator.

After all, Roosevelt High School was one of the schools at which the events occurred that gave rise to the Supreme CourtÂ’s seminal decision of freedom of speech in schools, Tinker v. Des Moines. And while the circumstances are different, we again see a small group deciding that there are some ideas, well-within the mainstream of American political belief, that must be suppressed at all cost in the public schools. Such actions were wrong then, and are wrong now.

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Posted by: Greg at 10:12 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Remember that "one man, no vote" edict promulgated by the Democrats regarding Florida? Well, it should also apply to Michigan -- but the Democrats have made an exception to the rules on no campaigning in that state. What is that exception?

In one reluctant concession, the Democratic chairs in Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and that great American tradition, the Nevada caucus, are graciously allowing one exemption to the no-campaigning rule so the candidates can participate in a conference held in Dearborn by the Arab American Institute.

Are you following all this? HereÂ’s where we are so far:

Florida:

A) One man, no vote.

B) No talking to any Floridians who are not waving checkbooks.

Michigan: Both of the above, but Arab-Americans organized into a large conference are exempt.

So lets get this straight.

Florida, with its many Jewish voters, will be off limits to the Democrat candidates, and its voters will be disenfranchised by the DNC.

Michigan, with its many Arab and Muslim voters, will be granted a special exception to the rules -- and, I suspect, be subject to a lesser penalty so as not to disenfranchise those groups despite holding its primary two weeks before Florida.

Given the realities of the last six years, does it seem odd to you that the Democrats are prepared to accommodate a group that has shown great sympathy towards the jihadi cause while disenfranchising Jewish voters who are accused of having too much influence on American politics and policy? It seems to me that the disparity is objectively anti-Semitic -- and given the rhetoric that has come out of the pro-Democrat netroots and anti-war movement, that is a point that should not be easily dismissed or discounted without closer examination.

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Posted by: Greg at 10:39 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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The artificial limits imposed upon religious literature in prison libraries has been lifted following a public outcry over the absurd limits and nebulous standards behind the list.

Facing pressure from religious groups, civil libertarians and members of Congress, the federal Bureau of Prisons has decided to return religious materials that had been purged from prison chapel libraries because they were not on the bureauÂ’s lists of approved resources.

The bureau had said it was prompted to remove the materials after a 2004 Department of Justice report mentioned that religious books that incite violence could infiltrate chapel libraries.

After the details of the removal became widely known this month, Republican lawmakers, liberal Christians and evangelical talk shows all criticized the government for creating a list of acceptable religious books.

The bureau has not abandoned the idea of creating such lists, Judi Simon Garrett, a spokeswoman, said in an e-mail message. But rather than packing away everything while those lists were compiled, the religious materials will remain on the shelves, Ms. Garrett explained.

In an e-mail message Wednesday, the bureau said: “In response to concerns expressed by members of several religious communities, the Bureau of Prisons has decided to alter its planned course of action with respect to the Chapel Library Project.

“The bureau will begin immediately to return to chapel libraries materials that were removed in June 2007, with the exception of any publications that have been found to be inappropriate, such as material that could be radicalizing or incite violence. The review of all materials in chapel libraries will be completed by the end of January 2008.”

It is nice to see a little sunshine and public outrage bringing about a policy shift that makes sense. Get rid of the problem materials after a review of what is in the libraries, and in the future don't add anything until it has been reviewed. Packing away unobjectionable material based upon an arbitrarily defined limit of 150 items was the wrong way to go -- and the new policy is substantially better.

Posted by: Greg at 10:20 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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In light of recent controversies on California colleges campuses regarding controversial speakers and faculty members and the Columbia University speech by Mahmoud the Mad, Victor David Hanson offers up a criteria regarding who should be welcomed and given a platform at such prestigious institutions of higher learning.

In each of the above cases, the general public has had to remind these universities that their campuses should welcome thinkers who have distinguished themselves in their fields, regardless of politics and ideology. The liberal Chemerinsky, the Clinton Democrat Summers and the conservative Rumsfeld have all courted controversy -- and all alike met the criterion of eminent achievement.

But the propagandist Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has not. Unlike Chemerinsky, Rumsfeld and Summers, he used the prestige of an Ivy-League forum solely to popularize his violent views -- and to sugarcoat the mayhem his terrorists inflict on Americans and his promises to wipe out Israel.

