Extremism on The Supreme Court

Just for fun I decided to do some research into Supreme Court nominees and I found a few very interesting facts.

For example: One past nominee has expressed sympathy for the viewpoint that there’s a constitutional right for both prostitution and polygamy.

A past nominee characterized the Boy Scouts and the Girl Scouts as sexist institutions and proposed abolishing Mother’s Day and Father’s Day and replacing them both with Parent’s Day.

A past nominee called for an end to single-sex prisons because they believed that if male inmates are going to return to society they need to know that males and females are equal and prison would be a good place to learn that important lesson.

A past nominee held the opinion that courts should order employers to have racial quota’s even with no evidence of discrimination on part of the employer. This same nominee owned an office for over a decade in a town that was majority African American and yet and never hired a black person.

You probably think that there’s no way such a person could ever be approved as a justice to the highest court in the land. You would be wrong, that person is Ruth Bader Ginsburg; she was nominated by President Clinton and confirmed by a 96-3 vote.

In His Own Words (Not So Much)

So the New York Times has an editorial about the Alito nominations today. The title is "Judge Alito, in His Own Words", I thought by the title it might be an enlightenng piece.

The problem being that in the 709 word diatribe against Alito they used only 23 of "his own words". I'm sure they never once took him out of context either.

Excellence in journalism yet again! Thank you New York Times!

Grasping at Straws!

The Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee are grasping at straws! It's very clear that there is no smoking gun, or flaw, in Judge Alito's past or testimony that is going to rise to the level of supporting a filibuster. It's amazing that, for example, they say he's inconsistent! So he said he has an open minded on abortion, but he wouldn't echo the phrase Judge Roberts used on Roe v. Wade who called it "settled law". Alito referred to it as "an important precedent of the Supreme Court". That's not inconsistent with saying he has an open mind! Then there is his membership in a Princeton University group called CAP from 30 yrs ago....which he listed on an job application 20 years ago. CAP as a group, or maybe individuals of CAP (it's not clear) had some issue with women and minority enrollment at Princeton. The judge can't remember being a member, actively or otherwise. So people say why didn't he denounce CAP later? Why should he? He had no political aspirations. If he was member of a group AND actively participated in questionable activities, or views, then you have a good concern. Short of that it's like saying I'm a racist because it comes out that a coach of one little league team, where I also coach a team in the same league, won't allow blacks on his team.

There is clearly no grounds for a filibuster here, and to mount one will create a bigger rift between the parties which in the end will not achieve any political gain.

Poll Bogosity

I have been in work meetings starting at 8am today and finally came out of my last meeting drained at 3pm. I was anxious to see how the Alito hearing was going. Checked a few blogs and it appears he's doing pretty well. Then I decided to visit some MSM sites to see what they were saying, but I got distracted. The first site I hit was CNN's and what I knew would be a bogus and slanted CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll was on the front page "Poll finds U.S. split over eavesdropping". What I hate about this is that most people don't bother to look at the actual polling questions and see if they think they are asked in a unbias way. Of course I don't think I have ever seen a poll (at least one anybody uses for their cause) that is unbiased. What's interesting is that this poll asked questions in way, I suppose, they thought would elicit an anti-Bush sentiment...it didn't.

For example they asked "Do you think the Bush administration has gone too far, has been about right, or has not gone far enough in restricting people's civil liberties in order to fight terrorism?". You could argue that since the NSA eavesdropping program was only done on those shown to have some connection (like their phone number shows up on a suspected terrorist's cell phone speed dial!) to a suspected terrorist. So a more appropriate question on this would be "Do you think the Bush administration has gone too far, has been about right, or has not gone far enough in monitoring communications of those shown to have ties to suspected terrorists?". They did ask the question in this form when they asked about how much people were following the story. But in the end the responses didn't go against the intent of the NSA program. Only 38% thought the Bush administration went to far, a total of 59% said it was about right or not far enough! I think the poll shows that more people than probably liberals would like to believe see our security as trumping the "civil liberties" card so often played. None the less CNN starts the story saying "Though Americans are growing more skeptical of the White House record on civil liberties...." and I assume they based this leap on a poll number they show for 2003 where 69% (10% more than today) say it was about right or not far enough. And I'm sure if you asked it in 2002 it would have been 79%. They could have as easily said that 4+ years after 9/11 the majority of Americans think the administration is on track or could go farther in restricting people's civil liberties in order to fight terrorism.

Haters of America and Freedom

You must be kidding me!....in my ideal world Belafonte should be the target of NSA eavesdropping! Do people like Belafonte and Glover actually do any homework on the dictators (Castro, Chavez, etc.) they love to meet with, idolize and adore? I suppose they will say the mountain of examples of evil and disregard for their people, and their freedom, is all fakery by those who oppose these leaders. Belafonte say Bush is "the greatest terrorist in the world" and I guess by comparison Castro and Chavez are humanitarians! Is this a case of dementia?

Single Issue Democrats!

As we start the confirmation hearings for Samuel Alito this morning I predict his confirmation will not come without some Democrats looking like single issue demagogues. The abortion topic is surely one of the most polarizing for all. I believe that Democrats who harp on abortion and their theory on Alito's personal opinions (which are not the same as his rulings or interpretation of the law!!!!) do so not because their strong beliefs but in order to play on the emotions of the populace for political advantage. The paper trail on Alito's judicial career is vast and unless a Senator presents examples that clearly show incorrect application of the law in favor of personal bias they don't have a logic case for opposition. The typical MSM Democrat darlings (Schumar, Feinstein) were giving the predictable sound bites this weekend. While they pretend that they are concerned about Alito's position on: presidential powers, his 20 yr old application for deputy assistant attorney general in the Justice Department, a case involving strip search of a mother and daughter and machine gun ownership....it was clear from watching Schu-stein the vitriol was evident when Roe v. Wade came up. The NYTimes a hit piece on Alito this weekend and of course their case is made by being incomplete. Professor Bainbridge does a good job demonstrating that point. But the bottom line is MOST Americans are not single issue devotee's and yet for political advantage both sides play the game as if single issues define people. We do not live and die under the specter of abortion. There is also no evidence, I have seen, to show that the President or members of the Senate/House have an agenda to overthrow Roe. Yes, plenty don't like Roe but that's a far cry from actively trying to nullify it, which doesn't make abortion illegal as many will imply.

Just my own 44 years of observation, but I find it fascinating that nearly all liberals I have met that support abortion with tremendous passion (and today's environment supports very late term abortion) are also passionately against capital punishment. How they justify putting an undeniably innocent unborn child to death while opposing it for convicted and mostly poor excuses for human beings is beyond me. Oh, but of course all those on death row are innocent or have "changed"!

Meet supporters of the US Iraq strategy

I'm not surprised that Al-Qaida's No. 2 man Ayman al-Zawahri has now come out calling the US's recent public announcements on troop level draw down in Iraq a victory. Regardless of whether you think we should have ever gone into Iraq to leave it a breeding ground for Islamic extremists can't be an option. Bush and team are screwing up big time by talking about, or implementing, a strategy that has a timeline component versus measured progress. The left, who started the pull-out drum beat, will have American blood spilled on our soil on their hands if we don't finish the job...they have unfortunately pulled what was once a right thinking administration into their delusion.

Warp Speed Mr. Scott!

I found this item on instapundit.com about a "hyperspace" engine, ok a theoretical engine, that would essentially enable what Star Trek fans call "warp speed". Of course healthy skepticism is warranted but if you don't challenge barriers it's unlikely they will fall accidentally. The short description of this theoretical craft is one that could create an enormously powerful magnetic field (around the craft) which allows the craft to slip into another dimension where the speed of light is faster. You could travel at sub-light speed in this other dimension which would equate to faster than light speed in ours. So do other dimensions exist?

The emergence of superstring theory proves, or more accurately put requires, a universe with 10 dimensions. Well, at least there is mathematical proof in the minds of the very few who understand the freaky math used in this research. For most a simple integral (basic calculus) is hard to grasp but the multidimensional math used in superstring theory is hard even for those who "say" they understand it to describe. Equations are used to describe the 6 dimensional Calabi-Yau shape (named for the two mathematicians who did the math) to which you add the 3 dimensions we all are familiar with, along with the dimension of time makes 10. While a lot of the math and physics behind these theories is "out there" the biggest challenge, I suspect, would be to create a powerful enough magnetic field around a craft...maybe a flux capacitor is in our future after all!

