Ed's Place

Filibuster At Your Peril

2006-01-28T09:52:00.000-05:00

Captain Ed has some thoughts on the John Kerry led efforts to filibuster Judge Alito.

What will the Democrats win from all this? They will have momentarily obstructed a nominee who has the support of 2/3rds of the country for confirmation, proving yet again to be nothing more than knee-jerk obstructionists. They will have lost the filibuster for all the other judicial nominations, which would mean a return of Henry Saad to the list. It will also mean that if Stevens or Ginsburg leave the court in the next three years -- a distinct possibility -- the Democrats will have no means to stop Janice Rogers Brown or Priscilla Owen from taking their place. They will have lost all leverage with which to bargain. And along the way, they will have once again emphasized their inability to produce anything positive with all of the smear tactics and character assassination in which they indulged, a chapter so shameful that even their own senior member stood on the floor of the Senate and called it a "disgrace".

However, John Kerry may prove to be the consummate party leader of this era. He gladly led the party to an across-the-board loss against a vulnerable president during a divisive war, and now he gleefully calls for their further humiliation and degradation while playing on the slopes of the Swiss Alps, as far from the fight as he can get. It's the Era of Absent Maturity for Democrats, and Kerry may well be its poster boy.

UPDATE: Priscilla Owen, not Brown. (h/t: CQ reader Steve F.)

I'm still looking for the upside for the Democrats on this.

Will DiFi Filibuster?

2006-01-28T09:37:00.000-05:00

Power Line reported yesterday that Senator Feinstein may change her mind and join the filibuster against Judge Alito. Little Green Footballs gives us her motivation -- a threat from Cindy Sheehan to challenge her Senate seat.

Cindy Sheehan to Dianne Feinstein: Fillibuster Alito or I’ll Challenge Your Senate Seat Caracas, Venezuela - Gold star mother Cindy Sheehan has decided to run against California Senator Diane Feinstein if Feinstein does not filibuster the Supreme Court nomination of Judge Samuel Alito. While in Venezuela attending the World Social Forum, Sheehan learned that several Democratic Senators had announced their plans for a filibuster but that Senator Feinstein, who’s up for re-election in November, had stated she would vote against the nomination but not filibuster it. “I’m appalled that Diane Feinstein wouldn’t recognize how dangerous Alito’s nomination is to upholding the values of our constitution and restricting the usurpation of presidential powers, for which I’ve already paid the ultimate price,” Sheehan said.

Watch What You Say

2006-01-28T09:25:00.000-05:00

The Belmont Club has a good post today on how countries in the West are outlawing speech considered hateful. He also highlights some efforts to counter this trend.

Whole categories of discourse are now being outlawed in the West. At least two celebrities are fighting this trend, probably because they lead active lives of the mind. One of them is Mr. Bean.
Blackadder star Rowan Atkinson has launched a comedians' campaign against a government bill to outlaw inciting religious hatred. ... Mr Atkinson told a meeting at the House of Commons on Monday night there are "quite a few sketches" he has performed which would come into conflict with the proposed law.
He added: "To criticise a person for their race is manifestly irrational and ridiculous but to criticise their religion, that is a right. That is a freedom. The freedom to criticise ideas, any ideas - even if they are sincerely held beliefs - is one of the fundamental freedoms of society."
The other is Michael Crichton. At a speech entitled "Fear, Complexity, Environmental Management in the 21st Century" that he gave before Washington Center for Complexity and Public Policy, Crichton described one the major unrecognized dangers stalking the world: bad information. Crichton meticulously showed how grossly hysterical coverage of Chernobyl reactor incident, for example, caused deaths far more numerous than the incident itself. He went on to trace the history of public policy fads, Global Cooling, the predicted Y2K meltdown, the Population Bomb, Electromagnetic Fields and so on, and shows how we have nearly forgotten them in our rush to replace them with new ones. We live once again, in Carl Sagan's phrase, in a demon-haunted world.

If you want to read more about Michael Crichton's efforts, check out his book, State of Fear. It will make you think twice about the global warming catastrophe.

Journalists Today

2006-01-27T15:03:00.000-05:00

Check out Hugh Hewitt's post on the current state of MSM journalism.

Left-wing journalists don't know what they don't know, but increasingly we all get to see their very basic errors. The effect is dramatic: The MSM lost credibility a long while ago, but its repeated pratfalls keep driving home the fact that it is almost never to be trusted on stories of great consequence.
On the other hand, new media provides a steady stream of pointers to key stories --like Ed Morrissey's link to the Columbian passport bust-- and in-depth analyses of MSM-mangled complex issues --like Powerline's many fine posts on the NSA program. (Search Powerline using the term "NSA" and you will be amazed at the depth and breadth of the detailed and precisely sourced writings on the subject, a listing that should shame every MSM outlet that editorializes against the program after a ham sandwich and a Coke roundtable discussion among the assembled writers, none of whom have even bothered to wade through the case law.)

Read the whole thing.

Hamas Charter

2006-01-27T14:39:00.000-05:00

Thanks to Little Green Footballs for providing these quotes from the Hamas Charter.

"Our struggle against the Jews is very great and very serious...The Movement is but one squadron that should be supported by more and more squadrons from this vast Arab and Islamic world, until the enemy is vanquished and Allah’s victory is realised...
The Islamic Resistance Movement is one of the wings of Muslim Brotherhood in Palestine. The Muslim Brotherhood Movement is a universal organization which constitutes the largest Islamic movement in modern times...
It strives to raise the banner of Allah over every inch of Palestine, for under the wing of Islam followers of all religions can coexist in security and safety where their lives, possessions and rights are concerned...
The Islamic Resistance Movement is one of the links in the chain of the struggle against the Zionist invaders. It goes back to 1939, to the emergence of the martyr Izz al-Din al Kassam and his brethren the fighters, members of Muslim Brotherhood. It goes on to reach out and become one with another chain that includes the struggle of the Palestinians and Muslim Brotherhood in the 1948 war and the Jihad operations of the Muslim Brotherhood in 1968 and after...
The Prophet, Allah bless him and grant him salvation, has said: ‘The Day of Judgement will not come about until Muslims fight the Jews (killing the Jews), when the Jew will hide behind stones and trees. The stones and trees will say O Muslims, O Abdulla, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him...’

I provided this just in case you wondered who won the election in Palestine.

Murderers Should Vote Too

2006-01-27T14:25:00.000-05:00

I guess the Democrats in Maryland, even though they are in the majority, are worried about rounding up enough decent, law abiding citizens to vote for them. This attempt would give full voting rights to convicted murderers, rapists, and armed robbers immediately upon their release from prison.

If Mrs. Marriott's bill succeeds this time -- it has died in committee the past three years -- an estimated 150,000 felons would be able to cast ballots in Maryland. About 85,000 of them are black and likely Democrats, according to Justice Maryland, a penal reform group that supports felon voting rights.
These convicted murderers, rapists and armed robbers could vote as early as the Nov. 7 general election, if the law takes effect on the traditional Oct. 1 start date. And felons could sway the results.

Why wait for their release? Voting in jail may help their rehabilitation.

Tax Cuts for the Rich

2006-01-27T12:14:00.000-05:00

Donald Luskin kindly points out a truth about the 2003 capital gains tax cut. This is a truth you will not find in the MSM. Tax cuts raise revenues!

Now let’s move forward a year, to January 2004, after the capital-gains tax cut had been enacted. Table 4-4 on page 82 in CBO’s Budget and Economic Outlook of that year shows that the estimates for capital-gains tax liabilities had been lowered to $46 billion in 2004 and $52 billion in 2005, for a two-year total of $98 billion. Compare the original $125 billion total to the new $98 billion total, and we can infer that CBO was forecasting that the tax cut would cost the government $27 billion in revenues.
Those are the estimates. Now let’s see how things really turned out. Take a look at Table 4-4 on page 92 of the Budget and Economic Outlook released this week. You’ll see that actual liabilities from capital-gains taxes were $71 billion in 2004, and $80 billion in 2005, for a two-year total of $151 billion. So let’s do the math one more time: Subtract the originally estimated two-year liability of $125 billion from the actual liability of $151 billion, and you get a $26 billion upside surprise for the government. Yes, instead of costing the government $27 billion in revenues, the tax cuts actually earned the government $26 billion extra.

It's Filibuster Time

2006-01-27T12:04:00.000-05:00

Ed Whelan's post in the National Review Online comments on the politics of the Democrat plan to attempt a fililbuster of Judge Alito's confirmation vote.

I love the politics of this filibuster maneuver, under every conceivable eventuality. (Yes, even if the filibuster were somehow to succeed – that would trigger cloture reform.) Democrats who have already stated their opposition to Alito are now put to the unpleasant choice of pleasing the hard Left by also supporting the filibuster or of maintaining some semblance of responsible behavior with the mass of their constituents. And those few remaining Democrats who are genuinely undecided on Alito now have to factor in that opposing him at this point (yes, even if they also oppose the filibuster) will likely be seen as joining forces with Kennedy and Kerry.
I’m beginning to wonder whether Kerry and Kennedy aren’t actually part of the Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy. What better set-up for the President’s State of the Union address Tuesday than the triumph of Judge Alito’s confirmation and the follies of the Democrats.

As he points out, the timing on this couldn't be better.

You Know What I'm Talkin' About

2006-01-27T11:44:00.000-05:00

Mark Goldblatt has an interesting observation on Hillary's MLK day speech. I read about the speech, but didn't hear it. Mark has gone beyond the call of duty in replaying the video over and over to come up with this revelation.

But back to Hillary's plantation crack on King Day. As I said, something about that clip was bothering me, and I couldn't figure out what it was until perhaps the seventh viewing. Then, suddenly, I realized it wasn't the sentence about the plantation; it was the following line. Here's the entire passage: "When you look at the way the House of Representatives has been run, it has been run like a plantation, and you know what I'm talking about."
Except she doesn't say talking. She says talkin'.
She drops the "g."
There should be a name for this linguistic tic, perhaps Sudden Melanin Syndrome. It's the habit of white-guilt besotted liberals of adopting the mannerisms of Ebonics in a desperate attempt to indicate their solidarity with black listeners. Naturally it’s insultingly patronizing and what it actually indicates is someone who's not comfortable in her own skin, who unconsciously conforms her very being to whatever she imagines will ingratiate her with her audience. I doubt you'll ever hear Hillary dropping a "g" at a lily white Wellesley College reunion. Or at a lily white Chappaqua bake sale. Or at a lily white pro-choice rally.
You know what I'm sayin'?

Off the Reservation

2006-01-27T10:41:00.000-05:00

This column today in the WSJ Opinion Journal by John J. Miller uses the Jack Abramoff scandal to discuss a much bigger scandal -- the poverty of American Indians living on the reservation.

