Or at least of the Second Amendment – they will continue to engage in absolutist idolatry of the First Amendment, even if it undermines the war effort.

As the Army's suicide rate hits record levels in the Iraq war, there's small wonder practically everyone in Congress wants to deal with the parallel emerging crisis of depressed veterans tempted to take their own lives. Everyone, that is, except Senator Tom Coburn, Republican of Oklahoma. He stands alone in blocking final passage of a suicide prevention bill in fear that the government's record-keeping on troubled vets might somehow crimp their ability to purchase handguns.

Even the craven gun lobby should manage some shame over this absurd example of Second Amendment idolatry.

The House has unanimously approved a measure mandating the screening of all veterans for suicide risk, but Senator Coburn worries that veterans' medical data might be appropriated by other agencies to deny that all-encompassing right to wield arms on the domestic front.

If Congress can somehow guarantee confidentiality, I'd support this bill. But unfortunately, Coburn is correct in fearing that these records could somehow be abused . After all, I remember some 900 FBI files turned over to political appointees in the Clinton White House, the disclosure of top secret national security programs by the NY Times – and today's lead story at the Washington Post is all about a leaked copy of a classified report. Imagine the concern that this confidential information will get out and be used to deny veterans the right to own a gun!

I'll tell you what – I'll give up my absolutism on the Second Amendment when the New York Times gives up its absolutism about the First Amendment. Until then, I'll stick by the views of the Founding Fathers.

Oh, and I can't help but be struck by the ignorance of our founding documents exhibited in the editorial as well.

But that's to care for them as human beings, under that other constitutional right — to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

Guys – that isn't a constitutional right. It is a statement of principles in the Declaration of Independence. My tenth graders even know that.

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After all, EVERYTHING is the fault of George W. Bush!

The economy grew at its strongest pace in more than a year during the spring as solid improvements in international trade and business investment helped offset weakness in housing.

The gross domestic product, the broadest measure of economic health, expanded at an annual rate of 4 percent in the April-June quarter, significantly higher than the 3.4 percent rate the government had initially estimated a month ago, the Commerce Department reported Thursday.

That may taper off in response to the sub-prime crash – but then again, maybe not. But even if it does, we will still likely see 2% growth.

Posted by: Greg at 09:29 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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You know how we keep being told that there is consensus view of scientists in favor of catastrophic man-made Global Warming? That is a lie.

In 2004, history professor Naomi Oreskes performed a survey of research papers on climate change. Examining peer-reviewed papers published on the ISI Web of Science database from 1993 to 2003, she found a majority supported the "consensus view," defined as humans were having at least some effect on global climate change. Oreskes' work has been repeatedly cited, but as some of its data is now nearly 15 years old, its conclusions are becoming somewhat dated.

Medical researcher Dr. Klaus-Martin Schulte recently updated this research. Using the same database and search terms as Oreskes, he examined all papers published from 2004 to February 2007. The results have been submitted to the journal Energy and Environment, of which DailyTech has obtained a pre-publication copy. The figures are surprising.

Of 528 total papers on climate change, only 38 (7%) gave an explicit endorsement of the consensus. If one considers "implicit" endorsement (accepting the consensus without explicit statement), the figure rises to 45%. However, while only 32 papers (6%) reject the consensus outright, the largest category (48%) are neutral papers, refusing to either accept or reject the hypothesis. This is no "consensus."

The figures are even more shocking when one remembers the watered-down definition of consensus here. Not only does it not require supporting that man is the "primary" cause of warming, but it doesn't require any belief or support for "catastrophic" global warming. In fact of all papers published in this period (2004 to February 2007), only a single one makes any reference to climate change leading to catastrophic results.

These changing viewpoints represent the advances in climate science over the past decade. While today we are even more certain the earth is warming, we are less certain about the root causes. More importantly, research has shown us that -- whatever the cause may be -- the amount of warming is unlikely to cause any great calamity for mankind or the planet itself.

Indeed, the insistence that there was a consensus in the IPPC's report was in a section not written by scientists – it was written by politicians and bureaucrats. And the sections written by the scientists are edited to conform with the conclusion – in other words, the politicians and bureaucrats throw out what doesn't fit with a conclusion that is written and published before the actual research chapters.

In other words, the tail wags the dog.

And there is no consensus in favor of catastrophic global warming – cause by man or otherwise.

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Probably not -- after all, they want to grab your guns, and the mere fact that these police officers and city officials violated Virginia law and the Second Amendment won't bother them a bit.

More than 100 gun-rights advocates, most carrying handguns on their hips and wearing buttons saying "Guns Save Lives," came to the City Council on Tuesday night to protest what they called harassment of law-abiding gun owners by city officials.

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The protest was called by the Virginia Citizens Defense League, a gun-rights group, after Chet Szymecki of Yorktown was arrested in June at Harborfest for carrying a gun.

Szymecki was arrested for violating a city ordinance banning guns at Harborfest - an ordinance that officials now acknowledge violates state law. City Attorney Bernard A. Pishko said city officials were unaware of a state law prohibiting localities from banning guns.

Carrying a weapon openly is legal in Virginia, even at a large gathering such as Harborfest. Once city officials realized their error, the charges against Szymecki were dropped.

"We made a mistake," Councilman Barclay C. Winn said. "It was unintentional."

Most who came to protest didn't appear to believe it was an innocent mistake.

"You know it was illegal," said Dave Vann, who drove from Falls Church to speak. "You arrested someone, and now it's going to cost you dearly."

Szymecki, a Navy veteran, said he was manhandled and hurt and that his wife, Deborah, his three children and two other children who accompanied them were traumatized. He said he has hired Norfolk attorney Stephen Merrill.

An emotional Deborah Szymecki told the council that after several police officers were done handcuffing her husband, she was left without money or the keys to the family car.

Others rose to describe incidents in which they said they were questioned and often handcuffed by police for simply carrying a firearm openly.

