The Constitution Club

Senatorial primacy might not be enough to push Supreme Court appointee Sotomayor through to confirmation after all. From the website NOW Hampshire:

Sonia Sotomayor will begin her confirmation hearings next week with some of the highest levels of public opposition of any Supreme Court nominee in the last two decades, according to a new poll by CNN and the Opinion Research Corporation.

In fact, only one nominee had a higher level of opposition: Harriet Miers, who was appointed by President George W. Bush in 2005. Miers later withdrew her nomination under questions about her qualifications from both the political left and right.

Sotomayor even underpolls torpedoed left-wing lightning rod Robert Bork:

No other recent nominee, not even Robert Bork, whose own nomination under President Ronald Reagan was scuttled, faced public opposition this severe. In the last poll taken during the Bork confirmation fight, thirty-eight percent wanted to see him confirmed versus thirty-five percent who did not.

Thanks to her terse one-paragraph ruling in the Ricci case and her “Wise Latina” pronuncements, the public perceives Sotomayor as a racial spoils system/affirmative action fan. This bad for her because affirmative action has never been very popular with Americans in general. Her Ricci ruling has been generally viewed as unjust and, while the public might not know or care about the finer points of Judicial philosophy, they expect their judges to be fair.

Bush took a huge hit when he nominated Harriet Meyers, which he only partially recouped by replacing her with Roberts. As Obama’s approval numbers continue (albeit slowly) to drift downward , one has to wonder what a failed Supreme Court pick will do to him. He needs a genuine victory, and soon.

One way he won’t get it is by sliming Frank Ricci, the firefighter at the center of the original case. Sotomayor supporters (led by the liberal activist group People For The American Way – who declined to comment) have begun piling up opposition research on the man, sending emails to reporters urging them to probe his “Troubling History”. The Politics of Personal Destruction (a phrase coined by a Democrat) have served liberals well in the past, but in this case wreaking havoc on a person as sympathetic as Ricci isn’t going to make Sotomayor look any better.

The fact that this blog actually received three visits today from the search term “schoolgirl knee socks” actually kind of disturbed me. I wonder how many we’ll get now. Who actually googles that term? Maybe I’d rather not know…

So it turns out that the preeningly pristine Washington Post got caught selling “intimate” rubber chicken dinners with Administration officials and liberal Think Tankers to anybody willing to pony up $25 grand who needs a favor or two!

Here’s the marketing flyer – click to expand:

Apparently it never occurred to to the WaPo execs that selling access to politicos was an ethically iffy proposition, but after the above flyer was leaked to Politico the hammer came down big time. Many lame excuses and outright denials ensued.

Now, WaPo Ombudsman Andrew Alexander has set the record straight. And he’s not mincing words:

The Washington Post’s ill-fated plan to sell sponsorships of off-the-record “salons” was an ethical lapse of monumental proportions.

The crash occurred July 2, when Politico.com disclosed details of a Post flier seeking underwriters for the first dinner to be held July 21 at Weymouth’s District residence. The damage was predictable and extensive, with charges of hypocrisy against a newspaper that owes much of its fame to exposing influence peddlers and Washington’s pay-to-play culture. The Post’s reputation now carries a lasting stain.

Wow. Fortunately this is an isolated incident. I mean, it’s not like the white house hosted a secret, off the record barbecue for reporters on the 4th of July or anything…

“Man is a being capable of subduing his emotions and impulses; he can rationalize his behavior. He arranges his wishes into a scale, he chooses; in short, he acts. What distinguishes man from beasts is precisely that he adjusts his behavior deliberately.”

- Ludwig von Mises

The Beast found this piece in todays Boston Globe, of all places! Maybe it’s the specter of economic death that’s inspiring them down in Beantown, but we’re getting some good stuff alongside the usual boilerplate mass-lib claptrap. On the other hand, the Globe might have discovered that the other half of the electorate has change in their pockets too and might actually buy a paper that’s not totally hostile to their worldview.

We all know by now that Obama loves to say one thing and then do the very opposite. His fluency with the language allows him to get away with this, but the days when he could dig himself out of a political hole by smoothly reciting a speech off his teleprompter are rapidly coming to a close. Even the press is noticing. Alex Beam of the Globe maps this out beautifully:

It is inevitable in modern American politics that each new president inaugurates his own brand of bushwa – rubbish, lies, eyewash, whatever you choose to call it – that reminds one of nothing so much as the previous guy’s bushwa. Mr. Obama is no exception. Consider:

Soon after taking office, Obama & Co. rebranded George Bush’s “war on terror,’’ choosing to call it instead “overseas contingency operations.’’ There is a history here. In 2005, Bush’s people tried to rename the WOT, suggesting instead the delightfully Rumsfeldian “global struggle against violent extremism’’ (GSAVE!) or “the long war’’ (nice movie title) when discussing, well, the war on terror.

Those never caught on, and there is no reason to believe the jaw-cracking “overseas contingency operations’’ will either.

Remember, this is the guy who told us he could no more repudiate Reverend Wright that a member of his own family. Then he repudiated Reverend Wright. If the Beast was a family member he might be nervous.