Sovereignty also is understood as a form of cultural protectionism. Without it, goes the thinking, Indians eventually will follow the course of immigrant groups and assimilate into the great American melting pot. Intermarriage between Indians and non-Indians is pervasive, especially off the rez. More than half of all Indians already marry outside their race, according the Census. For racial purists who believe that the men and women of today's tribes should be preserved like frozen displays in natural-history museums, this is a tragedy akin to ethnic cleansing (albeit one based on love rather than hate).
Yet the real tragedy is that reservations, as collectivist enclaves within a capitalist society, have beaten down their inhabitants with brute force rather than lifting them up with opportunity. As their economies have withered, other social pathologies have taken root: Indians are distressingly prone to crime, alcoholism and suicide. Families have suffered enormously. About 60% of Indian children are born out of wedlock. Although accurate statistics are hard to come by because so many arrangements are informal, Indian kids are perhaps five times as likely as white ones to live in some form of foster care. Their schools are depressingly bad.
Even if casino revenues were able to address these soul-crushing problems--a doubtful proposition--most reservations are too isolated geographically to profit from big-dollar gambling. Yet the rise of the casinos may help point the way forward: Their ability to flourish contradicts the tenured Marxists in ethnic-studies departments who claim that communitarian Indian cultures aren't compatible with market capitalism. After all, it takes entrepreneurship to run some of the world's biggest casinos.

I've long believed that for any ethnic group to prosper, it must assimilate into the American culture. Our approach to the Indians has trapped them in a cycle of poverty that cannot be broken.

Dems for Alito

2006-01-26T16:20:00.000-05:00

The count is now up to three Democrat senators voting yes for Judge Alito.

The New Jersey jurist's confirmation as the nation's 110th justice is assured, with 51 Republicans and Democrats Byrd, Johnson and Ben Nelson of Nebraska pledging to vote for his nomination to replace the moderate Sandra Day O'Connor on the nine-member Supreme Court.

"My considered judgment from his record, from his answers to my questions, and from his obvious intelligence and sincerity, leads me to believe him to be an honorable man who loves his country, loves his Constitution and will give of his best. Can we really ask for more?" said Byrd, the senior Democrat in the 100-member Senate.

Four of the Republican senators have not yet committed their votes, but I suspect a few of the usual lefties will vote no because they think it may help them at home. With the outcome assured, they may do so safely.

Wal-Mart Update

2006-01-26T16:01:00.000-05:00

Check out this posting by Betsy Newmark on the newest Wal-Mart to open just outside Chicago.

The new Wal-Mart Stores Inc. location opening Friday in suburban Evergreen Park received a record 25,000 applications for 325 positions, the highest for any one location in the retailer’s history, a company official says.

Despite the fact the company says these numbers underscore demand for Wal—Mart jobs in the community, critics wonder how many of these positions are lower—paying part—time work.

Under pressure from unions, the city of Chicago successfully blocked Wal-Mart from opening within the city limits. The big winner, of course, is the town of Evergreen Park which will reap considerable sales tax receipts from the new store.

Hamas Victory

2006-01-26T15:22:00.000-05:00

A lot has appeared on the web today on the Hamas electoral victory. Captain Ed has some of the more insightful comments -- insightful, though depressing.

Unless someone can show widespread voter fraud on behalf of Hamas, the Palestinians should be judged by the choices they have made this week. They have chosen war and the annihilation of Israel over the two-state solution favored publicly (if not fervently) by Fatah. Europe and the United States need to wake up from their delusional dreamland of a situation where both sides in this conflict want a peaceful conclusion and a world without hatred for their children and grandchildren. Clearly, the Palestinians want war, and they have made no secret of using their children and grandchildren as bomb fuses in order to perpetuate it.
The first item on our list should be an absolute end to all aid to the Palestinian territories and government. The US should not subsidize Hamas, nor should it give money to a people whose only aim appears to be genocide. Second, the US should allow Israel to respond militarily to any and all provocations -- no more pressure from Washington on Tel Aviv to moderate their responses to suicide bombings and missile attacks. And if Hamas and the Palestinians still want to wage war after that, then let the IDF roll across the West Bank and Gaza Strip and push the whole lot of them right into the Jordan River and Mediterranean Sea. That's what total war means, and as soon as the world stops preventing the Palestinians from the risks of their own choices, the sooner they will conclude that war is the worst possible choice for them.

Recycle or Else

2006-01-26T12:03:00.000-05:00

Check out this great column from the Weekly Standard on one of my pet peeves, recycling.

On January 1, placing more than 10 percent recyclable materials into a garbage bin became illegal in Seattle. An offending bin is tagged with a bright yellow slip that announces, "Recycle. It's not garbage anymore." The un-emptied bin is then left at the curb in hopes that the homeowner will learn the lesson and remove the reusable material by next week's collection. Businesses that offend three times are fined $50.

Seattle's proudly progressive leaders were alarmed when, almost two decades after voluntary recycling programs were initiated in the city--recycling rates had stalled at about 40 percent of the total amount of waste. Too many bottles and too much paper were still finding their way to the eastern Oregon landfill that receives Seattle's garbage.

A telling indicator is that cities often try to dump recycling programs when budgets are tight. As Angela Logomasini, director of risk and environmental policy at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, points out in the Wall Street Journal, every New York City mayor has attempted to stop the city's recycling program since it was begun in 1989. Mayor David Dinkins tried, but changed his mind when met with noisy criticism. Rudy Giuliani tried, but was sued by the Natural Resources Defense Council, which won the case. Mayor Bloomberg has proposed temporarily ending the recycling program because, as Logomasini notes, it costs $240 per ton to recycle and only $130 per ton to send the material to a landfill. The numbers for other areas are roughly comparable. The net per-ton cost of recycling exceeds $180 in Rhode Island, while conventional garbage collection and disposal costs $120 to $160 per ton.

IF WE WEREN'T RECYCLING, wouldn't the landfills soon overflow? Al Gore certainly thinks so, as he claimed we are "running out of ways to dispose of our waste in a manner that keeps it out of either sight or mind." Nonsense. Clemson Professor Daniel K. Benjamin notes that rather than running out of space, overall capacity is growing. "In fact," he says, "the United States today has more landfill capacity than ever before." He adds that the total land area required to contain every scrap of this country's garbage for the next 100 years would be only 10 miles square. The Nevada Policy Research Institute's numbers are even more dramatic: an area 44 miles square and 120 feet deep would handle all of America's garbage for the next millennium.

Read the whole thing.

Al Gore - Movie Star

2006-01-26T11:20:00.000-05:00

I couldn't make to the Sundance Film Festival this year, but I'll be waiting with great anticipation for the theatrical release of Al Gore's new movie, An Inconvenient Truth. Here's a clip from today's Washington Post article.

Among the film's lessons: Earth's glaciers are melting, the polar bears are screwed, each year sets new heat records. Al Gore sometimes flies coach. He also schleps his own bags.

The morning after his debut as leading man, Gore pronounces this whole Sundance thing "a most excellent time." He is wearing earth tones again. He seems jolly . He brought Tipper and the kids. He is attending parties and posing for pictures with his fans and enjoying macaroni and cheese at the Discovery Channel soiree. He's palling around with Larry David of "Curb Your Enthusiasm," who says, "Al is a funny guy." But he is also a very serious guy who believes humans may have only 10 years left to save the planet from turning into a total frying pan.

I just hope the oceans don't rise and flood me out of my temporary Hawaii home over the next three months.

Alito Confirmation

2006-01-25T16:37:00.000-05:00

James Taranto, in his WSJ Best of the Web Today column, has a possible explanation for the likelihood that Sam Alito will garner fewer Democrat votes than did John Roberts.

Along party lines, the Senate Judiciary Committee voted 10-8 yesterday in favor of Judge Sam Alito's nomination to the Supreme Court. Three members of the committee--Pat Leahy of Vermont and Russ Feingold and Herb Kohl of Wisconsin--voted against Alito although they had voted for Chief Justice John Roberts last year. According to our tally, eight of the 22 Democrats who voted for Roberts have voted or said they'll vote against Alito; still only one, Ben Nelson of Nebraska, has promised a "yes" vote.
The other day we received a press release from the National Italian American Foundation containing an "official statement" from chairman Kenneth Ciongoli:
Some Senators voted for John Roberts but will not vote for Samuel Alito. Why? With Alito these Senators were presented with someone almost identical in intellect, credentials and philosophy to John Roberts, and yet they reject him.
Is there an element of upstairs-downstairs, gown-town snobbery? As the media suggests, do they see Roberts as a soft white-bread American and Alito as a hard-crusted ethnic somehow different than they are?
Ciongoli doesn't directly accuse the anti-Alito Democrats of prejudice against Italian-Americans, a charge that would be hard to support. But given how impressed everyone was with Roberts's polished demeanor, the allegation of snobbery is not without a hint of truth.

He may be on to something.

Air Force Quality for Marines

2006-01-25T15:42:00.000-05:00

Good news for Okinawa Marines from Strategy Page.

January 25, 2006: The U.S. Marine Corps just opened a new gym in Okinawa. The 54,000 square foot facility replaces an older, and much smaller, facility that was built in 1973. The new gym has an 11,000 square foot weight and cardiovascular room. The gear is the same found in commercial gyms, including the TV screens. There’s also a martial arts room, an aerobics room, eight racquetball courts, a cycling room, sauna and steam rooms. On the second floor there is basketball/volleyball court. New locker rooms include a much larger one for women. There is also an internet café, with high speed connections and a wifi network. At the opening ceremony, the facility was described as “air force quality.” Since its inception, the air force has striven to provide the highest quality accommodations and facilities for its troops. In this, it has largely succeeded. Thus the remark about “air force quality.” The old Okinawa gym had about 300 visitors a week. The new one is expected to get several times that.

If we could just apply that quality standard to Marine Corps housing, we would be getting somewhere.

Alito Debate

2006-01-25T15:04:00.000-05:00

Hugh Hewitt has a few predictions and an apt comment on Senator DiFi today.

I hope someone has the ability to count the number of references to "CAP" and "Vanguard" made in the course of the Senate debate on Judge Alito's nomination. The use of those terms in any speech attempting to justify a no vote on Alito will mark the senator so employing them as a smear artist, a low sort of rhetorical thug unwilling to use open and honest argument.
I applaud Senator Feinstein's honesty in stating yesterday that she has a litmus test: No nominee to the Supreme Court will get her vote unless he or she is pro-Roe/Casey. That is a straightforward political position that informs America of Senator Feinstein's rigid ideology and her narrow view of what matters in a justice.
But it isn't slanderous, just simplistic and contrary to hundreds of years of American practice.
My guess is her colleague from California will not only use CAP/Vanguard smear, but will do so repeatedly.