"Apparently you have some officers who don't understand the law," said the president of the Virginia Citizens Defense League, Philip Van Cleave of Midlothian.

Most distressing is that one member of the city council, Paul R. Riddick, left the meeting rather than hear what mere citizens had to say on the issue of the police violating state law via their thuggish conduct in enforcing an illegal city ordinance. Such arrogance, of course, is why this incident was able to happen in the first place.

But then again, maybe we shouldn't expect protests by liberals and outraged coverage by the press over the violations of right and official arrogance in Virginia Beach. After all, these are loyal, law-abiding American citizens of a conservative bent whose rights have been violated -- and since they are not border-jumping immigration criminals or terrorist-affiliated enemy combatants, their rights will not be seen as relevant by reporters or leftards.

Posted by: Greg at 10:17 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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This fits a certain MSM pattern -- report an overblown charge as fact, then back off when it turns out there is no actual evidence to support the charge.

An internal investigation has found no evidence of heavy drinking or drunkenness among astronauts before space missions, NASA officials said Wednesday.

In a report summarizing the investigation, NASAÂ’s safety chief, the former astronaut Bryan D. OÂ’Connor, said that although stories had circulated about astronauts abusing alcohol before missions, nothing was found to support them.

“Within the scope and limitations of this review, I was unable to verify any case in which an astronaut spaceflight crewmember was impaired on launch day,” Mr. O’Connor wrote.

He also said he had found no evidence that managers had disregarded recommendations from flight surgeons or other crew members that an astronaut not be allowed to fly.

In the report, Mr. OÂ’Connor recommended that NASA remind its employees to report, either openly or using one of several anonymous reporting systems the agency has in place, any threat to a flightÂ’s safety, including alcohol abuse. The report also recommended improvements in the oversight role of flight surgeons on launching day.

“I am confident that there are reasonable safeguards in place to prevent an impaired crew member from boarding a spacecraft,” he said.

So the mention of two unverified reports in an earlier report was sufficient to tar the space agency as unconcerned with safety and irresponsible in its handling of personnel and machinery. But now that the stories have been shown to be nothing more than NASA urban legends, will the media give the sort of remedial coverage needed to repair NASA's image? I doubt it.

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And yet neither the press nor the anti-war lynch mob led by John Murtha have offered a peep of apology now that it has been definitively shown that the "cold-blooded murders" violated not a single law.

Last December, when the Marine Corps charged four infantrymen with killing Iraqi civilians in Haditha, Iraq, in 2005, the allegation was as dark as it was devastating: after a roadside bomb had killed their buddy, a group of marines rampaged through nearby homes, massacring 24 innocent people.

In Iraq and in the United States, the killings were viewed as cold-blooded vengeance. After a perfunctory military investigation, Haditha was brushed aside, but once the details were disclosed, the killings became an ugly symbol of a difficult, demoralizing war. After a fuller investigation, the Marines promised to punish the guilty.

But now, the prosecutions have faltered. Since May, charges against two infantrymen and a Marine officer have been dismissed, and dismissal has been recommended for murder charges against a third infantryman. Prosecutors were not able to prove even that the killings violated the American military code of justice.

Now their final attempt to get a murder conviction is set to begin, with a military court hearing on Thursday for Staff Sgt. Frank D. Wuterich, the last marine still facing that charge. He is accused of killing 18 Iraqis, including several women and children, after the attack on his convoy.

If the legal problems that have thwarted the prosecutors in other cases are repeated this time, there is a possibility that no marine will be convicted for what happened in Haditha.

Could it be that what we had was a rush to judgment by the MSM and the cut-and-runners? Will the press look at that possibility?

No, they will instead continue to besmirch the names of heroes and wonder aloud about how the military justice system is broken, rather than consider that the media reporting was flawed and that the war's opponents have such low regard for the truth that they acted as a high-tech lynch mob that convicted these men before the charges were even brought.

After all, that story wouldn't fit the template that they are using to cover the war.

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Sponsored Post

Hypnosis has become a respected technique in health care as a part of holistic medicine, as well as a part of the field of psychology. The Infinity Institute has been providing hypnosis training to members of the public interested in applying hypnosis as a complement to traditional medicine and as a field for scientific study since 1980. Licensed to teach hypnosis as a profession by the State of Michigan, The Infinity Institute offers classes in Forensic Hypnosis, Hypnotherapy, and Therapeutic Touch, as well as Specialty Workshops on selected topics in hypnotherapy and hypnosis.

One of the things that impressed me was the Infinity Institute's library of free resources for practitioners and the general public. Unlike programs designed merely to make money, the Infinity Institute clearly sees its mission as educating the public at large about the field.

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This really doesn't even rise to the level of a human interest story.

Karl Rove, your car is ready.

White House pranksters wrapped Rove's Jaguar in plastic wrap on the private driveway next to the West Wing. Rove's car is easily recognizable because of its "I love Barack Obama" bumper sticker and the twin stuffed-animal eagles on the trunk. Oh, and there's a stuffed-animal elephant on the hood.

Rove, the top White House political strategist who recently announced his resignation, left his car on the driveway while visiting Texas and traveling with President Bush.

He got back to the White House early Wednesday evening, ventured out to the driveway and — wearing a big smile — began unwrapping the car. Rove got some help from a few eager children who had come by the White House to watch President Bush arrive on the South Lawn in the Marine One helicopter.

Rove seemed to assign blame for the prank on Al Hubbard, the chairman of Bush's National Economic Council. He playfully pointed the finger at Hubbard while the kids ripped off the plastic wrap.

So what? What does this story tell us, other than that Rove has friends and coworkers who play practical jokes -- and not even particularly original ones?

Posted by: Greg at 09:34 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Start-ups fail. But when that happens, is it really necessary to rehash the entire past of those involved -- especially when it appears that none of it is relevant to the failure?