Obama’s public pronouncements are magic shows – call attention to the right hand so nobody notices what the left hand is doing. Another feat of oratorical legerdemain:

The Bush administration oversaw “bailouts’’ of its fat cat friends on Wall Street. The people-friendly Obama administration continues to throw money at its bankrupt pals, but prefers to talk about “rescuing’’ failed companies and the American economy. Neither phrase softens the blow to the taxpayers footing the bill, the Los Angeles Times noted sardonically: “We suggest they call the package an ‘iPod,’ because everyone will pay for an iPod.’’

Et tu, LAT? This is the kind of magical thinking that tells us dropping $1 Tril on government managed healthcare will save us money.

Everyone knows that healthcare reform will be a hard sell, so the administration has its neologisms at hand. The New York Times recently revealed that instead of “managed care,’’ the Obama-ites will be pushing the coinage “evidence-based care.’’ Likewise they plan to avoid the term “rationing,’’ but alas no usable circumlocution has yet emerged for a system that aims to, well, ration healthcare.

I have a not-terribly-original idea. Why don’t we call healthcare reform “iPhone’’? Nobody objects to paying for an iPhone, and people are more than happy to wait in line to buy them. Like Canada’s healthcare system, iPhones have a single service provider, AT&T. I’m phoning my congressman: Vote for the iPhone!

Returning to the original statment that Obama says (A) and then does (-A), witness this beauty:

Remember signing statements? Those were the dastardly little postscripts George Bush attached to legislation that he didn’t completely approve of. Signing statements ignore the “fundamental principle’’ of the separation of powers, the American Bar Association huffed. On the campaign trail, candidate Obama was asked, “Do you promise not to use presidential [signing statements] to get your way?’’ “Yes,’’ he answered. “I taught the Constitution for 10 years, I believe in the Constitution, and I will obey the Constitution of the United States. We are not going to use signing statements as a way of doing an end run around Congress.’’

That was easy!

Less easy is explaining away his six signing statements so far, an impressive one-a-month clip. “Signing statements serve a legitimate function in our system,’’ Obama now says, “at least when based on well-founded constitutional objections.’’

Marvelous! What’s next – sawing someone in half?

From Smitty at The Other McCain:

Tatiana Kozhevnikova

A name to remember, if you’re ever in Novosibirsk:

A Russian woman has set a new world record, lifting a 14-kg. glass ball with her vagina muscles. Tatiata Kozhevnikova of Novosibirsk, aged 42, has been exercising her intimate muscles for fifteen years, and has already made her entrance into the Guinness Book of Records as the possessor of the world’s strongest vagina . . .

Hat-tip to Fear and Loathing in Georgetown.

UPDATE: The Web site where she advocates “intimate fitness.”Intimidating fitness might be a better description. Are you worthy of the Olympic-caliber vajayjay?

This snapper should come with a warning label, methinks.

A good Media “Heh” moment via NewsBusters:

How brave of Kate Snow. Not only making the trek to Flyover Country North, but even getting close to some yucky fish. That seemed to be Diane Sawyer’s attitude in congratulating Snow for snagging an interview with Sarah Palin.

The soon-to-be-former Governor of Alaska invited Snow out for some salmon fishing. At one point the intrepid ABC reporter observes to Palin: “you have some fish guts on you.”

Back in the studio, Sawyer saluted Snow’s guts. DIANE SAWYER: OK, Kate. Thanks so much for going up next to the fish and getting the interview.

The closest these chicks have come to fish is a smoked fillet at the Four Seasons, obviously. Messing with meat while it’s alive is a task for the servant class.

Immediate caterwauls will include, but not be limited to:

“Obama Derangement Syndrome!”

“You’re projecting!”

“How dare you!!”

But the truth is what it is.

Yet another missed story for the mainstream press, and even the conservative blogosphere, has been the crafty strategy by which the Obama White House pushed the most radical economic bill in 75 years in the very same week that they were advancing the most radical health care restructuring in a century. A layman might have advised that the administration tackle these issues separately — each of them is larger than any domestic issue the previous seven administrations (at least) even tried to tackle –to allow sufficient time to debate each initiative.  But then the layman would be assuming that President Obama and the monolithic Democratic control of Congress would desire such debate. It couldn’t be more obvious that their goal is precisely the opposite.

Without exaggeration, the Cap-and-Trade bill and the health care reform are two of the ten or so  most significant bills of the last half century. And they are coming to a head at the same time? Choose your historical analogy– Divide and Conquer, a two-front war, Shock-and-Awe.

This would all be lauded as great strategy (if anyone were noticing) but for one messy detail. To pass each bill, the President has employed an egregious lie, and one that cuts at the heart of democratic deliberation.

On Cap-and-Trade, the tradeoff is fairly straightforward.

Should we limit economic growth by X percent in order to attempt a reduction in carbon emmissions by Y percent?

But now the Obama administration, with a healthy assist from Nancy Pelosi, is asserting that passage of a massive energy tax-hike will amazingly create millions of jobs. This is outlandish.

Likewise on health care, the basic choices aren’t that complex. Do we want to limit the choice of insurance provider and individual preference, ration and restrict procedures and medications, as well as increase taxes, (at least on the wealthy) to ensure universal coverage? Now there are many other issues (like the effect that socialized medicine will have on research and development, the need for rationing, the projected costs 40 years hence, and others), but this is the basic immediate question.