Choose Life

2006-01-25T14:46:00.000-05:00

Michelle Malkin's latest column juxtaposes the efforts of the Hollywood elites' efforts to save Tookie Williams with the state of Massachusetts and its efforts to cause Haleigh Poutre's death.

In Boston, an innocent girl was sentenced to death by the state. Her name is Haleigh Poutre. Last fall, she was hospitalized after her stepfather allegedly burned her and beat her unconscious with a baseball bat. Haleigh was kept alive by a feeding tube and ventilator. Doctors said she was "virtually brain dead." They said she was in a "persistent vegetative state." The medical professionals pronounced her "hopeless."

Less than three weeks after Haleigh's hospitalization, the
Massachusetts Department of Social Services was raring to remove Haleigh's feeding and breathing tubes. Even her biological mother (who had been deemed unfit to care for Haleigh and whose former boyfriend was accused of sexually abusing the child) wanted her to be put to death. The only person who wanted Haleigh alive was her stepfather, who will likely be charged with murder if Haleigh dies.
"State can let beaten girl die," the headlines trumpeted. But there was just one small complication for all of those who, for whatever reason, were in such a rush to "let Haleigh die:"

Haleigh is fighting to live.

As state officials prepared to remove Haleigh's life support, the supposedly impossible happened. She began breathing on her own, responding to stimuli, and showing signs of emerging from what the medical establishment had deemed her hopeless condition. Everyone had given up on Haleigh — except Haleigh. ''There has been a change in her condition," announced a DSS spokeswoman, Denise Monteiro. ''The vegetative state may not be a total vegetative state."

Maps for Illegals

2006-01-25T11:19:00.000-05:00

In order to ease their painful journey, illegal immigrants crossing into the U.S. from Mexico will now have maps provided by the Mexican National Human Rights Commission.

The National Human Rights Commission says the maps will be aimed at cutting the death toll among migrants.
US advocates of tougher border controls have criticised the move, saying it will encourage illegal immigration.
Relations between the US and Mexico have cooled recently over US plans to build a fence on parts of the border.
The map plan is backed by Humane Borders, a US-based organisation which operates about 70 emergency water stations near the 3,200-km (2,000-mile) border.

Perhaps another way to cut the death toll among these migrants would be for them to simply stay home.

Another Victory for the ACLU

2006-01-25T11:05:00.000-05:00

This piece from the Washington Post tells us how New Jersey is relaxing its school dress code rules in ways we never imagined.

HASBROUCK HEIGHTS, N.J. -- A male high school student can wear a skirt to school after the American Civil Liberties Union reached an agreement with school officials.
The ACLU announced the deal Tuesday. It will allow a Hasbrouck Heights School senior to wear a skirt to protest the school's no-shorts policy.
The district's dress code bans shorts between Oct. 1 and April 15, but allows skirts, a policy 17-year-old Michael Coviello believes is discriminatory.
"I'm happy to be able to wear skirts again to bring attention to the fact that the ban on shorts doesn't make sense," Coviello said in a statement.
The Hasbrouck Heights superintendent, Joseph C. Luongo, did not return telephone messages left Tuesday seeking comment.
Coviello first wore a costume-style dress but high school officials told him to go home and change. The district's superintendent then advised the Coviello to purchase everyday dresses and skirts at a retail store, which Coviello did, the ACLU said.
But after a few days, he was sent home with a note from his principal saying if he wore a dress, kilt or skirt, he could no longer attend school.

Let's hope the school's strict sexual harassment policy results in the expulsion of anyone who dares make a negative comment to this trail blazing student.

Update: Rush Limbaugh posed a good question on his radio show today. "Does this mean that Hillary can now wear a dress?"

End of the Spear

2006-01-24T15:25:00.000-05:00

If you're looking for an alternative to the typical Hollywood movie, go see End of the Spear. It's a fact based story of five male missionaries who make contact with the vicious Waodani tribe in the Amazon jungle of Ecuador in 1956. After a brief, friendly encounter, the five are brutally speared and hacked to death.

Of course, the murders are just the start of the story. The reason the missionaries risked their lives in the first place was to save the Waodani from self-extinction. For generation after generation, factions of the tribe had engaged in a cycle of revenge murders that promised no end.

Instead of packing up and leaving Ecuador after the murders, the family members of the missionaries moved closer to the Waodani and eventually made peaceful contact. They converted the Waodani to Christianity and ended the culture of murder.

The most moving scenes in the film are those containing the Waodani warrior, Mincayani and the son of one of the slain missionaries, Steve Saint. As an eight year old, the young Saint comes to know Mincayani, but does not know that Mincayani killed his father. Returning to Ecuador after 38 years, the adult Steve Saint learns the truth.

It's a poignant drama that gives us all a lesson in the strength of faith and forgiveness.

Molly Ivins

2006-01-24T14:42:00.000-05:00

Texas lefty Molly Ivins will not support Hillary Clinton for President. Too much triangulation there.

AUSTIN, Texas --- I'd like to make it clear to the people who run the Democratic Party that I will not support Hillary Clinton for president.
Enough. Enough triangulation, calculation and equivocation. Enough clever straddling, enough not offending anyone This is not a Dick Morris election. Sen. Clinton is apparently incapable of taking a clear stand on the war in Iraq, and that alone is enough to disqualify her. Her failure to speak out on Terri Schiavo, not to mention that gross pandering on flag-burning, are just contemptible little dodges.

Molly longs for a candidate who will read the polls, as Molly sees them I guess, and come up with a platform something like this: raise taxes, create a single payer (read Government) health care system, raise the minimum wage, cut Defense spending, do "whatever it takes" to support the environment, and slap big oil with a windfall profits tax.

I agree with Molly. A Democrat candidate who supports all of the above is just what the Republicans need. Hat tip to PoliPundit.

Terrorist Surveillance

2006-01-24T10:35:00.000-05:00

Andy McCarthy has a good summary of the arguments President Bush has put forth in defense of his NSA surveillance program.

The president continued to stress that the program involved not systematic monitoring of ordinary Americans — the image doggedly promoted by much of the mainstream press and leading Democrats. Instead, it is a constantly reviewed initiative that targets persons reasonably believed to be members of our wartime enemy, al Qaeda, and its affiliated organizations in the broader firmament of militant Islamic organizations.
The communications on which the NSA isfocusing, the president asserted, are international in nature. They have stoked controversy because one end or the other of some of those conversations (whether phone or e-mail) is in the United States. The interception of such conversations potentially implicates the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) ifAmericans are intentionally targeted for surveillance (as opposed to being overheard coincidentally in the course of monitoring aliens overseas) or if the conversations are intercepted inside the United States.

McCarthy, who was on the front lines fighting terror as a lawyer for the Justice Department, supports the President's arguments and he should know.

Scalia Plays Tennis

2006-01-24T10:17:00.000-05:00

Despite the rather breathless tone of this article questioning the propriety of Justice Scalia playing tennis during a seminar sponsored by the Federalist Society, it tells me Scalia has his priorities straight.

Jan. 23, 2006. At the historic swearing-in of John Roberts as the 17th chief justice of the United States last September, every member of the Supreme Court, except Antonin Scalia, was in attendance. ABC News has learned that Scalia instead was on the tennis court at one of the country's top resorts, the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Bachelor Gulch, Colo., during a trip to a legal seminar sponsored by the Federalist Society.
Not only did Scalia's absence appear to be a snub of the new chief justice, but according to some legal ethics experts, it also raised questions about the propriety of what critics call judicial junkets.

The Federalist Society is not some sinister group of right wingers out to hijack the constitution. It is a concerned group of legal intellectuals whose goal is to foster strict construction of the constitution. It's exactly the type of group with which Scalia should associate. As a presenter at the seminar, it was entirely appropriate for him to be reimbursed for expenses.

As for snubbing Chief Justice Roberts, remember that the Federalist Society event was scheduled well in advance and there was no way to predict when Roberts would have his swearing in ceremony.

Finally, I think everybody should play tennis.

NY Times Declines

2006-01-24T10:07:00.000-05:00

This story isn't much of a surprise, other than perhaps the size of the profit slide, 41 percent.

NEW YORK - The New York Times Co. said Tuesday its fourth-quarter earnings fell 41 percent from the same period a year ago, weighed down by charges for staff reductions and an accounting change.

The Times, which also publishes The Boston Globe and the International Herald Tribune, earned $64.8 million or 45 cents per share in the three months ending in December, compared to $110.2 million or 75 cents per share a year ago.

What is the NY Times solution to this downward spiral?

The Times also said it would raise home delivery rates by 4 percent effective Feb. 6, resulting in new revenues of up to $8 million this year. In the fourth quarter of 2005, revenues from circulation fell 2.3 percent.

Good move. Charge your customers more for a product that fewer and fewer want.

Fat Pill

2006-01-23T12:47:00.000-05:00

This news article touts a pill, formerly prescription only, that may be available over-the-counter if the FDA approves.

On Monday, FDA panel members questioned whether consumers would be able to distinguish Alli from non-approved dietary supplements also sold as weight-loss aids. They also expressed concern about its effect on vitamin intake.
When taken with meals, the drug blocks the absorption of about one-quarter of any fat consumed. That fat is passed out of the body in stools, which can be loose or oily as a result. Other side effects include gas, incontinence and oily spotting. About half of patients in trials experienced such side effects, the company said.
In six-month clinical trials, obese people who took orlistat lost on average 5.3 pounds to 6.2 pounds more than did those who were given dummy pills, according to FDA documents. The drug's effect on weight loss is "gradual and modest," said Steve Burton, Glaxo's vice president of weight control.

Frankly, I think I'll hang on to my five or six pounds of fat and avoid this pill and its side effects.

Must See TV

2006-01-23T12:38:00.000-05:00

Here's a program I never thought would appear on television.

NEW YORK - More than a decade after 16-year-old Amy Fisher had a sexual relationship with a much-older car mechanic and shot his wife in the face, the one-time "Long Island Lolita" and Joey and Mary Jo Buttafuoco have agreed to appear together in a televised reunion.

All three have signed on for the appearance, which has yet to be sold to a network, television producer David Krieff told the New York Post for Monday editions.
"It's time to just put it behind us," Fisher, now 31, told the newspaper. "We played this all out in a public eye. It'd be interesting to let the public see the healing process at the end. They saw everything else — why not let them see the final product?"

Let the healing begin.

Usama's Bookclub Update

2006-01-23T12:27:00.000-05:00

Scrappleface has the latest on Usama's bookclub.