Birds of a feather?

I find this story about Hillary's 2000 campaign and financing interesting as it parallels Tom Delay's problems down in Texas. So why isn't a prosecutor somewhere trying to indict Hillary? The case you could make against her has what looks to me to be more meat than in the Delay case...but of course we know why nobody is making noise on this don't we?

Washington For Sale

With lobbyist Jack Abramoff pleading guilty to conspiracy, fraud and tax evasion we may be looking at the start of the biggest story for 2006. Abramoff apparently took a plea deal where he will sing the names of those whose influence he bought and the list could take down a fair number of key politicians and could see others go to jail. The MSM isn't jumping on this story with the blood in water frenzy I would have thought but maybe that will change. And as yet another example of my previous post many stories, and talking heads (like Pelosi), immediately opined this was evidence of the corruption of the Republicans in general. While it is likely to be a serious problem for some Republicans there are plenty of Democrats who took green from Abramoff.

Do they teach fact checking?

This weeks tragic mining incident shows the media's systemic inability to get facts right. It would have taken a few minutes to confirm if in fact all, or most, of the miners were found alive with one of the many officials on the scene but many ran with the incorrect story. Playing fast and loose with the facts is so prevalent in the media I have to wonder how many journalist have journalism degrees and do they teach fact checking? The equally evil twin of playing fast and loose with the facts is story spin. There was probably a time when any media story labeled news had little to no spin...ah, the good old days. These days the media and politicians throw around innuendo, guilt by association and outright lies with impunity. This mining accident story also illustrates how disconnected the media is from news with tabloid journalism taking its place. Many media outlets, with FOX being notably bad, had 24 hour coverage of the incident and then when the outcome was clear went on incessantly about the timeline of how the incorrect news of surviving miners got out.

Q: Why? A: FREEDOM

I was reading Malkin's blog this morning and ran across a post about a liberal political cartoonist named Mike Luckovich. You see back in October Mike did a cartoon by using the names of the then 2000 Americans killed in Iraq to form the word WHY as an obvious anti-war image. Then comes Danielle Ansley (17) who after seeing the WHY cartoon daily, as her mother had cut it out of the paper and put it on the refrigerator, created a response. I have to give it to Luckovich who put the response on his own blog and that he didn't delete the comment on his blog that sums things up best on this: "Is this only sad to me, that ML asks a question ‘WHY’ and the 17 year old, Danielle, knows the obvious answer, FREEDOM. Of course, Danielle, is not blinded by bias."

How my commute could be 90 seconds

My work commute is 6.5 miles and takes on average about 15 minutes, which is extremely short in silicon valley. My current daily driver is capable of making this commute in much less time but the abundance of many less qualified vehicles (and drivers) make this unachievable. Being the performance junky and car buff that I am, I manage to do some spirited driving in my daily commute even if it's only the boyish game of seeing everyone several hundred feet back in my review mirror after only a few seconds of leaving a stop light. My daily driver will do 0-60 in a tad over 5 seconds and has a wind limited top speed just over 140 mph...but this is with a 4800 lbs pickup. There is a strange exaggerated feeling when you have this kind of performance in the unexpected and heavy form of a truck. That's why I can appreciate the eye popping performance numbers of the new Bugatti Veyron. At 4200 lbs these numbers are more like what you would expect from a car weighing 1000 lbs less with the same power. Bugatti has obviously figured out how to best translate scary power (to go and to stop) in a way not achieved in any other production car to date. If you're not a car buff all of this is probably uninteresting and the physical experience I imagine from reading these numbers will be lost on you.

• Quad turbo 8-liter 16-cylinder 1001 hp, 922 ft/lbs power plant
• 10 radiators (what?)
• 7 speed transaxle, 4 wheel drive
• 0-60 in 2.5 sec
• 0-150 in 7.5 sec
• 253 mph top speed (limited to 234 until you use a special key and lower the cars ground clearance from 4.9 to 2.6 in!!!!)
• 250-0 in less than 10 sec
• $1,200,000

Killer Chihuahuas?

Five Chihuahuas attack a policeman! Ok, this raises so many questions: Why does anyone own one, let alone five, of these rat-dogs? Was this a great example of restraint shown by a police officer? Or maybe he left his gun or baton in the car? Maybe he was unaware that an average man can kick or throw a Chihuahua a good 50 feet? Why hasn't a REAL dog in the neighborhood eaten these mice? And in case you didn't know, the Chihuahua is the one under the chair!

Will MSM & Democrats support this leak probe?

Now that there is an official probe into the leak of the NSA eavesdropping program , approved by Bush post 9/11, it will be interesting to see the reaction of the press and hard left Democrats. The press will probably not like how the investigation will treat those at the NYTimes who received the leaked information. The usual Democrat's (like the Three Stooges in the post below) will likely show their typical liberal hypocrisy and denounce this investigation as an effort by the White House to deflect the issue of whether the NSA program was illegal. But of course they supported the Plame leak probe with enthusiasm!

Update 1, check the NYTimes' own article on this probe....sure enough the hypocrisy begins with the Times saying "Privacy advocates said today that the leak investigation should be set aside, at least for now, in favor of an investigation of the warrantless eavesdropping itself." Of course the privacy advocates they're talking about are the leftist ACLU and Electronic Privacy Information Center both of which are worried more about protecting terrorists and promoting anti-Bush projects than they are about civil liberties.

Update 2, Brent Baker at NewsBusters has a post on a biased piece done by ABC on the issue. Just goes to show you the little things you can do (like the choice of an a supposed expert, a piece of text on the TV screen, or something left out) to bias a story.

Associated Press & CNN's anti-Americanism

Bias in reporting by the MSM is nothing new, but I think the AP actually manufactures stories into anti-American hit pieces. This week what appears to be gang violence on a Toronto street, busy with holiday shoppers, took the life of a 15 yr old girl and wounded 6 others. The AP story appears on the CNN website with the headline Canada blames U.S. for gun violence. The mayor of Toronto and the Canadian Prime Minister are quoted as blaming the U.S. for a surge in violence and the use of guns. The Mayor and Prime Minister have made such comments about the U.S. and guns, but I can't find it related to this 15 yr girls killing. They are comments made prior and in regard to a growing youth and gang violence problem in Canada. As you peruse the Canadian press you don't find that "Canada" blames the U.S., you find that a few politicians are making excuses for other root cause problems they have failed to deal with. Interesting coverage from the Canadian Free Press, The Globe and Mail, and the largest paper The Star. When you look at the Canadian news coverage, and reaction of Canadian citizens, you would never come up with the headline that CNN used or focus the story on blaming the U.S. for increased violence in Canada as the AP did...unless your purpose was to create an anti-American story.

Three Democrat Stooges

Ok, there's a lot more than three Democrat stooges, but three get the distinction for being especially stooge like in the last few days. This was all sourced from today's WSJ Opinion Journal blog by James Taranto where you'll find a blurb on all three are worth a visit.

Stooge 1: Ted Kennedy whose op-ed in yesterday's Boston Globe calls Mao Tse-tung's "little red book" the Communist Manifesto which was actually written by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. Ted was trying to point to a supposed abuse of government reach by referring to the likely made up story about a college student checking out the aforementioned book from a library which got him a visit from homeland security agents..NOT!

Stooge 2: Tom Daschle had an op-ed in today's Washington Post where as Taranto put it "the defeated Senate Democratic leader, weighs in on today's Washington Post op-ed page with a piece in which he argues that he and his erstwhile Senate colleagues never meant to authorize President Bush to fight terrorism in the U.S" Taranto also links Ed Morrissey's blog who sums up Daschle's newly reached position thusly: "Democrats have to be the worst historical revisionists still received by polite society or have been truly clueless about the nature of the war on Islamofascist terror since its start. Daschle actually makes a case for both in his essay" and "Perhaps Daschle didn't notice, but the entire reason that Congress passed the war resolution was that the United States got attacked--inside the United States. It's as if that context never occurs to Daschle."