And on this question, as with Cap-and-Trade, the President has crafted a major, but politically astute, lie.

Instead of choosing between freedom of choice and low taxes for the insured vs. all-out coverage for the uninsured, he has pitched the idea that his government health plan will somehow increase care and even more astonishingly will decrease federal spending. So instead of an honest economic question: “Do you want to spend $1.6 trillion to create this new plan?” President Obama has concocted a decidedly less honest question: “How would you like to create a huge new program… and get paid for it, besides?!”

In both the Cap-and-Trade bill and the health care plan, Obama isn’t just fudging on costs or overpromising the benefits or sowing fear with alarmist rhetoric, though he is surely doing all of those. No, on these two massive issues he is fundamentally misstating — lying about — the core economic tradeoffs involved in the decision. He is, in short, trying to fool the public into creating pivotal, sweeping, and largely irreversible change based on false precepts.

Funny, the “New Foundation” of hope, change,  a different kind of politics, and transparency smells as rotten as ever.

A little vicious for this site, The Beast continues his series of national slurs back on his original blog. A tidibit from the post:

India

1. Geography

India depends from the crotch of Asia and Africa like a half-descended testicle.  It’s climate ranges from fetidly hot to bakingly hot.  Life in India is somewhat akin to life inside a bamboo steamer that occasionally runs out of water. India is a land of deadly mountains, lethal deserts, pestiferous cities, malarial swamps and predacious jungles. In that sense it is not entirely unlike California with a dash of Louisiana. India swarms with deadly diseases, malignant parasites, dangerous insects, poisonous reptiles and vicious predators. India is also overpopulated, leading one to consider the possibility that as bad as these vermin are, the Indians must be worse.

Here are links to Parts One And Two.

There is something very sad and wrong about child stars or those who are the children of very famous parents. They inevitably turn out confused and devoid of identity. The focus of the media lense is often a magnifiying lense burning a hole into their soul and creating a void that they spend the rest of their lives attempting to fill. The “defining” of them by the media and popular culture results in them often defining themselves in twisted and perveted ways. The death of the tragic Michael Jackson is such one case. A child who never had a child grew into an adult who attempted to perpetually be a child, think like a child, and ultimately indulge himself sexually with a child. But he is not alone, Lindsay Lohan thinks she’s a lesbian, Chastity Bono thinks she’s a man, Paris Hilton thinks she’s something other than a scrawny brat and Britney Spears thinks she’s a good mother and that shaving her head was a good idea. The list of course is endless with those lost and hurting souls who’ve let the limelight use them and then turn them into mere shadows of their potential selves forever searching for an identity and worthwhile purpose.

It’s both sad and tragic and the public eats it up.

To riff off of PG’s post:

Last night Henry Waxman tacked another 300 pages onto the Cap and Trade bill under debate in the House today. That brings this 1000+ page document to 1300 or so – wonder if it’s even going to be read by many of the reps who are to vote on it? Support is still a bit tottery but they are forecasting it’ll squeak by.

Part of the reason the vote will be close is because even some Dems wonder at the wisdom of foisting an energy tax onto the backs of consumers at a time when gas is creeping back up towards $3 a gallon, the economy is in a recession and the globe hasn’t warmed a bit in a decade. In fact it’s cooled a bit. Australia is even getting ready to dump their own C&P program.

Kimberly Strassel sums up the “warmist’s” dilemma quite well in today’s Wall Street Journal:

Among the many reasons President Barack Obama and the Democratic majority are so intent on quickly jamming a cap-and-trade system through Congress is because the global warming tide is again shifting. It turns out Al Gore and the United Nations (with an assist from the media), did a little too vociferous a job smearing anyone who disagreed with them as “deniers.” The backlash has brought the scientific debate roaring back to life in Australia, Europe, Japan and even, if less reported, the U.S.

She’s referring to that clampdown we saw a year or more ago when Al Gore and the Warmists annouced the debate was over and then tried to get dissenters fired. Lefty rags denounced Skeptics as “Deniers” and tried to set them on a moral par with those who refuse to believe the Holocaust ever happened. This was a big red flag to many. When you’re in the right on an issue you don’t squelch debate – you pursue it. Debate gives you a chance to prove you’re, well, right! Strassel shows us why:

The number of skeptics, far from shrinking, is swelling. Oklahoma Sen. Jim Inhofe now counts more than 700 scientists who disagree with the U.N. — 13 times the number who authored the U.N.’s 2007 climate summary for policymakers. Joanne Simpson, the world’s first woman to receive a Ph.D. in meteorology, expressed relief upon her retirement last year that she was finally free to speak “frankly” of her nonbelief. Dr. Kiminori Itoh, a Japanese environmental physical chemist who contributed to a U.N. climate report, dubs man-made warming “the worst scientific scandal in history.” Norway’s Ivar Giaever, Nobel Prize winner for physics, decries it as the “new religion.” A group of 54 noted physicists, led by Princeton’s Will Happer, is demanding the American Physical Society revise its position that the science is settled. (Both Nature and Science magazines have refused to run the physicists’ open letter.)

