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September 30, 2005
A familiar theme
Charles Krauthammer unloads on Cindy Sheeham, the antiwar crowd's "de facto" leader, "who catapulted herself into that role by quite brilliantly exploiting the media's hunger for political news during the August recess and by wrapping herself in the courage of her son Casey, who died in Iraq." He also explains that the antiwar movement "has found itself ill served by endowing absolute moral authority on a political radical who demanded that American troops leave not just Iraq but "occupied New Orleans." Who blames Israel for her son's death. Who complained that the news media went "100 percent rita" -- "a little wind and a little rain" -- rather than covering other things in the world, meaning her."
This is a all too familiar : there is, as Krauthammer notes, "widespread discontent" about the war in Iraq - plenty of room for meaningful dissent - but the antiwar message is too angry and shrill, and now its leader simply too nuts, for anyone to want to listen.
Posted by bill at 03:31 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Tree falls in forest, believes it has made a sound
As if unsatisfied with its efforts to date in becoming unreadable in both function and substance, the New York Times laments the fate of the "International Freedom Center" at Ground Zero in Manhattan, to which New Yorkers bade adieu earlier this week. The editorial begins by shooting the proverbial fish in the barrel - George Pataki - but then leers leftward and wraps up as follows:
Nor does it seem to have mattered that the protest against the Freedom Center - or, more truthfully, against any cultural presence at the World Trade Center site - was based on false information and a profound fear of free speech.
At the root of that vitriolic protest was one question: "Why here?" Why imagine creating an institution that would celebrate freedom and foster discussion of its meaning, and the meaning of 9/11, within the memorial quadrant of ground zero? Wouldn't that dishonor the dead? We have never thought so. We believe that the site is sacred to more than death. It is sacred to life and to the principles - as well as the people - attacked there on Sept. 11, 2001. We believe that this country can be made stronger only by free speech. We believe that the power of that site should be used to consider what happened that day and to see what lessons we can derive from it, not only to mourn the dead.
This sounds an awful lot like Bob Herbert, NYT's standard-bearer for meandrous leftist nonsense, and in the end the paper has simply offered more evidence it has completely and utterly lost touch. More here.
Posted by bill at 02:56 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
We're talking baseball
No Morning Blend today...
This weekend baseball fans, whether Yankees fans or Yankees haters (everyone is one of those things, from what I can tell) are in for some fantastic baseball. The Yankees lead Boston by one game heading into a season-ending three game series at Fenway. If you're not a baseball fan, tune into this weekend and become one. Meantime, Penn State football hosts Minnesota tomorrow at 3:30. This is Penn State's first 4-0 start in a while, and the program seems to be picking up steam after a dreadful few years. The disintegration, by the way, began in 1999 when Penn State's national championship run was derailed by a heartbreaking come-from-ahead loss at the hands of, wouldn't you know, Minnesota.
I'll be on the couch.
Posted by bill at 07:14 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
September 29, 2005
Morning Blend - Thursday, July 29, 2005
Tom DeLay: J. Dickerson/WP/WSJ/J. Podhoretz/The Hill
The Scofflaw Swimmer - Peggy Noonan, WSJ
President in Need of a Blunt Friend - J. Hoagland, WP
Call in the Cavalry? Not So Fast - Austin Bay, TCS
The threat of avian flu - Bill Frist, Wash Times
Pataki Nixes IFC - Captain Ed
Google and the Guild - R. Emmett Tyrell, Jr., Amer. Spectator
Liberals & Islamofascists - Jonathan David Carson, AT
Posted by bill at 06:40 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
September 28, 2005
Down goes the IFC
Sanity prevails in Lower Manhattan, as it appears the hideous "International Freedom Center" may have met its end. [Takebackthememorial.org's full press release is below the fold.] NY's governor, the feckless George Pataki, pulled the IFC from the site and did so with his usual lethargy (and one week after Hillary Clinton lead the way): "Freedom should unify us. This center has not," Pataki said.
Today there remains too much opposition, too much controversy over the programming of the IFC. ...We must move forward with our first priority, the creation of an inspiring memorial to pay tribute to our lost loved ones and tell their stories to the world."
Pataki cannot bring himself to acknowledge the IFC was an internationalist, anti-American fraud (What's wrong with "Goodbye and good riddance," as NY Rep. Vito Fossella said?) but that's okay. Kudos to Debra Burlingame, whose Paul Revere impression brought the IFC "hijacking" into the national dialogue, and the countless bloggers (especially Michelle Malkin) without whom the IFC might very well be alive and well.
From Takebackthememorial.org.
We are very pleased to announce that Governor Pataki has announced the removal of the International Freedom Center (IFC) from Ground Zero. See http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/28/AR2005092801849.html for details.