Stooge 3: Harry Reid apparently told a gathering that "we killed the Patriot Act." and then on Monday decided to clarify what he meant by saying the maybe he should have said was "we killed the conference report" and went on and on blaming his poor choice of words on his lack of education and not having had an English class. Tarranto pounces on this in the following way; This is the same Harry Reid who, a little over a year ago, called Justice Clarence Thomas "an embarrassment to the Supreme Court" because "I think that his opinions are poorly written." If Reid's literacy is as defective as he himself claims it is, doesn't this make him, by his own standard, an embarrassment to the Senate?

Further, if Reid never even had an English class, what qualifies him to evaluate Justice Thomas's writings? Or was he merely stereotyping Thomas as unintelligent because of his race, in the manner of ignorant men throughout history?

You've Got To Be Freaking Kidding Me!

Grinchy remark sends kids home in tears:

Who says there's no war on Christmas! Now they've taken the battle to 6 year olds.

"Theresa Farrisi stood in for Schaeffer’s regular music teacher one day last week. One of her assignments was to read Clement C. Moore’s famous poem, “A Visit from Saint Nicholas” to a first-grade class at Lickdale Elementary School.

“The poem has great literary value, but it goes against my conscience to teach something which I know to be false to children, who are impressionable,” said Farrisi, 43, of Myerstown. “It’s a story. I taught it as a story. There’s no real person called Santa Claus living at the North Pole.”

Farrisi doesn’t believe in Santa Claus, and she doesn’t think anyone else should, either. She made her feelings clear to the classroom full of 6- and 7-year-olds, some of whom went home crying."

Nice, let's have teachers tell our kids what they should believe in.

Left Paranoia

The NSA story continues to have legs beyond any legal questions. The left is, of course, always convinced that a Republican administration has no noble effort when they use the FBI, CIA, NSA and military for anything. There is always a conspiracy! Bush really isn't trying to prevent the next 9/11, he is instead trying to find out what ordinary citizens (that have a tie to a known terrorist) are talking about. Ya, sure that makes sense! So, to try to convince those who don't fully understand what we must do to properly fight this war, the media likes to throw out "parallels" or "echoes"! Like this "phone-spying program has disturbing echoes of arguments once used by South AfricaÂ’s apartheid regime" piece. Ya, and Iraq parallels Vietnam, or the NSA spying echoes Hitler's Nazi Germany and so on. If you have actual evidence of wrong doing or why an approach to a problem is wrong present it on it's face value. Trying to attach some other unrelated negative event or person to your argument weakens, not strengthens, it.

Update, some informed points on the NSA and the Patriot Act I found on Hewitt's blog by a former FBI profiler that support my view.

Colleges Aren't Asking & Aren't Telling

Here's something I find most interesting:

Many colleges (especially on the left coast) are prohibiting military recruiters from visiting their campii due the military ban on gays serving openly (don't get me started on that one) yet they gladly take money from Suadi royalty to expand programs that "study Islam and the Muslim world".

Georgetown University recently accepted $20 Million from Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal.

Now last time I checked the Saudi's were vehemently anti-gay (it's a crime punishable by beheading) and anti-women's rights (they're not allowed to drive, or to leave the country without a male "guardian's" permission).

But I guess that's okay with the leftists.

The evolution of man is a THEORY!

The U.S. District court ruling this week that said teaching intelligent design violated a constitutional ban on teaching religion in public schools is a joke. First, go and do some research on intelligent design theory (IDT) and tell me what religion it teaches? This ruling is so wrong not just from its religious connection being off base but on what it says about schools. The religion hating crowd (mostly liberals and funny that they aren't tolerant isn't it) is apparently afraid of people making up their own minds. It's also interesting that from religious fanatics to the more broad minded IDT supporters, they all would support teaching all three THEORIES on how man got on planet earth; creation, evolution and intelligent design. Those who wish only evolution to be taught wouldn't except presentation of other theories. Students are capable of understanding the application of deductive reasoning in order to absolutely prove any of these theories as fact is not possible with what we know today. The students can also understand that millions around the world will believe one of these theories to be true, that is their belief. To only present a young mind with a single theory, evolution, on the question of the origin of man is tantamount to brain washing.

RNC versus DNC, which looks good to you?

In hearing that Howard Dean put out an email letter to donkey supporters I had to check the DNC website. Wow, just go there and contrast it with the front page of the RNC website! The energy the DNC site spends on attacking others is amazing. Their site is full of "Bush lies", "Republicans are corrupt", and the like. No matter where you navigate around the DNC site you will find the overwhelming focus is on attacking people (being Bush and republicans) as opposed to offering up solutions to deal with issues. The comparison is telling. It's also interesting that the DNC has a People link, and page, on their home page. Under it are sections for African Americans, Asian, Pacific Islanders, Disability Community (doesn't this mean all dems?), Hispanics, GLBT community (I had to look this up, are you kidding me?), several others and oh yes...Women. Ok, now visit anyone of these and it's just more about how Bush, or some other GOP agent, is doing your particular group wrong. I like how in the African American (read BLACK) section are stories about how Bush or the administration has done poorly responding to Katrina. So the DNC is saying Kartina is a BLACK issue? And, what if you're a Women Transexual do you visit the GLBT page or the Women page? Both parties should treat all those who align with their philosophy, or even don't, the same. You Democrats must be so proud of your leadership's divisive, hateful, separatist, finger pointing and inability to except that Bush is your president.

Thank You for Wiretapping

The WSJ Review & Outlook opinion piece today called "Thank You for Wiretapping" nails it. Once again senators (even some Republicans) are playing fast and loose because of political ideology with the result being to impede presidential powers and to undermine our military and our security agencies during a time of perpetual war to thwart terrorism against us and our allies. Tell me how I'm wrong? Tell me how this isn't a case of it's Bush so it must be wrong, abusive or illegal? You can't have it both ways "Stop them, catch them, but don't watch them or listen to them".

Update 1, Hugh Hewitt has a post on Jay Rockefeller's letters to the Vice President on his concerns over the NSA program he was briefed on. Like Hugh, and some liberal Bloggers, I agree that it appears Rockefeller wanted to distance himself without any outright disapproval of the program. As Hugh put it "Rockefeller's "feeble" note, as one lefty put it, is a great symbol of the entire Democratic Party's approach to the war. These are not the people you want running it, or even close to the controls."

Update 2, we now see that Carter and Clinton approved searches and surveillance without court orders. Michelle Malkin also has a nice post on the "spying on Americans" uproar with links to other sources. It turns out it was just made public that as part of the ongoing law enforcement work just after the Oklahoma City bombing the U.S. government used a spy satellite to gather intelligence on a white separatist compound in Oklahoma. Where is the outrage on this? From Michelle's post "The Left believes the government should do whatever it takes to fight terrorists--­but only when the terrorists look like Timothy McVeigh. If you're on the MCI Friends and Family plan of Osama bin Laden and Abu Zubaydah, you're home free."

Update 3, the ACLU demands (whatever) records regarding the NSA's surveillance...ya right! They don't however demand any records for the spying that was done on the skin heads in Oklahoma! The ACLU looks out for your civil liberties as long as you think like them or are a Muslim!

Update 4, John at Powerline posts his email exchange with one of the reporters at the NYTimes who "scooped" the NSA story. John's exchange is typical of a well thought out fact and referenced based conservative position on an issue, and the reporters responses (which have stopped coming) reflect the typical liberal terse hollow response that ignores the last retort! As I have said previously, numerous bloggers spent several days (versus the NYTimes having a year+) researching the NSA story and the legality of what has happened. It's pretty easy to build the case that this was legal based on the constitution and on recent precedent set by the actions of other presidents as well as rulings by SCOTUS. In fact, it's so easy to build the case for this being legal one could only conclude to put out a story suggesting the contrary was done knowingly to mislead.

Update 5, Democrats thankfully cave in (6 month Patriot Act extension) probably only because they checked polling numbers and found that most American's think their idiotic sky-is-falling civil liberties stance on intelligence measures that help keep us safe is just plain wrong.