Armand Rousso was associated with one start-up that has run into difficulty. But when the New York Times chose to cover those problems, the article's writer chose to dredge up every bit of salacious gossip in Ruosso's past. Parts of it were of questionable accuracy, and some of it downright prejudicial. Fortunately, I also found the Armand Rousso response to NYT story by Saul Hansell at his blog.

For example, a criminal conviction eight years in the past was characterized as "recent" -- and despite the judge's recognition that Ruosso's misdeeds were out of character and that his overall past and present were those of a responsible citizen. Similarly, the author made vague and unsubstantiated hints of financial impropriety regarding Ruosso's wife (who had served as CEO of the company prior to their marriage). But a close examination shows there is no "there" there. The author couldn't even get the facts straight regarding how Ruosso's fees were paid. This is just sloppy reporting -- and it appears that the New York Times is unwilling to correct it.

Maybe most troubling to me is the fact thet Hansell tries to tar Ruosso with the misconduct of others. he was investigated and cleared in a campaign finance case -- but a partner was convicted of wrong-doing. Now I don't like the candidate in question (Robert Torricelli) or Ruosso's apparent association with the Clintons -- but this kind of slimy journalism is too egregious to ignore. When one is investigated and cleared, it seems wrong to me to impute guilt.

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Seems to me that liberals just can't follow the rules that they insist be applied to the rest of us.

The Federal Election Commission has fined one of the last cycle's biggest liberal political action committees $775,000 for using unregulated soft money to boost John Kerry and other Democratic candidates during the 2004 elections.

America Coming Together (ACT) raised $137 million for its get-out-the-vote effort in 2004, but the FEC found most of that cash came through contributions that violated federal limits.

The group's big donors included George Soros, Progressive Corp. chairman Peter Lewis and the Service Employees International Union.

The settlement, which the FEC approved unanimously, is the third largest enforcement penalty in the commission's 33-year history.

I don't know about you, but illegal campaign practices seem a lot more important than Larry Craig's non-BJ. Which will the press cover extensively?

Seems to me that the bumper sticker slogan that the Democrats need is "Got Corruption?"

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Yep – that is the latest John Edwards mantra.

Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards told a labor group that he would ask Americans to make a big sacrifice: their sport utility vehicles.

"I think Americans are actually willing to sacrifice," Edwards said Tuesday during a forum held by the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers. "One of the things they should be asked to do is drive more fuel efficient vehicles."

The former North Carolina senator was asked specifically if he would tell them to give up their SUVs, he said, "Yes."

Doesn't Edwards often travel in an SUV? Doesn't he often fly on private jets? Isn't he the owner of a palatial mansion that uses a superabundance of energy? In other words, isn't John Edwards a carbon sasquatch?

I've never owned an SUV, and won't unless my wife needs one to get around in a wheelchair. But let me say this – I resent being called on to sacrifice by an individual who annually consumes more energy than I do in the course of 5 years.

MORE AT Captain Ed.

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I don't agree with their challenge to the policy, but I respect their willingness to stand up for what they believe.

The leaders of a student group at Montgomery County's Wissahickon High School that opposes a new rule requiring backpacks worn inside the school to be made of mesh or clear plastic won praise from the school board and administration at a board meeting Tuesday night, but got no change in the policy.

The students vowed to continue the fight; they are calling for a "Day of Silence" on Sept. 12, when they will refuse to talk during classes. The board agreed to take another look at the policy after school starts.

The new rule was part of a 13-page list of school safety recommendations released in July by a school safety task force convened by Montgomery County District Attorney Bruce L. Castor Jr. Several other Montgomery County school districts already either require see-through backpacks or have banned backpacks altogether from school hallways.

Principal William Hayes decided over the summer to implement the clear or mesh backpack policy, saying that while it was not a surefire way of keeping weapons out of the school, it would "make kids think twice" about bringing contraband into the school.

The move unleashed a wave of protest from students who formed an online group calling itself "Hell No I'm Not Wearing a See-Through Backpack."

What is particularly nice here is that the school board is taking its responsibility to encourage good citizenship quite seriously. Rather than dismissing the complaints and punishing the students, they offer nothing but praise for the kids and express a willingness to discuss – but not necessarily change – the policy.

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With her history of lawbreaking and border jumping, I think it would be appropriate top declare her persona non grata so that she can NEVER legally return to this country under any circumstance.

The recently deported illegal migrant and activist who took refuge in a Chicago church for a year, has asked the Mexico's president to appoint her "peace and justice" ambassador so she can return to the United States.

Elvira Arellano, 32, who sought refuge to avoid being separated from her U.S.-born, 8-year-old son, was arrested and sent back to Mexico on Aug. 19 after traveling to Los Angeles to attend a rally for the overhaul of U.S. immigration laws. Her son stayed in the United States.

"What I'm asking for is a diplomatic visa so that I can be an ambassador for peace and justice because I'm not a terrorist and the United States can't continue treating undocumented migrants as terrorists," Arellano told reporters after meeting with President Felipe Calderon at the presidential residence, Los Pinos.

There is no reason for us to recognize any diplomatic status the Mexicans give her – and every reason to permanently ban her from American soil.

Posted by: Greg at 12:00 PM | Comments (179) | Add Comment
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I guess that felons really are a Democrat constituency.

For the last 15 years, California authorities have been trying to figure out what happened to a businessman named Norman Hsu, who pleaded no contest to grand theft, agreed to serve up to three years in prison and then seemed to vanish.

"He is a fugitive," Ronald Smetana, who handled the case for the state attorney general, said in an interview. "Do you know where he is?"

Hsu, it seems, has been hiding in plain sight, at least for the last three years.

Since 2004, one Norman Hsu has been carving out a prominent place of honor among Democratic fundraisers. He has funneled hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions into party coffers, much of it earmarked for presidential hopeful Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York.

In addition to making his own contributions, Hsu has honed the practice of assembling packets of checks from contributors who bear little resemblance to the usual Democratic deep pockets: A self-described apparel executive with a variety of business interests, Hsu has focused on delivering hefty contributions from citizens who live modest lives and are neophytes in the world of campaign giving.