Every since June 8, 2005 when Debra Bulingame's op-ed, The Great Ground Zero Heist, appeared in the Wall Street Journal, we have fought together for the preservation of the dignity of Ground Zero. With your help, we have achieved a major victory toward that goal.
We will continue to monitor the plans for Ground Zero to ensure that a fitting and proper memorial is built; one that is respectful of the victims murdered that day, their families, the first responders, and the American people.
A press release on the removal of the IFC from the 15 family member groups is expected in the next 24 hours and we will post it @ www.takebackthememorial.org as soon as it becomes available.
Thank you again for your support, prayers, and dedication. We simply could not have done this without you.
Posted by bill at 09:47 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Underestimating the dent
Michael Barone weighs in on Tom DeLay, saying it's "bad news" for Republicans since "DeLay has been astonishingly effective in rounding up majorities for legislation supported by the Republican leadership and the Bush administration. He is well liked by many members." This may be true, but the bad news hardly ends there. Whether DeLay's indictment is ultimately exposed as political hatchetry, Republicans will suffer because one of its prominent leaders faces, or will have faced, a jail sentence, and was indicted. Reality check: The deck is stacked against Republicans, and DeLay's indictment is precisely the sideshow the DNC needs to portray Republicans as a reckless party undeserving of majority status. That will hurt in '06.
Posted by bill at 09:37 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Gun Rights? What gun rights?
With the barrage of stories coming out of NOLA in the past weeks, gun rights issues have been largely overlooked, despite an obscene record of government bullying and overreaching. This might someday see more attention, but until then at least we have a few notables like this, an important piece by David Workman. He writes:
A simple look at the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina reveals a disturbing chain of events that had the issue to do with anything but guns, there would have been an uproar in the media....
New Orleans police officials ignited this fire-storm by declaring that they would confiscate everybody's firearms. They didn't cite any statutory authority or emergency regulation -- they just did it. Why?
Because apparently that's the way that New Orleans Police Superintendent P. Edward Compass III wants it. His infuriating quote to The New York Times: "Only law enforcement are are allowed to have weapons."
This is a must-read if you care at all about individual rights. I wonder when the ACLU will get on board? Then again, what about the conservative bloggers? Powerline? Michelle Malkin? Maybe they've addressed this, but I haven't seen if if they have.
(H/T: Rob from down the hall.)
Posted by bill at 01:49 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Morning Blend - Wednesday, September 28, 2005
One-Sided 'Balance' - Manuel Miranda, WSJ
A Year Late, and Way Short - J. Hinderaker, Powerline
Corruption as Usual - Anne Applebaum, Wash Post
A Battle only Postponed - Captain Ed
Reclaiming Higher Ed - Steven Warshawsky, AT
Still Not Ready for 'TimesSelect' - Mickey Kaus
Haley Barbour's Star on the Rise - Leon H., Redstate
Preemptive Hollywood Appeasement - Littlegreenfootballs
Posted by bill at 07:50 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
September 27, 2005
Vote Hillary '08: Women's Commandment-In-Chief?
Michael Dukakis' former campaign manager weighs in, this supposedly Geena Davis-laden week, with the observation that "Hillary Clinton leads every public poll for the Democratic nomination for president -- and her candidacy will be the most important test of women's equality in my generation, precisely because so many Americans aren't ready for a woman president yet. But while I would argue that women have a special obligation to support her for just that reason, unfortunately, it doesn't mean that women are necessarily better leaders."
Her meaning, more plainly stated, is that the risk to women's interests (as women) averted by voting for Hillary, simply because she is a woman, is more serious than the risk to their interests, as citizens, indulged by voting for Hillary simply because she is a woman...
That's a heavy roll of the dice to take because "so many" of us are somehow (how?) unprepared for a female president -- all the more so when Estrich reveals in the same article that "the number of Americans who think that their neighbors" are "ready" for Madam President stands by poll at "two-thirds."
Consequently, although gender does not correlate to leadership, women are bound to the superceding duty to vote Hillary in '08 because the majority of Americans prepared to vote for a female nominee is a mere 66%. In Congress, this percentage is high enough to overturn a Presidential veto. For Estrich this flush numerical inequity is a mark of how far we have to go toward women's equality.
In fact, large numbers of Americans themselves admit that they'd personally vote for a female candidate -- to the tune of 75% -- but Estrich divines from this number that roughly one in ten respondents lied to their pollsters to look PC. A richer field for mining hypotheses is the matter of why voting for Elizabeth Dole in the Republican primaries of last election cycle was not a sexual imperative or even a feminine prerogative. Odd that Estrich (whose Election Law class I attended, and vastly enjoyed) skips over that possibility, and weirder still that Hillary Clinton continues to cause rational people to think that the question of whether she makes for an acceptable president has anything to do with that of whether women make for acceptable presidents.