Usama's Book Club, like Oprah’s, will specialize in books “not usually sold as fiction,” such as The Rogue State, and works by Richard Clarke, Michael Moore and Sen. Hillary Clinton. The club will also help al Qaeda strengthen its database of“friends who share our ideas on politics, theology, underground living and how to roast a cave rat in wild herbs until it tastes almost as good as a goat.”

I eagerly await Usama's next selection.

USS Pueblo

2006-01-23T12:03:00.000-05:00

Did you remember that today is the 38th anniversary of the capture of the USS Pueblo by the North Koreans? I didn't until I read this post on The Officers Club.

I think that one prisoner held by a foreign nation should be enough to initiate military action, but hind sight (especially viewing the unfinished business in Lebanon, Iran, and Somalia) is 20/20. This North Korean issue has been outstanding for 50 years, with no solution in sight. The Korean peninsula is a perfect example of our system and a communist system played out to their logical ends. South Korea is a post-industrial liberal democracy, and North Korea is starving, imprisoned, and ruled by a megalomaniac. Which would you prefer to live in? Is the Pueblo incident still relevant today? You bet. The attention-starved North Koreans would love to get their hands on some US hostages and/or technology. Refer to sentence one of the commentary paragraph for the appropriate response should that happen.

Read the whole thing.

SNL

2006-01-23T11:00:00.000-05:00

For those of you who don't regularly watch Saturday Night Live, you have to check out the Political Teen. Ray Nagin, Jesse Jackson, and Hillary Clinton never looked better.

Jack Bauer

2006-01-23T10:25:00.000-05:00

Pat Buchanan sees parallels between Jack Bauer, the hero of Fox TV's "24," and the NSA surveillance program.

"24" satisfies the innate demand in all of us that, the law aside, evil should be punished and justice done.
That the audience for "24" is so loyal and large should tell us something about America and our divisions over the war we are in.
For weeks, Democrats and their media allies have been on Bush's case for using the National Security Agency to intercept, without warrant, phone calls and e-mails to terror suspects abroad. Before that, Bush was charged with using secret detention centers in Eastern Europe to interrogate suspects. Before that, the military was accused of abusing prisoners at Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo and Afghanistan. Before that, the Justice Department was charged with violating the civil rights of Jose Padilla and the Shoe-bomber.
Bush thus stands accused of violating the Geneva Convention on treatment of prisoners of war, ignoring constitutional protections of U.S. citizens, and violating international agreements prohibiting torture and the "rendition" of prisoners to countries where torture is practiced.
Where do the American people stand?
The left may be right on the law, but the people seem to be standing by Bush. Believing the character of this war, where the enemy's preferred tactic is to slaughter civilians with terror bombings, people seem to agree that we have to follow Jack Bauer's rules, not American Civil Liberties Union rules.

Sounds about right to me.

Hillary on the Plantation

2006-01-23T09:57:00.000-05:00

Shelby Steele, writing in Opinion Journal, has some thoughts on Hillary, racial politics, and Condi Rice.

Of course Hillary Clinton's recent claim that Republicans run the House of Representatives like a "plantation" was old-fashioned political and racial pandering. After all, she uttered this remark at what certainly would have been a prime venue for her husband: a largely black audience on Martin Luther King Day. So, clearly, she was looking to connect with this most loyal Democratic constituency. But Mrs. Clinton is possessed of a tin ear precisely where her husband is all deftness and charm. Black audiences are beyond her. The room of black faces that brings her husband alive, freezes her in overbearing rectitude.

And even Mrs. Clinton's "offense" would have amounted to very little had it come from nothing more than an awkward metaphor. But, in fact, it came from a corruption in post-'60s liberalism and Democratic politics that profoundly insults blacks. Mrs. Clinton came to Al Sharpton's MLK celebration looking for an easy harvest of black votes. And she knew the drill--white liberals and Dems whistle for the black vote by pandering to the black sense of grievance. Once positioned as the white champions of this grievance, they actually turn black resentment into white liberal power. Today, Democrats cannot be competitive without this alchemy. So Mrs. Clinton's real insult to blacks--one far uglier than her plantation metaphor--is to value them only for their sense of grievance.
No one on the current political scene better embodies this Republican advantage than the current secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice. The archetype that Ms. Rice represents is "overcoming" rather than grievance. Despite a childhood in the segregated South that might entitle her to a grievance identity, she has clearly chosen that older black American tradition in which blacks neither deny injustice nor allow themselves to be defined by it. This tradition, as Ralph Ellison once put it, "springs not from a desire to deny the harshness of existence but from a will to deal with it as men at their best have always done." And, because Ms. Rice is grounded in this tradition, she is of absolutely no value to modern liberalism or the Democratic Party despite her many talents and achievements. Quite the reverse, she is their worst nightmare. If blacks were to take her example and embrace overcoming rather than grievance, the wound to liberalism would be mortal. It is impossible to imagine Hillary Clinton's "plantation" pandering in a room full of Condi Rices.

This is why so many Republicans (including Laura Bush) now salivate at the thought of a Rice presidential bid. No other potential Republican candidate could--to borrow an old Marxist phrase--better "heighten the contradictions" of modern liberalism and Democratic power than Ms. Rice. The more ugly her persecution by the civil rights establishment and the left, the more she would give liberalism the look of communism in its last days--an ideology long since hollowed of its idealism and left with nothing save its meanness and repressiveness. Who can say what Ms. Rice will do. But history is calling her, or someone like her. She is the object of a deep longing in America for race to be finally handled, not by political idealisms, but by the classic principles of freedom and fairness.

Filibuster Alito

2006-01-22T12:53:00.000-05:00

Let's hope Bob Novak is right.

Pressure from liberal activists to oppose confirmation of Judge Samuel Alito for the Supreme Court has been so intense that Democratic senators may be trapped into a filibuster that they do not want to wage.
Despite the consensus that Alito performed well in his confirmation hearings, leaders of liberal organizations opposing him -- Ralph Neas, Nan Aron and Wade Henderson -- demand that Democrats vote against him. Consequently, Sen. Ben Nelson of Nebraska is the only Democrat at this writing who has announced in Alito's favor.
That means the number of senators voting ''no'' will be well over the 41 needed to prevent cloture. Pressure groups then could ask why no filibuster had been launched. But Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid may not want to risk causing Senate Republican Leader Bill Frist to set a precedent by using the ''nuclear'' option: to end a filibuster by simple majority vote.

A Democrat filibuster of Judge Alito will bring about the end of judicial filibusters once and for all.

Day-O, Daaaay-O

2006-01-22T12:19:00.000-05:00

More unhinged comments from Harry Belafonte, quoted in today's Washington Post.

Entertainer Harry Belafonte, one of the Bush administration's harshest critics, compared the Homeland Security Department to the Nazi Gestapo on Saturday and attacked the president as a liar.
We've come to this dark time in which the new Gestapo of Homeland Security lurks here, where citizens are having their rights suspended," Belafonte said in a speech to the annual conference of the Association of Performing Arts Presenters.

Belafonte is sinking deeper and deeper into the fever swamp. Seems he has no trouble finding crowds of cheering fans though.

States Rights

2006-01-22T11:40:00.000-05:00

The Winston-Salem Journal today takes pleasure in pointing out what it considers the hypocrisy of the Bush administration in opposing Oregon's physician assisted suicide law.

For a supposedly conservative president, Bush has been very willing to interfere with states' rights when it comes to matters of life and death. In the Terri Schiavo case last year, Bush interfered with Florida's prerogatives. In this case, he's doing the same thing. The Republican Congress went along with the president last year, playing to the religious right. But, in the process, both the Congress and the president got slapped with a great deal of negative public reaction. The American people obviously prefer that issues such as the end of life support, or doctor-assisted suicide, be decided by families and doctors - not politicians.
This is, of course, one more instance of the religious right trying to push its views down the throats of the rest of America. It's no different from its stands on abortion and the teaching of intelligent design and creationism in the public schools. But this time, the Supreme Court stood up for the rest of Americans who say they want the federal government to stay out of personal matters of life and death.

Never mind that the Oregon law conflicted with a Federal statute that requires physicians to prescribe drugs for legitimate medical purposes only. Also, never mind the fact that the majority opinion acknowledged that common sense suggests that causing a patient's death is not a legitimate medical purpose. The key apparently, in the opinion of the majority, was that the Justice Department took this common sense interpretation, not some panel of medical experts.

My main problem with the Journal's editorial is its defense of the right of state to facilitate death. When will the Journal stand up for the right of the state to prevent the death of innocent life? Don't answer. That was rhetorical.

American Idol

2006-01-21T14:22:00.000-05:00

It's bad enough we have to endure hateful singing on American Idol. Now we have to endure hate speech.

On the programme, Brit Cowell told one effeminate wannabe to "shave off your beard and wear a dress," while Jackson asked another audition hopeful, "Are you a girl?" Both contestants were rejected.

Please stop the pain.

Osama's Book Club

2006-01-21T13:47:00.000-05:00

Looks like Osama's Book Club may be rivaling Oprah's.

William Blum's "Rogue State: A Guide to the World's Only Superpower" was ranked 209,000 on Amazon.com's sales list before bin Laden mentioned it in an audiotape released on Thursday. By Friday, the book was No. 30 on the Amazon.com list.
Bin Laden said al Qaeda group was preparing more attacks in the United States but also told Americans, "It is useful for you to read the book 'The Rogue State.'"

Blum's reaction:

"I was quite surprised and even shocked and amused when I found out what he'd said," Blum said on Friday in an interview with Reuters Television in his Washington apartment.
"I was glad. I knew it would help the book's sales and I was not bothered by who it was coming from.
"If he shares with me a deep dislike for the certain aspects of U.S. foreign policy, then I'm not going to spurn any endorsement of the book by him. I think it's good that he shares those views and I'm not turned off by that."

One more example, as if we needed one, that the left hates Bush more than it hates terrorists. Far be it from me to call them unpatriotic though.

Old Media

2006-01-21T13:01:00.000-05:00

If you're a journalist, aspiring journalist, or merely a scruffy blogger, you should read Hugh Hewitt's column on his visit to the Colombia School of Journalism.