A masterful FU

I have to give my compliments to Arnold who pulled off a friendly and eloquent FU today. Government officials in Graz, his Austrian hometown had poor things to say about Arnold not granting clemency to the Tookster. Arnold was their beloved son, who they named a sports stadium after and who they gave a ring of honor, whose name they use to promote the city. In a friendly letter, written as if he was doing the mayor of his hometown a favor, Arnold told them to remove his name from the stadium and to stop using his name to promote the city. He also wrote "Since, however, the official Graz appears to no longer accept me as one of their own, this ring has lost its meaning and value to me. It is already in the mail," and noted city officials would receive follow up letters from his attorney.

Who should profit from our oil use?

And the hypocrisy continues as the Democrats threaten a filibuster on the defense spending bill that just passed in the house because it includes drilling for oil in ANWR. So the Republicans used the system to attach ANWR to defense spending so as to show opponents are soft on defense, good move! The Democrats are pissed off, once again being schooled by the Republicans. First, the arguments against drilling on ANWR's 1.5M acres are a joke. Modern drilling uses very little land and has very little effect on wildlife habitat especially considering how little space the facilities would take. But worse is the lefts complaint on our reliance on foreign oil. You have the possible minor disruption of caribou, polar bears, migratory birds and other wildlife over our dependence on middle east oil and Democrats choose the later? Explain that to me! They would rather us continue our dependence and force restrictions on SUV's. New Jersey's Sen. Frank Lautenberg said "This is a Christmas package designed for delivery to the oil industry, and we have got to fight as hard as we can to stop that delivery". SO WHAT...you would rather have the money go to the Saudi's, Iran, Kuwait, Libya, Iraq, United Arab Emirates, etc.? And if not, your concern over a few animals being disrupted in the boonies trumps your concern over 250M Americans? What the hell is wrong with US oil companies doing well? WHAT THE F!!!!! Ted Kennedy is all for wind power as long as you don't put the wind mill in his ocean view. Democrats think everything we do in the middle east is about oil and fail to embrace a head on approach to fix that. They would rather F*** the consumer, and business, instead of an animal. Putting ANWR on the bill is fair game, this is how the system works. We should have been drilling there 30 yrs ago. The Democrats take the PETA approach when it comes to our energy dependence and security...but they're patriots and support the troops! NOT

Political Amnesia or Hypocrisy?

Gee, have any of those rule-of-law Democrats who cried for heads to roll for the outing of not-so-secrete secret agent Valerie Plame asked for the same in the case of the NSA's program to eavesdrop on dozens of Al-Qaida linked targets leaked to the NYTimes? Of course not, and I even bet if you ask one of them they will argue that the Plame joke is as serious as the NSA program! Of course they want the President to explain the eavesdropping program and its legality. They however don't seem to care about an NSA leak or that a dozen times top members of both parties were briefed on the program. If anyone who was briefed those twelve times thought a law was broken wasn't it their duty to expose it? The democrats take positions and lob criticism purely based on political winds...there are so few in that party who are not overtly hypocritical or show a consistent core set of beliefs...good God!

Update: Let's see what happens when a few folks are killed or maimed with stolen high tech plastic explosives...I bet the general public will be happy to give up a few so called civil liberties then!

To secure, or not to secure?

If things continue to improve in Iraq and we draw down troop levels as Iraqi's take over their security the Dems will suffer dramatically in the mid term elections next year. The divide on making our country secure between the left and right has become as polarizing as say abortion or the death penalty. So while the House passed tougher immigration legislation the Dems then block extension of the Patriot Act. The Dems get all fired up when maybe the Quran is flushed, or terror suspects are made uncomfortable, and so it will be interesting to see who denounces Bush's ordering eavesdropping of a few dozen people of interest shortly after 9/11 without a court order. You would think the result of poor intelligence (Iraq) would improve support for our ability to gather intelligence (Patriot Act and yes secret eavesdropping). Music concerts I attended 25 years ago had clothing searches for bottles, and such, prior to entry. Fast forward to today and civil libertarians are suddenly up in arms (NFL entry searches) when the old alcohol search is labeled as anti-terrorism security. It's sad that a tragedy like a suicide bombing at a large ACLU gathering probably wouldn't convince the civil rights all costs crowd that their stance on homeland security in general is wrong.

Democrats vs. America Part II

Just when you think they can't get any more pathetic they find a way to top themselves.

"House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said yesterday that Democrats should not seek a unified position on an exit strategy in Iraq, calling the war a matter of individual conscience and saying differing positions within the caucus are a source of strength for the party."

So your party shouldn't seek a unified position about winning a war? I wonder why not. Why wouldn't you want the brave US troops fighting that war to know that you back them 100%?

Oh wait, I get it! It's so that no matter which way the war goes you can continue to criticize without having to offer any freaking ideas about how it could go better. Other then just pulling a surrender that would make the French proud of us.

The MSM & the Democrats vs. America

One day after the historic vote in Iraq, a vote where Iraqi insurgents were actually safeguarding the polls, what is the main focus of the MSM?

This of course: Bush Approved Eavesdropping, Official Says .

Oooh, scary! The facist Bush is once again destroying our so called civil rights, right?

Wrong! The NSA is an evesdropping agency, that's its primary mission. They are authorized to monitor US citizens when they are outside the US. So what's the big problem? Well, the President decided (he issued an executive order and informed the Senate Intelligence Committee-including the democrats who sit on that committee, and he went through all the proper channels after making this decision) that it would be alright to monitor phone calls between suspected terrorists when they are in the country and they are calling somewhere outside the country. Egads!

Not only is it not illegal or improper for the NSA to do this, this program has been very effective in the past. In fact, in November of 2003 John Ashcroft gave a speech to the 2003 National Lawyers Convention and talked about this very program!

Here's part of what he said:

"Here's an example of how we use the act. Some of you are familiar with the case of Iman Ferris, a naturalized United States citizen who worked as a truck driver out of Columbus, Ohio. Using information sharing allowed under the PATRIOT Act, law enforcement pieced together Ferris' activities -- how Ferris met senior al Qaeda operatives in a training camp in Afghanistan; how he was asked to procure equipment that might cause train derailments and sever suspension systems of bridges; how he traveled to New York to scout a potential terrorist target. Now, Ferris pleaded guilty on May 1, 2003, and on October 28, he was

sentenced under the PATRIOT Act's tough sentences. He'll serve 20 years in prison for providing material support to al Qaeda and the conspiracy for the terrorist organization, providing them with information about possible U.S. targets for attack.The Ferris case illustrates what the PATRIOT Act does. One thing the PATRIOT Act does not do is to allow the investigation of individuals "solely on the basis of activities protected by the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States." We know that it does not do that. And even if the law did not prohibit it, the Justice Department has neither the time nor the inclination to delve into the reading habits or other First Amendment activities of our citizens. "

There were other plots in England and Ireland that were exposed by this very program. A program that affected perhaps 500 people a year. The administration asked the New York Times not to publish this story so the NYT sat on this story for more than a year. So, why come out with the story now?

To take a great victory from President Bush, there's simply no other reason.

So the question is how does exposing this program make America safer? It doesn't. But it gives the Democrats another avenue of attack on the administration.

Don't you find it curious that the Democrats only care about leaks if they have absolutely nothing to do with national security? I guess the Democrats feel so safe here in the US that they need to spend their time attacking the institutions that make them safe.

Nice.

2005 is the hottest year ever?

Yes, according to U.K. scientists 2005 was the warmest year since the 1860's when temperature records started being kept. Of course the studies authors say this is more evidence of human-induced global warming. Really? Let me get this straight, first you're saying 2005 was 0.65 C above the average from 1961 to 1990 which represents the baseline. And you say your calculations on that have an error of 0.1 C. And your baseline time window is only 0.00000058% of the earth's approximate 5 billion year history, but you're claiming only a 15% error rate? Ya, right! This is a joke. This is simply a miniscule sampling of surface temperature with nothing to connect human produced gas emissions to that temperature. Scientists and meteorologist have already come out saying that our unusual global hurricane season is part of a normal cycle. Whose to say that we aren't in a normal temperature cycle given the base line is only 29 years for christ sake! Even when global warming studies do talk about human produced gas and particulate emissions they almost never compare those to naturally occurring carbon particulate and various gas emissions from say volcanoes (annually the volcanoes beat out man each year).