Posted by James G. Poulos at 01:20 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Morning Blend - Tuesday, September 27, 2005
It's Commander in Chief G.I. Jane - Louis Wittig,* NRO
Univer. presidents have lost dignity - Victor Davis Hanson, WSJ
JAGS Not Welcome - Scott Johnson, Daily Standard
Louisiana's Looters - Wash Post Editorial
Democrats in Disarray - E.J. Dionne, Jr., WP
Anti-War, My Foot - Christopher Hitchens, Slate
Spanish Verdicts Disappoint Prosecutors... - Captain Ed
Senator Sensitivity - George Will, NYP
* Louis Wittig is a CJ contributor. His most recent CJ column is here.
Posted by bill at 07:40 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
September 26, 2005
Nattering nabobs in Iowa
Stranger than fiction: A University of Iowa professor says the school is violating NCAA regs by having pink locker rooms for opposing football teams. Professor Erin Buzuvis frets, "With a pink locker room, you're saying that 'You are a girlie man. You are weak, like a girl,'" Buzuvis said. "That implies that girls are nondominant, therefore, lesser. And that is offensive."
Not pink, actually, but "Dusty Rose," and the idea originated with Iowa's legendary coach Hayden Fry. The Des Moines Register is on the scene, reporting:
Fry ordered the walls of the old visiting locker room at Kinnick painted pink. A psychology major, Iowa's football coach reasoned that the soothing color might placate some of the savage beasts that had pounded on the Hawkeyes for much of the 1970s.
And, heck, if that didn't work, it would at least give them something to think about - and complain about - rather than focus on the game. The old fox never missed a trick.
Today, the Dark Rose offense extends beyong wall paint and, it seems, into urinals, etc. I'm not sure what to make of this. My beloved Penn State's school colors (they're now blue and white) were once black and pink (everything faded in the sun). Evolving standards of girlie-mannishness? Anyway, more here.
Posted by bill at 08:27 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Hillary: Is she or isn't she?
(...a liberal, that is). Well, it depends on what the election recipe calls for. Last week she was all over the dial, saying she couldn't support the leftist International Freedom Center, announcing solidarity with the Senate's Pelosi wing and a forthcoming vote against John Roberts, and announcing she'd meet with Moonbat Cindy Sheehan. This week she's hinting at regulation of "Internet news" - a leftist cause if ever one existed.
Crass political calculus from the most calculating politician in America.
Posted by bill at 02:21 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Morning Blend - Monday, September 26, 2005
A Case for Immigration - Arnold Kling, TCS
No Porking Zone - John Tabin, American Spectator
Iraq's Democratic Divisions - Amir Taheri, NYP
Russian / Chinese Alliance - Ariel Cohen, Fox News
The Left University - James Piereson, Daily Standard
Anti-War Movement Mushrooming - James Robbins, NRO
GOP in Turmoil - Robert Novak (Syn.)
Poor Women's 'Magical Outlook' - William Raspberry, WP
Category 5 Lawsuit - WSJ
Posted by bill at 07:37 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
September 23, 2005
Back to Reality
Bill makes a spurious assumption in his post "Will the real black America please stand up?". As a genuine black person, I can say that I speak for myself, much as Bill speaks for himself. The Congressional Black Caucus gives voice, as is appropriate, to views that are widespread among the constituents of the members of the CBC. Has Bill been to Harlem recently? It is not Bush country. Charles Rangel is speaking for his voters, and all conservatives should welcome diversity of opinion as an essential aspect of a well-functioning republic.
Posted by Audi Partem Alteram at 02:01 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Will the real black America please stand up?
The Congressional Black Caucus:
was formed in 1969 when the 13 black members of the U.S. House of Representatives joined together to strengthen their efforts to address the legislative concerns of black and minority citizens. African-American representatives had increased in number from six in 1966 to nine, following the 1969 elections. Those members believed that a black caucus in Congress, speaking with a single voice, would provide political influence and visibility far beyond their numbers.
At the CBC's 35th Legislative Conference, one might think those in attendance would be discussing how to represent those who are supposedly given a voice by the CBC - black Americans. But one would be mistaken. Instead, they've opted for buffoonery. As the NY Sun reports, Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY) was greeted with cheers as he likened President Bush to Theophilus "Bull" Connor
He cited, of course, Bush-made Hurricane Katrina and war-mongering because, well, what else? Question is, why doesn't black America denounce this nonsense?
(H/T: Dean from downtown.)