On my first day at Columbia's graduate school of journalism (CSJ), the poster boy for all that has come to plague elite American media--former CBS anchor Dan Rather--took to the podium at Fordham Law School to denounce the "new journalism order." On day two, the New York Times Company announced a cut of 500 employees from its already pared down workforce of 12,300. (The company employed 13,750 as recently as 2001.) On that same day Knight-Ridder slashed its Philadelphia papers' editorial staff by 75 positions at the Inquirer and 25 at the Daily News. "I get 50 calls a day about the crisis in journalism," Lemann deadpanned when I posed the "crisis" question. "Only 50?" I thought.
The story of what is going on at CSJ cannot be separated from the collapse of credibility of the mainstream media, also known as "elite media" and "old media" among its detractors. The fortunes of the big five papers--the Washington Post, the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the Boston Globe, and the Wall Street Journal, as well as the old TV networks and big weekly newsmagazines--are visibly in decline. The upstart blogosphere is ever at the ready to "deconstruct" the work product of the old media's old guard. The very best investigative reporting is being done not by big names at the big papers, but by people like the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies' journalist in residence Claudia Rosett, who almost singlehandedly unraveled the U.N.-Saddam Oil-for-Food scandal, with much of her work published online. Dan Rather's CBS, eager to impugn George W. Bush's service in the Texas National Guard, got duped by fraudulent documents it took months to obtain and only hours for bloggers and readers to shred.

He ends the piece with the following:

There is too much expertise, all of it almost instantly available now, for the traditional idea of journalism to last much longer. In the past, almost every bit of information was difficult and expensive to acquire and was therefore mediated by journalists whom readers and viewers were usually in no position to second-guess. Authority has drained from journalism for a reason. Too many of its practitioners have been easily exposed as poseurs.

Sounds to me like the future belongs to you scruffy bloggers.

Torino

2006-01-21T12:02:00.000-05:00

Those of us who watch NBC from time to time are getting bombarded with ads for the upcoming Winter Olympics in Torino, Italy. Am I the only one wondering how Turin became Torino in the American media?

I know the Italians pronounce the name Torino, but until the Olympics came up, I thought Torino was a smokin hot Ford from the 1970s. Also, why is it necessary to say Torino, but not Italia? Isn't that how the Italians pronounce it? Maybe we should query the Vatican, located within Roma, for guidance.

I've never watched Mexican TV, but I wonder whether the nightly news anchor "person" in Mexico City says United States or Ustados Unidos when reporting on a story in our country.

The answer, of course, is that multiculturism is good, anglo-centrism is bad. To be a citizen of the world is good, to be a proud American is unseemly at best.

If you're reading this on a college campus server, be careful, the speech police could be at your door.

Fix Congress

2006-01-21T11:50:00.000-05:00

Fred Barnes of the Weekly Standard has a good piece up today on the efforts of Congress to reform lobbying. I think he correctly points out that it's the behavior of members of Congress that needs to be fixed.

THIS IS ONE OF THOSE moments when you realize Congress is not an altogether serious body. There have been others. One that comes to mind is the frantic effort several decades ago to stop the National Football League from blacking out home games on local television (unless stadium tickets have already sold out). This time it's worse. The current drive for lobbying reform is purely cosmetic. And it skirts the real issue. Lobbyists, for all their selfish intentions and dubious methods, aren't the problem. Members of Congress and the way they spend taxpayers' money are.
Lobbyists will always be with us. Barring them from taking members of Congress or staffers to lunch won't fundamentally alter the relationship between lobbyists and legislators. Nor will a ban on gifts to members or their aides. And while a prohibition on congressional travel paid for by private groups is a good idea, it's not a meaningful curb on potential corruption in Congress. Democrats want to establish a new office of public integrity to examine disclosure statements by lobbyists for possible violations. This is flyspecking.

One of his ideas is to revisit the issue of term limits. He suggests three terms for the House and two for the Senate. One of the minimal measures that Congress is actually considering is eliminating pensions for members found guilty of using their positions to commit a felony, as in Duke Cunningham.

I'll suggest another idea. Eliminate all pensions for members of Congress. The Founders never envisioned service in the House or Senate as a lifetime career. Without the prospect of a lucrative pension, maybe some members would self-impose term limits. Wishful thinking, perhaps, but it's worth a try.

Iran Hostage Anniversary

2006-01-20T16:39:00.000-05:00

As you know, today marks the 25th anniversary of President Reagan's inauguration and the release of the U.S. hostages held captive by Iran for 444 days. Red State has a good summary of the hostage crisis and the inept Jimmy Carter.

Few presidents have inflicted such deep wounds on the American psyche as Jimmy Carter. One nearly has to hope against hope that he was part of a diabolical Soviet plot to bring America to its knees because then one could praise his ingenuity and malicious cruelty. Otherwise one is left with the unhappy prospect that he was merely a buffoon which speaks more to our collective political judgment that to Carter’s skills or character.
To say he was a weak, silly, vacillating little man does a great discredit to the hard working Willy Lomans out there.
Carter gave us many things. Billy Beer. Cardigans. 68-degree settings on the thermostats. National malaise. Latin American-style inflation. The Misery Index. Green lighting Saddam’s invasion of Iran. The Sandinistas. But the greatest gift of all was the Iranian Hostage Crisis.

Have we had a worse president than Jimmy Carter? He has to at least be among the worst five.

Now we Know

2006-01-20T16:31:00.000-05:00

Incitement to murder should not be considered a crime because it is flows directly from the Koran. So says the defense attorney for a cleric on trial in Britain.

Edward Fitzgerald, QC, for the defence, said that Abu Hamza’s interpretation of the Koran was that it imposed an obligation on Muslims to do jihad and fight in the defence of their religion. He said that the Crown case against the former imam of Finsbury Park Mosque was “simplistic in the extreme”.
He added: “It is said he was preaching murder, but he was actually preaching from the Koran itself.”

Hat tip to Little Green Footballs.

Brokeback Diplomacy

2006-01-20T16:18:00.000-05:00

Credit The Officers Club with posting this political cartoon of the day.

Grasping at Straws

2006-01-20T16:04:00.000-05:00

Drudge reports that Ted Kennedy's office may take a goal line stand against Judge Alito using a 2004 recusal request.

THE DRUDGE REPORT has learned Sen. Ted Kennedy's (D-MA) office is behind a last ditch effort to stop Judge Samuel A. AlitoÕs confirmation before next week's vote using a 2004 recusal request. THE DRUDGE REPORT has obtained a complaint filed by H. Gerard Heimbecker of Upper Darby, PA accusing Alito of not properly listing the Heimbecker v. 555 Associates case in his Senate questionnaire. Kennedy legal aide James Flug is behind the efforts to push this latest attack. The veteran aide has been criticized for Sen. Kennedy's misfires during the Alito hearing last week. Flug was reportedly behind the attacks Kennedy used against Alito related to the Concerned Alumni of Princeton (CAP) and Vanguard recusal case. In the 2004 case, Heimbecker not only filed a request for Alito to recuse himself but also the entire Third Circuit as well. One Capital Aide aware the situation challenged Heimbecker's credibility. "The individual who filed this complaint is clearly a serial litigant. It will be interesting to see how far the Democrats will push this and what the mainstream media will make of it." Developing...

Read Peggy

2006-01-20T11:00:00.000-05:00

Peggy Noonan should be required reading for anyone seriously interested in politics. Her column today analyzes the effects of loss of the media monopoly on the Democrat party.

Eleven years ago the Democrats lost control of Congress. Then they lost the presidency. But just as important, maybe more enduringly important, they lost their monopoly on the means of information in America. They lost control of the pipeline. Or rather there are now many pipelines, and many ways to use the information they carry. The other day, Dana Milbank, an important reporter for the Washington Post, the most important newspaper in the capital, wrote a piece deriding Judge Alito. Once such a piece would have been important. Men in the White House would have fretted over its implications. But within hours of filing, Mr. Milbank found his thinking analyzed and dismissed on the Internet; National Review Online called him a "policy bimbo."
Could Democratic senators today torture Clarence Thomas with tales of Coke cans and porn films? Not likely. Could Ted Kennedy have gotten away with his "Robert Bork's America" speech unanswered? No.
And the end of the monopoly of course isn't only in the news, it's in all media. The other night George Clooney, that beautiful airhead, made a Golden Globe speech in which he made an off-color reference to Jack Abramoff. The audience seemed confused, as people apparently often are when George Clooney speaks. Once, his remark would have been news. Once, Marlon Brando stopped the country in its tracks when he sent Sacheen Littlefeather to make his speech at the Academy Awards. Once, Vanessa Redgrave did the same when she gave a speech about Palestinians, receiving in turn a rebuke from Frank Sinatra, who didn't want some British broad telling us how to do our thing. Now, actors make their comments and it's just another airhead involved in an oral helium release. "You don't like it, change the channel," network executives used to say. But that, as they knew, meant nothing: There were only three channels. Now there are 500. And more coming.

Read the whole thing.

Barrett Report

2006-01-19T14:24:00.000-05:00

Captain's Quarters links to this NY Daily News article on the Barrett Report, the long awaited wrap up of the Henry Cisneros investigation. The article discusses a high level cover up by IRS officials to protect Cisneros. Apparently though, the meat of the cover up is contained in about 120 pages that were redacted.

David Barrett's 11-year, $23 million probe, which will be released tomorrow, states in stinging terms that this Clinton coverup succeeded.
Cisneros was forced to admit in 1999 that he had made secret payments to a mistress before serving as Clinton's secretary of Housing and Urban Development. Barrett investigated tax fraud charges stemming from those under-the-table payments.
Then-IRS Commissioner Peggy Richardson, a close friend of Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.), was involved in efforts to quash the probe, a source close to the case alleged.
But Richardson's role was cut from Barrett's report, which went through 26 drafts, because Democratic law firm Williams & Connolly successfully pressured Barrett to remove a section of the report naming her, a source said.

Captain Ed adds:

In a strange twist to the case, Cisneros' defense attorney now works at the IRS as chief of internal affairs. Cono Namorato refused to comment on the allegations in the Barrett report. Barrett alleges that Richardson and Barry Finkelstein, an attorney with the IRS, fixed the probe by assigning it to two low-level, inexperienced attorneys. A whistleblower, IRS criminal investigatgor James Filan, tried to blow the cover-up out of the water, but in the end did not succeed.
The report, if the Daily News has its facts straight, will prove explosive to the 2006 re-election effort of Hillary Clinton, but even more damaging to her expected run at the Presidency in 2008. For instance, Williams and Connolly not only represents Cisneros in this probe, but also has as clients a couple named Bill and Hillary Clinton. It seems as though burying this report and getting a series of redactions helps a number of their clients out, a kind of anti-conflict of interest in this case. And it seems more than passingly strange that Cono Namorato winds up running the IRS division that would have been tasked with discovering a cover-up and malfeasance involving a former client after he gets done representing him.
Someone has a lot of explaining to do. And while she tries to come up with an explanation, this will remind everyone what a "culture of corruption" really looks like, as this will bring up the ethical morass of the Clinton years all over again. The Democrats may well have to rethink their electoral theme for 2006 -- again.