Minority Report: abuse or free market?

Today, a report by the California Reinvestment Coalition (CRC) was released and the conclusion the local media drew was reflected in the headline "Minorities pay more for home loans". Of course the CRC is happy with that headline since their mission is advocating for increased access to credit on behalf of California's low income communities. Wouldn't it be important, for the analysis of home loan data, to compare loan costs and rates for consumers with the same income level, job history, credit report score all against race?

Of course it would. That would in fact be the only way to say "minorities pay more for home loans" Otherwise you better say "minorities who as compared to a white counterpart make less, have less job history and have poorer credit scores pay more for home loans"! This study is so flawed its a total joke. For all we know even if they took into account the variables I mentioned it might be that yet another variable is the key, like education. In the end this is a free market, you don't need to take a loan from any particular bank or institution. You can shop for the best deal, but you have to be smart enough to do so. If you're not smart enough to open up a simple bank account so that you don't have to pay a fee to one of those strip mall check cashing stores then whose fault is that? In case you like to do your homework, the CRC's study is 50 pages and I scanned it. They do admit they don't have the ESSENTIAL credit score as part of the study but they, of course, blame it on the industry. The only mention of credit score is this two sentence disclaimer on the very last page.

"HMDA data is limited in that certain elements of conventional underwriting such as credit scores, loan to value ratios, and debt to income ratios are not available. While CRC and other community groups continue to call for HMDA reporting requirements to be strengthened, the industry continues to fight adamantly against any and all expansions of HMDA."

Groups like the CRC are why the HMDA (Home Mortgage Disclosure Act) exists. It requires lenders to report certain data but the key piece of data is race. Any guesses how many lenders asked for race on their loan applications prior to the passing of the HMDA? Oh, I'm sure before the HMDA the loan officer was secretely tagging applications for higher rates and fees based purely on the applicant being a minority! This is the same failed logic employed by affirmitive action propenents. They believe most business owners and hiring managers will not hire the best candidate if that candidate is of a certain race. You would only think that's a systemic problem if you have never been a business owner or hiring manager, or you work in a government or union job where there is no reason to hire the best.

Dems will surely put a negative spin on Iraqi vote

While even the New York Times can't deny the amazing voter turn out (they say it might be 11m of the 15.5m eligible) in today's Iraqi election I'm sure we will hear negative spin from Dean, Peloci, Kerry, Murtha, etc. After all, they have spent so much energy still harping on the issue of why we went into Iraq in the first place they can't now embrace the positive benefits of a democracy smack dab in the middle of Muslim hell! The next few days should be interesting!

A more qualified opinion

We all have opinions on Iraq and what the "plan" should be but most of us are just arm chair quarterbacking our way through it. Very few who have visited Iraq, especially of late, come back and support a cut in run or a time based pull out. They usually adopt pretty much the plan on the White House website which bases the reduction of troops on the ability of Iraqi's to maintain order and control. I even discount "former" military generals (on down) as war is not a mathematical equation that always comes out the same given the same inputs. The most informed opinion on this comes from those executing the mission, as is the case with Marine Major Ben Connable whose opinion column appears in today's WaPo.

Semper Fidelis

Iran's Terrorist Nuclear President

Probably the most dreaded terrorist act would be the detonation of a nuclear device in a populated city. Some suggest this is difficult because; there really is no such thing as a suitcase size nuke, very technical skills are required to prepare and detonate a nuke, the nukes out of the old U.S.S.R are old and crusty and unlikely to work, and so on. But with North Korea and Iran having nuclear programs to build a device and add their ability to deliver it conventionally (i.e. by rocket or missile) and we should be very concerned. Now, the terrorist President of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (shown here in a 1979 photo where he participated in the American embassy hostage taking) is stepping up the crazy talk. His latest is to Holocaust is a myth. I can't figure out if this guy is taunting Israel, Germany, the U.S. into a fight or he is just looney.

Europeans Outraged at Schwarzenegger

The Associated Press shows it's liberal pacifist bias as they essentially create a non-story. They connect a celebrity politician (Arnold) and a hot ethical topic (Tookie Executie) and then find some leftists wacko's in Europe (although nobody that matters) to show their total ignorance in suggesting Arnold is to blame. Note all the anti-death penalty sentiment in the article that isn't directed at Arnold by the source, but it's inclusion implies the connection. Dishonest bogus sensationalistic crap journalism at it's best.

Bias or poor fact checking?

I was reading Michelle Malkin's blog today and found out the headlines I've been seeing everywhere quoting Dubya as saying "30,000 civilians killed in Iraq" is in fact being universally incorrectly described. The actual question put to Bush to which he gave this answer included Iraq military, police, insurgents, translators and yes civilians. Here's the exact dialog found on the White House website :

Q Since the inception of the Iraqi war, I'd like to know the approximate total of Iraqis who have been killed. And by Iraqis I include civilians, military, police, insurgents, translators.

THE PRESIDENT: How many Iraqi citizens have died in this war? I would say 30,000, more or less, have died as a result of the initial incursion and the ongoing violence against Iraqis. We've lost about 2,140 of our own troops in Iraq.

Now look at a Google search of how the MSM describes the 30,000

Beware parents of would be law students

If you have a high school child who's bent (even with what I hope was your considerable effort to dissuade) on going to law school, it would be prudent to look up which law schools were part of the recent Rumsfeld vs. FAIR debacle. If you've not been paying attention this was the case recently heard by SCOTUS where law schools would not like to have military recruiters on compass. Of course the government correctly made a big thing called government funding tied to free (and equal) access by said recruiters. And thus the case before SCOTUS. FAIR claims that the military's "don't ask, don't tell" gay stance is why they don't want to give recruiters access. But frankly I find this hard to believe. Are the 36 law schools that support FAIR riddled with gay staff and students? Is the gay lobby really this powerful that they have 36 very large universities doing their bidding? (well, maybe yes on that one) I think this is fueled by the university elite who are overwhelmingly anti-war and anti-military irregardless of the circumstance. I have not heard this put forward by others, but it would interesting to see or hear about some of the meetings that go on inside of FAIR.

So, if I were you I would give one last try at talking your child out of becoming a shyster...if that fails make sure the law school they choose isn't part of the group supporting FAIR. That group seems to be clueless about finding a good litigator or a good legal strategy!

FAIR = Forum for Academic and Institutional Rights
SCOTUS = Supreme Court of the United States

Tookie, Tookie, Electrocutey!

Let me add my 2 cents to Splash2's post below. The electric chair isn't in the picture but Tookie is to be put to death by lethal injection. While I'm thrilled that Arnold did the right thing (albeit after the crazy leftist 9th Circuit U.S.CA said it wouldn't intervene) in not granting clemency this is sad day. Not because Tookie will meet his maker. But because it's taken 26 years to carry out a death sentence, and that it will be done by a so called "humane" method of lethal injection. The anti-death penalty crowd says the death penalty is not a deterrent.....no duh! The way we implement it it's like putting your 30 year son in a time out for hitting his sister when he was 5. Justice for these animals needs to be swift and scary. It's time we had a 1 year window of appeal from the date and time of conviction in death penalty cases. And the electric chair should be put back in action.

Frankly I don't care if the inmates in the prison system have riots after midnight tonight...let em hurt each other. It will however be sad if the poor sections of cities like LA see black instigated violence. It will not help the case of those who claim the poor black community isn't to blame for their lot in life if a subset of that group commits violent acts in protest of the death sentence of a murderer of 4 innocent people.

Only in Hollywood

It strikes me funny the way Hollywood leftists can continually hold such contradictory ideas in their miniscule minds without ever acknowledging the obvious contradictions.

Case in point; Tookie Williams. Here's a guy who founded the Crips and ended up in prison for killing four people by shooting them point blank with a double barreled shotgun. By all accounts he's still involved with the Crips and directs gang activity over the phone and he consorts with other Crips members in jail. Sounds like a great candidate for execution, right?

Of course not! See, he found God and he now rights "anti-gang" children's books. How sweet. So now he has the likes of Susan Sarandon, Tim Robbins, Mike Farrell, former Crip Snoop Doggy Dogg, Danny Glover, Anjelica Huston, Jamie Foxx, and Bonnie Raitt on his side asking for an audience with the Governor to beg for clemency.