Posted by bill at 12:19 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Morning Blend - Friday, September 23, 2005
Deploying the 'Little Platoons' - I.D. Smith/R. Santorum, WSJ
Big Labor, Wal-Mart and Hillary - J. Kemp, American Thinker
Cut AMTRAK to Pay for Katrina - Joseph Vranich, TCS
Cornell Censorship - Joseph J. Sabia, FPM
Les Homegrown Gantgstas - Olivier Guitta, WS
Bush, God and the Hurricanes - NY Sun
The Voice of Hurricane Katrina - Bryan Curtis, Slate
Posted by bill at 07:42 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
September 22, 2005
Jockeying
As conservatives' consternation over President Bush's inability (or unwillingness) to control spending and immigration continues its crescendo, his old rival, the moderate John McCain, enters the picture and addresses precisely these two issues in front of the American Spectator. The twist? As Barone points out, McCain is a Kennedy-style liberal on immigration. His wriggling on the issue, from a political standpoint, should prove fascinating. So should his ideas on fiscal conservatism. Of course he's running.
Meantime, Hillary Clinton - days after her husband gave President Bush one giant "up yours" on Meet the Press, joins the Angry/NYT left and announces she'll cast a futile vote against John Roberts. Of course she's running, too, for God's sake.
Sausages, laws and politics.
Posted by bill at 08:03 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Carnival of the absurd
What is is with the word "peace" that compels people parading under it to lose their minds? Via Sweetness & Light, we learn that a South Florida professor is concerned about the necessities in the wake of Katrina:
Do survivors have access to condoms and other forms of contraception?
Are there women who are missing birth control prescriptions?
Send back the Bibles! Make way for condoms!
Posted by bill at 10:51 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Morning Blend - September 22, 2005
Bush's spending a bridge to nowhere? - Peggy Noonan, WSJ
Cut Spending to Offset Katrina Costs - Radley Balko, Fox News
Joe Hill is Finally Dead - Russ Smith, NY Press
What Would Reagan Do? - Ann Coulter, JWR
The Court's Progress - Fred Barnes, WS
Germany's Mess - Timothy Garton Ash, LAT
What China can learn from Crazy Eddie - Daniel Gross, Slate
Checkmate? From the Krugman Truth Squad - D. Luskin, NRO
Posted by bill at 07:34 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
September 21, 2005
A right worth protecting
Is it just me or is the Hurricane Katrina aftermath in NOLA a strong statement against gun control? President Bush might not like vigilantes, but while blue staters don't like to believe there are times the government cannot protect us from harm, NOLA offers a microcasm as to why they are wrong. As the Reuters story notes:
After the storm, the neighborhood association had to act as law enforcement and emergency response unit as city services collapsed and the police force was unable to protect them.
Citizens organized armed patrols and checked on the elderly. They slept on their porches with loaded shotguns and bolted awake when intruders stumbled on the aluminum cans they had scattered on the sidewalk.
Law-abiding citizens were, quite simply, safer because they had guns. Imagine that.
Posted by bill at 02:55 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Paying for It
Faced with the devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina, President Bush has pledged the support of the federal government in rebuilding much of Louisiana and Mississippi, a pledge that could result in a final cost of some $200 billion to taxpayers. But where will the money come from? White House officials have been vague on the subject. Congressional Republicans, meanwhile, are openly considering a range of options, including tax increases. This is not cowardice or ideological backsliding among moderate Republicans, it is the very essence of good government.
During his time in office President Bush has, through his own actions and as a result of events outside his control, been witness to a strange alchemy that has changed the hue of the federal budget from black to red. This is upsetting quite a few people. While the conservatives who fret over deficits seem to be vastly outnumbered by those who spend their time convinced that the marriage of two men will bring about the end of civilization, the former group is still a constituency that Bush might want to hold on to. This is especially true now Bush's declining popularity seems to be affecting the prospects of political allies, such as Rick Santorum.
Posted by Audi Partem Alteram at 02:32 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Senate Dems: Big Liars
Pat Leahy's announcement today that he'll vote to confirm John Roberts is, I think, the strongest indication yet of the Dems' cynical master plan. Leahy et al. will portray themselves as "reasonable" by voting for Roberts (with no risk; Roberts-for-Rehnquist is, in their peabrains, a wash (or is saleable as such)). Replacing the swing vote, Justice O'Connor, could be anything but that, and Leahy and his cohorts, wearing their white hats, will simply ambush the President's nominee to replace her. With the support of MSM, they'll smear that person as some combination of racist (using softer language), sexist, "homophobic," "reactionary," etc. [read: opposes affirmative action; once wrote that Roe v. Wade is bunk and/or not "super-duper" precedent; and doesn't believe in legislation by judicial fiat]. And no one Bush nominates will be good enough for Senate liberals.
Maybe the biggest question now is whether the White House is cynical (or ballsy?) enough to bluff - to nominate someone they don't believe can be confirmed, on the assumption the second, "real" nominee would be confirmed. Who would volunteer for the smackdown?