Here's a simple tip to the clueless tenured class about why a Larry Summers or Donald Rumsfeld should be welcome to speak, and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad shunned: former Cabinet secretaries -- yes; homicidal dictators killing Americans -- no.

Sounds like a reasonable standard to me -- what do you think?

Posted by: Greg at 10:14 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Maybe, suggests Roger Simon at Politico.

There are two unbreakable rules for picking a running mate: Never pick anybody who might overshadow the top of the ticket, and never pick anybody you cannot completely control.

So Obama might be eliminated on both counts.

Then there is the Rule of Firsts. The Clinton campaign does not want to force too many “firsts” on the American electorate.

Electing the first woman president will be challenge enough. Electing the first woman president and first African-American vice president at the same time? Forget it; they donÂ’t need that kind of problem. (The same reasoning might prevent New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, who is Hispanic, from getting the vice presidential nod.)

Does this mean that only white males need apply to become HillaryÂ’s running mate? Probably.

Which is why Sen. Evan Bayh of Indiana, former Gov. Tom Vilsack of Iowa, Gov. Ted Strickland of Ohio, Sen. James Webb of Virginia, and even former Rep. Dick Gephardt of Missouri are all having their names tossed around.

Personally, I think there is a better reason to reject Obama -- his lack of experience. Hillary has enough of a credibility problem with some voters on that score (First Lady isn't a training ground for the Presidency), and selecting a national novice like Obama might leave the ticket open to questions about how qualified they really are. That is why I'd argue that Clinton might do well to go for a"double first" pick and tap Bill Richardson for as her running mate.

Posted by: Greg at 10:09 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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The Cooperative Bank is a consumer led, ethically driven bank in the UK. It offers a wide array of options for its customers, and has a variety of banking services for its online customers, including credit cards

You can get a card with 0% on purchases and balance transfers for six months, or you can choose a card that earns money for your favorite organization. Really, you have the chance to do business with a bank that shares your values and gives you an excellent bargain as well.
One of the neat things, though, is that the bank operates on the following principles.

Through our investments, we seek to support the principles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

In line with this, we will not invest in:

* any government or business which fails to uphold basic human rights within its sphere of influence.
* any business whose links to an oppressive regime are a continuing cause for concern.

An excellent set of principles given the current state of the world, don't you think?

Posted by: Greg at 10:03 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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These numbers sure look like it.

A brand-new CNN/WMUR poll finds her with a 23-point lead over Obama in New Hampshire (43%-20%). Back in July, her lead was nine points (36%-27%).

The question, of course, is this -- is the increasing lead a sign that Democrats have united behind her? Or is this limited to one state? And is this support stable, or is Hillary Clinton peaking way too soon?

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IÂ’d like to see the movie Banished.

There are ghosts haunting Marco Williams’s quietly sorrowful documentary “Banished,” about the forced expulsion of black Southerners from their homes in the troubled and violent decades after the Civil War. Dressed in what looks like their Sunday best, in dark suits and high-collar dresses, they stare solemnly into an unwelcoming world. A couple ride in a cart along a pretty country road, and others stand awkwardly before houses with peeling paint. There are few smiles. Photography was then a serious business, though being a black landowner, part of a fragile, nascent Southern middle class, was more serious still.

The events and the period covered are clearly one of the great missed opportunities of American history, one of those “what ifs” that those of us who are students of history often look at and think of with a heart-felt sadness.

And it looks like Williams has done a great job, hitting many important but little-known incidents.

Mr. Williams isn’t one for hysterics or histrionics, even when seated across from a Ku Klux Klan leader who says he wouldn’t be happy if this African-American director moved in next door. The Klan leader lives in a nice-looking house adorned with white supremacist banners in Forsyth County, Ga., which in 1912 brutally expelled an estimated 1,000 of its black residents. Mr. Williams guides us through this terrible history, often while strolling on camera through the scene of the crime, talking to white residents and dredging up memories. He also uncovers some repellent images of a white mob trying to stop a peaceful, interracial civil rights march in the county in 1987. The marchers sing “We Shall Overcome.” The mob throws rocks.