The collapse of the “consensus” has been driven by reality. The inconvenient truth is that the earth’s temperatures have flat-lined since 2001, despite growing concentrations of C02. Peer-reviewed research has debunked doomsday scenarios about the polar ice caps, hurricanes, malaria, extinctions, rising oceans. A global financial crisis has politicians taking a harder look at the science that would require them to hamstring their economies to rein in carbon.

Gore et al saw this coming. They understood that it’s impossible to push an agenda based on the Globe Warming when the globe ain’t. Hence the switcheroo from warming as a science issue to a moral one. You have a right to debate facts, but you don’t have a right to be immoral. Disagreement with the warmist orthodoxy now makes you a bad person.

Hence the current rush to get as much pushed through as soon as possible. Warmists have to make hay while the sun shines. Strassel sums it up:

Republicans in the U.S. have, in recent years, turned ever more to the cost arguments against climate legislation. That’s made sense in light of the economic crisis. If Speaker Nancy Pelosi fails to push through her bill, it will be because rural and Blue Dog Democrats fret about the economic ramifications. Yet if the rest of the world is any indication, now might be the time for U.S. politicians to re-engage on the science. One thing for sure: They won’t be alone.

The future’s not bright for Al Gore & Company.

These kind of emails are always kind of fun to get:

Heidi is the proprietor of a bar in Detroit. She realizes that
virtually all of her customers are unemployed alcoholics and, as such,
can no longer afford to patronize her bar. To solve this problem, she
comes up with new marketing plan that allows her customers to drink now,
but pay later.

She keeps track of the drinks consumed on a ledger (thereby granting the
customers loans). Word gets around about Heidi’s “drink now, pay later”
marketing strategy and, as a result, increasing numbers of customers
flood into Heidi’s bar. Soon she has the largest sales volume for any
bar in Detroit. By providing her customers’ freedom from immediate
payment demands, Heidi gets no resistance when, at regular intervals,
she substantially increases her prices for wine and beer, the most
consumed beverages. Consequently, Heidi’s gross sales volume increases
massively.

A young and dynamic vice-president at the local bank recognizes that
these customer debts constitute valuable future assets and increases
Heidi’s borrowing limit. He sees no reason for any undue concern, since
he has the debts of the unemployed alcoholics as collateral.

At the bank’s corporate headquarters, expert traders transform these
customer loans into DRINKBONDS, ALKIBONDS and PUKEBONDS. These
securities are then bundled and traded on international security
markets. Naive investors don’t really understand that the securities
being sold to them as AAA secured bonds are really the debts of
unemployed alcoholics. Nevertheless, the bond prices continuously climb,
and the securities soon become the hottest-selling items for some of the
nation’s leading brokerage houses.

One day, even though the bond prices are still climbing, a risk manager
at the original local bank decides that the time has come to demand
payment on the debts incurred by the drinkers at Heidi’s bar. He so
informs Heidi.

Heidi then demands payment from her alcoholic patrons, but being
unemployed alcoholics they cannot pay back their drinking debts.  Since,
Heidi cannot fulfill her loan obligations she is forced into bankruptcy.
The bar closes and the eleven employees lose their jobs.

Overnight, DRINKBONDS, ALKIBONDS and PUKEBONDS drop in price by 90%. The
collapsed bond asset value destroys the banks liquidity and prevents it
from issuing new loans, thus freezing credit and economic activity in
the community.

The suppliers of Heidi’s bar had granted her generous payment extensions
and had invested their firms’ pension funds in the various BOND
securities. They find they are now faced with having to write off her
bad debt and with losing over 90% of the presumed value of the bonds.
Her wine supplier also claims bankruptcy, closing the doors on a family
business that had endured for three generations, her beer supplier is
taken over by a competitor, who immediately closes the local plant and
lays off 150 workers.

Fortunately though, the bank, the brokerage houses and their respective
executives are saved and bailed out by a multi-billion dollar no-strings
attached cash infusion from the Government. The funds required for this
bailout are obtained by new taxes levied on employed, middle-class
non-drinkers.

Now, do you understand?

I report, you decide.

Statement from First Lady Jenny Sanford:

I would like to start by saying I love my husband and I believe I have put forth every effort possible to be the best wife I can be during our almost twenty years of marriage. As well, for the last fifteen years my husband has been fully engaged in public service to the citizens and taxpayers of this state and I have faithfully supported him in those efforts to the best of my ability. I have been and remain proud of his accomplishments and his service to this state.

I personally believe that the greatest legacy I will leave behind in this world is not the job I held on Wall Street, or the campaigns I managed for Mark, or the work I have done as First Lady or even the philanthropic activities in which I have been routinely engaged. Instead, the greatest legacy I will leave in this world is the character of the children I, or we, leave behind. It is for that reason that I deeply regret the recent actions of my husband Mark, and their potential damage to our children.

 

I believe wholeheartedly in the sanctity, dignity and importance of the institution of marriage. I believe that has been consistently reflected in my actions. When I found out about my husband’s infidelity I worked immediately to first seek reconciliation through forgiveness, and then to work diligently to repair our marriage. We reached a point where I felt it was important to look my sons in the eyes and maintain my dignity, self-respect, and my basic sense of right and wrong. I therefore asked my husband to leave two weeks ago.

This trial separation was agreed to with the goal of ultimately strengthening our marriage. During this short separation it was agreed that Mark would not contact us. I kept this separation quiet out of respect of his public office and reputation, and in hopes of keeping our children from just this type of public exposure. Because of this separation, I did not know where he was in the past week.