Invade Iran

2006-01-19T13:52:00.000-05:00

Thanks to InstaPundit for linking to this thoughtful article by Thomas Holsinger, writing on Winds of Change. He makes the case that if we don't invade Iran this year to force regime change and destroy their nuke program, nothing we do after this year much matters.

Fear of possible Iranian nuclear weapons use against an American invasion is not a valid reason for doing nothing. A thousand more American civilians have been killed by enemy action at home in this war than American servicemen killed at home and abroad. Not invading Iran will increase this disparity by several orders of magnitude. We have armed forces to protect our civilians from the enemy, not vice versa – soldiers die so civilians don’t. We will invade Iran to protect the American people from nuclear attack. That is worth the risk posed by Iranian nuclear weapons to American soldiers, and the burden of deploying 200,000 troops there for several years. Our reserves knew when they enlisted that they’d be called up for the duration of a major war. Invasion of Iran to protect America from nuclear attack, and preserve our freedom, counts as a major war.

Read the whole thing.

Wal-Mart

2006-01-19T13:03:00.000-05:00

The Winston-Salem Journal's editorial page today applauds the great socialist state of Maryland for passing a law targeted at one company -- Wal-Mart. The law requires employers with 10,000 or more workers to spend 8 percent of payroll on health benefits. If the company doesn't comply, the difference between what it does spend and the 8 percent goes to the state.

How many companies in Maryland with 10,000 or more workers do not now spend 8 percent on health benefits? You guessed it, one: Wal-Mart.

Wal-Mart has made itself the world's largest business by offering what it says are unbeatably low prices. But those low prices come at tremendous cost. The company is considered to be hugely responsible for the transfer of thousands of manufacturing jobs to China. That's because Wal-Mart uses its enormous buying power to force lower prices from suppliers, prices that cannot be sustained if the manufacturing is done in the United States.
Another part of the Wal-Mart money-making formula is to drive rival small business into the red. When Wal-Mart comes to small-town America, local home-grown businesses suffer, and many go out of business.
Finally, Wal-Mart has made itself rich by squeezing its employees. Benefits are not good, and pay is worse. Pay is so low that many Wal-Mart employees, despite working full time, still qualify for Medicaid

The Journal silmultaneously manages to slam Wal-Mart for paying its employees too little and for causing the outsourcing of manufacturing jobs to China. Don't the Journal's editors understand outsourcing is caused by cumbersome and expensive state regulations, such as the one just passed in Maryland? Couple that with fat union contracts that provide free health care for life, as in General Motors, and you get a a formula for lost manufacturing jobs.

Contrast the Journal's editorial position with that of George Will, writing today in the Washington Post.

Wal-Mart's enemies say Maryland is justified in expropriating some of the company's revenue because the company's pay and medical benefits are insufficient to prevent some employees from being eligible for Medicaid. Well.
Eighty-six percent of Wal-Mart employees have health insurance, more than half through the company, which offers 18 plans, one with $11 monthly premiums and another with $3 co-payments. Wal-Mart employees are only slightly more likely to collect Medicaid than the average among the nation's large retailers, which hire many entry-level and part-time workers. In the past 12 months, Wal-Mart, the largest private employer in the nation and in 25 states, estimates that it has paid its 1.3 million employees $4.7 billion in benefits. That sum is almost half as large as the company's profits, which last fiscal year were $10.3 billion -- just 3.6 percent -- on revenue of $285 billion. Wal-Mart earns just $6,000 per employee, one-third below the national average. Anyway, Wal-Mart's pay and benefits are sufficient to attract hordes of job applicants whenever it opens a new American store, which it does once every three days.
Maryland's new law is, The Post says, "a legislative mugging masquerading as an act of benevolent social engineering." And the mugging of profitable businesses may be just beginning. The threshold of 10,000 employees can be lowered by knocking off a zero. Then two. The 8 percent requirement can be raised. It might be raised in Maryland if, as is possible, Wal-Mart's current policies almost reach it.

Make up your own mind.

Bash Bush Day

2006-01-19T12:04:00.000-05:00

More evidence that MLK day has turned into Bash Bush day -- this time from Harry Belafonte. The Duke University News reports,

He was harsh in his criticism of President Bush, saying, "Killing is our easiest tool. When you look at the president who has led us into a dishonorable war that has caused the deaths of tens of thousands of people, many our own sons and daughters, I ask myself what Dr. King would have asked...

"It is an act that has driven fear and terror into the hearts of the American people. What is the essential difference in quality of our humanity for those who would do the cruel and tragic deed of flying an airplane into a building and killing 3,000 innocent Americans and those who would lie and lead the nation into a war that has killed hundreds of thousands?

Belafonte sees moral equivalence between the terror attacks on 9/11 and the loss of life in the Iraq war. No wonder he's a goodwill ambassador for the U.N.

Teddy's Love Child

2006-01-19T11:51:00.000-05:00

The National Enquirer, always a reliable source, reports that Ted Kennedy fathered a love child in 1984. Read about it in the NY Daily News.

According to the tab, the Massachusetts senator took a paternity test that proved he'd fathered a son - now 21 - by a Cape Cod woman half his age.

Kennedy's office yesterday denounced the story, calling it "irresponsible fiction. "But an Enquirer insider said the tab's lawyers are very comfortable with the story.

Leadership Race

2006-01-19T11:24:00.000-05:00

The Wall Street Journal today published the third in a series of columns by candidates for majority leader. This one is by Roy Blunt, the apparent front runner. He hits all the right notes.

Our record of accomplishment speaks for itself, but we still have our work cut out for us. The tax relief that has already been enacted must be made permanent. Health Savings Accounts should be expanded through additional incentives, medical malpractice laws must be reformed, and health insurance must be more portable. Domestic energy production should be expanded and regulatory barriers to increase refinery capacity removed.

America's private sector is constantly demonstrating how to do more with less. Likewise, Congress must continue to work to shrink the size of government and apply the best practices of the private sector to how we do business. We need smarter--not bigger--government. If I'm elected majority leader, I will work to make sure that any new programs are paid for by eliminating or reducing lower-priority programs. Families and businesses with finite budgets live under this requirement, and the government should be no different.

What bothers me is the title of his piece, Party of Limited Government, Our record of accomplishment speaks for itself. It reminds me of the quote by Tom Delay in the aftermath of Katrina. When pressed by conservative house members to find offsets to pay for Katrina relief, Delay said, in reference to the budget, "There's really no fat left. We've pared it down pretty good."

Given that Blunt was hand picked by Delay for the post of temporary leader, I worry that he will wind up doing business as usual if he is successful.

Alito Confirmation

2006-01-18T16:32:00.000-05:00

In today's lead editorial, Alito a Bad Choice, the Winston-Salem Journal veers off into liberal territory that even the Washington Post did not venture.

On matters of professional and personal qualifications, Alito is eminently qualified to replace Justice Sandra Day O'Connor on the court.

But, on matters of judicial and legal philosophy, he is not.

Some will argue that these matters are not germane to the confirmation process, that a candidate for the high court should be judged on his personal and professional qualifications alone.

That is not so. The justices of the Supreme Court make decisions that have a great bearing on the everyday lives of the American citizenry. Those citizens have a right to expect a justice with a philosophy of which they approve.

It is unreasonable for American citizens to expect a justice with a judicial philosophy of which they approve. They may wish for it, as does the Journal, but they should expect a justice with a judicial philosophy of which the President approves. A legal philosophy has nothing to do with qualifications. Elections have consequences and if the Democrats want to see nominees they prefer, the Democrats have to start winning elections.

The smear tactics used by the Democrat senators during the Judiciary Committee hearings will not help their cause.

Democrat Demagogues

2006-01-18T12:11:00.000-05:00

Michelle's latest column takes on Hillary Clinton and Ray Nagin. She views their remarks on MLK day as, shall we say, excessive.

Yes, Hillary, we're living in the antebellum South all over again. Forget the existence of the raucus Congressional Black Caucus. Pay no attention to the ubiquitous Rep. Charlie Rangel on cable television and radio airwaves. Look past the mainstream status bestowed on the fanatical black separatist Louis Farrakhan, most recently honored as Black Entertainment Television.com's man of the year. And ignore the true ideological plantation mentality that punishes every prominent conservative minority dissenter who strays from leftist orthodoxy.

What racial demagogic stunt will Hillary sink to next? Cornrows and a cameo on Bush-bashing rapper Kanye West's next album? Go on, girl. Go ahead. Get down.

While Hillary wallowed in Farrakhan-esque rhetoric about Republican slavemasters oppressing black people's right to be heard, Democrat New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin paid tribute to civil rights and the fight for equality by freely mouthing off about his racial dream — a dream for a divinely ordained "chocolate" New Orleans:

"I don't care what people are saying [in predominantly white] Uptown or wherever they are. This city will be chocolate at the end of the day. This city will be a majority African-American city. It's the way G-d wants it to be."

Asked by a local reporter for WDSU-TV in New Orleans to explain his remarks, Nagin sniffed condescendingly: "Do you know anything about chocolate? How do you make chocolate? You take dark chocolate, you mix it with white milk, and it becomes a delicious drink. That's the chocolate I'm talkin' about."

Readd the entire column here.

Iran

2006-01-18T11:46:00.000-05:00

Two columns in the National Review Online today make the case that our best hope for Iran is internal revolution. First, Michael Ledeen argues that the U.S. should be doing more to support elements in Iran that want to overthrow the current regime.

Our failure to support revolution in Iran is already a terrible embarrassment, and risks becoming an enormous catastrophe. Almost everyone who writes about the chances for revolution takes it for granted that it would take a long time to come to fruition. Why must that be so? The revolutions in countries like Georgia and the Ukraine seem to have erupted in an historical nanosecond. Nobody foresaw them, everyone was surprised. Who imagined the overnight success of the Lebanese people? How long did that take? The entire region is awash with revolutionary sentiment, and nowhere more than Iran. Why assume Â because no one can possibly "know" such things Â that it would take a long time?

And even if you believe that revolution cannot possibly succeed before the successful completion of the mullahs' nuclear project, is that a reason to abandon the policy altogether? On the contrary, it seems self-evident that it would be even more urgent to support revolution in a nuclear Iran than earlier, doesn't it? So why not start now? The Iranian people may be ready. We won't know until we try.

Jonah Goldberg would be happy with a military coup.

A coup by sophisticated and serious members of the military would be great news. Even better would be a popular uprising. And best of all would be a combination of the two. An Iran with an old-style military dictatorship charged with defending democratic institutions would be an enormous, epochal victory for the West and for the Middle East. That would go a long way toward guaranteeing success in Iraq and would neutralize the threat of the Iran's nuclear ambitions, even if they decided to pursue a bomb. After all, the argument about nuclear weapons is no different than the argument about guns. The threat is from the people who have them, not from the weapons themselves. Lots of countries have nukes; we only need to worry about the ones run by whack jobs.