There is so much more to the story than can be told by this 87-minute movie, which only casts glances at Reconstruction, the question of reparations and the bitter, enduring, living legacy of slavery. Although Mr. Williams somewhat overstates his case when he says that racial cleansing has “remained hidden,” there’s no denying that this ugly chapter deserves more than an occasional well-meaning documentary. (A national day of mourning might be a good start.) The 1997 fiction film “Rosewood” recounted one such expulsion that took place in central Florida in the 1920s, and journalists, activists and descendants, including those who appear in “Banished,” have dug into the archives and sifted through the evidence. Mr. Williams has done his own part to shed needed light, though I wish he had dug longer, harder.

In late 2006 The News & Observer in Raleigh, N.C., published a series about an 1898 white riot to destroy a political alliance between blacks and poor whites in Wilmington, N.C., where the literacy rates for black men were higher than those for whites. One agitator, a former Confederate soldier and the future mayor of Wilmington, vowed that he and other like-minded whites would never surrender “even if we have to choke the Cape Fear River with carcasses.” What followed was a coup d’état, possibly the only time that a municipal government was toppled in American history. Black residents were murdered; the local black newspaper was torched, and survivors exiled. Reconstruction died, and Jim Crow moved right in.

But what I find interesting in this review, even with the commentary on the Wilmington incident (which I wrote about earlier), is the fact that a single word appears nowhere in the entire piece. This despite the fact that it is crucial to the story being told, and the evil being perpetrated. It points to the thing that linked the overwhelming majority of the perpetrators of these great evils, and the overwhelming beneficiary of them.

The missing word?

Democrat.

After all, the guilty individuals in most of these acts of domestic terrorism would have been Democrats, and the political party that benefited would have been the Democratic Party. It is an institution that today still benefits from the legacy of its own racism, even while trying to place the label of “racist” on its political opponents to obscure its racist past while exploiting black misery in the present. It is the party that placed a Klansman on the Supreme Court in the 1930s, and which still has an old Kluxer serving in the US Senate today.

For some reason, Manohla Dargis leaves those details out of the review. I hope that Marco Williams didnÂ’t leave them out of the movie.

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Posted by: Greg at 10:34 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Smoking pot while awaiting sentencing and subject to drug testing – how freakin’ stupid can you get?

A federal judge placed tighter restrictions on Michael Vick on Wednesday after the Atlanta Falcons quarterback tested positive for marijuana.
Because of the result, U.S. District Judge Henry Hudson placed special conditions on VickÂ’s release, including restricting him to his home between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. with electronic monitoring and ordering him to submit to random drug testing.

The urine sample was submitted Sept. 13, according to a document by a federal probation officer that was filed in U.S. District Court on Wednesday.

This could result in a longer sentence for Vick, because the judge can take such violations of release conditions into account when determining the amount of time he must serve.

I wonder – will this violation lead to an additional suspension by the NFL under its drug policy after his release from prison (state or federal, as the case may be) and reinstatement in the NFL?

Posted by: Greg at 10:33 AM | Comments (20) | Add Comment
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Disgusting. Absolutely disgusting.

Children at a downtown preschool got an unplanned lesson in animal rights activism when their pet rabbit was stolen and anti-circus fliers were left in the animal's cage.

Sugar Bunny vanished from the Community Building Children's Center during a celebration of building renovations Saturday evening, teachers said.

"Somebody stoled him," 5-year-old Zion told The Spokesman-Review, which gave only the first names of him and other children in a report on the heist. "I'm sad."

Lori Peters, a teacher, said watching, petting and playing with Sugar Bunny helped the little children overcome separation anxiety. The theft is being reported to police but it's unclear whether the preschool will find a new pet, she added.

The fliers that were left were for protests against the Ringling Brothers Circus, which was in town Friday through Sunday, and showed a picture of a bear trying to escape beneath the bars of a cage. Listed at the bottom were People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals and the Northwest Animal Rights Network.

Save a child. Save a pet. Shoot an animal rights terrorist.

Posted by: Greg at 10:32 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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I’ve stayed out of this controversy, because every time I’ve tied to examine the facts the incident seems more and more muddied. After all, something is clearly wrong in Jena, Louisiana – but the facts underlying the incident are often obscured by the haze induced by the heated racial rhetoric (often amazingly fact-free) surrounding the incident.