Posted by bill at 12:50 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Morning Blend - Wednesday, September 21, 2005
Not another homeland security hack - Michelle Malkin, JWR
We Need American Troops - Jalal Talabani, WSJ
Asia's looming anti-American confederacy - F. Stakelbeck, Jr.
Dan Rather's Well-Earned Fear - Arnold Ahlert, NYP
Pity the Poor Fiscal Conservative - John Dickerson, Slate
This deal is no bargain - Max Boot, LAT
The Sound and the Fury - Edward Morrissey, Daily Standard
Posted by bill at 07:45 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
September 20, 2005
Katrina conspiracies (mostly: kill black people)
Whoa! Watch this video. Someone fit this guy for a tin foil hat.
Posted by bill at 11:50 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Ray Nagin: The Peter Principle in Action
One has to wonder, if one hasn't already, if Mayor Ray Nagin of New Orleans was born a twit or whether it's a recent development brought on by the stress of Katrina and having to deal with such a catastrophe in the most corrupt city in the most corrupt state in the nation. He was advised and warned not to re-populate the sprawling, fetid, swamped city but failed to heed. Now, he's done a reversal. It was bad enough that he screwed up the original evacuation but now he toys with the minds and souls of his citizens by giving them false hope and more false recriminations but, of course, he blames everyone else for his ineptitude.
"The Peter Priciple" is an idea that goes back decades and simply posits that people often rise in the corporate structure to the level of their incompetence. Apparently, it applies in the municipal world, as well.
Posted by Gene Blogger at 10:49 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Ridiculous
As much as I sometimes like President Bush, he and his administration are capable of rubbing our collective nose in it, aren't they? His latest is his appointment of the unqualified Julie Myers to head Immigration and Customs Enforcement, under DHS. Her nomination is, as Michelle Malkin puts it, "a joke." True, true.
This is textbook political cronyism. Myers is unqualified... (writes Malkin):
She may be perfectly capable of writing briefs and I'm sure her knowledge of export controls is second to none. But as long as the borders are broken and al Qaeda continues to exploit lax immigration enforcement, I don't want her in charge of ICE. Why hire someone who needs to "seek out" those "who know more than I do" in order to her job? Why wait until the next mass terrorist attack to put those more knowledgeable people in leadership positions now and leave the paper-pushers in their cubicles?
...but this doesn't matter because:
Myers also was an associate under independent counsel Kenneth W. Starr for about 16 months and has most recently served as a special assistant to President Bush handling personnel issues.
Her uncle is Air Force Gen. Richard B. Myers, the departing chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. She married [DHS Head Michael] Chertoff's current chief of staff, John F. Wood, on Saturday.
I would like to believe conservatives, or at least Republicans, would expect better from one of their own, but maybe this is foolishness.
Posted by bill at 09:58 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Morning Blend - Tuesday, September 20, 2005
Porkbusters! - Glenn Reynolds, Instapundit
Good & Bad of Bush NOLA Plan - J. Hinderaker, Powerline
We're All in the Same Boat - Brendan Miniter, WSJ
Cornering Korea - John Podhoretz, NYP
The power of liberal taboos - C. Chantrill, American Thinker
Inalienable Right to Screw Up Your Country - C. Hitchens, Slate
Companies Everyone Loves To Hate - R. Bate, AEI
Blinded by Ideology - Barry Rubin, FPM
FEC Carries Water for DNC - Jack Lewis
Posted by bill at 07:49 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
September 19, 2005
Unsustainable Dominance
With the emergence of Mitt Romney as front-runner for the Republican nomination in 2008, I have begun to think about good environmental practices and how they impact politics. Evangelicals are likely to have serious problems with Romney, who is a Mormon. But Romney seems a much more likely candidate to win swing voters than Bill Frist, who embarassed himself and horrified millions with his role in the Terri Schiavo drama. The question for the GOP now is this: will 2008 be the year that the cornerstone of the party's strength becomes instead a millstone around its neck?
In a well-written piece Amy Sullivan outlines the extent to which Mitt Romney's religion is likely to be an issue for him in the Republican primaries. Sullivan observes that it is unlikely that the type of voter education campaign that might work in a general election would succeed in overcoming the doctrial issues evagelicals have with the Mormon faith. Citing the exclusion of Mormons from the National Day of Prayer in 2004 (organized by James Dobson's wife), Sullivan notes that many evangelicals do not consider Mormons to be Christian. Clearly, his religion is shaping up to be a significant problem for Mitt Romney, and for the GOP itself.