So if you're a murderer and you find God and you then channel that newfound spirituality into changing the hearts and minds of chidren then that's a good and proper thing to do.

But if you're the President and you find God you're just another right-wing fanatic who is only worhty of loathing and disrespect.

Nice.

White Flag Crowd

You gotta love the Democrat leadership (Dean and Peloci) and their anti-military, anti-anti-terrorism, anti-middle-east-democracy stance. And as one blogger I read pointed out this is not the work of fringe Democrats..this is the F'ing leadership! Of course they deny this is a white flag stance which is obsurd given what they say and do. And here is some of the latest reality:

Dean loving Code Pink

GOP video with Dean's we can't win, Peloci withdrawal now, Kerry's claim our guys in Iraq are terrorizing women and children

Daily Standard White Flag Boys

Washington Post's take on strong antiwar comments

Rumy on the media's Iraq bias

Nice speech by Rumsfeld on Monday at the School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University. The theme of the speech is the focus the media puts on the death toll, the latest car bombing or suicide bombing of citizens, and not the big picture. He was very diplomatic giving the editors and reporters the benefit of the doubt, but I don't. I think their bias is not innocent or unconscious. The media knows if it's been looking at events through a soda straw, as Rumy put it, and therefore paint an intentionally inaccurate view of the forest!

"You couldn't tell the full story of Iwo Jima simply by listing the nearly 26,000 American casualties over about 40 days; or explain the importance of Grant's push to Virginia just by noting the savagery of the battles. So too, in Iraq, it is appropriate to note not only how many Americans have been killed"

While it's great the WSJ printed this, I would love to see Rumsfeld hit the big network news and opinion shows and do so with the chief editors for those networks. I would like to see Rumsfeld ask why they run stories about the victories of thousands of terrorists versus nearly zero stories about the victories for the 25M citizens of Iraq. It would be hard to defend! America is at war, and maybe that has not been accepted by the crowd (Dean, Kerry, Murtha, and their ilk, the MSM) that appears to literally want us to fail in Iraq. The war is real. Our safety today, not to mention the way of life for our children and beyond, is at stake. Could you imagine the U.S. MSM acting this way during WWII? The comparison is appropriate.

Tuesday Speed Blogging

I sure like how Chief Justice Roberts is dealing with the ability of military recruiters to recruit on college/law school campus (else don't take federal aide).

Howard Dean, a traitor to our country but hopefully not Democrats (please back this mad man, it will be your demise!)

You gotta love that anti-war activists are going to hound Hillary! Will she now pull a Kerry-esque flip-flop?

And speaking of Kerry....he's still playing the same game he played when he showed his lack of stripes during his Vietnam protest days....LOSER!

Oh, and this is rich...the supposed secrete prisons in Europe, where prisoner torture is alleged, have caused such an uproar that Washington reported to have moved prisoners to North Africa. All this ahead of Condi's visit to Germany...as if she was going to stumble on the secrete prisons that the Bush hating press hasn't been able to find. I love this kind of HIGH QUALITY story where anonymous sources are quoted and "media reports have revealed"..boy these guys sure set the bar high don't they!

Terrorist Negotiations

Christian peace activist: "Excuse me Mr. Swords of Righteousness Brigade guy, ah see I'm a peace activist, I try to find and expose bad things the U.S. and it's allies do here in Iraq. I'm on your side, so ah, we are good right?"

Islamic terrorist guy: "Silence you infidel scum, we tell the world you shall die unless all prisoners in U.S. and Iraqi detention centers are released. Now shut up while I sharpen my sword....Akbar, charge the camcorder battery"

Murtha vs. Lieberman

Democrat John Murtha makes comments about the pulling out of Iraq immediately (thus losing the war) and how our military is "broken" and "living hand-to-mouth" and what happens? Media frenzy! He's in every major newspaper and a headliner on all the major TV news shows.

Democrat Joseph Lieberman writes a great op-ed piece for the Wall Street Journal backing the Bush Administration including this statement:

"I have just returned from my fourth trip to Iraq in the past 17 months and can report real progress there. More work needs to be done, of course, but the Iraqi people are in reach of a watershed transformation from the primitive, killing tyranny of Saddam to modern, self-governing, self-securing nationhood—unless the great American military that has given them and us this unexpected opportunity is prematurely withdrawn.”

What happens? Media silence. According to the Media Research Center both the ABC and CBS evening news failed to “utter a syllable” about Lieberman’s Iraq assessment while NBC simply ran a brief Lieberman clip. This after all three networks made the news of Murtha’s call for withdrawal a leading story only some two weeks ago.

As for the print media, here’s a run down:

• The Washington Post did not acknowledge Lieberman’s comments in its Nov. 29 and Nov. 30 editions. This despite running a front-page story on Nov. 30 headlined, “U.S. Debate on Pullout Resonates As Troops Engage Sunnis in Talks.”

• The New York Times had no space for Lieberman, either. They did find room, however, to run a Nov. 30 story headlined, “Senator Clinton Calls for Withdrawal from Iraq to Begin in 2006.” This “call” took place in a letter Clinton wrote to constituents.

• The Boston Globe carried a 479-word Associated Press story on Nov. 28 that perverted Lieberman’s comments, focusing on the potential of a “significant” withdrawal in ’06 rather than the progress in Iraq that Lieberman hoped to report.

What MSM bias?

Tiny's Death Penalty Clemency Plan

With the hopefully impending execution of Stanley "Tookie" Williams in 2 weeks I felt it necessary to show I have some compassion. So I have come up with my plan that would allow clemency for a death row inmate. It's very simple, the inmate, in order to receive a second chance at life must meet the following four (all four) requirements and their sentence will be commuted to life in prison without parole.

1. The cost of the police work, prosecution/trial and incarceration (every single cost associated with their prison stay) to date must be paid in full to those who incurred these costs.
2. A monthly fee for the continued incarceration costs for the life of the inmate must be paid to the state.
3. All murder victims of the inmate must be brought back to life to get their second chance at life.
4. All income the victims would have made since they were murdered multiplied times 10 needs to be paid immediately to each victim upon accomplishing #3.

This is the only fair plan as it attempts to compensate most who suffer from these murderers. It's interesting that these bleeding heart psycho liberals who march, protest, sit-in, etc. each and every pending execution spend no time at all on the victims! Any bets on how much time, or help, Jessie Jackson, Bianca Jagger, Jamie Foxx, Snoop Dogg, Mike Farrell, these two sick freaks in Marin, and the NAACP have spent with Tookie's victims? These are all Tookie supporters! If Tookie was truly a changed man he should say "That while I hope for clemency, my execution should serve as a message to our youth that can choose the right or wrong path. I have committed great sins including the creation of a still active street gang....I should pay for these mistakes and if that is by the termination of my life then I hope God will have mercy on me".

Update: Heard a caller to a talk radio show make an interesting comment...the caller was willing to bet that Buff & Cindy (the sicks freaks in Marin linked above) would be happy to escort their 13 year old grandaughter to get an abortion without telling her parents. How would they defend this duplicity?

This guy could have been President?

I'm sure many who saw the NBC Today Show interview with John Kerry this morning didn't catch how Kerry stumbled. One thing he does better than Bush is that when he is tripped up and not responding very well he doesn't sound like it as much as Bush does....but, he surely did a poor job responding to the question that his plan for Iraq sounds pretty much like Bush's (it's a about a minute into the video, and yes you must sit thru an advert!). After Matt Lauer apparently was too much for Kerry to handle, they then did a spot with Katie (are you getting my good side) Couric doing a response on Bush's Iraq strategy with Mary Matalin (on the same video page as the Kerry spot) who did a great job.

Thursday Speed Blogging

Lieberman, a Democrat I could vote for! He's likely not popular with the left right now.

Hillary is trying to have it both ways, and her support in the party might also be in jeopardy!

WHAT? There's an explanation for our flurry of hurricanes that doesn't finger global warming!

The pot calling the kettle black! From my own anonymous source who said "You gotta love MSM pukes who don't even see the obvious hypocritical blunders they make!"