Hsu has donated or raised over $100,000 for Hillary Clinton's presidential run -- and over $1,000,000 for Democrats since 2004.

And Hillary's response to this?

"Norman Hsu is a longtime and generous supporter of the Democratic Party and its candidates, including Sen. Clinton," Howard Wolfson, a spokesman for the campaign, said Tuesday.

"During Mr. Hsu's many years of active participation in the political process, there has been no question about his integrity or his commitment to playing by the rules, and we have absolutely no reason to call his contributions into question or to return them."

Could you imagine the outrage if this were a Republican candidate refusing to return funds raised by a fugitive felon? And given the unusual patterns of some of those donations, it is clear that there is a serious question about Hsu's integrity and his commitment to playing by the rules.

I wonder if the Clinton PardonMart is already open for business.

Posted by: Greg at 10:43 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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The Turkish Parliament, acting in accord with the will of the people as expressed in recent elections, have defied the Turkish military and elected Abdullah Gul as the nation's new president.

Beaming as the votes were counted, a veteran government figure with roots in political Islam won a parliamentary vote to become Turkey's president Tuesday, in defiance of the country's strongly secular military. Abdullah Gul's triumph presented Turkey's generals with a choice: overthrow Gul in what would be a deeply unpopular coup or accommodate the rise of political Islam in the Muslim world's most rigidly secular state.

Gul immediately sought to reassure the military and other doubters. "Turkey is a secular democracy. . . . These are basic values of our republic, and I will defend and strengthen these values," he told parliament after taking the oath as Turkey's 11th president.

Many Turks say the popularity of Gul's mildly Islamic Justice and Development Party after five years in power, and the unprecedented economic prosperity it has brought, will probably shield it from any immediate putsch. Turkey's military sees itself as the guardian of the secular state established by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk in 1923. Generals have driven out four governments since 1960, including an overtly Islamic government in the 1990s in which Gul held a cabinet post.

The election of Gul, as I noted yesterday, offers a model for the Muslim world of a Democratic government that respects Islamic values while not imposing a sharia-based theocracy. The Bush administration needs to strongly support Gul's election, and make it clear to the Turkish military that any attempt to undo it will not receive favorable treatment from Washington.

Posted by: Greg at 10:31 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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The Firefighters Union has endorsed. . . Chris Dodd.

Sen. Christopher J. Dodd (D-Conn.) picked up the first significant prize in the competition for labor union endorsements yesterday, winning the support of the International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF) in what his advisers believe will be an important boost to his presidential primary campaign.

The firefighters count 281,000 members, meaning they are only the 10th-largest union in the AFL-CIO. But they are among the most politically active and symbolically prized labor groups in the country, in part because of the heroic actions of firefighters at the World Trade Center and the Pentagon when terrorists struck on Sept. 11, 2001.

Just let that one sink in. Chris Dodd.

That certainly makes me take them seriously when the union thugs in charge of this organization attack Rudy Giuliani. After all, if you want evidence of bad judgment, this endorsement is it.

Chris Dodd? Good God!

Posted by: Greg at 10:21 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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In other words, the cut-&-run crowd, whether they intend it or not, are advocating turning Iraq over the Mahmoud the Mad and the murderous Mullahs of Iran.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad boldly declared Tuesday that U.S. political influence in Iraq is "collapsing rapidly" and said his government is ready to help fill any power vacuum.

The hard-line leader also defended Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, a fellow Shiite Muslim who has been harshly criticized by American politicians for his unsuccessful efforts to reconcile Iraq's Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds.

"The political power of the occupiers is collapsing rapidly," Ahmadinejad said at a news conference, referring to U.S. troops in Iraq. "Soon, we will see a huge power vacuum in the region. Of course, we are prepared to fill the gap, with the help of neighbors and regional friends like Saudi Arabia, and with the help of the Iraqi nation."

The last thing we want to see in Iraq is another hardline Islamic theocracy. And at a time when US policy in Iraq seems to be working, pulling out so that one can be established by an enemy of the United States is precisely the wrong policy.

Posted by: Greg at 10:13 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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I condemned it when the Democrats did it. Now I fear that my own party may follow them in the same sort of mistake -- even if not nearly as extreme.

The Republican National Committee plans to penalize at least four states holding early primaries, including New Hampshire and Florida, by refusing to seat at least half their delegates at the partyÂ’s national convention in 2008, a party official said Tuesday.

Much of the focus in the primary scheduling fight up to now has been on the Democratic National CommitteeÂ’s moves to penalize Florida by not seating its convention delegates because of the stateÂ’s decision to move up its primary. But the Republican rules are even more stringent, and the national party said today that it would not hesitate enforcing them.

I agree that we need to get a better hold on the nominating process, but disenfranchising the voters is not the way to do it. And make no mistake, that is what such penalties do.

To the legislators of the four states involved, I offer the same advice that I offered when the Democrats took action against Florida.

1) Deny access to the November 2008 ballot to any party which holds a national nominating convention which refuses to seat the delegates duly elected on the primary date established by law.

2) Exercise its constitutional power to direct the votes of the state's electors by prohibiting the awarding of any of the state's electoral votes to a candidate nominated at a national nominating convention which refuses to seat the delegates duly elected on the primary date established by law.

Disenfranchisement is wrong when the GOP does it, every bit as much as when the Democrats do it. I urge my party to pull back from the brink of a serious political and moral wrong.

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Now the Red Chinese are working to turn the internet into the same sort of freedom-free zone as the rest of their country.

Police in China's capital said Tuesday they will start patrolling the Web using animated beat officers that pop up on a user's browser and walk, bike or drive across the screen warning them to stay away from illegal Internet content.

Many of the sites that will bring the cyber-cops to your screen are those that have politically questionable content. You know, advocacy of freedom, democracy, and human rights. All things that have undermiend communism in every nation where such ideas are able to take hold in the hearts and minds of the people.