The Republican Party owes its current power to a reliable core of evangelical supporters who now comprise roughly 30% of the party. This is not necessarily a bad thing, such a reliable core is probably essential to modern national parties. These people are the shock troops, the true believers that can be counted on to man phone banks and get the word out for the party they support. The question the GOP faces now is: what do you do when your most viable candidate for a general election is potentially offensive to this group? How party leaders answer it will tell us a great deal about whether they have the discipline to maintain GOP dominance.
Posted by Audi Partem Alteram at 08:45 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
So what else is new?
Since baseball metaphors seem to be in vogue of late, read here about the softballs that Bill Clinton swung away at when he shook his finger at President Bush yesterday morning on Meet the Press and This Week (with former Clinton senior staffer/Dukakis campaign worker and Democratic boy wonder George Stephanopoulos; read about that here); and Democratic consultant Tim Russert.
Somehow, it still surprises people.
Posted by bill at 07:24 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
All the views that fit, they'll pimp
It's official: The New York Times is unreadable.
Posted by bill at 03:49 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
I couldn't have drawn it better myself
Via Lucianne.com.
Posted by bill at 02:51 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Morning Blend - Monday, September 19, 2005
Der Stillstand - John Fund, WSJ
The European Right? - Mark Steyn, NRO
Angela's Ashes - Victorino Matus, Daily Standard
Dems Scoreless on Roberts - Mark Steyn, CST [9/18]
Delayed Success - Ryan Sager, NYP
Who is Mahmoud Maawad? - Michelle Malkin
Plan B: Negotiate with Terrorists - Allen Zerkin, LAT
Owner's Manual for America - AZ Republic [9/16]
Hurricane Watch for Real Estate - Susan C. Walker, Fox News
Pushing Subaru's Buttons - Mickey Kaus, Slate
Posted by bill at 07:40 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
September 18, 2005
Bubba turns on W
Maybe President Bush should replace Bill Clinton with Donna Brazile. Yesterday I noted that Brazile had written a refreshingly patriotic column, one I thought was a call to the American left to put politics aside where post-Katrina is concerned. This morning during a taped interview airing on Meet the Press, Clinton turned on Bush, lumping together, as liberals seem fond of doing, Iraq, the deficit and Katrina into an anti-W polemic. Clinton is, of course, as calculating as politicians come and it's always a crapshoot to discern what his motivations for such things, but whatever the calculus, Clinton's performance is more evidence he and his wife are as cunning and shameless as ever.
Posted by bill at 04:42 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Cindy -- What a writer!!!
The indefatigible Mrs. Sheehan constantly amazes! Now she has evolved into one heckuva writer!!! I, personally, am impressed with her writing skills. Or, wait! Could it be the staff of The Rumpled One's website wrote this for her? Actually, I hope so since now she's equating our military presence in New Orleans with our presence in Iraq! If she actually wrote this tripe, I'd seriously question her sanity now.
Posted by Gene Blogger at 11:10 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
September 17, 2005
Happenings in Germany
Angela Merkel, once clearly favored to win the chacellorship and lead her Christian Democratic Union party to victory in Germany's elections tomorrow, is in trouble. A flat tax proposal developed by Paul Kirchof, an academic associated with the campaign, has met with strong negative reaction from the German electorate, who view progressive taxation as socially benefical. Meanwhile Gerhard Schroeder, who the Right seems to hate, may face the unpleasant prospect of governing in a coalition with a reconstituted Communist Party drawing strength from Germany's five million chronically unemployed (see article here).
Strange days. But the results of tomorrow's elections will be worthing noting.
Posted by Audi Partem Alteram at 05:30 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Donna Brazile: "ready for duty"
Bravo to Donna Brazile (yes, that Donna Brazille: Democratic strategist, 2000 Al Gore campaign manager, etc.). Brazile is also NOLA native, though, and maybe for that reason she's not content to join the Angry Left's dumbassery after President Bush's speech Thursday night. Writing for the Washington Post:
...on Thursday night, after watching him speak from the heart, I could not have been prouder of the president and the plan he outlined to empower those who lost everything and to rebuild the Gulf Coast....
He enunciated something that we all need to remember: This is America. We are not immune to tragedy here, but we are strong because of our industriousness, our ingenuity and, most important, because of our compassion for one another. We are a nation of rebuilders and a nation of givers. We do not give up in the face of tragedy, we stand up, and we reach out to help those who cannot stand up on their own.
I know, maybe better than anyone, that there are times when it seems that our nation is too divided ever to heal. There are times when we feel so different from each other that we can hardly believe that we are all part of the same family. But we are one nation. We are a family. And this is what we do. When the president asked us to pitch in Thursday night, he wasn't really asking us to do anything spectacular. He was asking us to be Americans, and to do what Americans always do.