The district attorney offers an explanation of why he brought the serious charges he did in this case. The heart of his argument is compelling, when one considers what actually happened last December at the high school.

Last week, a reporter asked me whether, if I had it to do over, I would do anything differently. I didn’t think of it at the time, but the answer is yes. I would have done a better job of explaining that the offenses of Dec. 4, 2006, did not stem from a “schoolyard fight” as it has been commonly described in the news media and by critics.

Conjure the image of schoolboys fighting: they exchange words, clench fists, throw punches, wrestle in the dirt until classmates or teachers pull them apart. Of course that would not be aggravated second-degree battery, which is what the attackers are now charged with. (Five of the defendants were originally charged with attempted second-degree murder.) But thatÂ’s not what happened at Jena High School.

The victim in this crime, who has been all but forgotten amid the focus on the defendants, was a young man named Justin Barker, who was not involved in the nooses incident three months earlier. According to all the credible evidence I am aware of, after lunch, he walked to his next class. As he passed through the gymnasium door to the outside, he was blindsided and knocked unconscious by a vicious blow to the head thrown by Mychal Bell. While lying on the ground unaware of what was happening to him, he was brutally kicked by at least six people.

Imagine you were walking down a city street, and someone leapt from behind a tree and hit you so hard that you fell to the sidewalk unconscious. Would you later describe that as a fight?

Only the intervention of an uninvolved student protected Mr. Barker from severe injury or death. There was serious bodily harm inflicted with a dangerous weapon — the definition of aggravated second-degree battery. Mr. Bell’s conviction on that charge as an adult has been overturned, but I considered adult status appropriate because of his role as the instigator of the attack, the seriousness of the charge and his prior criminal record.

So what we have here is an attack on a kid completely uninvolved in the noose incident. It was unprovoked, with six young thugs kicking and stomping their unconscious victim. That isn’t a fight – it is an ambush designed to maim (and perhaps kill) a defenseless individual based, it would appear, solely upon race. Frankly, I’m disturbed that there is no hate-crime enhancement to these charges, just as I would expect there to be if a group of white kids did the same to a black kid. As a result, I think those aggravated battery charges are appropriate – and one could argue (as does prosecutor Reed Walters) that the adult charges against Bell were not unreasonable in light of his previous criminal record.

Where I disagree with Walters is his assessment of the criminality of the original noose incident. Surely there was some aspect of civil rights law, either state or federal, that might apply to what happened that day. The “prank” was clearly designed to discourage students from fully and freely exercising their civil rights at the high school, and as an incident taking place on public property ought to be treated in precisely the same manner as a cross-burning would have. But even if my position is wrong on this point, there is no possible way of justifying the assault on Justin Barker – which might best be described as an attempted lynching of an innocent man in the “best” race-hating tradition of the KKK.

Now do I fault people who have been outraged over the situation in Jena? No, I don’t – given the amount of misinformation out there it is hard to drill down to the facts. I wish the media had done a better job of reporting on this, and that the blogosphere had exercised a little more restraint before buying in to all the claims being made about the case by one side. This isn’t Selma, and it isn’t Scottsboro – let’s quit pretending it is.

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Posted by: Greg at 10:31 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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This seems to be the sort of thing he and his entourage might do.

Police flooded a Brooklyn precinct with extra cops yesterday following the discovery of swastikas and other anti-Semitic messages scrawled on two synagogues and several other buildings and cars.
Twenty extra detectives were added to investigate the incident, which sent shivers through Brooklyn Heights.
In addition to the swastikas found late Monday, the culprits placed on cars fliers that read, "All Jews Die. Israel Land of Jews Die," above a swastika and "SS."
The rabbi at a synagogue violated with a swastika laid the blame on Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, saying his visit inspires anti-Semites.
"I think [his] visit here spurred hate-mongers to come out of the closet," said Rabbi Aaron Raskin of Congregation B'nai Avraham.
"I have numerous congregants whose parents are survivors of the Holocaust. It brings up bad memories. [A swastika is] not just a symbol - it represents the deaths of 6 million people."

I think the good rabbi is correct – Mahmoud the Mad and his Jew-hating, Holocaust-denying rhetoric can bring the nut-jobs out of the woodwork to express the sort of bile spewed by this “world leader”.

Posted by: Greg at 10:29 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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