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So, you want to play poker and get rich doing it. Well, maybe not get rich -- just make sure that you come home still wearing your shirt. You need to learn about poker strategy, because it really is as much more a game of skill than a game of chance.

For example, did you know that there were different strategies for single-table and multi-table tournaments?

For example, in a multi-table tourney, you start off simply trying not to lose. Don't get yourself wiped out early through a dumb mover or incorrect play. Hold back just a little bit, until you can either strike with a good hand or even back your way into the finals without having taken any risk at all. I've found that particular strategy to be useful in local tourneys, where most of your opponents are rank amateurs who will end up shooting their wads within a few poorly played hands. And even when you advance, you can still make a killing against some of your competitors because they have gotten lucky and somehow entered a pool that is much too deep for them. Indeed, the host gets it exactly right with his recommendations for conservative play in certain situations -- a lesson I learned the hard way when I was much younger and was sure that A-K could beat anything

Frankly, I like many of the tips that are on the site. If you are trying to learn how to play poker successfully, I don't think you can go wrong if you follow the guidance offered.

Posted by: Greg at 09:58 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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And they are all George Bush's fault.

Five years into a national economic recovery, the share of Americans living in poverty finally dropped.

The nation's poverty rate was 12.3 percent in 2006, down from 12.6 percent a year before, the Census Bureau reported Tuesday. Median household income increased slightly, to $48,200.

Individual earnings dropped for both men and women in 2006, but more members of each household worked, resulting in the overall increase in household income, said David Johnson, chief of the Census Bureau's Housing and Household Economic Statistics Division.

Remember -- the burst of the tech bubble in the final months of the Clinton Administration, followed by the Enron debacle (caused by lax enforcement and supervision by the SEC during the Clinton years) and 9/11 (again, brought on by lax Clinton terrorism policies) led to an economic downturn in 2001 and 2002. Tax cuts brought us out of that slump -- the Bush tax cuts opposed by the Democrats. Had we followed their policies, we would still be in the midst of an economic depression.

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What's the old song say? Christmas is coming, the goose is getting fat. Well, as you feed that chubby bird, you need to start thinking about the gifts you are going to buy for the holidays. And if you are going to be buying gifts online, you need to remember CouponChief.com.

At CouponChief.com, you can find all sorts of great savings on gifts for the whole family. Are you looking for a new computer for the holidays? Well, Coupon Chief has coupon codes for HP desktop and laptop computers that will really make your holiday a merry one. They've got coupons for $200 dollar discounts and promo codes for $400 off the cost of that new computer. That will certainly stretch your holiday budget.

Or maybe you'd rather buy one of the great computers from Apple and get a free iPod Nano -- Coupon Chief can help hook you up. And even better, they have free shipping to go along with that free gift. Again, you can make that gift-giving dollar go a lot farther just by using these great coupons and promo codes when you make your purchases.

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

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This would be really goofy if it didn't have a serious cool factor to it -- at least for science fiction and space geeks like me.

May the force be with shuttle Discovery and seven astronauts on an October mission to the International Space Station.

Coming from a galaxy far, far away, the lightsaber wielded by Luke Skywalker in Star Wars will fly aboard the orbiter three decades after the classic movie opened.

"What better way to celebrate the 30th anniversary than to send the original lightsaber into space with the shuttle?" Julie Kuenstle, a spokeswoman for Space Center Houston, said Tuesday.

The lightsaber will be on display at the visitor complex at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston through Labor Day. Then it will be shipped to Kennedy Space Center and packed into Discovery's mid-deck.

NASA spokesman James Hartsfield said the sci-fi sword would remain stowed throughout the shuttle's 13-day mission.

Yeah -- I guess a lightsaber wouldn't be much good if the Shuttle were to encounter the Death Star.

I guess I'll have to drive down the road this week to see the movie relic before it gets shipped to Florida.

Posted by: Greg at 04:51 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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I've had it.

I'm tired of seeing "community" abused.

It has been going on for years. We hear it all the time.

The black community.

The Jewish community.

The GLBT community

Fine, these are all groups of people who share some common trait, but do they really have the level of commonality and cohesion to be considered a "community? That can be argued either way, especially since the word has taken on an expanded meaning in recent years.

But tonight I heard the most egregious abuse of the word "community" that I've ever encountered.

On one of our local stations tonight, the reporter dutifully reported that a task force to study ways to decrease convenience store robberies included "representatives of the convenience store community".

Convenience store community?

What next -- Convenience Store-Americans?

Posted by: Greg at 04:47 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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I frankly don't care whether or not Senator Larry Craig is gay or bisexual.

I don't even care if he attempted to solicit sex in a bathroom.

We determined in the 1980s and 1990s that sexual orientation and sexual misconduct are irrelevant to fitness for office -- and any Democrat who didn't support the removal of Bill Clinton, Barney Frank, and Gerry Studds from office has no basis for raising a fuss over Craig.

What I do find disturbing is the hypocrisy charge -- based upon the presumption of his sexuality and his positions on gay marriage and hate crimes.

I've been trying to figure out how to explain my position, but ran across something that reflected my thoughts in a manner better than I could express them.

The liberal view of homosexuality is based on two claims: an empirical one and a moral one. The empirical claim is that sexual orientation is inborn, a trait over which one has no control. The moral claim is that homosexuality is no better or worse than heterosexuality; that a gay relationship, like a traditional marriage, can be an expression of true love and a source of deep fulfillment. Out of these claims flows the conclusion that opposition to gay rights is akin to racism: an unwarranted prejudice against people for a trait over which they have no control.

For the sake of argument, suppose this liberal view is true. What does it imply about the closeted homosexual who takes antigay positions? To our mind, the implication is that he is a deeply tragic figure, an abject victim of society's prejudices, which he has internalized and turned against himself. "Outing" him seems an act of gratuitous cruelty, not to mention hypocrisy if one also claims to believe in the right to privacy.