And yet another example of hypocrisy, but this time it's anti-war, anti-American "pacifists"

Islam The Religion of Peace

Here's a great website to go and check out. It has a list of Islamic terrorist attacks carried out over the past 12 months.

http://www.thereligionofpeace.com/default.htm#attacks

And for those of you who would say "Of course there are so many attacks it's all because we're in Iraq. So it's all about Iraq."

Here's their answer:
"Yep, It's All About Iraq and...
India and the Sudan and Algeria and Afghanistan and New York and Pakistan and Israel and Russia and Chechnya and the Philippines and Indonesia and Nigeria and Thailand and Spain and Egypt and Bangladesh and Saudi Arabia and Ingushetia and Dagestan and Britain and Turkey and Kabardino-Balkaria and Morocco and Yemen and Lebanon and France and Uzbekistan and Gaza and Tunisia and Kosovo and Bosnia and Mauritania and Kenya and Eritrea and Syria and Somalia and California and Kuwait and Virginia and Ethiopia and Iran and Jordan and United Arab Emirates and Louisiana and Texas and Tanzania and Sri Lanka and Pennsylvania and Belgium and Denmark and East Timor and Qatar and Maryland and the Netherlands and Scotland and...

...and pretty much wherever Muslims believe their religion tells them to:

"Fight and slay the Unbelievers wherever ye find them. Seize them, beleaguer them, and lie in wait for them in every stratagem of war."
Qur'an, Sura 9:5

Is There Anything We Can't Blame Bush For?

Apparently not. Earlier this week four individuals were taken hostage by the heretofore unknown terrorist group “The Swords of Righteousness Brigade”, all four belonged to a anti-war group called the "Christian Peacemaker Teams", a group that blames American foreign policy for 9/11, who served as human shields earlier in the war and who ran an "Adopt-a-Detainee" program for terrorist suspects held at Gitmo, and this group places the blame at the feet of President Bush.

Here's a little snipet from their official statement:

"We are angry because what has happened to our teammates is the result of the actions of the U.S. and U.K. governments due to the illegal attack on Iraq and the continuing occupation and oppression of its people. Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT) has worked for the rights of Iraqi prisoners who have been illegally detained and abused by the U.S. government. We were the first people to publicly denounce the torture of Iraqi people at the hands of U.S. forces, long before the western media admitted what was happening at Abu Ghraib. We are some of the few internationals left in Iraq who are telling the truth about what is happening to the Iraqi people We hope that we can continue to do this work and we pray for the speedy release of our beloved teammates."

So it seems to me that the terrorists should love the CPT people and yet it appears they don't. Hmmm...go figure.

California public schools need change

My local paper (a silicon valley neighborhood rag) has a new education column written by a teacher and principle with 32 years experience. I'm sure most think that makes him an expert and worth listening to. Not me as his maiden column confirmed he's part of the problem with our public schools. The column was titled Report cards are overrated as an indicator of progress. You can guess the rest....Unbelievable...I wrote a response letter which the paper printed this week, it's title Indicator of progress falls back on schools.

Al-Jazeera, can we either blow it up or put them under surveillance?

Most reports in Iraq just hang out in the big cities waiting to report on the latest insurgent or terrorist bombing. There are very few venturing outside of a few cities to see what's going on around the country. There is apparently nothing good happening in Iraq. But worse than the regular MSM is Al-Jazeera who serves these vile criminals. It's amazing how quickly following an incident that Al-Jazeera will air the propaganda from the perpetrators. It's also ironic that the most recent kidnap victims are peace activists. As Glock26 commented "maybe they'll be able to hug their way of it".

I assume that the only reason not to bomb Al-Jazeera's operations into the nether world is to put their offices and people under surveillance! Another thing that ticks me off... the MSM (and of course the AP piece I link above) feels compelled to put total U.S. military deaths in each new story of this type...why? What's the point other than to editorialize within a news story. And for Christ sake why don't they also give the total number of innocent fellow Muslims the terrorists and insurgents kill in each of these incidents? Why? Isn't that also a very telling statistic? But of course they won't because that doesn't serve their agenda and bias.

They can't stand good news

The MSM editors are not happy. They are surely grumpy that there is any good news that can in any way be linked to the Bush Administration. While they did their best to lie about the post Thanksgiving holiday shopping results when another good financial story follows so closely it's hard for them to continue the negativity. But don't worry, few are making this good Consumer Confidence news a top story and many will manage to add negativity in moronic fashion. Take CNN for example. They report the good new home sales news, but then add "Most real estate economists have said that those readings all suggest the housing market has peaked", really which experts? Are they the experts who have been saying this for the last 2-3 years? Or "There were some signs of cooling in new home prices in the report." but then they site that in the West and Northeast (which probably is about half the total market) are up 40%, the South (in spite of hurricanes) was up 1.9%, and only the Midwest had a drop of 9.5%. Then CNN uses the famous "some" when they say "Some question whether the latest report isn't either an anomaly or even an example of sampling error." These are the same "some" who just can't stand that there is good news, they desperately want news under a Republican administration to be bad to the point of disbelief...good god, America hater's just leave the country would you!

Biased, politicizing naysayers on Iraq in the minority!

On Taranto's WSJ Opinion Journal blog today the first post is about some polling that finds the general public still bullish on the ability to succeed in Iraq. It's interesting that a poll by the Pew Research Center found that a majority of the public (of course the largest group represented in the poll) and those who carry out the Iraqi mission (the military) believe efforts to establish a stable democracy will succeed. The lopsided opposite view comes from groups (what Pew calls opinion leaders) that are known to be liberal and anti-Bush (so anti-America-succeeds at anything while under Dubya's watch).

Democrat's New Iraq Plan or Bandwagon?

Have you noticed all the Democrat politicians or liberal pundits who are talking about training Iraqi security forces to take over so that we can reduce US military in Iraq? I know this was what the Bush administration was talking about long ago. Suddenly though the MSM covers this revelation by liberals as if they have a new plan for Iraq. The QandO Blog has a nice summary of the strategy our President had as far back as August 2003. It's funny, I immediately thought of the Fedex commercial set in a business meeting, the boss says "we have to cut costs people, ideas?"....a dork says they could sign up for Fedex online shipping, blah, blah....silence, then the boss says the same thing but making hand gestures and all the sheep in the room compliment the idea. Too funny, check out the new but stolen great idea ad!

Lonely Cindy

Apparently Cindy Sheehan has a book? And clearly the book singing this weekend was a big hit!

Update: Oh, my mistake.....Cindy and her book are very popular!

Holiday Retail Sales - who wants you to feel bad, feel good?

Clearly the MSM doesn't want you to feel good about the economy. Many economic indicators show we have a strong economy. Sure, there are always price fluctuations (oil, gas, homes, etc.) but employment, the big economic indicators and the markets are in great shape. The MSM likes to do stories that would make you believe otherwise. You will see stories about the house price bubble, or big companies with multi-thousand person layoffs, and so on. They don't give the perspective of the overall economic picture...they like to focus on just a small dent in an otherwise cherry classic automobile! The post Thanksgiving holiday shopping picture is no exception. Most of the stories below take what are in fact positive results (22% increase for the weekend total retail take according to the National Retail Federation, NRF) and spin it to sound ok or even bad. Amazing because most even quote the NRF figure with words like "dramatic" to describe the increase over last year. So why are the headlines or commentary always framed in a negative way?

Negative Spin

ABC calls it a modest start

CBS quotes economist who says a lot of hype but luke warm

NBC says spending modest, AP says the same thing

Positive Spin

Reuters (go figure) says Robust!

Mixed, admit the postive but temper it!

USA Today, some crazy, some keep it simple

NPR audio clip "so far, no drop in Holiday Shopping

Rapid Fire Blogging

misleading headline "Vatican gay document prompts criticism", after all when 2 gay groups criticize you it's not as if it's real criticism, it's more like a badge of honor!

How you define "More than a dozen"? Gee, is that 13, 14, oh maybe as many as 15!...what a joke and what a non-story that some idiots are at the roadside near Bush's ranch again!