Unfortunately, I think a nuclear Iran is in the country's long term self interest. Whether the mullahs run the country, a military dictator, or a popularly elected president doesn't change this fact. With the mullahs out, we at least have a better chance of peaceful relations.

Not Dead Yet

2006-01-17T16:07:00.000-05:00

The Supreme Court today upheld an Oregon assisted suicide law. From the Washington Post,

In a 6-3 vote, the court ruled that then-U.S. attorney general John D. Ashcroft overstepped his authority in 2001 by trying to use a federal drug law to prosecute doctors who prescribed lethal overdoses under the Oregon Death With Dignity Act, the only law in the nation that allows physician-assisted suicide. The measure has been approved twice by Oregon voters and upheld by lower court rulings.

One can only hope that several of the Justices voted for the majority opinion solely because they plan to take advantage of the program.

Chocolate City

2006-01-17T15:50:00.000-05:00

Scrappleface has inside information on Mayor Ray Nagin's plan to make a rebuilt New Orleans a "chocolate" city. Hat tip to Michelle Malkin.

Al Gore

2006-01-17T15:27:00.000-05:00

By now, the blogosphere has pretty much taken apart Al Gore's speech slamming President Bush yesterday. Power Line has links here and here. By the way, does this man look scary or what?

I heard Mary Matalin on the radio today and her remarks summed it up for me. I paraphrase:

Al Gore has become a caricature of a parody. President Bush is governing with common sense policies. Would the American people rather have that or Saturday Night Live?

Update: Yesterday's speech must tie in with Gore's plans to go into acting.

Fulsome

2006-01-17T15:09:00.000-05:00

Jay Nordlinger's Impromtus column today has an item on language. He catches the AP misusing the word "fulsome" in describing comments by President Bush.

People are always misusing "fulsome" — they think it means "really full" — and I spotted another misuse in an AP story. The story concerned President Bush and Chancellor Merkel — and it stated, "Bush was fulsome in his praise of Merkel as smart, spirited, and 'plenty capable.'"

"Fulsome" means "offensively flattering or insincere." I doubt Bush was that.

Jay's point reminded me of two occasions on which President Bush may have been guilty of offering fulsome praise - dedication of the Clinton library and unveiling of the Clinton portrait. In both cases, I think President Bush's flattery of Clinton was full of ......, er fulsome.

Porkbusters

2006-01-17T12:17:00.000-05:00

Check out Porkbusters. This site is doing great work in organizing grass roots support for reduced federal spending. It's also shining a bright light on members of Congress who support the effort and those who oppose. Be sure and take the Porkbusters pledge, 'I support the Fiscal Watch Team Offset Package.'

Teddy K

2006-01-17T11:33:00.000-05:00

You gotta love Teddy K. Or hate as the case may be. Courtesy of Drudge.

Golden Globes

2006-01-17T11:19:00.000-05:00

I didn't watch the Golden Globe awards show last night. Never have as best I recall. I find it interesting to read about the big winners though. You can read the inside scoop here, but let me summarize a few of the award winning films.

Brokeback Mountain. Gay cowboys fall in love as young men, marry, raise families, but meet from time to time for illicit sex.

Capote. Gay author covers the crime of the century and falls in love with one of the killers.

Transamerica. Female actress plays a man trying to become a woman.

Syriana. Evil oil companies corrupt the U.S. government to commit evil deeds in the mid-east.

Constant Gardener. Evil drug company corrupts the British government to cover up evil deeds in Africa.

The movies may not have been great last year, but at least Hollywood got its agenda straight (no pun intended).

Death Penalty

2006-01-17T10:53:00.000-05:00

The state of California executed a 76 year old, legally blind, nonambulatory, nearly deaf man last night. Lawyers for Clarence Ray Allen unsuccessfully tried to persuade the Supreme Court that Allen's age and condition made his execution cruel and unusual punishment. His undated photo is on the right.

Although the full court did not agree, Justice Stephen Breyer, thought the argument had merit and wanted to stay the execution. It appears Breyer's appetite for finding new provisions in the constitution has no limit.

What's instructive about this case is how it proves the value of the death penalty. The death penalty may not be a deterrent. Honest people may disagree. A death sentence, particularly if timely executed, does prevent the murderer from killing again. Take a look at Allen's crimes as reported by the Washington Post.

Allen went to prison for having his teenage son's 17-year-old girlfriend murdered for fear she would tell police about a grocery-store burglary. While behind bars, he tried to have witnesses in the case wiped out, prosecutors said. He was sentenced to death in 1982 for hiring a hit man who killed a witness and two bystanders.

Three innocent people died because Allen was not executed for his first crime.

Economic Impact of Hispanics

2006-01-16T16:23:00.000-05:00

My letter to the editor of the Winston-Salem Journal is up on the Journal's web site (registration required). Scroll down to find it. My point is writing was to give some perspective to reporting on a study by UNC's Kenan-Flager Business School on the economic impact of Hispanics in North Carolina.

You can read the full report here. I found the report to be a one-sided attempt to rationalize our current state of illegal immigration and I tried to communicate that in 200 words or less in my letter to the editor.

Essentially, the study concludes that Hispanics generate an astounding $9B in economic impact to our state, but only cost the taxpayers a net of $61M in services. From the organizations that chartered the study (N.C. Banker's Association and Mexican Consulate) to the methodology of the study itself, I found serious flaws that the Journal made no attempt to report.

One example I cite in my letter is the method by which taxpayer impact was calculated. Only three factors were considered - education, health care, and corrections. Wouldn't a more thorough study look at such costs as additional police personnel required to investigate crimes committed by illegal immigrants, additional attorneys needed to prosecute those crimes, and the cost to the victims of those crimes?

Also, the study grouped all Hispanics together in calculating costs and benefits. It would have been much more useful (at least for me) if the researchers had looked at the specific costs attributed to illegal immigrants. I don't question the significant economic benefits that legal immigration provides. I just think we should not fool ourselves into thinking that illegal immigration is relatively cost free.

Alito

2006-01-16T14:44:00.000-05:00

Courtesy of InstaPundit, I found this column by Mark Steyn in which he gives us his analysis of the Democrat performance at the Alito hearings.

I find it, as grave somber Senate Democrats like to say, "troubling." Indeed, I find it not just "troubling" but sad that a party once so good at "the politics of personal destruction" has got so bad at it. The last time they had a Supreme Court nominee to hang upside down in the Democrat bondage dungeon was the John Roberts hearings. And at least, when hatchet man Chuck Schumer professed himself "troubled" by the "fullness" of John Roberts' "heart," the crack oppo-research guys had uncovered an "inappropriate" use of the word "amigo" by Roberts back in the early '80s.
But, with Sam Alito the worst they come could up with was that he might have been around some other guy who might have used the word "amigo." Not back in the early '80s, but in the early '70s.
That's it? It's a tragedy to watch once-fearsome attack dogs spend a week chasing their tails because they're "concerned" about the "Concerned Alumni of Princeton" -- though, of course, these days one's heartened to find Sen. Kennedy still capable of chasing tail. Still, would it be too much to ask these guys to put in a little rehearsal time and practice grilling themselves in front of the bedroom mirror:

Smoking in Jail

2006-01-16T11:39:00.000-05:00

Interesting article today in the Winston-Salem Journal on how inmates in North Carolina prisons are coping with the recently adopted smoking restrictions. I find it interesting because of the reporter's sympathetic approach to the inmates' struggles with limited smoking opportunities.

Roger Blackstock, 51, is serving a life sentence for first-degree rape in Guilford County. He said he's never smoked - mostly because he saw the amount of pesticides sprayed on tobacco when he was a kid - and he shook his fist in victory when asked about the new ban.

"I don't have to come in contact with secondhand smoke," Blackstock said. He added, though, that he sympathizes with those who do smoke. Inmates are locked indoors before sunset and not allowed in the yard again until 7 or 8 in the morning, meaning that in the winter they might have to go 15 hours between cigarettes or plugs.

The result is a smoking "herd" early in the morning and a dizzy feeling after the first cigarette of the day, Clonch said. He is serving 21 years and two months for second-degree murder in Guilford County. "It's right rough on a person at night, and you wouldn't believe how much nicotine leaves your system in 14 or 15 hours," he said

Contrast the problems of the four inmates interviewed with the crimes that resulted in their convictions- first-degree rape and first-degree murder. At least these poor, deprived inmates are allowed to go outside and smoke.

House Leadership

2006-01-16T11:23:00.000-05:00

The Wall Street Journal weighs in today on the House leadership race.

Win or lose, Mr. Shadegg's candidacy will be a measuring rod of just how much trouble congressional Republicans really think they're in. It will also serve as a leading indicator of whether House conservatives will devote the next nine months of this term to slamming the brakes on a domestic legislative policy that has careened off course. The era when Republicans promised to make government smaller and smarter by abolishing hundreds of obsolete federal agencies seems a distant memory now in this era of Bridges to Nowhere. In the last five years, Republicans have enacted the largest increase in entitlement spending in three decades, doubled the education budget, nearly tripled the number of earmarked spending projects, and turned a blind eye toward the corrosive culture of corruption on Capitol Hill that seems so eerily reminiscent of the final days of Democratic rule in the House.

One wonders whether the young-gun conservatives in the House fully appreciate what's at stake here. Few current House members even remember that the first shots in the Republican Revolution of 1994 were fired in 1989, when upstart Newt Gingrich rallied the conservative troops in the House and shockingly defeated by one vote the Bob Michel machine candidate for minority whip (the No. 2 leadership perch). The conservatives for the first time in a generation had a foothold of power. Shortly thereafter, the power structure shifted again when free-marketer Dick Armey of Texas, a longtime backbencher in the House, evicted another old bull Republican from the leadership team, Jerry Lewis of California. (It's a sign of the party's lost bearings that Mr. Lewis, the epitome of so much of what's wrong with the congressional Republicans, has been made Appropriations Committee chairman and has been even talked about as belonging back in the leadership.)

Also, the National Review endorses John Shadegg.

Conservatives both inside and outside the House have complained a lot recently, because there has been much to complain about. But venting and carping have their limits. Now, there is a chance to make a real difference. Now is the time for the Republican Study Committee, the caucus of House conservatives, to stand up and be counted. The future direction, and perhaps the future existence, of the House Republican majority depends on choices that will be made in coming weeks. We are ready to cast our vote — for John Shadegg.

It will be a big upset if Shadegg wins, but at least his candidacy will help frame the issues for the Republican caucus.