According to the Statesman, the blogger who "outed" Craig did so in order to "nail a hypocritical Republican foe of gay rights." But there is nothing hypocritical about someone who is homosexual, believes homosexuality is wrong, and keeps his homosexuality under wraps. To the contrary, he is acting consistent with his beliefs. If he has furtive encounters in men's rooms, that is an act of weakness, not hypocrisy.

Defenders of "outing" politicians argue that the cruelty is not gratuitous--that politicians are in a position of power, which they are using to harm gay citizens, and therefore their private lives are fair game. But if the politician in question is a mere legislator, his power consists only of the ability to cast one vote among hundreds. The actual amount of harm that he is able to inflict is minimal.

Anyway, most lawmakers who oppose gay-rights measures are not homosexual. To single out those who are for special vituperation is itself a form of antigay prejudice. Liberals pride themselves on their compassion, but often are unwilling to extend it to those with whose politics they disagree.

Of course, liberals don't really believe that those who disagree with them are worthy of respect or rights. From Stalin's USSR to the Clinton White House to the local Democrat official who called for the murder of a prominent Republican for supporting the Iraq War, those who oppose the position of the liberal is seen as an enemy to be destroyed, not a fellow human being with a different point of view.

Some interesting takes on the Craig issue at Captain's Quarters, Slate, Lawyers Guns & Money, Talking Points Memo, Crossed Pond

Posted by: Greg at 04:01 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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I've seen cheap shots before -- but exploiting this tragedy in this manner is inexcusable.

Bush Motorcade Kills Cop

What -- did the George W. Bush order his motorcade to speed up and run this law enforcement officer off the road? Was Dick Cheney laying down covering fire as they passed th cop?

No. Nothing of the sort.

What happened was that the officer lost control of his bike as the motorcade entered a parking garage, and was fatally injured in the performance of his duty. It was a tragic accident, notable to the national press only because the officer was one of the escorts of the presidential motorcade.

Should this story have been reported? Absolutely.

But is the headline irresponsible and misleading? You bet.

But you know the MSM motto -- never miss a cheap shot at the the President.

OPEN TRACKBACKING AT Outside the Beltway, Perri Nelson's Website, The Virtuous Republic, Rosemary's Thoughts, The Random Yak, DeMediacratic Nation, Adam's Blog, Right Truth, Nuke's News & Views, Webloggin, Leaning Straight Up, Cao's Blog, The Amboy Times, Conservative Cat, Pursuing Holiness, Conservative Thoughts, third world county, Allie Is Wired, The Crazy Rants of Samantha Burns, Blue Star Chronicles, Pirate's Cove, The Pink Flamingo, Planck's Constant, Republican National Convention Blog, and Gone Hollywood, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.

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Seems rather oxymoronic to me -- but then again, most anarchists I've met have been morons, so there's no surprise.

A group of activists who describe themselves as "anarchists and anti-authoritarians" will hold a private strategy session over the Labor Day weekend to discuss plans to protest at the Republican National Convention to be held in St. Paul Sept. 1-4, 2008.

The group, called the RNC Welcoming Committee, held a news conference on Monday at the Jack Pine Community Center on Lake Street in Minneapolis, where Bea Bridges, speaking for the committee, showed a video that hinted at confrontational tactics, read a statement and walked out, taking no questions.

It seems pretty clear they are planning violence -- like such anarchist groups do every time they seek to express their displeasure.

Captain Ed has a great analysis of this group and the article.

Posted by: Greg at 10:23 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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You cannot discriminate against voters -- even if you are black and they are white.

In a case that marked the federal government's first use of the Voting Rights Act to accuse African-Americans of discriminating against white voters, a judge on Monday ordered a Mississippi county Democratic Party and its chairman to forgo election activities until 2011.

U.S. District Judge Tom Lee issued the order as a remedy in the 2005 lawsuit filed by the U.S. Department of Justice.

Under his order, a "referee-administrator" will have full authority over the party's primary and runoff elections through November 2011. The job went to former state Supreme Court justice Reuben Anderson, the first African-American to serve on the high court in Mississippi.

In June, the mostly black-run Noxubee County Democratic Executive Committee (NDEC) and Chairman Ike Brown, who is black, were found to have discriminated against white voters and their candidates by fixing absentee ballots and ignoring residency requirements.

Democrats have engaged in racist behavior throughout their history to maintain their hold on power wherever possible. When will it be recognized that the nation's RICO laws need to be applied to its ongoing pattern of misconduct, for the good of the American political system?

Posted by: Greg at 10:16 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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And if Gul can successfully walk the fine line between the nation's secular constitution and the desire of religious Turks to see their values reflected in the nation's laws, there may be a real model for Muslims to follow.

After being shut out of the presidency last spring, Abdullah Gul, a religious man in the assiduously secular realm of Turkish politics, allowed himself a little soul-searching.

“Has the government limited women’s rights?” Mr. Gul, 56, asked a panel of newspaper editors on national television, hoping to persuade Turkey’s establishment that it had nothing to fear from his candidacy.

After all, he argued, his party was already in power, but “has the government closed down places where young people or modern people go? Has the government done some secret things and those been disclosed? What happened?”

As he saw it, he had done everything right. As foreign minister, he pushed for Turkey to join the European Union. He called for changes to a law that punished writers for “insulting Turkishness.” He raised Turkey’s profile abroad and helped devise a set of democratic reforms.

But for TurkeyÂ’s secular class, all that was beside the point. Mr. Gul came from a party that espoused political Islam, his wife wore an Islamic head scarf and the fear that inspired outweighed his accomplishments. A high court blocked his candidacy at the request of the main secular opposition party.

Four months later, he is running again, after Turks voted overwhelmingly for his party in a national election. This time, in todayÂ’s parliamentary vote, he is almost certain to win.