Bush ranch update: and now they're arrested. Funny that Vietnam era loon Daniel Ellsberg boasts that this is his 70th arrest in various protests since Vietnam. He surely believes in every case his side was bolstered by his sign holding, sitting and arrest. It doesn't take a genius to know that these protesters have an adverse affect on the side of the argument they sit on. Most don't identify with people who do this, most think they're fringe hippy wannabees. Most wonder why they don't do something more concrete for their cause (run for office, get signatures for a ballet initiative, etc.) instead just mugging for a photo opp.

And yet another Liberal gets schooled by a Conservative!

The presidential pardoning of a Turkey each year is idiotic...we should change this tradition to the president goes on a turkey hunt using a high end 12 gauge over-under shotgun that would then be auctioned off for charity after the pres bagged his bird. Some would have us eat tofu!

The anti-business climate continues in Santa Cruz where a group is trying to make the minimum wage for any worker within the city limits $9.25 an hour. By comparison the kid at the Baskin Robbin's ice cream parlor is San Jose would make the state minimum of $6.75. So in S.Cruz a kid scooping ice cream could make just under $20k a year. This is of course not a good move since you pay too much for zero skilled jobs making them attractive for grown ups! The jobs that high school kids can do well shouldn't be attractive for people who should be trying to move upstream!

It's about time and can we do this at all our borders!

Tom Cruise not only knows the history of psychiatry but apparently is also an expert in obstetrics!

Cool Xmas gift #2 & #3

While I'm not a "gamer" I did recently buy a large HDTV and like most who have done so I crave more high def content. Both MSFT's new Xbox 360 and Sony's PS3 will bring to HDTV what are already pretty amazing graphics and animation. The Xbox 360 is out now, in the $400 range if you can find one that isn't bundled with games. And I say buy one! I also say buy the PS3 when is available here which is likely March 2006, it's only money! I say give the Xbox 360 to your kid or friend when you get the PS3, the reason...I want the Sony to blow away the Xbox in the market. Turns out this is likely since, unbeknownst to me and likely you, Sony has one the war so far with 90 million PlayStations sold since its introduction versus 25 million for the Xbox. But the real reason I want Sony to win is I want to see HD DVD's on the market sooner and not later. Its Betamax vs. VHS all over again! Sony developed an HD DVD standard called Blu-ray and they put a Blu-ray player in the PS3. The first stand alone Sony Blu-ray DVD players are said to retail for $1k or more so given the PS3 will be about $350 your getting a HD DVD player for free. I predict Sony, whose scars from loosing the Betamax battle still linger, lower the PS2 price to the $100 range so as to keep some buyers from buying the Xbox 360 now. They have already said they will sell the PS3 at a loss just for the purpose of getting millions of Blu-ray players in the market so that movie studios are compelled to produce HD content in that format. I hope they win, not because I love Sony, but because they can drive high def DVD content into the market faster than the rival standard called HD-DVD.

Cool Xmas gift #1

How about a 1Gb MP3 player so small the ear bud connector is longer than the player itself. Well here it is, the mobiBLU DAH-1500i available at Walmart for $129. It's less than 1" in each dimension and weighs 0.63 ounces....oh it has an AM/FM tuner as well!!!!

It's good to be the king

Oracle chief Larry Ellison settled a law suit brought against him because of a $900M gain (that's gain!) he realized just shortly before ORCL went down considerably in 2001. Without admitting any wrong doing he agreed to pay $100M to a charity (of his choice). Pretty nice since I would think a charitable donation is deductible even if a law suit (not a government order) required you to make the donation. Then today it was decided he also needed to pay the legal fees involved in the suit, so an additional $22M. In case you were worried about how poor Larry would come up with the $122M, don't fret he has 5 yrs and various places to draw from (that we know about).

1. Direct shares of ORCL held 1,300,00,000 shares...that's billion! At today's price that's $16B
2. Cash from sales of ORCL stock for just 2004, $1.1B
3. Extremely large Bay Area home (that looks something like the Royal Palace in Tokyo) with lakes and traditional Japanese wood boats), approx. $50M
4. Various large and small business jets, fighter jets, misc. planes $300M
5. Various sail and motor yachts, and frequent participant in trying to own the worlds largest private yacht (or really ship)....approx. $500M

You get the idea...this is like a parking ticket!

The word on the "Arab street"

From Mark Steyn of the U.K.'s Daily Telegraph today....I especially like:

Happily for Mr Zarqawi, no matter how desperate the head-hackers get, the Western defeatists can always top them. A Democrat Congressman, Jack Murtha, has called for immediate US withdrawal from Iraq. He's a Vietnam veteran, so naturally the media are insisting that his views warrant special deference, military experience in a war America lost being the only military experience the Democrats and the press value these days. Hence, the demand for the President to come up with an "exit strategy".

In war, there are usually only two exit strategies: victory or defeat. The latter's easier. Just say, whoa, we're the world's pre-eminent power but we can't handle an unprecedently low level of casualties, so if you don't mind we'd just as soon get off at the next stop.

Demonstrating the will to lose as clearly as America did in Vietnam wasn't such a smart move, but since the media can't seem to get beyond this ancient jungle war it may be worth underlining the principal difference: Osama is not Ho Chi Minh, and al-Qa'eda are not the Viet Cong. If you exit, they'll follow. And Americans will die - in foreign embassies, barracks, warships, as they did through the Nineties, and eventually on the streets of US cities, too.

Saudi's and a chicken shit US bureaucrat

From Littlegreenfootballs....you gotta watch the entire video!

Obama-fo-fama-fee-fy-fo-foma

The Democrats put yet another military, national security and global policy expert out there who "called for" (is that like demanding or suggesting? :)) troop reduction in Iraq. Maybe they think he's an appropriate new torch bearer for not finishing the job in Iraq (and not finishing the job on a time table...that's always a nice touch) because of Obama's first name Barrack (def: A building or group of buildings used to house military personnel.).

Do your homework!

I have, for the most part, never just believe something I hear or read. Sure, if the source is known to me then the face value of the information in question is considerable. Unfortunately I believe most people are easily impressed by credentials, and position, and so no further back up is required. This free pass extends to the media as well. Most will see something on tv, read it in a paper or a book, and truth is assumed. I believe it is critical we teach our children to question, inquire, probe and challenge things. There is a logical approach to determining the validity of something and it is called deduction. Deduction can be defined as reasoning from the general to specific and "induction" as reasoning from the specific to the general. To present an argument using induction is often easier.

For example, your doctor tells you the dark spot on your skin is nothing to worry about. The conclusion here is that the dark spot is in fact not a problem. Is that reasonable? NO, it's not! While this example might seem like it moves from general to specific it is in fact induction and flawed. In induction the premises of a conclusion (or argument) if true make the truth of the conclusion probable. In this case the premise is the person that said the spot is not a problem is a doctor so it is probable his opinion is correct. But, since this dark spot could be a serious health issue (the conclusion matters) deduction should be applied. In deduction the truth of the premises are thought to guarantee the conclusion. Applying deduction you would want to know things like: Is your doctor an oncologist or dermatologist? Has the spot changed color over time? Has the spot grown or changed shape over time? At this point I would still call this case inductive, but what would flip it to deductive, all on it's own, would be lab results from a biopsy of the spot.

So, why do most people just take the word of their doctor, auto mechanic, building contractor, or a politician? Of course the ramifications of being wrong must be considered and when the stakes aren't high induction is perfectly suited. However, the stakes are not always obvious when the topic is political and the source is a politician.

Let's look at another example. The Democrats come up with their own Small Business Index and this month they use it to say that the small business outlook is the worst it has been in 8 yrs. Many will read this and assume it is so. The result could be hundreds or thousands who read it decide to not buy that franchise they were considering, or not to start their dream to open a restaurant. Others may think this is systemic to the entire economy so they will pass on that new car or tv purchase. It could, in fact, have a tremendous effect by paralyzing individuals whose participation in the economy is in fact what makes it bad or good. So if we do a little homework, we can try to achieve a deductive conclusion on the state of the small business outlook. My attempt at that started with a good blogger source on the topic The Entrepreneurial Mind. But, you should do your own homework until induction supports a conclusion, or better yet deduction makes it a guarantee. As an aside...why does a political party need their own business index? Purely to slant the conclusion since its out of their field of expertise!