Kona Tiki

2006-01-15T13:18:00.000-05:00

I've put up a link to the Kona Tiki Hotel, our new home for three months beginning on January 29th. Here's a picture. It's on the big island of Hawaii in the town of Kailua-Kona.

Good News

2006-01-15T11:50:00.000-05:00

The Washington Times column, Inside the Ring, reports good news for Army recruiting:

The Army reports that it has made its recruiting goal for the active force for the seventh straight month in what is normally a slow time of year for enlistment. The Reserve and National Guard components also met their targets in December, the Army reported this week.

The Army cited incentives approved by Congress for the current budget year that may help further. New recruits now can receive up to $40,000 as sign-up bonus and up to $90,000 for re-enlisting.

Redskins

2006-01-15T11:28:00.000-05:00

With sadness, I note that the Seahawks eliminated the Washington Redskins from the playoffs yesterday. I think Michael Wilbon has it right when he says that the Skins went about as far as their talent would take them.

If the Redskins didn't max out, they came reasonably close. For the first time in a long time, they went about as far as the talent on hand should have taken them, which doesn't, however, include advancing in these playoffs. We've known all season the Redskins were offensively challenged, that they were at least one receiver short, that Mark Brunell lately has appeared injured and tuckered out, that Clinton Portis was intent but battered. They struggled to move the ball during the regular season finale in Philly, couldn't move it a lick last week down in Tampa, and on Saturday looked for most of the game against the Seattle Seahawks like a unit desperate and overmatched.

House Leadership Elections

2006-01-15T11:16:00.000-05:00

Keep your eye on the race for majority leader of the House. Conventional wisdom has it that it is down to a two man contest - Roy Blunt and John Boehner. John Shadegg, a conservative Republican from Arizona may the the upset winner. He has fewer ties to lobbyists than either of the front runners and engages in the kind of small government rhetoric that led to the Republican takeover of the House in 1994. The Washington Post profiles Shadegg today:

Now John Shadegg, a six-term Republican congressman from Arizona, has jumped into the race for House majority leader, trying to position himself as the reform candidate in challenging two more established members of the GOP leadership, Missouri's Roy Blunt and Ohio's John A. Boehner.

In arguing that the Republicans have "lost sight of our ideals," Shadegg, 56, is espousing not only tighter ethics rules, but also a return to the smaller-government ethos that has been lost in an era of ballooning budgets and pork-barrel spending.

"I think he's by far the most conservative guy who's acceptable to a broad ideological spectrum in the [Republican] Conference," said former representative Pat Toomey, president of the Club for Growth, who encouraged Shadegg to run. "He's a very easy guy to get along with, a very good-natured guy. He doesn't make enemies." While clearly an underdog, Toomey said, "John is in the best position to demand a departure from the old ways of doing business."

Alito and CAP

2006-01-14T11:22:00.000-05:00

For those of you paying attention to the Alito hearings this past week, you couldn't help noticing the Democrats trying to destroy Judge Alito with guilt by association with the Concerned Alumni of Princeton (CAP).

To believe Senator Kennedy, et al, CAP was a sinister group of bigots and sexists whose goal in life was to keep minorities and women off the Princeton campus.

Terry Eastland gives us a slightly different view in today's Daily Standard.

News Flash: Plants Cause Global Warming

2006-01-14T11:11:00.000-05:00

Courtesy of Drudge, we now know that plants produce 10 to 30 percent of the methane found in the atmosphere. Maybe we should go ahead and cut down those tropical rain forests after all.

German scientists have discovered a new source of methane, a greenhouse gas that is second only to carbon dioxide in its impact on climate change.
The culprits are plants.

They produce about 10 to 30 percent of the annual methane found in the atmosphere, according to researchers at the Max-Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics in Heidelberg, Germany.

More on Body Armor

2006-01-13T16:58:00.000-05:00

Here's a follow-up on body armor. Strategy Page puts the issue of weight and combat in clear perspective. Hat tip to Mudville Gazette. You can find much more on his site.

Munich

2006-01-13T11:30:00.000-05:00

Almost all the movie critics I've read give high marks to Steven Spielberg's new movie, Munich. I don't plan to see it and if you read Charles Krauthammer's column today, you may agree with me. He writes in part:

Even more egregious than the manipulation by character is the propaganda by dialogue. The Palestinian case is made forthrightly: The Jews stole our land and we're going to kill any Israeli we can to get it back. Those who are supposedly making the Israeli case say . . . the same thing. The hero's mother, the pitiless committed Zionist, says: We needed the refuge. We seized it. Whatever it takes to secure it. Then she ticks off members of their family lost in the Holocaust.

It takes a Hollywood ignoramus to give flesh to the argument of a radical anti-Semitic Iranian. Jewish history did not begin with Kristallnacht. The first Zionist Congress occurred in 1897. The Jews fought for and received recognition for the right to establish a "Jewish national home in Palestine" from Britain in 1917 and from the League of Nations in 1922, two decades before the Holocaust.

Iran and Nukes

2006-01-13T11:23:00.000-05:00

Victor Davis Hanson always has well written and thoughtful columns in the National Review Online. His column today lays out the options we have in dealing with Iran's nuclear threat. He finds none that are promising, but sums it up with this:

So where do these bad and worse choices leave us? Right where we are now — holding and circling while waiting for a break in the clouds.

Still, there are two parameters we should accept — namely, that Iran should not be allowed to arm its existing missiles with nukes and that Israel should not have to do the dirty work of taking out Iran’s nuclear infrastructure.

Read the entire column and visit his web site. You won't be disappointed.

The Skins

2006-01-13T11:18:00.000-05:00

Be sure and watch the Washington Redskins play the Seattle Seahawks tomorrow afternoon. The Redskins are on a roll, winning their last six games in a row. If you live in Seattle though, you may not know that your hometown team is even playing the Redskins. The Wall Street Journal reports today on how the PC police at the Seattle Times have banned the Redskins from the newspaper.

SKINS ALIVE: You can hardly tell from reading the Seattle Times, but that city's football team faces the Washington Redskins in an NFL playoff this weekend. Only "redskins" is an un-PC term at the paper, so its reporters have been laboring to write about the game without mentioning the opposing team's name. The Washington Post labeled the naming restriction a "cheap shot" but also pointed out a journalistic flaw in the Seattle Times strategy: "The Redskins will be referred to almost exclusively as Washington--which could get a little confusing for local readers who also live in that state."

Saddam's Terror Training Camps

2006-01-12T16:56:00.000-05:00

One story you'll almost never see in the MSM is the existence of extensive evidence that Saddam's regime trained thousands of foreign terrorists in the four years prior to the Iraqi war. Stephen Hayes of the Weekly Standard covers the story and you can read it here. Below are a couple of paragraphs to whet your appetite.

THE FORMER IRAQI REGIME OF Saddam Hussein trained thousands of radical Islamic terrorists from the region at camps in Iraq over the four years immediately preceding the U.S. invasion, according to documents and photographs recovered by the U.S. military in postwar Iraq. The existence and character of these documents has been confirmed to THE WEEKLY STANDARD by eleven U.S. government officials.

The secret training took place primarily at three camps--in Samarra, Ramadi, and Salman Pak--and was directed by elite Iraqi military units. Interviews by U.S. government interrogators with Iraqi regime officials and military leaders corroborate the documentary evidence. Many of the fighters were drawn from terrorist groups in northern Africa with close ties to al Qaeda, chief among them Algeria's GSPC and the Sudanese Islamic Army. Some 2,000 terrorists were trained at these Iraqi camps each year from 1999 to 2002, putting the total number at or above 8,000. Intelligence officials believe that some of these terrorists returned to Iraq and are responsible for attacks against Americans and Iraqis. According to three officials with knowledge of the intelligence on Iraqi training camps, White House and National Security Council officials were briefed on these findings in May 2005; senior Defense Department officials subsequently received the same briefing.

Hillary's Body Armor

2006-01-12T16:07:00.000-05:00

Michelle Malkin's latest column tells us of Hillary Clinton's new cause to protect our troops - body armor. Michelle points out that the troops, who presumably would be more concerned than anyone about protection, don't see the issue in such black and white terms as Hillary. Read more at her blog site.

You want different points of view? Listen to soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division's 3rd Brigade, who must don some 40 pounds of protection and gear while fighting in the desert heat. Capt. Jamey Turner, 35, of Baton Rouge, La., a commander in the 1st Squadron, 33rd Cavalry Regiment bluntly reminded the Associated Press: "You've got to sacrifice some protection for mobility. If you cover your entire body in ceramic plates, you're just not going to be able to move."
Second Lt. Josh Suthoff, 23, of Jefferson City, said: "I'd go out with less body armor if I could."

Is Alito in?

2006-01-12T15:59:00.000-05:00

Most conservative pundits, including Bob Novak, seen to think Alito is all but confirmed. Here's Bob's take.

Failure to make a direct hit on Alito suggests a transcendent defeat for the Democratic judicial confirmation strategy crafted by Kennedy. It did not block all conservatives for appellate courts and failed to dissuade Bush from naming conservatives to the Supreme Court. To stop Alito required an auto wreck at this week's hearings, which always was unlikely considering his style.

Alito Hearings

2006-01-12T15:43:00.000-05:00

Dianne Feinstein doesn't look too happy at the Alito Hearings.

Gun Control

2006-01-12T15:30:00.000-05:00

Check out Jack Dunphy writing in the National Review Online today. He has some good insight into both the L.A. Times and its stance on gun control. His comments are on a Times editorial on the efforts of the mayors of Los Angeles and New York to toughen gun control laws.

The Times trots out another old liberal horse in its antigun message: a sneering, elitist disdain for people living out there in the howling wilderness between Beverly Hills and the Hudson River. "Bloomberg's message will be a tough sell in many states," it says, "especially those south of the Mason-Dixon line . . ." And there you have it: If it weren't for all those backwards, grit-eating rednecks down south — who voted for Bush, don't you know — what a tranquil, blessedly gun-free country we might be living in.

Never Wrong

2006-01-11T11:29:00.000-05:00

John Feinstein's column in the Washington Post today discusses Marcus Vick and his recent dismissal from the Virginia Tech football team. He points out that Vick's problems are not unique and says that star athletes today live in a place he calls the "Land of Never Wrong."

This is where truly gifted athletes live. They are given second, third, fourth and 15th chances solely because of their talent. That's why so many of them come to believe that rules and laws, even rules of decent behavior, don't apply to them.

Read the whole column (registration required).

Slow Joe

2006-01-10T15:10:00.000-05:00

Hugh Hewitt provides an excellent summary of Senator Joe Biden's questioning of Judge Sam Alito today. It's almost sad, but not surprising, that the Democrat senators are so overmatched.