Turkey’s secular class is still clearly uncomfortable with the choice. Turkey’s powerful military, which has ousted four elected governments, said on its Web site on Monday that there were “centers of evil” that “systematically try to corrode the secular nature of the Turkish Republic.”

But TurkeyÂ’s secular elite won only a fifth of the vote last month, and Mr. Gul, an outsider from TurkeyÂ’s religious heartland, seems to be calculating that he no longer needs its consent.

His approval will thrust a group of young, reform-minded members of the Islamic middle class into the upper echelons of secular power in Turkey, a fundamental reversal of the hierarchy in place since the founding of the state in 1923. For most of TurkeyÂ’s history, upper-class Turks have occupied the presidency and imposed Western values onto the conservative Anatolian heartland below. With Mr. GulÂ’s election, that heartland is on top.

Given that Gul and his supporters appear to be the Muslim equivalent of the Christian Coalition, I hope they are successful in their efforts to balance religion and politics.

Posted by: Greg at 10:11 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Earlier this year, a sex-abuse scandal hit the Texas Youth Commission. At the same time (for unrelated reasons), the whining mother of a whining delinquent got a crew of race-baiters to demand her release -- and sparked the early release of a large number of juveniles thugs and criminals.

Care to guess what happened? It shouldn't be too hard.

Thirteen days after Howard McJunkin was paroled from a Texas Youth Commission facility for beating and raping an elderly woman in this East Texas town, authorities say he committed the same crime again.

McJunkin is one of 2,200 offenders the TYC rushed to release this year as part of an effort to drastically reduce the population of the scandal-plagued juvenile corrections system. Nearly one in five of those parolees — 408 — have been rearrested for committing new offenses, including McJunkin and 42 others for violent crimes, documents obtained by the Houston Chronicle reveal.

While high recidivism rates have long been a fact of life for TYC — 50 percent of parolees offend again within three years — the rapid rearrests of offenders released in a hurry this year has residents in this town of 25,000 demanding to know: Exactly who's getting out, and how are decisions being made?

* * *

While the Legislature this spring enacted a series of agency-wide reforms in an effort to address a sex abuse scandal, including closing TYC to offenders between the ages of 19 and 21 and those who committed misdemeanor offenses, they left untouched TYC's current criteria for paroling juveniles.

Staff who make parole decisions can consider neither the seriousness of an offender's original crime, nor his or her sentence, just the offender's behavior inside TYC.

Posted by: Greg at 10:03 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Hey, I found a neat new site the other night that is right up the alley for a wannabe pundit like me. Called Guess Now, it offers participants the chance to guess the outcome of certain events and trends, and to make money doing so. Think about it -- Free Cash for Predicting Outcome of Future Events .

Now you folks know that I am a political junkie. I love to deal with the politics of the day, and to project trends into the future. Well, at Guess Now, I can make a little bit of cash doing so.

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Of course, thee is another fun part to Guess Now -- you can refer your friends. Sign up your buddies and make a go of it together, since you will get a 10% bonus on the number of points they win. What can be better than that?

Posted by: Greg at 10:00 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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A great many Harris County GOP activists became quite upset after last spring's bait-and-switch resignation of County Judge Robert Eckels and his replacement with Ed Emmett only weeks after Eckels had been sworn in for a new term of office. We have been looking around for a candidate that we could support -- one selected by the voters, not foisted on us as a part of an inside deal.

The day is rapidly approaching when our candidate makes his formal announcement.

Harris County District Clerk Charles Bacarisse is expected to announce his candidacy for county judge on Wednesday, ending months of speculation about whether he would seek the job after being passed over for it earlier this year.

Bacarisse told the Houston Chronicle last week that he had no plans to declare his intentions before Labor Day. But a close political adviser, Jim McGrath, indicated Monday that Bacarisse would make it official this week.

Asked if that was true, the district clerk hedged.

"I want to wait until I speak at the press conference to say anything, for obvious reasons," Bacarisse said. "I don't want to trigger the 'resign to run' provision until I trigger it."

Charles has done a great job in his current office, and has the skills needed to be a fine County Judge. He has been popular among Harris County voters, while Emmett has not been before the people for election in about 20 years, and holds his job because he was chosen by a constituency of one -- Eckels selected his friend and pulled the strings to get him selected.

Charles Bacarisse has my whole-hearted endorsement for the office.

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Yahoo has announced changes that might put it ahead of Google in the free email game.

Yahoo Inc. will introduce new features Monday for its popular Web-based e-mail program, including software that allows computer users to type text messages on a keyboard and send them directly to someone's cell phone.

The enhancements make it easier to send e-mail, instant messages or text messages from a single Web site — no need to launch or toggle between separate applications or devices. The features will be available to users in the United States, Canada, India and the Philippines.

The most obvious beneficiaries will be parents, who will be able to use their keyboards to type messages sent to their children's cell phones — no thumb-twisting typing on a dial pad, said Yahoo Vice President John Kremer.

"We're giving you the right way to connect at the right time with right person," said Kremer, whose two preteen sons vastly prefer text and instant messages to e-mail.

I'll be honest -- I don't text, because i don't like using the little keypad on my phone. This move could be enough to get me to start -- although I have become so wedded to my Gmail address that I can't imagine making the switch. So I guess I'll wait for Google to introduce the feature.

Posted by: Greg at 09:41 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Drug abuse happens in our society, all too often. So does alcoholism. They occurs among the rich and the poor -- even athletes and celebrities are not immune. As a teacher, I can know that addiction happens among my students and in every classroom in every high school. It is very likely that I have at least one student in active need of rehab in my newly formed classes -- and I just pray that I recognize their problem and can help guide them to help.

How bad can alcoholism and drug abuse be at a young age? Last spring, one of my students had to enter rehab because she was smuggling alcohol into class in a bottle of apple juice -- she couldn't even make it through a class without drinking!

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Posted by: Greg at 09:34 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Take away the jobs, and the border jumpers leave.