Now that's courage. It remains to be seen whether what's left of Brazile's party is up to her challenge. But her point - a patriotic one (gasp!) - is sure to land her in some trouble, and Brazile should be commended.
Posted by bill at 01:02 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Duty to distort
NBC's Brian Williams, reporting yesterday morning from NOLA:
I am duty-bound to report the talk of the New Orleans warehouse district last night: there was rejoicing (well, there would have been without the curfew, but the few people I saw on the streets were excited) when the power came back on for blocks on end. Kevin Tibbles was positively jubilant on the live update edition of Nightly News that we fed to the West Coast. The mini-mart, long ago cleaned out by looters, was nonetheless bathed in light, including the empty, roped-off gas pumps. The motorcade route through the district was partially lit no more than 30 minutes before POTUS drove through. And yet last night, no more than an hour after the President departed, the lights went out. The entire area was plunged into total darkness again, to audible groans. It's enough to make some of the folks here who witnessed it...jump to certain conclusions.
It's not clear whether what "Some of the folks" thought was being offered as "the talk of the New Orleans warehouse district." The latter indicates consensus, the former does not. More clear is Williams' cutesy implication that Bush's speech and the window dressing that came with it are unique to Bush and that somehow "the talk" (did Williams try to confirm there was a consensus?) fair. Hardly so, Bill Clinton would not have been subjected to MSM cynicism and "bias" rears its head once again.
Posted by bill at 11:42 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Gliberalism returns
Spencer Ackerman writes a thoughtful piece about George Soros and "gliberalism," "the curdling of the most vital political tradition in American life into a crude, apologetic vanity, one that contends...that "violence is healthy for the 'oppressed' even if it kills them."
Gliberalism captivated upper-class liberals paralyzed by their material and social privilege on the one hand and their sympathies for the dispossessed on the other. It proved a dangerous overreaction to the uncomfortable premodern concept of noblesse oblige, the idea that, adapted for the modern era, privilege confers a responsibility to provide for social justice. Instead, gliberalism contended, privilege rendered untenable any critique of socially iniquitous impulses among the underclass...
Worth a read.
Posted by bill at 09:37 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
September 16, 2005
Funny thing happened to me on the way to a wake today. That's not as insensitive as it sounds since the wake was for a great old guy who passed @ 92 after a long and productive life, and, best of all, it was a peaceful, pain-free "passing." There was no grief, just good memories.
The funny part had to do with Al Franken, whose Hot-Air America I only listen to in the bathroom--appropriately--and heard on my shower radio. Seems this Weird Al, frustrated that he couldn't b*tch at anything else in Bush's speech last night, focused on the phone number Bush offered for Katrina victims to use to call in for aid.
Do read on! It's priceless!!!
Well, Franken complained it wasn't a 1-800-Katrina number so he called 1-800-Katrina. Turned out, it was a phone-sex line and "Katrina" answered, after Franken gave his credit card info and agreed to pay for ten minutes. He then identified himself as "Al," and that he had a radio show. He also commended "Katrina" for being a hard working, decent person. What follows is condensed and isn't a verbatim transcript but pretty close. It all aired live on Hot Air America:
AL-- So, Katrina, you think it's fair that you have this number and not the government? I mean, for the victims?
Katrina-- I think it's fair.
AL-- Well, would you sell the number to the government for, say, $100,000.?
Katina-- No, it's not mine to sell because a company owns it, but I wouldn't anyway!
AL-- Why not?
Katrina-- Because I live in Louisiana and those "victims" have more than I have! I have a friend in Houston and knows for a fact those "victims" were using those $2000 checks [sic]to buy designer handbags and clothes and such.
AL-- Don't you have compassion?
Katina-- Umm, Al, if you have a radio show, you must be awfully bored to have to make this call.
After hanging up, Franken's cackling cohort said, "Such a lack of empathy! You can't make this stuff up!"
Al just said, "Well, that didn't turn out like I expected."
Damn right, it didn't Weird Al!! Better call the braindead next time. But, you can't make this stuff up!
Posted by Gene Blogger at 05:55 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
At least one case of poison ivy confirmed in New York City; Officials on Alert
New York City health officials today announced they have confirmed at least one case of a non-lethal form of poison ivy, in Manhattan. The victim, they said, is a 30 year-old white male who contracted the disease last weekend while tromping through suburban brush, his feet clad only in flip-flops. Reportedly, the victim's mistake was to meander into a backyard of a reasonably priced condominium (2 full baths, basement, washer/dryer) which was, they said, "not too brite."
Although the hapless victim, whom health authorities are calling "Bill L.," wishes to remain anonymous, CJ scored a brief sit-down with Bill L as he sat, luxuriating in Calamine lotion, in his midtown offices.
"I can't believe this is happening to me," he whined. "I haven't had poison ivy since 9th grade band camp."