I believe enduring love is primarily a commitment and an act of will, and for a marriage to be successful, that commitment must be reciprocal. I believe Mark has earned a chance to resurrect our marriage.

Psalm 127 states that sons are a gift from the Lord and children a reward from Him. I will continue to pour my energy into raising our sons to be honorable young men. I remain willing to forgive Mark completely for his indiscretions and to welcome him back, in time, if he continues to work toward reconciliation with a true spirit of humility and repentance.

This is a very painful time for us and I would humbly request now that members of the media respect the privacy of my boys and me as we struggle together to continue on with our lives and as I seek the wisdom of Solomon, the strength and patience of Job and the grace of God in helping to heal my family.

Sometimes fortune pats you on the back and sometimes it kicks you squarely in the nuts. Obama has enjoyed the former, and now he’s dealing with the latter. For months he’s been talking up “engagement” with the Mullahs in Iran, buttering the Arab street, apologizing for everything from the Crusades to the statue of Mohammed in the supreme court chambers, and promising an end to confrontation and conflict in the Middle East. After all, the reasoning seems to go, if projecting power hasn’t worked, maybe projecting weakness will!

So after investing heaps of political capital into Iran, scant days after his “Cairo” speech, Iranians have their faux election and the streets explode – right in Obama’s face. Obama is stuck – he can’t talk up the protestors without appearing to talk down the government he’s been talking to. He’s gone all in on this political Ponzi scheme.

Dick Morris sketches out the political danger the President is in today:

When President Clinton, for example, dithered as Bosnia burned, he acquired a reputation for weakness that dragged down his ratings. It was only after he moved decisively to bomb and then disarm the Serbs that he shed his image of weakness. It took President H.W. Bush’s invasion of Iraq to set to rest concerns that he was a “wimp.” Jimmy Carter never recovered from the lasting damage to his reputation that his inability to stand up to Iran during the hostage crisis precipitated.

So now, as North Korea defies international sanctions and sends arms to Myanmar and Iran slaughters its citizens in the streets, President Obama looks helpless and hapless. He comes across as not having a clue how to handle the crises.

And, as North Korea prepares to launch a missile on a Hail Mary pass aimed at Hawaii, the Democrats slash 19 missile interceptors from the Defense Department budget.

The transparent appeasement of Iran’s government — and its obvious lack of reciprocation — make Obama look ridiculous.

Long after the mullahs have suppressed what limited democracy they once allowed, Obama’s image problems will persist.

Foreign Policy weakness is the herpes virus of the Democratic Party – it keeps flaring up at the worst times. The current spectacle in which the leader of the party that invests Gitmo Terrorists with civil rights yet turns away nervously from a people fighting and protesting for free elections and democratic reform is a scab that wont fade any time soon.

What a president should sound like

The death of Neda

Bankruptcy Litigation Blog: Objecting to the GM 363 Sale’s Treatment of Product Liability Claims: Stepping Into The Fray.

In case you weren’t mad enough already, take a look at another class wiped out by the Chrysler and pending GM bankruptcy plan.

a lot of panicked plaintiffs’ lawyers involved in cases against GM are screaming these days as they watch years of toil on behalf of people seriously injured by defective GM products (like crushed roofs, exploding “side saddle” gas tanks, and collapsing seat backs) potentially go for naught as GM makes its grandest attempt ever to crush an entire class of former customers and existing and future products liability claimants in a sale that many plaintiffs lawyers of record only received written notice of in the past couple of days.

Many thanks to the Center for Auto Safety’s Executive Director, Clarence Ditlow, for his help in organizing the team, and to Public Citizen’s Adina Rosenbaum and Allison Zieve for their tremendous assistance in framing the legal arguments and drafting the pleadings.

And, of course, special thanks to The Coleman Law Firm’s own Bob Coleman for his generosity in dedicating the firm’s resources to this important pro bono effort.

The sad, and all too tragic, stories of my clients, taken from the filed objection, are set forth below.  The only thing my clients did wrong here was buy a GM car.  For this act of brand loyalty, they have paid dearly.

I f their stories don’t bring a tear to your eye, then you probably support the sale’s treatment of product liability claimants too!

I just love common sense…

The most impressive, and unfortunately the most substantive, video of Obama you will ever see. It is said that the dark side of the Force can give one great power. I hate to brag, but I do have some great ability to kill flies myself but I require two hands and a reliance upon my intuitive understanding of the typical takeoff flight pattern of a fly when it is frightened. The secret had been handed down to me by another famous fly killer (an ex-boss). But the straight on death blow is a rare phenomenon in and of itself and rarely seen in person or on video. This, in fact, may be a once in a lifetime opportunity for the general public to view such a scene.

and is now the proud possessor of a “stent” in his right coronary artery. Naturally this had to happen 10 days before heath insurance kicked in at the new job. The good news is that the attack itself was tiny (he thought it was a sore throat) and damage minimal. One blockage in one artery that was fixed via catheter literally 3 hours after he walked into the emergency room. On Friday afternoon of Memorial Day weekend, no less! The cardiologist showed up in shorts and a tee shirt. he said “We can either treat this with medication and send you home or we can go in right now, find out what’s wrong and fix it on the spot.” Tough choice, right?