Undocumented immigrants are starting to leave Arizona because of the new employer-sanctions law.

The state's strong economy has been a magnet for illegal immigrants for years. But a growing number are pulling up stakes out of fear they will be jobless come Jan. 1, when the law takes effect. The departures are drawing cheers from immigration hard-liners and alarm from business owners already seeing a drop in sales.

It's impossible to count how many undocumented immigrants have fled because of the new law. But based on interviews with undocumented immigrants, immigrant advocates, community leaders and real-estate agents, at least several hundred have left since Democratic Gov. Janet Napolitano signed the bill on July 2. There are an estimated 500,000 illegal immigrants in Arizona.

Some are moving to other states, where they think they will have an easier time getting jobs. Others are returning to Mexico, selling their effects and putting their houses on the market.

The number departing is expected to mushroom as the Jan. 1 deadline draws closer. After that, the law will require employers to verify the employment eligibility of their workers through a federal database.

"I would say we are losing at least 100 people a day," said Elias Bermudez, founder of Immigrants Without Borders and host of a daily talk-radio program aimed at undocumented immigrants.

Here's hoping that the rate increases as the deadline looms.

And that other states – and the federal government – impose similar employer sanctions.

Posted by: Greg at 02:26 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Take away the jobs, and the border jumpers leave.

Undocumented immigrants are starting to leave Arizona because of the new employer-sanctions law.

The state's strong economy has been a magnet for illegal immigrants for years. But a growing number are pulling up stakes out of fear they will be jobless come Jan. 1, when the law takes effect. The departures are drawing cheers from immigration hard-liners and alarm from business owners already seeing a drop in sales.

It's impossible to count how many undocumented immigrants have fled because of the new law. But based on interviews with undocumented immigrants, immigrant advocates, community leaders and real-estate agents, at least several hundred have left since Democratic Gov. Janet Napolitano signed the bill on July 2. There are an estimated 500,000 illegal immigrants in Arizona.

Some are moving to other states, where they think they will have an easier time getting jobs. Others are returning to Mexico, selling their effects and putting their houses on the market.

The number departing is expected to mushroom as the Jan. 1 deadline draws closer. After that, the law will require employers to verify the employment eligibility of their workers through a federal database.

"I would say we are losing at least 100 people a day," said Elias Bermudez, founder of Immigrants Without Borders and host of a daily talk-radio program aimed at undocumented immigrants.

Here's hoping that the rate increases as the deadline looms.

And that other states – and the federal government – impose similar employer sanctions.

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This makes no sense at all -- if this organization is a terrorist conspirator in an ongoing trial, the Justice Department should be keeping far away from them, not sponsoring their annual convention.

The Justice Department is co-sponsoring a convention held by the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) — an unindicted co-conspirator in an ongoing federal terrorist funding case — a move that is raising concerns among the Justice's rank and file.

Justice lawyers have objected to the affiliation with ISNA, fearing it will undermine the case against the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development in Dallas.

"There is outrage among lawyers that the Department of Justice is funding a group named as a co-conspirator in a terrorist financing case," said a Justice lawyer who spoke to The Washington Times on the condition of anonymity.

According to an e-mail from Susana Lorenzo-Giguere, acting deputy chief of the Voting Rights Division, the sponsorship will involve sending government lawyers to man a booth for the Labor Day weekend event in Illinois.

"This is an important outreach opportunity, and a chance to reach a community that is at once very much discriminated against, and very wary of the national government and its willingness to protect them," Mrs. Lorenzo-Giguere said in an e-mail obtained by The Washington Times.

"It would be a great step forward to break through those barriers. And Chicago is lovely this time of year," Mrs. Lorenzo-Giguere said.

We should be locking some of these folks up, not registering them to vote. We should be monitoring their activities, not supporting them.

What next -- government catering of the next reunion of the Gambino family?

Posted by: Greg at 10:18 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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John Edwards has jumped on the defeat-at-any-cost bandwagon.

Congress should continue to push for the withdrawal of troops from Iraq regardless of what top military advisers say in their progress report next month, Democratic presidential hopeful John Edwards said Sunday on Face The Nation.

"I think they should not submit a single funding bill to the president for the war that doesn't have a timetable for withdrawal," Edwards told Bob Schieffer. "And I think they should use whatever legislative tool is available to them, including filibuster."

And Edwards kept insisting that there has been no political progress in Iraq, even as the Maliki government announced exactly the sort of compromises and steps forward that Edwards called a necessary step to stability.

Iraq's top Shi'ite, Sunni Arab and Kurdish political leaders announced on Sunday they had reached consensus on some key measures seen as vital to fostering national reconciliation.

The agreement by the five leaders was one of the most significant political developments in Iraq for months and was quickly welcomed by the United States, which hopes such moves will ease sectarian violence that has killed tens of thousands.

It seems that the Breck Girl wants to go down in history as an even worse president than Jimmy Carter.

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As classes start today, I'm pleased to say that we don't have a single vacancy in my building. That is not the case at many schools around the country.

The retirement of thousands of baby boomer teachers coupled with the departure of younger teachers frustrated by the stress of working in low-performing schools is fueling a crisis in teacher turnover that is costing school districts substantial amounts of money as they scramble to fill their ranks for the fall term.

Superintendents and recruiters across the nation say the challenge of putting a qualified teacher in every classroom is heightened in subjects like math and science and is a particular struggle in high-poverty schools, where the turnover is highest. Thousands of classes in such schools have opened with substitute teachers in recent years.

Of course, there are ways of fixing the problem -- starting with higher salaries to entice more and better-qualified teachers into the classroom. Giving teachers more support instead of adopting the attitude that the student and parent are always right would help as well. Too many teachers I know walk away from the field in the first five years because they are imply beat down by the constant expectation that they accomplish miracles while standards of conduct and achievement are lowered for students. Until we see a return to the day when teachers were treated as respected professionals, the shortage will continue.

Posted by: Greg at 10:07 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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