Bill L described the disease's merciless march across his extremities. "First it was a few bumps on the inside of my heel," he told CJ. "Then my right big toe went down like a French platoon under somewhat heavy fire, and I knew I was in trouble." This enemy operated under cover of harmlessness, he explained -- Bill L thought at first he only had a few mosquito bites. "But I was wrong," he ruminates. "For years I knew this could happen, and I didn't do anything to prepare."
The battle is joined. Fortunately, Bill L said he's never lost at the board game "Risk" and he's confident that he can re-take most of the territory claimed by the disease. "I've had to dispatch Calamine reserves to my ankles, just in case. Big Toe might be a goner, though." This, he pointed out, will be a long, arduous fight for him and his derm.
Does Bill L feel that the response was compromised by poor leadership? "I don't think so," he told CJ. "I felt the response was adequate at all levels. My feet might've requested assistance sooner, but at the time I don't think anyone anticipated the bumps would spread."
Posted by bill at 08:22 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Morning Blend - Friday, September 16, 2005
Christopher Hitchens "debates" a demagogue - K. Strassel, WSJ
Solidarity, So Over - George Will, NYP
Judicial Confirmation Process...a Joke - C. Adamo, AT
A Boomerang Borking - Captain Ed
Roe v. Roberts - Charles Krauthammer, Wash Post
Michael Brown Speaks - Michelle Malkin
Vouchers for New Orleans - Chris Kinnan, NRO
Those Big-Spending Republicans - Debra Saunders, SF Chron
Posted by bill at 07:39 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
September 15, 2005
The Sad Truth About Katrina--the Enemy Within
After 9-11, New Yorkers and the nation joined together in remarkable fashion and an all-but-universal solidarity. After Katrina, Mississippi and Alabama almost at once began an orderly effort to recover, repair, and reconstruct. Louisiana and New Orleans? A whole other ballgame. The chaos that was New Orleans during the storm became the chaos of New Orleans after the storm. And the nation? The blame game began within hours as liberal politicians began another visceral attempt to bring down George Bush rather than focus on revivifying that sad city. One of the best analyses of that despicable show of petty, vicious, blind partisanship may be read here Read it and weep.
Posted by Gene Blogger at 02:17 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Who said anything about band geeks?
Penn State has hippest marching band in the country.
Story here.
Posted by bill at 10:41 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Morning Blend - Thursday, September 15, 2005
Ready? Cue the Sun - David Brooks, NYT
Roberts' Phony Humility - William Saletan, Slate
Actually, judicial activism means "E=mc2" - Ann Coulter (syn.)
Chavez the Killer - Thor Halvorssen, NYP
German Election May Revive US/German Relations - D. Snyder, Fox News
Katrina Changed a Lot - Peggy Noonan, WSJ
UN to the rescue (of itself) - CS Monitor
March of the Machines - Camilla Cavendish, Times Online (UK)
Blame Bush - Russ Smith, NY Press
Red America vs. European Blues - Jonah Goldberg, NRO
Posted by bill at 07:32 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
September 14, 2005
Day of the Manchildren
Today's topic: Children and the people who act like them:
- Senator Arlen Specter, who yesterday asked John Roberts whether Roe v. Wade is a "super-duper precedent" (no comment from the Senator's "magic" woobie woobie) bounced today from infantile to ironic, telling Roberts, "We don't like being treated like schoolchildren..." and, in a bizarre exchange requesting that Roberts not make Senators look stupid, as if only Roberts to do so. Paging Ted Kennedy! Paging Ted Kennedy!
- Then there's President Bush, who was caught scribbling a note to Condi Rice today in New York asking for a potty break: "I think I may need a bathroom break," it read. Questions abound. Among them is why Bush used the word "may" (?), and why he sounds just a dash tentative. Does the President need a hall pass? Was it the Manmohan Singh's curry chicken box lunch?
- Meantime, the actual children were told today that they'd all along been victimized by a "coercive" requirement to "affirm God," until they were rescued from such horrors by self-absorbed atheist asshole Michael Newdow.
Posted by bill at 08:08 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Lambs to the Slaughter
Something for everyone:
- Victor Davis Hanson vs. Arianna Huffington (9/14 at 8:00 p.m.; webcast at gvsu.edu)
- Christopher Hitchens vs. George Galloway (9/14 at 7:00 p.m.; webcast at KPTFX.com)
- Penn State vs. Central Michigan (Sat 9/17 at 3:30 p.m. on ESPN Plus)
Posted by bill at 10:42 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Victory in the wake of disaster
I have to admit that I haven't paid much attention to Hurricane Katrina and the ruin of New Orleans lately. Frankly, I was busy moving and I didn't know anyone in the area, so it was just mildly unpleasant background. But