There’s nothing like restored blood flow to make a guy feel Aces. The Beast was back to work six days later. When the Beast-dad had his heart attack in 1988 he was out for 5 months. Technology is amazing. Co-workers were flabbergasted:  “You don’t look like you’re back from a Heart Attack, you look like you’re back from vacation!”

No more paddling around in the float tube – at least for now.

Constantly updated photo Stream from Inside Iran

Just click on Ashley Herzog’s (Townhall) picture for link.

“I have no illusions about what little I can add now to the silent testimony of those who gave their lives willingly for their country. Words are even more feeble on this Memorial Day, for the sight before us is that of a strong and good nation that stands in silence and remembers those who were loved and who, in return, loved their countrymen enough to die for them. Yet, we must try to honor them — not for their sakes alone, but for our own. And if words cannot repay the debt we owe these men, surely with our actions we must strive to keep faith with them and with the vision that led them to battle and to final sacrifice. Our first obligation to them and ourselves is plain enough: The United States and the freedom for which it stands, the freedom for which they died, must endure and prosper.”

 –Ronald Reagan

 

“From Bunker Hill to the walls of the Alamo, from the farm fields at Gettysburg to the beaches at Normandy and Iwo Jima, from the Afghanistan mountains to every other piece of hallowed ground where Americans have fought and died in freedom’s name, Old Glory still proudly dances in the wind of freedom. In paying the ultimate sacrifice, American warriors ensured that not only would America continue to be free but that America would continue to be a beacon of freedom so intense that it no threat of oppression can extinguish it. So long as Old Glory flutters in the wind, there is hope. So long as American warriors are willing to carry Old Glory into battle, freedom’s flame will never be extinguished. Our enemies can knock sometimes down our buildings, but mortar, brick and steel does not America make. It is the irrepressible spirit and undying love of freedom that is uniquely America and it is the American warrior who is willing to fight and die to protect the God-given freedoms and rights of all people. On this Memorial Day, I encourage each of you to spend a few moments and quietly offer a prayer of thanks to those who paid for your freedom with their lives. If you have the chance, take your children and walk quietly and reverently through a military cemetery. Stop at each white cross. Read the names carefully on the tombstones. These are the names of freedom. Look up at Old Glory as she dances in the breeze. Surely you will agree there is no more solemn and beautiful sight than to see our sacred stars and stripes fluttering quietly in the breeze above a military cemetery. It is our duty as parents and citizens to ensure that our children and grandchildren know that freedom is not free, that it is paid for with the blood and lives of warriors. Do not shirk this responsibility. It is one of the most important lessons you can ever impart to your children. To quote President Reagan: ‘We will always remember. We will always be proud. We will always be prepared, so that we may always be free.’ Memorial Day is the most important American holiday. May God eternally bless the American warrior — the protector of freedom and liberty.”

 – Ted Nugent

*****

To all those who thank us and commemorate  our service, we humbly reply

“It was an honor”.

Freedom is not free.

The Veterans

Text of former Vice President Dick Cheney’s speech Thursday on national security at the American Enterprise Institute think tank in Washington:

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Read the rest of this entry »

From the Patriotpost…

Democrat fundraiser Norman Hsu was convicted Tuesday of violating campaign finance laws by making thousands of dollars of donations through straw donors in order to bypass limits on individual contributions to a candidate. Hsu also pleaded guilty to wire fraud in a Ponzi scheme he used to bilk investors out of more than $20 million. He faces 30 years in prison. Hsu has been most visibly associated with Hillary Clinton’s failed campaign for the Democrat presidential nomination last year, but he is also linked to other prominent Democrats — including the current occupant of the White House. Clinton returned $850,000 to donors linked to Hsu; Obama’s Hopefund PAC took in at least $24,000 from him and his associates from 2005 to 2007.

“Norman! It’s Hillary. What am I going to do with you Norman? You are working so hard for me, that I, I just don’t know what to say anymore. I’ve never seen anybody who has been more loyal and more effective and really just having greater success supporting someone, uh, than you. Everywhere I go, you’re there. If you’re not, you’re sending people to be part of my events. You know, we’re going to win this campaign, Norman, because you single-handedly are going to make that happen. … Lots of love. Bye-bye.”

–Hillary Clinton on a March 2007 voicemail to Norman Hsu

My sweet little Liberty graduated Kindergarten today. It was a very touching and fun experience for the kids  in front of hundreds of beaming and extremely proud parents, siblings, and assorted relatives. Whoever came up with the idea of incorporating the full graduation ceremony, pomp and circumstance and cap and gown into the transition from kindergarten to first grade should be roundly praised. What a lot of fun.

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The propaganda has begun… and will be coming soon to every town and school near you!

And for any of you who have actually been made through eight hours of mandatory multiculturalism training (like I have) by some of the finest the cult of diversity and tolerance had to offer, can you imagine giving your children over to such people for months and even years of indoctrination? Perish the thought.

We must have no carelessness in our dealings with public property or the expenditure of public money. Such a condition is characteristic either of an undeveloped people, or of a decadent civilization. America is neither.

~ Calvin Coolidge

The beast got a nice suprise for his birthday. His mom unlocked a closet and pulled out an aluminum tube. In the tube was a fly rod. It was a Loomis three weight, GLX. A tiny rod – maybe the thickness of a pencil, as whippy as a willow twig. And on the base was inscribed the following words: “Made by Jack Brock, 1988″.

The Beast-Dad had made this rod from a blank and signed it. It was a custom job.

So let’s spin the calendar back. In 1988 the Beast- Dad suffered a Myocardial Infarction – heart attack. He was house-bound for six months and kept the ticking of the deathwatch beetle at bay over a long, cold winter by making fly rods. Everybody got one – the beast got a nice 5wt Sage which he promptly broke. No big deal at the time, the Beast-Dad was alive then and everybody assumed there would be plenty more rods.

But he died in 2001.  Cancer got him. The Beast has dozens of handcrafted jigs his dad made in the last 4 months of his life – the stripes on the jigs have a beautiful shivery quality to them – caused by tremors, it turns out.

So now there’s this rod. It needs a reel and a line. It needs to be fished. So the beast got a Redington and a double taper floater for it. Dumped about $200 by the time he was done – not counting the rod, which is priceless to him, but he figured there was no way he could put a cheap rig on a rod his dad made.

So last saturday he threw a float tube in the van and took off for a local pond – Stone House. This pond is special to the family because after his dad died his angling club held a raffle (the Beast donated two dozen of his hand tied flies) to raise money to put a memorial to him on the shore. It’s a granite bench with his picture etched into it and the words:

“This bench is dedicated to the memory of Walter “Jack” Brock. Angler, sportsman, friend.”
The Beast thought that this would be the perfect spot to try out the new rod, reel and line.

Well, the Beast got there and waded in. There were maybe 4 other people there – all fishing from canoes or Kayaks. Nobody had caught anything. The Beast had a book of flies that had all been tied by his dad and the beast put one on.

He caught 15 trout (Landed and released) in 2 hours. Nobody else got anything. It was almost embarrassing. After a while the others started yelling comments at him.

By trout 10 one guy yelled “I’m gonna come over there and take that fly away from you!” The Beast was hooking so many that he’d throw out the fly and after 5 minutes somebody else would yell “What? You haven’t got one yet?”

And the beast has got video. He always got video!

The Biggest

The First

Three of fifteen

Six of Fifteen

Wrap-up

Today the beast hit the same spot and nailed 8 in an hour.  Again, nobody else got squat – including a Maine Guide.  Maybe the rod is haunted….

This is a note my wife composed and I decided to “help out” by posting it here. Any donations  and support would be greatly appreciated. 

Dear Family and Friends:

 Alexandria and I have decided to join the Relay for Life to raise money for cancer research.  

The theme of the Relay this year is “Show us your Hope” and our team is called “Hope’s Heros.”  Last year Alexandria and her classmates lost a good friend named Hope Herman to a rare form of Leukemia. The girls want to raise money in her honor. These twelve-year old girls are amazing and we wanted to actively support their decision to join the Relay for Life in honor of their friend Hope.  

This cause also hits home because on May 26, 2000 Alexandria was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblast Leukemia. She was just three years old.  She has made an amazing recovery and has been in remission for 6 ½ years!   We thank God every day that she is still with us.

One in three people will be diagnosed with cancer during their lifetime. The American Cancer Society Relay For Life^® is a life-changing event that brings together more than 3.5 million people across the country each year to celebrate the lives of those who have battled cancer, remember loved ones lost, and fight back against a disease that takes too much.

More people are surviving cancer than ever before, and there are many reasons to celebrate. However, we know that more than 1.4 million people will be diagnosed with cancer this year and many will need a place to turn for inspiration, hope, and support.

Relay For Life is a life-changing event that brings together more than 3.5 million people to:

• Celebrate the lives of those who have battled cancer. The strength of survivors inspires others to continue to fight.
• Remember loved ones lost to the disease. At Relay, people who have walked alongside people battling cancer can grieve and find healing.
• Fight Back. We Relay because we have been touched by cancer and desperately want to put an end to the disease.

We would love you to join us by donating money for cancer research. Each team member needs to raise at least $100.00 but we would like to raise more if possible. We are asking all our friends to prayerfully consider pledging at least ten dollars towards this worthy cause and help Alexandria, a cancer survivor, in her quest to help others.

 Please go to the following link to donate to our cause.

 To Donate to Alexandria:  copy and paste the following address:

 http://main.acsevents.org/site/TR/RelayForLife/RFLFY09National?px=10966364&pg=personal&fr_id=14616

 To Donate to Karena:  copy and paste the following address:

 http://main.acsevents.org/site/TR/RelayForLife/RFLFY09National?px=10966231&pg=personal&fr_id=14616

 Thank you for your support in our cause.

 Karena & Alexandria

“It is well enough that the people of this nation do not understand our banking and monetary system, for if they did, I believe there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning.”

–Henry Ford

Kinda thought of a line from this song earlier today and it seemed appropriate.

If you get tired of your boyfriends things
There’s always other boys.
There’s always other boyfriends.
If you get tired of your boyfriends scene
There’s always other scenes.
There’s always other boyfriends.

The music starts about 45 seconds in.

The Specter of change

“In finally abandoning the Republican Party, Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter showed his true colors not just ideologically, but personally. It’s all about the liberal Specter maximizing his own power. The climax Tuesday of Arlen Specter’s long, drawn-out betrayal of his party may seem like it came out of nowhere — especially since it was only last month that he said he’d seek re-election as a Republican. But why be shocked when a hardened Machiavellian does what comes naturally after doing the math? As a Democrat, Sen. Specter will now be Washington’s king power broker, since he is poised to be the 60th vote for Democrats in the U.S. Senate, constituting a filibuster-proof majority at a time when the federal government is undergoing an unprecedented expansion in size and power. No one is falling for Specter’s hand-wringing rationale that “since my election in 1980, as part of the Reagan Big Tent, the Republican Party has moved far to the right.” He was just as uncomfortable with Reaganism back then as he is now, all along relishing his role as RINO — Republican In Name Only — whose vote was up for sale. … As vote No. 60 in the World’s Greatest Deliberative Body (assuming vote No. 59 belongs to comedian Al Franken of Minnesota), Specter will be owed an incalculable debt by congressional Democrats and President Obama. There will be no threats of party discipline against him on the occasions when he votes with Republicans, no warnings that campaign funds will be kept from him. … Each and every big vote in the Senate will be a bargaining opportunity for Specter. Riches and favors will be showered upon him for the power he prostitutes. … Reserve a space for a new addition to history’s Rogues’ Gallery.”

–Investor’s Business Daily

From now until eternity, the term “Specter Republican” will be dirty word. And considered a great insult. What a legacy.

Troy Senik, formerly of the Center for Individual Freedom has written a terrific column detailing the true extent of the government takeover of the economy and of private businesses, and how they are extorting those they can’t seize.

Last fall, as the U.S. economy seemed to be issuing its death rattle, a representative from Credit Suisse received a call from the Federal Reserve. The Fed, the voice on the other end chirped, was calling to congratulate the international financial giant on its prudence, Credit Suisse having admirably avoided becoming enmeshed in the subprime mortgage debacle. Bureaucracies not typically being in the business of issuing gold stars, the call was out of character.

The Fed’s representative continued, “Now we’ll need you to buy up some of the toxic assets”. But why would Credit Suisse do that, their employee asked, when they were one of the few major financial firms wise enough to avoid the investments in the first place? The Fed’s response was chilling: “Because someday you’ll need us”.

Welcome to the extortion economy.

Read it here

Candid Photos of Barack Obama on Flickr of His First 100 Days in Office.

The Official White House Flickr Stream

After watching “24″, re-watching I Am Legend, and listening to news reports about the rapidly spreading Swine flu I am putting iron shutters on all the windows, fortifying the bunker, and taking potshots at all the neighbors. Somebody e-mail me when it is safe to come out. And so this post is not a completely useless I give you:

I Am Legend – The alternative ending

Sarah Palin?

QUESTION: Do you think Texas would be better off as an independent nation or as part of the United States of America?
US IND  NOT SURE
DEMOCRATS  82 15   3
REPUBLICANS 48 48   4
INDEPENDENTS 55 40  5

Hate to cite Kos here, but he’s right, and saner than some:

Ft. Hood, and it’s $6 billion impact in central Texas, would be an economic boon to Detroit or any number of other economically depressed American regions. What, do the secessionists think they could keep those American military bases on their newly sovereign soil?

How about the $2.5 billion that NASA pumps directly into salaries of employees and contractors in the Houston area, not to mention anciliary economic benefits and the prestige of having one of the premier space facilities in the world? The American patriots in New Mexico would be more than happy to take that off Texas’ hands!

More than that, I presume the plan would be to create a tax-free shelter for Americans to keep their money. Unfortunately, I foresee much tougher restrictions going through the newly filibuster-free Congress. And seeing as Texas would not be part of any NAFTA style agreement, I don’t think Texas’s good fortune with jobs would last much longer as a soveeign state. But I hope that I’m creating a strawman here and that I find some support in at least stating that Texas should NOT secede from the union to protest one American president they don’t like.

Don’t remember if I posted this here before or not, but it’s worth reposting. Whenever I get into a heated discussion with someone about something, I think back to this cartoon from XKCD and generally try to calm downn. I’m sure at least a couple of people here can relate.

Nobody’s going to mention that we can now verify that the US created very detailed procedures for torturing people? Or that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was waterboarded not once, not thrice, but at least 183 times in one month? Not to say he didn’t deserve it, but still, that not only is unquestionably severe torture, that’s also pretty much proof that torture doesn’t really work to deliver quick, actionable intelligence. Or at least was definitely not part of anywhere near a sort of “ticking time bomb” scenario. Even Jack Bauer wouldn’t be a party to this.

P.S., does this mean that every person who has willingly subjected themselves to waterboarding and given in after a minute or so is profoundly weaker than a man like KSM, or is this just further proof of exactly how cold and barbaric this system was? If this caused unbearable agony in people after one occasion, one can’t even imagine what 183 times would be like. Well, maybe John McCain could.

Cool visualization of the NASA Mars Exploration Rover set to an NIN song.

“Blessed be the LORD my strength which
teacheth my hands to war,
and my fingers to fight.”-Psalm 144:1

Israel stands ready to bomb Iran’s nuclear sites